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The thunder startled her. Her teacup fell to the ground and shattered into pieces. She only had seconds to regret losing Yamato’s gift before running to her kids’ bedroom. She didn’t expect rain for that night -probably no one did, since it hadn’t been forecasted-, and she had agreed with her daughter’s plea to leave the window open: she enjoyed watching the stars until falling asleep.
Kotaro, her youngest boy, was still sleeping in his crib, but Mayumi was, expectedly, awake and already watching the rain.
“Is dad home already?” she asked.
Yamato had been training very hard for an upcoming trip to space, again. He tried to come home every night, but it wasn’t always easy or possible. Telecommuting from work, under the rain, also wasn’t a great idea… Sora didn’t think he would come home tonight. But her daughter didn’t have to know, yet.
“He’ll be home soon,” she replied. And then she was startled again, this time by the doorbell.
“Why is daddy ringing the doorbell?” Mayumi tried to stand up, hoping to run into her father’s arms, but Sora held her in place. Surely Yamato wouldn’t ring the doorbell…
“Sora? It’s me, I’m sorry for showing up this late. Let me in.”
“Grandpa!” Mayumi screamed, but Sora held her firmly and asked her to stay.
She closed the window and the door. She didn’t want to leave her father waiting, but it made her uneasy to know he had shown up unannounced, almost at 10 o’clock at night. She dreaded whatever bad news was awaiting her on the other side of the door and, walking slowly towards it, she felt like a little and scared girl.
“Dad?”, she asked, opening the door. She was surprised to find Kido Shuu with him, “is everything ok?” she asked, while letting them in.
And it only took her a second to realize and oh by Yggdrasil what was going on…?!
“Kou… Koushirou?!” she exclaimed, holding her mouth to stop her from screaming, when she saw her very close friend Izumi Koushirou standing behind his co-workers… except that he wasn’t her 35-years-old friend, but the 10-years-old that had traveled with her to the Digiworld so many decades ago…
“Hello, Sora,” she had forgotten how sweet his voice was! “I’m sorry for coming unannounced…”
“What’s going on?!”
“Experiment gone wrong…” he sighed.
“Should I make some tea?” Hiroaki made his way into the house, followed closely by a smiling Shuu and an embarrassed Koushirou.
“Oh! Hi! Mayumi-chan!” Shuu exclaimed, waving at the little girl that was standing on the other side of the living room.
Quickly, Koushirou tried to hide behind Shuu’s legs.
“Mayumi!” Sora reprimanded her. “You should be sleeping!”
“I wanted to see Grandpa…,” but instead she was looking intensely at Shuu and the little boy, “who is he?”
“Mayumi…,” Haruhiko stopped, realizing he didn’t know what to say.
Luckily enough, Shuu had a knack for dealing with children.
“Mayumi-chan, I can’t believe how tall you are,” he said, crouching next to her. Koushirou took his opportunity and ran to the kitchen. “I’m guessing growing up comes naturally when you have to take care of a little brother and two baby digimon.”
Mayumi didn’t reply, but looked at him curiously, and forgot about the little boy that she didn’t know.
“Is Kotaro sleeping then?”
“He sleeps a lot…”
“And I see you have trouble with that.” Shuu sat on the floor; in that position, Mayumi was barely taller than himself.
She smiled.
“I like to look at the stars at night but today it’s raining and I can´t.”
“Well you are in luck, because I happen to know a very good way to look at the stars at night.”
“But we can’t go to the Digiworld. Mum and Dad don’t allow us to travel at night, even if I am with Piyomon or Gabumon,” she said, looking as serious as a 7-year-old could look.
“That will change soon, seeing how you are almost an adult.”
Mayumi was enjoying the attention, but she was not a silly girl. Her grandfather, watching from a corner, wasn’t surprised when he heard the answer.
“I’m not almost an adult, I’m only 7!”
“Really?! Well, you look so much bigger, even bigger than me!”
“Then why are you taller?” she asked, seriously, and Shuu had to give up and laugh. He stood up.
“Well I am taller as you very well have noticed, but you are smarter than me and that somehow makes you older than me.”
Mayumi remained unconvinced, but she smiled. Haruhiko realized that she had completely forgotten about the little unknown boy, so it was time to take her to bed.
“Should we go check on your brother?” he asked. Mayumi waved goodbye, but her eyes remained fixed in Shuu Kido until her grandfather closed the door.
Shuu made his way to the kitchen, where Sora was preparing tea.
“And hot chocolate for baby Koushirou!” he grinned.
“It’s not funny…” he complained, although mildly.
Haruhiko returned to the kitchen after making sure that Mayumi wouldn’t surprise them again. He sat while Sora filled the cups with steaming tea.
“Will you tell me what happened?” she asked, finally.
There was a moment of silence following her question.
“I guess I should start…” said Shuu.
“I already told you it’s not your fault!” Koushirou complained. Haruhiko intervened.
“This will take us nowhere; Koushirou, don’t act like a little boy,” he said, and both him and Shuu laughed.
Sora smiled, but she could see that Koushirou was mostly embarrassed.
“We have been working on an experiment for a while… a medical experiment,” Shuu explained.
“Really? I didn’t know you did medical experiments as well.”
“That’s why I said it is my fault… you know that I’m a doctor, even if I focus on research and I don’t really treat patients.”
