New Places with Old Faces
Henry was spending the last few minutes in front of his bedroom mirror, making sure everything was in place. His reflection showed a boy wearing a cerulean blue blazer and grey trousers, straightening out a green school tie, while making sure his hair was swept to the side as neatly as possible. As he began to make finite adjustments to his general appearance, a green-tipped bunny came into the room, shaking his head as he looked at his Partner.
"Dear, dear Henry," Terriermon began, "Since when did you get so vain? All this talk about what matters on the inside and yet you barely even look yourself anymore!"
"First of all," Henry replied, attempting to comb aside a particularly stubborn hair, "I don't look any more different than before, maybe just a little bit more groomed. And secondly, this is high school! First impressions count for a lot here, so what's wrong with looking like I didn't get caught in a tornado on the way to school?"
"I don't know," Terriermon said to Henry's reflection, scratching his chin before shrugging, "It just seems silly to me. I say you should just greet new people like I greet new Digimon."
"I don't think 'Bunny Blast'ing them would help me get on good terms with them, especially at the start of term."
"It seems to work just fine for me. They just show up and I go BAM! Welcome to the Human World with a healthy dose of butt whooping."
"True, but how many of those Digimon do you have to spend the next 3 years with? Or how many do you keep in touch with after you've 'greeted' them?"
"That's a very good question," Terriermon said with a hint of mock-speculation, "I wonder whether bits of data can send postcards. We should find the next Digimon who Emerges and give him a pen and paper before kicking him into next week."
"I'm guessing if they're willing to write to you then they would probably be safe to stay. We've always said that so long as they can control themselves the Digimon are allowed to stay in the Human World for as long as they please."
"Yeah, but since when have we come across a 'friendly' Digimon?"
Henry paused to think about this. After going through all their battles in his head he sighed at not finding one Digimon that they've allowed to roam around in the Human World. "Fair enough," he concluded, before starting to adjust his tie. "Anyway, what are you and Lopmon going to do today? You do realise that bringing in stuff toys are not very common for high schoolers, right?"
Terriermon started to flap his oversized ears, partly to attempt to fly and partly to amuse himself. "Don't worry about it, Renamon apparently has something planned for us to do while all of you are in school, we'll probably see you at the end of the day."
As Henry went through his school bag, making sure everything was packed in for his first day, a knock on the door was heard.
"Henry, your mom says you should think about leaving soon," came Lopmon's voice, as she started to open the door, "Otherwise you might miss the train and you don't want to be late on your first day of-what, what's wrong?"
Lopmon was looking between the Digimon and his Partner, since they were both staring at her, each with a very different expression on their faces. Standing in the doorway was Lopmon in a surprisingly well crafted kimono, complete with long sleeves and an obi to tie at the back. The material had a pearl sheen, with floral petals which worked well with Lopmon's chocolate skin. Tied to one of her ears was a pink flower, completing the picture.
Henry had a very good idea of who gave that to the pink-tipped bunny, but had to ask just to make sure, "Er, Lopmon," Henry said, biting back the laughter, "who gave you that kimono?"
"Oh this?" Lopmon's eyes seemed to sparkle as she twirled around, giving Henry and Terriermon a better view of the entire dress, "Suzy made it for me. Isn't it great! She said she needed to have a model so naturally I volunteered. Your mom said it looks very good on me and I wholeheartedly agree!"
In one of the rare moments of his life, Terriermon was speechless, complimented with a look of genuine surprise on his face. When he finally snapped out of his stupor he jumped off the bed and turned Lopmon right around and frog-marched her back to Suzy's room.
"Okay sis," Henry could hear Terriermon talk to his fellow bunny as they walked down the hall, as well as the familiar click of sandals that Lopmon must also be trying on, "let me tell you about a little something called Stockholm Syndrome, but first let's get you out of this dress."
"Aww, but Terriermon…" Lopmon began to complain.
"Nah ah ah, we don't want all of Suzy's hard work to get ruined, do we? We don't know what Renamon's got in store for us, so be a good little Digimon and take it off."
"Okay…"
With one final confirmation that everything was there, Henry zipped up his bag and headed towards the door, passing by the kitchen where his mother was currently cleaning up, and grabbing his lunch on the way out.
"Oh by the way, Henry," Mayumi called out as he was putting on his shoes, "Did Lopmon tell you? I want you to pick up some salmon on the way home. Ryan and Jamie are coming back for a couple of days so I'm going to cook a couple more dishes for dinner tonight."
"Sure thing mom," Henry replied, before stepping through the door, finally ready to begin his journey to the beginning of high school.
West Shinjuku High School was not an elitist school by any stretch of the imagination, yet they still provided some of the best facilities for their students. Equipped with its own pool, athletics field and some of the latest in cutting edge technology, the Board of Directors intended this school to allow its students the best possible chances for them to reach their maximum potential, while still making it affordable for the parents to send them. With the majority of the funding coming from the government and benefactors, West Shinjuku began as a prototype for a new type of school, to give students a fair chance at life no matter what background, and so far it has produced outstanding results. With both their pastoral and academic activities being renowned throughout the surrounding region, Henry couldn't help but feel in slight awe as he approached the gates of his new school, surrounded by students all wearing the same uniform as they headed towards the same collection of buildings.
As agreed upon earlier that week, Henry found the other first year Tamers standing by the entrance. All the boys were wearing the same blazer and trousers combination as he did, but the girls had a bit more colour to their uniforms. With a green bow instead of a tie and a green skirt with a white stripe near the hem, Jeri and Rika seemed happy enough with their new attire, something which couldn't be said about the boys.
