3. Ikuto + Suguru
After breakfast, Masaru went through his old wardrobe to change out of his pajamas. He came across a few things he'd completely forgotten he had and surprised himself as he found out that they still fit him, even after the growth he had over the years.
'Hmph, not as much growth as Tohma's anyway, right.'
Yeah, he was still on that...
Well, to his benefit, at least he didn't have to Realize his clothes out of his Digivice; he could still use what was in his closet. Getting things that were oversized for him definitely worked to his benefit in the long run. He picked out a sweater, a vest, and an old pair of heavy pants he had saved for the chilly weather. With the coat and Digivice-err, phone that Tohma handed to him yesterday, he then headed out for the day.
To Masaru's surprise, both Chika and Ikuto had grown tall enough to almost reach Masaru's shoulder in height... almost. He had another bout of surprise when Ikuto went in for a hug as soon as the Noguchi house door opened. He was about the same height as Chika, but if he was a late bloomer, then he still had plenty more to grow.
Noguchi Ikuto. It was strange thinking of the kid with his full name.
"Masaru! Welcome back! How're you doing?"
Just like Chika mentioned, he no longer spoke like a caveman or 'jungle boy'. To be real, there shouldn't have been a reason for him to have broken Japanese in the first place. Chika blamed it on Falcomon's terrible teaching abilities. So... she had personally drilled Ikuto's language skills up to par. That seemed to be the quick gist of it at least, although Chika seemed to enjoy telling the extended version of the story. Ikuto would just make a meek face while she rattled on.
The three of them went to a nearby family restaurant just outside the neighborhood for lunch and a place to continue their chat.
"Hey, Masaru-niichan. Do any cooking while you were in the Digital World?" Chika brought up off-handedly after the waiter took their orders.
"Why would I need to? The Digivice provides all the food I'd need. Well, the instant kind at least... We've got meat fountains and such, too. If I wanted something really custom-made, the Digital World is full of great restaurants now."
"Restaurants? I never saw restaurants when I was in the Digital World..." Ikuto said without hiding his awe.
"You can thank me for that when you can finally see it again! I've lost track of how many bullying troublemakers I've converted into cooks... with my fist!"
"But you can't cook for yourself at all?" Chika butt in.
"Like I said, why would I need to?"
"My brother... 20 years old and he can't even use a rice cooker to save his own ass."
"I-I can use a rice cooker! It's just been a really long time since I've done it..."
"You were always terrible with machines, so I wouldn't be surprised if you ever forgot to add water like that one time-"
"Hey, we don't talk about that!"
Needless to say, Sayuri and Chika always handled all matters related to cooking after that one incident.
After some more squabbling and banter between the Daimon siblings, their orders arrived.
There was one particular thing Masaru noticed while they guzzled down their burgers and fries: Ikuto was kind of aloof throughout the entire meal. Sure, he was quick to show his emotions when he first saw Masaru, but after the reunion atmosphere wore off and they started going through catch-up conversations, it just as quickly ended up with Chika doing all of the talking. Ikuto was never much of a talker as far as Masaru remembered, but surely he had more things he wanted to say after all these years.
"Ikuto, I haven't heard much from you besides the basics. I know we could let Chika give me all the details, but I've heard enough from her today."
"Hey..."
Ikuto laughed with his shoulders without actually laughing. "Well, you have to admit she does a pretty good job at talking. Good enough to fix up my sentences and get me through school and all."
"It was soooo much work. You better be grateful!"
"You were... a drill sergeant, that's for sure," Ikuto said plainly.
"A drill sergeant? Do you know what a real drill sergeant is actually like?"
"I've seen it from that one movie... That really old one you made me watch with you... Mountain Frump?"
"Huh. Oh, so you remember that."
It almost felt like... Ikuto had developed a sort of inferiority complex when it came to Chika. It seemed pretty subtle for the most part... But it was still obvious enough whenever Chika led around the conversation.
And after a while, with the three of them eating, not much conversation was going on at all... Chika was busy scarfing down her burger, and Ikuto still wasn't initiating any conversation even though he looked like he had plenty of thoughts in his head waiting to be heard.
