Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Reboot ❯ Play ( Chapter 4 )

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon. Toei Animation does.

 

Play

 

Tai isn't sure how much time has passed. It may have been ten minutes; it may have been an hour. He's called out Kari's name numerous times now, but the only answer he gets in response is the faint blowing of the wind outside, and if he concentrates hard enough, he can almost pick up a chanted mantra: Taichi, Taichi, Taichi…

 

And it is a completely crazy thought, but he imagines it is his lost memories beckoning for him to come find them.

 

The shrill ringing of the phone breaks him out of his delirious reverie and numbly, as if in a sleepwalking daze, he untangles himself from the covers and pads out of the room to pick it up where it hangs from the hallway wall. From this viewpoint, he can see outside through the sliding door glass the darkening clouds gathering as a storm brews.

 

"Hello?" he says hoarsely into the receiver.

 

Lightning streaks across the darkened sky in a white-hot flash of electricity.

 

"Uh, hello…" says a young, male-sounding voice pausing for a moment. "Tai… is that you?"

 

Clearly whoever it is, hasn't been expecting him to be the one to answer, but they must know him since they recognize his voice.

 

Tai nods before he remembers that the person on the other end can't see him. "Yes," he says.

 

"Oh, well, hi, nice to hear from you in so long," the voice says in a fake, cheerful manner. "This is T.K."

 

T.K. Tai recalls him as one of the Digidestined, but there are far too many faces to place with the name and he can't keep track of who is who, so he remains silent.

 

"I was wondering… could I talk to Kari?" T.K. asks hesitantly.

 

Thunder booms above and the whole building shakes as if a giant has rested his foot on top of it.

 

"Can't," Tai rasps out. "She's gone back to settle things."

 

"What?" T.K. says not understanding.

 

"She took her D-3 with her. I didn't see Gatomon, but she probably met up with her," Tai explains like it's perfectly normal for him to know this information.

 

"Y-you know about Gatomon and D-3s? Y-you remember things now?" T.K. sputters. "Wait, are you saying that Kari has gone to the Digital World by herself?"

 

"Kari told me about it," Tai says. "She said she was going to make things better."

 

"W-what?! You mean she went back t-to—I gotta go!" T.K. declares, sounding panicked before the line goes dead when he hangs up.

 

Tai remains standing there with the phone still held to his ear listening to the dial tone like it is a soothing lullaby.

 

The blackened heavens break open and unleash a furious onslaught of rain upon the earth below.

 

The wind has escalated to a fierce howling, which rattles the doors and windows as if trying to seek entrance and it's chanting has not ceased: Taichi, Taichi, Taichi…

 

A red dot appears on the screen of the device called his digivice and begins steadily beeping.

 

~*~

 

Matt can honestly say this has to be one of the worst days of his entire life. He can't even just label it as the worst day because he has had far too many of them: the day his parents split up and separated him and his brother, those many dark days in the Digital World where he felt he wasn't worthy of the Crest of Friendship, when he almost hadn't made it time to save Tai from Piedmon's finishing blow, the day on the cliff when he hadn't reached him in time, the day Tai had woke up and couldn't recall his own name…

 

And finally, today, when Sora had succeeded in cornering him to demand an answer on why he had been avoiding her for so long.

 

"Do you want to break up with me, Matt, is that it?" she asks in a hurt tone.

 

"No!" Matt yelps before he has time to think and he feels awful.

 

My god, he hadn't even realized that Tai had liked her in that way and he had never felt so surprised or happy when Sora had confessed to him, and Tai had been so supportive and enjoyed teasing them and had acted like nothing was wrong. It must have been agony for him every day and now Matt knows this and the guilt is eating him alive because he still loves her, still wants to keep her all for himself in spite of this, and it's so incredibly selfish.

 

So all he can do is try to avoid her but the inevitable confrontation has come at last.

 

"Then what is? You don't call me or talk to me anymore. What am I supposed to think?" Sora inquires frustrated. "Just tell me what's wrong."

 

"Tai," Matt croaks out and Sora's expression softens.

 

"Oh, Matt, you can't keep blaming yourself for that," she says, touching his arm gently. "If it was anyone's fault it was that digimon's—"

 

"You don't get it, do you?" Matt says, shaking off her hand and running a weary hand over his face as he realizes he has to tell her. "Did you know… did you know that Tai liked you?"

 

A stony mask has settled over Sora's face as she narrows her eyes and sets her mouth in tight line. "What are you talking about?" she says, clearly irritated at this flow of topic.

 

"Did you ever… like him?" Matt questions, because thinking back he realizes how close the two had been, but he can't discern if it was mere friendship or feelings of attraction.

