Finally, Masaru used the god given gift of opposable thumbs to use one chop stick to keep Agumon's at bay and the other to spear the fish and pop it in his mouth before Agumon could do anything. "Ha ha," he gloated as he chewed on the fish.
"Aniki," Agumon whined. "You're mean," Agumon let his eyes fill up with fake tears to try and get sympathy from someone.
"Masaru, Agu-chan is still young, you should let him eat the last fish," his mother scolded.
"I'm growing too," Masaru scoffed. "I need it more, besides, he's just upset that I got it first." Masaru grinned at Agumon who glared back.
"You two are so childish," Chika sighed. "I can't believe you're in high school, Masaru-nii-chan."
Masaru grinned and ate the last of his rice. "Maybe you're just too much like an old lady. You'll wrinkle early if you're so concerned when you're younger." He held out his bowl, silently indicating he wanted seconds.
"Masaru!" his mother scolded gently as she took his bowl and filled it with rice. "Be nice to your sister."
Masaru smirked but regretted it as Chika's foot connected with his shin. He winced but he knew better then to tell on her because she would just deny it and his mom would say how he was just being clumsy.
"And I'm a child?" he asked.
"At least I'm the right age," she whispered back.
Masaru noted that he had nothing to say to that, and he didn't even try. Instead he took the bowl of rice from his mother and began to shovel the grain into his mouth, giving himself a viable excuse for not answering.
The next day, Masaru gazed out of the window with a vacant expression in his eyes. He was tired, bored and slightly stressed from the night before. His physics teacher wasn't helping any as she gave a lecture on how any action is met with an equal and opposite reaction. Masaru could care less about the laws of physics and how it affected his person, he just wanted to continue the mission.
After Masaru had struggled through all his classes he raced home and quickly changed into his DATS uniform. As he was getting ready to go home, his mom stopped him short. "Masaru," she called from the kitchen in her 'I want you to do something' voice.
Masaru blinked and sighed as he put on his shoes by the door. "Yeah?" he called back in his 'Whatever it is I don't want to do it' voice.
"Can you pick up Chika from school? She needs help carrying home her clay project that she took in earlier this week," his mom replied.
"Moooooooom," Masaru whined. He may have claimed he was a man, but he wasn't beyond whining to get his way when he needed to. "Can't you go?"
"I need to cook dinner," she explained in a patient voice. "Look, Agu-chan can most certainly stay in that little device for a bit longer while you help your sister."
"But there's an evil digimon on the rampage!" Masaru called back as he put on his other shoe and got ready to bolt out the door.
"Masaru!" his mom walked into the hallway, hands on her hips and a no nonsense look in her eyes.
Masaru winced, stopping short of opening the door. His hand was poised over the knob and he looked guilty under his mom's hardened glare. "All right," he sighed. "I'll pick up Chika."
His mom's face relaxed into a smile and she walked back into the kitchen without another word. "Masaru's mom is scary," Agumon said softly.
"No kidding," Masaru replied and walked out into a light drizzle that had started only a few minutes before. He looked up at the sky and clicked his tongue in disappointment. "Tonight's going to be miserable if we don't finish Leomon off soon," he sighed.
"Chika first," Agumon said wisely.
"I know that," Masaru retorted angrily, two spots of color burning in his cheeks. He entertained the thought of getting an umbrella and quickly ran back inside to grab one that was by the door, shutting the door loudly before his mother could yell at him about procrastinating.
Walking briskly towards Chika's school, Masaru jumped as his communicator sprang to life and Touma's voice resonated angrily in his ear. "Where are you!"
Masaru winced and touched the device gingerly, turning down the volume in order to make sure he could still hear when he was 50. "I'm picking up Chika," he sighed.
"Well, we found Leomon by the docks and we need help," Touma snapped. "Mind coming down and doing your job?"
"That's not fair!" Masaru yelled back, his temper getting the better of him as he took off at a run towards Chika's school. "I'll be there as soon as I can, all right? Mom told me to pick up Chika and that comes first."
"Since when did you back down from a fight?" Touma growled.
Masaru sighed into the ear piece, which came out as a rush of static on Touma's end. "Look, you wouldn't understand okay? I made a promise to my mom a long time ago that until… something happened we'd always talk to each other and always look out for each other. There's no way getting around it, and as a man I will always keep my promises."