Masaru idly noticed that Ikuto had lost his one unique hair trait, the side lock that Ikuto's little sister also (and still) had. Masaru got to greet the little sister when they stopped by the Noguchi residence, and it was great to see that she adored having Ikuto around as an older brother.
Yeah... that sensitive age, huh. Heck, these two were even older than when Masaru joined DATS. He started thinking about what he had just heard on the way over to the restaurant.
They were going to the same school together. She walked with him every morning. He would stop by the Daimon residence every morning and wait for her so they could walk together. She had spent a lot of time with him to hash out his speaking habits and catch him up in academics. Having to catch up with over seven years of academics must've been quite a hurdle in itself, but Chika stuck it through with him the entire time, all these years, and she was STILL at it.
It'd been that way for almost six years with them, since the Noguchis had moved into the neighborhood almost immediately after Masaru had left.
Masaru quietly watched the two on the other side of the booth as they continued eating. His younger self probably would've blurted out the obvious call-out here, but now he knew he needed a more tactful approach to the situation.
He finally had a chance when Chika temporarily left to use the restroom, after everyone had finished eating.
"Hey, Ikuto."
"Hmm?"
Masaru leaned back on the restaurant bench, letting his arms stretch out all along the backside. His posture oozed with ease as the boy sitting across from him continued to sit stiffly. "You got a problem with my sister or something?"
The boy jerked his head awkwardly. "W-Where did that question come from?"
"It's pretty obvious from the way you've been acting here. What happened with you two?"
...More tactful, but ultimately still straight to the point.
"Nothing happened..."
"Doesn't seem like nothing."
"Okay, yeah. She has no idea but... I really like her."
Ikuto fell silent, as did Masaru.
'Well, that got awkward fast.'
Then again, Ikuto was always so straightforward and blunt about things, just like Masaru...
After freezing up for a moment, Masaru blinked a few times to get back on track. "Uhh... What's to like about her? You sure this isn't some puppy crush?"
"...You're calling it that too?" Ikuto muttered.
"Hmm? Who else called it that?"
"My friends at school..."
"So you DO have other friends."
"What, is that so surprising?"
"Nah, just relieving to hear. Anyway, back to my question..." Masaru lowered the right of his two arms that were hanging level to his shoulder. Instead of completely leaning back in the seat, he shifted one side to the front in an attempt to look more approachable. "Are you sure about this? What do you like about her?"
Ikuto had his hands resting on his knees as if he was some average salaryman at an interview, and Masaru was the one conducting the interview.
"Well..." Ikuto started off slowly. "She's always there for me. It was really tough for me starting out here, y'know? With the way I spoke, and not being familiar with a lot of things about the human world..."
Masaru could only roughly imagine what the kid had been through, but it wasn't like he was particularly good at imagining himself in other people's shoes to begin with.
"Other people find it fascinating or such at first, like I'm a foreigner or an exchange student. But only at first... after I spend time with them over the years, they stop gawking at me. Instead, the guys at school... they start trying to take advantage of me and bully me... all sorts of terrible things. Chika would always be the one who stuck up for me... And before anything really bad happened."
"..." Masaru had his fair share of bullying experiences in his shortened school life. Mostly in the sense that he'd be the one rescuing someone else from getting bullied, whenever it crossed his path. He'd earned a solid reputation for himself at school for his tendency to find fights, regardless of which side of the fight he was on.
He remembered a specific incident that got him in trouble with the police, the one incident his mother would always bring up whenever she needed some collateral persuasion...
The fighter snapped back to attention as he realized Ikuto had been going off into details about the multitude of times Chika had rescued him... As expected of a fellow Daimon.
"We've been through a lot, and now I can't imagine myself without her," Ikuto said with a heavy sigh, catching up with his breath after a long speaking session. "I just... Feel like she completes me. You understand that feeling, don't you?"
"Eh?" It was definitely the most Masaru had ever heard the kid talk, and the sudden question back at him caught him off guard.
"Or at least Tohma understands it. You're the one who completes him. All he ever does is talk about you, when it's not about his sister or Digital World things..."
Masaru blinked hard. "Wait, wait... I never said anything about me and Tohma, but you already know?"
"Well, yeah..."
"'Well, yeah,' my ass... Did Chika tell you? So she knows too?"
"Yep."
