Kidan (part 2 of 6)
Back to Part 1Hikari woke the next morning with Tailmon's words still burning in her
mind. She was so caught up with them that she didn't notice anything
until the three boys that had been harassing her the day before cornered
her on her way to school.
"No one to help you today, Yagami," the leader boy snarled, his voice
ringing with malice. He sounded a tad stuffy and his nose slightly
off-kilter from its break. The two other boys advanced menacingly as
Hikari retreated.
"Why do you boys keep picking on my friend?" The boys whirled about,
paling as they recalled the voice. They saw Shinji sitting on her bike,
leaning on the handles and giving them a hard stare, and scurried away
as quickly as they could. Shinji watched them run, dislike clear in her
blue eyes.
"Do I have a guardian kunoichi now?" Hikari asked in a teasing tone,
smiling as she walked to Shinji.
"I just want to make sure they know not to pick on you anymore," Shinji
replied. "I'm actually here to see about a small shop for lease near
here. That and to ask you when you wanted to take me to the Digital
World."
"You couldn't have called?" Hikari questioned, raising a brow.
"I could have," Shinji said in return, nodding slightly. "But I had a
feeling that those morons wouldn't leave a pretty girl in a cute uniform
alone. Especially since they had their leader beaten by another girl."
The words made the memory of the previous night rise up in Hikari's mind
and she blushed even more. Shinji cocked her head to the side in silent
question.
"I should get to school," Hikari muttered rather weakly, still crimson
and pointing unnecessarily in the general direction. "Call me after
school and we'll talk about going to the Digital World. Thanks for
helping me again-bye!" She walked off swiftly and stiffly. Shinji
watched her go with a small smile before riding away. Hikari, however,
was lamenting furiously as she walked.
"Why in the world am I so preoccupied with what Tailmon said?" she asked
herself in a low voice. "I'm not in love! I'm just glad that Shinji
smiled! After what she told me about her parents yesterday, it seems
like a miracle that she even remembers how to smile!" She moaned
slightly and rapped her head with the hand that was not holding her
satchel. "But why am I blushing so much? It's not like I've never been
called cute before. Daisuke called me that all the time until we met
Ken.
"And Taichi and Mom and Dad! They've always called me cute! It
shouldn't give me butterflies in the stomach when Shinji says I'm
pretty!" Hikari froze in her tracks, blushing even further when she
thought about her own words. "Oh, did I say butterflies in the stomach?
Why did I say that? I don't get butterflies in my stomach when Shinji
says I'm pretty." Those words, however, brought the memory of Shinji
speaking them-as well as bringing butterflies to Hikari's stomach. The
girl groaned in sheer confusion.
"I need to talk to someone," she grumbled. "Someone that's not my
mother or Taichi. No one really knows much about Shinji, but Taichi
doesn't like her much, and my mother wouldn't get it at all. Taichi and
Yamato won't tell her that they're living together because she'd flip
her lid. Who can I talk to?" Almost immediately she thought of Shinji,
but she pushed that thought away quickly.
By this time, she had reached the school and her classroom. She sat
down in a depressed mood, wondering who on earth she could talk to.
Motomiya Daisuke came charging into the room, singing loudly and
slightly off-key, but with extraordinary heart. It sounded like he had
been working on a jingle for his plans of owning a ramen cart. He
walked to stand before Hikari at her desk.
"Morning, Hikari!" Daisuke cried cheerfully. Hikari waved at him rather
half-heartedly, not looking up at the boy. Daisuke took instant note of
this and crouched down to look Hikari in the eye. "What's wrong? Come
on, you can talk to me!" Hikari sighed, truly not in the mood for
Daisuke to continue pressing her to be cheerful. Daisuke's words
suddenly emerged in her mind and made sense.
"Daisuke, can I ask you something?" she asked.
"Ask away!" he answered with his massive smile.
"Just tell me if this is too personal, but...how do I put this?" she
murmured. "How did you know that you...that you like Ken? You know,
how Taichi and Yamato like each other." Daisuke looked up to the
ceiling with a highly contemplative stare. It was a fair few minutes
before he answered.
"I always liked seeing him smile," he said. "I liked making him smile,
especially because he was so angry before he got the crest of Kindness.
And that crest really suits him-he's a great guy now that we're together
and he feels a little better from his brother. Why? What's up?"
"Well, I'm just wondering," Hikari said with a blush, twiddling her
thumbs. "I saw someone I haven't seen in a really long time yesterday.
We spent all day talking about what happened these past eight years. I
told her that she could come back to the Digital World with me and we
could find her partner if she wanted to."