 

"Matt, stop, this is ridiculous," Sora commands heatedly. "Yes, I had a crush on him back when we were kids, alright? But he obviously never felt the same way and I don't where you're getting these wild ideas or why we're even talking about this. I love you—"

 

"Did you see his face that day on the cliff wall?" Matt interrupts. "You were right there behind me—did you see his face when you reached for me instead? I wasn't even the one in danger of falling."

 

He hears a sharp intake of breath and he turns around and Sora has a horror-stricken expression imprinted across her countenance, all the color having fled from her cheeks.

 

"Oh my g—is that… is that what…" she trails off not able to voice the words.

 

"He didn't take my hand," Matt says and he feels so relieved to finally be able to share this terrible secret with someone. "I tried to reach him but he didn't take my hand… because he saw you… reaching for me."

 

They stand there in silence for several, long minutes, the world seeming to have stopped with this newfound revelation…and then Matt's cell phone goes off with T.K.'s ring-tone.

 

~*~

 

Tai's running. Down the sidewalks and puddles, through the pouring rain. His house slippers are drenched and he is soaked to the bone through his thin sweat pants, tee shirt, and light jacket. He's running—his digivice clenched tight in his hand. He's running and he doesn't know where.

 

And he finds that his feet have led him straight to the soccer field.

 

~*~

 

The Digidestined are having a very intense game of Phone Tag.

 

"Whaddya mean Kari's gone to the Digital World by herself?! That psycho digimon is still on the loose! Call me back pronto, T.J.!!!"

 

"This is Yolei. I can't find Gatomon anywhere. Let's hope she's with Kari."

 

"Should someone check up on Tai? I mean he must be feeling overwhelmed by all this."

 

"We can do that later. He'll be safe here. We have more pressing priorities at stake."

 

"Cody, this is Izzy. Tell your parents you're going over to my house for a study session, then head over to the school. Mine will cover for you."

 

"I hope Kari didn't get caught in this storm. It's a total hair-dampener!"

 

"Just bring an umbrella, Mimi."

 

"Yolei, this is Joe. Make sure to bring some food supplies and a first aid kit from your store. We don't know what might happen over there."

 

"T.K., this is Yolei. Ken says he'll meet up with all of us in the Digital World. He can get there faster from his computer."

 

"That's great, he can get a head start on finding her before something else does."

 

"Why haven't you called me back yet, T.P., you jerk?!"

 

~*~

 

Tai stands in the middle of the waterlogged field and wonders what he is doing there. He has the sudden urge to throw back his head and laugh hysterically at nothing so he does and feels the coolness of the raindrops as they trickle down his throat. Letting himself fall backwards, he lies on the wet grass with his limbs spread out and stares vacantly up at the sky, now a more mild grey as the rain lightens up. He can no longer hear his name being chanted on the wind.

 

There is quite a large possibility that I've gone mad, Tai thinks and turns his head sideways to glance at his still beeping digivice grasped in his hand.

 

A few feet away, the air reverberates like the surface of the road in the summer heat.

 

Tai sits up and stares at the empty space wondering if it is a mirage.

 

The air shimmers briefly again and a creeping mist starts to fan out.

 

His digivice begins to beep more frantically as in response.

 

Tai extends one hand into the mist to see what will happen and watches in fascination as the front half disappears. He pulls it back out completely whole and unharmed and realizes with a sudden thrill what he has found.

 

A gateway to the Digital World.

 

~*~

 

Gatomon doesn't like it when Kari gets this headstrong. It is living proof she is every bit as rash and foolish as her brother sometimes. She doesn't see any good outcome of going to the Digital World with only the two of them. But she can't just let Kari go by herself, which her partner has threatened to do, and she still feels guilty over accidentally attacking Tai, so against her better judgment, she accompanies her and takes her to the destination she has in mind.

 

And feels horribly unsettled when they arrive at the sheer cliff wall.

 

"Kari, let's go back, please," she tries to reason with her. "If you must face this digimon, we'll do it with everyone else as a team and bring it down! How do you even know it will come here again?"

 

"Because to it, this is a game," Kari says in a voice that holds no fear, like when she had stood up to Myotismon—an ardent, defiant tone. "And I have chosen to play."

 

And Gatomon can only hope the others will arrive in time to stop this madness.

 

~*~

 

Tai wonders if the Digital World always keeps the same weather or if it changes like the real world. In any case, he isn't complaining. The sun is blazing warmly overhead and his clothes are damply, suffocatingly warm as he trudges through this tropical-type forest, his slippers squelching soggily with every step. It is almost like being on vacation and Tai resists the drive to lie down under a tree in the refreshing shade and be lulled to sleep by the melodious, exotic what must surely be birds—or bird digimon's songs. He can't really relax anyway. There's a strange sort of pressure on his head, something he thinks he should remember but can't, and it feels like a stony weight loading him down with an unintelligible demand. He thinks he knows what it is though. The reason for coming here…

 

The reason for coming here…

 

He follows the red blips on his digivice obediently, which are going off at fast-paced intervals, and walks for how many miles he doesn't keep track of until at last the continuous beeping comes to a halt and he finds himself looking down on what resembles a round, pink head.

