Act 1: Beating Heart

Segment 1: Come From Away

Chapter 1-8: Bird on the Wing

Title derived from: Bird on the Wing by Sungazer

Yuuka blinked. "Are you sure about this?" she whispered. The classroom was full of people, and given her interaction with the others this morning, she wanted to keep this discreet.

"Of course," Ryuta whispered.

"You might not have much time left at the end of the day, though."

"I'll be fine. It's just one day. I can always catch up on homework later." Ryuta looked around. Nobody seemed to notice. "Besides, it's not just me, it's you too."

"Ah… right."

"Isn't that why Mariko is trying to keep you from having to help her in the shop?"

Yuuka nodded. She had gotten so used to her mom asking her for help running the family businesses that she hadn't even considered that her mom was trying to help her find time to prepare for entrance exams.

"Let's go. It's getting loud in here."

"Okay." The two of them slipped out of the packed classroom and down the school's stairwell.

"You don't need to stop for your stuff?" Ryuta noticed Yuuka had followed him to his locker.

"I usually carry it all with me at one time. It means less trips back and forth," Yuuka explained.

Ryuta blinked a few times, staring at Yuuka's bulging backpack. How on earth her frame managed to carry all that, he had no idea. Maybe she was much stronger than she looked. "I see." He pulled a few things out of his locker and stashed them in his backpack. "So the shop that Mariko runs… wasn't it an expanded konbini?"

"Yeah, she runs the bakery attached to it in the morning and then switches to the konbini at night."

Ryuta whistled as they made their way off the school grounds. "She's a dedicated woman."

Yuuka nodded. "I remember most mornings I'd see her working downstairs, and then when I came home, she was still working."

"And isn't Nagisa a professor too?"

"Yep." She always thought it was a bit weird how Ryuta insisted on referring to people's parents by their given name, but… it was a minor thing.

Ryuta shoved his hands in his pockets. "So… I guess you had to handle yourself growing up."

"Ah, mostly. Mom would still make sure she looked after me."

"How… how did she balance all of this?"

Yuuka shrugged. "I don't know. I just know I'm grateful for her." She looked over at Ryuta. "You look bothered."

Ryuta pressed his lips into a flat scowl and inhaled deeply, staring into the distance.

"If something's bothering you," Yuuka advised, "you should let it out." Ryuta did not seem convinced. "It'll chew you up inside if you don't."

Ryuta rubbed his cheek and continued to stare forward.

Yuuka sighed. "Fine, keep your secrets." The store was some distance away still, maybe a ten minute walk or so, but the silent walk didn't bother either of them.

"Did you tell Mariko I volunteered today?"

"Yeah, she was surprised by it, but she's thankful," replied Yuuka, "though I have to convince her not to overdo it with giving you back something in return."

"Ah… please tell her not to worry about it. I'm not expecting anything."

"Are you sure? Not even, like, a few things to take home?"

Ryuta shrugged. "I'd feel uncomfortable taking things for free."

"But you're giving up your time for free." It seemed a fair trade to Yuuka too.

"I know."

The automatic door slid open. "Yuuka, good to see you!" said the person behind the konbini's counter. Ryuta figured she must be an employee. "Who's this?"

"Ryuta's a classmate. Since mom's sick, he volunteered to help with stock so I can study."

"Wait, if he's a classmate, wouldn't he also be in final year too?"

"He was fine with it. Right, Ryuta?"

"I'll survive." Ryuta removed his school uniform's blazer and shoved it in his backpack, since it would be odd if someone saw him working with that on.

"Ryuta…"

"Hm?" Ryuta looked up from his backpack.

Yuuka had a worried look on her face. "You really shouldn't talk about yourself like that."

"What's wrong with that? It's true."

"It's just very…" Yuuka looked down the shop's aisles. Why was he like this? "I don't know. Please don't wear yourself out."

"Of course not." Ryuta pointed to his bag. "Where should I put this?" he asked the cashier.

"Uh," she looked around, "I guess back here will do."

Ryuta handed the cashier the bag. "Oh, and Yuuka?" he asked as she started to walk up the back stairs to the private residence above.

"Yeah?"

"Text me if you need help with something in the assignments or in your study notes."

"Ryuta, please, you have too much to worry about." Ryuta blinked back. Yuuka sighed. "Fine." She turned back and walked up the stairs. Was Ryuta really this much of a worrywart in private? This wasn't the person she thought she knew. The Ryuta that existed to strangers was polite, sure, but distant.

Whatever the case, Yuuka figured she should check on her mom first before going to her books. "Mom, do you need anything?" Her mom, Mariko, was lying in bed.

"Ah, no." She propped herself up on her hands.

"How are you feeling?"

"Still uncomfortable. I guess it's just a stomach bug. I'll be better tomorrow. Is Ryuta here?"

"Yeah, he is."

Mariko smiled. "He seems like a decent person."

