Disclaimer: For all the love I have for Digimon, it is not mine.
A/N: This was supposed to be one chapter, I decided to split it into two. Sorry for the late update, school and work is the die X.X ENJOY!
Yamato lightly punched Taichi in the arm at the other's lame joke, earning him a mock glare from Sora, who hid her giggle behind the sleeves of her Yukata. Yamato could not help but stare at his girlfriend, an action that is mimicked by Taichi. Not that Yamato could blame him, Sora really did look stunning in her Yukata.
He thought back to when he and Taichi went to pick Sora up from her house and seeing her emerge in the elegant emerald number. It took Taichi a grand total of 15 seconds of gawking before he could stammer out a compliment. As much as Sora used to fight against it, she took after her mom's cultured charm and it showed whenever she donned the traditional outfit.
Sora could not help but blush at the two boys showering their undivided attention to her and tried to redirect their focus, "I think I see Takeru and Hikari-chan!" She pointed to the benches in the distance.
Sure enough, a distinct mop of blonde hair stood out from the reddish hues of the evening sky. Mindful of Sora's small steps (Yukatas were not made to be walked in), Yamato gently guided the redhead towards the direction of his brother, Taichi to his side, chatting amiably.
"Aniki! Sora-san! Taichi-san! You guys are here!" Takeru waved awkwardly at the approaching trio with Hikari following suit.
"Nii-chan!" She waved enthusiastically.
The trio broke their formation as the brothers went to hug (or in Yamato's case, headlock) their respective siblings.
"We got a bench over there so we can sit and wait, Mimi-san said that they'll be a bit late," Hikari informed as took small but quick steps towards a bench in the distance.
As they got closer to the bench however, Yamato noticed someone he was not expecting to see, "Natsuhi?"
Said girl looked up from her phone and tossed him a smirk, "Hey."
Unlike the rest of the digidestined, whom under Mimi's coercion, were all wearing Yukatas, Natsuhi was dressed in a pair of jeans, sneakers and an oversized shirt, hair piled up in a messy bun. Yamato cast the shirt that was hanging off her shoulder a second longing glance. It was a well-known fact within the band that Natsuhi and Yamato shared their wardrobe (shirts at least), and when Natsuhi had shown up to band practice in this particular rock graffiti inspired shirt, Yamato had immediately pestered her for it. Usually Natsuhi would happily give him the shirts and buy a new one for herself, but she shooed him off this particular one. Not that he blamed her, it was a really nice shirt. She promised to buy him one if she ever went to Korea again and so here as Yamato, still waiting for the gift.
Sensing his lingering stare on her shirt, Natsuhi shot him a knowing smirk. Yamato glared back playfully before voicing the question that was on his mind, "What are you doing here?"
Before Natsuhi could reply, Takeru cut in, "Oh, Hikari insisted on inviting Natsuhi-nee since…" The younger of the two blondes trailed off uncertainly.
"Since she thought I could use a social life," Natsuhi continued bluntly.
Hikari stuck her tongue out sheepishly at the comment while Takeru just laughed awkwardly. That was not why they had invited Natsuhi to the matsuri, but it was not as if they could tell his brother that they invited her along so they could match-make Natsuhi and his brother now could they? Sadly their little scheme had not gone according to plan when Natsuhi chickened out of wearing her Yukata, which Hikari took hours to pick out for her.. Takeru cast a look at Sora who was all made-up then back at the comparatively dressed down Natsuhi with a sigh, how was she going to capture his brother's attention at this rate? The slight frown that marred Hikari's face told him that she shared his sentiments.
The young couple's worry did not last long however as the remaining digidestined made their way towards the meeting point noisily.
"Sorry we're late!" Koushiro apologized with a bow while the rest of the group exchanged enthusiastic greetings with the rest of the digidestined. Nastuhi hung back as usual, taking in the scene with indifferent eyes until she picked up an unfamiliar face.
"It's all Wallace's fault, he heard that we were all going to wear Yukatas so he pestered us to get one for him too…" Daisuke complained. At that, everyone's attention was turned to the unfamiliar blonde.