Sora nodded in understanding.
“And you know all those times that you turned back into children… back in 2003, and later when Menoa-san showed up here…”
Thinking about losing Piyomon, even if for a short while, still made her very sad.
“So, we have been thinking, you know, there are a lot of illnesses that can be cured through children’s cells, mostly always family members, so we developed the hypothesis that we could extract these cells from the same person, by digitally and in a controlled environment turning them into children again…”
“But… is this legal?” she couldn’t stop herself from asking.
Her father smiled.
“Of course it is legal, Sora, we submitted the research request years ago to the Digital Council at UN and we were granted permission.”
“But then…?” she looked at Koushirou. He sighed.
“I thought we were ready,” he admitted. “To try it in humans.”
“And you tried it on yourself?” she complained, not being able to hide her annoyance.
“Who could we try it on? It’s not like a digimon needs an experiment to return to its child form.”
Sora went pale upon hearing him.
“Are you telling me that… you tried it in yourself before even trying it on a Digimon?!”
“Yes. It was no use trying it on a Digimon and we don’t do trials in animals.”
“Which you’ve always been very much in favor of,” Haruhiko intervened, because he could see how Sora’s emotions were getting in her way.
“I know. I know. I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be judgmental.”
“I know, Sora. I understand.”
There was a moment of silence while both Sora and Koushirou absorbed the emotions that had just been shared. They may not have been the best of friends, but there was something special about the way in which it wasn’t just context that had brought them together, but a conscious decision, over decades, of always choosing to remain friends. For Sora, Koushirou had gone from a close acquaintance, someone that she always wanted to take care of, to a close friend, to something strongly close to family. He worked with his father, their daughters were the closest of friends… Sora had gone from supporting his role on the football team to always relying on him on the Digiworld; from standing by his ideas to accepting the fact that, of all her friends, he was probably the one that could go on without ever needing her help again.
It had been difficult for her, but liberating, to finally accept, all those years ago, that Koushirou and the rest of their friends could go on without her, and that she was allowed to let go and focus on herself without feeling selfish.
“We can’t take him to his house… It will be very confusing for Osen-chan. She doesn’t have any redhead cousin,” Haruhiko explained. Sora nodded in understanding.
“And we don’t want to scare his parents…” Shuu added.
Koushirou looked from one side to the other, probably feeling ashamed.
“But I can still go to my parents, Sora. I didn’t want to bother you or Yamato… I know that Mayumi-chan is a very smart girl. She will probably realize what’s going on… I was simply overpowered. They are stronger than me, you know…” he admitted, and Sora couldn’t stop herself from laughing with her father and collaborator.
“Nonsense, Koushirou. You came to the right place… you’re our family. We just need to… figure out what to say to my daughter.”
“Tomorrow morning I’ll go to Mina’s house while Osen is at school and I will bring Koushirou a bag of supplies, or maybe Mina will come... For now, he will have to subsist with the traveling pack that we keep at the office,” Haruhiko said, pointing to the small bag that he was carrying when he arrived, “definitely it’s been a smart decision keeping this at the Digital Center,” he said, referring to the buildings where they worked, inside the Digital World.
There had been many occasions when they hadn’t been able to return to their houses, sometimes because the gates were closed by the government, as a precaution against anti-assimilation activities or protests going on in their world. These situations, however, never lasted for long, so they didn’t have more than a few toiletries and a change of clothes ready… which obviously was for a grown-up Koushirou.
“Oh my God, I now realize it!” Sora exclaimed, “you’re wearing kids’ clothes! Did they shrink as well? And you were able to keep them when you left the Digiworld? Miyako was never able to keep her outfit!”
Koushirou’s face turning red was all the answer she needed. She felt embarrassed and sorry.
“We may have had to do a bit of fast shopping in a supermarket before coming to see you… we bought him some pajamas as well,” Shuu said, and showed Sora a pair of fluffy, Patamon-shaped pajamas.
She thought Koushirou would look extra adorable in them, but didn’t dare to say it out loud.
“As I said… overpowered,” he sighed.
“We’ll leave then, Sora. It’s getting late. We’ll bring him a bag in the morning, and he has a computer so he won’t bother you,” Haruhiko said.
“He could never bother me!” Sora complained. Then she addressed Koushirou: “I guess then that you will not be able to enter the DigiWorld until returning to your appropriate age… your ID will be invalid.”
“I could go in with my fingertips, anyway… it’s not like they change.”
“Koushirou!” Haruhiko exclaimed. Sora was startled because she wasn’t used to her father being authoritative. “Consider this your very needed vacations. No more work for you.”
Sora knew he felt like complaining, but didn’t. With a short goodbye, his father and colleague left.
“I really appreciate you receiving me, Sora. And I’m sorry that we didn’t even have time to let you know beforehand…”
“Don’t even mention it, Koushirou. I understand why you can’t go to your house nor to your parents. And this is your house as well,” she paused for a minute, “have you eaten?”
“I have, thank you. Thank you for everything.”
They smiled, at ease. They both appreciated each other’s friendship more than they were used to admit.
“The guest’s room is ready. And you can take a shower if you want, there are towels ready as well. Just let me check…” Sora walked him to the guest room and turned on the light for him, “oh! Sorry,” she smiled, “you’re taller thank you look like.”
Koushirou smiled, finding out that he didn’t care if Sora made jokes about his situation.