Yuuka hesitated. Was he? Well, he did seem so on the surface. But who knew what was underneath? "I suppose."

"Anyway, don't worry about me. Go study," she murmured.

"Okay, get better soon." Yuuka returned to her room and opened up her bag. The books were laid out all over her desk. As much as she had tried in class, she always felt compelled to help keep the family business running. Or, at least, to keep that line of work going. Sure, it wasn't flashy work, but her mother seemed proud of being able to keep up with being a parent and a store owner and a baker all at the same time, and she looked up to her for that.

Yuuka exhaled as she looked over the literature assignments and the practice exam material. She hadn't bothered attending a cram school like some of the others, like Takaharu, Kazuhiko, Ryuta, or Satsuki, but Satsuki would sometimes send practice material from there to her anyway. Yuuka looked it over. No, she would have hated herself if she had to do this. She was confident in her skills in economics anyway. If she needed to run a business herself, she could do it. And she wanted to do it, too, but she was just unsure what.

Yuuka's phone buzzed. It was just a group chat between girls. She was in these groups, but she hardly participated. It seemed some of them had also caught wind of Takaharu's idea, but most of them were skeptical. She scrolled through the messages, distracting herself from the literature textbook. It seemed, of all people, Satsuki was willing to join. Even many of the other girls were surprised by that, too, but… perhaps if Satsuki was in, maybe she should be in too. What could possibly be bad about that?

She put her phone down. This wasn't why she was here! She turned it to silent and shoved it away.

"Kazuhiko," Monodramon asked, "what is all this stuff for?" Monodramon was pointing around at a bunch of canvases, some paint, various types of pencils, rulers, guides, and maps.

"Ah… that's my art and architecture stuff."

Monodramon was puzzled. "What for?"

"What do you mean?"

"What's architecture for?"

Kazuhiko sighed. How was he supposed to explain architecture to a Digimon? He had no idea how they lived, anyway. "It's how we design buildings and all that."

Monodramon sat on Kazuhiko's bed. "This seems like a bit of a waste of time."

Kazuhiko took that personally. "Hey, rude!"

"Well, we just build things over there. We don't need to plan anything," it explained. Kazuhiko didn't seem any happier about it. "What?"

Kazuhiko sighed. Monodramon had better not be this blunt all the time. "Monodramon, that was kind of insulting."

"Really? Sorry."

"Ah, it's fine. I shouldn't expect a Digimon to understand human society anyway." There was a knock on Kazuhiko's door. "Oh f-", he hissed. He completely forgot his parents could hear him – and Monodramon.

"Kazuhiko, are you on the phone with someone?" his mother, Fujie, asked.

"Uh, yeah, bit busy. Give me a minute!" He heard his mother walk away. "That was close," he whispered to Monodramon. How long would he have to keep this up for? Far too long, probably.

"Where should I hide if she comes in?" asked Monodramon.

"Uh, let's see," Kazuhiko whispered. He looked around his room. There wasn't much space. The closet? It was possible, but cramped. Not a great choice. His bed? Too obvious. Maybe in a fort built out of canvases and old projects. No, that was too suspicious.

"Hey – if you're a Digimon… wouldn't you just be code?"

"Uh…" Monodramon was befuddled and confused. What was Kazuhiko getting at?

"If you were just code then couldn't you just hide in a digital device? Hey, maybe my phone works."

Monodramon complained, "How am I supposed to hide in a tiny thing like that?!"

"I… uh, well, I was just thinking maybe you could literally jump into it."

Monodramon was frustrated. "What kind of silly-"

Kazuhiko was adamant. "Shh! Just try it, please."

Monodramon crossed its arms and huffed. "Alright, fine. I'll… try." It stared at Kazuhiko's phone. This shouldn't work. It was maybe the size of its own palm. How could it possibly fit itself into that?

It squeezed its eyes shut. Maybe if it visualized itself jumping into his phone? It opened its eyes. "Wha – Kazuhiko! What happened?"

Kazuhiko was ecstatic. "Monodramon! I was right!"

All around Monodramon was a space that seemed to mimic the room it had just been standing in and two screens. One showed Kazuhiko's bedroom wall and the other Kazuhiko's face. "I guess, but where am I?"

"Uh… I guess you're in my phone. What do you see?"

"I don't know. It looks like your room." As Kazuhiko turned around, so did the views. "Oh, and you said your phone has cameras? That's what you were using last night?"

"Yeah?"

"I think I can see what those cameras see."

"Huh, that makes sense. But – oh, this is so cool! Hey, now we can go places together! Though, I guess you kind of wouldn't be able to know unless you were looking through the cameras. Ah, that's annoying."

"But at least I won't be visible out there," Monodramon added.

Kazuhiko sighed. "I kind of wish you were."

"Kazuhiko, last time I was out in the open, I got chased around by some other humans."

