Jyou Kido stood in front of the hotel. Inside the mammoth structure, his high school reunion would take place. The Digidestined would finally be together again. He sighed. They would be together, yes...but was that really what he wanted? Maybe what the group needed was to be apart, to grow on their own.
A voice spoke from behind him. "Jyou? Jyou, is that you?" He turned to see Sora standing there. She was wearing a long dress that wrapped tightly around her body, slit at the side to show a generous portion of her leg. It sparkled silver in the bright lights of the hotel reception room, and an emerald brooch clasped it together right below her right shoulder. "Jyou! It is you!" She ran up to him and hugged him, and for a second, he could have imagined it was the old Sora again. She stepped back. "Well, if you don't look handsome in that outfit!"
He straightened the collar of his Naval dress uniform. "Umm...Hi, Sora! It's good to see you again!" He was about to say something more, but the whirring of rotor blades cut him off. "What the..."
They both turned, as did most other people in the hotel plaza, to see a helicopter flying towards the area. "Who on earth would rent a helicopter?" Asked Sora in disbelief. Jyou shrugged in response.
The helicopter swerved around in the air, and slowly started to settle to the ground. When it touched down, Jyou finally recognized the figure stepping out amidst a growing crowd. "It's Taichi!" Their friend immediately picked them out from the crowd and waved to the duo, who greeted him in return.
Several minutes later, they were inside. Taichi sipped from the glass of wine he held in his hand. He looked at Sora. "You look nice in that dress."
Sora gazed down at herself. "You really think so? Thanks, Taichi!" Suddenly, she looked up again, and far beyond the two men. "Is that...Koushiro! Over here!"
Jyou and Taichi turned to see Koushiro Izumi, looking slightly disheveled even in his suit, approach. "Hey Koushiro!" said Jyou.
Koushiro mumbled something to himself, then looked at Jyou, as if startled. "Huh?" he inquired. "Did you say something?"
"That's the absent-minded professor!" Jyou laughed.
"Oh, that." Koushiro blushed. "I was just going over the details of a theory I am going to explain to my class in several days."
Jyou raised his wineglass again and took a sip. "Come on, lighten up! This isn't a time to be talking about work, Koushiro!"
Taichi leaned over "And you know when Jyou tells you to lighten up and have fun that you're REALLY boring people." This got a laugh from everyone.
There was a silence after the round of laughter. "Guys, do you realize that tonight we have been gone from the Digital World for exactly 15 years?" Koushiro reminded, solemnly.
"No...I didn't remember..." whispered Sora. "It's been so long. 15 years...and we all know that time passes in the Digiworld much more quickly than here...I wonder what happened to our Digimon?" No one spoke.
A sigh escaped from Taichi's lips as he sat down. "You do remember the last night we spent there, right?"
Jyou nodded. "Of course. It would be kind of hard to forget it..."
The Digidestined were seated around a fire, not saying a word. The two youngest, Takeru and Hikari, were sound asleep, and the desire to not wake them up was one of the contributing factors to the silence, but there was more to it than just that. No one could quite identify it, however, but everyone was obeying the noiseless command that was keeping him or her quiet. "Come on, guys!" Gomamon said. "Why all the long faces?"
"I was just thinking..." Yamato answered. "What happens after weíre done being the Digidestined?"
The seal-like Digimon looked confused. "How do you stop being a Digidestined? Thatís what you are alive to do!"
Taichi prodded the fire with a stick, trying to rekindle the dying flames. "No, itís something else, I think. Remember when Leomon told us of the legend? We, the Digidestined, are supposed to rid the Digital World of evil, we are supposed to save it. I think what Yamato is trying to say is: what happens when we save the world from evil? Then where do we go?"
There were murmurs of agreement from all around the ring, as if they all had been thinking the exact same thing. "And when we're done," Mimi looked at Palmon, who was by her side. "What happens to you? Where do you go?"
Gabumon spoke. "I don't think that you can ever rid the world of total evil. And for your question," he pointed at Mimi. "All of us are your companions. We are your partners. And, most importantly, we are your friends. No matter where you go, or what you do, or who you are with, we will always be there, to protect you when you need protection, to reason with you when you need reasoning, to comfort you when you need comforting, and to listen when you need to be listened to."
"You mean that?" Yamato asked, his eyes never wavering from the fire. "Will you always be with us?"
"Yes, Yamato." Answered Biyomon. "We will."
"That night, we all went to sleep, thinking nothing was amiss. And when we woke up, we were back home, and the Digimon were gone." Koushiro finished.
"Hi, everyone!" Mimi bubbled from behind them. They all turned to see her. She was dressed in a scarlet, sparkly, silk dress, which pooled around her feet like blood. When she saw the gloomy expressions on their faces, however, she stopped. "Did I come at a bad time?" she asked.
