Hello again. Apologies for my extended absence, but this past uni semester was pretty much the devil. Pushing forward, I hope to push out another couple of chapters before it all starts up again, and after that we'll see.
Thank you to hazy, Igi Shelps, Sora Loves Rain, MsCrayon and robinw123 for favouriting/following (if I've missed someone, my apologies). To the reviewers"
FeistyWolf: Thanks so much! T.K. is one of my personal favourites, and my interpretation of him is similar in many ways to yours.
LILFOC: Cheers. I won't say what I will be doing with the story, but I can say that the Dark Ocean and its denizen (Dagomon) will not be appearing in this story. I will however be seeking to deal with thematic content not dissimilar to that episode (which damn well should have been a whole story arc, it had so much promise). It won't necessarily be Lovecraftian, but there will be some (a fair bit of) darkness to come. Hope you enjoy :)
"So the Digital World in effect relies on web data to constitute and maintain itself?"
"Relies? No. But ever since humans developed the internet, the Digital World has been able to feed off and integrate more closely with your world."
Izzy was typing away like mad at his laptop, his fingers almost becoming blurs as they flew across the keyboard, stabbing down on dozens of letters and numbers as he scoured and updated his notes and files on the digimon and their realm. He and Gennai had arrived at the Izumi apartment no more than ten minutes before and already the two were deep in conversation about the mechanics of the Digital World and its link to Earth. The teenager had taken sixty seconds to fix them something to eat, which they had both wolfed down, but wasted no time in interrogating his old friend about all he knew. He had just barely noticed the note from his parents on the fridge, saying they would be back soon, having left on an unspecified errand.
"So the Digital World existed prior to the internet, but couldn't link to Earth before that?" Izzy asked, taking a short second to look up from his screen.
"As you will recall, until you defeated Apocalymon, the length of a Digital World day was equal to a minute in this world." Gennai recounted from his seated position on Izzy's bed, "The history of our dimension stretches back millennia, however I can't say how that compares to Earth's, given the time differences. All I am aware of is that when you and those six others at your summer camp first made contact with our world it was not through the World Wide Web, as you call it."
"Not through the web?" Izzy challenged.
"I gather that the internet did in fact exist at that time, however I don't believe, from what I have heard, that it was how the bridge between worlds was made." Gennai answered.
"That would make sense…" Izzy mused more to himself than to the old man, his voice lowering to something just above a whisper, "The portal we went through was in the open air… and my computer was the only one around and it came with us…"
He was no closer to figuring out what had happened that day at summer camp four years before, or perhaps more accurately he was yet to discover how it had all happened. It had long been a question that overshadowed everything for him, something that burned behind a reality he had not been able to explain but had been forced to accept. It seemed that quizzing Gennai on the subject had yielded no greater results than his own research as it appeared that, despite the digital man's vast knowledge of his own world, there were limits even to what he understood. But there were other questions that could yet be answered.
"But you arrived here this time via Tai's computer, correct? So this new alternate route does use the internet?" Izzy queried, rousing himself out of his own ponderings.
"It is part of the process, yes." Gennai confirmed with a nod, "As I said the Digital World has been able to integrate itself to some degree into your 'cyberspace'. I simply used that link to create a passage for myself and anyone else through any computer that is connected to that same space."
Izzy finished typing and leaned back in his desk chair. It was still a mystery as to how a physical connection between a world of data and a world of matter was even possible. His head was heavy with information, feeling as though he could not hold it upright from this new weight of knowledge. Such a feeling was strange for him, almost foreign. To think that this was a phenomenon science was yet to touch; in fact he could even go so far as to say that this was a new science, or perhaps even the fusion of many different scientific strains. At least that was what he assumed; it could all just as easily be magic, he thought.
"How long do you expect it to take before Mimi replies to your message?" Gennai enquired of him, rising to his feet and approaching Izzy's place at his desk.
Izzy looked down at his watch, furrowing his brow as he ran the quick calculations in his head before returning his gaze to the digital man.
"It's four-thirty here, so I believe it would be nine-thirty in the morning in Berlin." he voiced his thoughts aloud, "Seeing as she normally sleeps in on a Saturday, I'd say she'll be checking her emails in another half hour."