Touma blinked, then swallowed his retort as he got ready to evolve Gaomon. "Fine, but you better be here in the next 15 minutes or I will personally come hunt you down when this is over."
"I'll be there in ten," Masaru grinned and turned off the ear piece as he ran into the school yard of Chika's school.
Chika clutched her clay piece in her arms, trying to keep the rain from falling on it. She saw Masaru run into the yard and sighed, figuring that her mom couldn't make it. Her friend leaned over and whispered into her ear, "What is your older brother wearing?"
Chika blushed a little. It wasn't like wearing a uniform that looked like it came from an anime convention cosplay contest was very cool. She was amazed Masaru could run around town in something that made him look like a power ranger. "It's his work uniform," she replied.
Masaru ran up and held out the umbrella so that Chika could join him. "Come on, there's an emergency and I have to go. We'll get ice-cream tomorrow, I promise."
Chika blinked, having completely forgotten about his promise earlier and nodded. When she had joined him under the umbrella, he set a quick pace that Chika had a hard time keeping up with. "Why are you wearing that here?"
Masaru raised an eyebrow. "Aren't you a little young to be getting embarrassed by the way I look?" he asked, sidestepping a rain puddle.
Chika shrugged, "Well, you're the one wearing the cosplay costume, not me."
"Hey, I'm getting yelled at by Mr. Perfect over here so I could pick you up from school," Masaru told her. "Be grateful."
"Oh, your friend in the car that dropped you off that one time?" she asked. "Last night he was there too… ummm… Touma-san?" she asked, her embarrassment forgotten. She loved hearing about what Masaru did, even though she didn't show it. He didn't talk about what he did very often and so gleaning whatever information she could from him was the only way to learn about it.
"Yes, Touma," Masaru affirmed. "Now let's go, I told him I'd be there in ten minutes and it's already been five." He glanced at his watch and looked around. "They're two streets over but I know there will be a road block of some kind."
Chika looked up at Masaru, surprised at how tense he was. Apparently, his current enemy had rubbed him the wrong way. She obliged and picked up the already hurried pace, practically jogging beside him as they came up to their house.
He turned and handed her the umbrella. "Here, tell mom I walked you all the way home."
"Wait!" Chika said, holding out the umbrella. "Won't you need this?"
Masaru grinned and shook his head. "Nah, we're going to be fighting, I don't need that to worry about." He turned and ran off, yelling something intelligible into his ear piece as he made his way towards whatever emergency needed taken care of. She sighed and walked into the house, greeting her mother and preparing for an evening of indoor activities as the rain poured outside.
Masaru ran past the road block set up by DATS and jumped in beside Touma just as Leomon hit Gaogamon in the side with a full on attack. "Ten minutes, I'm here," Masaru panted.
Agumon appeared next to Masaru without his prompting. "Way to go, Aniki!" he gushed.
Masaru grinned proudly and Touma elbowed him sharply. "Save the ego trip for later, we've got a problem here. He's getting more and more powerful."
Masaru rubbed his arm where Touma had elbowed it and frowned. "Well, then I need to get my digisoul if I'm going to be any help."
Touma glanced at him and Masaru fancied that a look of worry passed over his eyes before he hardened his gaze. "Go then, but wait for an attack from Gaogamon first."
Masaru nodded and raised himself up onto his toes as if he was about to run the 50 meter dash in school.
"Gaogamon, attack pattern C!" Touma yelled out and Gaogamon nodded. He ran at Leomon straight on and turned sharply to the left, body slamming the digimon and knocking him off balance.
Masaru took the opening and jumped high into the air, twisting his body in midair so that he landed on top of the huge digimon and hit him in the soft area of his shoulder. He knew that part to be a pressure point on the human body and the howl of pain that resulted from his attack told him that his little gamble had proven true. Leomon was vulnerable in that area as well.
His hand glowed a brilliant orange and began to tingle as he jumped smoothly off and landed next to Touma. He waved his hand and grinned, "See?" he asked.
Touma rolled his eyes. "Just evolve your digimon so we can finish this."
Masaru nodded and pulled out his digivice. He caught Agumon's eye and saw the lizard-like digimon give a curt nod and step forward. With a grin he placed his hand on top of the digivice and felt the power go into the electronic device. "Digisoul, charge!" he yelled out and got ready to fight earnestly.