Title: Restart, Rebirth, Remembrance
Author: isumi'kivic'
Characters/Pairings: Kouji + Kouichi brotherly love, slight tiny bits of Takuya/Izumi; OCs.
Rating: Gen, I'm trying my best to keep it gen.
Warning: See previous chapters.
Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon, and I don't own The Last, either. I'm just writing a fic out of another brilliant fic. This fic is a continuation of The Last by Gemini Star01, which means that you're required to read it before delving into this fic. It's an awesomely sad one-shot that you could find in her author page. And while you're at it, read her other amazing works, too.
A/N: So seriously this chapter nearly killed me. For some reason my brain is shutting off on English language whenever I tried to write the chapter, and I am absolutely dissatisfied with how it came out, but it has to go out or I'll fail the update-once-a-week challenge again ==a But yeah, someday maybe I'll go back and revise this; maybe once school and research stop frying my brain.
Thank you for everyone who had reviewed the last chapter—it meant so much to me. I started this purely for fun, but knowing that there are others out there enjoying this as much as I do writing it made me feel beyond happy. Thank you again!
Dedicated to the lovely Evide-san, thank you for the awesome discussion, and I hope you're quite satisfied with how the results made their way to this fic. Also dedicated to Vaporeone for giving this fic a chance and also pointing out a mistake on previous chapter. Apparently my brain gave me the name Zwei Hander while I was actually thinking of Licht Kuger. Sorry about that, guys. ;_;
Alright, now on to the next chapter. Enjoy, minna-san!
Restart, Rebirth, Remembrance
A Digimon Frontier Fanfiction
Strayed Souls
"You want me to what…?"
He didn't bother to cover the surprised tone in his voice. On the bed at the other side of the room, Takuma stirred, lowly mumbling about digimons and evolving and kicking ass, before turning his back towards Kouichi's side of the room. Kouichi consciously lowered his voice—Kazuma would not be pleased if his brother lacked his sleep. "Ophanimon, I'm not quite sure…"
"As a mentor, would it not be your responsibility to make sure they could stand on their own feet, Kouichi?" by the sound of her voice through his digivice, Kouichi could picture the Great Angel of life and love smile meaningfully. "It would also be a good opportunity for you to start objectively seeing them in battles. If you're always in the tray fighting with them, you would not be able to judge objectively, would you?"
Kouichi hesitated. "Yes, but is it not too… early…? I don't know, Ophanimon—they just got their Spirits barely three weeks ago, they're not yet used to the battlefield and—"
"Did Takuya and the others—and you, of course—fare badly back then? We trust you know exactly the strength of the wild Digimons. You have always been a great observer, Kouichi. Would it not be a great chance for them to start standing on their own, the next time a Digimon that will not be a major threat appears?" This time Kouichi caught a familiar sound that was unmistakably a chuckle, and it didn't belong to Ophanimon. His guess was proven right when the next voice that greeted him was that of Seraphimon.
"You might just find something you'll like, Kouichi." The other Angel told him. He'd taken Ophanimon's place on communicating with him, it seemed. "It would not hurt anyone. The Spirits would guide them, you know that."
-o0o-
Kanpei had the luck to be the first one out of the six children who happened to stumble upon the next Digimon that made it through the barrier between the Digital World and the real world: Floramon. It didn't take long for the rest of the children to arrive and join in the fight, but Kouichi was the only one who opted to remain in the shadows of an alleyway; tensed eyes locked onto the battle while one hand gripping his digivice tightly, ready to join in whenever the situation called.
Fairymon launched yet another Brezza Petalo upon the enemy, gracefully flipping backwards when Floramon retaliated, and Wolfmon effortlessly took her place, blasting off a well-aimed Licht Seiger and knocked the flower-head Digimon a good ten meters backwards. Floramon let out a shriek, shooting off vines from her hands towards the Warrior of Light in hopes of binding him in place, but Agunimon was faster as he shot off another round of Burning Salamander. Kouichi frowned as Floramon managed to dodge Agunimon's attack—Floramon wasn't originally an aggressive Digimon, and was certainly in no way should be this strong.
Something was off. The Digimons that had been breaking into the real world seemed to be fueled by an inexplicable power, giving them a boost of strength that often surprised Kouichi. There must be something going on in the Digital World. As he had feared—as they all had feared—this was more than just a case of the barrier weakening. Something was at work here; something that drove more and more Digimons to break though the barrier and gave them power to do so. But what—
"Wolfmon, you're in the way!"
"Speak for yourself, Agunimon!"
"Guys, this isn't the time to—Chakkmon! Watch out!"
His frown deepening, Kouichi began to once again question Ophanimon's order. The Great Angel of Life and Love had insisted that he sat out of the next fight—she even got Cherubimon to back her up, much to Kouichi's disbelief. The rest of the chosen children were just barely getting the hang of using their powers and the battles, not to mention the fact that their teamwork was still far from decent. His fingers tightened around his digivice; at this rate, he might need to jump into the battle and guide them to finish again.