"You speak to her often, I take it?" Gennai observed casually, looking past Izzy and out of the bedroom window at the sky between the adjacent buildings.
Izzy raised an eyebrow at this, but quickly remembered who he was talking to. Gennai was not the sort to make suggestions. He preferred to simply state facts, without the pejorative or implicit edge he might expect from certain others, good natured or not.
"I try to get in touch once a week. Keep her up to speed with everything." the redhead stated simply, shrugging his shoulders.
Gennai nodded but kept his eyes fixed on the partially obscured skyline beyond the glass, as if waiting for something. Izzy, however, barely noticed as he continued with his new train of thought.
"It's usually myself or Joe she goes to for news. I think she likes to get the facts in detail so she goes for Joe and I." Izzy hypothesised, leaning back and staring at the ceiling, "But… when she wants just straight gossip she usually gets in touch with Matt; especially if it's to do with one of us."
"And Sora, Tai and Kari?" Gennai asked with some interest.
"She talks to them just as often." Izzy answered pensively, "I'm not sure what she goes to them for, but she makes an effort to stay close to everyone, I know that m-."
"We're back! Are you home, Izzy?!"
Izzy jolted slightly in his chair at the holler which came from outside in the apartment entranceway. Taking the briefest look at Gennai, the teenager jumped to his feet and made for the bedroom door. He had almost forgotten about his parents' imminent return, and he had not yet fully considered how to introduce his digital houseguest. But as he saw the door begin to open as he was still three feet away, he knew that he would be thinking on his feet.
"Izzy, there you are. We-"
Kae Izumi had poked her head through the doorway and had had her eyes on her son, but trailed off immediately as Gennai entered her line of sight. The woman slowly brought herself fully over the threshold into Izzy's room with a look of puzzlement on her face and, if Izzy knew his mother, which he did, there was a strong undertone of worry that she showed by clasping her left wrist with her opposite hand. Her dark eyes, the same colour as his, flashed between her son and the strange man whom she had never met before. Izzy knew that if it was possible, her long red hair, a softer but darker shade than his own, would have been standing on end.
"Ah, Izzy… is this a… friend of yours?" she asked cautiously, her voice composed, but not matched by her mannerisms.
The young man swivelled his head, ever so slowly, to catch sight of Gennai out of the corner of his eye. His digital friend stood stationary by the desk in a familiar pose, arms behind his back and his face pointed forward, following the curving hunch of his back. To the outsider, there was nothing remotely imposing or impressive about him. Whether this helped or hindered Izzy's cause, he had no idea, though the silence was beginning to tear at him, much like the nervous stare he knew he was getting from his mother.
"Er, hi Mum." the teenager began, managing to keep his tone somewhat even.
Seeing no change in the woman, he made to continue, but not before his father, Masami, strolled into the room, baulking at what he found. The man's glasses almost fell from his nose, saved only by a flinch-like reaction which ended up leaving some large finger marks across the wide lenses.
"Oh, umm… h-hello." Masami stumbled, absentmindedly running a hand through his brown-grey hair as he straightened out his posture and squared his jaw, seemingly subconsciously, "Izzy, who… who is this?"
Seeing no reason to keep them in suspense, Izzy exhaled softly and raised his eyes to meet those of both of his parents.
"Mum, Dad." he said to them with a tilt of his head to look directly at each as he addressed them respectively, "Do you remember… everything that happened four years ago?"
Both looked bewildered at first, though Kae Izumi seemed to have something dawn on her after a brief moment as her eyes widened and lit up slightly. It was Masami that spoke first, however.
"You mean with your friend Tentomon and the other monsters?" his father queried, but still looking thoroughly confused.
"Yeah…" Izzy confirmed, "And you remember the Digital World and-"
"You're Gennai…" Kae interrupted, staring right past her son at the old man standing silently beside him, "You're the one who helped Izzy and his friends with… with the prophecy and… everything."
Izzy heard nothing from the digital man, but after swivelling to face him the Digidestined caught the end of a deep nod, as well as a soft grin on the elderly being's face, obscured but still clear beneath his snowy moustache.
What happened next caught the young man off guard, but at the same time sent a wave of relief over him like the first droplets of a hot shower on a cold morning. The tension in the room evaporated almost immediately as the two adults swept forward to greet their unexpected guest more warmly than their first reactions had suggested was likely. Both shook Gennai's hand and bid him welcome to the apartment.
