I Will Always Find You
«Taiora»

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Chapter 2
"'Round and 'Round the Mulberry Bush"

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In a flash, Taichi shot up in his bed drenched in a cold sweat, his breathing was rapid and heavy, as he clutched his chest with one hand. His eyes darted to every corner of his dark bedroom as his brain tried to connect the dots that he was safe at home. Speaking in a soft, raspy voice, he called out objects laying in his room as he saw them. It was a calming technique that helped him know what he saw was real:

"Desk…nightstand…blanket…closet…socks…camera…"

It was the fifth time this week that he had the same nightmare: There was a war. A monster was chasing him and his friends. One by one they were killed and he was powerless to stop it all. There was a woman next to him, but he couldn't make out what she was trying to say or what she looked like. Next thing he knew, his body was ripped in half-

"Brush…dresser…computer…fan…"

Taichi let out a slow, deep breath wiping his brow as his nerves slowly calmed. He looked at the digital clock that laid on his nightstand to see it read six forty-two in the morning. A shower. He needed a shower and hot green tea. The lack of sleep was starting to wear on his energy. Standing to his feet, he chose a soccer uniform from the closet and headed off to wash the menacing images from his pores.

"Yo! Got any metal you don't want?"

"Whaaat?" Taichi dragged his question out, leaning his head to one side, and cocked a brow upward.

Just as his tea was poured with the anticipation of sitting on his front porch to enjoy the early morning sunshine, here comes this blonde hair, blue-eyed guy pounding on his front door at seven-thirty in the morning asking for scrap metal. Streaks of grease were littered on the stranger's cheeks, forehead, and his tattered blue overalls. This didn't look shady at all.

Taichi yawned and then sipped his tea. "What's your name again?"

"Yamato," he answered pointing to his name patch that was sowed to his shirt near his left breast and shifted the black garbage bag filled with metal that rested over his right shoulder.

"Wish I could help, dude, but I don't have any metal parts to spare."

"It's cool," Yamato sighed in defeat. "Know anyone that would?"

Taking another sip, Taichi looked to his left scanning the neighborhood street and then right. He lived in a well-kept residential area and couldn't fathom who would stockpile metal. He took a step back surprised to see Koushiro next door standing on the porch with furrowed brows and crossed arms. Geez, man. Any little noise and his crazy neighbor made sure to make his life hell.

Yamato glanced over to the same direction and took a small jump back. If he didn't know better it looked like there were deep, dark, black circles set under the neighbor's eyes. A man without sleep wasn't one to interact with. "Um, maybe I should–"

"Nah, it's all good!" Taichi chuckled. "He's harmless. Watch this. Morning, neighbor!" He greeted with a wave. The 'kill them with kindness' approach seemed best in this situation. It's not that he wanted to tease Koushiro. He didn't. His gut was saying his neighbor had another all-nighter with work and no matter what he'd say, it would be taken the wrong way. Still, it wouldn't hurt to attempt some kind of conversation with him…be it crazy neighbor, or not. "Another long night writing code?"

"I'M-WOR-KING!" Koushiro threw his hands in the air. "How hard is it to shut up! Seriously!"

Taichi smiled. "Aw, I'm doing great this morning. Thanks for asking!" He turned back to Yamato sipping his tea nonchalantly. "See? Harmless."

Koushiro huffed in irritation and headed back to his front door.

Before he could enter, Yamato sent a question his way. "Yo, by the way, any metal you can spare? Maybe an old computer?"

Rage filled Koushiro's eyes. He slowly turned and addressed Yamato in a low voice. "How dare you think I'd get rid of any computer in my possession." He then stormed into his home slamming the door shut.

Yamato blinked, confused to Koushiro's reaction while Taichi sipped his tea leaning against the front door frame unfazed. Readjusting the garbage of metal over his shoulder, Yamato grumbled to the floor, "Geez, man. Someone needs to get him laid."

Taichi nodded. "Tell me about it. Say, whatcha gonna do with all that metal anyhow?"

Yamato flashed a debonair smile. "Build a space rocket."

"Uh-huh…"

A space rocket? Really? Who does that?

When he noticed Yamato's smile begin to falter, Taichi quickly grinned rubbing the back of his neck. "That's great! Someone has to explore space, right?"

A displeased grunt was released as Yamato walked down the front porch steps. "More like the moon, or Mars…"

"Alright, man," Taichi took another sip and waved goodbye ignoring his visitor's side comment. "I hope you find all the metal you need," and entered his home closing the door.

