Digimon Fan Fiction / Pokemon Fan Fiction / Pokemon Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction / Tenchi Muyo Fan Fiction ❯ Kouseki no Izou ❯ And So It Begins ( Chapter 1 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

1: And So It Begins

Yagami Taichi, aged seventeen, crossed his legs and leaned back in his computer chair, placed in his OWN room (About a month ago, he and his fourteen-year-old sister Hikari had persuaded their parents into giving them separate rooms). "Saturdays," he said loudly to the world at large, "are the most boring time on Earth, especially Saturdays when your best friends are coming over tonight."

"Then go do something." A grumpy voice belonging to his Digimon partner, Agumon, sounded from under his bed, where the reptilian Digimon usually slept. Agumon had apparently decided to become nocturnal, as he slept during the day all the time now. Taichi slid off of his chair and lay spread-eagled on the carpeted floor, adjusting his head so he was staring directly under his bed. A single brilliant green eye glared back at him. "What's up, Agumon-kun? You've been sleeping way too much lately."

Agumon sighed, and the eye disappeared from view. "Ahh, nothing, Tai-kun. I just... need some space, I guess. I think about stuff too much at night."

"Well, at least you don't have Tailmon in here bothering you anymore," Taichi referred to his sister's Digimon; A white, cat-like creature with bright blue eyes and clawed acid green gloves streaked with red. "Does that help at all?"

"Not especially," Agumon admitted. If Taichi could see him, he would be sure that a deep blush was spreading over his partner's face.

"No way!" Taichi sat halfway up, propping himself up on one elbow. "Agumon, you don't LIKE Tailmon, DO YOU?"

"No," Agumon muttered in a low voice, but Taichi was sure it was the same sort of "no" he had given his mother just yesterday, when she had accused him of finishing off the apartment's store of wasabi. The teenaged boy shook his head wearily. "Baka, why did you go and do that?"

"I don't know," Agumon said in an unnaturally high voice. "I didn't mean to..." He trailed off, and Taichi grinned. "Agu-kun, that's how it is. You wake up in the morning and you realize that she's the one."

"Taiiiiiiiii..." Agumon whined. "You won't tell Tailmon, will you?"

"Iie!" Taichi said, getting up and crossing to the door. "I'll call Koushiro; see if he can come over now..."

"Or Hikari?" Agumon pressed.

"I won't, Agumon-kun," Taichi said simply, already halfway out the door. "Now, sleep and sort out your lovesickness yourself, okay?"

Agumon made an annoyed noise, and Taichi grinned wickedly, closing the door and sliding in his slippers to the phone in the hall. After punching Koushiro's number into the phone, he waited for someone to pick up. When they did, to his great relief, it was Koushiro. "Koushiro-kun? Could you possibly come over now?"

"Why, is there something wrong?" came the voice on the other end. "Has something tried to possess Hikari-chan again?"

Taichi smirked, and said, "Iie, just bored. Yamato-kun's out doing another concert." Ishida Yamato, who was seventeen as Taichi was, had his own rock band that performed concerts frequently. "Can you?"

"Hai, of course I can," Koushiro answered good-naturedly. "See you in a few minutes." There was a click on the other end, as the younger teenager hung up.

Yagami Hikari decided to enter the room at that moment, wielding a pop and a bag of popcorn. "Konnichi wa, onnichan," she said absently, then noticed the phone in his hand. "Who're you calling?" she asked curiously.

"I'm unusually bored, so I asked Koushiro to come over early," Taichi answered.

Hikari smirked. "What're you gonna do when he gets here?"

Taichi blinked. "Nani?"

;)

The doorbell rang, causing Tajiri Satoshi to fall out of his chair. Mumbling to himself about baka people who rang the doorbell when food-obsessed people were eating highly sugary substances, he drifted into the hall absently and opened the door, immediately being attacked by a monster with a long red braid.

"Nani? Kasumi-chan?" Satoshi pried his best friend off of him, and laughed. "I told you not to do that anymore! You're gonna give me a heart-attack someday!"

Yawa Kasumi grinned sheepishly. "Sorry, I forgot. I haven't seen you for a while- what have you been doing?"

"Nothing. 'Cept eating." He glared at her. "It's lunchtime, and you interrupted my lunch!!"

