I Will Always Find You
«Taiora»

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Chapter 3
"Roadblocks"
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There's something wonderful being sucked into another world when reading a story. You, the reader, can choose your poison: Fantasy, sci-fi, mystery, drama, horror, thriller.

But not romance. The hell would you want to choose that?

Wasting your time reading a pathetic romance novel would be the same as wasting your life looking for 'love'.

We all live and die in an endless circle of life. Nothing exists after that. You only have one shot, one life to live, to make whatever you do count. Why bother to deal with romance when there are lands to explore and mysteries to be solved?

Romance isn't real. Love isn't real.

Reproduction is real. Reproduction exists for obvious reasons: To continue to exist. That's it. Romance is a useless and inconceivable idea that was formed to fool many into an endless torture of 'when will my prince charming come?'

Honey, prince charming doesn't exist. It's only you and yourself. Forget about this red string of fate 'lore' that has you tied to –

Sora felt bits of objects sprinkle onto the top of her hair. She shook her head using a hand to help swipe whatever it was off. Must have been those darn squirrels again jumping tree to tree. She went back to reading her book "The Forbidden Red String of Fate" readjusting her back against the oak tree.

Forget about this red string of fate 'lore' that has you tied to these illusions that everyone has someone that's perfect for them.

That's bullshit.

You're worthless.

Again, she swiped the top of her head feeling the sprinkles. These squirrels were becoming annoying. It may be time to head back inside if she wanted to keep reading this self-help book. Her therapist, Dr. Kido, strongly suggested that she'd read it. The reasons why were fuzzy, but she had to admit that it was helping her make sense of these unnecessary feelings she had inside.

As she brought the book close to her lips to blow what fell off her head away, she paused to examine it further. That didn't look like anything that would come from a tree. In fact, it looked like crumbs. She listened intently for the squirrels. Come to think of it, she hadn't heard any squirrels climbing about. Odd.

That could only mean…

Cautiously, Sora slowly turned her head up and to the left feeling a presence just above her. A small scream escaped her and she jerked back. There was a man hanging upside-down off one of the oak tree branches chewing on a cookie watching her - at least until she noticed him.

The man hurried to garble his explanation while holding the cookie between his teeth. Both hands were held up in a surrender as he hung there. "Wait! Hold on! I'm your neighbor from across the street, Taichi Yagami! I saw you reading and I didn't want to disturb – Oww! My eye!"

Frightened as could be, Sora had balled a fist and punched this crazy stalker so she could make her escape to the safety of her home. The cookie and Taichi fell to the ground as he clutched his right eye and let out another scream of pain as he landed.

"Wait!" Taichi's voice strained in pain as he stretched a hand out to her while she slammed the door shut.

He had to explain himself! It wasn't whatever she thought! Moaning from the pain and defeat, Taichi sat up clutching his eye and his aching back. Admittedly, this wasn't his proudest moment. His heart beat faster. That face...Her eyes...He couldn't shake it that he knew her from somewhere, and when his gut said something...

As much as Taichi would have preferred to knock on her door to explain, the sharp pain in his eye was begging for medical attention. That's when he saw it: The cookies inside his baggie were broken into pieces lying next to him.

"Aw, come on!" He whined snatching the baggie and stuffed it back in his pocket. "I should have stuck with the cup of sugar!"

"Tell me why again?" Dr. Jou Kido loudly sighed while flushing Taichi's eye with saline from a plastic bottle to verify all foreign objects and dirt were removed.

"Doc, I'm telling you, she was the most beautiful person I've ever seen, but man can she land a punch!"

"And that equates stalking as an acceptable reason to frighten Sora?"

Taichi pulled back to eye him annoyed that this man assumed him to be a stalker. "Stalking would mean constantly and intentionally following her every move. I only climbed a tree, dude."

Dr. Kido frowned placing the saline bottle on a nearby counter and crossed his arms waiting for a further explanation.

Dr. Jou Kido was the town doctor and psychologist who conveniently lived next door to Taichi. He practiced at home and had one room that was turned into treating patients with their medical issues and another for therapy sessions. He was quite proud of his accomplishments and loved to help people, but it was dumb situations like these that really made him want to slap his patients.

Taichi slowly lifted a hand to cover his injured eye. The uncomfortableness dripping from Dr. Kido was enough to fill the room and suffocating. He tried to play off his next question as small talk. "So! Her name's Sora? You've met her recently?"

There was an awkward pause from the doctor as if he was struggling with how to answer. Instead, the doctor quickly pinned Taichi's head back and squirted saline with a strong force!