Pouring another cup of hot green tea, Taichi settled for sitting at his kitchen table. Hot showers in the morning usually worked in helping to calm him from the recurring nightmare, but this time he couldn't shake it. He could still play it back in his mind as vividly as ever. His stomach became queasy. He usually liked to have a huge breakfast before starting his daily vlog, but not today. Something was off. Taichi could always count on his gut feelings and this time it was saying he needed to remember something. Perhaps the nightmares were serving for a distorted way of his subconscious trying to tell him something else?

Before he could take a sip as he strived to analyze the dream, another knock came at the front door.

Not cool! Not cool at all!

He groaned, the kitchen chair scraping against the floor, as he stood grumbling to himself about needing five minutes to himself.

"Now, let's talk about your drink, Sir."

"Huh?" Taichi looked at his tea confused.

"It's about your drink, Sir," the saleswoman insisted with a sweet smile.

"What about it?" He asked, squinting his eyes and cautiously taking a sip.

"It can't be as good as Mimi's Famous Hot Chocolate! Here! Have some!" The saleswoman produced a thermos from her bulky shoulder bag and unscrewed the top.

"Lady, I think I'm good with my tea," he politely declined not realizing he was protectively clutching his tea to his chest.

"Nonsense! Taste it! One taste and you'll definitely want to hire me as your home chef!" She insisted offering it to him.

"Listen. Chef Mimi, is it?" Chef Mimi eagerly nodded. Taichi sheepishly grinned feeling uncomfortable turning her away. "I really have no need for a personal home chef. I cook pretty well for myself."

Chef Mimi clicked her tongue out of annoyance, took a step forward and again offered the hot chocolate. "Oh, that's silly talk! Everyone needs help every once in a while. Taste it!"

"No, really! I'm good!"

"Open wide!"

"Lady!"

"Would you open your mouth!"

"Oh my God, Lady! Get off my porch!"

"What's the commotion about this time!" boomed Koushiro stomping out of his front door again. "Taichi, I've had enough of your…" The minute Koushiro's eyes laid on Chef Mimi's, his expression softened. Blushing, he stammered his next sentence, "Oh, uh, hel-hello there, ma'am."

Chef Mimi frowned. "Well, good morning to you too." She turned to Taichi. "Is that how he usually acts?"

Though it was tempting to crack a joke about Koushiro, Taichi thought of a brilliant idea that would make everyone happy and get this lady off his property. "Tell you what: Give me those cookies that you showed me earlier for free and I'll convince Koushiro that he needs you."

She huffed, "I can do my own convincing, thank you." Then again, enlisting Taichi's help wouldn't be a bad idea. "…Think it'll work?" This was the fourth neighborhood she visited this week with no luck in finding employment. If this man could help change the tide she would be eternally grateful.

Koushiro rubbed the back of his neck nervously watching the two whisper. "I-I didn't mean to yell. Honest!"

Chef Mimi glanced back at Koushiro eyeing him up and down. He looked like a hot mess: Clothing was wrinkled, there were dark, deep-set circles under his eyes, and his hair looked to be tattered and greasy. Either this guy didn't bother to take good care of himself, or he was a workaholic. Taichi may be right about this guy after all!

She fumbled through her bulky shoulder bag, produced a plastic baggie of fresh, homemade chocolate chip cookies and handed them to Taichi. "Deal!"

Taichi grinned putting the cookies in his pocket and addressed his neighbor. "Morning again, neighbor! My friend here, uh…" He looked to Chef Mimi trying to remember her name.

"Chef Mimi!" She waved to Koushiro with the biggest smile and then fluffed her hair to look presentable.

"Chef Mimi! Yes!" Taichi followed through. "My friend, Chef Mimi, here, was looking to see if I knew anyone that was willing to hire a personal chef. You're constantly working," he pointed towards Koushiro, "and hardly ever leave your house. I think this would be a well-fit marriage."

"What?" Koushiro responded flustered and his cheeks grew redder by the second. "I don't think so. As long as I have oolong tea nearby–"

She gasped taken aback from his lack of nutritional diet. She came to the conclusion that he was a workaholic in dire need of structure. "Oooh, no, sir! Not on my watch!" She stormed over to Koushiro's porch and pushed him inside. "You need my help, you poor thing! I'll take good care of you!"

"Wait a minute!" He tried to protest, but was pushed inside and the front door slammed shut.

Taichi sipped his tea with a chuckle. It was totally worth whatever payback he'd get. To be frank, sometimes he was concerned about his neighbor not having a life and constantly working day and night. Maybe this Chef Mimi lady would be good for him. If anything, hopefully, he'll be less grumpy with a full stomach.