"Isn't Kouichi here yet?"
"It's no use depending on someone who isn't here, Blitzmon!"
"Kacchi Kacchi Kocchin!"(1)
"Chakkmon—great job! She's frozen!"
"Now's the time, everyone!"
There was a loud explosion as five different attacks met their frozen target. Kouichi had to raise an arm to shield his face as thick smoke enveloped the whole area. He squinted hard and breathed through his sleeve, trying to make out figures in the smoke—there were hazy shapes he couldn't quite determine who, but he could recognize the swirling light of data that encircled Floramon's blurry figure.
The smoke slowly cleared, and Kouichi could finally see Agunimon standing tall before Floramon. He could even see Takuma's spirit inside Agunimon; the narrowing eyes blazing with the knowledge of doing something right as brown hair under his hat falling over his confident expression,
Wait.
Takuma hated hats.
And Takuma had not the confident expression of someone who knew what exactly he was doing, nor the blazing eyes of someone who had been through too many things to count.
It was not Takuma's spirit he was seeing inside Agunimon.
It was Takuya's.
There was no way Kouichi would mistake it: the hat, the very same googles that encircled Agunimon's neck, those brave eyes, that determined look of doing something right. Something in Kouichi's stomach lurched in an inexplicably unpleasant way, but he couldn't take his eyes off Agunimon, until the corner of his eyes caught a movement from Fairymon.
Suddenly, Kouichi couldn't breathe.
He was not seeing Suzumi's spirit inside Fairymon—he could easily distinguish them, because while both of them had blond hair, Suzumi's hair wasn't even half the length of the spirit Kouichi saw inside Fairymon. Kanpei certainly didn't have brown hair, and Tokiya never wore hats, and was that—was that his Kouji? Why wasn't he wearing his bandanna? Kouichi had to get to him, had to give the bandanna back, had to apologize, had to—
No. He was hallucinating, wasn't he? There was no way he was seeing Takuya, Izumi, Junpei, Tomoki and Kouji inside the Legendary Warriors. They were gone. Dead. And those who had died weren't meant to come back to life; he was fooling himself, and he needed to stop of he'd get hurt. It wasn't Takuya and the others—it was Takuma and the others.
It wasn't his Kouji. It was Minashiro Kouji.
Yet, he couldn't bear to take his eyes away from the sight. If this was a dream, if this was a hallucination, then it was a brutally cruel one.
But then, the hazy vision of Takuya inside Agunimon seemed to stiffen, before slowly but sure turned towards the alleyway where Kouichi had hidden himself.
Their eyes met.
The vision smiled, winking.
"Digicode Scan!"
And then they disappeared, swiftly fading back into the spirits of the new chosen children.
Kouichi's heart nearly stopped.
-o0o-
"What was that?"
He demanded, harshly, into his digivice. The playground was eerily empty; the sun had long kissed the horizon good night, and the chilly air that signaled the coming of winter was settling in, convincing people to stay home and wrap themselves in warm blankets or curl their bodies under the kotatsu (2). He was sitting on a swing, hadn't even bothered to come back home to the Kawabara's in order to get a jacket, even though the Kawabara apartment was only one block away from the playground.
"Kouichi-kun," was Ophanimon's hesitant answer. "You know we don't have the answer to everything."
"You guys told me to stay back and watch—don't lie to me, Ophanimon, I know you guys know about this!" His tone took on a shrill pitch, and he barely noticed. His head was buzzing; images of the earlier battle flashing through his mind like a movie being fast-forwarded: Izumi's long blond hair, Junpei'skind, firm eyes, Tomoki's determined face, Takuya's smile. His chest tightened with anger, fear, frustration, and unfathomable hope, bubbling up his throat until it hurt to speak. "Takuya and the others!"
"Kouichi, please calm down." That was Seraphimon, a blatant worry underlining his voice.
"Stop playing around—if you guys think I would appreciate this…" Kouichi knew he was babbling, but he couldn't bring himself to care. Were the Angels creating the vision of his friends? Were they trying to make Kouichi replace his old friends with the new chosen children? He couldn't—wouldn't forgive this. "I'm doing everything you asked of me, aren't I? I brought the spirit, I came back to the real world, I found the chosen children, and I even take the responsibility to guide them! Why are you doing this?"
For a moment, his digivice fell silent. The moment stretched out, so long that Kouichi began to think the connection was cut off.
When another sound reached him, it was Bokomon's voice that called his name. "Kouichi-han?"
"Tell me I'm hallucinating," Kouichi begged. His eyes stung with tears that wouldn't come out—he had run out of tears a long time ago. His throat felt dry, and his very existence was gripped with inexplicable fear. The fear of hoping. "Tell me what I saw wasn't real. Bokomon, please. I can't—I can't go through this again. It's not that I don't want to have them back—I desperately want to, but this isn't going to last is it; they'll be taken away from me, again! I can't go through that anymore, Bokomon, please—"
He could hear a heavy, resigned sigh. "Nothing would come out of deluding one self. I believe Kouichi-han knows that better than anyone."
