Chapter six – Traum Estrada and Seta Yumihiro
Lance walked thought a hallway before coming into a small room that was filled with computer parts and a large monster of a computer that was sitting on a small wooden desk that looked ready to collapse. Sitting in front of that monster of a computer was a woman in a chair with her head resting on the already weighed down desk. The woman had long brown hair that was tied back in a messy bun. Her skin was a dark, tanned colour and freckles on a few spots of her face. Her clothes were ordinary food stained jeans and a light blue Happy Bunny top that read on the back 'touch me and die'. Bunny slippers were on her feet along with black socks. Glasses sat on top of her head caught in her hair.
Sighing Lance stepped in the room almost immediately tripping on a pile of CDs. Cursing under his breath he stepped over the pile of CDs and carefully made his way to stand next to the girl. She looked so peaceful while she was asleep and by the looks of it she hadn't gotten much lately. He hated to do this but heck, what are best friends for?
"TRAUM! TIME TO WAKE UP! RISE AND SHINE!" Lance shouted right beside her ear, causing the younger girl to sit up screaming, her eyes shooting open, revealing a sea of green.
"WHAT THE HELL!" Traum cried looking around widely before she noticed Lance next to her doubled over laughing. "Oh, jeez. LANCE YOU ASSHOLE!" She shouted before throwing an extra mouse at him hitting him in the forehead.
"Ow. That was rude." Lance sighed rubbing his forehead. "And after I was so nice and came over to wake you up."
The girls' eye twitched which made Lance shut up. "The only reason you'd come here is to bum something off of me or because Tomoko or Kouichi-kun sent you here." Traum stated wiping sleep out of her eyes. "Now what do you want?"
"You think so highly of me." Lance said in a fake hurt voice.
"Well at least I think." Traum joked before grabbing her coffee mug that was beside her computer screen. Noticing that the contents were almost gone and freezing cold she stood up and walked out from the small confinement of the computer desk. Expertly navigating her way through the mess in the room she waited for Lance to follow her. He took a little more time getting out then her.
They headed to the kitchen where Traum, still yawning, flipped the switch on the coffee maker. "So what do you need?" she asked sitting down at the table in the kitchen.
Lance sifted around on his feet. "Well, I know you can always keep an eye on the digital world so I was wondering if you could keep an eye on-" he was interrupted by Traum.
"I'm not keeping an eye on Kouichi just so you can have a decent night sleep." Traum stated.
"But Traum, Tomoko's getting worried that he's trying to hard to prove Darkseermon's innocence and keep up with keeping the virus at bay." Lance explained. "He's working to hard and he's gonna overload."
"Then help him prove to Ophanimon that Darkseermon is innocent. That way he'll slow down a little." Traum suggested.
Lance thought to himself for a minute while Traum got her coffee ready.
"And besides if you worry about the kid so much get his brother to look after him. Kouji's seems like a nice kid he'll clam his brother down."
"Yhea… but man that kids got one hell of a glare." Lance said closing his eyes tightly and rubbing his arms. " He scares the bejeezes out of me. I don't think he likes me very much."
"That's cause you're dating mom and he just met you." A voice stated from the doorway. Traum and Lance turned to see Kouichi standing in the entry with Tomoko beside him laughing. "Don't worry Lance, he'll warm up to you…eventually." Kouichi smiled.
"Thanks Kou-kun. That makes me feel so much better." Lance sighed giving Tomoko a long kiss just to make Kouichi turn his head away.
"Come on guys get a room why don't ya?" Kouichi and Traum said in unison. Lance and Tomoko smiled mischievously before Lance place his hand on Tomoko's waist and headed for Traum's bedroom.
"HEY!" Traum cried jumping up. "NOT MY ROOM!"
Tomoko and Lance returned with large grins on their faces. "Oh come on Traum, did you really think we'd do something like that here?" Tomoko asked a smile on her face at her friends agitated look.
"Nice mom." Kouichi shook his head jumping up and sitting on the counter.
"Get off the counter dear." Tomoko scolded. "We don't want to eat off your butt germs."
Traum shrugged, "Ah let him stay up there, s'not like I eat off it anyway." She laughed.
The clock in the kitchen struck two making Kouichi groan.
"What's up?" Lance asked looking at the boy who had jumped off the counter.
"He's got to go serve his punishment." Tomoko informed him.
"Punishment for what?" Traum asked looking over the rim of her coffee mug also imprinted with the Happy Bunny.
"For running off yesterday without telling me." Tomoko explained ruffling Kouichi's black hair as he walked by.
