You know what an ouverture is like. It's the opening of an opera, some kind of introduction. Welllllll, before introducing you to the main three (in truth they will be four) characters, I think it could be funny to give start to this extravagant tale with a previous story. Then we will really take on Act I.In the previous draft of this story Itsuki was going to have an even more prominent role, but she'll still be an important character more or less, since she's strongly connected to the main trio in question. The same can be said about Mihoshi, but you'll see, you'll see. For now, it's better to stop talking and let you plunge in the ocean of a historia in medias res~.
[Ouverture: In which thick dark clouds could have never been both so close and so far. Still if you focused on looking at them, I'm sure you would spot some rays shyly peeping from there.]
XXX
Slipping in the black cloud of chatting students crowding the corridors, Kou kept his eyes glued on a tall silhouette walking kinda apathetically, judging from how slowly he was proceeding and the way he was staying in silence, his bag swingling on his back.
"Ohi!" The boy tried before accidentally hurting a girl with a shoulder and apologizing with a jovial grin. "Ohi!" He tried again, this time getting the worst glance by some,probably, teacher from another class passing by.
The wave of students was going to swallow him in their words and discussions, forcing him to back and stop for many times in a row; it was irritating him greatly, pushing him to almost break his knuckles because of how strongly he was closing his fist. It surely felt like if he was in a dark sea dragging him in its depth and threatening his breath,which was already troubled by the tight plaster he was wearing on the bridge of his nose.
"Oh dannazione!" He shouted painfully gnashing his teeth , really believing no one would hear him.
Still that shout gave him an extraordinary boost of energy that allowed him to increase his chase, and find enough strength to finally make his way through that messy high tide. He pushed, yanked, shook, his honey-coloured eyes being still firmly on his target…Until he got the marvelous sensation that sea had finally opened itself as he reached out and touched that shoulder.
The person didn't turn at that contact though. In truth, Kou didn't really know he was ignoring him on purpose, but that wouldn't have still kept him from striking up a conversation with him like he was going to do now.
"Maaako!" He smiled at him, pronouncing his name in an improvised melody. "I have a new reason to be happy in my mornings and that's you! I used to theel joy while coming to school because I would meet, ehm, Nao and then we would- Ah never mind! Nao is past, Mako is present!"
Nevertheless he didn't get any reply from that boy he seemed to admire so much, his orbs shining as brightly as blazes and his heart increasing its beats per second.
Just like Mako's steps: the more Kou talked, the more his interlocutor would accelerate his gait.
Yet Kou wasn't stopped by that behaviour either -unfortunately for Mako-. He couldn't really understand Mako's mood.
"Now I've got a great thriend, Takato Matsuda's son, nothing less! I'm so, so, so excited you have no idea! Hey, look at this," Weirdly, the boy goofily opening his briefcase caught Makoto's attention, but he bit his tongue at the first thought of this sort.
Everything Kou was keeping in it disastrously fell on the floor: pens and pencils he didn't care to put in a pencilcase, a box of plasters, exercise books with scribbles on their covers...A quite deflated ball. Kou was interested in a big tome with some photos and phosphorescent bookmarks sticking out of its ruined pages, though. "Ta-daa!" He opened it with theatricality but realized he was showing it to the noisy nothingness of that place: Mako had apparently fled while exploiting the moment Kou was kneeled.
"Mako, wait!" He tidied his belonging as fast as a bolt, and there was he, next to whom he loved calling his new friend again. "Look! Look! This is by a photographer who begged my grandfather to expose this book of his at the library. He claims to have seen the D-Reaper… The D-Reaper Takato Matsuda himself and the other Tamers destroyed! Please, take a look, take a look!"
Mako stealthily made his red eyes roll to the page Kou was pointing at, detesting to admit he was already becoming intrigued in that story somehow.
"You know, he saw the D-Reaper when he was a teen and took a single photo of the monster. Still the thact that this photo is so tarnished and thoggy gave him so much trouble: people thought he was posing an edited photo in a real one's stead and nobody believed him: "D-Reaper is a bum steer! Everyone knows it was just an industrial disaster! A big toxic cloud that came out from that industry down there!". That's what they would thell him and that's why they never let him publish anything on their newspapers!" Kou proceeded to turn the pages quickly as they walked at the same speed for the first time. "But this man never lost his faith in what he had seen and started tracking other people that had assisted to the D-Reaper's attack like him. That's how this book was born, even if he eventually focused it on the witnesses of the Digimon Tamers of Shinjuku in general: tales, recollections, school pictures too!"
"I have never seen something like this before," Mako muttered, rudely taking that tome from Kou's hands and flipping through it with greedy interest, trying being careful not to crash against any student.
"The D-Reaper wasn't a lie at all! When the man found Grandpa, he weirdly believed to his story. That old man! "
"Shhh," Mako hissed, reaching out as if he wanted to put his hand on Kou's mouth.
"I see, I see. You want to read about your father and mother," Kou sniggered, expressing how happy he was to have managed to bond -that was what he thought , at least- with Mako thanks to that item he had stolen from the library. "But if you want to thind your parents, you will have to skip the thirst thithy pages: these are about Jenrya Lee."
"Fifty pages about Uncle Jen?!" Mako exclaimed, disgusted, literally throwing the book against Kou's chest.
"Uncle Jen stands for Jenrya Lee, right? Wow, the Tamers are still thriends ! Isn't it amazing? Anyway, I've always thought Jenrya Lee is an interesting member of the crew! A hidden main character, if you know what I mean, eh!"
"He isn't," Mako groaned, more annoyed than ever. It was a bless for him to see his class in the horizon, something he would have never imagined he would tell himself. "You say that because you don't know him."
"Oh, I swear, I would love meeting him! I feel like a kid collecting stickers and counting the missing ones," He really started counting on his fingers, his eyebrows arching downwards warping his forehead's skin. "That day I met Takato Matsuda and Juri Katou, and I discovered they own a bakery and are married! Yes , I know they are your parents, but let me say I was so happy to see they really thell in love! Girls love reading about Takato saving her! Did it happen for real, then?! Princess-carrying style, the hug, romantic stares, all that stuff?! Aren't they additions authors wrote about to make their stories more appealing. Eh? Eh?"
"I need to go," Makoto tried not aiming at his throat, which was what he wanted to do as his bother was too great for him to deal with it. "See?! My class is here, so disappear. Fade in the air!"
"Let's see each other at lunch, then! So we will talk about Jenrya Lee and the other Tamers! I still have so much to thell you about!" He enthusiastically chirped, making Mako to slap his own face in a gesture of endless desperation.
That kid!
That kid!
Everyday he would regret times when Kou didn't even exist in his life, and would curse the day that child had started babbling about his mother out of blue. He had been following Mako at school since that episode, approaching him and beginning talking about whatever would come in his mind.
He just wanted his peace back, without Kou jumping around him like if they had been friends for ages and could chat without any care in the world.
"So I'll meet you near to the arch. There we won't theel so hot…I don't know what you're theeling like, but I'm totally dying here and I'm wondering how I'm going to sit through thive hours of boring lessons."
Moreover Mako would have also liked to underline the reaction his nerves would get at every movement Kou would decorate his speeches with: a real sea sickness.
"And no, -in the case you're asking-, I'm not wearing only this shirt because of the heat," He brought a hand to his mouth so he could confess Mako what he believed that was going to be a special secret. "The truth is that I hate wearing the gakuran, okay? It's too dark and I hate the theeling of looking like the other students surrounding me. I don't know if you remember that I wasn't wearing an uniform at all when-"
"I don't care! Why do you think I care about the garbage you spill on me everyday?!" Mako eventually exploded, his heart bursting in a whirl of hatred against that stranger, whose cheeks had lost his healthy colour now. "Why don't you talk to Yang? He's a Tear Jumper just like me! He's your classmate and you would surely love talking to a silent someone non-stop".
"Heck no!" Kou winced, fighting against his twitching eyebrows betraying how he was feeling. "Yang Wen is a weird type! Weird! He's not as interesting as you; I mean, it's not like he has parents who are Tamers, right? Furthermore, I've told you: Goto thinks he is some kind of psycho esper who can evoke dead people, yokai, spirits…And I've always followed Goto's orders -even if I can't stand him, let's highlight this thact well! Very well!-. I've pulled pranks on Wen many times. It's not like it's a privilege for him, though; last year we were so vicious against a thoreigner student like me we eventually forced him to ask for a school change. Anyway, talking about your thriend Yang, once I pretended my ball had fallen off the window and had hit his head accidentally. Instead I did it on purpose like Goto wanted…I also mocked him when we met for the thirst time. Remember? Questions over questions! I know, I don't sound like a good person, eh, but this is the price you have to pay to stay in their group and have thriends. It's better to have fake thriends than being all alone, isn't it right? Still I wanted to go helping him when I noticed his nose was bleeding that hard…Or, oh, that time we mixed water with pear juice while he was washing the floor on his cleaning duty day…Or-"
"I don't care! I. Don't. Care!"