“I will revert back, you know,” he said, “I figure you don’t want to ask, but it’s always been temporary. It will be temporary now as well.”
She let out an involuntary sigh, realizing how worried she’d been about that.
“I know I can always trust you to come out of any difficult situation, no matter how impossible it seems. And your younger self… I think I trust him even more,” they smiled again, and Sora continued talking before allowing themselves to feel self-conscious, “now go on and put your Patamon’s pajamas on. I swear I’m not letting Takeru know, or you’ll never hear the end of it.”
“Thank you!” he said, “please don’t… and thank you, Sora. Really.”
Afterward, he closed the door and Sora returned to the living room.
On my way, she read, on her cellphone, her husband’s text message from almost half an hour ago. She knew he wouldn’t feel comfortable not being there for Koushirou, even if he was doing quite well. And right on time, he opened the door.
“Hi,” he smiled, leaving the umbrella and his shoes by the door, “thank you for always reminding me of having an umbrella in the car. I didn’t know it was going to rain.”
“I didn’t know either,” she kissed him on the lips and helped him remove his jacket, “Mayumi got up and saw him. She was quite curious but I don’t think she understood who he was.”
“I don’t like lying to her, but she’s so small… I don’t want to confuse her or for her to tell anything to Osen…”
“I agree… he’s a redhead, so he can be a distant cousin, right? Maybe the son of a cousin…?”
“You don’t have cousins… if she remembers him, in a few years this lie will be a problem…”
“In a few years, we can tell her the truth… right?”
She sat at the table while he heated food in the microwave.
“I’m sorry, I should have cooked for you.”
“Nonsense. I had dinner, I just need to eat something else before going to bed. Is he sleeping?”
“He wanted to take a shower, but he might be sleeping now. He looked so tired…”
“How’s he going to sleep? Did you lend him Mayumi’s clothes?”
“No,” Sora laughed, “my father bought him a pair of Patamon’s pajamas… I swear, him and Shuu are the same person sometimes, I don’t know how poor Koushirou manages both of them at the same time.”
“Maybe he doesn’t… after all, he’s the one who got returned to his ‘child form’.”
Sora didn’t answer immediately. She looked at him drinking his soup while remembering her conversation with their friend.
“You must know that it was his own choice…”
He swallowed his soup.
“I guess… but I still feel like someone should take care of him. I still think of him as the teenager that lived out of Oolong tea for so long… Does Jyou know?”
“I don’t think anyone else knows, besides his colleagues and his wife. Mina, or my father, will bring him some stuff in the morning.”
“We should probably ask him if he wants to tell the rest of the group. Do you imagine how Jyou will react? And don’t even get me started about Takeru, he’ll drive him crazy.”
She smiled. They were almost always on the same page when it related to their friends.
“We can’t tell Jyou, Takeru, Mimi, Daisuke…”
“… but what about Taichi?”
Yamato asked what she had been trying to avoid even thinking about.
“… we need to speak to Koushirou about that, first thing in the morning.”
“You know I can’t stay for long, Sora…” he sighed, feeling frustrated, “if this comes out and Taichi doesn’t know about it, his position as Ambassador could be greatly damaged… you know that the anti-assimilationists will use this as a tool. This is, after all, proof of how dangerous the Digital World can be.”
“I know, and it worries me a lot. Of course, I didn’t want to discuss it with Koushirou today, and I trust -I know- that he’ll return back to normal… but until that happens, this could blow up on our faces. It could be a huge diplomatic bomb for Taichi…”
There were so many things to consider and to think about… Koushirou closed the door and turned off the lights, deciding not to eavesdrop on his friends anymore. The following day he would have to start making plans. Even if he knew it had always been temporary, it was also the first time that the condition followed them to their world. And right when Taichi was making so much progress with achieving an acceptable level of coexistence between both worlds…
.
.
.
The following morning, Sora knocked on the door. Koushirou left his computer on the bed and opened the door. Judging by the hour, Mayumi should be at school already.
“Good morning, Koushirou. I was wondering if you wanted to have some breakfast?”
“Good morning Sora, yes, thank you. I’m sorry, I didn’t want to leave earlier, since we didn’t coordinate… and Mayumi-chan…”
“I know, don’t worry,” Sora smiled, “I’m wondering if it’s safe for you to drink coffee on this… body? Just in case, I prepared what we usually get…”
A full Japanese breakfast awaited him on the table: steamed rice, miso soup, grilled fish, tsukemono, natto and Sora’s well-known and amazing collection of teabags. Kotaro, their toddler, was playing with Piximon, the cat, in the living room. The cat, which in fact he had gifted to Sora a decade ago, looked at him with interest, but the boy didn’t pay him any attention.
“I bought you a few bottles of Oolong tea, as well. They are in the fridge, help yourself whenever you want to.”
“What… Sora, just at what time do you wake up?!”
“Well… when Yamato is home I try to leave for a short run at six o’clock. He helped prepare this, of course.”
“I’m sorry I missed him…” he didn’t want to confess that he had heard their conversation the previous night, “Sora, thank you… you know you don’t need to do this for me.”
“Is what our family has for breakfast, Koushirou. Please don’t worry.”
The bell rang, right in time to free them from another awkward moment.
“That must be your wife. I’ll let her in.”
Koushirou heard Sora greeting Mina.
