Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Harsh Memories ❯ Iori's pain ( Chapter 4 )

Iori had been thinking. Actually, a more accurate term would be remembering. The day of the accident kept replaying in his mind, while mixed with thoughts of both his father and Owikawa-san's death. He was lucky in a way, he thought suddenly, as he had not been present when his father had died protecting the foreign dignitary he had been assigned to.

< I don't think I would have been able to take seeing that, based on how hard seeing Owikawa-san die was. > As his mind began to wander, he thought about how differently the two dimensions he now could call "home" were. < Sometimes I think it would be better if our own world reacted to death like the digi-world did. Then instead of death and destruction we would only have reformation and deletion. From all of our experiences, I think only the digimon who had acted in a manner that endangered the digi-world have been truly deleted, and even then, those digimon that seemed to repent, like the older generation said Ogremon did, did not fade away or become deleted like their more vicious counterparts. This would mean that both my O-Touchan, and Owikawa-sama would have been reformatted, since he only desired to see the digiworld, and not actually wanted to see it destroyed. >while consumed with these thoughts, Iori's mind began to blank out again, as the medications being pumped into him overcame his concise effort to stay awake.

Iori's body was lying in a small room, where the doctors could keep an hourly watch on his status. The only real indication of when Iori was conscious was the movement of his eyes under their lids. The doctors who were working on him were still reluctant to call what he was going through a "coma", since he displayed knowledge of his surroundings, and of outside stimuli. It was more like Iori refused to awaken, rather then couldn't awaken. His mind was still retelling the night of the incident, along with the memories of both his father and Owikawa's deaths.

---------Iori's POV (night of the accident)---------

Iori had just come from a dojo not far from both Hikari's and Daisuke's homes. He enjoyed training with his O-Jiichan, but after Owikawa-sama's death, his grandfather had taken a turn for the worse. He still would spar with Iori, but their matches became shorter, and eventually less and less frequent. It had gotten to the point when both student and Sensei began to realize that Iori would not be able to improve at the pace they were setting. Iori had volunteered to begin training at the new dojo, so as to spare his Grandfather any more undo wear and tear.

As he walked, Iori began to think about the various events of the last few weeks. As usual, he began to focus on the way in which Owikawa had selflessly given up his life so that the digiworld could be reformed. Over the past few weeks, Iori had begun to equate Owikawa-san's death to his own father's. He thought about how both men had sacrificed themselves for something they had believed in, and had cherished most of their lives. For Owikawa, it had been the digiworld itself, and the idea that he had lead to its corruption, and near destruction. < Owikawa-san felt that he had been responsible for the destruction caused by Malo-Myotismon, even though in reality, he had been tricked while grieving over the loss of his friend Hiroki, > Iori realized. <While Owikawa-san died because of his feelings of both grief, and because of his desire to see a restored digital world, O-tousan died because of his sense of duty and ethics. He felt his duty was to protect the dignitary, even if it cost him his own life. > A small tear fell unheeded down Iori's cheek as he thought of how his father had died.

Iori continued to walk down the block, watching the various people on the street moving quickly, trying to return to their homes before nightfall. Iori shivered and hugged himself in an attempt to stay warm. "Why didn't I bring a sweater instead of just wearing a t-shirt? " Iori asked aloud, as he tugged at the brown t-shirt he was wearing. Iori continued to walk faster, as he attempted to keep his circulation up, and tried to warm himself through physical activity. < At least I'm close to home; it should only be another 5 minutes till I'm there. >As Iori rounded a corner, and began to walk towards the crosswalk, he noticed a familiar shape walking across the empty road. < I could swear that was T.K.'s hat. > He thought as he began to jog forward towards the retreating white lump. That was when Iori heard the screeching tires, and saw the small black car heading towards Takeru. " T.K.! " Iori managed to scream out, before his body froze as he watched the car impact with his friend and DNA-digivolving partner.

There were tears in Iori's eyes as he ran over. He watched as Takeru landed hard on the road a few feet from where he had previously stood. Iori stared in horror, as he saw that Takeru was losing blood fast. A deep pool of crimson had already formed around the 11 year old, as he lay struggling to breathe. As Iori ran towards his friend, he noticed that the car had suddenly stopped. For a brief moment, Iori thought that the man in the car was trying to find a cell phone to call an ambulance. Quickly, however, his hope was turned to shock, as the man pulled a long knife from under the passenger seat of the vehicle. < What in Kami's name is he thinking? > Iori thought as the man exited his car, smiling.

The man stalked forward, still with the same smirk on his face. "Since I can't allow the police to trace me, and since I saw you looking at my plates, I had better take care of you." Iori overheard the man mutter as he walked calmly forward. As Iori ran, something seemed to click inside of him. He watched as the man raised the knife upwards, rotating it 180`, until the blade was pointed downwards. Iori briefly glanced at the blade, noticing that it had been stained long ago, and had been permanently darkened to a rich crimson color. As the man began to plunge the knife downwards, Iori leapt forward. The last thing he had remembered was a sharp pain flowing throughout his body, slowly followed by several similar pains.

---------End flashback---------

Iori slowly turned his body, flinching softly as pain went through his body. His mind slowly faded away as he went back into a sound slumber.

A/N Unfortunately that's all for now, since the University starts up this Monday. I will be writing more however ( I have already written chapter five. ) Until I can get a new Beta-reader ( Grey is a bit slow since she has her own fics that she's doing and also her work/study's ). Anyone who's interested please email me at murakumo@mail.com.

Mura.

New A/N. added 8/24

Augh! I am in desperate need of a beta-reader. If anyone who is reading this is even marginally good at spelling/grammar { I do hope that there are people reading this } I implore you to email me. I have already gotten two more chapters done but I am horrible at grammar and spelling ( plus my spell checker messes up quite often. )