[fanfic] Digimon Adventure 02: Fireflies: Chapter 9

[higuchimon]

Story Title: Fireflies
Word Count: chapter: 3,002||story: 26,346

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Ow. This hurts. Whose bright idea was it for pain to hurt, especially to hurt this much? It wasn't mine, I know that. It has to be someone who likes pain. Does that cover anyone I know? Well, Ken still has the occasional leftover 'punish me, I was a bad boy' thought, but other than that, I can’t think of anyone. So, who do I get to blame for it? No clue right now. But I’ll figure it out and when I do, I’m going to yell at them, as much as I possibly can, until they make it stop.

I've got to open my eyes. It’s going to hurt even more to do that, I bet, but there's got to be someone around here who knows why I'm hurting and can do something about it. Or at least can tell me what's going on. I’m not all that particular. I just want to know. Maybe knowing will help it not hurt as much.

I hope this isn't going to mess things up for my date with Hikari. It shouldn't. I mean, I really don't hurt all that badly. I don't feel much worse than I did the last time a couple of hundred elephants walked all over me. At least I don't think I feel much worse than that. Since a couple of hundred elephants have never actually walked all over me, it's a little hard to say.

I did feel a lot worse than those Vilemon treated me to all those attacks with their claws and Nightmare Shocks. So this can’t be all that bad.

"Daisuke...Daisuke..." Someone's calling me. It better not be Mom. I really hurt too much to go to school today. Maybe I'm sick and I just dreamed all that about heading down to meet Hikari and running into Saito.

Yeah, that has to be it. No way I'd get blown halfway to smithereens just going to school. That kind of thing usually waits until summer vacation, at least, or the first part of the school year. It’s not going to start happening now, in the fall. It just doesn’t work like that. It’s in the book of rules. I should know, I read it. You can’t break the rules if you don’t know what they are, right?

Well, I guess it doesn't matter when you think about it. It didn't happen, so that's all there is to it. This is still Monday morning and I'm going to wake up and go see Hikari and hopefully pass that biology test and have one less day to live through until this weekend and the Date. Who knows, maybe I'll even run into Saito and we can have a laugh about all of this. I bet she’ll have some jokes to tell Candmon about it.

“Daisuke!” Whoever that is calling me is really getting on my nerves. If it's Mom, I just might skip out on my chores for a day or two, just until she learns not to call me when I feel like this. That shouldn't take long. Not much longer than your average ice age, at least. She doesn’t know that I feel this bad, I guess. She always likes to poke at me until I get up when I’m sick, so she knows if she needs to fix me something extra to go with my breakfast. I guess that’s a mom sort of thing to do. I wouldn’t know, not having been a mom.

But I should try to get up. I want to see Hikari again, after all, and everyone else. So, time to get out of bed!

Ow. It hurts just to try and get my eyes open. Maybe I should just go back to sleep instead. That would feel a lot better than anything else. I bet V-mon would love the day off from school anyway. He gets so bored just waiting for lunchtime to get there. Sometimes he doesn't bother waiting, though. There's been rumors going around for the last year about the Phantom Foodsnatcher. He thinks I don't know, but when the only glimpse anyone in the kitchens has had is a small blot of blue vanishing into the vents, it's easy to figure things out.

I guess he has to do something to keep himself occupied, and there’s a lot worse things that he could be taking, other than a little food here and there. I think the cooks have started to leave out a bite or two of stuff he likes, so he’ll leave the things they really need to keep a lot of around alone. That’s what some of them would do. I think some of the others are thinking about taking a broom to him. I should warn him. I will. Sooner or later. He’s kind of stubborn, though. He might not actually learn until he gets whacked over the head with something. That sounds a little familiar, but I can’t figure out why. There’s a lot I can’t figure out at the moment, really.

For instance, is someone holding my hand? It feels a little warm. That kind of brings something else to my attention: I'm cold. Really cold. Except in that one spot, where someone's touching me. I kind of like it. I hope it's Hikari, but what would she be doing here in my bedroom? That’s the sort of thing I’ve had dreams about, but I don’t expect they’ll ever come true. If they do, they won’t be happening now.

“I think he's waking up.” Well, with all this noise around me, how could I not wake up? I just need to get around to opening my eyes without feeling like I've been beat with a very large and dirty stick. Still working on that part of it. For that matter, I’m still working on who the blazes is in my room and why they’re there and why they didn’t knock? Even I knock before I go into someone else’s room!