"Izzy told us all about you all those years ago." Masami informed the old man enthusiastically, "From what we've been told, those kids might not have made it back safely if not for your help."
"We've never had the chance to thank you for that." Kae spoke as her husband completed his own speech, "You'll always be welcome in our home. It's the least we can do."
Izzy simply stood back and observed the scene. He had had no inkling that his parents' memories were that good, nor the recollection that he had shared as much with them as he had seemed to have. His surprise was tempered only by the satisfaction that he would be spared from most of the long and awkward explanations that one would normally assume to follow from the discovery of a stranger in your bedroom. Of course that did not include the awkward explanations as to why the stranger was there, as the direction of the conversation was quick to remind him.
"So what brings you here?" Masami inquired of the digital man, "I remember Izzy saying that the gate between your world and ours wasn't open anymore."
Gennai turned his head to look to Izzy and raised an arm halfway to motion in the teenager's direction. The redhead felt three pairs of eyes all fixate expectantly upon him. He had mulled over how to explain the situation to his parents in the back of his mind ever since he started on the way home from the meeting, though as he reflexively raised a hand to clasp the back of his neck he found he was unsettled on his approach. It had occurred to him that it may be an idea to simply push any and all explaining back until the entire group was together again, like what had been agreed upon an hour or so before. But, with his parents standing before him with trusting curiosity, and after they had so kindly welcomed Gennai into their home, he was quick to disabuse himself of that possibility.
This only left him with two options, and since he was unwilling to stonewall his mother and father, he knew that there would be no prospect of lying to them. Left only with giving it to them straight, Izzy's grip on his neck tightened, his fingers pressing down on the top of his spine. His only problem was words, which he rarely had trouble coming up with, even if those he chose usually went over some people's heads.
The longer he stood in silence, the more he felt the stares of his parents boring through him, prodding his heart and punctuating each beat.
"Izzy?" Kae probed, her voice containing the beginnings of a familiar, maternal worry.
Clenching his teeth for a brief second, he scrambled to choose the best words he could, spurred on by his mother's changed tone.
"Gennai is here…" he began, pausing shortly when he felt his uncertainty rise to hold his tongue, only to fall away as he focused in on his parents' gazes, "He's here because the Digital World, and all the digimon – our friends – need us again. He's here... because we need to go back… go back and fight."
Silence again engulfed the room, though this time it was Izzy who was waiting for a response. He swallowed harshly as he felt the air grow heavier with each passing moment. For their part, his mother and father gave very little away. Neither had so much as flinched when he told them. Their faces gave so little away that Izzy briefly wondered whether they were all playing an invisible poker game. He had to swallow again when he felt a lump growing in his throat, but it only grew as the silence lengthened.
After what seemed like an eternity, but in reality had been little more than a few seconds, Kae and Masami looked to each other with equally unreadable expressions, seemingly conversing with nothing more than the movement of their eyes. It was not long, however, before they returned their gazes to their son, an unspoken conclusion having apparently been reached.
"We… had always wondered if this time would come."
It was Kae who had spoken, her eyes shining with an emotion Izzy could not quite place. But perhaps his surprise at his mother's admission was the reason for his puzzlement.
"We'll never know the full story of what you did while you were there four years ago… both before and after you came back to fight, umm… Myotismon?" she continued, stopping only to wait for Izzy's answer.
After her son gave her a quick nod, she pressed on.
"But we know that you kids, well… to the digimon you're heroes. Right?" Kae explained, her voice quivering with emotion toward Izzy, though her final query she directed to Gennai.
The old man nodded soberly.
"The Digidestined, Izzy included, are the reason the Digital World was safe for so long. Without them both worlds would surely have been destroyed." he assured her, "And now we need their help again."
Kae nodded back at the digital man and then turned back to Izzy. Taking a deep breath, she looked to steel herself for what she was to say next, though it did little to lighten her grave expression, nor her heavy, deflated stance.
"Izzy… we trust you, and-" she started out, but was unable to get far.
"Dear, I don't know about this…" Izzy's father spoke up, his eyes downcast.
