-Chapter 2: Words Unspoken-

"Kouji!"

Kouji gave a small jolt as the resounding yell, with an accompanying slam and clatter, cut through the air unexpectedly.
He didn't recognize the voice that had called him at first. His eyes quickly darted to the student who was now standing and aggressively pointing at him from the backside of class.

Neck-length chestnut brown hair with a slight outward flip at the ends.
An unruly cowlick and bangs.
Lightly tanned skin.

And those eyes. Those familiar, fiery eyes, currently holding a fierce glare that could burn straight through him.

It was, undoubtedly, Takuya.

He froze. 'It can't be,' he thought, taken aback by the unanticipated sight of his now-aged friend.

'It can't be... !' Takuya thought the same in turn.

A loud cracking noise startled the both of them as their teacher, Ms. Tanaka, violently whipped a ruler on her desk. "Takuya Kanbara.. !" her voice boomed indignantly, "how DARE you interrupt this introduction! You sit back down right now, young man-"

"B-But- I-" he stammered in protest.

"NOW!" She gave Takuya an intimidating glare as he carefully picked his chair up off the floor and gingerly took a seat, staring at Kouji all the while. Ms. Tanaka then turned to Kouji, who was standing motionless in front of the class. His face was pale as though he had just seen a ghost, and his gaze had shifted away from Takuya's, preferring to stare at the floor.
"I am so sorry about that, Mr. Minamoto," she gave an exasperated smile, clearly embarrassed by Takuya's outburst, "I take it you two know each other.. ?"

Kouji didn't answer.

"A-Ah, well..." she awkwardly rubbed the back of her head, "you'll have plenty of time to catch up later, like at lunch. Right, Takuya.. ?"
She shot a quick scowl at Takuya, her last two words dripping with danger.

They finished up Kouji's introduction to the class, his name written on the board in front of them:

Kouji Minamoto.

Then, he was instructed to take the free desk near the center of the classroom. It was a row ahead of and a couple of seats separated from Takuya's.
Takuya watched as Kouji cautiously walked down the aisle between students- whose eyes stayed on the ground all the while in a pensive stare. He sat down at his desk, and for a brief moment, he glanced back in a quick side-eye towards Takuya- who hadn't stopped staring the entire time, and was fidgeting his leg rather impatiently. As soon as they made eye contact, Kouji looked away.

16-year-old Kouji looked a little different than before- he was taller now, just as Takuya was, and he appeared somewhat thin. Takuya noted from behind that his hair seemed to be longer. Rather than stopping at his shoulder blades, it went further down to his lower back, and it was even tied up in a higher ponytail than before.
The sidetails that had previously framed his face were no longer present; they appeared to have grown long enough to be pulled back with the rest.

Lastly, Takuya noticed Kouji's left hand. There were bandages wrapped around it, and they continued up his arm an unknown length into his school jacket. Possibly from his escapades as a 'Demon-boy', Takuya thought. He made a mental note to ask Kouji about that later, too- after all the other business that he wished to address.

A thick tension sat between the two of them for the entirety of the morning. Takuya could hardly concentrate during the lesson, completely distracted by Kouji's presence in the classroom- Kouji, on the other hand, looked as though he wished to be anywhere else in the world.

When the lunch bell finally rang after what felt like several days of waiting and torment, Takuya turned in his seat, ready to bolt towards Kouji like a runner who had been waiting for the starting pistol- when his view was suddenly blocked by Ms. Tanaka.

"Takuya," she started in a disappointed tone, and her eyes displayed some small amount of sympathy, "I don't know what's been getting into you lately, but please don't make me say this again: Don't cause any more trouble. The outburst in class today, these fights with the other students, and.."

Takuya glanced around her side, clearly not taking in her words as he witnessed Kouji slipping away from the classroom-

"Are you listening to me? This is serious, young man, I don't want to have to get your parents involved-"

"Y-yes, Ms. Tanaka! No more trouble from me, I promise!" he raised his hands up in a placating gesture.

She stared at him skeptically.
"If there's something going on at home, perhaps it may be worth paying a visit to the school counselor.."

"I will definitely do that," he gave a thumbs up as he nervously fidgeted to get out of his seat. She sighed before finally stepping out of the way, watching him with concern as he dashed out of the room.

Takuya darted through the long hallways of his school, speeding past groups of students and teachers - who had yelled at him to stop running in the halls - in his search for Kouji.
He checked around corners, down corridors, stairwells, bathrooms.. with no Kouji to be found. The ticking clock sat in the back of his mind, and he wondered how much time he had before the end of their allotted lunch.