"I can't!" he buried his face into his hands, gripping his hair hard. "They're gone, Bokomon, they're gone! I've gone through that—I'm not going to replace them; I don't want to! I can't!" He let out a dry sob, frustration thick in his throat. "They aren't really here—I'll just get hurt again in the end and I can't—I can't take it like this, Bokomon. Not again. Make it gone, please. Please."
"Wouldn't it be better if Kouichi-han asked the new children?" A tentative suggestion. "They are the ones who hold the spirit. If there's any other soul inside the spirit, they would be able to sense it, wouldn't they?"
"But—"
"Kouichi," Cherubimon's gentle voice took over, and almost instantly, Kouichi fell silent. "If it were the previous chosen children's souls that resided in the spirits, you wouldn't want to keep denying their existences, would you?"
Kouichi swallowed. No. Of course not. He'd rather die himself than denying his friends' existences—whether it was their souls or mere bodies, it didn't matter. But he couldn't go through this again—he couldn't bear to have them back only for them to be snatched away again. He'd go insane.
"It's always your choice, Kouichi-kun," Ophanimon ended their conversation. "It's always your choice."
-o0o-
Many things considered, Takuma thought conclusively, Kouichi was a strange guy.
Maybe it was just because Takuma was a complete extrovert that the notion of someone as quiet and secretive like Kouichi somewhat bothered him. The older boy never talked much and was actually shy despite his firm and often confident attitude when it came to their job as the chosen children. But no, Takuma mused as his eyebrows knitted together; his fingers absently tapping the pencil on the table in staccato, homework forgotten completely aside.
Kouichi was strange for many reasons.
There was his preference in clothing. Takuma wasn't the type who was interested in fashion himself, but he could've sworn that Kouichi wore the most plain, most boring clothes ever. Takuma had seen the grand total of a jacket, two pairs of trousers and three shirts that Kouichi had in his backpack on the first night the older boy crashed in his place, and boy, did those clothes looked so… old-fashioned. No intricate designs that were so popular these days, no accessories other than that red hat he almost always wore. It was kind of funny how Kouichi kind of stood up in the crowds exactly because he wore such plain, old clothes almost everyone had left behind in the innermost corner of their wardrobes.
Kouichi's constant fumbling with almost every electronic device—even old ones like phones and their holographic TV—was blatantly apparent it felt awkward to watch him sometimes. Lately Takuma had been making a point to accompany Kouichi to go around places most of the time, just so the boy wouldn't make a spectacle of himself trying to use electronic devices by himself. Alright—that was him exaggerating situations. Maybe the Digital World didn't have such advanced technologies that the real world. He remembered Kouichi telling Kazuma about how the Great Angels had been altering some data through the connection to the Digital World to set him up—that included a bank account, necessary identity administrations, and so on and so forth. Kouichi told them he'd lived in the Digital World for a long time, so Takuma guessed the boy had been there since he was little.
Oh, did he mention Kouichi's speech? Because seriously, the older boy spoke like Takuma's grandmother did. All polite language, often using words that were quite difficult for their age, and worst of all, Kouichi only knew little English. In the bilingual country of Japan, not knowing English didn't mean you couldn't survive, but for teenagers like Takuma and the others, not speaking English every so often was just—not cool. Sometimes Kouichi did mix some English into his sentence, but the usage was often wrong and the pronunciation bad. It was like meeting someone who had been living in the most remote part of Japan, and Takuma didn't quite know how to help Kouichi with these kinds of stuff.
Not that it was his business, but they were friends, right? Friends helped each other, and—well, alright, he was quite taken aback when he noticed that Kouichi was near but didn't jump in and fight with them earlier; but there must be a reason to it. Right?
"Takuma?"
The brunette jumped in surprise, whirling around on his chair instantly as the door was opened. Kouichi was standing on the doorway, looking unsure, and Takuma hurried to gesture him in. His room was now Kouichi's room, too, as long as this problem of Digital World was still abound. Kazuma seemed to think that keeping the one responsible for the whole fiasco close—and Kouichi happened to be the only one in this world who had direct ties with the Digital World—so the eldest Kawabara went against Kouichi moving out of the Kawabara household.
"Hey," Takuma raised his hand casually, a grin lighting his face. "Where've you been? You kind of just disappeared after the battle." At this, Kouichi regarded him with surprised eyes, and his grin grew wider. "We saw you, y'know. Just before I scanned that Floramon."
"I was…" Kouichi trailed off, but shuffled into the room nonetheless. "I just… wanted to see if you guys would be able to handle it well without me. I would have jumped in if things went for the worse. I'm sorry."
See? So there was a reason why he stayed back, Takuma thought to himself, somewhat relieved that Kouichi hadn't betrayed them all. "Yeah, no worries. We were the only ones to notice you, and I didn't tell the others anything."
