Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Battle Days ❯ Violence ( Chapter 4 )

Battle Days

Chapter IV

Violence...

Koushiro never liked those school-trips. No, that's not right. Actually, he always HATED those school-trips. That's not right either. He started hating school-trips four years ago. Before he liked them. Not to forget, he met most of his best friends on summer camp. And he landed up in the Digital World only because he was on this camp. Together with Taichi.

But times are changing. School-trips are changing. This one contained only people from Koushiros class. The boy didn't wanted to go there, but his father had been ruthless, at least this time. And Koushiro had never been the kind of person to argue with his parents.

So now he stood here, his travelling bag next to him on the ground, starring at the laughing students, who already got on the train. He nearly abided on his mother next to him, like he used to do when he was eight years. But now he was seventeen, and his age demanded that he acted a little bit more mature. He looked at the blue terry cloth-wristband he wore on this right arm. Taichi used to wear it during soccer matches and after the last one he gave it to Koushiro. The redhead liked the feeling the gift gave him, he felt somehow protected. As if his friend was with him the whole time. And he loved that cedar-smell.

"I'll fetch you on Sunday, ok?" Koushiro looked at his mother and nodded. When he realised her worried expression he forced himself to smile.

"Ok, I'm sure it'll be half as worse as I feared." Mrs. Izumi sighed released.

"Come on, Izumi, the train isn't waiting for you!" Koushiro nodded into his teachers direction and kissed his mothers cheek goodbye. Then he grabbed his bag and approached the entry without turning back.

"Over here, Izzy!" Mimi waved at him and tapped on the seat next to her. The boy smiled, this time honestly, and made himself comfortable. At least Mimi was here.

"You're ok?" She grinned while tying up her brown hair. She was totally prepared for a school-trip with her sporty outfit. Koushiro wondered how long she took to assemble it.

"Yes, thank you. Why you're asking?" She pointed at his wrist and chuckled.

"Because I know you miss him like hell by now." She rose her left arm and Koushiro spotted Jyous watch on it. It was a little bit to wide and seemed grotesque in comparison to Mimis perfect outfit.

"Just like I do.." she continued and smiled.

"Doesn't he need his watch. I mean, Jyou is always so…say 'worried' about being late."

"Of course. He wears mine!"

Koushiro nearly laughed out loud. He imagined Jyou with Mimis pink watch beneath his sleeve, always taking a look around before checking the time. The boy chuckled and pulled his knees towards his face to rest his head on them.

"Why you're laughing?" Mimi looked somehow disturbed.