"Hey, guys! It's your main man, Taichi Yagami! For today's topic, we're gonna talk about cleats." Taichi stood in his front yard fully dressed in his soccer uniform holding a spare pair of cleats in the air as his video camera, that stood several feet away, recorded his vlog. "Now, the thing you want to keep in mind when choosing a pair, is that a tighter fit is generally recommended because here's the thing: Soccer shoes are usually constructed of very thin material. Thin material, plus a tighter fit, will ensure optimal…Whoa…"

Taichi's heart stopped beating. His peripheral vision caught a woman leaving the house directly across the street from his property. That house had been empty for years. Since when did someone move in? He couldn't place where he saw her before, but it felt as if he once knew her. Maybe from school? It's possible. He tried thinking of all the friends he knew growing up, but their faces were blurred. She looked so familiar.

And beautiful.

A cherry blossom tree flickered into existence on the front yard where the lady stood. It looked like she carried a book with her. She made herself comfortable laying a blanket on the floor and curled up against the tree resting her back to its trunk facing her house.

Taichi was smitten at first sight. He had to of known her from somewhere. One thing he always did was trust his gut feelings.

"Sora…" Her name flowed through his lips as if he'd always known her. His heart thumped rapidly against his chest. "Sora?" he said it again confused as to why the name and this woman felt so familiar.

He dropped the soccer cleats to the ground and turned the camera off. Studying this woman that was supposedly named 'Sora', a rush of memories attacked his mind:

I've known Sora all my life! We grew up together in Highton View Terrance – No! Odaiba! Maybe we knew each other in both towns?

He took a step forward gasping.

She was my best friend!

He took another step forward.

No! She once was my best friend. Now we're…

"Sora!" Tai cried rushing to Sora. "Sora! It's me!"

Wide-eyed, Sora scrambled to her feet clutching the book to her chest, frightened of this stranger rushing towards her. "Come any closer and I'll knock you senseless!"

Tai came to a halt taken aback of Sora not recognizing him. He was steps away from her and all he wanted to do was to squeeze his girlfriend tight and kiss her, tell her that they were living in a real-life nightmare created by Chicanemon and needed to break free of it somehow. Wait. That meant, he looked towards Koush – No! Izzy's 'house'. They weren't dead! None of them were!

"Shoo!" Sora was smacking Tai with her book. "Get off my property before I call the police!"

"Ack! Sora! Stop!" Tai tried blocking each smack. "Think back!"

"Think back to what?" She exclaimed. "I've never met you in my life!"

He stepped back shielding his face. The hits were starting to smart. "Ouch! Stop! Think of the digital world! Ack! Of Odaiba! We were soccer buddies! Sora, stop!"

"You're crazy! I said get off my property right this instant!"

Tai could feel his body begin to flicker. No! No-no-no! If he was reset again, he was going to forget everything. How many of his friends came to, only to be reset? For how long had they all been like this? Where in the world was his sister? In a panic, he snatched Sora's book away and threw it to the side. With all his strength, he resisted the reset until he could at least tell Sora.

"Look at me, Sora! Look into my eyes and tell me you don't have nightmares that keep you from sleeping! Tell me that you don't see me in them and then feel your body being ripped to shreds as you die at the end. It's me, Tai. Your boyfriend?" The flickering became frequent and he could feel himself losing the battle to keep his memories.

Sora's muscles tensed. How did he know about her nightmares? He did look familiar, but she didn't have a boyfriend. His face though…Those eyes; they looked like the same ones in her dreams, desperate to tell her something. "How…How did you?"

Tai curled his pinky with hers trying to ignore the overall pain that was growing as his voice was becoming strained. "Please, think back. I can't hold back much longer. You're Sora Takenouchi, my girlfriend. I'm Tai Kamiya, your boyfriend. We were fighting a war against Chicanemon–" He winced in pain. He let out a few breaths and pushed forward. "This is all an illusion and we have to go find the others. I promised that I'd find you, but it may take me longer than I thought to figure out how to beat this."

Sora squinted her eyes examining their pinkies connected. This felt familiar. She looked up to Tai as recognition flashed in her eyes. "Tai?"

"Yes!" He kissed her rejoicing inside as she responded back and tears streamed down her cheeks. "Sor, I love you! I love you, baby! Find the digivices! Find Agumon! Get Izzy to remember and give my digivice to him because mine has the–"

Before Tai could finish, he was reset. His body disappeared from her sight and was placed back on his yard filming his vlog with no memory of what occurred moments before.