He huffed as he paused in the school's atrium on the bottom floor. How far could he have gone? Just how many places are there to hide in a school? He pressed his back against the closest concrete pillar and took a moment to strategize.

'If I were Kouji.. where would I go to hide from.. me? Hmm..'

'Ah!'
As if a lightbulb had flicked on in his mind, he started his way back up several flights of stairs and to the destination of his idea: the rooftop.

Takuya swung open the door to the rooftop rather aggressively, wasting no ounce of time as he ran outside and surveyed his surroundings. The area was caged in with a tall fence, and the scattered yellowish-green leaves signaling the beginning of autumn littered the ground here and there.
There were two students on the farther side of the roof, and they both gave him a startled stare as the bang of the door had caught their attention. They quickly returned to whatever conversation they appeared to be having before.

.. There was no one else out there. He walked over to the fence and looked over the school yard in one last desperate attempt at maybe seeing Kouji somewhere.
When no one caught his eye, he sat down on the ground, then dramatically flopped down onto his back and looked up at the clouds wistfully.
The heavy and grey overcast sky that greeted him that morning had finally begun to break apart, with rays of sunlight and smatterings of blue peeking through cracks in the distance.

'.. Was I wrong, then?'
He wondered to himself. He felt disappointment swirling in his heart, alongside some other feeling he wasn't certain of.

'I thought I knew you.'

The clouds that floated in the sky weren't so different from most of the clouds in the Digital World. If he closed his eyes, and let the breeze flow over him, he could pretend for just a moment that they were still there, five years ago, and that he was surrounded by his friends.

He imagined them all lying in a field of grass and staring up at the same sky.
An 8-year-old Tomoki falls asleep at his side. Junpei is pointing out shapes in the clouds to Izumi, Izumi is objecting that she sees something else. The twins are having a quiet conversation to the other side of him, and a small chuckle escapes from Kouji from whatever it was that Kouichi just said to him.

He opened his eyes again to the clouds of mundane life.
It wasn't going to rain today. He could still tell that much, at least.

The door to the rooftop let out a loud, metallic whine as it was slowly pushed open. Without picking himself up from the ground, Takuya gave an upside-down glance to the direction of the noise.

He was promptly greeted by an upside-down view of Kouji opening the rooftop door.

A long beat occurred as they stared at each other. Kouji then swiftly turned tail back down the stairwell, letting the door slam itself shut behind him.

The time to daydream was over. 'Oh no you don't.. !' Takuya thought as he jumped up from his position on the ground and gave one last chase. He opened the rooftop door, ran down the stairwell, and ultimately followed Kouji out onto the hallway of the top floor of the school.

Takuya had finally caught up to Kouji just a few paces from the rooftop stairwell access. He reached out - just like in the dream - but this time, his hand found something real.
He had grabbed ahold of Kouji's left wrist - which caused the other boy to wince as that was the mysteriously bandaged arm - and when Kouji turned around to face him, Takuya wasted no time in grabbing the collar of his shirt.

"Stop running away, Kouji!" he yelled as he gripped the collar in an iron grasp, pivoting the two of them in order to shove Kouji against the hallway wall. Kouji's body was lighter than he expected. "You really think you can keep up this bullshit when I'm right here in front of you?!"

The feeling in his hands was all too familiar for Takuya. His fists wrapped tightly around cloth, and the resistance behind it- how many times had he and Kouji found themselves like this?
Kouji wouldn't respond to kind words or frustrated text messages. In his mind, Takuya thought it has to be this way. Nothing else had worked so far. This is what he knew worked with Kouji before- Tough love. Physicality.

'Why do I feel so angry.. ?' Takuya caught himself for a brief moment. 'Shouldn't I be happy to see Kouji again?'

'.. I'm right to be angry though, aren't I?'
The anger was comforting. It acted as a shelter against the other thoughts; the ones of grief and of entire nights spent worrying.

He continued with his tirade. "Where the hell have you been, what have you been doing!? We were worried sick about you! You just completely disappeared and - and we didn't know if you were alive or dead-" he seethed, shaking Kouji against the wall as tears burned at the corners of his eyes.

"You had five whole years to say anything- anything at all- so what do you have to say for yourself now?!"

Kouji's response cut through the air as sharply and swiftly as a knife,
"Stop touching me- !"

And in the span of a single breath of air, before Takuya had any time to process what he thought sounded like fear in Kouji's voice, he felt a sudden jerk at his elbows and a leg hooked behind his calf and-

THUD

He blinked absentmindedly as he suddenly found himself staring up at the ceiling from the floor. He had been knocked onto his back by a leg sweep. A sweep.