"Why not? Isn't life worth smiling?" Koushiro gazed at her with a warm and satisfied look in his eyes. Mimi rushed forward and hugged him tightly while replying: "It is, Izzy! It surely is!"

~~~~~~~~~~

"Believe me, Mimi! I'm fine with this solution."

"No, it's just derogatory!" The girl stomped and crossed her arms to underline her words.

"See, I can understand why they gave me a room on my own. You know, I'm not allowed to sleep in a girls room because I'm a boy. And, actually, uhm…I really don't want to. Don't get me wrong, but I don't want to feel like a queen anyway. And that the boys don't want to share a room with me, apart from that everyone of them hates me or feels disgusted by looking at me, is understandable, don't you think? My own room is the very best that could happen to me." While talking Koushiro placed his laptop on the small table next to the bunk bed. He noticed that Mimi was still unhappy with this conclusion, but she had to admit that Koushiro was right. It was just impossible for her to understand how anybody was able to keep calm when he was rejected like this.

"If you say so" she sighed. Then she stepped towards his bag and opened it to help her friend unpacking his clothes. The first thing she found was a framed photo of the destined children with their Digimons. She smiled and gazed at Koushiro.

"I thought you don't want it?" The boy turned around and blushed slightly.

"Don't be cross with me, I just was in a very bad mood that day. It got nothing to do with you."

"It's ok, really. Taichi gave it to you?" He nodded. Mimi put back and started to sort Koushiros clothes.

After a few moments he took to plug on his computer and booting it, the redhead walked over to the girl.

"May I ask you what kind of sorting system you're using?" The boy looked at her done work, frowning without seeing her motivation to put his clothes together like that.

"I assemble them for you" she said as if it was the most natural thing on earth. Koushiro chuckled and shook his head.

"Thank you very much, Mimi. Seems like you don't trust in my fashion sense." Mimi straightened up and looked down at the smaller boy.

"Don't get me wrong, Izzy. But since I saw you wearing green socks together with an orange shirt and violet shoes…"

"I was ten!!"

"Sure, but I think fashion sense is a god-given skill and if you don't got it with ten, you won't got it with seventeen." She sounded too serious to make Koushiro laughing and he just smiled embarrassed.

"Well, thank you."

"You're welcome."

…and don't let anyone tie you into knots. Love, Tai.

Koushiro smiled and pressed the reply button. His fingers bolted across the keyboard, typing a short answer into his laptop. He sent the mail and leaned back to wait for his boy-friends answer. They were sending messages since Koushiro left the dining room this evening and backed out in his room.

Finally the boy stood up and walked over to the window. He was unable to see anything outside, the night was black as coal. Trough a look at his watch Koushiro realised that it was already a quarter past one in the morning. His next mail was going to be the last one, then he would go to bed. He remained starring out of the window without seeing anything but the reflection of the bluish light coming out of his screen. He never thought he could feel as good on a school-trip again, but the last three days nothing went wrong and nobody had said a single mean word to him.

He was lost in deep thoughts when he noticed a motion on the reflecting window glass. He saw the door, which was right behind him, being opened slowly. He froze and little beads of sweat suddenly covered his forehead. He was wondering why he was so scared, he was rather sure that it was one of the teachers, checking if everything was alright.

"Who's there?" he gasped and lagged around. A teacher would have replied, but this visitor didn't said a word.

*Probably it's just Mimi who wants to play a trick on me. Surely she is..*

The person entered the room and closed the door behind without making any unnecessary noise. And it surely wasn't Mimi!

"What are you doing here?"

No answer.

"Can I help you anyway?" Koushiros voice trembled. The person stepped nearer and Koushiro was able to see a sadistic smile.

Suddenly the visitor rushed forward and the next moment Koushiro was on the ground, his mouth covered by a large hand, pressing his lips against his teeth so hard that they got numb in seconds. The boy made desperate efforts to free himself but a punch in his face made him nearly lose consciousness. It would have been better if he had faded away that moment. The next knock hit his left eye.

"Please no…" was all the boy was able to say. He felt the power leaving him more and more every second. The heavy body above him sat on his thorax, making it difficult to breath even between the punches. The iron taste of blood filled Koushiros mind and he made another useless try to get rid of the attacker. In punishment for his rearing the boys head was raised and smashed to the ground that a cloud of pure pain encased him, trying to be released by a small whimper.

"Why…" The tormentor had been taking away his hand from Koushiros mouth, but still the word was nothing more than a puff. Tears swallowed the rest of the sentence and covered the boys whole face.

Another hit made Koushiro closing off, he felt himself floating into unconsciousness. But he was flung around hard and suddenly a voice was right beside his ear, aspirating: "Not yet, Izumi-chan. The best is still to come."

Koushiro wanted to say something. But his swollen lips didn't parted a small bit.

Izzy, what's the matter, are you in bed already?^_^

Izzy? Come on! °~°Izzy?…

~~~~~~~~~~

"Koushiro?" Hesitatingly the tall, slender women knocked at the locked door. She threw a look at Mimi, who was standing beside her.

"May I try?" The girl brushed her teacher aside and pounded against the wood.

"Izzy, Mimi is here. What's the matter?" Still no answer.

That moment the owner of the hostel entered the floor and held up the second key to Koushiros room. He unlocked the door, but when he wanted to open it Mimi pushed him into her teachers arms and jumped into the room herself.

"Izzy?" She walked over to the bed, but there was nothing but a untouched pillow on it. Her eyes searched the room swiftly, noticing the down-filled, baggy blanket in the corner behind the table. When she saw that the laptop on the desk was still online she went over and took a look at the screen. There were about twenty unread e-mails, all sent by Tai. Mimi frowned and straighten up her body.

"What the hell…" She looked down at the blanket next to her and was wondering herself why Koushiro put it there. Suddenly it shivered. First Mimi thought her mind played a trick on her. She heard the teacher and the hostel-owner leaving the room, talking about where the boy may went that morning. Slowly she approached the corner, going to her knees carefully. She reached out and touched the fabric, which jerked and she heard a small whimper.

"Izzy…" she whispered. The boy dragged the blanket tighter around his invisible body.