"Ugh, but this isn't about me or Tohma right now. I just wanted your take on YOUR situation. And since I haven't been around, I can't really make heads or tails of what you two should be doing in the first place. I'm not you."
In all honesty, Masaru was feeling flustered as heck on the inside, but he refused to let that show.
"That's just the thing then. You're not me, and you haven't even been around all these years. How would you know what I'm supposed to do?"
"Hey, you're the one who tried to compare yourself to me. Remember, you're your own man. But every man's got things they need to think through before making any moves they might regret."
"Hmm? I swear I've heard you try to argue the exact opposite for the sake of manliness... Like a man's gotta just move before they think, or something like that."
"Depends on the situation!" Masaru paused for a moment as Ikuto finally asserted things for the first time since their reunion. In some part of his mind, he was recalling moments when he actually did move before he made time to think... And he shook his head. It was too easy to get into a logic loop at the rate he was going. "Look, I'm not trying to talk you out of this whole idea about liking Chika or whatever..."
"But you kind of are."
"Am I, really..."
At that moment, Chika appeared in the distance from the restroom area. Masaru thought their conversation was going to get cut short, when she suddenly stopped, still a good distance away from their table. It looked like a friend or classmate was also in the restaurant, and the two girls started up a conversation of their own.
In all honesty, Masaru just wanted to know how Ikuto was holding up, but at the same time, he hadn't talked to the guy in six years. Now that the little kid he once knew was so much bigger, it felt awkward... At least Ikuto must've felt that way, from all the body language he was emitting.
Awkwardness of this level never stuck around long for Masaru though, since he constantly laughed it off and would be up to opening with a man-to-man fist fight no matter the situation. Well, a fight wasn't really necessary here though...
As Ikuto observed Chika in her lively conversation in the distance, Masaru raised a fist to him to bring his attention back.
"Huh, what's this?" the younger one asked.
"A bro fist. Just wanna make it clear to you that you're still cool with me."
Ikuto should've expected it, really.
Masaru spoke of how the two of them first met, with Ikuto diving legs first to viciously attack someone who was easily twice his size.
"That's SUPER embarrassing to hear about now," Ikuto said in response to Masaru's reminiscence.
"But it was an awesome first impression! You were just a bratty kid bursting with all this fighting energy. And yet you were really honest and pure with your feelings when it came down to it. And here you are, still being honest with me, or at least I hope you are. That's nothing to be embarrassed about. It only gets harder to stay like that as you get older, so it's really just admirable..."
At that point, Masaru was thinking about his own personal struggles in getting himself to admit his feelings to Tohma.
Ikuto gave a look of confusion at first. After some downward gazing filled with silent reflection, he finally brought up his own fist to 'clank' against Masaru's. Masaru smiled in return.
"I'm sure you'll get things sorted out all in due time."
"Masaru..." Ikuto said with emphatic relief. "I'm just glad you don't think less of me after all these years."
"Why would I do that?"
"I dunno... l've changed a lot since we last saw each other." By whatever miracle timing of it all, the kid's deepened voice squeaked in the middle of his sentence. He half-frowned after it came out.
At least he was aware of it, Masaru thought to himself. "It's a complicated age, kid. If you want my take, maybe it's still too early to really make anything out of it, and that's okay. That's perfectly okay. That's how it was with me, too."
"You, too?"
"Just... might wanna avoid doing anything you'll regret. Or not, as long as you learn from it," Masaru crossed his arms as he found himself doing a mini lecture. "Give it time. Time will tell. At least you're not making plans to leave town anytime soon, right?"
"Naw, my whole family really likes it here..."
"And by the time you can visit the Digital World again, well... Chika can probably go with us too. I know she really wants to see Piyomon. That'll be quite the trip, won't it? You two can reunite with your Digimon together. You have that in common, too."
Ikuto put on the most obvious blush Masaru had seen on anyone in a long time.
Seriously, what an honest kid.
"I know you said not to compare, but... How did it go with you and Tohma? Was Tohma the one who confessed first?"
Maybe a little too honest.
"You're asking for a REAL awkward story there, Ikuto," Masaru replied frankly. "But in short, yeah... He beat me to the punch. I mean, figuratively. Literally, that's another story..."
Ikuto blinked a few times at him. "I'm not sure if I want to know what you mean by that."
