[fanfic] Digimon Adventure 02: Fireflies: Chapter 7

[higuchimon]

Story Title: Fireflies
Word Count: chapter: 2,911||story: 20,275

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I bet if it could be done, watching me rip around my
room trying to pull everything together for school would be the
world's most fascinating spectator sport. Ken said something like
that once. I didn't think he was serious, though. But the more I
think about it, the more I really think he was right. Besides, who
wouldn't want to watch me regularly? I could be my own anime show!
After all, who looks enough like me to be live-action? I'm one of a
kind!

There are also a lot of people and Digimon grateful for that, too. Or so I’ve heard. That’s what Jun told me a few times when I was younger. And then there were those Vilemon who really hate me. I kind of wonder if we’ve seen the last of them. We didn’t reformat them when they were beaten. They just vanished and we haven’t seen them since. It’s been a long time since then. Maybe a year or two, so they’ve probably forgotten all about us. Even if they haven’t, we can handle anything they throw at us.

I've almost got everything done. I just have to find
the last bits of those notes I took last night. Or maybe it was
really early this morning. Either way you want to say it, it doesn't
much matter, I think. I was up until it started getting light
cramming all of this information into my head. I'm surprised I didn't
start to forget things, just to keep it all in! Koushirou's said that
the human mind is limitless. I guess he's right, but I still can't
imagine how I keep all of this useless stuff in here. I don’t see how he or Miyako or Ken or Jyou do it. Maybe it’s just a genius thing. My head hurts from staring at those words. I wish I could forget how much it hurts, actually.

But there's one thing I'm not forgetting, no
matter what. That's going to happen this coming Saturday night: my
date with Hikari. I have to keep double-checking every time I think
about that, so I can be positive I'm not floating about four feet off
the ground. Which would be kind of cool, really. I think I'll check
with Koushirou and Ken and see if there's a way to make it happen in
the Digital World. Or even in our world. That would be even cooler. I don’t know if they’d understand or not. Maybe Ken, since he’s dating whoever the heck it is.

What more do I need...where did that last page
go...V-mon didn't touch it, did he? No, there it is! It slipped under
the bed. The wind must've done it. I kept the window open last night,
watching the fireflies until they weren't there to be watched
anymore when I wasn’t studying. I did more watching them than I did studying for the longest time. It’s probably just as well that they did fade out after a while, or I wouldn’t have gotten anything at all done.

If we have to do any kind of report on fireflies in
the next week or two, I think I've got it totally covered. I bet the
teacher would pass out if I turned in something that was worth a
perfect score. Might be fun to find out. I'll have to check into it. I wonder which teacher I can bribe to assign that report. I’ll have to think about it.

There, I've got everything put together. I yawn deeply, sagging back into my chair at the same time. I am so tired. I don't remember being this tired in my entire life, not even after we finally beat the idiot with the letter opener on his face. I've had to stay up nights studying before, but I never quite felt this tired.

Maybe it has something to do with the date. After all, I was really caught up with bouncing off the walls after she said yes. So maybe that took it out of me or something. Sounds about right, anyway. At least I can fix that up tonight. I'll just tuck myself in a couple of hours early and I'll be back to normal.

Wait, I think I just insulted myself. Me, normal? At any kind of time? With any kind of sleep, or lack of sleep? It just doesn't add up right. I'll have to apologize to myself later. I think some ice cream should do nicely, right after school. I'd pick it up on the way, but I'm going to be late enough just because of all the running around I’ve had to do before I even get out of my bedroom, much less the apartment.

Late. Time. Time to go. Oh, crap! I'm supposed
to meet Hikari at the corner and walk on to school with her! I can't
miss that! It'll be the first time I really saw her since she
said yes. I really can't miss it! I have to see her face, make
sure that it's not a weird dream or something. Of course my dreams
usually involve something a lot weirder than her going on a date with
me. I usually see purple oxes and speckled butterflies having tea
with the Dark Masters. Not that I'm really sure they are the
Dark Masters, but they pretty much match what Taichi told me about
them, so I guess they are. Great, I never even fought those guys, and
they're invading my dreams. Couldn't I at least get some mental
visits from BelialVamdemon? That way I'd know why he was
traipsing about in my brain. I keep meaning to talk to Tailmon about what he was like when she was growing up with him, just so I’d know if the little flashes I have had of him are accurate. I know they don’t mean anything, but I still want to know just how my brain is screwing up the images it gives me.