"But-But…Is this because of my missing tooth perhaps? Are you embarassed to hang out with-with someone missing some teeth and talking like this? You do know I broke an adult tooth immediately athter it had grown. The other day my last baby tooth thell and I have to speak like this for a while. But it only happens for some vowels and it doesn't always happen! And it will grow soon!" Kou stuttered, his inferior lip already beginning trembling because that nth disappointment wasn't what he needed in that period. At all.
"Your tooth? My ass! I will be clear for once and all," There was a single second of pause Mako exploited to chain his enraged eyes on his upset ones. "I. Don't want. To speak. With a Guinea Pig. Wearing a plaster on his nose!"
"What? A Guinea Pig?"
"Yes. And I'll tell you more: I don't want to talk to a noisy, obnoxious, fat guinea pig wearing a plaster on his nose".
"Well, you know what," Kou breathed, so dejected he didn't find the psychological strength to look at Mako in the eyes. "If you think I'm like this, you have never been forced to chat with me. If people ask me to leave them alone, I will do it without any problem. After all…" He suddenly turned and Mako could swear his voice sounded like if it was breaking in thousand pieces. "After all, I've done that with a thriend without even asking her for explanations. So, goodbye, Mako. You won't see me anymore, I guess. Ciao."
He advanced through the confused crowd heavy foot: the children tried avoiding him for some unknown reason and they soon scattered in their own classes.
"And anyway! I'm not a fat and noisy guinea pig! You are too, but without the Guinea part!"
XXX
"Well Mako, serves you right."
"Thank you for always being so kind and consoling…"
"Serves ya right for real. What do ya think people are? Robots?"
Mako abandoned his head on his desk, making it collapse on its surface with a thud.
"I've always pitied Aunt Juri, you know," Atsuko commented, her hands elegantly twirling in the air. "Uncle Takato too. I can't imagine what it is like to live along with someone like you."
"I could say the same about Uncle Hirokazu, since you treat him like a kid from the nursery," He provoked her ,still keeping his head low in ashamement, and he did succeed at his intent, since Atsuko was already about to lose her temper and abruptly stand up from her chair.
"Even so," Itsuki kindly forced her to sit down again, her violet orbs pulsing of concern. "I think ya should apologize to that kid. After all, he was showin' ya that book and he wanted to show it only to ya. Isn't this enough to convince your stubborn antics? I'd seriously punch ya on the head!
The word book rang in Makoto's head like a bunch of bells, making him feel a weird sensation in his heart, a need that was growing so quickly he could perceive it in his throat. It was keeping his voice there, creating a knot and absorbing his heartbeats.
Curiousity. The hunger of continuing reading that tome. The eagerness to get to know a new perspective about his parents and their friends. The greed he wanted to savour from the awareness he was part of a legacy of real heroes. At those new thoughts he felt weirded out, as he had never got the chance to get so near to the Tamers' past in a context that was far from Hypnos and Uncle Jen.
His father had always told him once he saved his mother from the D-Reaper, but what was the D-Reaper exactly? What happened? What had truly happened to his mother? And why was Hypnos so reticent about D-Reaper, as if it was a taboo?
There is much more to it than what they have been telling me since I was a kid, He couldn't help but mentally state, massaging his temples and feeling excitement -and a bit of fear too-.
"Mako! Are ya listenin' to me?!" Now Itsuki's voice had grown more peremptory than before.
"I will go looking for that boy. Hopefully he's in class and I'll get that book."
Stunned expressions greeted him.
"You can't be real."
"Mako-Chan, are ya tellin' me I've spent my lunch time tryin' persuadin' ya, and what I've got is ya goin' to talk to that boy becoz of a book!?"
"It's not an ordinary book" Mako smiled at her almost in a reassuring way. "You will see when I get back. You can't really believe that dude will be rude at me. He has got no spine and he also worships me like a God. Trust me".
He left the two girls staring at each other but not actually doing that, as what they could only do was to roll their spheres, sharing their mute opinions about the situation.
Mako dashed through the corridor, as empty as his classroom was since everyone was eating outside: that day of May was hotter than what everyone , even the forecast, had predicted. If he had to be sincere with himself, he was so tempted to put his gakuran off, but the idea of being similar to that weirdo turned that idea into a folly.
A folly just like the one he was going to commit.
Let me remember. He's in the 1-1. Just like our black wizard, He sarcastically reminded himself. It's hilarious every freak comes from that class.
Never stopping to realize he wasn't acting that sensibly, he cockily walked into the room, immediately making three girls who were gossiping in front of their bento shush themselves.
Kou was fortunately there and was sitting at a desk that wasn't that far from where the girls were standing. He was eating his lunch like a beast seeing food after ages and was holding his sticks with blatant nervousness. Mako couldn't suppress a malicious smirk as he imagined a pudgy rodent replacing that figure and pouncing on a bunch of sunflower seeds in the same way.
What a loser, He killed a laughter as he did know he needed to be as polite as possible to get what he wanted.
Yet his plans went downhill in a blink of an eye.
"So a certain someone has come from the sty to visit a fat guinea pig wearing a plaster," Kou's tone had totally transformed now; it was laced with a shade of aggressivity Mako was sure he could have never benefited from. "For the record, I'm not fat. I'm not. I'm just sturdier than any other guy here and my face has got chubbier cheeks than what you usually see. Ecco tutto. If I had known sooner you were like Goto , I would have never approached you. Never. A single Goto is enough. Once I detheated him at football and he took revenge on me in thront of our class, stomping on my ball and justifying himself he had done that because a fat hamster is supposed to run in a wheel, not in a football field. See? You morons only caring about physical appearances aren't original at insulting either. Despite being active, I'm kinda puffy, it's true: genetics' tricks. When I was a toddler I would get stuck everywhere while chasing birds and other anima-"
"I haven't come here to talk about your weight, I don't care," He was already forgetting about his previous promise to be nice to him, and was hating the way Kou was refusing to face him.
"Oh what a news: You don't care. Then you don't imagine about how I won't care about your words," He was really different from what he had always been, starting from his severe expression, his rigid movements, his torrential words that had no intention to amuse him anymore but exclusively aimed at sheltering himself or attacking him.
Mako had passed from finding himself in merry spring days to deadly summer thunderstorms in just five hours.
"Listen to me, you jerk! I just want that stupid book and I'll go away!" He fought against the immense astonishment the situation was giving him.
"Here are we: another city squire who wants to throw orders at me, after having insulted me because I don't look like-like a breadstick. What exactly made you think I would gladly give you that book I stole from my grandfather and his clients for you and only you after your cheap insults?"
Mako stayed in silence in front of that boy he couldn't recognize anymore, biting his lips unintentionally and almost making them bleed. This was the first time someone was reacting to him and his innate impetuosity. Even Itsuki wouldn't act that belligerently towards him after his mischief.
Yet there was he, that Kou, being on the verge of declaring war to him after having always treated him as a special chosen on Earth…
Mako was already missing that feeling, even though it was so odious to accept that truth. The one with Kou could be the worst meeting with a person ever; the day he met him was the day he would have liked to erase from the surface of the planet; he could be the kid he would never become friends with, even if they randomly landed on the furthest island of the world.
Yet…
Yet his pride wouldn't complain at him commending his family and his role as a Tamer, even if he had never seen him fighting for real.
"Mako, you're tremendously cool! You could write history with your Spadamon! A story about the new brand hero of Shinjuku: Makoto Matsuda. Imagine, ah! I would decorate the whole library with balloons and ribbons of your favourite colour -speaking of which , is it blue, right?-. Everyone would come asking for that book about my new best friend. And my best friend would be a famous hero!
That memory came from the unknown void and it filled his being with warmth, almost making him cry as staring at that mad Kou made him understand those recollections weren't likely going to get a continuation. He had totally lost him, he could feel it deeply in his trembling heart, his breath shortening at that part of his life flying away.
However Kou's tense connotations suddenly returned to their usual sweet self, burdening themselves with a shadow of sadness that was so heavy for the boy to sustain he couldn't look at Makoto anymore. He stared at the window ,instead, and the limpid sky of that day made him daydream about times that didn't really match that clear azure expanse.
"You know, Mako, when I was a kid and came here on holiday in summer, I would get very sad at my thriends playing with me but never missing the chance to remind me of the way I looked like," Kou told him, as monotone as he had never been, and Mako didn't seem to want to interrupt him again. "We were just toddlers; they wouldn't do it with the purpose of doing bad, I'm still sure about it, but they would still hurt me so much. I know, I know, you've already predicted where this is going: lame bullied kid found comfort in his grandfather' library's books. I would be a big liar if I denied you're totally right, but what I want to thell you is that I've read about so many heroes- even ordinary kids like me- thighting against the forces of evil: dragons, monsters, witches, all that stuff children have to swallow without being traumatized by it. Too," Kou gulped, stumbling in his own silver tongue in front of an unusual dumbstruck Mako. "Too much hatred in those tales. Why was I supposed to use books about hatred to escape from hatred itself? It had no sense, can you understand? Then one day my arm streched upwards, reaching a shelth level I had never dared to jump to, and I found that candid book by a so-called biographer who had dedicated his lithe to document himself about Takato Matsuda."
