Taishiro Week Day 3 – Soccer / Camp

Underwater Odds

It was the first time Taichi had slept on a bed in weeks. He had barely even dozed on his couch during his brief sojourn to the real world. But this man-digimon-whatchamacallit being named Gennai had invited the children to his underwater house, served them dinner, and given them a room full of mattresses, blankets, and pillows. In spite of Taichi's suspicion of Gennai (why couldn't he have invited them to his house sooner?), he felt grateful to the old geezer. He crawled onto the mat next to Koromon, and he was out like a light immediately.

So Taichi couldn't explain why he woke up in the middle of the night. Koromon was still snoring. Perhaps Taichi was more anxious than he had let himself believe. After all, tomorrow was a big day. They would storm Vamdemon's castle—and finally return home.

Taichi rubbed his eyes and remembered his dream. Hikari was there, calling his name, reaching for him to come back. Taichi woke up before he could grab her hand. He was so close to her…But it would be so easy to trip up and make another mistake in Vamdemon's castle. Maybe even a fatal mistake this time.

Taichi shook his head, trying to stay focused. He sat up and did a headcount of his companions: Koromon, Gomamon, Jou, Sora, Pyocomon, Tentomon… Taichi frowned and scanned the rest of the room: Mimi, Palmon, Gabumon, Patamon, and Takeru and Yamato were snuggling for their last night together. But Koushirou wasn't present.

Taichi stayed calm. They were in a new place, and it was in Koushirou's nature to wander off. He shut his eyes and listened… There it was: the clickety-clack of typing on a keyboard. Taichi grinned. He quietly rose to his feet and followed the familiar sound. He slipped open the door.

Koushirou was sitting in the middle of a brightly lit empty room, typing away on his laptop. The walls were covered with colorful maps and charts of the Digital World and different types of digimon. It was all incomprehensible to Taichi, but it looked amazing nonetheless. He let out a low whistle.

Koushirou glanced up from his laptop; then he suddenly stopped typing. "Did I wake you?" he asked quietly.

"Nah man. I did that myself. I was just looking for you." Taichi closed the door and walked closer to his friend. "What are you doing?"

"I was just talking to Gennai about the Digital World. He taught me that digimon have three attributes: data, vaccine, and virus. He said that he doesn't have an attribute, so he isn't a digimon."

"What is he then?"

"He didn't say. I don't think he even knows what to call himself."

"Hmph." Taichi crossed his arms.

"Gennai eventually retired, but he said that I could stay here and copy his notes if I wanted." Koushirou gestured to the walls.

"It does look cool," Taichi admitted. "But you should come back to sleep. We have a big day tomorrow."

Koushirou didn't budge. "Why would I want to sleep on my last night in the Digital World?"

Taichi considered. "Well, when you put it that way…" He sat next to Koushirou on the floor.

Koushirou smiled. "I want to enjoy every last minute here."

"By taking notes?"

"I like taking notes. I'm a fast typist," Koushirou said defensively.

"I know you are," Taichi responded. "It still sounds stressful."

"It is a little bit stressful. I don't know if I can copy everything on his walls before morning. And I don't even understand the digicode language that he writes in. Hopefully I can translate it later."

"Koushirou…" Taichi was both impressed and exasperated. Koushirou was taking on an ambitious project, a worthy project—but it also sounded like an impossible project. If Koushirou couldn't finish copying everything into his computer before morning, then not only would he be ill-rested, but he would feel discouraged in his abilities. He would lose confidence in himself before their last stand in Vamdemon's castle.

Taichi decided to do something about it.

"Let's go outside," Taichi suggested.

"I'm not finished," Koushirou argued. "Now is not the time for that."

Taichi bit his lower lip and tried to think of something that could possibly interest Koushirou more than Gennai's archives. "Let's go look at the floating lake and all the fish!"

Koushirou paused. "It is marvelous how Gennai lives in an underwater bubble at the bottom of a lake. I wouldn't characterize the lake surrounding us as 'floating,' though I know what you mean. I wonder how he keeps the liquid water from flooding the place without a solid barrier?"