"Ooh, I'm so scared," Kasumi teased, walking into the kitchen. "What're you eating?"

"Ice cream," Satoshi said cheerfully. "Want some?"

Kasumi watched him warily. "How much of that have you eaten?"

Satoshi scratched his head. "Dunno. Pretty much the whole box, I think..."

Kasumi sighed, and leaned against the wall. "Perfect. All I need is a guy with ADHD on a sugar high."

Satoshi scowled at her. "Fine, I won't give you any."

Kasumi rolled her eyes. "Forget it. Is your mother-"

Satoshi's mother decided to enter at that moment, looking stressed and rather irritated. "Urgent business, Satoshi-sai. I have to leave again- oh, hello, Kasumi," She greeted the red-haired teenager briefly, then turned to her son again."They need me out in Gurentown." Quite far from the overprotective mother she had been a few years ago, she was now an important official that had to run off to places on intervals, and was often gone for a week or so. "I'll be gone about a month-"

Satoshi choked on his ice cream. "NANI? A MONTH? But- mama- I'm only sixteen! I'll get arrested!" He brushed his hair back from his face. "YOU'LL get arrested!"

Kasumi grinned. "You can stay at the gym if you want, Satoshi-kun."

Satoshi gaped at her. "Really?"

"PIKA!" Pikachu cheered.

"Hai, that's good," His mother said absently, checking through her bag. "Stay at the Hanada City gym." She hurried out the door, waving a final time to the two sixteen-year-olds before hopping into her car and driving away.

Kasumi shook her head. "Sometimes, I'm not even sure that's your mother."

"Hai," Satoshi agreed, smirking. Then, frowning, he asked, "How'd you get here, anyway?"

Kasumi grinned. "I stole Botan's car," she said, smirking.

Satoshi raised his eyebrows. "You know how to drive?"

Kasumi nodded. " 'Course. I got to here from Hanada City, didn't I?"

"Well... hai, I guess," Satoshi said suspiciously. He followed her outside. "You're sure this won't end up with my mother crying over my body and cursing the day you were born?"

Kasumi shot a patronizing glare at him. "Where did that reckless, idiot of a Satoshi I met six years ago go?" she asked, flicking him on the forehead. "Of course, I don't exactly have a license, but that's not for lack of knowing how to drive-"

Satoshi groaned. "Knew there was a catch. Oh, well, just don't get into any accidents."

"Iie, of course I won't!" Kasumi snapped, opening the door to the car and hopping in. "Now, get in."

Satoshi shrugged, and jumped in on the other side. "Now, let's go."

;)

"There's a storm brewing," Koushiro murmured, several hours after Taichi had requested him to come early to the Yagami residence. He stood outside on the balcony, watching the glittering lights of Odaiba and the other Tokyo districts shimmering in the night air. The sky was loaded up with clouds, barely visible in the darkness, and far-off, well into the ocean, he was sure he saw lightning flash. A giddy, uneasy feeling flared in him. All that sleep I've lost... it has to do with this storm. Somehow.

"Come on, Koushiro-san, it's too dark to be out here." A voice from the door made Koushiro start, and turn around. Hikari stood there, looking rather worried. Her Digimon, Tailmon, and his own, Tentomon, stood at her feet.

Koushiro cocked his head. "Nani? Are Taichi and Yamato getting too scared of those idiotic horror movies they insist on watching?"

Hikari smiled, her eyes unusually bright. "Hai, that too," she admitted, and Tailmon looked up at her with an amused expression, the appendage for which she was named twitching absently. "They keep jumping at small noises and grabbing onto each other."

Koushiro smirked. "Take a picture and send it to Sora-chan. She'll like that."

"An understatement," Tentomon muttered, and Hikari giggled, then frowned. "You really shouldn't be out here this late, though. You'll get sick."

"You sound like my mother," Koushiro said, yawning, "But I'll come in, for your sake." He glanced again at the rapidly darkening sky, then followed Hikari and the Digimon into the apartment.

There was another trademark bloodcurdling scream from the television, and the two seventeen-year-old boys watching, enthralled, on the couch, jumped and grabbed the cushions. Agumon and Yamato's Digimon partner, Gabumon, were on the ground in front of their feet, both shivering.