“Mina, it’s so nice to see you, please come in.”
“Sora, thank you so much, so much, you are amazing, I couldn’t ever thank you enough.”
“Please, don’t even mention it… you look amazing.”
“It’s court day today… but your last collection, Sora by Yggdrasil, I didn’t know what to choose!”
Mina followed Sora into the kitchen. As Koushirou expected, she was wearing the red sari that he liked so much… she always dressed in traditional clothes when she had to work with the Indian embassy.
“Mina, please help yourself to breakfast as well. I’ll tend to Kotaro now.”
Mina watched her husband for a few moments before daring to speak.
“You are so cute. I always knew it, but… really.”
Koushirou smiled, though sadly.
“Does my cuteness deserve a hug?”
And hugged him, Mina did.
“It’s so weird, you’re just a little bigger than Osen.”
“I know… but I will revert. I promise,” he still felt the need to explain that to everyone in his life, “I even made some advancements, or at least had some promising developments, this morning.”
“I’m so sorry I can’t stay, Koushirou… and I can’t be late. But I told Osen that you’ll be away for a few days and gave her the spare mobile phone, I told her that she can use it for a few days. Just be careful not to answer the phone, only text messages for now…”
“I know… and thank you. Have you had breakfast? Sora may have overestimated how much I can eat in this body…”
“Everything looks incredible, but I really have to go… I brought you enough supplies to last you for a few days, at least… I’m so sorry that I can’t miss work today…”
“I understand. Please don’t worry… I promise I’ll return home very soon. I won’t even wear everything you brought me. I promise.”
Mina touched his cheek, then hugged him one more time. “Goodbye,” she whispered. He watched her disappear and heard her rejoin Sora in the genkan.
“I’m sorry, Mina, but I need to say this… you are a vision in this sari, the details…!”
“Sora, I insist, I need to take you to India and now that you are doing this for us… promise me we’ll go together. I can introduce you to some incredible designers.”
“I am not doing anything, Mina, please… but I will promise you that, anyway… I’ll go to India with you. I promise.”
Koushirou was finishing his breakfast when Sora met him again, and this time she was followed by Piximon, the cat, who sat down right next to him. Then, he stood on his back legs and started touching his lap.
“He knows who you are, you know…”
“Do you think so?” Koushirou patted his head and enjoyed feeling the cat’s purr. Even if he’d never had a pet, he’d always enjoyed and felt some kind of connection to this cat, that he had gifted to Sora after all.
“I know so,” she said, “will you be ok on your own, Koushirou?” she asked, “I’ll leave Kotaro at the nursery and then I’ll go to work, but I can return if you need anything.”
“I think I will be ok, Sora, thank you. I’ll keep working with my computer… and I guess Piximon will keep me company. Should I feed him?”
“Oh no, he has food. But he may try to sleep on your computer, be careful.”
“Guess I won’t be adopting a cat anytime soon…”
Sora smiled.
“Ok, text me if you need me and I’ll come back.”
“I will… thank you, Sora.”
She left.
It took him a while to wash the dishes. He remembered his parents used to keep a stool close by, just for him to be comfortable around the house. He never grew tall, but really, this short? He didn’t remember anymore how annoying it was to do normal stuff like reaching for the tap or a book.
Luckily his computer was a size he had always felt comfortable with.
He decided to work in the guest room where he had spent the night. Surely Sora and Yamato wouldn’t mind him sitting somewhere else, maybe in the living room next to the window, but he still felt uncomfortable walking around a house that wasn’t his, even if they had been friends for decades.
He wondered how his little girl Osen was doing, and resisted the urge to text her. She would surely call him back and then she would recognize that his voice wasn’t his and, how do you explain to your 6-year-old that you are suddenly her age?
What a mess.
He tried to work but couldn’t concentrate for more than ten minutes straight. What – a – mess!
He turned around in his chair and was startled by Piximon, the cat, who was sitting very still on the bed.
“How did you get in?” he asked; he knew he had locked the door.
Piximon didn’t care to answer, apparently. He sat still, looking at him without blinking, and Koushirou knew this was a blinking game he couldn’t win.
The cat had always been nice to him. Not as nice as he was to Sora, Hikari or Ken, who of course were the holy trinity of cat lovers and were loved in return, intensely, by every cat in the world, but Piximon was certainly nicer to him than to Jyou, Mimi, and maybe Miyako… definitely nicer than to Yamato, although he thought Yamato was just too proud to admit how much he loved Piximon.
Koushirou had found Piximon, actually. Even considered keeping him… there was something extremely cute in the little baby cat, all white except its black tail and a little dot on its head. It was almost symmetrical (Koushirou had always loved symmetry). But then when he saw Sora playing with the baby cat he just couldn’t picture him keeping it anymore. And it had definitely been a good call, since his daughter was born with asthma and a lot of allergies. He would have gifted him to Sora eventually, he was sure of it. He just did it a few years in advance.
Piximon didn’t seem to mind his presence but he certainly wasn’t going to leave the room, so Koushirou decided to just work and to try and find an exit to his predicament. He needed to be an adult again!
The cat, eventually, jumped to the desk and sat next to the computer. He opened his eyes, now and then, as if to confirm Koushirou was actually working, but didn’t really move or annoyed him at all. He seemed at ease with his presence.