"Even if you did, it's a story that only our fists know the full extent of. It's between Tohma and me. You still have your own story to figure out, Ikuto."
Ikuto blinked even more at him, but then noticed Chika was heading back to their table. "I'll figure it out one of these days..." he muttered before quickly shifting gears to greet her with a warm smile.
Suguru had reserved a private bathhouse with hot springs that evening, and thus father and son were there together in one of the bedrock baths. The two of them in private. Naturally, the two Daimon ladies wanted to go as well, but Suguru had forgotten to get them their own spot, and the place was already booked otherwise. Despite their extreme displays of dismay, Suguru only looked half apologetic for the ladies as the two men left the house.
On a chilly winter night like that one, the hot water felt even more relaxing than ever. Naturally, it was then when Suguru saw the massive star-shaped scar across Masaru's chest for a second time. He barely batted an eye at it, however. Instead, he complimented it.
"Quite the battle scar you've made for yourself there, son."
"Thanks!"
"Now, you know your mother didn't show it back at the house, but she was very concerned when she saw it."
"I'm sure she was... But she doesn't have to be. I learned my lesson, and I'm not letting it happen ever again."
"Be sure to tell her that yourself when you get the chance. She needs to hear that from you directly."
"Roger that, Dad."
Soon after they soaked in the warm waters, Suguru began telling Masaru of more tales from the Digital World. However, the mood as he talked was nothing like how it was back at the Daimon residence. These were stories that he hadn't told the other two Daimons yet, or anyone else for that matter... No one else in all these years. These were morbid stories, stories with more than meets the eye and more implications to larger problems at hand. These were stories that Masaru himself had similar experiences with, and without realizing until then, he too had avoided telling the other family members about them.
For example, the whole situation with the Flamon and Strabimon who had fallen into Digicon Valley... Their situation was unlike any other normal Digimon. Somehow, they carried some elements of human biology that were normally not present in Digimon of the Digital World. They had blood and organs like a normal organism, undigitized... Or perhaps still digitized, in an unusual way.
Masaru himself was much like them, made of blood and organs, volatile... Yet even so, he didn't even have the option of turning into a Digiegg if he sustained too much damage. He had but his one and only life.
"You're correct in that Digimon don't normally have innards like you described. That Flamon and Strabimon... I could only suspect that some element of them is actually human and not Digimon," Suguru mused.
"Really? But they claimed they had faint memories of their past lives... Wouldn't that only happen if they'd been turned back into a DigiEgg at some point? Wouldn't that make them Digimon?"
"But as you just mentioned... You still have your blood and organs in the Digital World, and so do they. Come to think of it... Do you remember the BioHybrids?"
Masaru took a moment to recall the term, as it sent him many more years back into his memories. Back then, his father had technically helped him find a way to fend off the BioHybrids... Back when he was BanchouLeomon. "What about them?"
"They were both human and Digimon as well, weren't they? When you defeated them, how did that work out?"
"The human went unconscious, and a DigiEgg came out separately from them..."
"Right. On a normal basis, if you damage a Digimon's 'wireframe' enough, they revert back to DigiEgg form. So in the case of the BioHybrids, it was more like they were embodying the power of a Digimon as their exterior, but they were still existing as a human as they always were previously."
"Uh..."
"Flamon and Strabimon aren't the same as those BioHybrids. They're closer to us humans, yet somehow they're still considered to be Digimon."
"I... don't get it."
There were beings out there that defied these otherwise clear separations between humans and Digimon. Flamon and Strabimon, the BioHybrids, even the DigiGnomes... Suguru delved into other such similar occurrences with situations that blurred the lines.
Even Suguru's entire ordeal as BanchouLeomon embodied both of their souls... Suguru admitted that he could write another book entirely on that specific phenomenon. Perhaps someday... But for now, he was fine keeping his personal experience to his single self, and Masaru was fine with that all the same.
Masaru shared more of his stories, giving Suguru more food for thought. Suguru had even more to talk about in return. The father did have several more years of experience in the Digital World over his son, after all.
They were ultimately trying to make sense of everything, but to Masaru, talking about it all was just having an opposite effect and thus causing more confusion. He ended up ruffling his hair dramatically at some point. "Agggh, why's there so much weird stuff we gotta watch out for? Why can't we just keep things simple?!"