"What happened?" Mimi grabbed the cloth and tried to take it away from her friend. But he snapped it back.

"Leave me alone." Mimi nearly overheard his small voice beneath the thick fabric. But it was loud enough to notice that the boy was crying. She took the blanket again and pulled it apart.

"Izzy, come on, what…OH - MY - GOD…" She covered her open mouth with both hands and starred at the face, which wasn't clearly to be identified as Koushiros. Even if he turned apart immediately she saw that he had at least one black eye. The rest of his face didn't looked anything better, it was all turned red and violet. And above his left eyebrow he had a dried up wound.

"Leave me alone…" The boy gasped and Mimi heard that his lips were swollen too.

"Who did that to you!" She nearly screamed and was sorry about it when the boy jerked again and covered his head. He pressed himself against the wall and sobbed heart-rending.

"Izzy, you have to tell me who did that to you! Oh my, what…is there anything I can do for you?"

"Leave me alone…" the boy repeated lowly.

"But…"

"GO!" Koushiro had turned around half-ways and screamed at her with his broken voice. He grabbed the blanket again and covered his head. Mimi starred at him shocked, but got to her feet and muttered: "Ok. I'll call your parents… and Tai." Then she turned around and went to the door pushing the returning teacher outside.

"But, what happened to him?" the nervous woman asked puzzled.

"I don't know, but you should call a doctor. It looks like he's been beaten up very badly." A small shriek left the teachers lips and she reached for the door to get inside. But Mimi grabbed her wrist and shook her head determinatively.

"He wants to be alone. You call the doctor, I'm going to inform his family."

~~~~~~~~~~

Taichi starred at his boy-friend, who sat next to him in the rear of the Izumi-car. While Mrs. Izumi had cried the whole time and her husband only kept silent, Taichi had romped the past hours. How could anybody dare to treat his beloved Koushiro like that? He was one of the loveliest and shiest persons Taichi ever got to know, what motivation could anybody have to maul him like this? But what made him nearly losing his mind was, that Koushiro refused to tell him who trashed him the night before. Taichi thought of the promise that Koushiro gave to him a couple of weeks ago. He swore that he'd tell his friend if somebody didn't treat him right. But now the redhead were breaking this promise, and if he wasn't in such a bad condition, Taichi would have told him so.

"You may should call your parents, Tai. To tell them where you are." Mr. Izumis voice was throaty and suggested that he was holding back his tears. Taichi nodded vacantly.
"Later." He reached for Koushiros upper-arm, but when he touched it the smaller boy jerked and gasped. He had been lost in deep thoughts and glanced at Taichis hand, then at his face. His eyes looked somehow demonic, with those black surrounded by red. But the tears had dried out and it made him looking twice as despairingly. Taichi just wanted to hold him as tight as possible, but whenever he tried to touch his friend he drew back. Somehow Taichi understood that he didn't wanted to be touched after what happened to him last night. But it was him, the person who wanted to protect him from everything and everybody on this whole wide world, if necessary all at the same time.

"You call them when we're upstairs" Mr. Izumi ordered when he stopped the car in front of their apartment building. His wife jumped out of the car and opened her son the door to get out. She wanted to take his hand, but he ignored her offer and walked on alone, his eyes stuck to the ground in front of him and his arms crossed deprecatingly. His mother followed him nervously while Taichi and Mr. Izumi took Koushiros luggage out of the trunk.

"I should have been there to help him…" Taichi whispered. He grabbed the Pineapple laptop and dried a tear that wanted to escape his eye.

"You can't be with him the whole time" Mr. Izumi answered lowly. He closed the trunk and locked the door before he and Taichi walked over to the building side by side.

"But…"

"Oh, come on Tai. We don't want those stereotypic senses of indebtedness, do we? Nobody is guilty but the monster who did this to him." Taichi knew that Mr. Izumi was right, but it was hard for him to accept that he wasn't able to do anything for Koushiro if he doesn't wanted it by himself. And at least at the moment it doesn't looked like the boy was ready to talk about his experience.

"No we don't want them" he took a deep breath and continued "…but if I'll find the bastard who did 'that', I swear, his mother wouldn't recognise him after I'm through." He clinched his fists and felt to longing to punch anything.

"You may not believe me, but it's the same with me."

Taichi looked at Mr. Izumi surprised. To him the man was everything but a violent person. But Koushiro was his son after all, wasn't he?

"I think I believe you." Taichi and Mr. Izumi entered the flat and put the luggage next to the door to Koushiros room, which was locked. Both heard the sobbing of Mrs. Izumi, who was in the kitchen preparing anything. Her husband joined her while Taichi called his parents. Then he remained standing in the hall, looking at Koushiros door indecisively. Finally he went over and knocked. He heard no reply and wanted to go to the kitchen too when he heard the door being unlocked. Hesitatingly he entered the room. Koushiro crept over to the window and starred at the street below. He had slung his arms around the upper part of his body, his fingers clinched onto the blue fabric of his sweater.

"You really don't want to…?" Taichi interrupted himself when he heard Koushiro sighing.

"Please, Tai. I have told you before that I don't want to talk about it. Don't force me to do so." The smaller boy turned his head and looked at his friend. He not longer wore this expression of pain. His look was more like… resignation.

"But you've promised me to... well, do you remember?" Koushiro nodded and lowered his eyes.

"I'm not proud of breaking my promise. But this isn't a situation I expected to happen. Do you understand?"

"No, to be honest I don't understand a single word! This bastard who did this to you has to pay for it and you don't give me the possibility to…"

"Would you be so kind to stop screaming at me!?" Koushiro stepped forward and clinched his fists. He glanced at Taichi with furious eyes. Taichi shortly was paralysed but then he answered: "You might need this volume to understand that I only want to help you!"

"No you want to avenge me or probably just yourself. Your only problem is that you feel defeated because someone hurt something that belongs to you!"

Taichis eyes opened widely and he recalled his friends previous words.

"You know you're wrong!" the taller boy whispered despairingly. Koushiro turned away and sniffed lowly.

"Please leave me alone."

"Ok." Taichi threw a look at Koushiros profile and it felt like a knife through his heart seeing him like that. But he left the room without another word.

Koushiro went to the floor the moment the door was shut and buried his face in his hands.

*What are you doing, you're hurting him again. For what reason I always injure the person I love?*