"Ack!" Taichi pushed him away. He couldn't believe his doctor would intentionally cause him pain! "What the hell, Doc!"

"I thought I saw an object," the doctor muttered with irritation.

"When my hand was covering my eye? What's your deal!"

Dr. Kido snapped his gloves off, threw them in the trash, and sat in his chair taking hold of Taichi's patient file. His answer was stern. "I shouldn't have said her name. She's a patient of mine and due to 'patient confidentiality' I can't say anything else. But listen closely to me, Mr. Yagami, do not do that to her again - regardless of your…'innocent' intentions."

Taichi's eyes squinted and back straightened. This guy was implying he was lying! "After all these years, you honestly think I'm capable of hurting someone? Sometimes I make mistakes, and this was one I should have thought through."

"Let me stress," Dr. Kido stood to his feet and held the door open for Taichi. His mannerisms and tone became cold. "She's a long time patient. Any romantic intentions are out of the question."

"Good thing I was only saying hello to my new neighbor," Taichi lashed back hopping off the patient table. He had enough of the accusations for one day.

Kari clutched a small cardboard box that held handmade clay objects she crafted and painted in class today. She was a college student taking classes to become a kindergarten teacher and loved working with children…in the real world that is. In this world, she was Hikari, already a kindergarten teacher, who had to pretend she was teaching a small group of children in her house.

The problem was 'pretending'.

Pretend she was under this 'curse' to avoid being reset like the others. Pretend this was the only life she knew until she found Yukimibotamon and the rest of the digimon partners. Pretend to teach children, that didn't exist, speaking to the empty air in her house. Pretend, like a little kid, that she was playing 'school' and everything was a-okay.

She had a theory as to why everyone was able to break free from the curse for a few minutes at some time or another before alerting Chicanemon and being reset back. It was the light that was released from their digivices that surrounded each one before Chicanemon sucked them into his alternate universe. Perhaps it helped retained their memories and what was helping everyone fight this mental battle without even realizing it; like a vaccine to the virus.

Even so, it was hard passing by her fiancé, TK, or Takeru Ishida, the name he went by here, and not break character. This evil digimon was truly feeding off of everyone's misery by twisting their desires.

She came up with a plan: As a kindergarten teacher, part of her job was to make lesson plans for the day. Lesson plans needed to have plenty of time for fun activities. Today she helped her 'class' make 'nice' monsters from clay. This was how she was able to get away with making mini replicas of Gatomon, Agumon, Tentomon and everyone else. She hoped after handing them out to her friends this would help jog their memories.

The trick was to jog their memories without them verbally saying out loud that they remembered - which may prove to be challenging after watching her brother and Sora every day for five days. This seemed to be Chicanemon's weakness in this world: As long as they didn't verbally speak of the curse, it wouldn't draw attention. If the evil digimon was watching constantly, he would have reset Kari, and the clay replicas of the digimon partners would have flickered away from existence.

It surprised Kari though to see her brother leaving Joe - No - Dr. Kido's office with a swollen black eye. Today he broke out of his usual pattern. Odd. What happened to cause that?

"Excuse me!" Kari headed his direction. "Excuse me? Hi! I'm Kar–" she caught herself almost saying the wrong name. "Hikari! I live across the street from Koushiro's house."

Taichi shook the hand she held out, his frown that formed from previous events melting away. "I'm Taichi Yagami! Nice to meet you! Say, what was your last name again?"

"My last name?" Kari shrugged, hating to pretend she didn't know her brother. "I don't have a last name."

Taichi was taken aback. "You don't…Who doesn't have a last name?"

"I just don't," she laughed it off. "I'm not the only one that doesn't have a last name. Chef Mimi and Sora don't either." It hit her just then. Only the females didn't have last names. How demeaning...

"Sora?" Hope gleamed in Taichi's eyes, well, at least the one that wasn't injured. "Do you know her?"

"Uh, y-yes! Yes, I do. Why?" She had to be careful with what she'd say. He was falling back into his pattern of chasing Sora.

"Can you introduce her to me? I kinda messed up this morning and she gave me this black eye. I wanna show her I'm not some kind of creep-o person."

"Well, I don't know," she teased with a giggle.

Even with the curse, he was still pining after his crush. Though from the past few days when Tai and Sora came to, they acted as if they were something more. If something did happen, how come her brother never mentioned anything? He would have been over the moon telling everyone.

"How do I know you really aren't a creep-o?" she grinned continuing to tease him. "Sora wouldn't have punched you if you didn't deserve it."