But I can worry about that some other time. For right now, it’s time to get to school.

"V-mon, I'm out of here! You coming?" I take a quick look outside, and make a face at once. It's rainy. I've never liked days like this. They always seem so dreary and boring. Though they can be brightened up in the right kind of company. Hanging out with Ken and trying to cheer him up is always fun. Or just being with Hikari. That's fun too.

If all else fails, the whole gang can just ditch this place and hang out in the Digital World. It doesn't rain a whole lot there, at least not when we're there. I'm pretty sure it does rain some times, it's just not when I've been there. I think Yamato mentioned something about a really nasty three day storm there once a while back, but I wasn't really paying attention. I had some other things on my mind just then. Besides, hearing Yamato talk about his love life is weird enough without having to really pay attention to it. That was when he and Sora were being chased around by Ritsumon, I think. She was complete bad news. Glad she’s gone.

"Wuh? Huh? Oh, yeah, sure," V-mon stretches and bounces over to me. He's been able to stay at his Child level for about a year now. I'll never forget the day when it first happened. It was probably one of the weirder days around. Expecting to see a little short bundle of digital energy and finding a medium sized bundle of hunger kind of sticks in your brain. Even in my brain, which has been known to forget things that happened five minutes ago in favor of something new and sparkly. I don’t let it worry me. If something’s important, I usually manage to cling to it for a while. Most of the time. "Come on, let's go!"

There's just enough time to wave to my parents as they go out. I think they're still trying to deal with this, at least my dad is. I love my mom. She accepts so easily. When I first formally introduced V-mon to them, she was feeding him chocolate chip cookies inside of the first hour. She learned pretty fast that was a mistake, though. A sugar-high Digimon is a very terrifying sight. I keep teasing Ken that if I'd known that way back when, I would've just loaded up Poromon, Chibimon, and Upamon on brownies and let them at him.

The first time I told him that, he went this really interesting shade of white. Hikari and the others just kept on
laughing, though. I think they never once thought about a hyper Digimon as a weapon. Sounds pretty intelligent to me. Guess that's why I'm their leader. I can come up with the ideas that they never would, and find a way to make them work.

"See you later, Mom, Dad!" That's the last thing I tell them before the door slams behind us and I'm heading down to the street. I
can see a few other kids heading out, though not too many. Maybe I'm
not quite as late as I thought. Or maybe everyone else is just really
late too. I wonder what the teachers would do if everyone showed up late on the same day. Probably pull all of their hair out in shock or issue a mass detention or something crazy like that. They’re teachers. No one expects them to be sane.

"Hey, Motomiya!" I can hear the voice calling out to me from behind easily. I don't even have to think to know who it is; I know just about everyone who would probably call out to me anyway, especially at this hour of the morning. It's fun being me. I wish more people knew just how much fun I can have just being me. Maybe then they’d have more fun being themselves. Then everything would be a lot happier.

"Hey, Saito!" I turn and wave at the younger girl as she comes up behind me. She's only about eleven, but she tries so hard to
act so much older than that. Ken told me once that she has a crush on me, but I don't believe it. She's just a kid. If she's got anything, it's like what I had for Taichi, just a whole lot of hero worship. She's even into soccer and things, and has her own set of goggles. Imagine that, a "goggle girl". Saito Kimiko would probably think that was the coolest thing ever. She'd probably be right, too. She even has a Digimon of her own, who is bounding along right behind her, Candmon. I've seen a lot of weird Digimon, but just seeing an animated candle sort of takes the cake. Especially since he’s about the same size she is. I wouldn’t even think about blowing him out!

She stops just a little bit away from me, bowing quickly to say hi. "I hope you're not in too much of a hurry. I was just wondering if you had time to walk to school with me. There were some things I wanted to ask you about fighting bad Digimon." She even wants to be a goggle girl, I think. A real official Chosen Child, instead of just one of those who has a Digimon, like a lot of other people are getting these days. She really wants to be special.

I know the feeling. It was how I lived for three years after I saw my first Digimon and before I knew that I really was one myself. I can only hope that she gets a chance to have her dream someday.