“What happened, anyway?” The first voice sounded a little like my Mom's, and that one there is my Dad. What are they doing in my room? Mom usually just bangs on my door on school days until I get up, and there’s times when Dad is on his way to work before I get my breakfast. So, they shouldn’t be here. But they are. Something’s really wrong, and I want to find out what it is.

I manage to get my eyes open a crack and the first thing I can figure out is that I'm not in my room. How the heck did I get out of there? I’m supposed to be sleeping. Not laying around in some place I don’t recognize and that has a really weird smell to it and lots of people I don’t recognize. I can see them going back and forth through a door, but only if I bend my head a little.

A third voice answers my parents, and this is one I don't recognize at all. I can’t see them just yet, though. This is so weird. “From the police report, a young girl and her Candmon got a little too close to the gas station, just when someone filling their tank happened to let just a little too much gas fall. Candmon got curious and got a little too close, and things exploded. Her Digimon was able to protect her from being hurt beyond a few bumps and scrapes, but the car was totaled, as was some of the gas station.”

“And Daisuke?” Mom again. Aw, she sounds like she's worrying about me. I know she loves me, but it's still sweet to actually hear it. Makes me feel good about myself. I’m going to have to do something really nice for her sometime soon. I can’t figure out what, but that’s no problem. I can talk to Ken or Takeru about it. I bet they could help, a lot.

“He should be fine once he wakes up; he'll just have to spend today in the hospital. He just has a mild knock to the head and some scrapes on his arms, and a dislocated shoulder. We thought that it was worse than it really is when he first came in, but we've got it fixed now.”

I had a dislocated shoulder? Yeah, that sounds about right. That must've been when I slammed into the side of that building. At least no one can tell me I can't hit the broad side of a barn. Or a storage warehouse, whichever. I've got medical records now saying I can. Sucks to be them, rocks to be me. That’s the way it’s always been.

Hey, hold on. I remember now. It wasn't a dream! I did talk to Saito and her Candmon, and then there was this really big noise, and I could see all kinds of things making a beeline straight for me. Then it was all dark and hurting until just a little while ago. I figured it out! I've been unconscious, not asleep! Go me! I’m not an idiot!

“Mom...” It’s the only word that I think I can say right now. I get my head to turn some, and I can see her and Dad both there. I know they've probably been freaking. They always do any time Jun or I get into any kind of accident or trouble. You'd think I hadn't gone up against a few mean nasty things and not made it out in one piece or something. As if that could ever happen. Parents. Who can figure them? Not me, that's for sure.

“Daisuke!” Mom's hand in mine squeezes a little tighter, and she just lights up when I call for her. “You're awake!”

“Hey, mom...” The longer I stay awake the easier it is to be awake, to talk, and to think some. “Where's V-mon?” I don't think he was hurt. I think I'd know about it if he was.

“He's out in the waiting room with-” Mom doesn't even get a chance to finish it before a squirming bundle of Digital flesh is on top of me.

“Daisuke! Daisuke!” V-mon looks pretty happy. Looks pretty good, too. Guess I was right, he wasn't hurt at all. “You're awake! You're okay!”

I want to hug him, but all I can do at the moment is run a hand over his head and feel a little better now that he's here with me. It’s better than nothing at all. “So who else is out there?” Cool, I got people to not have to go to school. Of course Iori will probably complain about it not being like that, but that's what Iori does. He should just be happy that he got to go on that retreat with his grandpa. He was going on and on about it for weeks before they left.

The doctor's still talking to my parents, and I listen in a little while hearing V-mon answer me. Looks like Hikari's the only one there right now, but Jun and Shuu were there for a bit. They might come back later, too. Feels good to know they care. I always knew they did, but for them to do something like that, it’s really like knowing.

“As I said, we’re going to keep him overnight for observation and to make certain there’s nothing else wrong. Barring any complications, he’ll be released in the morning.” Well, that's good to know. I really don't want to sit around here all day, but I guess I don’t have a choice in the matter. I wonder if anyone's told Ken and the rest of everyone what happened. I hope so. I don’t want them wondering where I’m at.

“Dr. Maruyama, thank you for everything.” That name sounds familiar. I just can't pick up where I've heard of him before. It's not like I've been in a whole lot of hospitals to get to know doctors. I try to stay out of those no matter what. They're boring. You can't get up and run around and explore, there's never anything good on the television, and music? Forget it. Everything's got to be quiet. Then there's that smell. That icky kind of smell that gets right up your nose and it's almost like you can taste it. I think I recognized that before anything else.