Realizing his mistake, Koushiro immediately stepped up to introduce his friend. "Right, I forgot you guys haven't met. This is Wallace, the friend from America that I told you about, he's a digidestined too." Then looking at Taichi, he continued, "He's the one who tipped me off about Diablomon all those years ago."
Recognition setting in, Taichi pointed at the newcomer and gave him a friendly slap on the back, "So you're the primary school kid who goes to college. I'm Taichi."
Wallace responded with a polite smile, inwardly wincing at the bodily contact.
"He's also the digidestined that we met on our trip to America that time all of you were spirited away," Hikari added. "It's been a while, how have you been Wallace?"
"Wonderful, thanks for asking, you still look beautiful as ever," the American digidestined complimented without missing a beat. Hikari blushed in reply while Takeru just shook his head slowly, apparently Wallace's cassanova ways did not improve with age.
"Nice to see you again too Wallace," Takeru extended his hand at the fellow blonde, which the latter took.
Wallace then turned to greet the remaining members of the group, naturally picking up on the females first. "Oh wow, you must be what the Japanese call the Yamato Nadeshiko," Wallace tossed Sora charming smile.
Sora blushed at the compliment and almost immediately, Taichi saw red. Pulling Sora behind him protectively, Taichi fumed, "She's already got a boyfriend, no hitting on her!" As if to emphasize his point, he pushed Sora towards Yamato, causing the couple to blush.
A brief look of confusion crossed Wallace's face before the same unsettling smile took its place on his face again. "I'm sorry, I was just complimenting the beautiful lady."
Just as Taichi was about explode a second time (with Daisuke egging him on in the background), Yamato placed a placating hand on his shoulder, "It's fine Taichi, he didn't mean any harm, he was just complimenting her." Taichi glared daggers at Wallace and looked like he had to say otherwise but Yamato quickly redirected the topic. "Your Japanese is really good."
"He had a Japanese girlfriend," Daisuke interjected mercilessly, eyeing Wallace with narrowed eyes but the American digidestined just kept on smiling.
"Well it's not my fault the ladies in this country are all so beautiful," Wallace replied with a thousand watt smile, irritating Daisuke even more.
Sensing that her good friend was about blow, Hikari quickly piped in, "Oh yea, Onii-san, you've been learning English no? Why don't you practice with Wallace?"
Daisuke, with his attention span of a puppy, immediately turned to the older digidestined, admiration shining in his eyes.
This time it was Taichi's turn to turn red with embarrassment; if he was going down, he was dragging his best friend with him. "Well so is Yamato."
"Oh, you're both learning English?' Wallace switched back to his native language effortlessly.
"Yea, I'm aiming to get into the Japan Aerospace Exploration agency and Taichi's wants to work in international relations, so we thought it's a good idea to pick up the language. He's actually quite fluent, just really shy," Yamato replied with equal ease and elbowed the brunette.
"I'm still working on my accent," Taichi admitted with almost perfect English.
Yamato shook his head slowly, his best friend's English was just fine, but for all of Taichi's courage he was ridiculously self-conscious about his accent after being called out in class by their anal teacher (who since then have left the language centre).
"Your English is better than mine and I lived in America," Mimi sighed out honestly, earning her an embarrassed laugh from Taichi.
"I think your accent's really cute Mimi," Wallace threw yet another smile her way. Koushiro, having known his friend for so many years merely smiled wryly at his antics instead of taking offense at Wallace flirting with his girlfriend. But not everyone was that calm.
"Mou! Stop hitting on the girls already!" Daisuke all but whined at his good friend.
Wallace laughed sheepishly, "But it's common courtesy to compliment the ladies."
Hanging back in the shadows, Natsuhi couldn't control the smirk that was playing on her lips. The cassanova was obviously continuing his flirtatious ways because he enjoyed perplexing Daisuke. Finally an interesting character for her to analyse. Maybe the evening won't be so boring after all.
Trailing down the long stretch of stalls, the large group scooped up a considerable amount of food and prizes. They were a considerably large group, and owing to the fact that digidestined were all good looking people in their own ways, they attracted a lot of attention. Natsuhi, who hung at the back of the group mused at their line-up. The loudest most boisterous Daisuke led the group, followed by his best friend, Ken and Ken's girlfriend Miyako. The ever excited Mimi dragged Wallace along, her contrast of a boyfriend Koushiro followed behind. Takeru and Hikari hung in the middle, acting as a buffer between the older and younger digidestined along with their respective brothers and Sora. Towards the back were the quieter Joe and Iori, who shot apologetic glances at shopkeepers. It was quite a sight to behold.
