Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Battle Days ❯ Rehabilitation ( Chapter 5 )

Chapter V

Rehabilitation...

Tensed Koushiro looked up from his book for the first time. The whole class seemed to read and not care about him. He too. He hadn't looked at him the whole day. Koushiro was more than glad about it. Maybe it was possible to forget everything that happened and go on as usual. At least all of his others class mates changed their behaviour. Though he knew that they just act like this because of pity, he felt respected and accepted for the first time since years. Not only by Mimi. But little was talked to him, he noticed the uneasiness the other students felt whenever he was around. Every time they looked into his face, they just seemed to see the scar above his eyebrow and turn away immediately.

The bell rang and everybody left the class without looking at him. So did he. Koushiro and Mimi were the last to leave the room.

"Still alright?" She smiled but there was an uneasy look in her eyes too. She wanted to cover it up with happiness, but her sincere soul was much to easy to read by a friends eye.

"I think so. And you?" First she seemed surprised by his question, but then her attention went to the floor and she sighed deeply.

"Maybe I would be fine if you would tell us who did it." She glanced at him quickly, hoping that he wouldn't be mad about her question. But if he was, he didn't showed it to her.

"Sorry I cause you distress. But you'll see, you won't think about it anymore in no time. I do."*Oh, dear, never thought I'm such a liar!*

Mimi gazed at her friend. To her it was no question that he had just lied, but she also knew, that he did it to make her feel better. Even if it didn't worked, she appreciated this noble but pointless thought.

"Whatever you say, Iz." She put her arm through Koushiros friendly. First he looked at her scared, like he always did when anybody touched him after that night. But then he smiled and she dragged him into math class.

It rained very hard when Koushiro left school this afternoon. He stayed there longer to work up things his computer club ignored to do while his absence.

*If you don't do it all by yourself…*

The rain made it difficult to look straight or a longer distance. Koushiro starred down at his feet while walking, he didn't had to see where he was going, the way was more than usual to him. He turned the corner swiftly and walked down the small, empty side street. Suddenly he stopped. He felt the presence of someone. Not someone, he felt HIS presence. Slowly he raised his head and spotted the person he expected immediately. He stood there, dressed with his dark jacket and the hood covered his hair and half of his face. But he smiled. He smiled the same sadistic smile he did that night. Koushiro stopped and starred at him, who leaned against the cold stonewall. A short moment the boy thought of running away. But that moment he began to talk.

"Nice to see you again, Izumi-chan. Really brave of you to go to school again. I must admit, I'm really impressed. I thought of you as a coward." He pushed himself away from the wall and approached Koushiro slowly but steady. The smaller boy went back a few steps himself.

"Seems like you didn't enjoy our last encounter" he giggled.

"I was supposed to?" Koushiro was surprised by his own courage. He too, he stopped and his smile disappeared for half a moment. Then he started laughing.

"Know what, Izumi-kun? We will knock that impudence out of you." Suddenly he rushed forward and grabbed Koushiros upper arm with one hand, the other one approached his face. The smaller boy didn't moved, he just starred at the attacker with eyes opened wide. The taller guy took Koushiros chin between his thumb and pointing finger.

"Know what, pretty one?" he whispered while reaching for the scar above Koushiros eye brow and touching it nearly lovingly. "It suits you."

"And you think another one wouldn't be too much?" He laughed again and stroke Koushiros cheek, making his way down to his neck. Purposeful he found his windpipe and pressed against it with his thumb. The smaller boy gasped and tried to get away from his attacker, but it seemed impossible.

"I don't want to kill you, Izumi-chan. So just keep quiet, and we've got no problems."

First it was like a déjà vu to Koushiro. The taller boy was taken from him and smashed against the wall. Then the redhead heard the muffled noise he recognised as knocks into someone's stomach. Without thinking he rushed forward and slang his arms around his saviours chest and pulled him apart from his victim.

"LET ME GO, I WILL MAKE MINCEMEAT OUT OF THIS BASTARD!" Taichis voice nearly collapsed as he screamed this words, but Koushiro didn't let go.

"TAI, PLEASE LEAVE HIM ALONE!"

"WHY?" Koushiro saw his friends eyes, which nearly burned of hate and rage. Shortly he felt the longing to let him go and watch him trashing this monster like it deserved it. But then he cleared his mind again.

"I don't want you to bring yourself into trouble."

"THIS FUCKING WANKER NEARLY KILLED YOU!" Koushiro touched Taichis face softly and whispered: "I know, love. And he is going to pay for it. But not this way."

Taichi came down a little bit and threw a glance at the boy who kneeled on the ground, holding his hurting stomach and gasping. His hood went off and Taichi was able to see his blonde hair.

