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“I hate summer,” Ai muttered, staring up at the blue sky above.
“It is vacations though,” Rin replied. She was sitting up, using a fan to try and find some relief from the heat. Kunemon had rolled up in her lap.
“Eh.” Ai just groaned.
There was not a single cloud in the sky. Not really. Somewhere far above there was a plane, barely more than a sparkling dot above, but it drew some condensation behind itself.
“They have summer vacations in other places,” she finally decided. “I guess I hate summer here.”
“Quit whining,” Impmon grumbled. They were sitting under the parasol by the side of the small backyard of the house, stuffing their face with watermelon.
“Stop being a dick.” Ai did not feel like sitting up. She did not feeling like anything. Some part of her wondered whether it was actually possible for a human to melt. But then again, that was all a question of the code. So she guessed, uh…
No, it was to hot to think about this.
Rin leaned her head back, fanning some more air against her neck.
“I still don’t get why you’re here,” Ai noted. “Your home has an AC, right?”
Rin did not answer. She just shrugged, making Ai sigh.
“Can’t we go to your place and hang out there?”
“I really don’t… No,” Rin muttered.
Another sigh escaped Ai. She got it. In a way. Rin’s parents were like hers in a way. Working constantly. Though they were even richer than hers, and the apartment where Rin was living was just pretty darn nice. And it had AC.
Gods, Ai would kill for an AC.
She had moved to the backyard, because inside of the home the heat just collected like crazy. But maybe she should give the version of enduring the heat that involved sitting in front of the electric fan another chance.
“I kinda feel like ice cream,” Rin muttered.
Ai turned her head. “We don’t have ice cream.”
Rin pulled a small wallet out of her pocket, shaking it.
Right. Ai had forgotten about it. She closed her eyes, seeing the red of her lids, given the sun was merciless today. “I think walking in this heat will kill me.”
“You really have grown soft,” Impmon noted. They had finished the watermelon by now.
“I just hate…” Ai groaned, before finally forcing herself to sit up.
She did genuinely feel horrible. She was only wearing a t-shirt and the shortest of skirts today. But the t-shirt was soaked with sweat already.
Darn it. She wished she could just strip down or something. Or maybe…
She sighed. Without the Digivice she could not actually merge with Impmon. Some part of her wondered whether that would make the heat more bearable. Had it been more bearable as Belle Starrmon?
“Fine,” she muttered. “Let’s…”
Rin smiled. She got up as well, Kunemon crawling up over her body and ending on their typical spot on her shoulders. “The conbini has an AC as well, right?”
“Uh. Maybe I should move there then,” Ai said. She went to the back door of her home, stepping into the slippers standing right behind it. Walking through the building she shouted: “Baa-chan. We’re gonna get some ice.”
“Ah!” Her grandmother’s voice came from the kitchen. “Can you fetch some things for dinner?”
Ai should have expected this. Makoto had been gone the entire day, her mom would only be home from her work trip on Friday, and her dad was useless half of the time. She groaned, but went back a few steps in the corridor to look into the kitchen where her grandmother was sitting by the table, apparently occupied with a crossword puzzle, while also having hogged one of the electric fans. “What do you need?”
“I wanted to make somen tonight,” her grandmother said. “We only have two eggs left. And we also do not have cucumber anymore.”
“Also we are out of watermelon,” Impmon added, having caught up to Ai.
“What? You ate it all?”
“It was not that much.” Impmon crossed their arms behind their head.
“But watermelon is heavy to carry,” Ai grumbled. “And the cucumber…” She sighed.
“What is it?” Rin asked.
“I think we gotta go to the supermarket.” Ai dreaded it. The supermarket was about a kilometer and a half away, compared to the conbini that was just down the street.
“We can take the bikes,” Rin suggested.
Once more a heavy sigh came over Ai’s lips. She really did not like summer. Even though she liked the vacation. But then again, she was pretty much close to being done with fucking school. She could not wait. “Fine,” she muttered. “Anything else?”
“We could get some soda,” Impmon said.
Ai glared at her partner, but she guessed if they were going to take the bike either way, a bottle of soda would also not kill them.
Her grandmother chuckled, as she saw her expression. “You young people should be fine with the heat.”
“Nobody is fine with the heat.”
Her grandmother’s chuckle did not stop. She got up, moving over to the corridor as well, before getting two thousand-yen bills out of the cupboard under the phone. “This should cover it.”
Ai did not say anything. Her skirt only had a tiny pocket. But she let the bills disappear into it.
She took another deep breath before looking down to Impmon. “Hope you are happy when I die.”
“You don’t die that easily,” Impmon said. “You survived worse.”
“I have heard people do not usually die of this one thing, but because it was just one thing too much,” Ai said. “So…”
“You should leave being clever to Mako.” Impmon smirked before running ahead.
“You are being such an asshole,” Ai groaned, chasing after them.
She got them just by the door, taking them into a chokehold. “One day! One day, I’m telling you.”
“But not today!” they shouted, managing to free themselves. A moment later they were on the ground, jumping to open the front too, before running outside.
Rin was chuckling. “Are we leaving now or do you want to kill them first?”
Ai stared out onto the street, knowing it would be even hotter than the backyard. She looked back and forth, before deciding that it was in fact too hot to chase down Impmon. “Let’s just go to the supermarket. And then just move in there.” With that she slipped into her sandals, moving over to the garage where the bikes were parked.
“You know how they say you just adapt to your climate?” Rin mused, while she unlocked her own bike.
“Whoever they are, they are liars.” Ai unlocked her own bike as well. It was a bit scrappy, mostly because she never cleaned it, and the mud from the monsoon season was still sticking to it.
As the two of them pushed both bikes out onto the street, Ai looked up to the sky once more. There really was no clouds there today. Nothing.
Once they were biking the wind would make the heat maybe a bit easier to bear.
She threw her leg over the bike, just as the bike rack was creaking just a bit.
She looked over her shoulder, finding that Impmon had jumped on. “What do you think you are doing?”
“Coming along, of course,” they said.
Ai glared at them, grabbing them by the red scarf around their neck. “Don’t think you can get a free ride.”
“Hey!” they protested, when they landed on the ground.
But Ai did not wait for them to recover. She kicked the pedals, speeding up rather quickly. “You can run!”
“Do you know how hot it is?” Impmon yelled after her.
“I am sure you’ll be fine,” she replied, smirking. “After all, you are not weak, are you?”
Impmon growled, chasing after her – just as Rin was starting to pedal as well. “You’re gonna pay for it.”
“Only if you catch me first,” Ai called back, smirking as she reached the corner of the road. “See you later, sucker!“