The group once again stopped, this time at series of game stalls, and the formation broke up as different people in the group ran towards different booths. Natsuhi surveyed the scene cooly. Apparently it was Mimi who made the stop, she wanted a particular prize from the 'Knock-over-the-bottles-with-a-baseball' booth and was in the process of pestering Koushiro to win it for her. Takeru, being the ever sweet boyfriend that he was offered to try and win something Hikari. Ever competitive, Daisuke started a competition with the younger blonde, dragging his poor best friend into the fray (and Miyako obviously wasn't helping, egging them on).
The only trio that actually warranted Natsuhi's attention had wandered off to the booth next to the one most of the digidestined were crowded at, with Taichi and Yamato absorbed in a friendly competition of who can win Sora the most number of prizes. Natsuhi quickly shifted her attention to the kids trying to catch goldfishes in an attempt to suppress the ugly head of jealousy that was rising in her chest. Caught up in her own emotions, Natsuhi didn't realize that Wallace had broken from the group and drifted to where she was.
"Why aren't you wearing a Yukata?" The American digidestined broached.
"You've never worn Japanese sandals have you," Natsuhi threw back.
Wallace shook his head, "This is my first time."
She hmmed in response and did not say anything else. Just as Wallace thought about following up with a different question, she motioned to a couple not too far away from them. The girl held a sandal with broken strap in one hand and nursed her blistered foot with the other.
"At least one of us has to wear practical clothing," Nastuhi elaborated, shoving her hands into her pocket.
For once, Wallace nodded thoughtfully instead of giving an exuberant reply. The silence did not last long however, it simply wasn't in this particular blonde's nature to remain quiet.
"Sorry I didn't catch your name just now. I'm Wallace, you are?" He introduced again with a smile.
Instead of answering, Natsuhi stared back at his face piercingly, blatantly reading him. A second passed, then two, then three. Expectedly, by the fifth second, Wallace shifted his weight from one foot to another. But to his credit, it was the only sign of discomfort he displayed. The smile on his face did not waver one bit.
Nastuhi couldn't help the smirk that caught the edge of her lips, she made a point to stare at people intently for long periods of time, mainly to unsettle them. Easily unsettled people simple aren't worth her time. By the twelfth second, she concluded that Wallace was interesting enough to learn her name.
"Aoi Natsuhi." She stated evenly.
Had it been anyone else, they would have long since given up on trying to converse with the girl (Like Joe and Miyako), but Wallace wasn't just anyone. The more stand-offish the target was, the more interested he was to crack their shell. And so, undeterred, Wallace continued the one-sided conversation.
"Would you like anything from the booths?" He offered. Almost all the girls in the group had a gift of some in their hands, all except for the drummer next to him.
Nastuhi shrugged. "So what do you do?" She asked out of nowhere, turning her piercing stare back to him again. She was pretty sure that the boy before her was more than just an overenthusiastic Casanova. Most people flinch at her gaze, he doesn't. Not only that, that annoying grin of his remains a permanent fixture on his face. Anyone who can maintain such a façade in the face of her aloofness is definitely not normal. Not normal is interesting. The smallest of smirks tugged at her lips. This guy just gets more and more interesting doesn't he.
"I work at a Digimon research lab in the states," Wallace explained, his demeanour a tad more serious.
At that, Natsuhi's eyes visibly lit up. Wallace's psych profile temporary forgotten, she delve into the topic with fervour (or whatever fervour was by her standards).
"You not studying?" She asked, more out of courtesy than curiosity. She had a million questions she wanted to ask about the digital world that she's heard so much about, from humans and digimon alike, but has never been; but it would be rude even by her standards to suddenly bombard the poor guy.
"Well…" Wallace rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, though Natsuhi could see that the action wasn't really sincere. "I graduated college at 16…Koushiro may have told you? I was taking college classes since elementary school."