"Another one?!" Mako spatted: he had never heard about a single person coming to their bakery and interviewing his father. "Another one who is obsessed about Dad and doesn't have the guts to talk to him face-to-face?!"
"You thool. People attempted to approach the Tamers they had managed to track, but they say it had become too unbearable for our heroes to cope with so many questions. C'mon, you do know what paparazzi are like! I know it well, believe me! Oh tell me about where your team flag is!; How did you get those Digimon back? Can we see the Digimon? Can we see Guilmon? Can we? 2010's were the most inflamed years of this phenomenon, I assure you! If Hypnos had segregated information about D-Reaper years and years before, many state they eventually did the same with the Tamers' story, making it assume more and more legendary traits…But this isn't the point! Damn it, everyone always says I will open too many brackets whenever I talk, damn it, Kou".
While Kou was sitting still and was accomodating that moment of stasis he hadn't scheduled, Mako absorbed every data that kid had rambled about in the span of a single minute. Mako's heart was exploding of arrogance at those discoveries, feeling like if he was truly special. If this was going to be the last time he would chat, indeed, see Kou, then he would exploit that moment at his best.
But he had to get Kou's tome too! He had to find a way, the right way to do it, and he would succeed at quenching his desire.
"So where was I?" Kou sighed heavily, deciding to make his head shift in a spot from where he could still avoid Makoto's fiery spheres. "Ah yes, the book. It was my first meeting with your father, with the true hero not only of Shinjuku! The real hero any fairytale deserves! There's no hatred in Takato and his thriends' story. Enemies aren't real enemies. Those they consider as real enemies turn out to be good and even the D-Reaper can't be labeled as bad. I won't get lost in my opinions about D-Reaper, though…Just know your father has been really important to me and my childhood. The way he would accept his thriends and Digimon without caring about their flaws, the way he would love them like if they all were a big family, the way there was no malice in his heart. When I saw him for real some weeks ago I felt like I was going to pass out. And not to talk about the moment I was told you were Takato's son!"
Time for another kissing-ass round, Makoto joked, smirking widely now because he was so convinced Kou was going to confess he would never do without him. Of course that episode had to end in that way! The rancorous facade wasn't a role he could play with credibility.
He was a loser after all. His life had probably been so unfair to him he had grown unable to develop strong sentiments.
Nevertheless Makoto was wrong once more: he could have easily understood how mistaken he was if he had paid attention to Kou's humid orbs.
"I was so convinced I would truly thind a golden heart in you, that golden heart I've been seeking for in people surrounding me for years. I was so sure you wouldn't only carry your father's surname, you would have his magnanimous personality as well and I would thinally get a chance to part from Goto and company. Yet ,Mako, I have never seen anything that remarkable in your-
"Oh merda".
He had to expect that, Kou scolded himself, disconsolate, his favourite meatballs falling on his thighs, his beloved potatoes smashed against his nose, his hair…
Ah, his hair. He didn't want to know about them, but hearing a girl's laughter was enough to imagine what kind of clown he looked like now.
"Who in the world are you?! How do you dare to speak about me and my father with those complex words of yours!?" Mako shouted as loudly as possible, not caring about the single girl that had remained there following their bickering and finding it too funny to call some teacher. "Tell me," No hint of rationality dawned on him and kept him from pressing Kou's juice's straw and pointing it at his white shirt. "Who in the world do you think you are?! Tell me how do you dare?!"
Chairs abruptly moved, not only Kou's. Legs started running, slippers flickered on robust parquet and Mako found himself believing time had taken a slower turn like in a sort of dejá-vù. His neck had become so stiff his feet seemed to have broken the floor to give a home to their roots, forcing him to observe a standing ireful Kou raising his arm towards him, the only subject that only mattered…Although a familiar blue-haired girl had promptly entered the class with a vigorous sprint in that fragment of Makoto's life, during which the clock seemed to be proceeding intermittently.
"Stop it!" Itsuki threw herself against Kou's arm and pushed Makoto back at the same time.
"Who in the hell I am, you say?!" Kou didn't let Itsuki block him, even though he allowed her to continue touching his biceps, applying pressure the more he talked. "Who are you, instead ?! Are you truly Takato Matsuda's son?! Juri Katou's?! For real?! Would Takato Matsuda really say he doesn't care about a thriend getting bullied?! Answer me!"
The silence Kou had appreciated some minutes before bursted in that class, it almost transformed into a dark specter hovering from Itsuki's and Kou's bodies to Mako's and the three girls' heads. It polluted the commonly joyful environment of that place, totally ignoring the metallic sound of Kou's lunch box finally falling from his forehead.
"I dunno what ya are talkin' about, but let's go," Itsuki whispered, dragging Kou further from Mako than before, with the resolution you will often sense while looking at someone taking a huge and beefy dog out for a walk.
"Thank ya, ya two," She politely bowed at two girls waiting for her near to the door: one had chestnut-coloured curly hair that was similar to a cloud; the second was a ginger-haired sporting a bronzed shining skin, the result of the marriage of splendid and exotic features.
"We truly thought this time Matsuda was going to do it," The red head laughed, her locks bouncing on her bony shoulders at every heave of her exaltation.
"Whenever Matsuda comes to our class, we know only trouble will arise. Right, Shinobu-Chan?"
"It was funny at first, but then he tried smearing Koujicchi's adorable face and I told Rei it was enough!" Shinobu didn't let the chance to make Kou notice her presence flee by wiggling her fingers in a flattering greeting. Not that Kou gave attention to her since his main concern was the way the girl holding his arm was treating him. He felt like a dog on leash; a wet dog that needed a long bath to get rid of the salad of delicacies coating its muzzle.
If I had had a long tongue, my lunch wouldn't have gone to waste, He was almost beginning crying, thinking about how mean life had been acting to him for almost a month.
Firstly it came the worst news we had to stay with Grandpa until Mamma e Papà come back from abroad; then it came Nao treating me coldly because of no reason.
At that name he let his melancholy take over, a tear rolling down his cheek, unheeded yet bearer of that lonely kid's misery.
"Keep on checkin' him," He heard Itsuki concluding her idle conversation with the duo, glancing at Makoto who had sat down on the floor, his legs crossed and his arms abandoned on them. "At-Chan will take care of him. Moumantai," She gently tugged Kou's sleeve, noticing he was looking at Makoto too, and their sparkling eyes met for the first time in their life.
Kou recognized her, also understanding who those violet bubbles of energy were searching for. Yet he limited himself getting led by her out of that place that had started writing about the commotion his life was going to turn into.
XXX
Dazzling drops danced below the scorching Sun of that day, twirling in the sultry air and finding peace on the stony edge of that huge sink.
While his hands were washing and refreshing his face and soul, Kou was tempted to wince at the sight of dirty buckets and basins lying scattered in its concave bottom: it was the sink students would use to get water from the animals they had to care of as one of the many school duties they already had. Despite how disgusting he would have found that choice in different occasions, that day he could only focus on catching as many glimpses as possible of that short girl, standing near to a big tree and tightening her blue hair in a little cute ponytail.
She has always been Jenrya Lee's and Ruki Makino's daughter, incredible, Kou slightly opened his jaw, ingesting a bit of that brackish water. He coughed in response but his train of thoughts kept on getting its engine fueled; he remembered about the peeved woman scolding Itsuki at the Matsuda Bakery and Takato calling her Ruki. Since he did know Itsuki's surname thanks to her rivalry with Naomi, he just connected the dots and understood who her father was. Of course, Lee was a pretty common surname in Tokyo and in Japan; her father could be a perfect stranger, but he was so sure it wasn't the case.
Even if it's a surprise, a big surprise. Who would have ever imagined…, He mulled over before enlarging his eyes in a very comical way. And-And that Viximon was Renamon, then?! Why have I realized it just now?! I've been so close to Renamon!
The excitement strangely made a nagging hiccup replace his cough. Oh no, He could only tell himself, as his body went up and down mercilessly, making him feel the useless need to cover his mouth with both hands.
"Are ya'kay?" Itsuki hopped to his direction, making him feel even worse than what he was really feeling and making him fall on the ground.
Somehow.
"Ya sound like ya need a rigmarole! I just've to find one that isn't in Chinese and then ya'll repeat it. Kay?" Itsuki chirped enthusiastically, her black skirt and ponytail following the pirouette she soon performed. "What a pity! I can't find any good one in japanese! That's Mako-Chan's fault: he always makes me lose my composure due to his buggy head!"
He did want to laugh at the exagerrated reactions projecting on her kind features, but, when his hiccups finally subsided, he could only mutter that question that had been asking him for freedom since he had recognized Itsuki.
"Lee, don't you remember about me?"