"I've got to get to school, Saito." I don't like turning her down, but Hikari's waiting, and Saito doesn't live that far from me. "But I think I've got some free time this afternoon." I hope I do anyway. There's not much I have to do; soccer practice isn't until tomorrow, and Ken's music recital won't be for another three days. Hey, I wonder if I can see who his mystery date is there. I don’t know why I didn’t think about it last night. I bet she'll show up for it. The problem would be figuring out which of the adoring fangirls is the right one. I doubt she’d be wearing a sign that said ‘I am dating Ichijouji Ken’. Too bad. That would make things so much easier on me. But Ken never has liked doing things the easy way.

Saito just kind of sighs. "I can't. I'm supposed to
be going to see my grandparents tonight, and I have to leave right after school’s over with. They want to meet Candmon."

I guess all of her family hasn't met her partner yet. They've only been together for a month or so. "Too bad. But maybe some other time would be good for you?" She perks up right at once, and I really have to choke back a laugh. She really reminds me of me. Did Taichi have to go through this? I'm going to have to ask him. I don’t think I have been, because I think I would have remembered.

“Sure! No problem!” She’s snapped out of that little funk in under a second. Heh. Just like me. Just like Taichi. Yeah, she’d make a great goggle girl.

"Well, I'll call you some other time, and see what we can work out. But don't get your hopes up on using anything I tell you any time soon." Gah, I feel like I'm some old gray-haired guy talking to a kid about the 'good old days' or something. But I know I'm right, anyway. There's just not that much to fight anymore.

Almost as if my memory likes proving me wrong, I think about some of the Digimon we've had to fight in the last three years. It's not like it used to be, with some big Digimon at the head of everything, but every now and then, something pops up to cause trouble. Those Vilemon. Ritsumon. A couple of others that have turned up here and there. Still, it's nothing that we can't all handle. I’m sure Saito will get a chance to do something someday soon. I haven’t told her that, but I will someday. I know she’s going to be glad to hear it.

"All right. See you later!" Saito waves and heads off down the street ahead of me, Candmon bobbing along in her wake. She has a little farther to go than I do, so she's running in just a few seconds. I almost expect to see him evolve any second now to give her a lift. V-mon's certainly done the same thing for me more than enough times.

And you know, looking at my watch, I think that it could just be time for that to happen again. Or else I’m going to be way too late. I am not going to be put in detention today, or any time this week. I don’t want anything to screw up my anticipation for this coming weekend. “V-mon, I'm gonna need a lift to get to where Hikari is on time. Are you up for it?”

"Yeah!" V-mon's bouncing all over the place already. He loves doing this. "Who's it gonna be today, huh?"

Well, the one that's the most comfortable ride is Lighdramon. That’s probably because he’s got four legs and so is really more suited for a human to ride on that FlaDramon or XV-mon. He’s pretty fast, too, as fast as a wolf. That sounds good enough to me. I pull out my D-Terminal and a few seconds later, the gun-metal gray Digimon is right beside me. I hop onboard and we head out as quickly as Lighdramon can get his legs moving. It feels great just riding and knowing the only real danger we could be threatened with is some kind of traffic jam that'll make me late for school or maybe the rain that’s been threatening actually breaking over our heads. That last wouldn’t be all that bad. Riding in the rain can be a lot of fun.

But since it hasn’t happened yet, I just enjoy the feeling of the wind going through my hair and tugging at my clothes and bag. I should do this more often. I bet Hikari would just love riding around on him with me. Or riding alongside of me with Nefertimon. That would be so cool. I'd better remember to ask her about doing that. I bet it would make an awesome second date.

Guess we should probably get through the first date first, though. That's what Ken always says. First things first. Who
knew he'd know what he was talking about, huh?

Maybe it's because I wasn't paying that much attention to anything except what was going on inside my own ears that I don't really notice anything, until the explosion's already happened and we're flying through the air with all kinds of construction stuff flying with us. I just manage to see something heading right for me, and just before the darkness closes in all around me, I start to wince. This isn't going to be pretty. But I’m sure it’s going to be painful.

There aren’t too many times when I’m unhappy to be right. This time is one of them.

To Be Continued