"Seriously, talk about conforming," Kazu said to the others as Henry approached, "I thought we were encouraged to unleash our creativity. How does wearing the same thing as everyone else show individuality? We are being stifled by the Man, people!"
Rika rolled her eyes as far as she could. "Oh please, Kazu. Just because you have to wear a uniform doesn't mean it will stop you from 'unleashing your creativity'. All it does is just identifies you with West Shinjuku High to the general public."
"Besides, students have always found ways to make the uniform their own, while managing to stay within the school rules." Jeri chipped in, before she and the others greeted Henry and began to walk towards a large gathering of students in front of several notice boards. This point in time was always nerve-wracking for students, since the boards declared which class, and therefore which students, they were going to spend the next year with. Even though they didn't realise it, all the Tamers were holding their breaths, hoping to see all their names under the same heading. As a clearing formed they all stepped forward, and began the frantic search for their name and class.
Jeri was the first to find her's. "Hey guys," she called out to the others, "Come over here, check under class 1-B!" As the Tamers gathered around her billboard she crossed her fingers and began scanning for their names too.
"Hey, I'm here!" Takato exclaimed, causing Jeri's heart to ever so slightly flutter. Both Henry and Rika also confirmed their places in class 1-B, leaving just two Tamers left to complete the set.
"There it is, 'Kenta Kitagawa'!" Kenta punched the air as he found his name. All eyes were now on Kazu, who was now speed-reading through the notice board, praying it would show him mercy.
"Yeah yeah, that's great, now all you guys get to be all chummy with each other while I'm in some other class room all alone and HOLY CRAP I'M IN 1-B!"
At long last Kazu found his name and, after a short but very public jig with Kenta, the Tamers went off to their new classroom while being led by one of the second years who volunteered to help the new students. Yet even with all the elation, Henry still felt something was odd.
"Hey Rika," he tapped the red head on the shoulder, signalling her to come to the back of their little convoy. She understood and lagged behind until they were out of earshot of the others.
"What's up?" Rika talked quietly as they paused to swap into their uwabaki.
"I know it's great that we're together and all, but don't you think it's kinda, you know…"
"More than a coincidence?" Rika shrugged, "I thought about that, but who would want to orchestrate something like this? Putting 6 teens in the same class would probably require a bit of pull with the higher ups. Maybe we really were just lumped together by chance."
"Yeah, maybe I'm just being a bit paranoid…" Henry tried to reason with himself as they entered their new classroom, choosing a group of seats at the back closest to the windows.
Over the next few minutes other students filed in, and soon they were getting a better picture who their classmates would be. But as time went on there was one key person missing, and after the bell rang for the start of school chatter started to break out.
"So who do you reckon our home room teacher is?" Jeri started off, with Takato and Kazu also turning around to speak to the other Tamers.
"In a place like this, probably some old, by-the-books sort of guy." Kenta reasoned.
"Hey Rika, you went to a posh school like this one," Kazu pointed out, causing her to glare at the Tamer. "What sort of people teach here anyway?"
"I didn't go to a 'posh school' doofus. In any case the teachers in my old school weren't that interesting, so I don't remember most of them." At that point the door at the front of the classroom opened. "Well here's our homeroom teacher, why don't you see for yourself?" Rika suggested.
Kenta stood up slightly to get a better view. "Hey I think it's a wom-" suddenly all the blood left the Tamer's face, leaving the others to give him a questioning look. "Sh-she's back…" was all Kenta managed to say before returning very carefully to his seat.
Before the other five could discuss what happened they heard an all too familiar voice.
"All right students settle down…" the teacher began, with each step emphasised with a click from her shoes.
Jeri, Takato and Kazu span round immediately, just to make sure who it was. She may have looked a couple of years older, but there was no denying her.
"Why is she here?! I thought she stopped after we left!" Kazu whispered urgently.
"…unfortunately I would have been here on time had it not been for some Neanderthal cutting me off at my exit…" continued the teacher as she strode up to the front desk.
"Maybe she only stopped teaching elementary school and came here to teach high schoolers instead!" Takato looked as though he wanted to dig a deep hole and escape as quickly as possible.
"…I do hope that by the time all of you learn to drive you would be better than that idiot, but statistically speaking…" she sighed and put her bag down and picked up a piece of chalk, proceeding to write on the blackboard.
Jeri had a very different look on her face compared to the others. "Come on, she wasn't too bad, I actually enjoyed her classes!"
"That's because you were never punished by her!" All three of them stage whispered back to the brunette. Rika looked at Henry but he just smiled. He met her a few of times before, but this would be the first time she was his homeroom teacher. This is definitely gonna be an interesting year, Henry thought to himself as he sat back and waited for the teacher to complete her introduction.
With the last stroke on the blackboard she put the piece of chalk down and turned to face her class.
"My name is Miss Nami Asaji, and as of today I will be your new homeroom teacher. Welcome to West Shinjuku High School."
A/N: Now how can you have a Tamers story without Miss Asaji? :P
Sorry for the long wait between updates. Coursework, projects and overseas holiday stopped me from working on this story. To compensate I'll upload the next chapter within this week, as a way of saying thank you for being patient with me :)
I thought about using a real school in Shinjuku, but decided making one up would be easier. All my knowledge of the Japanese school education system came from...the internet and many anime :P The uniform for West Shinjuku High is a tribute to Accel World, which I would recommend if you haven't seen it yet.
I've always loved the sarcastic tone of Miss Asaji, and the fact that in the English version they used Lara Jill Miller (the voice of Kari in Adventure 1 and 2) was a great inside joke, so I wanted her in my little tale somehow. Hope to see you soon!