'Woah,' he thought.

It took him a moment to shake off the resulting surprise- then came that familiar fire. "So that's how it's going to be?! Huh, Kouji.. ?!" he yelled out as he sat up, ready to jump onto his feet and throw down.

He expected a lot of things.
He expected to look up and see Kouji standing there, sneering down at him condescendingly.
He expected him to kick him while he was down perhaps, to raise his fists and brace himself for a fight, to yell at and insult him, to see what exactly made him a Demon-boy-

He expected Kouji to fight him.
Because, that was what Takuya wanted.
That was the Kouji that he needed to see in order to justify the anger.

What he didn't expect was the unrecognizable expression on Kouji's face- one of remorse and sadness and something else, he wasn't entirely sure of. He didn't expect to see Kouji with his arms wrapped so tightly around himself in a defensive posture, shrinking and backing away like a frightened animal. The anger that had previously gripped Takuya's thoughts slowly dissipated as he processed what he was seeing.

Kouji's voice then spoke in an unfamiliar small and unsteady tone,
".. I'm sorry,"
Before he swiftly darted down the hall and around the corner, the wisp of his ponytail retreating from sight.

"Kouji!" Takuya quickly rose to his feet, ready to sprint after him once more. He was fairly confident in his ability to outrun Kouji- at least in human form and not as their beast spirits - but something gave him pause. It was that look on Kouji's face.

'I'm sorry.. ?'
He pondered Kouji's words. Sorry for sweeping him? Sorry for ghosting him for years? Sorry for figuratively and literally running away? All of it, perhaps?
That sort of expression and tone of voice was not one that he normally associated with Kouji at all. His memories of past Kouji, his own speculations of how Kouji may have changed in the last five years, and the Kouji that he just witnessed all clashed together in his mind dissonantly.

- And then came back the mental image of Kouji at the end of the corridor in the hospital.
They had spent the last five years apart, and grown distant, even if Takuya had wished dearly that it wasn't so- even if he had tried not to let it happen.
Something stirred in his chest again, as it did on the rooftop. He knew what it was this time; it was the same feeling as when he was running down that endless dream corridor. Even if he had physically caught Kouji for a brief moment, it appeared he was still stuck running in that mental hallway, towards a Kouji that he had yet to reach.

Takuya sighed heavily as he bonked his forehead lightly against a nearby window. Maybe Kouji's reaction wasn't so surprising after all.

It dawned on him that he couldn't treat Kouji the same way he had done in the past and expect the same results- Kouji was different now, and.. so was he, he thought, as he looked at himself in the reflection of the glass.
'Stupid, stupid, stupid.. '

The second bell began to ring, indicating the end of lunchtime. Logically, he knew he had to stop and approach this situation without the anger clouding his mind - without the uncontrolled fire, which certainly wasn't easy to quell. He took a deep breath and made his way back to the classroom.

Kouji stared wistfully up at the ceiling of his room as he laid in his bed, his hair cascading over his pillows in pools of black. The warm, orange light of sunset peeked through the scattered clouds outside and through his window. Garm, his dog, laid on his floor in one of the various sunbeams it created.

The rest of the day had gone, to his surprise, uneventfully - Takuya hadn't come up to bother him a second time when the school day had ended, though he had certainly expected him to. Even that burning stare that he felt at the back of his head seemed to lessen over the course of the day.
Moreover, it was easy to slip away amongst the crowds of students leaving the school just incase he had changed his mind.

It was already a hindrance dealing with the stares and murmurs that he knew would come from his sudden arrival there, along with whatever rumors he may have carried with him from the recent incident. Dealing with Takuya, however, was not something that he had readily anticipated nor mentally prepared for.
He hadn't meant to sweep him as he did. When trapped and cornered against the wall, it felt as though his body had moved on its own.

When he first laid eyes on Takuya in class, and even more so when he was confronted and bombarded in the hallway, he swore he could start to feel something beginning to crack open in his mind.
Something like cold double doors at the end of a long hospital corridor.
Behind them contained his thoughts of the past, his happiness, sadness, fear, nostalgia- hope, despair - things that he had worked to keep tucked away in the darkest recesses of his mind. A place that he wished would never be illuminated again.

And through that newly made crack in the door, memories began to slip through;

Learning to trust each other. Arguments and fist fights. Heartfelt chats of family and siblings.
Working together. Hearing the cheers of friends, human and digimon alike. Victory. Loss. Jokes and laughter and teasing. Tears and anger and frustration.