 

Tai scans for the rest of its body but doesn't see it, and wonders if this is a digimon also. It looks like it is asleep with its eyes closed, but there is no movement of breath coming from it and then he wonders if it is dead. Can digimon die? Kari hadn't been very specific with the details. He feels a horrible pang in his chest at the thought it might gazes down upon it pityingly, because if it has died, it has done so all alone.

 

Alone… like him.

 

Before he can stop himself, Tai has stretched out his free hand and has placed it on top of the digimon right between its streaming ears.

 

And the round, pink head stirs, opens red eyes, smiles a toothy grin up at him and says, "Hi, Tai."

 

Tai supposes in hind sight anyone else might have screamed or fallen over in fright. In fact the notion to do so seems oddly familiar, but he feels like he's been spellbound and unable to make any sudden motions.

 

"Who are you? How do you know me?" he asks and feels like something is chiseling away at the inside of his skull.

 

He waits for shock and disbelief to crowd the pink head's face—that's the typical response of everyone he used to know who learns firsthand of his amnesia.

 

But the pink head doesn't gape at him in horror—it doesn't even appear all that surprised. It just smiles at him happily as if contented with his mere presence.

 

"My name's Koromon," it tells him. "And we're partners."

 

My name's Koromon and we're partners!

 

His head is beginning to hurt.

 

"Partners?" Tai repeats and recalls Kari explaining how each Digidestined had a digimon who were their partner. But the one she had pointed out as his in the picture had been an orange, dinosaur-looking creature not this pink head.

 

"I'm sorry, I don't remember you," he confesses.

 

"That's alright, Tai, we're together now," the pink head—Koromon—says. "You've kept me waiting."

 

"Waiting?" Tai repeats.

 

"I've been waiting for you to wake me up. I couldn't do it on my own, not until you were ready," Koromon states. "It doesn't matter if you can't remember me. We'll just make new memories together. You're still you after all!"

 

"I'm… still me?" Tai echoes and the words strike a heartwarming chord within him because no one, not even his sister, has claimed that losing his memories was of no concern to them.

 

"That's right, Tai! You're still in there, somewhere. You just haven't found yourself yet. It's like when I digivolve into Greymon! I may change a little, but I'm still the same person!" Koromon declares, its large, red eyes shining brightly.

 

"So… I need to… digivolve?" Tai asks, drawing a conclusion.

 

The little creature doesn't laugh at his obviously deluded sense of logic. "If that's what you think will help you," it says.

 

And some locked barrier within his mind breaks wide open.

 

Tai stands paralyzed in place for awhile. It feels like he is having one of those out-of-body experiences. It is as if there is a tiny distant other Tai looking down on the real one below.

 

"Oi, are you finally done feeling sorry for yourself?" someone says behind him in this bizarre existence out of space and time.

 

Tai turns around startled and there is someone standing behind him. Someone wearing a blue shirt with twin orange stars on the shoulders, cargo shorts, white gloves on his hands… and a familiar pair of plastic goggles over a blue headband to hold up wild, untamed hair.

 

His brown eyes are gleaming with a passionate fervor and they hold a kind of knowledge that Tai no longer has.

 

Tai stares at the reflection of his eleven-year-old self in wonderment.

 

"What you're doing is despicable," Younger Tai says not bothering to conceal his disgust.

 

"What am I doing?" Tai asks feeling as if he is on the verge of falling… falling over a cliff… a cliff.

 

"You can't possibly be me. I would never let myself become so weak," his younger self states, pointing an accusing gloved finger at him. "So hurry and SNAP OUT OF IT!!!"

 

And the world spins out of focus as Tai collapses to knees, bowled over by a tidal wave of memories.

 

To Be Continued…

 

A/N: Oh look, Tai got his memories back! What will this spell out in the next chapter? And he's reunited with Koromon, yay! (I loved writing that scene by the way^^). I know I said I was going to explain the Frozen State further here, but the chapter got a little too long, so you will have to wait until the next chapter to find out what else caused it. Mmm, so now we have Kari being either incredibly brave or incredibly stupid, take your pick. Sora finally realizes what she has put Tai through and Tai being a little bit psycho in this chapter.

 

The only part I'm iffy about is the digital gate in the soccer field, but I figured since Tai once returned to the Digital World through some sort of warp-hole in 01 in Ep.21, I figured I'm not too far off track for it to be impossible.

 

So what are your overall thoughts reading so far? Please let me know in a review. I hope you enjoyed this fic, so stick around. Things will heat up in the next chapter!