Suguru chuckled at his son's cries of defeat. "I was waiting for you to react that way, and my expectations were finally met. I'm amazed you made it all the way through. I can't think of any other stories I've been holding back, at least for now."
They'd spent a long time in the bath by then, and Masaru was starting to feel dizzy from all the heat. Just as he was thinking about getting up, his father went ahead and did so before him.
"Oh, Masaru. You learned how to use a razor, right? And you haven't been needing to use one in the Digital World because of the midnight refresh."
"Yeah..."
"You might want to start using one again when we get home."
"Ah?"
As Masaru got up from the bath, he brushed his chin and just then realized he had quite a bit of a stubble going. It'd been so long since he'd felt it, and it was already so prickly to the touch after being in the human world for just a couple days.
Back during his DATS days, he had just started shaving. He hadn't even brought a razor with him to the Digital World... Though it turned out he never needed one anyway, fortunately for him.
And now that he was checking himself, he noticed his fingernails were longer than usual too.
Hair and fingernails... They didn't grow in the Digital World. Suguru's hair didn't grow in the 10 years he was there. Masaru's didn't grow in 6 years.
When Masaru asked the reasoning behind it, as they headed out of the bathhouse, Suguru had a textbook explanation ready for him. "Hair and nails are made from dead skin cells. So... As those skin cells die in the Digital World, instead of adding to the length of hair and nails, they get converted into digital energy that helps power the meat fountains you've likely seen throughout the Digital World. The Digital World is VERY efficient with providing energy for itself."
"Dang..." Masaru had his fair share of eating from the meat fountains himself. Digital World meat was... pretty good, to be honest. Like giant slabs of ham on a bone. Now that he knew that his own energy was part of the whole system, like he was eating a part of himself... he felt a little weirded out for a short while. But just for a short while. In the back of his mind, he recognized that the connection was really indirect in the end, similar to how vegetables benefitted from fertilizers created by animal waste in order to grow.
...
Thinking about the juicy taste of the fountain meat quickly overwrote whatever else he had just learned.
"It's really quite fascinating how biological functions work in the Digital World. I could go on about it for days... or maybe I'll write a separate book about it someday. Hmm, I mean, I absolutely should, if we're planning to bring other people in... Ahhh. My work's never done."
"Haha..." Masaru sighed as he noted that he had inspired his father without really meaning to.
As they headed outside, the sun had long gone and the temperature had fallen even further. Masaru could see his own breath escape as he exhaled, and he was reminded once again of the chilly winter season. He had plenty of heat retained from the bath to make light work of the cold, however.
"Must suck if you want to grow out your hair while loving in the Digital World, but at the same time, it's nice not having to spend time on extra maintenance. Leaves me more time for fighting!" Masaru pumped a fist up in the air for emphasis.
"Mmm. Say, Masaru... Do you see yourself still fighting every day in twenty, thirty years from now?"
"Hell ya, absolutely! It's in my nature's calling. I wouldn't be me anymore if I couldn't fight."
"If you'd been born in an older era without any of the digital technology we have today, I bet you would've been living a mercenary life. Hah, get a load of that thought... That's what I get for reading one of those isekai books..."
"Huh? What makes you bring up something like that?"
"Just watching out for the son I'm proud of."
"Huh..."
Suguru seemed to have a lot more on his mind as he gave his son a side look, but he wasn't divulging the details.
Masaru was fine with that. Getting to spend time with his father at long last... hearing all of his stories, getting to see the world a bit more like him... it was all such an eye opener. Technically, Masaru had spent some time with him back when he was with BanchouLeomon, but now with Yggdrasil's restrictions gone, he could hear everything that had previously been held back. And he'd gotten to hear so much...
"I'm so glad you came back, Dad. I really thought you were a goner back then."
"And I'm glad that you're back too, Masaru. You've definitely polished up that manliness like I told you to, and I'll be looking forward to seeing where it takes you in the future as well."
"Hey, it's not all just me, right? It's not like YOUR life is over... Anymore..."
Suguru made a half-nervous laugh, recognizing all too well that he'd cheated death in a way that possibly no one else ever would. "I never go a day without remembering what I'm grateful for... So for as long as I can, I'll do what I can to help carry on my ambitions for both our worlds."