"Masami, we talked about this." Kae responded, though her speech was sluggish and Izzy could tell she was fighting with all she had not to agree with her husband, "We let him go back last time; we can't stop him now."
"I know we did, but… but that was… I never thought…" Masami struggled to find the words, but everyone in the room knew they were not necessary. What he meant was clear as day.
Izzy could feel the lump in his throat rapidly reforming, but this time that lump was accompanied by another in the pit of his stomach. His father's eyes had not yet left the floor, and he could sense that coupled with the fear and worry in the man's voice was a clear undercurrent of shame. Kae was again the one to break the silence.
"You've always said we need to trust Izzy to make his own decisions." she beseeched her husband, moving beside him and gently placing a hand on his shoulder, "I know it's dangerous, but how many teenagers can say they have an entire world relying on them?"
"Dad, they need us. We can't just sit here and do nothing." Izzy blurted out, pushing past the weight in his throat and taking a step forward, though his voice was less than steady.
His father looked up at him. He stood firm and scarcely the smallest twitch ran across his face. Yet, behind his glasses and under a few strands of his dark hair which had come loose from his otherwise tidy fringe, the man peered back at his son, eyes shimmering with trepidation. Izzy could hardly remember the last time he had seen either of his parents like this. Even when the eight Digidestined had returned to the Digital World after defeating Myotismon in his final form they had been more stable than they were at that moment.
"We returned home safely last time, Dad. This time won't be any different." he assured the man, looking to his mother for help, though she simply nodded and murmured her agreement. Masami was surprisingly quick to reply.
"I know, son. But last time we didn't know what it would be like to sit there not knowing what would happen after you left, even if it only took less than a day… Not knowing where you'd gone and what you were doing was the hardest thing we've ever gone through and your mother and I have spent the years since then hoping to never sit through it all again." the man revealed sternly, though he was unable to hide the waver in his voice behind that ostensible wall of austerity.
Izzy recoiled at that. They had already said they had talked about it before, but to spend four years in constant fear of something. Now it was the teenager's turn to stare at the floor, unable to look either parent in the eye. While his lips remained pursed, behind them his teeth clamped together and he had to consciously avoid grinding them together as he felt muscles all over his body begin to contract, beginning with his chest and ending with his extremities, his hands clasping tightly by his side. What could he really say to all that? As much as his sense of duty had flared before, something within, more primal and close to home, was rising against it.
"If I may…"
While Izzy did not raise his head straight away, there was no mistaking that it was Gennai who had spoken.
"I won't lie and say that the road ahead is not dangerous. But, as they have all proven many times, the Digidestined are highly capable. I would not be calling on them if I thought they could not succeed in helping us." the old man asserted, his voice unusually, though somehow comfortingly calm and even.
Finally regaining the nerve to face his mother and father, Izzy looked up to find them having turned to face Gennai. He was unable to see Masami's face, but from the side it looked to him as if Kae's expression had not much changed, though she was not the one it seemed who was in need of convincing.
Even though his face was turned away from Izzy, the redhead could see his father's shoulders rise and fall as the man sighed deeply before speaking again.
"I know. And I know it's even less my decision than it was four years ago." he admitted sombrely, his tone heavy but soft with acceptance, "Like I said, I just hoped it wouldn't come up like this again."
Turning to his wife, he nodded, which she returned in kind. Without another word to each other they faced their son together, still looking steely, but both more relaxed than they had moments before.
"Izzy, neither your mother or I want you to be in danger. But…" Masami declared, pausing only to draw breath before continuing on, "But you obviously have a greater responsibility than we can fathom."
"Know that we trust you, but please just promise us you'll be careful…" Kae added for her own part, exhaling shallowly in something close to a wheeze as she finished.
All Izzy could manage to squeak out was 'Of course' before he finished covering the few feet between them to embrace both of his parents. There were no tears shed by anyone, though the young man could feel the familiar vice closing around his heart as the moment dragged onward like a piece of elastic stretched out to its limit.
"Thanks." Izzy murmured as he eventually broke from the three-way embrace and stepped back from his parents.
"Don't thank us yet; we might still change our minds." Masami joked with a weak smile and his eyes shut.
His words were pained, but there could be little doubt that he spoke only in jest. Kae merely smiled softly and regarded her son with a soulful gaze.