"Want to check it out?" Taichi asked.

Koushirou frowned, knowing that he was losing valuable typing-time by talking to Taichi. And yet…he did want to check it out. He closed his laptop shut and nodded.

Taichi smiled victoriously, and the two boys snuck outside through the front door. The lake surrounding Gennai's underwater house had been colored orange, violet and pink during sunset when they arrived. Now it was dark blue like the night sky far above. The moonlight shone through the liquid faintly, so they could still see the outlines of fish swimming past. But what impressed them most now was the sound. Since nobody was talking anymore, they could hear the water rustling safely around them. It was like the sound of small waves rolling on the beach in Odaiba, but the sound surrounded them even from above their heads.

Koushirou walked to the edge of the premise and removed his glove. He touched his fingers to the floating lake and smiled at the vertical ripples he created.

"That's awesome!" Taichi copied him and stuck his own hand in the water. He smirked, thinking about how Jou would probably warn him that he could bring the whole lake crashing down by sticking his hand in it. Of course, nothing of the sort happened.

"It is awesome," Koushirou agreed. "…Taichi?"

"What?"

"I've never thanked you for inviting me."

"Huh?" Taichi took his hand out of the water and wiped it on his shorts. "You don't have to thank me just for saying that we should go outside—"

"No no no, I didn't mean that. I was talking about months ago. When you invited me to come to Odaiba Elementary's summer camp."

"What? Oh!" Taichi turned pale. He realized what Koushirou was talking about. On the last day of soccer practice, Taichi had walked around the team and told all of the junior members that they should come to the school's camp in August. He promised that they would get to play more soccer and have tons of fun. Now that Taichi thought back on that day, he had taken special care to invite Koushirou, the shyest teammate. He promised Koushirou that he could spend time with him, Sora, and his sister Hikari. He said that Koushirou could bring his laptop with him to camp if he wanted.

He assured Koushirou that he would have fun if he went to camp. He said that he wouldn't let anyone bully him.

Taichi's shoulders drooped. "I'm sorry. I'm such an idiot."

"For what?" Koushirou petted a large black fish that swam by.

"If I hadn't invited you, then you wouldn't have come."

"Yes, that's why I'm thanking you!" Koushirou finally removed his hand from the floating lake and looked at his friend.

Taichi was irritated that he had to spell it out for him. Koushirou was only dense at the most inconvenient topics. "You'd be safer if you had stayed home."

Koushirou huffed. "Aren't you glad that I came? Haven't I helped out?"

"Yes! Of course I'm glad you're here! You've helped out lots—more than anyone else, probably. We'd all be dead without you."

"Thank you!" Koushirou smiled proudly, a little smug. "I feel wonderful here. I've learned so much. I've seen so many cool things. I met Tentomon! And we won fights together! And I did get to spend lots of time with you after all. Even though we all thought you might have died for two months. But you got better!"

"Yeah." Taichi couldn't help but smile with Koushirou. His heart beat a bit faster. "I feel the same. I'm glad I got to know you better here."

"Me too…" Koushirou yawned and swayed on his feet.

Taichi gripped his friend's shoulder. "Let's go to bed," he said. "I need you in your best shape tomorrow. We'll fight more fights and solve more puzzles, just one more time. We can't do that without you."

"Okay," Koushirou finally agreed. He smirked. "You still haven't seen Atlurkabuterimon! I can't wait to introduce you to him. He's enormous!" Koushirou spread out his arms. "Even bigger than Metalgreymon!"

"Your bug is bigger than my dinosaur? Right, we'll see about that." Taichi kept his grip tight on Koushirou's shoulder and led the way back inside.

He watched Koushirou finally join Tentomon on the mat next to Sora and Pyocomon, and he felt oddly relieved as he lay down himself.

The odds of Taichi making a fatal mistake felt a lot lower as long as Koushirou was around.