"Having fun?" Koushiro asked dryly, taking a handful of popcorn from the enormous bowl on the coffee table. When all four of them shot him murderous glares, he shrugged and leaned back in his chair, watching the movie with halfhearted interest. It was something very gory and bloody, not his style at all.

Hikari had seated herself on the other side of her onnichan, although she was really more interested in watching Koushiro than the movie. He really didn't look any different from two years ago, when he was fourteen, than he did now- in words she could explain. He was still small and skinny for sixteen, and was looking more pale and skinny than usual, as though he hadn't been eating or sleeping properly.
He looked fine now, but that didn't mean anything. Koushiro kept all his emotions bottled up inside, much like herself and Ichijojhi Ken, another DigiDestined. None of them- without the possible exception of Tentomon, of course- had ever, in all the six years they'd known him, seen him cry- or show much emotion at all, for that matter. Although this should have made him a rather boring person, it didn't. He had even wandered out of his void of computer obsession to join with the real world. He was just... different.

Koushiro noticed her staring at him, and frowned. "Nani? Hikari-san, what's the matter?"

Hikari shrugged. "Ahh, nothing. Just staring off into space." She turned back to the movie, and raised an eyebrow as someone's head was chopped off. Yamato was half asleep, and Taichi was just beginning to nod off when an enormous crack of lightning shattered the sleepy atmosphere. Hikari gasped and grabbed her onnichan around the waist; Yamato uttered a short shriek as he fully woke up; Taichi covered his ears with his hands; Koushiro merely narrowed his eyes and muttered, "I knew there was a storm coming."

Taichi escaped his younger sister's grasp and crossed to the sliding glass door that was the entrance to the balcony. A raindrop roughly the shape and size of a hubcap splattered against it. "Oh, this is gonna be a bad one," he relayed to the others, who groaned simultaneously. "How did it come up so quickly?"

"Weird storms are always popping up in Japan," Koushiro commented. "Although it usually means that something's up. A Sailor Senshi plot or a DigiDestined plot."

"I hope it's Sailor Senshi," Yamato muttered. "I've had enough bad experiences in the Digital World for quite a while."

"You?" Hikari snorted incredulously. "I'm the one who had to go through that whole damn 'Dark Ocean' thing!"

Yamato stared pointedly at her. "The cave?"

Hikari nodded, suddenly remembering. "Ah. Hai. Well, that is similar..."

Tailmon climbed onto Hikari's lap. "I'm scared," she whispered.

Hikari smiled reassuringly at her Digimon partner. "Don't worry. This'll blow over soon."

Then the lights when out.

;)

Upon arrival, two of Kasumi's three neesans (one was out on Hanada City gym business)- Botan and Sakura- fussed over Kasumi and Satoshi (although Botan was a little stiff because of the effective "borrowing" of her car) , and it didn't take a genius to note that both of them were thoroughly impressed with Satoshi.

"WOW! We haven't seen you since you were eleven years old!" Botan said, grinning. "What gives? Scared of us, or something?"

Satoshi frowned. "Iie... why? Should I be?"

"I dunno about her, but I'M okay," Sakura said innocently, as she stroked Satoshi's Pikachu on the head in greeting. Botan glared at her sister, and then turned to Kasumi. "Shouldn't you show him to his room, or something?"

"Nani? Oh, hai. C'mon, Satoshi-kun, let's go." She ran up the stairs, Satoshi behind her.

"WOW," Botan said again, sighing. "When did he get so HOT?"

"In the last five years, I'm guessing," Sakura said, grinning. "Who'd have thought, that cute little kid that saved our gym from Rocket Dan..."

Botan yawned. "Ah, well, we shouldn't do anything, or Kasumi-chan'll get jealous. Even if she doesn't like him, he's here as her guest."

"Very true," Sakura grinned. "We'll keep our distance." She looked thoughtfully at the door. A very nervous-looking ten-year-old boy was standing there. "Looks like we've got a challenger. You wanna take him?"

"Sure," Botan said casually, as the boy walked inside, looking more nervous still. Geez, this League is gonna give kids stomach ulcers. "Konnichi wa, and welcome to the Hanada City gym..."

~

The gym was enormous. Satoshi couldn't remember it looking this big from the outside. He simply followed Kasumi- up stairs, around the corner, through a painting in the wall. Soon enough, however, he began to hear voices. They sounded slightly familiar... "I've got other visitors," she said, grinning. "You know them, too..."