"I'm not, ok!" Frustrated, he raised his voice speaking to the air so that everyone could hear. "I'm just a guy that wanted to say hi to his new neighbor! Why can't people see that?"

"Relax!" Kari laughed waving his concern away. "I'll introduce you on one condition: I made these in class today with my kiddos and it'd be a shame to throw them away. Would you mind having one?"

Taichi's face faltered. He wasn't into figurines. "Uh, I'm good–"

Hoping that her big brother was still there somewhere deep down inside, she used one of her tricks whenever she wanted him to buy her ice cream: The big, sad, manipulative cat eyes. "Please?"

"...Geeze. If it'd mean that much to you."

"Great!" She took hold of the Agumon figurine and held it out. "What about this one?"

"Nah, I want this one," he dismissed her suggestion and held the Patamon figurine. "What is it anyway? Some kind of bat-pig?"

Oh, if Patamon could hear him…

"Ooh, ooh! This one!" He switched the Patamon for the Gomamon figurine and examined it. "What's this one supposed to be?"

"Honestly, I don't have a clue," she chuckled. "Maybe a monster that likes water because of his big feet?" That was a mistake to say as she watched the excitement in Taichi's good eye grow. He always did like scary movies…

"Uh, but I think you'd like this dinosaur," she insisted holding the Agumon figurine out to him again. "I always thought of dinosaurs to be brave and courageous, and you've got to be brave to face Sora again to risk another black eye."

"…Lady, you've got too much time on your hands," he remarked slowly putting the Gomamon down and taking the Agumon.

Kari sheepishly grinned. "You have no idea…"

"Say, have we met before?" Taichi asked his new friend while they headed to Sora's house. All the alarms were going off that they were once close.

Kari slightly paused in her steps before keeping up with his pace again. "Don't think so."

"Are you sure? I kinda got this superpower when I know something is off and..." He stopped walking. Was she trying not to cry? Crap. Did he date her in the past and she was hurt he didn't remember?

"What?" She halted sensing he wasn't next to her. Turning back to him she quickly rubbed her eyes to hide her tears and sniffed a few times. She couldn't break down here. Not now. "What's the matter?"

"Allergies?" It was probably best to help her save face. She couldn't have been a past girlfriend. It was feeling more like a roommate. A close roommate.

"Yea-yeah. Allergies. I get them all the time. Listen," she decided to mention, not just to divert his attention, but to also help him with regaining his memory, "one thing to know about her is that she's seeing Dr. Kido for therapy. Not long ago she snapped raving about this wasn't the 'real world' and that she had to get back to saving her friends. He has her reading this new self-help book that his friend, Takeru, wrote and she says it's been helping her, but…" she trailed off.

"But, what? She's still crazy?" They both headed to Sora's house again.

"No," Kari chuckled. "I never thought she was crazy in the first place. I think she lost her boyfriend and making up a new world helped her cope." It was a shot in the dark, but she figured it was possible that something more than likely developed between Tai and Sora.

"Soooo, she's crazy? Because normal people sulk at home eating junk food."

They stood on Sora's front porch. "I'm telling you she's not cra…" Kari sighed and her thoughts went to her fiancé. It was so tempting to do the same as Sora trying to find everyone and jog their memories verbally like any sane person would. It was through Sora's trial and error that Kari was everyone's last hope. Even TK's.

"Look, I know we just met and you don't know me from Adam, but can you promise me one thing?" Kari took her pinky and hooked it to his.

Ever since they were little, pinky swears meant they were unbreakable. There were dire consequences if the promise made wasn't followed through and Kari always made sure to remind her brother of this rule she made up. Her brother. How she missed her brother. Here he was standing in front of her and she couldn't hug him. Her own brother didn't recognize her.

She cleared her throat trying her best to keep her 'allergies' at bay and whispered her request. She hoped that Chicanemon wasn't listening. "Try to get Sora to stop reading that book. It's sucking the life out of her and, if anything, that's what's making her crazy."

"Hikari?" Taichi whispered back looking at their pinkies intertwined with confusion. "Why are you whispering?"

Kari gritted her teeth hoping to the gods above that she wasn't reset. She held his pinky tighter whispering again. "Use your superpower, dammit! Who am I?"

Taichi eyed how far away his house was. If he had to guess, Sora wasn't the one that was crazy. "Lady, look, thanks for the gift, but I'm not buying anything you're saying. I think I'll meet her without you another day."