After the exchange of just a few more words which simply amounted to pleasantries, the two adults left their son to his room. He surmised that the two needed time alone to process everything that had just happened. As for Izzy himself, he remained standing for nearly a minute before at last finding himself back where he started, seated at his desk with Gennai also regaining his original place on his host's bed.
Heart to hearts were a rare occurrence, at least in his experience. His stomach was slowly churning, rolling over itself as he dwelt upon what his parents, particularly his father, had said. He had barely ever thought before what it was like back on Earth after they had returned to the Digital World to fight their final enemies. In Real World time, the fighting would have lasted well less than half an hour, but the extra hours they spent back saying goodbye to their digimon after the dimensional time spans synched could only have added to the pain of those waiting for their children to return home. Clenching his jaw, he wondered how something so obvious could have escaped his consideration.
The Digidestined found himself staring blankly out of his window for a length of time he was unable to judge, though when he came to his senses the sun had sunk to eye level on the horizon, causing him to look away and find Gennai standing next to him at the desk.
"Your computer seems to have a message." the little man said gently, motioning to the screen of Izzy's laptop.
Sure enough, in the bottom corner of his desktop a small icon flashed orange, indicating that someone had invited him to a video chat.
"Mimi." Izzy announced enthusiastically, drawing his attention away from the emotion of moments just passed. As his brain zeroed in on his new task at hand, all other considerations seemed to melt away, or were at least held at bay in the back corners of his mind.
A few quick clicks later, a window opened up in the middle of the screen and a small blue light flashed at the top of the laptop lid to tell Izzy that his in-built webcam was turned on. The window was pitch black at first, but a couple of seconds later the image of a teenage girl in a pale yellow t-shirt, no older than he was, replaced the blank darkness. Her hair was light brown, a shade of ochre to be exact, and reached just below her shoulders. Judging from the way it hung straight downwards, and by the towel draped across the back of the chair she was sitting in, she had recently showered. Her hazel eyes stared back at him, though for the moment they were squinted while she leaned forward in her seat, as if she was trying to focus on something very small.
"Mimi. Can you hear me?" Izzy said curiously, wondering what she was doing on the other end.
The girl's eyes opened fully following his query and she pushed herself back into her chair.
"Izzy! Hi! I can't quite see you ye- Oh cool, there you are! My computer's a little slow." she explained animatedly, waving at him when he assumed he finally appeared on her screen.
"Hey Mimi, I've got a lot t-" he attempted to tell her, but she butted in, though he assumed the lag time in transmission meant she hadn't realised he had started talking.
"I've been waiting for you to pick up for like five minutes! What are you doing on the other end there?" she chided him, though with the smirk he could see very clearly on her face it was fairly obvious that she was not being entirely serious.
"Y-yeah, sorry about that, was a little distracted for a bit." he replied, sheepishly scratching his left cheek, "Anyway, as I was saying I have some important things to tell you."
"Oh?" Mimi responded simply a few seconds later.
Turning his head to face Gennai, Izzy motioned for him to enter the webcam's field of view, shuffling his chair sideways slightly to make room. A second later he was front and centre, and on the other end of the line Mimi could be clearly seen doing a double take, leaving her mouth hanging open and her eyes bulging.
"Gennai?!" she exclaimed incredulously, leaning further forward than she had been when she first appeared on screen.
"Greetings Mimi, it's good to see you after all this time." Gennai responded coolly, not even flinching as the brunette's cry shot out of the laptop's small speakers.
"H-how are you? Geez, when Izzy said it was important I had no idea it would be you!" she had clearly not regained her composure yet as she was fidgeting back and forth frenetically in her chair as she spoke, her excitement as palpable as her speech was loud.
"I am fine, Mimi, though I think Izzy would like to get to the point of the matter before anything else." Gennai told her calmly, inviting the redhead to rejoin the conversation.
Not wishing to waste time, the boy leaned sideways so his upper body was more central. Seeing that he had his friend's attention, he began his explanation.
"Mimi, Gennai is here because there trouble in the Digital World again. Serious trouble, he says." Izzy told her seriously, furrowing his brow ever so slightly as he recalled the digital man's description of the dimension's plight.
"No… Is… How is Palmon?" Mimi stammered anxiously.