"I should have known" he hissed hatefully. Koji raised his face a little bit, just to receive another deadly glance from Taichi, who towered above him, and he seemed ready to squash him like an bug.

"Please… don't tell the police…I…"

"CAN YOU GIVE ME ONE REASON WHY NOT!" Of course Koji kept silent.

~~~~~~~~~~

"Thrown from school? Is that everything?" Miyako briefly thought about smashing something to calm herself down, but decided to do not so. After all, it was still Kens room, where the younger Digi Destined assembled this afternoon. They're Digimons were very busy eating as much candy as possible and didn't joined into the humans conversation.

"I don't know, Koushiro didn't wanted to talk about it and the teacher kept silent as well. Nobody is proud about this incident…" Takeru sighed and frowned at Daisuke, who walked up and down since they arrived at Ken's house. The goggle-boys tension was driving him crazy and he once again thought of forcing him to sit down and keep silent instead of making everybody more nervous than they already were.

"Of course. But I want to know what happened to Koji! Don't you think we got the right to know that?" Miyako clinched her fists. She didn't knew, what she wanted to hear about him, but it had to be very painful and humiliating! Like everything he did to Koushiro.

"Maybe they will tell us later. When Izzy worked it up. It is very hard for him. Koji's friends will blame him for his booting out." Hikari said while crossing her legs and teetering back and forward, showing her own nervous mood. Everybody seemed to be a little bit tensed the last days, though it seemed like the whole terror was over.

"Kari, I know. But who cares? They're blockheads too." Miyako decided to let nobody calm her down, she somehow felt satisfied with his anger and rage.

"But Izzy is surely afraid all this can happen again, don't you understand?" Miyako looked at Iori in a mixture of annoyance and surprise, but didn't talked back. She know he was right. What a pity!

"Somehow Miyako is right. I mean, you call me a blockhead too and nobody cares about what I say." Shortly everybody starred at Daisuke, very surprised by his words, until Hikari wasn't able to suppress the laughter and everybody joined in. Except Daisuke himself who started walking again, diving into his own thoughts, one ear listening to his friends conversation.

"Ok, if he is ready to talk about it, I will be right there to listen very carefully" Miyako announced, pointing at the ceiling to underline her words.

"Why do you think he did it?" Ken starred down at his feet, not nearly laughing anymore. He looked disturbed and sad at the same time.

"Who, Izzy?" Hikari asked puzzled.

"No, he means Koji" Iori sizzled, shaking his head about such a stupid question. Hikari looked a little bit ashamed and turned red.

Takeru slung his arm around Kens skinny shoulders and answered: "I don't think anyone here can tell you. Well, maybe except Daisuke." The spike-haired boy stopped walking around again and looked at Takeru shocked.

"What do you mean!?" he screamed hysterically.

"Sorry, I just said it because you seem to identify yourself with Koji and his friends a lot. I didn't meant to annoy you." Daisuke starred at Takeru for another few moments, then started walking again without saying a word. The blonde suddenly felt very uncomfortable.

"That was mean, T.K." Hikari whispered, looking at Daisuke pitifully. Suddenly the boy went to his knees in front of Takeru and screamed: "You got no idea of what I'm feeling right now, do you?! I looked up to this guys like I look up to Tai! I maybe wouldn't have if I had known what they did to Izzy from the beginning, but I didn't! I felt accepted by them somehow, those were the people I spend my time with before I met you and the Digimons! I heard they talking in a very mean way about people like Tai and Izzy! But I never said anything about it! I'm feeling like I've trashed Izzy!" While these words Daisuke started to cry and now he threw his face into his hands and his weeping was distressingly. Takeru wasn't able to do anything and just looked at his friend shocked. He never knew Daisuke had such a friendship with those guys, apart from that they were about two years older than he was, which was rather unusual, Takeru never thought that Daisuke had friends before the Digi Destined at all. Besides, nobody of them ever thought about that.

"It wasn't your fault" Ken assured and embraced Daisuke tightly. Hikari did the same, and DemiVeemon came comforting too.

"Maybe not" Daisuke gasped "but I can't change my feelings. I'm feeling guilty, and it is just as worse as being it for real. It's not your fault, T.K.. You just said what everybody of you were thinking. Nobody understood why I was so pissed off, don't you? But you can bet, I will never turn away again, if anybody appears to be intolerant again. Maybe, if I had talked to Koji or Takuto, I could have been avoiding this whole thing."

"Ahm, I don't want to contradict you, but I don't think you would have changed anything about their opinion." Cody looked at Miyako while his words, pleading for help. He felt very uneasy, seeing Daisuke crying like this. Maybe he wasn't the insensitive blockhead he always thought he was.

"Iori's right. Those people don't need to explain why they're hating anybody. The just do. Probably Koji was just jealous about Tai and Izzy being so happy. He is surely a very poor and lonely person." Suddenly Miyako felt something like pity about Koji by listening to her own words. There must be a reason, why somebody acted like he did, and it surely had to be something that wasn't explainable that easy.