Kouichi smiling at him.

Kouichi's data, absorbed by Lucemon.
The smell of hospital antiseptic. The ringing flatline.

A wafting smoke
of funeral incense.

Picking Kouichi's bones

out of the ashes -

He lifted his hands and pressed his palms into his eyes, trying to shake off those last thoughts.
His days in the Digital World made up both the happiest and most painful memories of his life, and they were always inseparably interwoven.
It was one of the many reasons he couldn't bring himself to face his friends again; why so many calls and texts were left unread or unanswered.
Hearing their voices, seeing their faces, even reading their words, it all lead back to the Digital World and, ultimately, to Kouichi. To those doors where he left him. Takuya, all of their old gang- they acted as unwanted keys to the past, as cruel remembrances of what it was like to feel hope.

He wasn't ready to face them- not yet, not now - though, he realized he may not have much of a choice anymore.

There came a loud ringing from his phone, which broke him out of his thoughts. He uncovered his eyes and sat up in his bed, then reached out to pick it up off of his desk.

He hadn't noticed his dog sitting in a frozen stasis, nor the television-esque static that had replaced the sky outside of his window, nor the sudden absence of the warm orange light that created beams through the clouds, which had been replaced by something colder and dimmer as if being emitted from a screen.

On his phone's display, there was an oddly familiar flickering of blue and white ribbons of light which looked like-

Fractal Code.

"Hey!"

A familiar voice called out from his phone. He hadn't remembered answering the call.
The sound filled him with a feeling of longing. He wasn't sure why.

"Sorry, I hope I'm not bothering you! I just wanted to chat. How are you feeling?"

It was Kouichi's voice.

".. Hey, are you there? If you're talking, I can't hear you."

Kouji furrowed his eyebrows.
The unfolding situation, for some reason, didn't strike him as odd. He put the phone up to his ear.
"Sorry, I.. I'm here. I'm just tired, I think," he responded.

Everything felt normal to him. Was there ever any pain?

"Haha, are you okay? Had a long day at your new school?"

Kouichi's voice was warm on the other side.
His new school. What was Takuya so angry about, again?

"Yeah, you wouldn't believe it.."

Kouji laid back down on his bed as they both chatted about their days.
He turned his head and stared directly at the static-filled sky outside of his window.
He didn't find it strange.

"Remember when we were kids, when we used to chat on the phone all the time like this?" Kouichi reminisced fondly, "we would talk for hours, wouldn't we? I miss those days. I guess it's harder to do that now, what with both of us being so busy.."
His sentence trailed off in sadness.
Growing up was a little sad, wasn't it?

"Why don't we meet up tomorrow, after school? Are you free?"
Kouji quickly suggested in an attempt to cheer him up.

'Isn't there something off about this?' Kouji pondered.
'Isn't there something.. that I'm forgetting?'

"That sounds great, Kouji. I'll ask mom tonight!"
But, Kouji couldn't help but smile when he heard the happiness in Kouichi's voice.

"Kouji..."

Kouichi's voice resumed, echoing through his room.

".. I've missed you."

Kouji jolted awake in his bed.
He hadn't remembered falling asleep. His room was now bathed in darkness, and he sat up, looking out of the window. Deep blue greeted his sight, and scattered stars accompanied by a thin waxing crescent moon hung in the sky, occasionally obscured by roaming clouds. The scene replaced the warmth of the sunset he had seen last.

Or was it static that he had seen last?

Garm was beside him, licking his hand. As Kouji's eyes adjusted to the dark, aided only minimally by the light of the moon and the faint glow of the streetlights, he could make out the silhouettes of the objects in his room: a guitar, some shelves, his desk and a chair with his schoolbag hanging off of it. Other than Garm, nothing stirred. No time-frozen dog, nor strange lights, nor static in sight.

He double checked his phone just to be sure. No ribbons of data, just an ordinary phone screen. It was 7:39pm. There was a new, unread message from Takuya in his notifications which previewed 'Hey, I'm sorry about today. Can we talk tomorr-'
He placed his phone back down on the desk.

He had never had a dream like that before. He wasn't a stranger to nightmares revolving around his grief, or nostalgic dreams of when they were children, but something so bizarrely familiar and warm-

A small knocking came from his door. The sound gave Kouji a slight jump, before a quiet voice came from behind it.
".. Kouji, are you in there? May I come in?"
It was his stepmother, Satomi Minamoto. Her voice was soft and tinged with concern.

