"I was scrolling through DigiPlace today," Mimi said with a sob. She sat on a grey davenport in her New York flat with a warm laptop on her crossed legs. On the screen was her dearest friend several timezones away. They had been talking for over an hour and the topic never veered far from their missing blonde friend.
"After my call with the police, I really started—started thinking. When was the last time I really engaged with TK? What did I know about his life? I realized—I realized every memory I had of him was—was from middle school or secondhand."
Sora shook her head, "That's an exaggeration Mimi, don't beat yourself up."
"No! No, it isn't Sora." Mimi brought her sleeve to her eyes. "I don't know why the police wanted to talk to me—hic—I couldn't help them out at all. I never really talk to Tk except when we're all gathered together." Mimi paused steading herself, "But that's not the worst thing about it all. As I was scrolling through DigiPlace trying to lie to myself that I really knew Tk, I noticed his comments."
Sora, her own eyes misty from Mimi's confession wrinkled her forehead. "What about Tk's comments?"
"There's a billion of them!" Sora urgently pulled a second window up on her screen as Mimi continued. "He seriously commented on every single post! Everything! He asked follow up questions and initiated conversations over the simplest thing."
"I don't remember Tk posting that much." Sora was still in the process of scrolling through the current section of updates on Tk's disappearance. She had yet to get to something written by his hand.
"He doesn't post his own stuff really, but look at everyone else's updates. He always replies."
Sora reached the timeline before Tk disappeared. As she expanded the first dozen posts she knew Mimi was right. Tk may not have always been the first to reply, but he always responded. It was never an emoji or 3 word sentence, either. Tk left a question or long narrative comment. Always.
"You're right."
Mimi had waited eagerly for Sora to verify her findings, but she didn't feel vindicated. Instead, it made her twinge to hear someone confirm her discovery.
"I never noticed."
"Me neither."
Sora quickly checked over her shoulder and surveyed the rest of the living room and kitchen. Matt had crashed the prior night. He'd arrived near midnight a ball of frazzled nerves and hysteria. Luckily, Sora was able to calm him down enough that he eventually got a few hours of sleep. Even though logically she knew he had left after lunch, Sora still checked. She would tell him, but she wanted to sort out her own thoughts first.
"What does it mean?"
"Isn't it obvious," Mimi waved her hands in the air dramatically, "Tk cared way more about us than we did him."
"Mimi!"
"Sora!" Mimi shouted back but then calmed herself at Sora's hurt expressed, "Ok, fine, I'll speak for myself only then. Tk cared way more about my life then I cared about his. I feel despicable saying it, but there's so much evidence. I love that boy, but I never reciprocated his interest. Who is Takeru Takaishi nowadays? As I said earlier, every time I think of him, I think of the little, scared kid in the digital world or the idealistic middle schooler."
Sora's lip quivered. She'd found a post of her own on DigiPlace. Tk had asked her a question, she hadn't responded. "I feel terrible."
"Who is your brother?"
Matt Ishida raised a very tired eyebrow and stared into the face of the young brunette above him. She'd murmured the question so low that had Matt not had his head placed her lap, he would not have heard.
"What do you mean?"
Sora jerked suddenly as if she hadn't realized she'd spoken out loud or intended Matt to respond. Sighing, she resigned herself that it was time she told Matt—even if she had not found the perfect words yet.
"Please don't start stressing again," too late, Matt was already stressing, "but Mimi noticed something upsetting about Tk."
Matt sat up and was intently staring at Sora now. There were bags under his eyes from the weeks of stress and lack of sleep. Ignoring these, Sora continued. "She was looking through Digiplace and noticed a weird pattern to his posts."
"Will it help the police?" Matt fretted, "I know Izzy wants to keep DigiPlace a secret, but if it could help find him."
Sora shook her head, "No, sorry, I'm not sure this will help at all in the investigation. It's more something I think you should know about for when we do find Tk." As her lap was now free, Sora reached for her computer on the coffee table and flipped the screen towards Matt. "Have you ever noticed how big a presence Tk has on DigiPlace?"
"No," Matt confusingly looked from Sora to the computer. He was calm again, or at least of average calmness since Tk disappeared. "I'm not on that much."
"Tk is your opposite." Sora started pointed to the screen. "If you look though the posts you'll see he comments on everything. It's almost like he never closes his browser nor wastes an opportunity to comment. It got me thinking…who is your brother nowadays? Is he truly doing ok?"
"You sound like the police, "Matt grumbled. He, his parents, and even most of the digidestineds had been questioned by the police on Tk's mental state. No one was really sure why as Tk was noticeably the most stable and consistent of them all, so they chalked it up to standard protocol. Still, the questions had left everyone a bit uneasy and paranoid.
"Tk is the same kid he's always been. He's kind and honest. A bit of a crybaby, but always tough when he needs to be."
Sora bit her lit. She wasn't sure it was wise to push Matt too far. He was already carrying an undo burden over his brother's disappearance.
"I'm not talking about the kid. Who is the adult Tk?"
Matt paused for a few seconds then slumped back into the coach with a frown. He continued passionately, "I think Tk is the same he's always been. He continues to go about life neither dulled nor jaded by age, he is still a kid in so many ways."
"You make that sound like a bad thing, Matt. He's only twenty."
"Isn't it a bad thing? Didn't you just say that Tk has been hounding DigiPlace and replying to every post. From what else I know, all he did at college was read old books and write his own fiction. He didn't live."
Matt turned his gaze to his balled fists. "Don't get me wrong, I would love to allow my brother to continue to be so foolishly positive and unswayed by adulthood, but he moved away. He chose to move away where I couldn't protect him. And now look, he's been gone nearly a month, Sora!"
"Stop it." Matt looked up to see that Sora was looking at him angrily. It was her turn to shake with frustration and she was not going to hold back. "Stop it, Matt. There are so many things wrong with what you just said."
"What—
"First off, it isn't black or white. Tk doesn't, no, no person has to be an adult or a kid—not in the way you're speaking. Second, I admit something is a bit off-putting with Tk being on DigiPlace so often, but saying he's stuck in the past or immature is going too far. He isn't like you, Matt, and that's a good thing. Don't force him to assimilate." Sora paused to make sure Matt was listening intently to her final words, "Finally, it's not your job to protect Tk."
"Tk cares too much. He cares so much that he needs a protector."
"I'd be willing to bet that if you ask Tk, he'd much rather have a friend."
The intention was not necessarily to make this a sad story. Then again, when I started with a premise that hope can be devastating as much as beneficial, I suppose that was inevitable. Nonetheless, there will be both action and adventure in the future.