~~~~~~~~~~

"I'm going to kill that…that…" It was rather difficult for a person like Sora to find the right words in this situation. She looked at Mimi helplessly and the younger girl ended her sentence: "…fucking ass-hole."

"Yes, thank you." Yamato tapped Soras shoulder to calm her down. But secretly he was just feeling like her at all.

"I really don't understand who could have done it." Mimi kicked pebbles across the yard and turned towards Sora again.

"Me too. Maybe it was nobody of your class. A stranger, maybe."

"Sorry, Sora, but I think if it were so, he would have told us. Or at least Tai and his parents." Yamato leaned back and looked at the leaves of the tree, they were sitting beneath.

"But, who could do such terrible things? I mean, you two haven't seen what happened to him. I nearly didn't recognised him in the fist moment." Mimi sniffed while she sat down and Sora pulled her into her arms and stroked her long hair motherly.

"A very good question." The three Destined raised their heads surprised and looked at the dark-haired guy standing nearby. His hands were buried in his pockets and he starred at the ground frowning.

"Takuto?" Sora looked at her friends interrogatively.

"I wonder what you care! You have trashed Izzy more than one time by yourself." Mimi jumped to her feet and glanced at her class-mate madly.

"But I would never hurt him so bad. It must be very serious, he hadn't been to school for over one week now." The boy sounded sad indeed and Mimi felt a little bit sorry that she was so mean to him.

"It is serious. If not the physical pain, then the mental." Yamato pierced the younger boy to find out what he was thinking. Actually, if somebody would have asked him before who beat Koushiro up, Takuto would have been his first suspect.

"I see…" Takuto turned his face and looked the other way nervously.

"Thank you for your sympathy." Sora smiled only to reap unbelieving faces of Mimi and Yamato.

"Yeah, I have to go now. See you later." Hastily Takuto turned on his heels and vanished as fast as he had appeared.

"What was that about?"

"Yes, do you really believe that he is sorry about what happened?" Mimi supported Yamato.

"We don't know if he has anything to do with 'it', do we?" Sora defended herself. "I think it was very ok, that he had talked to us." The red-haired girl stood up to underline her words, though she felt somehow like a fool.

"Anyway, I'm rather sure that he isn't guiltless." Yamato crossed his arms and pressed his lips together.

"A wonder that Tai didn't killed him until now." Sora sat down again.