"She's a Chosen Child?" Daisuke asked in surprise. "I thought there
were only eight original Chosen Children back then."
"No, Shinji was the ninth one," she answered. "We never really worked
as a solid team then because Shinji...well, she had her reasons for
fighting alone. But that's not the point. I just asked how you know
you like Ken because...because-well, never mind."
"Do you think you like her?" he questioned gently. Hikari blushed from
neck to hair and didn't miss her ears along the way. She hid her face
in her hands and nodded very slightly. Daisuke smiled again and patted
Hikari on the head. "Then what's the problem? Just tell her! You'll
never know if she likes you if you don't say something!"
"Daisuke, I haven't seen her in eight whole years!" Hikari protested
sharply. "It's absolutely crazy that I like her so much...like that. I
mean, I wanted to thank her because she saved my life. She saved me
three times. I owe her a lot, but I barely know her. You got to know
Ken before you two got together, right?" Daisuke shook his head
slightly.
"We knew that we liked each other back when he teamed up with us," he
replied. "We didn't start doing anything like dating or stuff like we
do now until two years ago when we were fourteen. Taichi and Yamato
told us they did the same thing, so they've actually been together for
five or six years. They didn't know each other when you first met in
the Digital World, but they still knew they liked each other."
"But you and Ken spent more time with each other than Shinji and I," she
sighed. "Even if you were fighting against him when he was the Kaiser.
Taichi and Yamato were together for a while before they knew."
"Hikari, if you like her, why do you keep trying to say you shouldn't?"
he asked. "She might like you too, even if you haven't spent a lot of
time together. You should tell her so you *can* spend more time with
her so you won't be so bothered by how little time you've spent with
her. If that's your only problem, then it's a really easy one to fix!"
Hikari stared at her desk for a moment before smiling and lifting her
eyes to Daisuke.
"Thank you," she said with a happy smile. "I think I'll have to owe you
one." She gave him a small kiss on the forehead. Daisuke smiled
brightly at her before the bell toned and he scurried to his seat.
Hikari's smile lasted the entire day.
----------
"Yagami residence, Hikari speaking," the girl said with a hopeful smile.
Her hopes were not unfounded, of course, as the person on the other end
of the line began to speak.
"Hello, Hikari," Shinji's now familiar voice said. "How're you?"
"Wonderful," Hikari replied truthfully. "Did you call to see when we
could go to the Digital World?"
"Yes, and to ask you how school was," Shinji murmured. "So how was it?"
"Oh, the usual thing," Hikari chuckled. "You know teachers. I think
going to the Digital World with you would have been more fun." Even
though she could not see, Hikari could picture the faint smile and the
amusement shining in Shinji's blue eyes in her mind.
"I'm honored," the young woman said softly. "Might I ask when we'll
go?"
"I have this Saturday off from school," Hikari answered. "Come over to
my family's apartment and we can go from my computer. I'll ask Tailmon
to find out where Vandemon is so we can find him without searching
everywhere."
"You're a sweet girl," Shinji continued to speak in her soft voice.
"Thank you. I'll see you early Saturday then."
"I'll be waiting," Hikari replied with a content smile.
"Good night, Hikari," Shinji murmured. Hikari blushed again.
"Good night, Shinji," she responded. The phones disconnected.
----------
"I didn't get to notice how beautiful things were eight years ago."
Hikari looked up at the young woman on her left. Shinji's faint
smile-which was becoming more and more common for Hikari to see-was once
again in place as she looked about. The trees, those wonderfully
peculiar blue-barked and pink-leaved trees, did have a beauty when you
stopped thinking how very strange they were.
"I don't think you missed a lot," Hikari said in return. "The Dark
Masters spoiled most of it."
"Still, I wish I hadn't been so angry back then," Shinji responded. Her
smile faded into a frown. "I'm still angry anyway." Hikari hesitated,
and then reached out for Shinji's hand. She jumped and pulled her hand
back when Shinji suddenly looked up.
"Well, well," she chuckled. "Look what the cat dragged in." Two
familiar shapes emerged from a bend in the path, one led by the other.
Vandemon followed Tailmon, who held her head high as if in rebellion for
her task.
"There," she grumbled, walking to Hikari's side. "I led you right to
them. If you hurt Hikari, I'm clawing your eyes out." Vandemon laughed
aloud at the threat, but turned to his partner and smiled.
"It's been eight years, Shinji," he said. "Nice to see you're still
alive."
"Same to you," Shinji snickered. "Now what's this I hear about you
terrorizing innocent little kids four years ago?"
"That wasn't me and you know it," Vandemon laughed. "It was that
blasted clown. I still don't know when or how he made a copy of me."