The older boy halted on his steps towards his side of the room, turning around to face Takuma properly. There was a slight tremor in his voice, obviously fear sneaking in, as he tentatively repeated, "…we…?"
Raising a hand to scratch his head in confusion, Takuma made a confused sound. "Yeah, me and him. You know, the one who is—oh, right, I haven't told you yet. Sorry." The boy offered a sheepish smile. "Well, there's this—there's someone inside the spirit of fire, see…."
Kouichi felt like he was swaying on his feet for a second—or was the room spinning? The wielder of Spirit of Darkness took a step back, and slowly sat himself on the edge of his bed. There was no way what he had seen back there was—no, of course there's someone inside the spirit. There was always someone; Agunimon is there. Agunimon was always there, that's what Takuma meant, right? To his dismay, his next reply came in a near-whisper, betraying his efforts to deny what he thought was in the spirit. "Of course there is. Agunimon—is there, right?"
"Huh? Oh yeah, Agunimon's inside, of course. He lends me his power after all—but no, that's not it." Swiveling his chair absently, Takuma scrunched up his face, looking for the right word. "You see, there's someone else."
"Someone… else…?" He wasn't sure if he wanted to hear this. "Other than… Agunimon?"
"Yeah. Said he was the previous wielder of the Spirit of Fire." At this, Kouichi could feel his heart sinking to his stomach. Takuma, oblivious to his friend's inner turmoil, continued. "I don't know exactly why he's there, but he's been guiding me in battle. You know, how to move and attack and defend, stuff like that. He's always there whenever we fight, and he'd be gone after we scanned the Digimon, though I could feel his presence in me. He's probably some kind of remaining soul or something—Kouichi, are you okay? You look pale."
The mention of his name snapped Kouichi back to reality; his face had gone white, and his eyes were wide, both in disbelief and fear. Takuma was taken aback; he completely didn't expect Kouichi to react bad. Was having another person's soul in the spirit a bad thing? Was he not supposed to mention it at all? "Kouichi…?"
"N-nothing." But the older boy refused to meet Takuma's eyes. Something was definitely not nothing. "You're—you're probably just… imagining things, Takuma-kun. There should be no one else…"
"This isn't supposed to happen?" Confusion underlined Takuma's voice, and Kouichi caught a hint of worry there. "Am… Am I alright, if this happened? I mean, I'm not the only one having another soul inside the spirit. The others—Suzumi and the others told me they have it too, and that's how they know what they should do in battles."
Kouichi's figure went rigid. "The others, too?"
"Well I haven't asked Kouji but—"
"There's just no way anybody else would be in there! They can't!" Kouichi exploded, holding his head in his hands and pulled at his hair in frustration. "They can't be there; not Takuya and the others!"
Takuma instantly clammed up. Okay, so he hadn't expected Kouichi to burst out like that, but it wasn't like Takuma knew what was going on here, did he? Kouichi didn't have to be—wait, did he say Takuya?
Confused eyes turned to hold Kouichi's slumped form on the edge of the bed; his voice held a different, curious tone when Takuma spoke again: "You know Takuya?"
Silence reigned the room for several moments, in which Kouichi froze completely. Takuma thought he could see Kouichi's arms trembling, but it could just be a trick of the light. It was a long time before Kouichi finally moved—stiff and awkward and heavy, like Takuma had just dropped a ton of bricks on his shoulders—and answered his earlier question.
"No. No… I don't know him."
Then the older boy swiftly slipped out of the room, leaving a dumbfounded Takuma behind.
-o0o-
Impossible. It was just completely impossible. How could his friends' souls be inside the spirits, together with the legendary warriors? It just didn't make sense; they died, Kouichi went through all the pain of losing people important to him, they certainly died. To have them back was—frightening. To have them back meant they could be snatched away from him again, and Kouichi didn't want to go through the same pain twice. His existence would survive—he was immortal after all—but his soul wouldn't.
He was broken enough as it was.
Kouichi ran, having bolted off the Kawabara household, ignoring Kazuma's surprised inquiry about where he was going. Outside, it was dark already, but he couldn't care less. Nothing in this world was familiar to him anymore—even Kouji and his mother's graves where he used to go whenever he felt that going on living was too much to bear were gone, replaced by tall skyscrapers. Nothing was familiar, nothing could be his anchor at a time like this.
By the time he stopped, he realized he had no idea where he was. The neighborhood was completely unfamiliar, tall apartment building lining up along the road as the anti-gravity cars swooshed by. The traffic light was just up ahead, the pedestrian red light switching to green; a cue for everyone to cross the road. Nearby, an air-powered bicycle passed by, blowing a cold gust of air to his side.
Kouichi gasped for breath, and wished that tears would come.
Maybe then his chest wouldn't hurt so much.
"What are you doing here?"
