Daisuke woke up the next day feeling groggy and under slept. He could barely open his eyes much less get out of bed. To counter his lazy other half, Dark took over and got out of bed. He left his room to get down to breakfast and was met my Angel, or so he thought.
"Good Morning, Dark." [Name] said with a cheery smile. "Morning,[name]." Dark said with a soft smile. "She's a morning person just like she always was." Dark thought. Dark followed her down the stairs to the kitchen and got them both breakfast. He wanted to spend the morning with [name] but before they even sat down Daisuke was fully awake and asking Dark to let him take control. Dark did so reluctantly and to Daisuke's despair Dark had already eaten most of his breakfast.
Diasuke and [name] walked to school and were greeted by Risa and Riku. [Name] gave Riku a friendly smile along with her greeting but this didn't stop Riku from feeling a little jealous of them coming to school together. Riku kept her eye on [Name] and didn't notice any unusual contact between her and Daisuke, but she did notice that Daisuke was acting strangely and was shying away from her. 'Daisuke only avoids me when he's hiding something.'
The school bell rang and Satoshi left swiftly but coolly out of the door not even giving Daisuke a passing glance. Angel followed close behind and waited in the hall for Daisuke who was packing his bag. Just as he was pushing in his chair Riku came across the room and asked "What are you so nervous about?" Daisuke was stunned for a moment and Riku said, "I know you have something you need to tell me so quit avoiding me and just say it." Riku stood with her hands on her hips waiting for Daisuke's response and he tensely said "Riku…I'm leaving this school to study abroad."
Riku was taken aback by this. She was expecting him to say that he was missing Dark again or that he didn't want her to get jealous of [Name]. "What? Where are you going? How long will you be gone?" The questions were rushing out of Riku's mind like a dam just burst. "Ah! Don't worry, Riku. I won't be gone forever! It'll only be for a couple months." Riku was somewhat relieved by this news. "As for where I'm going I don't really know, [Name] hasn't told me yet." Daisuke said. "Wait, [Name]?" Riku said. At this Daisuke had realized what he said and wished he could take it back. "Is [name] going with you!" Riku said in a worried tone.
"Riku, it's not what you think! It's just for a special school program." Daisuke lied. "I don't wanna hear about it! You go have fun with [name]!" Riku ran from the class room with Daisuke failing to reach out to her in time to stop her. [Name] came in from the opposite door and by the look she was giving Daisuke he knew it was Angel in control. "You would have to tell her sooner or later. Don't worry, Daisuke, you can tell her all about it when you come back and our assignment is finished. Then she'll understand." Angel said reassuringly. Daisuke said and hoped that what Angel said was true.
That night Daisuke was packing what he would need for the trip; clothes, tooth brush, cards for warning notes (the usual equipment for a Phantom Thief). Just as he was zipping up the bag he realized Dark was curiously silent. "Dark, are you still thinking about [name]?" "Huh? Well… yeah it's just been a while since I've seen her and the last time I saw her she-" Dark cut himself off and went silent again. "Dark, this is bothering you. You have to talk about it if you ever want to get it off your chest." Daisuke said reaching out to his other self. Dark remained silent then sighed before agreeing with Daisuke; then he began explaining how he and [name] had ended up before now.
"The time I appeared before I met you grandfather was about one hundred years ago. Back then I had met [Name] when she was an artist. We didn't quite get along at first seeing as I was wanted and she was a typical society girl who believed what the papers said. She had recently been recognized as a local artist and one of her artworks had been unveiled at the museum and I was obviously going to steal it. As you can guess, she wasn't too happy about that so she decided to stand guard for her own artwork. Undoubtedly, I got past the guards and was about to steal the painting but I stopped short. As soon as I caught sight of it I was drawn in by simplicity of the image and the detail used in the strokes." Dark spoke as though he was reliving it. Daisuke though about what Dark was saying. "This is the first time I've heard Dark actually admire an artwork." Daisuke contemplated.
"I reached out to grab the painting and then [Name] ran at me and pushed me to the ground. I was so surprised and I scrambled to get to my feet. When I tried to get up I accidentally kissed her. She was upset and was yelling at me about stealing her painting. The guards were coming so I had to disappear. I was so curious about that the next day I took over and went to find her. She was in a small run down art studio painting again and when she saw me standing in the doorway she had a mixed expression of shock and anger. She ran to a corner where she stood with her arms stretched out to guard it. She thought I was there to steal art from her gallery and it took some convincing on my part to get her to trust me. We talked and got to know each other and she eventually let me look in her gallery. She had a simple way of thinking and it showed in the images of her art but she had so much skill with a brush that even the simplest painting made you stop and look. We became close and she became more cheerful around me; I had chosen her as my sacred maiden…for the time." Dark said finishing with an overcast tone.
"What do you mean? What happened to her, Dark?" Daisuke asked with a voice full of care. Dark stayed silent for a moment before continuing and the started, "One day when I was being particularly romantic with a beautiful girl, [Name] stormed back to her home and I went after her feeling bad about flirting when I knew she was right there. I came in and saw her falling. She had fainted and I took her to the hospital just to be sure she was ok. The doctors took a closer look at her and found she was sick with a deadly disease." "That's horrible how did it happen!" Daisuke asked in shock of the late news. " I don't know how she got the illness, but when she woke up and I questioned her about it and apparently she hadn't known that she was even sick. We argued about what she was going to do and then she said there was nothing she could do and that she was going to die just like her brother had." Dark paused knowing that Daisuke would question him.
"[Name] had a brother?"
"Yes, he died before I met her though and she never brought him up often."
"How sad." Daisuke commented.
"She got so mad about me telling her she had to heal herself that she said he hated me for asking something so impossible of her. It was a little bit of a shock to me and I stumbled out promising I'd come to visit her the next day. When I did come to check on her she'd gotten worse. She couldn't move a muscle and I had to help to take care of her. She still hadn't forgiven me but I didn't care. I came day after day and was upset to find no improvement. Just when I thought it couldn't get worse, I came to visit and she had completely forgotten who is was and didn't even remember the fight we had. I begged the doctors to do whatever they could to help her but they said it was inevitable; there was nothing they could do."
There was a silence and Daisuke was doing his best to keep tears from rolling down his face. Dark broke Daisuke out of his lament and continued. "A week later, [Name] died… I attended her funeral and sat in the front and waited for everyone else to leave. I had some time alone with her when everyone else had left. I stood over her grave and looked down to where she was waiting to be buried. For a while I had been planning to propose to her but as you can guess I was too worried about her health to even think about it. I took the ring I was going to give her and dropped it into the grave just before they started burying her." Dark finished on that somber note and Daisuke couldn't help but feel just as dejected as his counterpart.
"No wonder you were so upset with Angel when you saw her using [Name's] body as a disguise."
"Yeah, but she's here now, and I'll have another chance to get her back."
" I'll be right there to help you, Dark. Angel is too!"
"Thank you, Daisuke that means a lot." Dark said with such gratitude Daisuke could sense the smile in his voice. Dark was slowly changing for the bête and it was all because of [Name].