The partners gave each other a significant look and the same faint
smile.
"Of course I know," Shinji said, smiling as her eyes closed in-Hikari
felt her stomach pull a painful flip-contentedness. "There's only one
of you in any world. It's no wonder someone could defeat the copy-you
can't copy and paste someone like you, Vandemon." Hikari's stomach-and
her heart-plummeted straight through her feet and a few yards into the
ground below. Tailmon looked up at her and instantly recognized the
masked expression the human was putting out.
"I have things to do back in the Real World," Hikari muttered before
walking away as fast as she could. A few steps, and she broke into a
run. Shinji turned and took a step after her but was quickly stopped
when Tailmon leapt up onto her face, hissing and spitting.
"You *hurt* her!" the digital creature hissed. "How could you lead her
on like that? Why didn't you tell her about you and Vandemon? I should
claw out your eyes!" To emphasize her point, she started swiping at
Shinji's face with her claws. Tailmon managed to claw three furrows
onto the human's left cheek before Vandemon pulled her off by her tail.
"Tailmon, what in the seven hells are you doing?" he snapped, holding
her upside-down at eye level. "What *about* Shinji and I?"
"Hikari likes her!" Tailmon growled in reply, crossing her short arms
and glaring furiously. "Hikari likes her a lot, and here you two are
smirking and smiling at each other like you're imagining your future
honeymoon!" There was a rather shocked and confused silence.
"She thinks that we're lovers?" Vandemon demanded in disgust.
"Tailmon, why didn't you go after her?" Shinji barked, thoroughly
unconcerned with anything else but Hikari. "I don't care if you've
beaten plenty of evil digimon-she's still in danger if she's alone! I'm
not going to let Hikari get hurt because she thinks I don't care about
her!" She turned and dashed off in the same direction that Hikari had
run away.
----------
Hikari sank down on a rock, rubbing at her eyes and sniffing unhappily.
After a minute or two of trying to stem her tears, she abandoned the
endeavor and hugged her legs, sobbing uncontrollably into her knees.
"How could I be that dumb?" she whimpered. "I should have known that
Shinji was involved with someone like Vandemon. They're so alike. And
the way they looked at each other..." Hikari let out another sob and
buried her face against her legs. "No wonder Shinji was so anxious to
come here again. She hasn't seen Vandemon in eight years. Why did I
ever try?"
"You! One of the children! Where is the green samurai I battled?"
Hikari looked up to see one of many things she did not want to: a
painfully familiar (and painfully named) Ninjamon.
"Go away," she muttered, her voice cracking from her crying. "Shurimon
isn't around anymore."
"Then you duel me!" the persistent digimon shouted. "You have a digimon
partner! Call it so we can have an honorable duel!"
"Go the hell away, you dumb bastard of a digimon!" Hikari shouted. She
stood up, her eyes still teary but her voice ringing with rage. "I'm
not going to goddamn duel you! Not only would you get your ass kicked,
but I'd also tell her to delete you just so you would stop fucking
bothering me! Now go the hell away!"
"How dare you talk to me, a skilled ninja, like that?" he demanded.
"You will pay for that!" He jumped into the air and pulled a large
shuriken from nowhere, throwing it at Hikari with a cry of "Ninja Knife
Throwing!" Though he was a sub-par creature at best, Ninjamon could
throw a shuriken fairly fast. Hikari closed her eyes,
somewhat-unconcerned?-about letting the bladed weapon hit her. Most of
her was tightening to prepare for the blow.
Someone scooped her off her feet and carried her out of the way of the
shuriken. Hikari looked up when she was set back down a few yards away,
but Shinji had already turned her back on the girl. She walked towards
where Ninjamon had landed but paused when she stood near a bent street
sign pole. She took hold of it and kicked the bent area in the opposite
direction. The pole snapped away in her hand.
"A skilled ninja?" Shinji growled angrily. "The only thing that you did
that was even slightly in ninjutsu was attacking an unarmed opponent! A
distraught one, no less-though I'm the one who's made her so upset.
Even so, I will *not* allow you to try and hurt my Hikari! I'll kill
you for trying to hurt her!" Ninjamon snarled at her, drawing his sword
as Shinji spun the metal pole expertly.
The digimon leapt into the air with a battle cry: "Ninja Hopping!" The
sword clashed loudly against the pole and he landed, pressing hard
against Shinji. Abruptly, Shinji's foot rose up and kicked the sword
out of his hands. It flew into the air, shining as it spiraled in the
sunlight. Ninjamon would have jumped to reclaim it, but Shinji brought
the pole down upon his head and grabbed the sword herself. Ninjamon
froze when he was able to see again-his sword was pressed between his
eyes.