"Whatta have to do?" Traum asked.
"I have to help Seta-san teach his last class at the school he's subbing at and 'then' I have to go explain to Kouji and the others how were going to let them help us." Kouichi groaned.
"Stop groaning and move your butt. Lance taught you everything Seta-kuns teaching today so make sure you help him." Tomoko laughed at her sons' misfortune.
Kouichi ears pricked up when he heard his mother laugh. Turning around he pointed a finger at her. "That's it I knew it! You enjoy making up these odd punishments for me to do don't you?" he shouted.
Tomoko, Lance and Traum all burst out laughing as Kouichi blushed in embarrassment. "I knew It." the boy muttered before heading out the door.
Kouji sat down in his last class, which happened to me Math. Which also happened to be his worst subject. Takuya walked through the door followed by Izumi. Junpei was already sitting in front of him. They of course were happy to be in the same class, but sometimes it didn't really work out so well. Especially because he got stuck sitting beside Takuya because Junpei wanted to sit next to Izumi.
"Hey Kouji." Takuya greeted as he sat down next to the twin.
"Hey." Kouji replied taking out his books. He sighed as he thought about the digital worlds' current state. He hoped Kouichi wasn't having any trouble right now in it.
His thoughts turned form his brother back to Takuya when he heard him tell Izumi that they were supposed to be having a substitute teacher. 'Just great," Kouji thought. 'He probably can't teach.'
Suddenly footsteps drew everyone's attention toward the door as it slid open. Walking through the doorway was a man around 29 with black hair and blue highlights in the front. He had green eyes and glasses sat on his nose. He wore a dark blue shirt and green cargo pants. Beside him was Kouichi who was looking at a binder and smirking and frowning at the same time.
Kouji, Takuya, Izumi and Junpei all gasped when they saw Kouichi enter the room. "Kouichi?" Kouji muttered.
Kouichi looked up at his brother and friends his smile growing he waved. "Hi guys." He mouthed back to them before turning back to the other man.
Kouichi turned to the man beside him and smiled. "So you ready Seta?"
The man took the binder from his friend's hands. "No." he answered honestly. "I don't even know how to do this math."
Kouichi head fell forward as he took the binder back from Seta's hands. "I know. That's why Lance and Mom sent me." The twin said walking to the front of the class and sitting in the teachers' desk in the corner making Seta stand beside him. "Go introduce yourself." Kouichi stated making Seta stand in front of the class that had now quieted down.
Seta cleared his troth. "Hello, everyone. I'm Seta Yumihiro. I'll be your substitute teacher today for math. Now for the person who actually knows what they're talking about, the person whose going to take over teaching for me. Kouichi Kimura!" he said waving his hands at the boy sitting in the desk.
Kouichi's head met the desk when he heard Seta finish talking. Sending the man a glare he stood up and went over and kicked Seta in the shins. "Thanks a lot Seta." He mumbled.
Rubbing his shins Seta continued. "Now class listen to everything he says there's going to be a test later on. If you don't pay attention I'll leave a note for your teacher."
That made the class snap to attention.
Kouichi sighed before he looked over at his brother and friends who had amused looks on their faces. Sending them a frown Kouichi addressed the class.
"Okay, so by now you should've done Rearranging fractions, Dominion and Range, Interpreting linear functions, graphs of linear functions and x and y intercepts. Correct?" Kouichi asked drawing a blank stare from the class.
Takuya raised his hand and spoke. "Ah Kouichi, we haven't even heard of half the stuff you just said."
Kouichi snapped his head back staring at Takuya in freakish wonder. "What? What grade is this?" he asked.
"This is only our ninth year Kouichi-kun." Izumi replied to him.
Kouichi looked like he was ready to fall over. He loved math and seeing how far behind they were made him dizzy. "Okay, Where did you leave off?" he turned to the class.
A random student answered him. "Uhh Kimura-san we just started on the rearranging fractions. We only started this yesterday."
Kouichi sighed and thanked the girl. "Okay so you left off on the sheet 'Equation Rearranging' right?"
"Yes sir." The same girl replied.
"Okay," Kouichi sighed and looked at their last worksheet. His eyes immediately went blurry. "Crap." He muttered pulling a pair of reading glasses out of his pocket drawing stares from his brother and three friends. Waving them off he put on his thin glasses and started helping them correct the worksheet. After they were done he helped them start on other things like those listed above from earlier.
By the time they Kouichi was done they had done over four worksheets and were so much ahead of the other classes they wouldn't have homework for a week. Kouichi had set them to work on a new 'interpreting linear functions' sheet and now he was walking around helping people who needed it.