"As you say: 'Until now'" Mimi sighed.

~~~~~~~~~~

"I'm sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Izumi. If your son doesn't want to cooperate, we're not able to force him." The police officer shrugged helplessly and took his jacket off the table.

"Yes, we know. Thanks for your help." Mr. Izumi led the police man to the door, while Taichi and Mrs. Izumi stayed on the sofa, both looking dejected. Three weeks went by since Koushiros terrible experience, but still he refused to talk about it. Taichi learned that it was better to avoid this topic. But he hadn't talked that much to Koushiro in the past weeks, though there was nothing he wishes more to listen to his friends adoring voice and to hear him laugh again. But he wasn't ready to go on as usual, and Taichi tried to respect it. In the meantime the police tried their best to find out what happened that special night, but without Koushiros help it seemed pointless.

"If you don't mind I'll take these papers to 'Shiro." Taichi grabbed the home work Mimi gave him to give it to her class-mate. He had asked for it, because he didn't felt like going to school himself, but he didn't wanted to miss the boat.

"It's ok. I'll call you when lunch is ready." Taichi and the woman stood up synchronically and walked into different directions. Taichi knocked at Koushiros door and waited for his friends 'Come in', before he stepped into the room. The redhead closed the computer program he was working with and rose from his chair. His face looked better from day to day and the only visible mark the attacker left was a scar above Koushiros left eye-brow.

"Hi" the boy greeted Taichi and approached him shyly. Still the things he said to him were between them and Koushiro felt very uneasily. He laid his hand on the taller boys elbow and showed a rare smile to him.

"Hi. How are we today?" Taichi stroked over his friends cheek quickly and he didn't stopped him.

"Fine thank you." He took the home work and went back to the desk to lay it down. Taichi avoided discreetly to talk about the police-officer and Koushiro did so to.

"Know what, I decided to go to school again. I think Monday would be a good day." Taichi blinked surprised. He hadn't even thought of this possibility. And he was more surprised because Koushiro decided it for himself.

"You're sure about that?"

"Of course I am. Or is there something I should know?" Koushiro raised his eyebrow interrogatively.

"What do you mean?" Taichi sat down on his friends bed, leaned back and propped on his hands.

"I mean… you didn't took the law into your own hands, do you?"

"You mean like killing Takuto?" Koushiro opened his eyes widely and opened his mouth.

"I never said he did…"

"I know. It was just the first name that came to my mind." Secretly Taichi puzzled over how to interpret the younger boys reaction. He didn't looked very caught. Maybe he was just good at acting, but Taichi was somehow uncertainly.

"Don't say that. And?"

"What?"

"Did you?" Taichi shook his mass of hair and folded his hands.

"I gave you a promise too, do you remember?" Koushiro blushed and turned his face.

"Yes, I do. You promised me to avoid troubles of that kind. And you kept it…" Taichi stood up and walked over to the small boy. He slung his arms around him and drew him near without paying attention to his friends tautness.

"I'm sorry I'm not as upright as you are" Koushiro sniffled.

"No need to be sorry about that. But there is still a chance to keep your promise."

Koushiro freed himself from his friends embrace and shook his head emphatically.

"No, Tai. I just want to forget what happened. And this is the best way."

"And if the monster realises that it could do anything to you without taking the consequences? It will hurt you again." Taichi had to bring up his whole self-control not to scream his words. How was it possible that a smart person like Koushiro acted so dumb?

"We will see."

"We will see? Is that everything you got to say?"

"Yes. It's my problem, my face and body. I think I can decide for myself how to handle this, don't you think?" Taichis eyes narrowed and he tried to turn away from Koushiro to avoid yelling at him. But Koushiro grabbed his arm desperately and gasped: "Please, don't leave me alone. I need you. Even if I don't show it, I still love you. How should I stand all this without you?" His voice was surprisingly clear and firm.

"How can you think I would leave you? Even if I wanted I couldn't. I think I'm addicted. Just like you were a drug. Scary, hm?" Taichi smiled and released he noticed that Koushiro did so to.

"You're to good to me. More as if I were your dealer than your drug."

"Or both."

"Or both."

To be continued…

Authors note: Yes, this was the far heaviest part to write, and I don't know if I made it very well. Everything is getting very dark and oppresive I think. Well, I hope the next chapter turns out better. Don't be to rigorous with me.

Next chapter: Rehabilitation