"Eh? Ya know my name? But I don't know yours, that's weird, very weird," She brought a long sleeve near to her ear, as if she believed that gesture would help her memory.
"Sure I do. I've been watching every ice skating tournament you were involved in for a while!" Kou grinned, scratching his light bristly hair when Itsuki literally beamed at him.
"I'm…I was…A thriend of Nao's. Not her best thriend! No, no! Just a thriend who…"
"Who?"
"Who just wanted to support her wholeheartedly for his whole lithe like a true thriend would," He wasn't good at hiding the thunderstorm roaring in his chest, but he still attempted to do that by pretending some pebbles were the most interesting thing in the world. "By the way, I think you are very talented, just like her."
"Do ya think so?" Itsuki's happiness warmed his heart. The girl couldn't hold her joy back; she seemed to wish she had been allowed to jump through the whole school like a rabbit…She did remind him of a bunny, if he had to be honest, with that lovely and lively attitude of hers, with that tiny ponytail looking like a rabbit's tail.
Now, did he have to carry that unexpected conversation on, by admitting he also had assisted to that mission of theirs, during which Nao and her were going to be mauled by that other blonde girl's Digimon? Or would it have been better to shut up?
Yet I'm not good at shutting up, He hurt his tongue with his teeth. What if Lee Itsuki turned out to be a disappointment like Mako?
"What is it?" Itsuki bended her head at him, weakly frowning at the ring of the bell. She reached out and invited him to grab her sleeve to stand up (he had really remained on the ground throughout their whole chat!).
Kou was reluctant, the fear to be too heavy for this petite girl was too big and he didn't absolutely want to make a spectacle of himself, fall again and begin rolling on himself like always. It was such a too pessimistic scenario, but Kou didn't consider it too fanciful as it played in his mind.
"Ah, Lee, I think I can theel a bit of healthy cold coming from down here. So I want to stay here for a little while," He was dying inside after having lied to her in such an embarassing way.
"And what'bout school?" She obviously asked, pointing at the big door leading to a welcoming corridor.
"Figuriamoci! School isn't my priority when it comes to my body being about to melt like an ice-cream…A fior di latte ice-cream to be precise," He swore he had just heard a groaning in his belly and almost cried at the memory of his skipped lunch. "There. My stomach missing food, the joy of my lithe. Grandpa had prepared meatballs for me. Meatballs! The only good thing the old man can do!"
"I'll tell ya what! Let's meet after school and let's go somewhe' good to eat. I do know the perfect place," Itsuki couldn't suppress her genuine laughter at his nonsense rambling. "I do have the feelin' ya want to talk to me 'bout somethin' else. New friends are always welcome! Always!"
She gave him the most luminous smile he had ever seen and stared at her dashing inside from the bizzarre perspective his position was making him observe his surroundings from.
"My meatballs…My poor polpette".
XXX
Fliddering with his clumsy fingers, he hoped his geometry teacher wouldn't cross that same corridor before Itsuki. If it happened, it would be a big disaster as he would have to bid farewell to his snack time with Itsuki.
"Who cares about geometry when your stomach is inhospitable like the North Pole due to how mad it is at you?!"
"Here ya are!" A jovial voice came from behind him and he got scared even if he knew who it belonged to
"You really came," He whispered, revealing the doubts he had been growing in his heart while he was waiting.
"Sure I've! Ya silly, why shouldn't I've?" He waited for her to put on what looked like a pair of roller shoes that finally gave colour to the black uniform she had to wear. "I'm a little late coz I've been lookin' for Yang-Chan. Today he's nowhe' to be found and I'm worried. His pencilcase was on his desk tho'."
Kou's expression rapidly darkened, his world grew gloomy around him because guilt had trapped his stained soul and was making his throat close up.
…
"Bu, bu, isn't that a yokai floating behind you? Is it going to take your life, kid? "
"It might be a warning, be careful. It could come back and absorb your life energy while you're
"Boo! Have you forgot he can summon yokai?"
"And what if he's a disguised yokai? Shouldn't we start haunting him and his dead thriends and chasing them out of here? Boo boo boo!"
…
"Hey, ya! Are ya sleepin' standin' up like a horse?" Itsuki's joke meddled in the sea of laughters his recollections were dominated by. "What is it?"
"Nothing! Nothing! I just think a lot! I live in my brain too much, that's it!"
Still it didn't matter how much he was waving his hands in defense: Itsuki could perceive when people would lie to her.
"And we're at two," She trotted to the stairs, still keeping her playful mood high.
"Two?"
"Yes two. Two facts ya've denied that are botherin' ya. But moumantai, ya'll tell me' bout them soon. Oh right, ya didn't tell me what your name is!"
Kou acted like he would always do whenever someone asked him about his name: he specified he didn't want to be called by his full name. He would never give a reason behind it. Therefore he was glad Itsuki hadn't expressed any hint of skepticism at his official introduction.
In truth, he was glad he had been able to randomly meet Itsuki in general: she was absolutely delightful, a ray of Sun, a dreidel, one of those he would love playing with when he was a toddler.
He loved talking to her for the whole afternoon.
Nevertheless he was so afraid that dream would become a nightmare soon. After all, he used to have a very positive opinion about Mako too.
"So, are ya ready?" She started out of blue, making him a bit startled since he was too focused on looking at the pidgeons strolling around Shinjuku just like them.
"What are you talking about?"
"Oh ya know, please!" She chuckled, bringing her arms behind her back. "Ya've promised me ya'd tell me' bout what's goin' on."
"But I haven't promised anything!" Had he? Hadn't he? He wasn't that convinced anymore, maybe.
"Oh, it's not important! Promise or no promise, ya're already my friend and I can feel ya're sad becoz those two taboos of yours have been pushin' ya down," She jigged in front of him, slowening his pace down and walking backwards with that immortal smile of hers. "Ya can tell me everything'. I'm not like Mako-Chan: I won't fight or insult ya."
Kou's dark- honey-coloured eyes filled with hype because that affectionate sincerity had been one of the best elements of that grey day.
It wasn't going to hurt to finally unleash the real Kou probably.
It wasn't, right? Could he finally be himself that day and enjoy that almost holy moment?
"Really?! Everything everything?!" He shouted with thrill, holding Itsuki's sleeves and making her sweat drop, as that had been an abrupt change of mood for sure.
"Everthin', everythin' becoz we're friends."
"Oh Heavens, oh Heavens," He marched on the spot, his cheeks getting flushed like cherries. "Then I choose Taboo number one oth course, and-and…Do you remember that day Naomi and you were kneeled in the park, below a tree and you were like dying there because in the previous tournament you had fallen very badly?"
"I guess," She pouted because she was still sensitive at that memory.
"And do you remember the big Digimon that was going to eat you all like a tray of cupcakes? It's a long story, but just know there was this blonde girl who looked like an angel and who had lost her Digimon and, ehm, her Digimon was something like a zombie…I'm shuddering, brrrr…We went looking for this zombie Digimon and she used a glowing whip to make it sthri-sthri-shrink! It became a ball of fur and Nao thed it. Instead the angelic-looking girl who was called Ran didn't let me theed it and I was sad because you don't theed a Digimon everyday. And then there were Mako and… Wen and the Mihoshi detective girl-"
"Woah, woah, moumantai, ya're going to derail," Itsuki was amazed by the train the boy had become in the span of a single minute, babbling about some kind of dream he had and that he was mixing with what had happened to her for real. "Ya've mentioned an angelic girl…Usin' a whip to tame a zombie Digimon?"
"Yes, yes! She looked like a true angel on Earth: you know, blue eyes, blonde hair, fair skin. She only lacked wings!" And he really decided to mimick a flying bird to highlight his description.
"Fine…And a detective girl?" That sounded so weird to her she couldn't spell those words at a normal speed.
"Yes, she was wearing a long jacket and she had a black Gatomon! A Gatomon like Kari's but all black like a panther. She stepped on Mako's foot and Wen grabbed her throm behind like if she was a cat! But why are you looking at me like Nao would do whenever I talked about Digimon existing?"
"No, no," Itsuki shook her head as if she was waking up from a long trance. "I feel like I passed out for too long? I was in a very dizzy state."
"Yes, you did! You missed so much! The angelic girl…! You missed her action moment! She looked like a themale version of San Michele Arcangelo thighting against the dragon!"
"I might've thought I had died, so it's better if I didn't see her…" Itsuki was doing her best at concealing the irritation that tale was giving her. Makoto had never told her about this?! Why?! It wasn't a surprise Yang hadn't, but Mako?
"And I saw your Digimon too. It's a walking gown, right?" Kou added, being on the verge of sweating because of the heat of the moment and the elevate temperature of that early afternoon.
"Do ya mean Lunamon?" Itsuki streched her arm and waited for…
Something. Something white and pink.
It made Kou cry out, prey of different emotions. He pointed at the creature which had just jumped off the tree in order to land on Itsuki's arm. He goofily retreated, his shaking finger still in the air and his so-called infallibe sixth sense unable to tell him where he was going.