Kasumi threw open a door, and revealed two people in their early twenties bickering and generally annoying each other, while a Nyase yelled at them both. Satoshi simply stared. "MUSASHI? KOJIRO? NYASE?"

They stopped fighting and turned to look at him. Musashi's face brightened, and she waved. "Konnichi wa, Satoshi-kun! We didn't know you were staying here, too..."

"I just got here," Satoshi said, still shocked at seeing the once-Rocket Dan members here at the gym. "But- what about you? What are you doing here?"

"Some consideration we get," Nyase said, rolling its eyes. "We're not in Rocket Dan anymore, as you know, but that means we don't get any money. So-"

"You took them in out of pity," Satoshi said, turning to Kasumi and grinning. Pikachu waved to Nyase, and it waved back.

"Iie!" Musashi hit Satoshi on the head, knocking him backwards. "That's not how it happened! We didn't have that much money, so we asked Kasumi-chan if we could stay at the gym for a while."

"Whatever," Satoshi mumbled, sitting up and rubbing his forehead. "Just don't hit me again."

~

Darkness had crept up on the inhabitants of Hanada City, and soon it was pitch black outside. Thunder rumbled threateningly in the background. While Nyase, Pikachu, and Togechikku (thaz Togepi's evolved form :) sat on the rug in front of the television, talking back and forth in the Pokemon language, Botan and Sakura lounged on the couch, watching the news, as Musashi and Kojiro bickered over who would get the overlarge, fluffy chair. Satoshi sat on a window seat far off across the room, staring out the window. He couldn't get the feeling of apprehension out of his system. It's like something bad- something horrible- is going to happen. Tonight. And I'll be a part of it, but I... can't stop it.

A hand was laid on his shoulder, and he jumped. "You sure are jumpy today," Kasumi whispered as she sat down beside him. "What's up? Something I should know about?"

"Well..." Satoshi hesitated. "I just feel like there's something that's going to happen tonight. And it's bad, really bad. And I can't stop it." He shivered. "I'm really scared."

He really HAS changed, Kasumi thought. Satoshi NEVER would have admitted he was scared back on his journey, even if he really was; he was too bullheaded for that. "You think something's going to happen? And you don't know what it is?"

"You believe me, don't you?" Satoshi whispered, staring into her eyes. Kasumi nodded, slowly. He looked so much younger than sixteen, wasted and frightened. His eyes- not dark, as she remembered them being, but golden- were burning with a deep fire. She made herself look away. He scared her, like that.

"Don't you feel anything, Kasumi-chan?" He asked quietly. She hesitated. "I- I don't know..."

"What the-" Sakura exclaimed, leaning forward incredulously. Musashi and Kojiro shut up, and looked questioningly at her. Kasumi got up and walked over to her, frowning. "What's your problem, neesan?" Satoshi came up behind her and leaned on the couch, glancing at Sakura curiously.

Sakura turned up the sound on the television. Even the Pokemon sitting on the floor stopping chatting to listen. Satoshi's eyes widened as he heard what the newscaster was saying.

"... and meteorologists say this could be the worst storm of the decade- although we've had some pretty weird things. The strips of land in the sky, two worldwide weather crises in one decade-"

Satoshi, Kasumi, Musashi, and Kojiro glanced at each other nervously.

"-and the appearance of some pretty weird monsters, not to mention the recent discovery of a parallel world and, to top it all off, the Sailor Senshi. People are stuck inside their houses; this kind of rain is probably deadly. There'll definitely be need for a cleanup crew tomorrow..."

Satoshi felt numb. "The bringer of bad news is always a storm," he muttered, and the apprehension pressed in on him even harder than it had before. Kasumi glanced at him curiously, then shivered. Then was something odd about Satoshi today, no doubt about that.

"The storm is moving southwest-"

"DAMN!" Musashi swore, raking her fingers through her short red hair. "It's coming this way!"

"All inhabitants of Shikoku and Kyushu, our westernmost islands, should get ready for a hell of a storm." the newscaster chuckled.

"He thinks this is FUNNY?" Kojiro raged. "Who knows what this baka storm will do? And it won't be much fun shut up inside for days, either."

Botan glanced at the wall. "It's eleven right now," she said testily. "It might not arrive until tomorrow morning, but I-"

An ear shattering crack of thunder erupted from outside. They all moaned. Pikachu, with its unnaturally long ears, whimpered and pressed its paws over them, attempting to block out the sound.