Jyou fumbled with his hat. "Oh, no! Itís just that...we were reminiscing about the past, in the Digiworld, that's all."
"Ah, I see..." Mimi grew as somber as the rest of them.
Jyou stood up. "If Gomamon were here now, heíd crack some joke, and weíd all forget what was bothering us."
Taichi pushed in his chair as well. "But Gomamon's NOT here. Neither are Agumon, Biyomon, Palmon, Tentomon, or any of the others!" he looked around at the other four. "So we just have to stop wishing for the past to happen, because it won't!"
"Amazing everyone once again with your social skills, eh Tai?" Yamato said icily from behind the group, using the nickname Taichi had insisted on being called when he was a child.
Taichi turned around to face Yamato. "Oh, no more than yours, Matt."
There was a scrape as Yamato pulled out a chair and sat down. "Fine. I won't call you Tai if you don't call me Matt, deal?" Taichi nodded. "So, how is everyone? What were you guys just talking about?"
"Oh, nothing, Yamato." Jyou went over and got himself another glass of wine. "And we're fine, by the way. You?"
The blond-haired man sat down. "Same old, same old. The Emergency Room hasn't changed much."
"Yamato! Sora! Taichi! Jyou! Koushiro! Mimi!" they all spun around to see the two youngest, Takeru and Hikari.
Taichi stood up and went to his little sister, who was nine months pregnant and looked every day of it. "Why, you're pregnant, Hikari?" He asked. "I can't tell at all! You look like you havenít changed a bit!"
She punched him lightly in the arm. "Liar."
Takeru, meanwhile, had gone over to the rest of the group, and they were chatting idly about how the married couple was faring. "Yeah, my boss can be a real slave driver at times, but the job pays well to support me and Hikari, so I don't mind that much."
The eight of them gradually split up into several groups. Jyou and Koushiro stayed with Mimi, talking about their careers and such. Taichi was still conversing with Hikari about her pregnancy, while Sora and Yamato were listening to Takeru cracking jokes. "So, when's the baby due?" Taichi inquired.
"Oh, any time this week!" Hikari said, excited. "Takeru and I can't wait! We're actually going to be parents, soon!"
Taichi threw a glance at Yamato, Takeru, and Sora. He suddenly dropped his voice to a whisper. "Hikari, I really need to talk to you!"
His little sister looked worried. "Why? What's wrong, Taichi?"
He sat down. "I thought that I was over her, Hikari, I really did! But now, that we all are here..." he looked at Sora again, then back at Hikari. "I now know that I still have feelings for her. I don't know what to do!"
"Well..." Hikari thought for a long time. "I suppose you could just tell her how you feel. What's the worst that could happen?"
Taichi stood up. "You're right. I'm going to go tell her, now!" he resolutely strode over to Sora.
"Good luck, Taichi." Hikari whispered.
"...and then I said, that's no turkey, that's my boss!" Sora and Yamato both chuckled politely at Takeru's joke.
Taichi walked over to Sora. "Sora, I need to tell you something..." he said, semi-nervously.
At this, Yamato stiffened noticeably. "Yeah, I need to tell you something too."
Sora looked at the two men. "Well, who wants to go first?" When both of them said yes, she thought for a second. "Well, why donít you both say it at the same time then?"
Yamato and Taichi looked at each other, as if trying to predict what the other would say. "Fine with me," said Yamato. "On the count of three, okay?" Taichi nodded. "One, two, three!"
Both of them looked at Sora. "I love you, Sora." The duo said, at exactly the same time.
"What? M...me? Both of you?" Sora's face was now a bright red.
However, her face was nothing compared to the shade of crimson that radiated from Yamato and Taichi's faces. "How dare you?" Yamato hissed. "I love Sora, and no one else can!"
Takeru looked on, horrified, at his brother and brother-in-law. "Taichi? Yamato? Come on, you can settle this without violence...right?"
As soon as she saw what was transpiring, Hikari had come over. She held onto her husbandís arm. "Takeru, what's happening? This is terrible! They're family! If they fight, it could tear us all apart!"
"I know that, Hikari."
All of them turned, suddenly, as a shout pierced the background noise of the reception. On the other side of the room, a similar confrontation was breaking out...between Jyou and Koushiro! "I love Mimi, and there's nothing that you can do about it!" The shorter Koushiro challenged Jyou.
"Oh really? Is that a threat?" Jyou responded, calmly.
Takeru and Hikari looked at each other. "Hikari, what can we do?" Takeru asked, half-hysterical. "We canít let them fight!"
Hikari shook her head slowly. "I...I don't know, Takeru," she shivered. "I just don't know..."
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