But it was Piximon who gave him the first clue that something was wrong, when he suddenly jumped and left the room in a hurry. Koushirou heard the door and assumed that Sora was back early (very early), and decided to welcome her as well… except that when he got to the door it wasn’t Sora who was holding the cat but her oldest daughter, Mayumi… and she had seen him already.
“Who are you?” she asked.
For a smart man (boy! For a smart boy!) he certainly didn’t know what to answer to her daughter’s closest friend. And she was such a smart girl!
“I am… a friend. A friend of your parents.”
“But you are six.”
“I’m ten!” he corrected her. The nerve of that girl!
“Why did my mom leave you alone?”
… that was certainly a question he couldn’t answer.
“Why aren’t you at school?” he asked, hoping to divert the attention from himself.
“My teacher is sick so my uncle Takeru brought me here. He’ll let my mom know.”
Of course, Takeru had to be involved! He paled when he realized that he could still be around.
“Is… is your uncle Takeru here?”
“No. My cousin Seiyuro was very sick so he took him home. He says that I’m the best-behaved person in the family so I’m allowed to stay home alone while we wait for my mom.”
Takeru wasn’t wrong, but damn Takeru! Forever getting him in trouble, even without realizing it!
“Besides my mum let you stay alone. So I can stay alone as well. What is your name?”
“My name is… Izzy,” he mumbled. Damn himself and his lack of imagination!
“I’m Mayumi. But you already know that. I know that my grandpa brought you home last night.”
“That’s right! He brought me here because I can’t stay at my uncle’s Shuu house. You see, his daughter, I mean my cousin, Haruko has chickenpox and it’s a very contagious disease. So, last night they brought me here.”
Mayumi observed him while petting Piximon.
“You don’t look like uncle Shuu or uncle Jyou. They all have blue hair. Your hair is as red as my friend Osen’s.”
“Because I’m related to aunt Jun, who married my uncle Shuu! That’s why.” Dammit, smart girl!
“Then why didn’t you go to uncle Daisuke’s house? He’s my funniest uncle.”
At this point, Koushirou even considered just telling the whole truth, who was this girl, a soon to be 8-years-old detective?!
“Uncle Shuu didn’t want to take me there because… mmmh… my cousin Kyosuke, you know… uncle Daisuke’s son… he’s older and… a bit… rough when dealing with younger children.” He would hate himself forever for this and would buy Motomiya Kyosuke the nicest present ever for his birthday.
“Mmh. That makes sense.”
Smart girl! Now he felt proud knowing his daughter was best friend with such a smart young girl.
“And now we will play.”
And her tone didn’t admit complaints.
.
.
.
The first hour or so went relatively well. Mayumi was a very active and athletic girl, as expected considering her flawless genes, and his daughter Osen was exactly the opposite. She was a sickly girl, and often reminded him of how Hikari was usually sick when they were traveling the digiworld... Hikari didn’t stay a sick girl for too long, and Osen didn’t have to travel the digiworld with a bunch of ten-years-old: both good signs. But then again, Hikari never had asthma and, as far as he knew, she wasn’t medically allergic to anything… he had discovered that, as a father, it was very difficult to be rational about many things.
He paused to dry the sweat from his forehead. He had never played football with Osen, and was surprised at how much muscle memory he still had. Keeping Mayumi from scoring goal after goal was not only possible but fun, and he wondered if it would have been the same had he stayed in his adult form (yes, he was referring to himself as a digimon now, yes).
He was also surprised to discover how soft Mayumi could be while playing a sport that was the opposite of delicate, and understood that her athletic building and interests were a perfect match for Osen’s curiosity and her urge to discover a world that was just too dangerous for her to breath in. Mayumi was active and strong, but she had a strong rational sense that allowed her to understand the environment where she was moving. He could see now how she could be so active yet never rough to Osen.
“You are good. Where do you play?”
“Where do I play?” her question took him off guard, and she scored, “that was amazing!” it was true, but he was also trying emphatically to divert the conversation from personal matters. He didn’t want to keep lying because he was convinced that she was going to see through the cracks of his lies.
“Aren’t you mad?”
“What? Why would I be mad?”
“Because I destroyed you. I scored like… fifteen times.”
“What? You did not!” That was a lie! – and yes: he realized how hypocritical he was being.
Mayumi laughed. He watched her, surprised, and then he laughed with her.
This girl was fun. He was glad she was Osen’s best friend. And he was glad to be able to spend so much time with her, alone time, he meant. And he knew he should have texted or called Sora an hour ago, but… at first, he didn’t know how to do it without being suspicious. He had left his cellphone at the bedroom. And then, when he could have said that he wanted to go to the bathroom, or that he was tired, he just… didn’t feel like it. He had to admit that he was enjoying his time with Takenouchi Mayumi. And he didn’t want to bother Sora if it wasn’t necessary. He could deal with her for a few more hours, right?
“I want some juice. Come on.” He followed her inside and allowed her to pour two big glasses of lemon juice for them. He imagined Sora and Yamato didn’t allow her to drink all the juice that she wanted to, as he and Mina didn’t allow Osen to do it, but… he was a ten-year-old today. He could enjoy himself.
“My cat Piximon knows you,” she observed, watching the cat rubbing his nose in Koushirou’s hand.
“This is your mum’s cat,” he corrected. Well, he had gifted the cat to Sora, after all!