Lighting flashed, and Kasumi ran to the window, staring out with wide eyes. "Oh, no-"

Then the lights went out.

;)

It was pitch black in the apartment. Taichi didn't move. "That was unexpected," he murmured.

"Iie..." Koushiro whispered.

"Nani?" Yamato asked. All of them were rather shaken. Being unable to see anything when an enormous storm was raging overhead wasn't a great comfort.

"Iie, iie," Koushiro said again, a slight tremor in his voice. "It's tonight. Ah, this is bad."

"Nani?" Tentomon asked, frustrated. "Kou-kun, what are you talking about?" Their eyes were beginning to adjust to the light, and all five could make out Koushiro sitting twisted in the chair, his eyes wide.

"I- I don't know, but- I have to go..."

"Wait!" Hikari said suddenly, realizing what he was going to do.. "You can't go out in that storm, it's-"

Koushiro sprinted over to the door and ran out. Before she knew what she was doing, Hikari ran after him and into the pounding rain.

"IIE! Hikari-chan!" Taichi grabbed Yamato's arm and followed the two, but when the two teenage boys had exited the apartment, both of the others were gone.

;)

Meioh Setsuna, alias Sailorpluto, stared out to the ten-year-old girl that refused to come and stay with the rest of them, who insisted on staying out in the pounding rain: Tomoe Hotaru. It was eerie the way the usually gentle child stared out viciously at the darkness, waiting...

The rest of the Sailor Senshi, all de-henshined, were also there. This storm, the one that would come to be known as the worst of the century, had hit Tokyo right in the middle of a fight. The youma had dissolved, but the rest of them could only run to the nearest alley, where they all huddled together, waiting for it to end...

Tsukino Usagi- their leader, Sailormoon- sighed, and ran her muddy fingers through her dripping blonde hair. "This is a nightmare. We take care of a stray youma and this happens." She followed Setsuna's gaze and sighed. "What's Hotaru-chan doing?"

"I don't know," Setsuna said quietly. It was hard to explain why Hotaru did anything, really. Being the Senshi of the planet of Silence, death, destruction, and rebirth- Sailor Saturn- she was full of mysteries. Hino Rei, the Senshi of fire Sailormars, shivered. "She looks like she's waiting. Waiting for someone that won't come..." Rei trailed off, looking distant. She was even paler than usual, the jet-black hair plastered to her forehead contrasting deeply with her bright white skin.

Hotaru knew they were watching her, but she didn't care. The rain pounded on her back, screaming in her ears. Soon, very soon. Something will happen. Something that should have happened long ago...

;)

Koushiro ran through the streets of Tokyo, soaked to the skin. He had left Odaiba long ago, and it was nearing midnight. His mind was a blur, broken pieces of thoughts flitting through his head like wildfire. So tired... she's here... no, keep going... here in Tokyo; she's here...

He had no idea where he was going; only the same words, repeated over and over, made him go on... I have to find her. I have to find her.

"Hey, kid!" A policeman in a patrol car was passing, trying to get people out of the streets. "You should go inside; this storm could be a killer!"

Koushiro looked at him, and something black clouded his eyes. He heard the officer scream. "Oh- oh, my God! You're- you're not-"

Koushiro ducked into an alley, still running.

I have to find her. I must find her.

He wasn't sure who "she" was, exactly- it was like looking for a friend that he had had when he was very small, and couldn't really remember. He just knew that things would only get worse until he found her.

He tripped in a puddle and fell, face forward. Blood filled his mouth as he hit the ground, and he spit it out, the world dissolving and coming into being before his eyes. I have to... I must...

Painstakingly, he pulled himself up and collapsed against the graffiti-streaked brick wall nearest him, staring up at the sable sky with half-open eyes.

Find her. Find her now.

;)

As Tomoe Hotaru stared into the misty streets, and Tajiri Satoshi was trapped in the warmth and safety of the Hanada gym, far from Tokyo, neither of them had any idea that Izumi Koushiro was stranded all alone, struggling to keep consciousness. But, somehow, they felt the pain and loss that he felt at that moment. And, simultaneously, all three stared heavenward and whispered, "And so it begins," right before sinking into a deep faint.