Her face had sunk in less than a split-second and her eyes shone with the shock of the news. As she swallowed hard, Izzy could tell she had her heart in her throat at that moment.
"All of your partners are safe. There is no need to worry about them." Gennai assured her.
On the screen she was visibly relieved, raising her hand and placing it over her heart and she exhaled deeply.
"But, the problem seems to be getting out of hand." Izzy stated clearly, regaining her attention, "Mimi, we need to go back again. There's a war and we need to sort it out."
The girl ran her tongue slowly over her lips before pursing them and averting her eyes from the screen. It was difficult to tell, but Izzy was sure he had seen her wince. It was some time before she gave them a reply.
"What do I tell my Mum and Dad?" she asked quietly, such that Izzy almost did not hear her.
"We were hoping to tell all the parents at once… y'know, present a united front….Except for mine though; they already know." he replied gently.
"You already… so you want to do this over webcam?" she questioned, bemused.
"We don't really have much of a better option, you being Germany and all… unless you want to do it on your own, but we want to give you some support." Izzy answered matter-of-factly.
Mimi was silent; the low hum of the laptop was the only noise in the room.
"Mimi?" Izzy pressed, hoping for her approval.
"Alright." she responded quickly, her tone unsure and slightly agitated.
"Good." he concluded with a nod, briefly closing his eyes and sitting back in his chair.
"But can you please just explain to me what exactly is going on in the Digital World?" she requested, not without a sense of exasperation.
Mimi had her head in her hands, cheeks resting in her palms and a grimace sitting on her face. Far apart from the spritely girl who had first appeared on the other end of the line, the brunette seemed tired and morose. No doubt she was unimpressed to be the last of the Digidestined to find out what was happening. The story as to the current state of the Digital World was not about to brighten her mood.
"Sure." Izzy agreed lowly, "This is what's been happening…"
"So she's on board with everything?"
"Yeah. I told her I'd let her know exactly what time to be prepared to be online, but she said she'd be ready for everything tomorrow."
Tai nodded with the phone to his ear, forgetting momentarily that Izzy could not see him.
"Good. Thanks Iz." he said belatedly but before his friend could inquire if he was still there.
Tai had not been worried about Mimi getting behind the rest of them; he had asked more as a matter of formality than of any actual curiosity. Still, he could sense in Izzy's voice that something was bugging him, and he had a suspicion that it was to do with whatever had happened after he returned home from the park, and such events were probably Mimi related.
"How did she take the news?" he asked, seeing if his hunch was correct.
"Well, she was happy to see Gennai again, but… she looked really unhappy when she found out why he was back and what's happening." Izzy replied after a small pause, his tone even, yet still holding something beneath it that Tai could not place.
"Did she say why?" Tai enquired.
"No, but… I guess she just doesn't want to see more conflict in the Digital World." Izzy proposed, which Tai supposed was less of a theory and more a statement of the obvious. "She also said she'd warn her parents about everything before the meeting, so I think she'll be fine." the Izumi boy added.
"Is everything OK with you? You sound a bit weird." Tai posed bluntly, satisfied his Mimi line of questions had attained all of the details it could.
"Er, yeah it's… it's fine. Just had to introduce Gennai to my parents and all." Izzy said with a small chuckle. It sounded unnatural, but Tai could not be sure over the phone.
"How'd they take it?" he asked quickly, as soon as his friend had finished his last sentence.
"Ah, well they won't need convincing tomorrow about everything…" Izzy replied simply, before adding more curtly, "It's fine. There's no need to worry."
Sensing that this was as far as he could productively get with the conversation, Tai again nodded, though this time consciously to himself.
"Alright thanks a bunch Izzy." he told the redhead gratefully, "Let Mimi know that the meeting will be at about four o'clock tomorrow afternoon. I've already cleared it with everyone else. Sora's volunteered to have it at her place."
"Perfect, I'll email her right now. See you then." came the reply.
"Bye." Tai stated simply before hearing Izzy hang up.
Placing the phone down on the receiver, he took a deep breath before slowly making his way towards the living room. His parents had again left on an errand and would only be back in time for dinner. He hoped that would be soon as he heard his stomach rumble, though he was quickly drawn back to the conversation that had just ended.