Natsuhi had to give the guy credit, he had managed to appear appropriately embarrassed and humble despite bragging about his academic achievements. Fortunately or unfortunately for Natsuhi, she was neither impressed nor bothered with his achievements.
"So wha-" Both of them started at the same time. This time, Wallace's sheepishness was genuine. "You first," he offered, every bit the gentleman.
The response he got was a pointed look, "You first." The tone broked no room for argument, and so he complied.
"What about you? You're…studying?" The girl before him seemed to be around Taichi's age, but she did not exactly give off a college student vibe.
"Psychology major." Natsuhi confirmed.
Now it was Wallace's turn to be intrigued. Psychology major…it explained a lot.
Had Natsuhi not been so caught up in her newest psychoanalysis target, she would have noticed that the original blonde who commanded the centre of her attention kept sending furtive glances her way. Alas, she did not notice, and for some reason, that fact left Yamato with a bitter taste in his mouth. One that tasted suspiciously like jealousy. But there was no way he was jealous that his best friend was chatting up another blonde. Self-denial firmly in place, Yamato turned back to the 'who can win Sora more plush toys' competition with Taichi.
Once Sora had an armful of toys that she could hardly carry, the group finally decided it was time to move on. The group fell back into the same formation it had before, with one small difference. Tagging at the back of the group was Natsuhi, who was caught up in a discussion on the psychology of Digimons in relation to their human partners with none other than Wallace.
No one commented however, the group has long since learned that when it came to Yamato's mysterious best friend, it was best not to ask questions. And so they walked, and conversation continued to flow, until something called Natsuhi's eyes.
It was a pig. To be exact, it was a pig plushtoy. But if you wanted to be precise, Natsuhi would tell you that the pig is Hawk from Seven Deadly Sins and that she absolutely needed one.
With her usual decisiveness, she stopped, abruptly. Wallace who until then was happily continuing the conversation followed suit and followed her line to sight to the exact prize. For the second time that evening, he offered, "Would you like anything?"
He had expected her to say no, but Natsuhi's reply surprised him. "Yes, yes I would."
With that, she rolled up the sleeves of her shirt, pulled out her wallet and walked towards the booth.
"I can get it for you if you want," Wallace offered again.
She turned to face him with a vicious grin, "What's the point of getting something if you don't win it yourself."
Wallace had no answer for that, and more importantly, the rest of the digidestined, absorbed in their own conversations, did not realize that the two had peeled off from the party. Caught between staying with the girl and chasing the group down, he called out loudly to them.
"Guys, wait up!" Many heads turned to stare at the sudden commotion, of which included the digidestined's. The group turned back, concerned.
"What's wrong Wallace?" Daisuke asked. Wallace was about to reply when he was cut off by on excited Mimi.
"Oh my god! That plush toy is so cute! Koushiro! I want one!" She tugged at the sleeve of her boyfriend's Yukata.
The remaining male members of the group turned to look at the plush toy displayed proudly next to the booth's signboard and sighed. It was a very cute plush toy indeed. One look at the shining look on the female digidestined's faces and they knew that they were now obliged to win it for them.
Natsuhi, who was in the process of lining up for her turn was immediately mobbed by the male populace (mainly an excited Daisuke, a smiling Takeru and a reluctant Koushiro) who cut in front of her to pay for the game.
The old man who manned the booth swept up their money and passed each of them a rifle. "Thanks for playing! Here are the rules, you need to knock down the gold target here for the grand prize. You have 7 shots. Should be easy enough, good luck!"
Wallace noted the impatient tapping of Natsuhi's feet as the boys took their turns. Turns out the boss' 'easy enough' was insanely difficult. The target was small and the rifle was not only heavy but also had a strong recoil when shot.
Koushiro failed miserably, Takeru ultimately decided to shoot down the silver targets and won a hair-pin for Hikari. Daisuke blew all his shots on the gold target. Tacihi and Yamato, who joined in despite Sora's protests (the prizes were overflowing from her arm as it was), also failed to get the prize.
Finally, everyone in the group gave up and was about the walk off. Not caring that the group had pretty much forgotten that she was the one who wanted to challenge the booth, Natsuhi stepped up, slammed her money on the counter and grabbed the rifle before the owner could say anything.
