楽しい事や悲しみ事など。。。

By: ジャハ・カノン

Sorry about the wait- お待ちしてしまった！ While I do have the excuse that I went to Japan again, that was only from mid-June to mid-July- so it doesn't exactly explain my… checks six month absence from this story (4 months absence from writing anything here at all). What can I say??

I suppose I can start off with "sorry" if you missed this story.

Anyone? Aaaah, who needs ya? ;)

Chapter 15: ひつぜん

Inevitable

Ryou and Koushirou are both very reserved people. At the same time, they're both very observant and can pull a world of information from the smallest of things (in their own ways). This was Ryou's true nature, although he would sometimes pretend to be extremely outgoing in order to blend into a situation, he naturally tended to seem to melt into the background. This nature was useful to him. He could be at the very center of all operations, but no one would know. Koushirou, often involved in tasks on the computer, was much the same. Very well knowing eachother, their tasks, and not being big fans of small talk, not much conversation was usually exchanged between the two friends.

Which might be why most of their conversations seemed to start off on strange notes…

"Truth or dare." Ryou challenged.

Koushirou frowned, "Since when do you play Truth or Dare?"

"Since now."

"What do you want to know?" Koushirou asked, genuinely confused. "What is there to know about me? Don't the hooded men have files on my personality that you have access to?"

"They do, and yes." Ryou said. There was a pause. "How much information do you think that they have on you and the other Chosen Children?"

"As much as they need." Koushirou answered, after a few seconds of consideration. "To know what kind of powers we can use and what kind of situations we can excel in."

"True. What else do you think they know?"

Koushirou thought for a while, "They have a number of prophecies, don't they? I imagine that they have a pretty good idea about the future."

"Not necessarily the future," Ryou remarked, "they definitely have a hold on destiny though."

"If there is really such thing as destiny, wouldn't it be the future?" Koushirou asked.

"Well," Ryou leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling, "don't quote me on this because it's just my own thinking…"

Koushirou nodded, signaling Ryou to continue.

"Have you ever noticed that destiny seems to only take parts of our lives? I mean, HUGE parts, but even with those aside there is so much of life that destiny plays no part of."

Ryou stopped talking, and glanced over at Koushirou, who now looked very thoughtful.

"I wonder how you can tell the difference…" Koushirou thought outloud, "the workings of life and whatever part destiny plays."

"I can think of one example," Ryou said, while crossing his arms, "if my life were lead entirely by destiny, I would have left my parents to guard the dimentional gates with no problem and I certainly would not have spent enough time in this world to have become friends with you, Ken-kun, and Osamu-kun. I would just be constantly moving from world to world, I guess."

"I see," Koushirou smiled, "then I would truly be as some people see me- uninvolved with the issues of those around me and constantly stuck in the digital world." He gestured towards his laptop, "I mean, -this- digital world, anyway."

"You're the problem solver of those around you; the task manager." Ryou stated, "And that's because that's who you wanted to become."

"So you think that Ken-" Koushirou started, but was interupted by his cellphone. "Moushi mou-?"

"Koushirou-san!Wefoundoutwhothe-"

"Daisuke-kun, slow down." Koushirou insisted.

"Aaah, okay… okay…" Koushirou could hear Daisuke breathing deeply a few times. "We found out who the Digimon Kaiser is."

Koushirou felt his heart jump in surprise and he shot Ryou a look. "Who?"

"You wouldn't believe me, but maybe you would. It's that Ichijouji Ken kid from Tamachi. Well, you're not into soccer so maybe who don't know who that is. Wait- we saw a television show about him, remember? Well, you might know who this is. Anyway, Miyako-san she might be able to get an article about him. We'll fill you in! I gotta go, I still have to call the others! Bye!"

"I-" Koushirou started, but realized although he had something to add to the conversation that it was pointless, "okay, see you tomorrow."

Click.

"It ends from here, doesn't it?"

"Does it end well?"

"I don't know, destiny states that it's ending."

"Oh, so it's life that decides the rest."

"Right," Ryou nodded, "it's the living, all of us involved, who decide the rest."

"Before I got the phone call from Daisuke-kun just now, I was just about to say that perhaps Ken's becoming evil wasn't destiny as I thought it was. It made me feel better to think that way, but after the phone call, I don't think it matters so much anymore. What matters is that the Digimon Kaiser will be gone, because even if we're only left with a little bit of the Ken we knew, it would be a lot more than what we have now."

Ryou nodded.

"True. However, whether situations are determined by destiny or whether life had any role means a lot to you, and I know this. I didn't read it anywhere, but I know that after you saved the Digital World three years ago, you had a lot of faith in destiny. So did the rest of your team, you all came to believe that your lives were preordained and that everything was set to get bad and you were born every skill you needed to fix it. Life was destiny and one thing led to another, without an end.

However, Osamu-kun's death changed it for you. You couldn't think of that as destiny because you thought destiny was finally on your side. You lost your biological parents, but that led you to the life you live now. Osamu-kun's death led you nowhere and gave to nothing more to be happy or grateful for. Your parent's death was a beginning for you, Osamu's death showed nothing but an end. It had no part of destiny in it. It was cruel powers manipulating life and you could tell that, it changed how you view the world."

Koushirou felt tears in his eyes, but he heard Ryou's words and knew that they were true.

"Tomorrow I am going to help them find Ken's apartment." Koushirou decided outloud.

"Really?"

"I'm not going to tell them I knew beforehand, I'm going to pretend to find it using the computer." Koushirou explained, still working out the idea in his head. "It's like life pushing destiny on its path."

Ryou grinned, "You know and trust those kids a lot, don't you?"

"I do," Koushirou replied, "and I believe they can help the world get its old Ken back."

End Chapter 14