“This is my cat. Piximon, my cat. I care for him, I pet him and I play with him all day. And I know him better than anyone and I know that he knows you. And he knows you very well.”
“Well…,” he had to be careful now. His opponent was one of considerable intelligence. “Why do you say so?”
“Because I know my cat Piximon and I know that he doesn’t like new people. Or changes. He also doesn’t like Aunt Mimi and Aunt Miyako but I like them for both of us so that’s ok.”
Koushirou smiled. She needed to tell them that as soon as possible.
“And I know that he knows you because he never gets close to people like that. Unless he knows you. And I’ve never seen you before. So, you’ve never seen my cat before.” Well, that logic maybe wasn’t perfect but he could excuse her due to her age.
“Maybe he knows that I like him too. So he wants to get to know me better.”
“Nah.” Koushirou laughed. What was that response?! This girl! “Your hair looks just like my best friend Osen’s.”
“Really?”
“Yes.” Mayumi stopped talking. She observed him, “you look like a boy in that picture that my dad and my mum have in their room… you know, the one in the Village.”
Koushirou froze. She was getting too close…
“You look just like my friend Osen’s father.”
She paused. He paused. And then he finished his lemon juice, slowly, to give him some time to think.
This girl was a mastermind.
“Really? I would like to meet him then.”
“Ok! I will ask my mum to invite him tonight so we can play with Osen. She’s my best friend. And now I want to watch a movie.”
Success! After this, he knew that finding a cure or a solution to his predicament wouldn’t feel as amazing as it felt to trick this little genius.
“Does your mother allow you to watch movies?” He had to ruin it, yes. Yes. Yes.
“She’s not home. So we’ll watch a movie. Come with me.”
This was probably the moment where he should have drawn the line and called Sora. Playing in the garden and drinking some juice was one thing, but allowing her to watch tv when it wasn’t tv time… probably wasn’t a good idea.
And yet he followed her, and Piximon did too.
.
.
.
Years of being a successful independent woman and a loving mother of two kids and 4 digimon (and a cat and a husband and a best friend and a brother in law…) had prepared Sora to manage baby Kotaro on one arm, two grocery bags on the other one and Piximon running between her legs screaming for wet food. But she hadn’t even been able to leave the bags on the table when she was startled by his running husband, who arrived early and in despair, and she almost tripped and fell on her cat. Luckily, the husband in despair had amazing reflexes.
“What’s going on?!” she exclaimed.
Yamato took Kotaro from her and left him secured on his chair: he was asleep, luckily.
“Sora, it’s my brother’s fault! Again! I don’t know what to do, it’s like he’s a kid!”
“He is a kid.” Knowing that whatever had happened was Takeru’s fault didn’t exactly put her at ease, but she was used to managing his disasters. They would manage this one as well, whatever it is.
“Sora,” Yamato took her by the arms. And then she was worried, “it’s Mayumi… he brought her home hours ago and he forgot to tell us,” He lowered his voice, “I’ve been texting Koushirou but he hasn’t been online for hours. I don’t know if he went to the Digiworld or what, but he’s definitely not home. So our seven-year-old has been home, alone and without a digimon, for hours.”
Sora closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She could hear the living room TV on, so Mayumi was definitely home, violating her TV schedule, yes, and judging by the empty glasses on the sink had violated her juice permission, as well, but home. And judging by the two empty glasses:
“I think Koushirou is with her. Oh God, Mayumi is too smart. I’m sure she’s discovered it all. What will we do? How do we explain to her that she can’t speak about this?”
Yamato knew that, when Sora started scratching her head, she was in distress. And he also knew that he had to stop her before she started to pull her own hair in despair.
“Let’s observe. Maybe we can interrupt without startling Mayumi, she can’t know that something is wrong.”
Sora nodded her head in agreement, but he knew he hadn't been able to calm her down. He grabbed her hand, just because he could, and led her to the living room.
The lights were off, but the TV was on. It was evident that Mayumi had violated her TV schedule for a few hours, and they would have to deal with that later. Knowing that she was safe was the priority.
Under the light of the screen, they could see there was someone sitting on the couch in front of the TV, and it felt almost painful walking the distance that separated them from this person without making any sound.
But oh it was so worth it.
When Sora squeezed his hand, he knew he wasn’t alone feeling all that… that… whatever, that feeling he was feeling. He knew he was kind of embarrassed but he didn’t really care because… they were just so… so cute!
Sitting on the couch, their heads resting on each other’s shoulders, Koushirou and Mayumi had obviously fallen asleep while watching a movie. They didn’t know if Mayumi knew who he was and they couldn’t understand why Koushirou hadn’t contacted them, but… it felt just so right having him there, looking like a ten-year-old, and sleeping peacefully.
“If he stays like this and doesn’t return to his adult form… can we keep him?"
Sora smiled and kissed him on the cheek. Yamato was as cute as baby Koushirou and their daughter watching TV together.
“Let’s go. We don’t need to wake them up. We’ll deal with Mayumi later.”
They didn’t go far, however, because Koushirou heard them and woke up.
“Sora, Yamato! I’m sorry!” he tried to move, but he couldn’t without waking her up.
Yamato smiled and took Mayumi away from his side. He hugged his little superheroine and took her to her bedroom, but he knew she would wake up soon.