As he walked past the kitchen he saw Kari by the stove, tending to something that was at that moment sizzling gently in a pan. The smell of seasoned meat wafted his way and despite everything else on his mind, he gave himself fully to the thought of food, and he could feel his mouth begin to water. Saturday was his younger sister's turn to cook, Tai took Fridays and the siblings would share Sundays, an arrangement their mother had, while impressed, confusedly agreed to. Tai remembered that when they had first made the proposal, their father could be seen just behind his wife with a smirk on his face, which swiftly disappeared whenever she would look back at him. Walking up beside the girl, Tai leaned back against the bench and grinned.
"What's cookin'?" he asked with a small grin, receiving one back when she noticed him there.
"It's a surprise." she teased, pushing his leg lightly with her right foot without taking her eyes off what she was doing, "Now buzz off, no taste testing for you."
"Looks like beef to me." Tai responded lazily, chuckling at his sister's protection of her cooking and not moving from his spot.
"Ten points to Tai." she laughed, still maintaining her focus, "So is everything set for tomorrow?"
"Yeah, we're good to go." he answered her, a little more breathily than he had meant to.
"What's wrong?" she questioned instantly, taking her eyes away from dinner for the first time.
Tai's head snapped to the side to meet her gaze. Without much forethought he told her about his conversation with Izzy, specifically about their final topic of discussion.
"Nothing, Izzy just had to spill everything to his parents." he explained.
"I thought the whole point of this was to do all the spilling together." Kari pointed out, her brown eyes catching the light and flashing crimson, her concern rising immediately.
"Yeah, I know. I guess I just didn't think about it too hard." Tai replied lowly, "It's not like Gennai can just show up in his apartment without his parents asking too many questions."
Frowning, Kari nodded before turning her face back to the stove. Her hair hung forward, blocking a side view of her face. Her hands had not slowed or faltered in their tasks, however.
"Did everything go OK for him?" she asked squarely.
"I'm pretty sure he said that they're gonna let him go with us." he answered mechanically.
"But I mean is he OK?" Kari pressed, unsatisfied with her brother's response.
"I dunno. He seemed a bit… off. But I kinda got the feeling he didn't wanna talk about it…" Tai elaborated, looking down at his feet.
The two siblings were silent for several moments. Kari continued to tend to the pan while Tai put more weight onto the small of his back as he stared into space. Each knew that the other was likely thinking the same thing. It was some time before words were again uttered.
"What do you think Mum and Dad-" Kari began weakly, but Tai had already predicted her question.
"I dunno. But what I do know is that even I'm scared of letting you go back with everything that's happening." he stated brusquely.
"I don't need your permission, big brother." she countered firmly but not harshly, merely as though she was stating a fact.
Tai squeezed his eyes shut and bit the inside of his lower lip. His head pounded briefly, which he felt like a booming drumbeat from the distance. It screamed at him to offer a retort, and his heart agreed as it contracted harder than normal. Instead, he looked back over at his little sister with quiet eyes.
"I know. I just know that Mum and Dad are gonna like the idea even less." he told her huskily.
Kari sighed before lifting the pan off the burner and placing it carefully to the side. Without a word she hugged her brother, the top of her head just brushing against his lower cheek. When she released him, she drew back sporting a soft but hearty smile which he could only return.
"It'll all be fine, Tai… and thanks." she assured him, and he felt his body relax.
His only response to her was to nod, but this was all that was needed. Kari beamed back at him, her eyes alight. Clearly satisfied, she returned to her post and again gave her attention back to the meal she was preparing.
"Now c'mon, I have to finish this before they get back." she informed him lightly.
This time offering no protest, Tai left her to her devices and found a place on the living room couch.
He absentmindedly ran a hand slowly through his hair. His sister was right. She normally was about these sorts of things. Nevertheless, like a single dissenter amongst the crowd, a small part of his mind continued to pester him with doubt. Peeking his head over the back of the couch, he saw Kari continuing to work on dinner, her eyes not looking his way. Slinking back down, that doubt again began to fester. She was not the sickly child she once was, and he knew he was no longer the reckless kid he used to be either. But, when the time came, how much difference was that really going to make?
Hearing the front door open and his parents announce their return, he managed, not without some difficulty, to push these thoughts from his mind. After all, there were other hurdles to overcome before the Digital World could put them to the test.