The food's got to be the worst, though. It's more than just those stories you hear, it's just...blargh! Hospital food should be put up with airline food for 'cruel and unusual punishments that should never be dished out to anyone, no matter what awful crimes against reality they’ve committed'. Jun's told me all about airline food. She and Shuu went over to Paris for a visit last year, and she told me that the sandwich she had could probably have qualified for a couple of frequent flier miles all by itself. Or was it that it was probably old enough for retirement benefits? I can't remember...

At any rate, I wouldn’t hand this junk out to BelialVamdemon, no matter what. In fact, I think if I tried to, he’d reform on the spot and take up basket-weaving.

“It's my job, Mrs. Motomiya,” the doctor tells mom, and I can't really hear much else of what he says since I'm yawning so much. I wonder if I'm supposed to rest. I saw a movie where some guy had a bump to his head and was supposed to stay awake for a while. Hope I can get some sleep. Sitting here all day would be boring. Sleeping isn’t that exciting, but at least it can make the time go by a little faster.

“Can I see Daisuke now?” Oh, well, things are looking up. It's Hikari. Maybe sitting around here all day wouldn't be so bad if I can sit with her. I bet I can’t, though. She’s going to have to go to school. She didn’t get hurt. I hope.

“If it's all right with his parents.” Dr. Maruyama looks over at them, and both Mom and Dad just kind of nod. I've got the greatest parents. Or maybe they just figure I can't do anything I shouldn't while I'm in a hospital bed. Boy, they really don't know me that well after all. After all, I am Motomiya Daisuke.

She comes over, and I can tell that I’m right, she didn’t get hurt. Her uniform’s a little mussed, and she’s got a bruise here and a scrape there, but they actually make her look a little cuter, at least to me. I grin at her before she starts talking. I don’t want to say she looks better scuffed up, so I keep it just to a grin. I know my limits. Kind of.

“You know, Daisuke, I always knew you'd do anything to get out of school, but I didn't think you'd really go this far.”

“Hey! It wasn't my idea!” I think she's got a sense of humor going on in there somewhere. That's cool. I've been a good influence on her, I bet. “Besides, you think I want to risk missing our date this weekend?”

Hikari just kind of grins back at me, then pulls something out of her jacket. “Here's your D-Terminal and D-3. I had to borrow your D-Terminal, I left mine at home.” She shivers a little bit as I take it out of her hands and put it on the little moving table by me. “It was weird, the Digimentals were kind of flickering or something when I was holding it then.”

Huh. That is weird. “Probably nothing.” Nothing that I can't talk to Ken or Koushirou about, that's for sure. “I'll just let someone like Ken know and they'll come up with some explanation.” Besides, it's probably something all reasonable like because I was hurt. None of us have been hurt like this since we got our Digimentals. Guess the Digimentals were worried or something. If they can get worried. I’ve got no clue where that’s concerned.

“You're probably right.” She doesn't look all that happy, though. She worries. I can't help the nice warm feeling in me that comes from knowing she's worried about me, though, and I don't want to help it. It just feels too good. “I thought you'd broken your arm when I saw you. It looked all weird.”

A grin steals its way onto my face. “Didn't you know? I'm indestructible. Says so on the 'guide to being Motomiya Daisuke.'”

“I'm not surprised. You'd have to be.” Do I really want to know what she means by that? Probably not. But she is right. With the life I lead, being indestructible is necessary. And useful.

She looks back over at the door. My parents and the doctor left while I was talking to her. Guess that means I'm not in any immediate danger of falling over and dying. Like I just told Hikari, I'm indestructible. I can think of a lot of idiots who'd go out of their way to prove me wrong. A lot of them have tried, but I just keep on proving them wrong. Oh, well, that's what it means to be me.

“I can't stay all that long. I've got to get to school.” Aww, no day with just Hikari? This is gonna suck after all. I knew she was going to have to go, but it’s worse hearing it than just thinking about it. “But I'm going to let everyone else know what happened and we'll all be by after school.” That gives me something to look forward to, at least.

“Thanks, Hikari.” These hospital pillows are kind of nice, really. Not fluffy, but sort of cool and crisp, like they just came out of the dryer. Maybe staying here won't be all bad. Of course, with my luck, the teachers are going to find out I'm here and decide it's time for that most dreaded of punishments: extra homework.

To Be Continued