The all-too-familiar and much missed voice made him look up, and for a second Kouichi wished fervently his heart would just stop. Kouji—Minashiro Kouji—was standing before him, distrusting eyes gazed indifferently at him. Two pairs of identical midnight eyes locked for one-two-three seconds, and, frustration bubbling up his throat, Kouichi let out a humorless, loud laugh.
Kouji looked at him strangely.
"Sorry." Kouichi gasped, covering his mouth with a hand, once he got ahold of himself back. His eyes stung, his chest was too tight it hurt, and yet not a single tear gather in the corner of his eyes. God, when was the last time he cried? It had got to be more than a decade ago. "Sorry—sorry I was just. I was—"
"Nevermind," Kouji mumbled, swinging his—Kouichi really shouldn't be surprised when he noticed it—bokuto on his left arm to his right. He eyed Kouichi wearily, and Kouichi for once wanted to laugh and cry and shout at the same time. Instead, he voiced a rough, "What are you doing here yourself?"
"I live around here." Kouji jerked his head towards a direction. "And as far as I know, Takuma's apartment is not. Why are you here?"
"Nothing—just. Walking around." Kouichi shuffled, feeling stupid. He didn't even know his way back. His eyes fell upon the bokuto, and the words slipped off his mouth before he realized it. "You take kendo."
It wasn't even a question. Kouji regarded him with a curious look, before giving him a shrug. "Yeah, since before I entered elementary school."
"I see," Kouichi replied, feeling as if his right arm—the one he'd tied Kouji's bandanna on—had gone numb. Kouji's eyes, in turn, landed on the bandanna. Something in his eyes seemed to change then, but the younger boy shook his head and returned his gaze to Kouichi's. "I should get going."
"Yeah. It's quite late, your mother must be worried."
"I had to stay late in the dojo since I came late. That Floramon took a lot of time." Kouji grumbled, before turning around on his heels and started trudging down the road. "I'll see you sometime."
"Wait—Kouji." The younger boy halted on his steps at that, turning halfway to get a good look on Kouichi. Kouichi swallowed, fisting his hands in a conscious effort of not backing down. He had to—he needed to know. "Takuma-kun told me that… there's someone else inside the spirits. Other than the Digimons, I mean."
Comprehension dawned on Kouji's face. "Oh. Yeah, he said so. The others have them, too, it seems." Then his eyebrows knitted, the first confused look Kouichi had seen on him since they first met. "I guess it's either there isn't anyone else inside the Spirit of Light, or he wasn't ever going to greet me."
Kouichi's heart missed a beat. "Wait… there isn't?"
"No one." Shaking his head, Kouji turned around fully to face Kouichi properly. "What, that's a bad thing?"
Kouichi had not the answer. So he bowed low instead, trying not to focus on the odd disappointment clawing his chest, and said "Good night, Kouji-kun," before turning around and walking away.
-o0o-
He could still see them—his old friends' figure, instead of the new chosen children. Flashes, to be exact, and they startled him too much that he nearly screwed up; if it weren't for Wolfmon's quick dive to push him out of Starmon's attack, he might have lost an arm.
"What's with you?" the Warrior of Light growled in exasperation. Lowemon swore he couldn't have been more thankful when he realized that the spirit inside Wolfmon was indeed Minashiro Kouji. There was no flash of someone else there. The Warrior of Darkness shook his head and narrowed his eyes; from the corner of his eyes, he caught a blur of purple and noticed that Fairymon was launching another attack.
"Sorry—I'm okay." He brushed off Wolfmon's hand on his arm, and ran after Chakkmon—who had been thrown back a good ten meters in the air by the enemy's attack. He ignored the noise of annoyance Wolfmon made, and instead focusing on catching the Wielder of Ice who was falling. Arms reaching out, Lowemon nimbly seized the smaller Digimon into his arms, feeling the full weight once Chakkmon was safely caught.
The Wielder of Ice looked up gratefully, and Lowemon froze.
Instead of seeing Himi Tokiya's tentative eyes, it was a pair of familiar cheerful green eyes framed by unruly brown hair under a hat that flashed under his eyes.
"Tomo—"
"Ah… a-arigatou, Lowemon!" His stutter was cut off as Chakkmon jumped off his hold. It was Tokiya's figure again inside the Wielder of Ice, and once again Lowemon was left stunned. Was it his imagination? Was he so unbelievably desperate and lonely, that he started hallucinating that his friends were still there, wielding the spirits?
The explosion that followed Agunimon's Burning Salamander snapped him back to reality, just in time to see Blitzmon holding out his digivice, shouting "Digicode Scan!" as he scanned and purified Starmon's data. Kanpei's figure flashed, but then blurred into something—no, someone much more familiar.
His breath caught in his throat, Lowemon let out a shaky "Jun..pei…?"
Something next to him moved—Fairymon had landed next to him, startling the Warrior of Darkness. He turned, fully expecting the pink and purple Digimon to look at him and perhaps, the shy eyes of Suzumi peering up towards him. But no, he was greeted with a smile so happy it was nearly blinding, while clear emerald eyes boring into his own with unrestrained amusement.