A while back Seta had fallen asleep, complaining about a headache due to extreme cramming of stupid math problems. Everyone else had understood Kouichi fine though so they just blamed Seta by being lazy.
Kouichi came up beside Kouji and smiled. "Glad you get it now Kouji." He said surprising his twin.
Kouji looked up at his brother. "Hey Kouichi. Yhea I get it, but I think you gave Takuya a hernia by cramming so much information into his brain at once." He said pointing to the boy beside him who was curled up in his seat shaking.
Kouichi laughed causing Izumi and Junpei to turn around in their seats to laugh at Takuya. Remembering the other part of his punishment Kouichi looked to his friends. "Hold on a sec, I gotta talk to you guys." He turned around and addressed the class. "Since you've all done so well, the last fifteen minutes before the long weekend are yours. Just don't break anything." Kouichi announced getting a cheer from the class.
Pulling up a chair he sat down on it beside Kouji. Lifting the glasses off his nose he stuck them on top of his head. Before he could speak though Izumi spoke up.
"Hey Kouichi, when did you get glasses?" She asked looking at the thin glasses on her friends' head.
"A while back, it's only for reading things close up though." He explained.
"And when did you get so good at math? Everything in this darn subject makes sense now." Junpei stated clearly stumped.
Kouichi laughed. "Lance taught me pretty much everything having to do with math after I dropped out so-"
"YOU DID WHAT!" Kouji shouted his eye twitching.
"Dude why?" Takuya asked slipping out of his curled up position.
"That's not a very good thing Kouichi…" Izumi stated.
"How are you going to get a job if you don't go to school?" Junpei asked.
Kouichi laughed at his friends' worry. "Don't worry about it guys. I dropped out of school so I could help the digital world full time with mom. And beside I've already got a university degree from Tokyo U. So I don't have to worry about credits to find a job." He announced.
Takuya stared at him. "You have a degree form Tokyo U? Jeez you must be a genius!" he laughed.
"What did mom say when you told her you dropped out of school?" Kouji asked.
The other twin looked around and smiled innocently. "Actually she suggested I do that and take a Tokyo U course at home." He told them. The four of them practically fell off their chairs. "I was amazed at how easy it was."
Kouji stared at his brother in wonder.
Just as they finished their conversation the bell rang but Kouichi made them all stay seated.
"Hey Izumi, can you do me a favor?" The older twin asked. "Can you go get Tomoki and bring him here. I already called all of your parents and told them that you were staying after school. Mom will drive you all home."
"Hunh? Yhea sure." She said standing up and headed out of the room. She came back a few minutes later Tomoki beside her.
Seta finally woke up after a good whack upside the head by a binder that was being held by a certain older twin.
"Okay I'm up, Now lets' hurry up and tell them I have to go get Polliwog at the airport." Seta said coming over and sitting on the desk in front of Izumi.
"Oh is he coming back today?" Kouichi asked sitting down in the spot he had sat in minutes ago.
"Yhea, he's flying in tonight." Seta replied before turning to Tomoki, "Hey there kiddo."
"Hunh?" Tomoki looked up and saw Seta smiling down at him. "Oh Hey Seta-San." He laughed giving the man a high five.
"You guys know each other?" Takuya asked looking at the youngest of the group.
"He's one of my dad's old friends." Tomoko explained.
"Old?" Seta asked falling over. "I'm not old am I?"
"Of course you are Seta." Kouichi joked looking down at the man crying on the floor. "But don't worry, we have other things to do."
Seta picked himself up off the ground. "Okay, so. You know about Ohpanimon and her dream right?"
Everyone nodded.
"You know about Darkseermon?"
Everyone shook his or her heads no.
Seta was about to speak but a heel on his foot made him shut his mouth. Kouichi sweat dropped and removed his foot from Seta's "Well we have an idea how you guys can help us."
"Oh how?" Kouji asked looking at his older brother.
"You know that week you have off after tomorrow?"
"Yea, What about it?" Izumi asked.
"Well, you can spend that week with us in the digital world before school starts again." Kouichi offered. "All you have to do is ask you're parents if you can go on a camping trip with us."
"That sounds like a fair enough excuse to go away." Junpei stated looking at Izumi. "What about you?"
"My parents won't mind." Izumi sighed, "but what about you Takuya?" She turned and looked at the brown haired boy who looked about ready to fall over.
"Oh, this is great, my parents are going to love this..." Takuya muttered. 'I'm so gonna die.' He added to himself as an after thought.