He had probably managed to behave composedly for too long and now he had to obey to Fate's favourite game by keeping on walking like that, getting faster and faster, and ruinously falling backwards after having hit a metallic banner.
He had showed Itsuki one of his breathtaking flips, at least.
"That was my somersault," He tried saying, but his voice sounded like a weak breeze. "Oh no, please… "
Itsuki skated next to him and gasped at the sight of the broken banner too.
"I'm so sorry! Così tanto! Kou sniffed, really desperate because of the trouble he would always give birth to. "It's just that the gown has appeared all oth a sudden on your arm and my mind was like, Wooah, what has that just been?!, And I-I-I. Lee?"
He looked for the girl ,convincing himself she had left him alone (fairly, in his opinion) due to his awkwardness.
"Is this the moment she will tell me I'm a fat, clumsy, coward, noisy -I don't know- beaver?"
Yet an immense relief was poured in his heart at the sight of Itsuki kneeling near to a big vase, her Digimon holding some objects in its puffy paws. Kou agitated his fists in the air with excitement, and crawled to her.
Yes, the ground was really dirty, but he couldn't push his luck too forward and risk falling like a salami again.
"Your briefcase has opened itself," Itsuki announced, her back facing him as she was collecting some other belongings of his.
"This is yours," Lunamon followed handing a bunch of pens to him , and Kou grew disorientated about how he had to act in front of the creature. Why did he feel so differently from how he had, back when they had experienced that little adventure with the digital furret? Could it depend from the clever eyes this Digimon was showing to have?
"Thank you," He gave it a forced grin, before patting Itsuki's shoulder so he could take care of his own mess by himself. As if he would have let her throw out her back! "Ah Lee, don't worry about it."
She didn't reply him, though; she was so attracted by something she had totally forgot she was making her skirt cover itself with dust and soot.
"Is this what Mako-Chan was lookin' for?" She asked after some seconds and rapidly turned, accidentally pushing Kou's chest with the big tome she was holding. "Is this the book ya brought to school coz' of him?"
"Yeah, yeah, it is, but it doesn't really matter…"
"Can I take a quick look? Can I?" She insisted, big amethysts pleading him with expectation.
Probably Makoto has precisely told her about it?, Kou wondered, nodding at her and noticing how she was opening the volume choosing a random central page.
"Lee, if I may," He put a hand on her sleeve pushing her to look at him, puzzled. "Those are the pages about Takato and Juri. Jenrya Lee is the focus of the first thithtyeight pages. Takato's and Juri's story starts from page 59; then from, hm approximately, page 96 there are many pages that are dedicated to Ruki Makino; I think they are sixtythree! There is a section that's also dedicated to the so-called minor Tamers, you know, Hirokazu Shiota, Kenta Kitagawa, there's also something about Shaochung, who…Wait! She's your aunt!"
There was no need for him to press both his hands against his mouth, but he felt deeply embarassed out of blue. Only at that moment it occured to him that street was luckily completely Kou isolated.
"Wow, so many pages about Daddy and Mummy?" Itsuki laughed, devouring the pages about her father and his Digimon. The digital white creature cautiously joined her fast reading, its big ears occasionally moving to create a little gust of wind to fight against the heat. "There's so much'bout them!" Itsuki exclaimed in awe, finding not smiling hard. "Here they say Daddy was a balance for the team. He is the kind member, the wise one, while Terriermon was the goofiest and funniest Digimon. Are ya surprised, Lunamon?"
He found her laughter infectious and able to help him relax a bit, even if his cheeks were still burning evidently. He couldn't help changing his position over and over again as she joked with her Lunamon (finally he knew that Digimon's name!) and turned the pages with fascination.
In the school yard he had lied to her: he had never thought she was that brilliant at ice skating; indeed, sometimes he had also cheered when she failed, as it could only mean Nao would win and occupy her deserved first place.
Still, could he have ever imagined that girl constantly losing to Nao and always falling on the ice hid that nature? People were so much more than what the eye would meet on the surface, a lesson he knew well but apparently struggled to apply in his life.
"Ah, ah, Lee," He gulped, when he noticed she had stopped for a moment. "Do not pay attention to those horrifying doodles, please. When I was a kid, I would use pens on whatever surface I would thind. I also coloured a drawer my mother loves very much, and she's still pissed at me…Whenever she enters the living room, she will glare at the green mark I left on it. I liked green a lot and I would use it in my drawings so many times".
"So ya can draw just like Uncle Takato!"
"No! No! No!" Now his face was really going through a serious fire that was extending to his ears too. "I mean, it's cute you call him Uncle Takato, very cute, yes. But no! I don't like drawing! It's boring! I'll only draw for Nao's tournaments," Despite how painful it was for him to remember about Naomi, he couldn't keep himself from grinning with affection at the recollection of the effort he had put in some presents. "You know, Naomi likes pandas. Yeah, did you know that? When we were kids and I came here she would wear this panda-like jumper. And I had one that looked like a bear instead, because she would often say I reminded her of a bear. It made me think we could be best friends forever even if we were animals. But this isn't the point! It isn't! Forgive me! I just wanted to say I drew a panda for her to cheer her during the last tournament, that's it…" There was it: sadness creeping through the chords of his heart and making him lower his head just like his gab. "I also drew a bonsai for-for a tournament of hers. And I dislike bonsai because she has a big garden that's thull of them, and they make me theel like they are soldiers staring at me! Nevertheless I thought she would be happy to have a bonsai as a mascot for once."
"Aren't ya the sweetest person out the'?"Itsuki commented, clasping her long sleeves in admiration and delight along with Lunamon, which mimicked her precise movements. "Y're such a good person. I'm so glad I saved ya from Mako-Chan! People're always a big treasure when ya get to know'em! I could've never imagined this day would be like this!"
Kou listened to those words carefully, feeling them penetrating in his body like pointed pencils being thrown at him.
If only she knew what a big lie I am, he sighed, scratching his plaster that had started bothering him greatly now, since its pressure wasn't the only one he was coping with at the moment.
"I guess it's time for taboo number two," He sighed even more heavily, hearing Itsuki's hands and knees slipping next to him.
"And I promise I won't judge," She kissed her two indexes and spurred Lunamon to do the same.
"Okay then…It will be the thirst confession I will make while sitting on a street. Okay…"
Rasing his head at the sky, he attempted to find a support from there so he could be sincere to her, just like she had revealed herself to be throughout the whole day.
To think…, He shut his eyes with disgust. I told Mako about it as if I wanted to boast about my ashaming actions. I suck so hard. And why did I shout at Makoto he doesn't have a golden heart like his father? I don't have either! I just have a heart that's stained by ink. It's black, it probably stinks too. I'm even worse than Mako and I would really feel so horrible if I met Takato right now!
He let himself relax a bit, looking down at Itsuki who was holding something that looked like a remote control in her hands.
"It's buzzin'," She calmy highlighted, not flinching even once at the increasing noise coming from that device. "Maybe there's no connection here."
She abruptly jumped on her rollers, Lunamon on her shoulder, and began spinning on herself., raising her arm in the process.
"Why can't I hear anythin'?!" She frowned, bringing the device to her ear and growing concerned just like Kou.
"Okay, what's happening here?" He fliddered with his fingers expressing his nervousness, which had taken shape from his tingling sixth sense. Bye bye to my confession, he mocked himself.
"I think Daddy is tryin' tellin' me somethin'. But I can't hear what he's sayin'!" She sounded a bit scared now and Kou's sixth sense' alarm was getting louder.
"And, if I can ask, what kind of somethin' could he want to inform you of ?" He persisted, his voice shaking like an autumnal leaf.
I dunno! It should be 'bout a Digimon bein'bout to appear! A Digitear, maybe!"
"But I can't feel anything," Lunamon sniffed the air, closing its eyes to concentrate more.
"I have got another question…" Kou's teeth were chattering and he didn't know how to put an end to that reaction. "Can it be that it's going to be a cute Digimon like-like-like Lunamon, for example" And he did hug the digital rabbit, pressing it against his cheek with unstable hands. "Or a cute Digi-Tear? Whatever it is!"
"Nah, Daddy would've never called us through the radiotransmitter in that case; it must be big and fiery."
"Big and thiery," Kou bit his nails, shocking Lunamon as it had never seen a human causing pain to himself. "Big. And thiery. And tell me…The last question of all!" He leaned against Itsuki's petite shoulder, still trembling. "Do you happen to own a fluorescent whip to tame this big and thiery Digimon?"
They shared an inquisitive glance: Itsuki didn't really know what he was talking about.
Nevertheless it didn't matter as the next thing they knew was that they found themselves enwrapped in a hug. Lunamon got stuck between their chests, not letting them press against each other in the protective embrace Kou wanted that one to look like; obviously he didn't want to admit to himself he was hugging her to be protected, in truth.
"D-D-Did you hear that noise?!"
"Sure I did!"
"How bad was it? Bad or bad bad?"