"It's been a while…" at that voice, Lowemon could feel himself swaying. Izumi's voice was one of the five voices he could never forget; his heart constricted painfully. "Kouichi."
His entire world froze.
"I…zumi…"
And she laughed, with that tonality of hers that reminded him of endless blue sky, sounding freer than Suzumi could ever be. Just like that, and his eyes suddenly brimmed with uncontrollable tears threatening to fall the curve of his cheeks. She gave him a cheeky wink, and then her figure blurred. Long golden hair slowly became shorter, hanging just right above the shoulders, and Suzumi's shy but curious eyes returned.
The difference was suddenly so jarring, he had to take a step back.
"Kouichi-kun?" tentatively, the Warrior of Wind spoke up. Dimly, Kouichi realized he had subconsciously de-evolved back to his human body, and Fairymon was looking down on him. There was a moment of awkward silence, then a cocoon of data enveloped Fairymon's form as the Digimon de-evolved back, leaving Suzumi unharmed once the data swirled off. The girl fixed careful eyes on him, curiosity obvious in her gaze.
She tilted her head a little. "You… know Izumi-san, Kouichi-kun?"
It snapped him off his disbelief, and Kouchi shook his head. "A… friend.." the words tumbled out of his mouth before he realized it, and he quickly looked away. There was no way it was really Izumi. No—it was probably one of the tricks the spirits had, one of their powers that were unknown still to Kouichi. "Just… it's the spirit, Suzumi-san. The Spirit of Wind."
Suzumi opened her mouth, about to say something, but seemed to think twice because she closed her mouth again and swallowed, before murmuring a soft "…if you say so…"
"Suzumi-chaaaan, did you see? I scanned it!" Kanpei's ecstatic voice drifted by. Kouichi spared a glance towards the other kids; Takuma was flailing, voicing out protests about how he was the one delivering the final blow and Kanpei was not supposed to scan it since he was about to, really; Kanpei facing Takuma's wrath with a smug look on his face, and Tokiya chuckling softly behind him; while Kouji had just de-evolved, watching from the distance with that familiar semi-scowl on his face.
He sighed, stepping back and tried to reach deep into his heart. As usual, Lowemon's presence was strong and comforting like an anchor. The spirit of darkness was there, albeit silent. Kouichi wished Lowemon could have spoken to him at times like these—it would be nice to hear some reassurance that he hadn't gone crazy, that this whole thing was a joke, that—
Deep inside, the spirit shone just a little stronger, warming him from the very core, returning a small courage that he could hold on to for the moment. Kouichi closed his eyes, mentally thanking Lowemon for being there—for being the only familiar presence that stayed with him, forever.
"Umm, Kouichi-san…?"
The hesitant voice drew him back to reality—but he felt better now. Enough to return Tokiya's worried look with a soft smile of his own. "Sorry, Tokiya… what is it?"
Relief quickly spread on the younger boy's expression, but Kouichi could still see the uncertainty tainting Tokiya's eyes. "Um, nothing. You seem a little… out of it today. I was wondering if you were okay."
For some reason, the sincerity ringing with the younger boy's words turned Kouichi's smile into a more genuine one. He lowered his body a little, enough to put him on an eye level with Tokiya. "Not quite, but I'm fine now. Thank you for asking."
The boy brightened. "That's… that's good. So—uhh. I'm… going straight home since my house isn't far from here, and Takuma-oniisan wanted to come over for a bit. Do you want to come?"
Honestly, Kouichi couldn't find any harm upon the suggestion. He needed distraction, and it was necessary to know a little bit more about the new chosen children. He just needed to keep himself and not get too involved with them. There was no need to get that close to anyone ever again—he would only be left behind, after all. Keeping his smile intact, he straightened. "The others, too?"
"Well—Kanpei-san wanted to come along too, and Takuma-oniisan's dragging Kouji-san. If…" Tokiya's gaze found Suzumi's, brightening a little. "If Suzumi-san wants to come, then we'll all go."
"No," the refusal came almost too quickly, but Suzumi was returning the smile politely—the ever princess-like that she was. "Unfortunately I have to come home early tonight. I should get going…" For a second, her eyes moved sideways to hold Kouichi's, looking so thoughtful that Kouichi was suddenly strongly reminded of Izumi. He gave her an awkward smile, before she cast her gaze downwards, bowed and turned around to leave.
"Tokiya, Kouichi!" Takuma's voice came, drowning Kouji's irritated objections. "If we don't go now, we'll be late for dinner home!"
-o0o-
"Holy shi—" Takuma's swearing only died in his throat for Kouichi's sharp look that landed on him. Really, Tokiya was much too young to get used to swearing words, and Kouichi wasn't about to let it slide if any of them swore. Perhaps it was because he had become an 'Uncle Kou' once, taking care of kids and protecting them. "Tokiya, you live in a house?"