"Really? Oh, right. You told me." There was a knock on the door again. "Mom, I'll be right out!" He was supposed to be helping his parents with some interior design projects. After all, that was how he got his exposure to architecture. At this point, his portfolio mattered just as much as his grades. "Monodramon, stay quiet."

"I'll try." As Kazuhiko walked around, the scenery around Monodramon changed as well, as though the phone was showing a hologram of the area around it. It sighed and sat there. It was nice to be able to hide somewhere if needed, but this was annoying not to be able to interact with the actual world it existed in. Honestly, it wasn't sure if it liked this setup. Hopefully things wouldn't stay like this for too long.

Yuuka stared at her physics notes. She could deal with regular math all right, but once it got to physics, it seemed like her understanding of it just went out the window. She wasn't sure what was spinning more – the vectors in this energy field or her head. But she was loathe to message Ryuta. It was late in the evening, anyway, so the shift would be wrapping up and there would be someone to come in and relieve him. Could it wait?

Her father, Nagisa, knocked on her door. It was open, but he liked to announce himself with a knock first. "Yuuka, is one of your classmates working here?"

"Ah! I forgot to tell you – he volunteered to take my place today."

"Oh, I see."

"It's just today, don't worry."

Nagisa smiled. "No, no, I wasn't concerned about it. But is this okay? He needs to study too, I assume."

Yuuka put her pen down. "He said he was fine with it."

"Really?" her father asked. Yuuka nodded. "He seems like an upstanding guy."

"I… I suppose." She was still unsure. Exactly what did Ryuta want? He wouldn't just go and do this for her for no reason, right? Her phone buzzed.

• • • • • • •

Ryuta

Shift ended. I'm heading home
22:02

• • • • • • •

"Ah! I – I should see him off before he goes!" Yuuka exclaimed, jumping out of her chair. She danced around Nagisa, who dodged out of her way.

Mariko was well enough now to walk about, though there was still a touch of cramp. "Make sure he doesn't walk away with nothing!" she yelled.

"I'll try!" came the response as Yuuka scrambled down the stairs. She slipped on her shoes and burst out of the private door. Ryuta was already on his way out when Yuuka caught up to him. "Ryuta! Ryuta, one sec!"

"Hm? What is it?" he asked, blazer in hand. The weather was starting to turn a touch colder, especially so late at night.

"I, uh… thanks for covering for me."

"No problem."

"Did you pick up something for dinner?" she asked

"Yeah, I bought a few boxes of food."

Yuuka was incredulous. "You didn't have to pay for it!"

"Too late now."

"Ugh, Ryuta, you're too stubborn sometimes." Yuuka brushed her hair back.

"Is that supposed to be a bad thing?" Ryuta asked, expressionless.

"I – um…" Yuuka mumbled, unsure of how to respond.

Ryuta looked away, then at the ground, inhaled deeply, and then exhaled, and turned his gaze back to Yuuka. "I'm glad I could be of use. How was the homework?"

Yuuka sighed. "Same as always."

"I take it the physics wasn't easy then."

"How did you know?!"

A rare moment of mirth painted a smile on Ryuta's face. "You seemed to dread it the most before summer break."

"Right… I did." How closely had he been watching?

"Anyway, if you need help tomorrow, just ask. Good night!" He waved and turned into the row of street lights. A few cars passed by. Yuuka watched as he disappeared around a corner. How could the cold and aggressive Ryuta she had seen last week be the same person as this? He didn't make sense as a person. She sighed. Why did she feel compelled to find out more? Was it because he, too, was a quiet person? That didn't seem good enough reason to bother.

She retreated back to her room. Bedtime was soon. She had been so engrossed with her school work that she'd forgotten to shower at her normal time. Ah… it was going to be late by the time she was done with all that. Oh well.

Post-shower, she checked on her parents one more time. Her father was still tapping away on his laptop, seemingly still responding to some emails, while her mother was asleep. They'd find out tomorrow morning if she was fit to work her normal job. She closed the bathroom door and set the hair dryer to the lowest setting, not wanting to wake Mariko. It was going to take a while to finish this.

By the time she was done with that, her parents' bedroom door was closed. It seemed both of them had gone to bed. It was nearing eleven at night, after all, and it was past her bedtime too. She flicked the lights off, leaving just light streaming in from her bedroom.

Except something seemed to be casting a shadow on the balcony. What was that? It was pretty large. She closed her bedroom door and slid open the balcony glass. Nothing there. She looked in the direction of the shadow. Perched on the balcony railing was a black bird with red feathers around the eyes and little false horns. It seemed like an owl, but it was a lot larger than any owl she'd seen, in a zoo or on film.

Hang on a second. Was it wearing a vest? Yuuka blinked at it. It noticed her and turned its head. The two stared at each other, unsure of what to say or do next. Before she could say anything, it flapped its wings and flew away silently.