The next moment, the shrill sound of the winning bell rang in the air. Activity stopped in the area as everyone stopped to watch the source of the commotion.
"Oh. My. God." Daisuke gawked, ever honest.
Murmurs of similar sentiments could be heard around the booth.
Wallace stared, wide-eyed. First shot. She got it on her first shot.
"You can't shoot any more of the gold targets, now, you can only shoot the remaining silver, white and black targets," The store owner scramble to do damage control. Every damn year there has to be a crack shot.
Natsuhi shrugged, she got what she wanted. There was nothing else that she wanted, but then she remembered all the money the guys blew at this store and figured that the owner had made enough profits for the day.
"You guys want anything else?" She turned to ask the girls in the group, blatantly ignoring the boys.
Getting over her shock, Miyako pointed at the handkerchief on display. A cock, a reload and with another resounding bang, the associated target was down.
"Next?" Natsuhi asked, not batting an eyelash as she reloaded the rifle.
"I want the necklace," Hikari voiced out.
Another bang, another prize down.
Natsuhi reloaded the rifle with practised ease as she waited for the next requests, which was taking a while as everyone was busy picking up their jaws from the ground. Mimi, who had grabbed Koushiro's sleeve in the excitement looked at the other girl with stars in her eyes. This person is the person who can win her everything she wanted.
"I want that plushy, oh and this keychain, and that headband! Oh oh and those fake moustaches! That's..4..so one more.." Mimi trailed off, thinking about what her final loot should be. Four gunshots that rang in succession startled her out of her train of thought.
"Last one," Natsuhi loaded the last shot with an air of nonchalance, not caring if the shopkeeper was quietly seething at her. Her usual indifferent face however did have a tinge of smugness to it. She had the boys to thank for the spare shots though. Had they not gone first, she would not have found the gun's quirks and gotten the toy on the first shot.
By now a small crowd had gathered to watch the spectacle and amongst them was a little boy.
"But mommy! I want that mask!" The boy's sharp voice cut through the crowd's chatter and the digidestined's quiet thinking.
Said boy's mother shushed him, tugging his small frame away from the stall. Tears immediately welled up in the boy's eyes as he lowered his small butt onto the ground in an effort to fight his mother's pull. Just as a crying fit was about to burst forth, the final gunshot punctuated the air. Everyone turned to look at what the target's corresponding prize was.
Sighing in defeat, the shopkeeper passed Natsuhi the mask with a huff, which she took with a polite nod and then walked towards the little boy. "Here you go," she said with the warmest smile she could muster. Unshed tears still circling in his eyes, the little boy looked up at Natsuhi's larger frame with curious eyes. Tentatively, he reached out and gripped the mask tightly in his tiny fists, tugging to see if the strange one-chan was really going to yield him the prize. Natsuhi let go of the mask without a fuss. Mask now firmly fisted in both of his tiny fists, the little boy alternated his look of wonder between his new present and Natsuhi, still struck in disbelief. As if to reassure him, Natsuhi reached out to ruffle his head. "I really like power rangers too," she said, as if that explained everything and stood up. The action seemed to shake the little boy's mother from her reverie and she quickly ushered her son to thank the kind big sister. The crowd quickly dispersed after that and Natsuhi, having collected her pig, returned to the group, as indifferent as ever.
The digidestined however, were stunned into silence by Natsuhi's uncharacteristic act of kindness.
"That was really sweet of you," Wallace complimented. Natsuhi nodded, subconsciously squishing her newly minted stuffed toy. Brilliant, it was squishy. A small smile crept onto her lips.
"Still as sharp as ever," Yamato chimed in from the side. His comment earned him a smirk and a shrug. Out of everyone, only Yamato was not shocked by the girl's display of skill. He had experienced her marksmanship first-hand when the band went out of laser tag, where the girl had sniped the opposing team into bitter defeat.
At that, the group decided to move onto greener pastures (aka food stalls), except this time, with Natsuhi in the centre, being bombarded by questions about her shooting skills. Said girl sighed tiredly at the onslaught of questions. Really, shooting games aren't a big deal when you grew up hunting in the countryside on weekends.
A/N: You guys asked if we will learn more about Natsuhi, the answer is, yes. We will.