Tokiya looked uncomfortable, one hand holding the wooden gate handle that seemed to be larger than his own hand, almost as if he was hesitant to push the gate and let them enter his property.
"And it's a traditional house!" Kanpei's voice rose in wonder, wide eyes taking every detail of their surroundings greedily. Almost baffled, Kouichi finally turned to Kouji to see his reaction, and was surprised to see him wide-eyed, an expression of amazement obvious on his face. For a moment the eldest boy knitted his eyebrows; the pleasant surprise etched on each of the chosen children's face was too exaggerated to him. It was just a traditional house, surely it wasn't their first time seeing it? Granted, he had learnt on his third day in the real world that it was unbelievably hard to find spaces for actual, proper house nowadays. Most people live in apartments, inhabiting tall buildings as if trying to get closer and closer to the sky.
Tokiya let out a nervous chuckle. "Um, my family likes to keep tradition. This house is originally my Great Grandfather's, and since my Father is the first son, he's the one continuing the family line, so he inherited both the company and this house.."
"Boy, aren't you rich," Kouji muttered in amazement.
To be fair, Kouichi himself was quite amazed by the sheer vastness of the Himi house. Once they were through the wooden gate, they were greeted by a white stone path that led to the main house. Kouichi wasn't an expert, but he had lived long enough to have decent knowledge of Japanese gardens, and immediately recognized that the garden was a perfect miniature of a roji garden(3). They were at the outer garden, it seemed; Kouichi caught a sight of a covered arbor with another gate that led to the inner garden. Though a bit obscured by the trees, Kouichi could still see another smaller, traditional, old-looking house that he assumed to be the tea house, and a small Shinto shrine. The garden didn't have flowers, but the greenery was something the city rarely had nowadays, and Kouichi gladly welcomed it, secretly thanking that snow still hadn't fallen and he had the chance to enjoy the garden without any spot of white that was the snow piling up.
They were passing by the koi pond when someone approached them from the main house. A young woman, clad in white and pink yukata with a pattern of cherry blossoms which sleeves swished elegantly in time with her movements, her geta making a rhythmic sound as they hit the stone path, her hair cascading down her back. Tokiya paused, and for the first time since Kouichi met him, his face brightened like a thousand candles suddenly lit up.
"Oneesama (4)!" he hurried forward, leaving the others trailing behind. The young woman chuckled politely, extending her arms to take Tokiya's reaching ones. "I didn't know you're here today!"
"I'm not going to stay for dinner, unfortunately," she patted Tokiya's head affectionately, and the boy grinned happily as a shade of pink colored his cheeks. She turned her head, tilting it gracefully at the sight of the other kids. "Oh? You're bringing friends, Tokiya-chan?"
"Um, yeah. We—play soccer together." Tokiya stammered, obviously making up excuses quickly. "Um, guys? This is my sister-in-law—my first brother's wife. Oneesama, these are my friends; that's Takuma-oniisan, Kanpei-san, Kouji-san and Kouichi-san."
The young woman bowed low, and the other boys scrambled to do the same. She smiled, gesturing towards the main house. "Please come in—the head of the house is meeting with my husband right now, so I would appreciate it if you would keep silent."
"Traditional house is so awesome," Takuma murmured under his breath, and Kanpei made a sound of agreement as they all followed Tokiya and his sister-in-law up towards the main house. "It's my first time ever entering one."
"It is..?" Kouichi raised an eyebrow, surprised. "Are traditional houses that rare in Tokyo nowadays?"
"It's so rare in any part of Japan nowadays, Kouichi." Takuma huffed, before looking up and jerking his head at the direction where they could see the closest block of skyscraper buildings. "Seriously, when was the last time you came out of the Digital World? Even owning a house is very expensive; you know there isn't much space for housings in Tokyo."
Kouichi was almost tempted to blurt out that he'd been gone for more than a hundred years just to stomp on Takuma's obnoxious tone—that boy really grated on his nerves sometimes. He chose to give a small sheepish smile instead, letting the matter slide. Maybe he could ask some stuff to Kazuma when they were home—the high school student had a knack of answering any question Kouichi had without probing him back.
Even if they tried to be silent, in reality it was almost impossible, considering the wonder unceasingly tumbling off Takuma and Kanpei's mouths coupled with their enthusiasm once they entered the main house. Tokiya led them to his room while his sister excused herself to make some tea and snacks. Kouichi hid a smile as he padded across the room and sat down, pausing to run his fingers on the tatami (5) underneath; it had been an exceedingly long time since he last felt the rough feeling of tatami under his fingertips, after all.
Admittedly, Tokiya's room was not as traditional as the rest of the house, with posters of children anime and tokusatsu plastered on the wall, along with Tokiya's daily lesson schedule for school. There was a futon, of course, neatly folded on the corner of the room. A see-through screen (Kouichi was quite amazed when he found out that what constituted a computer in this era was a see-through screen and a keyboard. Really.) was flickering on top of a study table just right next to the window, and a small holographic, four-dimensional television just off to the side. The center of the room was just big enough for a small kotatsu with oranges where they all sat right now—the heat from underneath the table was pleasant after the biting early winter chill outside.