“I’m sorry, Sora! I lost sense of the time!”
He felt so ashamed. Sora and Yamato had taken him in when he was in trouble, had agreed to keep his secret and he had still avoided informing them that their daughter had arrived early. He had also allowed her to drink juice and to watch hours of TV. And he knew that it all felt rational hours ago, when he had taken those decisions, but facing his friends now all of those decisions felt wrong. Extremely wrong.
But Sora laughed.
“Don’t worry, Koushirou. I’m glad she wasn’t alone in the house… Takeru didn’t call me. So we didn’t know. I’m sorry that you had to take care of her instead of working… but I hope she wasn’t too difficult?”
Koushirou smiled.
“Mayumi is the best,” he paused, “I’m afraid I lost track of time and didn’t work at all on my situation… I’ll ask Mina to pick me up. I’ll have to deal with this somewhere else.”
“What do you mean?” She was confused, but she knew that she shouldn’t be. This was typical of Koushirou, “you’ll leave, looking like this?”
“Well… I expected to have it solved by now, you know… and I believe my parents will be happy to see me like this, even if for a short time, I hope.”
“Nonsense! You don’t have to leave, and especially not now that you’re such good friends with Mayumi. Maybe you can take care of Kotaro tomorrow,” he paled, and she laughed, “I’m kidding! But please, stay. We enjoy having you around.”
They smiled. And it didn’t feel awkward.
“I… guess I can try to work now for a little while…”
“Go ahead, and please don’t worry about anything today. Yamato’s in a good mood, I’m sure I can convince him to cook one of his specialties.”
Koushirou wasn’t one to complain about the taste of food (he was probably Mimi’s best customer), but thinking about homemade food cooked by Yamato and Sora was enough to lift his spirit.
He retreated to his room, and was able to hear what seemed to be pieces of an argument between Yamato and Mayumi, including words like “TV privileges” and “sweet drinks”… he felt bad for her, but as a parent, he understood where Yamato was coming from and supported him.
He locked the door. He enjoyed Piximon’s company, but it was enough for a day. He now needed to concentrate and work. No one was going to find a solution for him.
He checked Mina’s messages asking to come by, and his colleagues telling him what he already knew: no news for now, “but no news isn’t bad news” (Shuu was a bit of a Zen philosopher). He opened Tentomon’s last video message.
“Koushirou-han! What is this that you look like when we first met? Please, I want to see you again!”
He smiled, and decided that he could indulge him, after all, he was his closest friend. He called him.
“Koushirou-han! I can’t believe it!” Tentomon was obviously excited, “am I taller than you now? I want to see!”
“Well… come over. I don’t think Sora will mind, but you have to be quiet so her daughter doesn’t hear you. That girl’s onto me already, if she sees you, she’ll know immediately what’s going on.”
“I’ll be quiet, I promise!”
But after a few seconds passed and Tentomon didn’t appear in the bedroom, they both knew something was going on.
“Maybe the GPS is picking up your location in Sora’s house? And the gate doesn’t open because they don’t have permits to open the gate at any time?”
“That must be it…,” Koushirou agreed, “there must be a particular limitation over this address, though, probably because Gabumon and Piyomon can reach Ultimate level… This gate policy… not allowing Sora, Yamato, and the rest to see their digimon whenever they want, after everything they’ve done?”
He didn’t want to politicize and he knew that Taichi was working harder than anyone else to accomplish coexistence through law and diplomacy… but after spending half a day playing with Mayumi and hearing about her Pyokomon partner, it was sad knowing that she wasn’t able to see her every day.
“I’ll enter with my fingerprints, then. Please, move aside.”
In seconds he was inside the Digiworld (something that Sora, Yamato, and their kids weren’t able to do, in fact, according to the same regulations!)… and he was expecting a different kind of welcome.
“Koushirou-han, no! Don’t be an adult again!”
He looked down, feeling awkward, and strangely cold and annoyed… only to discover that his clothes were gone!
“What is…?!” he wouldn’t swear, but oh boy was he confused!
“No, Koushirou-han, you’re an adult again! And your clothes are torn now!”
“Digital gate, open! Open digital gate! Chosen children, let’s roll!” he screamed, at the top of his lungs. Everything happened so quickly that he found himself hitting his face directly on the floor, exactly as it used to happen when they were younger.
The noise must have startled Sora, because she knocked on the door, worried, and he was glad he had locked it because… he was naked, wearing no more than rags!
“I’m fine! I’m sorry, everything’s fine!”
“Ok… please let me know if you need anything! I understand it may be difficult to move around in a different body. You shouldn’t be ashamed of that.”
He thanked her, feeling embarrassed, and was relieved to hear her leave… because what a mess!
“Koushirou-han, do you have clothes?”
“I do! I’m sorry, Tentomon, I’ll be right back,” he turned the video off and removed the pieces of fabric that hanged from his body.
This had never happened like this… both times that they had returned to their younger selves, including so many years ago with Menoa and Eosmon, somehow their clothes had always ‘followed’ their bodies. Even Daisuke and some of the other digidestined, who used to change their clothes every time that they entered the Digiworld… they were never left naked, by God’s sake!
“Koushirou-han, are you ok? I can’t believe I missed you, I wanted to see you once more!”
He could hear sadness in his voice, and even if he was deeply embarrassed (never, but never had he allowed his partner to see him naked!) by what had happened, he found himself smiling. What a strange day it had been!