Kari let out a short huff and yanked on his pinky again with a harsh whisper. "Try again! What is your gut saying?"

He looked down to their pinkies. This felt familiar.

It feels like we lived together, but it wasn't romantic. Why can't she just say who she is?

His heart beat fast. Memories flashed before his eyes.

She came to my soccer games! She'd bring my lunch any time I'd forget! Whenever she was sick I'd watch over her until Mom came back.

He dropped her pinky and gripped her shoulders frustrated, the revelation hanging on the tip of his tongue.

Hikari isn't her name. She's...She's my...

"Kari?" he whispered back. He remembered! He remembered who she was! Tai tightly hugged his sister and the two did their best to stifle their tears of joy. "I've missed you."

"Tai," she pulled him away from Sora's porch and back to the sidewalk continuing with a hushed voice. "Don't answer me when I ask you this question: Do you remember anything out of the ordinary from this morning?"

This morning? Why would she…Sora!

Tai looked to Sora's house alarmed and just as fast back to Kari. Before he could say anything or act, Kari hurried to cover his mouth.

"Sshh! Just listen." In a normal tone, she spoke to her brother as if she was Hikari. They were whispering for too long. "Take this bird monster," she handed him the figurine of Biyomon, "and give it to Sora as a 'let's start over' gift. Say I'm a good friend of yours. That'll help her see you're not a 'creep-o.'"

She winked, and switching back to whispering, reminded him of what Sora mentioned earlier this morning. "Your thoughts are your only way to win this war. If something important needs to be said, write it down. Help her to come back without saying anything, but don't forget your usual pattern."

His pattern? Oh, right. Vlogs. He would stand on his lawn making vlogs until sunset with the occasional interruption from Koushiro, or technically Izzy, and whenever Sora would sit in her front yard. She was always the 'new neighbor'.

They needed to stop whispering soon before Chicanemon caught on. Tai swallowed the lump forming in his throat. How he wanted to hug his sister tight again and beat the crap out of Chicanemon.

"Hey," he hugged his sister replying back in a normal tone. "Thanks for the dinosaur gift, Hikari. You're right. I think I'm more like a dinosaur. We'll talk more another day, alright?"

Tai stood in front of Sora's front door holding the Agumon and Biyomon figurines in his hands, studying them, as Kari headed to Dr. Kido's office to give away another figurine. He was trying to come up with a plan on how to save them all without being reset. How would he be able to do that without actually voicing it? Writing it down may prove to be risky and it was way too risky whispering again like Kari did.

Kari brought him back with a meaningful gesture, the same one that he used to get Sora back before because that was their thing. The three always did that. But the others? It was times like these he really needed Izzy to help generate ideas.

Which also bared the question: Where in the world were everyone's Digimon partners and digivices?

With slumped shoulders and releasing a deep sigh, Tai raised a fist lightly rapping on the front door. It felt as if a heavy cloud loomed over his head. After all these years growing up with Sora, wishing she'd feel the same way, only to have his wish granted and torn away minutes apart, it was heartbreaking. Now it felt like he had to start from the beginning.

But I do know just about everything about her. I can use that to my advantage and win her over again until she mentally comes back to me! Problem is, where is that fine line between bringing her back and staying as 'Taichi'?

The front door opened revealing TK - No, Takeru, as he was known here, standing on the other side and was greeted instantly with a frown.

Tai slightly jumped not expecting him, and waved hello with a nervous grin trying to act like 'Taichi'. "Hi, Takeru! I haven't seen you in a few days! Still looking for a story to write? Hanging with Sora today?"

Tai could hear Sora asking in the background who was at the front door, then Matt's voice responding. What was going on in there?

Takeru stepped out closing the door behind him forcing Tai to step back. His jaw muscles clenched and the words that were spoken were icy. "Yeah, I found my story with Sora and published it. Dr. Kido is using it to treat Sora and I don't appreciate you constantly trying to regress her progress. Yamato and I would deeply appreciate it if you'd back away from now on."

Tai's mouth hung open in shock. It was hard to keep reminding himself this wasn't TK. How would 'Taichi' react to this? Sora was his new neighbor. He'd be confused, that's what. He'd be obsessed in wanting to meet her.

"Regress?" Tai let out a nervous chuckle scratching the back of his neck. "I'm not sure what that's all about. I came by to apologize for scaring her and wanted to introduce myself. She is my new neighbor, after all."

The front door opened and Yamato stepped through. His icy tone and glare matched Takeru's, opposed to this morning's friendly stance. "I'm afraid I'll have to insist as well: Leave."