What caught his attention was a wall parchment that looked like a family tree on the wall closest to him, though.
From the hallway, a gruff voice sounded, calling Tokiya in an ordering tone. The youngest boy scrambled to his feet, nearly stumbling on Kanpei's foot as he let out a "I'll be back in a minute!" before sliding the shoji door open and slipped out, leaving his guests alone.
Kouichi stood, deciding to take a good look on the family tree while Takuma and Kanpei browsed through the television channels and Kouji simply sat on his spot, feigning boredom even though Kouichi could have sworn he saw the wielder of Spirit of Light's eyes strayed in curiosity towards the open window. Perhapse the long-haired boy was interested in the garden. Shrugging, Kouichi returned his attention to the family tree, finding Tokiya's name easily enough. He retraced the branches—it went up to Tokiya's great great great grandfather, and Kouichi had to admit that he was pretty impressed, seeing the tree was done very neatly.
His finger traced back towards Tokiya's name and went back up—Tokiya's father, Himi Shinobu. Tokiya's grandfather, Himi Yuuji. Tokiya's great grandfather, Himi Genjyou. Tokiya's great great grandfather, Himi Yutaka. Kouichi's eyes strayed sideways, towards the name of Himi Yutaka's sibling, and his heart suddenly sank to his stomach.
Himi Tomoki.
Of course. Tokiya was so much alike Tomoki—his small build, the green shade of his eyes, his hair color. His last name. Funny it turned out that Tokiya still had blood ties with Tomoki, albeit not a direct one. Kouichi stepped back, worrying his bottom lip. Maybe—maybe the other chosen children also had indirect lineage with his friends? No, Kouichi shook his head—Junpei didn't have a sibling, and he ended his family's lineage with his family's painful death. Not to mention Kouji never made it into adulthood, and Kouichi as his only brother never had any children either.
This was probably a coincidence.
"Hey, Kouichi?" Kanpei's voice drew him back to reality, and he turned around to find the other three children crowding the door. Takuma gave him a wary look, and continued for his friend, "…Tokiya gets in trouble… I think."
"What?" The eldest of them crossed the room, joining the rest to press up against the door and listening in on what was happening on the hallway. He frowned—he could hear a faint gruff voice droning about school and mediocre grades and responsibility, reprimanding toned sneaking in as it cut off Tokiya's stammering explanation.
His mind prompted the sight of Tokiya—looking hesitant and scared and not knowing what to do or say. Kouichi made a small noise in his throat, making his friends turn questioningly to him, but he simply shook his head. "Let's pretend we don't hear anything," he said before stepping back and gestured for the others to do so. "It's a private matter."
"Well yeah, but if he gets into trouble because he's bringing us…" Takuma's murmur hang in the air, and all of a sudden the room became uncomfortable. Kouichi sighed inwardly—he knew everyone had their own problems and personal situations, and as a mentor, it was something he had to take into account. Ophanimon wouldn't like it if he ignored those kind of things.
No wonder Tokiya was so reserved, and didn't seem to be able to refuse anything anyone asked of him, nor standing up to speak what was in his mind. Kouichi made a mental note to speak privately with Tokiya about his family later on.
That was another thing added on the list of things he needed to solve.
-o0oendchapter3o0o-
A/N: Holy shit this turns out longer and more dragging than I expected. Sorry about that. I was quite fascinated with traditional Japanese houses lately after a lecturer brought it up. The whole description about Japanese garden was from Wikipedia, and the rest of the stuff I threw in about Tokiya's room was shallow personal knowledge.
Kacchi Kacchi Kocchin is one of Chakkmon's attack in Japanese. I think it sounds cute, I rather like it. :3
Kotatsu: You know, those low tables that has a heater thing underneath? No? Google it. Japanese usually put mikan (oranges) on kotatsu.
Roji garden: A Japanese traditional garden style, usually created as a setting for tea houses for chanoyu (tea ceremony). Tokiya's house, of course, doesn't have a real roji garden—I rather imagine his house has a hermitage garden of some sorts that consist of a miniature of roji garden. If you want to know more, Wikipedia rocks.
Oneesama: It's… a super polite suffix for older sister, I'm pretty sure.
Tatami: a type of mat used as a flooring material in traditional Japanese-style rooms.
On another note, many of the "Japan 100 years later" elements in this fic are the results of my discussion with Evide-san, especially the things Takuma mused about Kouichi being weird. I love that part endlessly. Also, I am aware that I did the research necessary for this chapter fleetingly—school ate my life, honestly—so if there's anything you guys found inaccurate or something, please don't hesitate to tell me, okay?
Alright, I'm gonna shut up. xD Reviews and constructive criticisms are loved. Flames are going to be ignored.