"You fight without honor," he growled.
"I'm not honorable," Shinji replied. "You will never say you are a
ninja again-and you will never be able to try and bring harm to my
Hikari again!" She thrust the sword and threw it away when Ninjamon
faded into data. "Are you all right?"
"I think so," Hikari said in a shaken voice. "Shinji, what did you
mean...never mind." Shinji turned; Hikari gasped and hurried to the
older Chosen Child to examine the three bloody gashes on her face. "By
the gods-I thought he didn't get you!"
"That's from Tailmon," Shinji murmured, her voice lowering to the soft
tone Hikari yearned to hear. "We had a misunderstanding, evidently.
Listen, let's climb up that hill-it'll be nice to talk up there."
Hikari nodded and followed Shinji up the slope. They sat on the bright
green grass and looked up to the pink-orange sky. Hikari sat on
Shinji's left, still shooting upset looks at the blood streaming down
her face.
"So you thought that I was giving Vandemon a bedroom look, huh?" the
blue-eyed woman asked. Her voice, to Hikari's relief and confusion,
sounded amused. "I'm sorry that you took it that way. Do you know why
I smiled when we were talking?" At Hikari's silence, she continued.
"Eight years ago, when I came here on my warpath to kill Piemon, he was
the one person who knew what started it.
"Even though he doesn't understand why I was so obsessed, he made sure
that I didn't charge headlong into the same sword my parents were killed
with. I owe him that. He's my closest friend-well, closest non-human
friend. He never made me team up with you and the others because he
knew I wasn't going to be able to keep my temper around other people who
still had happy families so soon after loosing the parents I hate so
much. The only reason I smile at him is because we understand each
other a little bit."
"Then why do you smile at me?" Hikari muttered. "We barely know each
other and I don't understand you like Vandemon does. I wish I did."
Shinji lifted her arms over her head and stretched before falling to her
back on the grass.
"Vandemon and I only understand each other a little bit because we have
that bond of human and digimon partners," she sighed. "At least, I
think that's why. Don't you and Tailmon understand each other even
without talking?" Hikari nodded slowly, remembering Tailmon's casual
acknowledgment of Hikari's affection.
"But that doesn't explain why you smile at me," she protested sadly. "I
don't know anything about you-I never asked you anything a few days ago.
I just babbled on and on about what's been happening in the Digital
World."
"That was the first thing we talked about," Shinji reminded her. "There
was enough in that story alone to fill a few books. We didn't have the
time to talk to each other about each other in that day alone."
"I *want* to know about you!" Hikari cried, tears welling anew in her
burgundy eyes. "I want to spend time with you! I want to *be* with
you, Shinji!" She buried her face in her hands and let out a low moan.
"It's so stupid-I don't know what I'm doing. Please, please don't hate
me! I just like you so much, but you-"
"But I what?" Shinji asked gently.
"You're probably not like that at all! You don't fall in love with
someone you've only been with for less than a whole day! You don't get
so confused like this!"
"You're right. I don't get confused like that." She sat up and moved
Hikari's hands away from her face before dabbing carefully at the tears
with the pink scarf around her left wrist. Hikari gazed at the scarf
around her wrist in question.
"Why do you still have that?" she asked.
"The same reason I called you my Hikari," Shinji answered. There was a
small, calm silence between them before Hikari moved forwards, pressed
her lips against Shinji's, and closed her eyes. It was nice, really.
There really were no first kisses that included fireworks in a silent
background or heavenly choruses, but it was warm and soft.
When they pulled away from each other, Hikari looked at Shinji's blue
eyes before throwing her arms around the other woman's neck. She closed
her eyes again in her contentedness, in the tenderness of the way Shinji
hugged her back. For the remaining time they spent in the Digital
World, they strolled aimlessly, amiably about and talked about
things-what was happening in their lives, whatever flowed into their
minds at that time.
They reunited with Tailmon and Vandemon somewhere along the way.
Tailmon apologized a bit half-heartedly about the cuts as Vandemon
murmured a spell to stop the bleeding and speed healing. He refused
politely when asked if he wanted to return to the Real World with them
and jokingly insisted that too many young women would run screaming at
the sight of him.
Shinji left the Yagami apartment after one last kiss in Hikari's room.
Hikari didn't even mind that her mother questioned her worriedly about
the blood on her shoulder. It had occurred when she and Shinji had
hugged, and it hadn't bothered her when she took notice of it
afterwards. In fact, after it had been cleaned, it became her favorite
shirt.
Onwards to Part 3
Back to Kidan Index -
Back to Digimon Shoujo-Ai Fanfiction