"Ambitions, huh..."
"Yeah. You'll be working with Tohma on those developments, so I'll leave it to him to explain the details as they come. It's going to be a long process either way, so I hope you're ready for it."
"Of course I am! I'll show you exactly how much I've polished up my manliness!"
"That's my boy."
As Masaru laid on his old bed that night, after getting his nightly reminder from Tohma to charge his phone, he took a few moments to suck in the silence around him. No Digimon hanging about him, no one in the house making a ruckus, not even animals outside to hear, with the cold winter keeping everyone indoors or hibernating.
He was going to Tohma's place after dinner the next day, so he would be saying goodbye to this nostalgic old bed once more. Come to think of it, he hadn't actually spent a night at Tohma's place before. He'd never even seen Tohma's bedroom or anything of the sort. With a mansion that big, the beds must've been huge too... Well, he'd find out soon enough.
Besides that... He also just realized that he hadn't gotten the chance to talk about Tohma with his family, yet again. They were all going to be having dinner together soon, so he was hoping to hear from them before then... And time was going quickly. Knowing himself, he thought he might forget again when he woke up the next day, all the way until dinnertime. And that would be awkward...
Or did it really even matter? If apparently his father, Chika, and Ikuto already knew, his mother probably knew as well, and nothing had changed otherwise. That was already the best outcome he could've hoped for, right?
Somehow, he managed to remember the next morning, so he asked Sayuri right away as she was finishing up a batch of fried eggs for breakfast.
"Mom... Did Dad tell you anything about um... Tohma and me specifically?"
"Hmm, I don't remember anything off the top of my head. Is something the matter?" She untied her apron, hanging it on the side of the fridge, and gave Masaru a curious look.
"Oh... Uh... Are you sure? You're not just forgetting or something, are you?"
"I don't think I'd forget anything about you. I'm your mother! And Tohma's such a remarkable man, it's hard to forget anything about him, too. What was it that you think he told me?"
"Err... "
"Come on, don't leave me hanging now that you mentioned it."
"Well... About that..."
"Masaru... Your father may be back with us, but we still shouldn't keep secrets from each other."
"I know, I know..." He was just having a hard time handling the fact that it seemed his mother was the only one who hadn't figured it out or was told anything. Everyone else knew, and while his mother wasn't the sharpest knife on the block, she was... Still his mother. "Tohma said that me going to his place for the rest of the week was to make things convenient for whatever business we have to take care of with the government, but..."
He swallowed before committing the words out of his mind.
"It's not just for that. I... want to be with him too. He... means a lot to me now."
Sayuri blinked a few times. "He means a lot to all of us, doesn't he?"
Masaru tilted his head sharply. "Remember that one time long ago when I said if I ever found 'that special person' like Dad is for you... I'd let you know first thing? It kinda slipped my mind until last night though..."
Sayuri blinked some more. "You mean Tohma's that special person for you?"
"Mmmm... yeah," he reiterated for good measure.
"Oh, Masaru... That's wonderful!"
Sayuri suddenly enveloped her son in a bear hug-as in Masaru being a giant stuffed bear for her to latch onto.
"Huh?"
He had a feeling that his mother would be fine with the outcome, but he hadn't expected such... instant enthusiasm?
"Are you sure Dad didn't tell you anything?"
"Thinking back on it, he might have mentioned that you had a lot of big news to tell us once you were back. I got so caught up in all the talk about the Digital World that I assumed that was all the news. After all, you had that big accident..."
"Oh yeah... The scar... I'll make sure nothing like that ever happens again, Mom. I learned my lesson for good when that one happened. A man can't protect anything worthwhile if he can't even protect himself, after all."
"I'm very glad to hear that."
"In other words, I just gotta fight better!"
Sayuri just smiled back, as it was all she needed to do.
Masaru blinked, realizing that he'd gotten off track from his own point about Tohma. At the same time, was there really a need to go back to it? His father, his mother, his sister... They were all fine with Tohma, and that was that. It was the best outcome he could've hoped for. It was just less for Masaru to worry about, not that he was actually that worried about his own family in the first place. His worries lied elsewhere, in places he wasn't even able to define just yet...