Sora stood frozen, her tears of happiness turned into sadness. She had to be careful on her next spoken words and actions because she knew Chicanemon was controlling this illusion, or dimension, or whatever the hell they were in. She managed to break free of Chicanemon's control several times this week, and as a role-reversal, did the same to Tai while he was filming his vlog – Or now it was 'Taichi' since he was back under the evil digimon's control again. But each time, after Tai regained his memory, they were both reset along with his camera that filmed the encounter leaving no proof to show the others.

Swallowing her tears, she forced a fake, confused expression and walked over to pick up her book. Reading the title of the cover, she resisted rolling her eyes: The Forbidden Red String of Fate. This digimon was truly demented. The evil digimon was getting his kicks on keeping them separated, yet so close. It was becoming consistent that in this world they were all stuck in, not only could Chicanemon tweak a person's personality, he could also give whatever the person's desire was with a sick twist. Allowing Tai and herself to recognize each other only to be reset was another one of his sick twists. Who knows what the others were going through. It took everything in her not to throw the book down and flick the evil digimon off.

As she walked back to the tree to sit down and pretend to read she heard a desperate: "SORA!"

She shut her eyes fighting back sobs and stood holding her book back up as a weapon to hit Tai again. For everyone's sake, if she was the only one that could pretend to be under Chicanemon's control until she could find a way to help everyone break free, then so be it. She'd pretend to not recognize him.

"I said, get off my property!"

Tai flickered before he could reach her, was 'reset', and placed back in his yard. His video camera flickered, and as usual, Taichi continued to swat it, annoyed, until it stopped.

She sighed and sat again on her blanket resting her back against the tree. She felt the tree flicker morphing from a cherry blossom into an oak tree with low branches. Usually, she would have wanted to climb such a majestic tree as this one, but it was probably best to sit here and continue to read this book. Tai would have loved to climb this tree. It was similar to their tree back home. Her Tai. Her poor Tai.

"SORAA!"

Out of reflex, she dropped the book and jumped to her feet rushing to Tai crying. He remembered again and it was happening faster than before! She felt her body flickering once more, but she didn't care. She had to hold him! She had to kiss him and tell him everything was going to be okay! She was going to resist this 'reset' again if it was the last thing she did. The two ran into each other's arms crying, resisting the reset. Tai curled his pinky to hers again saying the same thing to her moments ago. He always said the same thing. Each day was the same repeat over and over again.

"Tai!" She took hold of his cheeks breaking their kiss. "Listen to me! We're going to be reset again! When you get your memories back be careful of your actions and what you say out loud! Your thoughts are your only safeguard. I don't know how, but you've got to get this in your subconscious. Each of us lives on this street. We all have a pattern. Break the pattern and you'll break this curse–"

As usual, each were reset and placed back into their respected spots.

"Hey, guys! It's your main man, Taichi Yagami! For today's topic, we're gonna talk about cleats…"

Taichi held his head from a sudden headache. This was probably happening since he didn't have his usual breakfast. Of course! He remembered he only had hot green tea because he allowed one stupid little dream shake him to the core. Oh, wait. Didn't that Chef Mimi lady give him cookies? He dug into his pockets until he pulled out the plastic baggie of fresh chocolate chip cookies and took a bite. Mmm-mmm! That hit the spot!

As he took another bite, his peripheral vision caught sight of a beautiful red-haired lady sitting on a blanket reading a book in the yard across the street from his. She looked so familiar! He put the cookies back in his pocket for later. Did he know her from somewhere? How could he forget about someone like her? He had to meet her. He had to introduce himself. He could say something along the lines of 'Welcome to the neighborhood! When did you move in?' or 'If you ever need a cup of sugar…'

Ugh. Cup of sugar. Really, Taichi?

That was a really cool looking tree in her yard too. That one must have flickered recently into existence because he would have remembered that tree. Old oak trees were one of the best ones to climb, what with their thick, low branches bending from the decades its lived weighting them down. She was so engrossed reading her book, maybe he shouldn't disturb her. Maybe he would climb the tree high enough instead and watch her from above in silence? That way, if he was wrong no one would be the wiser?

Like a weirdo stalking his prey. Get a grip.

"Ah," he waved a hand in the air dismissing his previous thoughts.

Who did that? Who climbed trees to watch a girl? He wasn't a kid anymore.

His heart skipped a beat.

He couldn't shake this feeling that he knew her from somewhere and if it was one thing, he always trusted his gut. Fine. He'll use his stealth-like skills and be, like, five minutes – In and out!

What could go wrong with that?