He encircled her body using even more strength from his arms because that rustling noise was keeping on going and getting closer and closer.
Itsuki wished she could take her googles from her backpack, which would have been so useful in that situation.
Fortunately -or unfortunately, it depended from the point of view- the silhouette marching towards them finally showed up in the horizon along with what looked like a cloud of sand or dust. That figure was blatantly very mad at them: it was enough to focus on the way he was running like a deranged bull missing its herd to understand it.
"Mako-Chan?!" Itsuki almost yelped.
Kou could only blink ,instead, his sixth sense going insane now.
Mako was groaning like always, and it seemed he wanted to pounce onto him.
"Mako-Chan!" Itsuki repeated, daring to skate to him, but he incredibly ignored her, throwing his radiotransmitter away, in the grip of what seemed an excess of rage and jelousy, perhaps.
Actually he didn't waste time before sending Kou to the ground with an impudent shove. If only Kou hadn't been too confused by the row of bizzarre events, he wouldn't have let him win that easily.
"Mako-Chan, y're out of yourself!"
It was necessary to shout at him for a lot of times since he was already straddling Kou.
"Ok now…Is this because of the book?" Kou attempted to keep his calm even if at the same time every inch of his body was asking for a sensible flee option. "If you want the book, it's there! Look! Take it, bring it to home, read it, underline your favourite parts…I don't know what else to add, but pretend it's yours! Yeah, yeah, now let's stand up from here, shall we?" He was even caressing Mako's hand to persuade him to get off him, before some passer-by spotted them like that.
And before I piss my pants, Kou rectified, kinda abashed.
"Here, Mako-Chan," Itsuki indignantly grabbed the tome, looking forward to when Mako would stand up so she could slap him. She would have also liked to look for the radiotransmitter, although hers wasn't emitting any sound anymore. Moreover, where was Spadamon? "Now get off Kou, I beg ya! He's terrorized!"
"Kou?!" Mako barked at her, out of his mind.
"Kou?!"
"Yeah, he asked me to call him that. So what, Mako-Chan?!
Mako stared at Kou again: it was like if he wanted to gobble him up, but was refraining himself from doing that because his dear Itsuki was near to them.
Then Kou could swear on what he cared about the most he saw him smirking for a second. His sixth sense exploded, his heart was about to reach his throat and his hands were beginning to tingle because of how sweaty they had become.
It didn't have to happen like this.
It wasn't fair.
Just now that…
"Tell me, Itsuki-Chan, why would someone so kind and considerate like ya talk to a bully?" Mako never looked away in the meanwhile: he was just so eager to watch Kou falling into pieces.
"What are ya talkin' about?! Didn't ya want this book?!"
"I'm talking about you having passed the whole day with a fat bully like him!" He put both his hands on Kou's chest to make him feel the weight of the situation even more. Kou did give his best to free himself from Mako's grip, bur he only succeeded at retreating for some centimeter. "How could you talk to someone who has bullied your innocent Yang-Chan for a year? Once he threw a ball off the window and he made his nose bleed".
"And I took Yang-Chan to the infirmary that day…"
Kou felt his heart breaking while noticing Itsuki's soft features collapsing to a demoralizing disappointment. She was even going to drop the volume, but she managed to hold it, bringing it to her clevage.
"Lee, there's nothing to explain…" Kou sniffed, staring at the sky again to finally ask it to cease courage to him. "I was going to tell you before Mako came. I was also going to talk about this when you mentioned Wen for the first time, but…I knew you would have fairly chased me away, if we had started our conversation like that. So I decided to paint my face with lies. When we met, you said you couldn't thind Wen and ,well,…Oh? It's raining?"
Licking a finger, he couldn't detect the bitterish taste of rain; his nostrils couldn't inhale that smell he adored so much either -and it wasn't due to his plaster-.
Furthermore ,without understanding what was exactly happening, he could finally feel Mako's pounds letting him finally breath properly.
His hair was feeling so wet…And sticky? His ears too.
Kou sat up and firstly looked at Itsuki and Mako's horrified expressions. Secondly he lowered his gaze and boggled.
"What in the world is this?!
"Oh cazzo?! What the fuck?!" Kou let himself be scurrilous, tripping on his sneakers and the slippery surface. He didn't absolutely like realizing some kind of tornado was being brought to life around him.
"Mako-Chan! Where is Spadamon?!" Itsuki grabbed Mako's gakuran's collar and shook him with agitation. Kou was being surrounded by the Digi-Tear and was disappearing in it.
"I left it at home. I have been with Atsuko the whole day. She doesn't know anything about Spadamon and company! Scoffing Spadamon in front of her face wouldn't have been a great idea. Suspicious, don't you think?!" Mako yelled at her, only being able to care he wasn't the one in Kou's situation now.
They couldn't already hear and see him anymore: Digitears didn't have any mercy for their ingenuous prey. They would swallow whatever they found in their path, becoming faster and faster and starting teleporting according to who knew what kind of rules.
They still were such a huge mystery.
"That was what Daddy was tryin' to tell us!"
Itsuki frantically kneeled to open her backpack and finally wear her special googles: Digitears could be mysteries, but a person getting into one of them was what her father would call Code Breakdown .
"What do you think you're doing?! Do you want to risk to end up in Digiworld with a defective radiotransmitter in your hands?!"
Itsuki avoided his touch for Mako's dismay. The smile she gave him didn't reassure him at all. Indeed, it made him feel even worse, knowing it was possible she could fail at that improvised mission .
And she was mad at him. They were going to leave each other like that.
"It-Chan, I'm sorry. If only I-" Mako brought himself to say but her sleeve flapping in the wind interrputed him.
"Trust me and Lunamon-Chan for once! If ya start like this, then y're already considerin' us doomed."
"I…I."
"See ya soon, Mako-Chan".
Mako's hand closed itself in the nothingness, as if he would have liked to take her back with that mere gesture.
At his feet, that cursed book lied, undisturbed, and his curiosity won over him again.
Maybe it could have also helped him keep the tension down, he reasoned.
Staring at the deep circle the Digitear was keeping on turning into wasn't going to be useful, after all.
XXX
Itsuki fell and tried keeping a standing position, her arms splayed and Lunamon hanging onto her sailor uniform's top.
"What is this!?" She held her googles, pushing then down on her orbs and opening her jaw at the results showing up on its red lens: she couldn't read any information and data about that specific Digitear somehow; the letters appeared blurred and even faded, almost like if they were following the pace of that strong wind blowing.
"The wind seems to get stronger the deeper we go!" Lunamon highlighted, pointing its paw at some objects being carried to their direction by the wind, but falling to the bottom of the chasm again, since the power of the wind wasn't that strong enough to carry on that task.
Cans, shoes, napkins and so much other stuff almost collided against the duo's trajectory.
"Be careful!" Lunamon promptly created a shelter to change the direction of a…
Night light?
"Thank ya very much, Lunamon-Chan. It's not like I can control my body while fallin'. It's like if we are performin' an endless ice skatin' jump! I've never seen somethin' like this!"
"I do hope we aren't directly fallin' to Digiworld, tho'!" Lunamon expressed a fear Itsuki was incubating too.
If Kou had ended up in Digiworld without her, without any support…
However the digital googles ring sounded like a bless to both: it was announcing them they were going to hit the ground. That meant they weren't going to land in Digiworld, because Itsuki could clearly see the blue pattern of her flight continuing extending until the end.
Lunamon raised its short paws again and generated another pink shelter of its to cushion the impact. However it was too hard for it to manage to make a shelter that was as soft as a bubble because of the surrounding environment. Therefore Itsuki's legs couldn't bear the power of the collision and the girl literally flew ta a corner of that tunnel.
"It-Chan, It-Chan, wake up!" Lunamon almost passed out at the realization of what it had done.
Fortunately Itsuki was fine; she was only coping with that impetuous bora not letting her raise her head.
"What's up with this Digitear?!" She hugged Lunamon tightly, a long and swallow wave wetting her face. She couldn't think she could get out of there keeping that position. It had worked with a Digi-Tear that was full of some smoke Hypnos was still analyzing, but that one was much different than any one she had ever been into: there was an atsmophere permeating it that was incredibly overwhelming.
Forcing her orbs to stay opened, she inspected that space: waves that seemed to get speed as the time passed by, the wind getting heavier and faster, Kou melting perfectly with that ruckus thanks to the earthquake his body was looking like.
"Kou!" Itsuki greeted her teeth to stand up, but the first time she didn't even succeed at sustaning her body with her arms. "Kou!" She tried again, even more determined as she spotted a table being about to hit him but miracolously being pushed away. "Lunamon-Chan, why don't we try advancin' with your shelters?" She saw Lunamon touching its medallion with apprehension and quickly figured out her friend's mood. "I know y're still thinkin' about the landin', but now we do need a very solid shelter. As solid as a stone!"
Itsuki's violet digivice coloured the picturesque background with a bright purple, gently engulfing her Lunamon and making her instinctively free the digital Digimon from her arm.