~~~~~~~~~~

Taichi was leaning against the wall and didn't dare to say a word, in case it would be insensitive or anything like that. After the whole 'Koji-affair' was done, Koushiro decided to tell his friend about they're encounter and what actually happened to him. After he had started talking, he didn't seemed to stop anymore. He remembered and told every detail of this terrible night, Taichi just kept silent and listened. Now, that everything was said, both of them just looked at the ground, without making a single noise except they're steady but quiet breathing. Once Taichi opened his mouth to say something, but he closed it immediately and remained in this death silence for another few minutes.

"You got nothing to say?" Koushiro finally asked. He wasn't able to stand this situation any longer.

"I fear no" Taichi answered, gratefully for a question he was able to answer. He threw a look at his friend and was caught by his intense glance he was giving to him. Koushiro didn't seemed to be mad or disappointed. Actually, he could understand Taichi very well. He was sure, he wouldn't be able to say something either.

"But I got. I just wanted to thank you once again…"

"Oh, you really don't need to. Or do you think I would have been able to watch this monster trashing you again?" Taichi interrupted hastily.

"Actually, that wasn't what I meant. I mean, you stayed with me the whole time. I was mean, yes I was. I blamed you because of things you never thought or did, just because I felt hurt and full of despair. Just because I was afraid. I pushed you away, when I wanted you to hold me tight, because I was afraid of your strength. I resembled Koji to me, I felt totally helpless. I just wanted to say I'm sorry, and I hope this is the last time I've got to do this. I don't want to do things I have to be sorry about no more." Suddenly they were surprised by the ringing of the doorbell. Koushiro had to check who it was, because his parents weren't at home.

"Surely one of the others who wants to know if I'm alright. Daisuke had visited me every single day since…you know" Koushiro sighed while opening the door. Taichi was right behind him. Both of them froze, when they recognised the face in front of them. It was Takuto!

"You?" the two of them asked at the same moment. Koushiro sounded more surprised, while Taichi grumbled angrily. The visitor glanced at them insecurely out of his lowered dark eyes.

"I didn't wanted to spoil you, I just came to…" He stopped talking and seemed to search for the right words to say. Hesitatingly he offered Koushiro his hand and the redhead took it without thinking.

"I'm sorry for what happened. I didn't knew he had such…things in mind. If I had, I would have stopped him. Really. I know, I've done similar things to you, but…" He looked at Taichi and there was not only regret, but also fear in his eyes.

"It would never happen again" he finally aspirated. He looked fully at Koushiro for the first time. The smaller boy forced himself to smile, though it was very hard for him. But he felt that this apology was totally sincere.

"It's ok. I don't blame you, for what he did. You don't have to like me, Takuto. Just let us avoid, getting into each others ways. That's enough. And thank you for coming here. It really means a lot to me." Takuto nodded and pulled his hand back. He threw another look at Taichi and then left quiet and fast. Koushiro remained another few seconds in the doorway, before he shut the door and turned around. Taichi looked at him surprised.

"That was unexpected" the taller boy finally said without any mood.

"It surely was. But it was also very good." Koushiro went back to his room, followed by his friend. They sat down on the bed again, for some reason much more relaxed than before.

"Maybe" Koushiro started "someday everything will be alright again."

"Surely" Taichi assured him. Then he stroke his boyfriends shiny hair lovingly and kissed his pale cheek tenderly. Koushiro smiled and threw himself into Taichis arms.

"Know what, I'm not afraid of your strength anymore. It comes in very handy if you got to safe me, I must admit. And in other, more private things" Taichi was surprised by this frivol words and laughed out loud. First Koushiro jerked, but then he cuddled himself against his lovers chest again.

"Would you mind if I kiss you?" Taichi asked severely. Koushiro raised his head and answered his question by pressing his lips against his mouth by himself.

"I would never mind" he whispered and kissed him again.

Authors Note: Now, here it is, the last chapter. It is much shorter than the other parts, but I didn't wanted to strech it if there is nothing more to say. Maybe there will be a sequel, but I'm to busy at the moment. I hope someday the inspiration will come back, there is so much more to tell about Taichi, Koushiro and the others. I hope you enjoyed it a little bit and please don't be cruel. I'm labil ;o)