“I’m ok, and I’ll be with you in a minute.”
He put on some of the clothes that his wife had brought him earlier that day, and turned the video on again.
“I’m back… and I must admit I don’t know what happened. I’ll have to investigate more before being able to explain… maybe I’ll cross-reference this with what Miyako, Daisuke and Iori used to wear…”
“But Koushirou-han, will you be able to return to your ten-year-old body again? Please, I really want to spend some time with you again!”
Embarrassed as he was, he was smiling again.
“I… wouldn’t be able to give you an answer before carrying out further investigations… but… I guess I can try…”
“Oh, Koushirou-han, please try!”
“I… I will. I guess I will,” he admitted, “I’m sorry, I need to inform Sora, Yamato, and my colleagues about my new… eh… form. I’ll call you later from my house, and maybe you’ll be able to cross the gate there.”
“Ok, Koushirou-han! And I’m glad that I was able to see you, at least! Thank you!”
His happiness was contagious.
“Thank you, Tentomon… and I’m sorry. Maybe next time…”
He hanged up.
Now, what was he supposed to do? He couldn’t allow little genius Mayumi to see him again, because she would know immediately… but he also regretted strongly not being able to say goodbye to her, and wondered if she would feel rejected knowing that her new friend had just left, without seeing her one last time.
He knew he would have felt rejected, had it been the other way around… and he was once again grateful for Taichi and Sora, who had been such good and close friends when they were young. They had made him feel included and he would never forget that.
So he would have to find a way to make it up to Mayumi.
He decided texting Sora and Yamato was the best way to avoid her seeing him. A few minutes later, he heard a soft knock on the door.
“May I come in? I’m alone,” Sora said.
“I’m sorry I didn’t allow you in when you came earlier, Sora… I was trying to make sense of this,” he had made sure to hide his torn clothes, the evidence of his shameful nakedness.
“How… how did you manage to turn back?”
Yamato appeared at that moment, and he looked… disappointed?
“You’re back? Why?”
Sora hit him in the ribs, visibly, and made him close the door.
“What he means is that you were so great with Mayumi today that it would have been nice to have you around a few more days, right Yamato?”
“Mmmh, sure,” and even if Koushirou knew that Yamato had something else in his mind, he couldn’t tell what it was.
“I… I don’t know what to do with Mayumi, actually… if she sees me right now she’ll know. You raised a smart girl,” he complimented.
“You did too, and we love having Osen around. We’ll deal with Mayumi, please don’t worry about her… but I would like to ask you to stay here until she goes to bed, so she won’t see you leave.”
“Yes… yes, of course.” He stopped himself before saying out loud what was really in his mind and what his concern about Mayumi truly was… Sora and Yamato were great parents. Surely they knew what was best for their daughter.
“I grounded her, so you don’t have to wait until tonight… but we would like it if you stay for dinner. I bought extra food,” Yamato explained.
“You grounded her because of the juice and the tv?... that was my fault.”
“And you would have been grounded had you stayed young, but since you’re an adult now…!” There was something, just a something in Yamato’s voice that Koushirou knew was a clue into his odd behavior, but those were the kind of mysteries that he wasn’t good at, unfortunately.
“Ok, ok, Yamato, I think Koushirou needs to speak to his family and colleagues now,” Sora patted his husband on the shoulders and made him leave the room. She then turned to Koushirou, “will you stay for dinner, then? Mayumi and Kotaro will have dinner soon and then they’ll go to bed, so you’ll be free to move around.”
“Sure,” he agreed.
It wasn’t only the perspective of homemade dinner that prompted him to accept the invitation. He had to admit that, as happy as he was about being an adult again, there was a feeling lingering inside him that asked him to stay a little while longer. He knew the following days would be dedicated a hundred percent to understanding why he had stayed young for almost a whole day, and why he had changed back the moment he got into the Digiworld again. Or did it have anything to do with his connection to Tentomon?
So many questions and so many hypotheses to pursue, it excited him even thinking about going to work the next couple of days… and yet he wanted to stay with Yamato and Sora, just a few more hours.
Maybe he was feeling sad knowing that they still had trouble seeing their digimon on a daily basis, especially Sora, who didn’t work with Piyomon. Maybe he wanted to investigate that, and for that, he needed to stay there.
Or maybe he had enjoyed the change in his routine. Sora and Yamato had always been the Mom and the Dad (probably the grumpy dad) of the group, and it felt good experiencing their care once more. Also, just and simply, spending time with them? He definitely didn’t see them as often as he would like. (Knowing what a good pair of chefs they were? That helped, obviously).
… Or perhaps he had inadvertently taken a day off from work, and he had actually enjoyed it…? His wife, his boss, his colleagues, everyone in his life asked him to go on vacations more frequently, but he truly enjoyed working. He always said that he didn’t need to take more days off than other people… right?
He shook his head to the sides. These were the kind of questions and reflections that he truly wasn’t good at. But what was he good at? He was good at solving the mysteries of the DigiWorld, and he knew he would solve this one.
He sat back in front of his computer, he forgot to text his wife.
Yes, he would solve this, definitely. And maybe then Tentomon would get to see him as a young boy once again. And he would be able to say a proper goodbye to Mayumi!
Excited with the prospects of the investigation, he started to type.