"Lunamon-Chan, could it be…" Itsuki was marveled by what was happening to her companion, which shifted shape before her own eyes, getting taller and more graceful, growing muscles and obtaining what looked like weapons.
Itsuki and the new Crescemon stared at each other in silence: Itsuki with her jaw opening more and more, Crescemon infusing gratitude and trust into her from the helmet it was wearing now.
Itsuki nodded, near to getting moved, and let the humanoid hare grab her hand and lead her to Kou.
Crescemon was equipped with a real shelter that could also cut the higher waves along with the sword it held. It was also wearing iron boots, firmly making their heels plunge in the fluid ground.
Itsuki couldn't help but cry when she reached a Kou who was desperately sheedding tears as well, his hands on his shut spheres and his chubby cheeks, stained of a bright red mixing with his lucid weeping.
"I just wanted to follow legends and get to know more and more about them…I didn't want to be involved in their story!"
"Kou! It's me, please. Open your eyes!" She used her sleeves to make him look at her, and that's what happened: he finally revealed his terrorized features, his snuffling nose whose plaster was about to fly away, his messy hair looking like an attacked nest.
"Please, Itsuki, take me back to Grandpa. I miss him very much, please. I don't care if he scolded me this morning. I don't anymore…I'm also hungry, very hungry. I want to eat Grandpa's dinner and only his!"
He had used her name for the first time, she realized, while he held her in the middle of a hiccup crisis. She felt a noticeable tremor in his belly and Itsuki already knew what had caused that.
"See? Lunamon-Chan has digievolved!" She exclaimed, patting his scared back and turning to admire her beautiful Digimon fighting against the waves and wind.
"I don't know that Digimon," Kou slowly parted from her, still keeping his hands on her shoulders. "I didn't know Lunamon either, thou-"
Both the children spatted that waterish substance , disgusted, moving their fingers and head to check what had been the consequences of that wave hitting them.
"Aren't the waves getting higher or is just me?" Kou wiped his tears and higlighted alarmed, before another wave overcame them and completely soaked their clothes.
"Crescemon-Chan, what's happenin'?" Itsuki's voice continued its war against the more and more vigorous wind, holding her little ponytail. Her Digimon was actually facing waves that were much higher than before.
"It almost looks like a tsunami is coming," Kou dared to hypothesize, preparing himself to another wave crashing against them. "My grandfather claims to be an expert about the sea, and he would scare me about tsunami as a kid. The pattern he described is very similar to what is occurring here."
"A tsunami?! This isn't funny, though! We need to come back home!"
Kou sat still, mortified: he never understood when it was necessary to shut up. He held his breath at the nth impact with a wave carrying a round table along with it.
"Imagine if we could surth on these monsters like professionals," He grinned, persevering in letting his tongue run wild and quickly regretting having done so. It was nice that trouble had made them neglect the argument they were surely going to have up there.
She was such a nice person. The perfect mix you would expect coming from two heroes like Ruki Makino and Jenrya Lee.
And he was soon going to lose her.
…
"This is the price you have to pay to stay in their group and have thriends. It's better to have fake thriends than being all alone, isn't it right? "
"Kou, y're a genius. I think. Maybe Google Vision's map can be interpreted without the need of infos." He heard Itsuki saying. She was wearing the signature googles Tamers are known to always wear. Hers' lens were red though; she looked like some kind of bug.
Kou, you're not nice!, He panicked and approached her, ingesting that substance again.
"Yes! It worked! Google vision says that the third tunnel on the left will lead us to a manhole that is near to Uncle Takato's bakery."
Kou shivered, "Is that far from where we were?"
"No, it's exactly where we were, ya silly. Do ya remember the banner ya destroyed? It was Uncle Takato's and Aunt Juri's special Guilmon bread announcement."
"Tell me you're joking," He felt like choking at that news, curses against his sense of direction crowding his mind. And he had also been there during that mission! He had also eaten there! How was it he couldn't recognize it from its external appearance?
"Crescemon-Chan!" Itsuki called her Digimon that wasn't soaked from head to toe thanks to its exceptional jumps. "I know ya can't obviously walk on the water, but can ya take us surfin' ?"
Hesitation and deep confusion dominated its muzzle. Seeing Itsuki forcing Kou to lie on the wide round table didn't help.
Nevertheless Itsuki knew it was a matter of istinct: when Crescemon could perceive a wave coming from behind them, it hastily put its weapons in its belt and jumped, lifting the whole table high in the Digi-Tear to tame the wave's height with grace.
"Dio santissimo, the table will break because of me!" Kou shouted during the brief flight and only calmed down when Itsuki encircled his back with her slender arm, gesture he exchanged with gratefulness.
"It's like bein' on a rollercoaster, isn't it?" Itsuki laughed, while he could just hang onto the table's edge with a hand.
"Itsuki, I like going on the caterpillar-like merry-go-round," He was almost whispering because of his tremendous fear. "It goes slowly, very slowly and it's on the ground. , Mami would still hug me, though..."
"I think Daddy and ya could get along then!"
The level of the liquid around them was slowly rising, while the wave they were on and other ones following it were slowly shortening and flattening, as if they were mixing with it.
"We're enterin' the third tunnel," Itsuki turned to Crescemon and pointed at a fork-shaped route that was made of three other tunnels.
Observing them, Kou understood he was going to swim after years and he wasn't sure he liked that discovery.
"Ehm, Itsuki, I-"
"Be ready! Our waterpark adventure's going to end soon!"
He felt himself being lifted by Crescemon and sweated profusely, making Itsuki laugh even more, "No, No! I'm too heavy for you! You'll break your back! Please no!"
But it was too late: a long jump and he felt like…Like…A guinea pig puffing his cheeks while drowning and letting their elementary cosciousness hopefully drift away to some peaceful shore.
Guinea pigs can't swim, He thought before darkness gave him solace for some time.
Slumber was what he needed the most at that time, even if it would make him mix fantasy with reality.
Sweet dreams.
But who knows if he ever woke up for real after that day or if that tunnel was leading him to an endless slumber.
XXX
A relieved squeal broke the dimension he had swum in for a while, making the water that was contained in that asphyxiant yet muffled aquarium overflow with impetus.
"Koukou, y're awake!"
That jovial chirping convinced him to try returning to the real world. However It resulted to be pretty hard , because his eyelids seemed to want to linger in that cradling situation for much longer. His senses were completely turned on, though.
He could feel a weight heavily yet gently sitting next to him, interweaving their hands patiently and…Waiting.
"Itsuki, you are the only one who can find such weirdos," A bored voice he had never heard before joined that reassuring silence. "What have you done to this boy?"
"He's not a weirdo! He's a friend!"
What he knew that was Itsuki's sleeve touching his shoulder encouraged him to try again defeating the drowsiness of his mind, and the first thing he could think of once he had returned among those who were alive was to roll on his side and…
Fall.
"What a news," He expressed his sarcasm to a pair of pretty huge slippers that were pointed at him.
"The beauty of those who will always fall is that they will be prepared to stand up again. After all, they wouldn't fall again if they didn't stand up in the first place, isn't it right?"
Kou began slightly sweating at the reaction his sixth sense had immediately got, as if they already knew the source of that opinion. He preferred gulping in that uncomfortable pose and feel his shoulders grow weaker and weaker, close to making his head drop on the clean tiled floor.
"You know, in the case you haven't understood it, it was an invitation to stand up."
Trembling, he looked up at this girl sporting fluffy low pigtails and squaring him from head to toe, impassive.
"You are right," He sheepishly grinned, turning purple and becoming aware of the three people creating a circle around him: Itsuki, the apathetic girl and -he couldn't ignore him anymore while scanning his surroundings- a cheerful man sincerely smiling at him.
He swallowed his saliva again, memories about a day spent in the same bakery flooded him, an afternoon during which he had repeatedly shaken his idex around, completely taken over by craziness.
He hadn't talked to him back then: the excitement had grown too huge for him to stop running around the bakery and shouting like some kind of fangirl.
"C'mon, Koukou, take my hand," Itsuki bended her knees and extended her arm for the nth time that day. Now he didn't put limits to the admiration he had cultivated about that girl, and let his hand fondle to her sleeve so he could come back on his legs.
He curiously gave a glance to her arms, looking for Lunamon, but Itsuki kept him from opening his mouth. Instead hers approached his warm ear.
"Lunamon-Chan has de-digievolved because digievolution will wear it out whenever it happens. It's sleepin' outside." She explained, "It was its first time it digievolved at that stadium. I was so excited and scared too, but Daddy called me and he was so proud of us as a team! He wasn't proud about the radiotransmitters tho'! We three could have ended up in the Digi-Tear together without noticin'!"
Despite not knowing why she was whispering, Kou felt a surge of affection canalizing in that tiny girl. He didn't need to experience their adventure in his brain again to recognize how amazed he was because of her.
Because of whatever shade her being was made of.