".. Kouji?" she asked again tentatively after a few moments of silence went by. Kouji took a breath and got out of his bed, turning on his desk lamp to illuminate his room. He was still taking a moment to process his dream.

"Go ahead," he answered curtly.

The door to his room gently opened, and he turned to look at her standing in the doorway.

His stepmother hadn't changed too much over the years. She always preferred to keep her light brown hair on the shorter side, and her glasses framed a face that had perhaps a couple more wrinkles than years before, as well as eyes that were just a little more tired. Her wardrobe was often made of delicate pastel colors. He had grown taller than her the previous year.
She was a quiet and rather meek woman, but despite her gentle disposition, she had a stronger side to her which showed itself when it needed to.

"How was your first day at the new school?" she asked quietly as she approached him, ".. was it alright? No one gave you any trouble, right?"

"It was fine," he responded softly, not even looking her in the eye. Her question reminded him of Kouichi's similar inquiry in his dream.

"That's good," she said as she let out a small sound of relief, then noted Garm rubbing up against Kouji's left hand, "h-how's your arm? Do you need any help changing the bandages?"
Her hand reached out to touch his shoulder in a reassuring gesture, which caused him to lightly flinch away in response. She pulled her hand back, looking hurt, but not surprised, at his reaction.

".. I'm fine, mom. I.. need to do a lot of catch-up work for this class, so.. " he turned his back to her to pick up the school bag he had left hanging on his chair.

He could hear her lingering for a moment behind him as she let out a quiet, saddened sigh. The floorboards creaked as she began to turn and leave. She paused just before she exited the doorway.
"I know I say this a lot, but.. you know you can talk to me about anything, right? No matter what it is?"

"I know," he responded in a hushed tone.

There were a lot of things he wanted to say. The words never found their way out.

"We missed you at dinner again. I saved you some in the fridge- please.. come eat some later if you're hungry.."

The door to his room softly shut as Satomi took her leave. Garm had followed suit behind her.

The day Satomi and Kousei Minamoto were called to the hospital, finding an anguished and enraged Kouji demanding answers, was the day that would bring their previously quiet - if not already tense - lives spiraling further downwards.
It marked the day both Kouji and Satomi would meet Tomoko Kimura, broken-hearted and crying over Kouichi's body. An ill-fated family reunion.
As it had turned out, the news of Kouji's biological mother being alive and of the existence - and now death - of his twin brother wasn't only kept a secret to him, but to Satomi as well.

Over time, Kouji had gained the clarity to see it wasn't Satomi's fault, that she wasn't involved, and that she was just as hurt by both the web of lies and seeing the agony it had caused him. He knew she genuinely cared for him. He had fully expected her to leave his father, given the tension that arose from the truth, and struggled to fathom how or why she decided to stay around.

He never did go back for those flowers, though he had eventually started to call her 'Mom' just as he promised himself he would.

He kept his promise to Kouichi too, even if the meeting with his biological mother was wholly unplanned as she arrived at the hospital on the news of her son being involved in an accident.

'You are afraid of growing close to anyone.
Because you fear in your heart that you will have to part ways, eventually.'

The words of Karatenmon sometimes wormed their way back into his thoughts.
He had allowed himself to get close to someone. To be happy, to grow fond, to be hopeful, to dream of the future together.
And when Kouichi was torn away from him in the hospital that day, his greatest fear was proven true- and with so many words left unspoken.

His actions began to feel hollow from that day on. As if it weren't truly him that was acting out these lingering promises - but rather, an illusory afterimage of himself that remained only from the light he once shone in the Digital World. A mere phantom, cold and distant like the stars, left behind from the days that he felt complete with his friends, his brother, and the power of light in his hands.

Those things stayed shut behind the cold double doors, now.

'Your heart will always be lonely.'

-Chapter 2 End-

Notes:

**I'm imagining Takuya with a deeper voice than his canon 2019-drama cd one btw. ｢(ﾟﾍﾟ)

**If you need a visual reference for Kouji's hair, I imagine it looks somewhat like Pre-timeskip Felix's from FE3H, except with a long ponytail instead of a bun. Though.. I can see Kouji wearing his hair in a bun, too. Maybe a thought for later.

**Takuya definitely interrupted some sort of anime scene on the rooftop, there. How inconsiderate! Also, these boys need to learn to stop running down stairs.

**Given the premise, Kouji has quite a lot going on in this story. This is really only the tip of the iceberg! This chapter took me awhile to write because I wasn't sure what to touch up on now and what to save for later.
Well, next time, we'll be diving into Tomoki's life for a bit and finally see more of the gang. Stay tuned!