"Grazie! Grazie! You are really the kindest, the bravest, the best, the-" He was too moved to continue and dived in a hug that was drenched in heartwarming sensations. "I mean, you're truly the daughter of Jenrya Lee's and Ruki Makino's. Too cute. The little- in every sense of the word- sister I've never had, ah!"
He brushed his cheek on Itsuki's head, thinking about how amazing Lunamon had been too. He was a bit disappointed by how afraid he had become during his first contact with the Digimon, but he wouldn't have been Kou if he hadn't been so coward.
Something humid poked on his backside all of a sudden, and his wince became even more blatant.
"Guilmon wants cuddles too. Guilmon wants cuddles too."
He was about to jump on a table when the digital red dragon sniffed his pants with its wet nostrils. Luckily Itsuki kept him in his place, tying her whole body around his soft waist.
"Guilmon loves having new guests," Takato finally approached them, making Kou's heart skip a beat or two.
The man patted on the Digimon's head as it examined Kou with his senses and wagged happily, in contrast to Kou's spirits.
"Uncle Takato! Koukou knows everythin' about the Digimon Tamers," Itsuki grinned, dragging him to her side more and more showing a strength he didn't imagine she would have.
"Koukou?" The boy fought against the nausea feeling that had started nagging him.
"Yes, Koukou becoz ya don't only seem to stumble while walkin' but also while talkin'. It's part of ya."
Kou blushed heavily at the unknown girl laughing hard because of Itsuki's lesson about his new nickname.
Still it didn't help make him feel better. Indeed, she had made that will to escape even more unbearable now.
"He has got a book'bout Mummy and Daddy, and ya and Aunt Juri and Auntie Shaochung," Itsuki continued, excited to talk about her new friend.
"Oh then I think I know what kind of book Mako was reading before running to his bedroom. He did look upset somehow," Takato brought a finger to his temple and stood up to take the big volume that had sent them in trouble. "I had seen right: he was really staring at the photo my class took when we were in our second year of middle school. It's incredible Juri and me have got a few photos of our childhood, while these writers will manage to find whatever they want for their novels." He gave the volume back to Kou and brought himself to mess with his hair a bit. "It does endear me to see our stories being told to little ones, though. It kinda makes me think man can really get immortality somehow".
However Kou was too ashamed to talk to his hero, and ,perhaps, Itsuki was mentally remarking that behaviour of his too.
"I really have to go," He announced, pressing his burning lips. "I hope you can…Excuse me, but my grandfather is really strict about my curfew. So…"
Keeping his head low, he marched away from Itsuki and, he thought, that legendary world; from the hero of his childhood to whom he would have liked to tell so many anecdotes that had turned a pretty sad child into a cheerful one.
Even if he wasn't looking like that at the moment, though.
But a bully like him thinking about chatting and looking at that man in the eye without feeling the desire to bury himself on the spot…
"Koukou," He turned, the honey someone had poured in his eyes when he was born mixed with water. "When you want to talk to me or just visit me, the Matsuda Bakery will always be opened for you. Even if you destroy whatever banner we will expose at the entrance.
To the toddler me: If you only knew these words belonged to the hero of heroes and were adressed to me.
XXX
"Koukou!"
It had taken just a day for him to change his nickcame, hadn't it?
"Koukou-Chan!"
That surely sounded lovely yet weird at the same time.
"Koukou, come down here, c'mon! Aren't ya tired after our adventure? Sure y're!" The voice arrested itself for a while before insisting in its intent and getting a laugh for him. "Y're also carryin' such a heavy book and y're not the sportive type!"
"I'll let you think that, if you please."
He stopped next to a tree of that quite steep hill of the Shinjuku Park he had chosen to climb, instead of taking the usual quiet straight route.
"Koukou, ya've changed mood again! Irritatin'!" From there he saw Itsuki putting her sleeves on her hips, playfully peeved.
She really was her parents' daughter, he couldn't help repeating to himself again.
"Actin' like Mako-Chan! It doesn't fit ya at all, ya know?" He couldn't see that well from that distance, but it looked like she was pouting at him. "I guess that everyone's got their Mako-Chan. At-Chan's to deal with hers, I think I've got ya from today too."
His breath joined the atmosphere that warm sunset was irradiating,
"Throm today, you say?"
"Ya! From today I'll have to keep two Mako-Chan at bay. Yang-Chan's got his unbearable Mako side too! Can ya believe it? Talkin' about Mako-Chan, I wonder what is goin' on in his head.
Praying that time the sky wouldn't pull another prank on him, he slipped down the hill successfully maintaining control of his actions.
That was a first.
"Itsuki, I need to continue the story of the taboo number two. Do you remember?" He couldn't hide how hurt he was; ashamed like he had been the whole day, and now also hurt, as it had been really nice to play with some other kid after such a long time. "No, I won't let you reply this time. You never know what will happen again and again. I can't go to bed without thelling you about this. Okay, well…What Mako said was true and it didn't only apply to Wen Yang. There also was this kid from Lituania -Lituania! Have you ever heard about this country?-, who immediately got so much love from our teachers. He was a clever dude; I kinda regret having done what I did to him and never having talked to him. He could have taught me a lot of stuff from his home country. Yet Goto detested him, our team companions too and I wouldn't disagree with them when it came to telling him about scary legends concerning Tokyo. Oh, you don't want to go there because a snake will get out from there; You won't go there too if you don't want to have nightmares throughout your whole life. He eventually couldn't stand up from his desk because he was afraid of walking through our school too. Talking about Wen Yang…We don't only make his life a hell because of his appearance. We also play with his stutter too…And we-I scared him to death today, so he made a fool of himself in front of the teachers…They sent him to our psychologist as his stutter had become so bad he couldn't even start a sentence. So yeah," Now he was avoiding her violet orbs not to burst in tears of embarassment in front of her. "That's where Yang Wen has been the whole day."
A couple chatting while pushing a pram projected their shadows on the two kids: one looking down at the grass, the other who was mirroring that gesture but with his back turned.
"Poor Yang-Chan".
"Poor Wen."
They needed little to exchange a smile; light would always come from the darkness, even the most frightening one making Kou cry in the middle of the night.
"Ya know, Koukou, Daddy always says we shouldn't judge people from what they did in the past, becoz Gods gave us the future to amend our mistakes. There's always chance for redemption, especially if y're only ten."
"I'm eleven, though," Kou corrected her. "I was born in April, so-"
"Who cares, Koukou. My statement's still valid and...I'm sure ya can do it," Itsuki winked at him, petting the still asleep Moonmon snoring in her arms, the picture of innocence. "Nobody was born evil, those who are my thriends in particular. Therefo' don't think I'll abandon ya even once, 'kay? There's always a meanin' in people's meetin'!"
"Is there?" The burden he had been carrying on his shoulders for who knew how long felt less oppressive. There was nothing to be festive about: he still was the most disgusting cockroach out there, but he had accepted to believe he could change, detoxifying himself from his sins.
If there really was a chance for him to turn into a better person, then he would grasp it with both his hands.
"Then, then! Are we thriends thriends?" He tweeted, hopping around her just like she had done earlier.
"Friends friends! This means ya can also feed Lunamon sometimes! And oh! Ya should meet Terriermon."
"This is the best day ever! I'm so happy!" He beamed, bringing his hands to his heart, emotions merrily twirling in his soul.
"Still, before we all go back home," He narrowed his eyes in a kinda suspicious way. "I don't want you to have dinner and sleep depicting me as a lazy, couch potato, dormant, slacker boy. I'm quite the active type! A promising future football player like my Uncle -a striker, not a lame goalkeeper, please! I can run as fast as light!-. Behold! Kou's innate calling for football!"
Itsuki waited in a state of suspence for him to take what he was looking for from his briefcase.
But where was his briefcase?
"No, perfavore…"
Itsuki observed his shoulders sagging.
"What happened?" She passed by his side, bending her head in confusion.
"I-I," He weeped, distressed. "I've forgot my briethcase! And I don't know where!"
He lost his balance and rolled down the remaining part of the hill, until its base. Certainly he didn't smile when he violently hit a bench after having performed one of his somersaults. His plaster finally detatching itself from his hurting nose..
"He's like a hedgehog: he's full of spikes but he has a nice and funny personality under those. And he rolls too," Itsuki chuckled, skating to where he was lying and was babbling something about angels, detectives, surfers and…Food.
"Koukou, ya still need to wake up totally. But it's also true our plan was to eat somethin'. Ahw!"
But Kou had really landed in an endless dream like the other tear jumpers.
And probably that one wasn't going to be the first lunch he would skip.
…
To the me of tomorrow: Are you proud of the person you've become?
XXX
I'm satisfied with how this chapter has come out, yeah. It was a pity I had to write it all again because of my issues with the Icloud storage, but I'm more satisfied than what I was like about the original one.
Like I always say, if you liked my stories, you can come visiting me on Instagram (Jumper_Zuzu) where we have more fun with my dorks ahah !
Byeee~
