It was raining in Odaiba, Japan.
It splashed down the apartment windows and made everyone feel
gloomy.
"She always did like rain..."
Taichi "Tai" Kamiya leaned back on his couch, watching the rain pour
mournfully down his windows. He was a cold, bitter, resentful,
middle-aged man who looked more like he was 50 than 36. His chocolate
brown hair was beginning to go gray, and deep wrinkles were forming
on his forehead while bags were appearing below his eyes.
Tai wouldn't have been like this if it weren't for a particular
incident that occurred 20 years ago around Christmas... His best
friend and secret crush Sora Takenouchi had rejected his offer to
escort her to a concert in favor of pursuing a relationship with
Yamato "Matt" Ishida, Tai's bitterest rival. With that fact spoken
from Sora's mouth, Tai's world crumbled to pieces around him. Life
was over as he knew it.
But time heals all wounds, and Tai was now a moderately successful
diplomat. Even though the pay was good, Tai hated the job. It was SO
boring. His Digimon partner Agumon and his son TJ (Tai Junior) didn't
care for it much either. Agumon hated the business suit, and TJ
didn't like being left in Tai's sister's care while Tai was gone on
week-long business trips.
I said earlier that time heals all wounds, and such was the case...
for the most part. The wound was only half-closed. Tai had managed to
pick up the pieces of his shattered life, but he still couldn't
forgive Sora-or Matt, for that matter- for putting him in such a
miserable state to begin with.
"Sora, you little vixen," he cursed under his breath. "It's your
fault I'm like this..."
Even though he thought thoughts like this, when he was looking at
Sora, he just couldn't bring himself to say anything. He still loved
her, even after all these years of rejection and loneliness... Even
after watching Sora give birth to two children that Matt helped
create...
Tai never married. A deposit he made at the Odaiba sperm bank had
been used by an apathetic woman who, just before delivery, had
decided that she didn't want the kid after all. The doctors had
allowed Tai to take custody of young TJ.
"I kept my promise to wait for you," Tai growled, "but do you ever
stop to think about it?"
Sora always seemed to be too wrapped up in herself nowadays to pay
attention to how much she had hurt him. She was always smiling and
happy, always talking about this and that.
"If I could just make her realize how much I care for her, and how
much she's hurt me," Tai muttered. "Maybe I could change
things..."
Suddenly, the light bulb went on in Tai's head. "I know!" he said,
getting up and running to his computer. He opened a text file and
started typing madly.
"Dad, whatcha doin'?" TJ asked as he came in for breakfast.
"Changing my future, son," Tai answered, not even looking up from the
screen. "Changing... my future."
It was still raining a few hours later when Takeru "TK" Takaishi
heard a knock at his door. TK was a renowned novelist who had written
several popular novels about the Digidestined's adventures in the
Digital World. TK shared Tai's sentiments about Sora; he believed
that Sora had made a horrible mistake by choosing Matt, even though
Matt was his own brother.
"I'm coming," TK said as he got off the couch and sauntered over to
the door. When he opened it, he was certainly suprised.
Tai stood there in his raincoat, his hair dripping wet from the rain.
He clutched a large wad of paper in his left hand. It was in a
plastic bag to protect it from the rain.
"Hey, TK," Tai said. "Mind if I come in for a second?"
"...Not at all, Tai," TK said, allowing the soggy man to enter his
apartment. Tai took his shoes off, put his coat on the coat rack, and
toweled his hair off. "Now then," TK said. "What's up, Tai? I haven't
heard from you in a while."
"You write stories pretty well, don't you?" Tai asked.
"Well, I'm just a renowned fantasy writer, but yes," TK said,
chuckling a bit.
"Here," Tai said, shoving the papers at TK. "I wrote a plot for a
story. Could you help me make it into a book?"
"Hmm," TK said as he removed the paper from the plastic and read the
title...
"Hmm," TK said. "...Catchy
title."
"So, will you help me?" Tai asked.
"Hold on, Tai," TK said. "Let me read the rest of it. This could take
a while, so why don't you head home? I'll call you when I'm finished
with it."
It was after dinner when the phone rang at Tai's apartment. "Hello?"
Tai asked as he picked up the phone.
"Tai, it's TK. I just finished your plot. This is really good! How
did you come up with such... REAL characters?"
"Don't writers write what they know?" Tai asked.
"...Ah, I see..." TK said. "Well, I will help you make this into a
book. Of course, YOUR name's going on the cover. Some of this stuff
could be quite hurtful."
"It's kind of meant to be," Tai said darkly.
"I think I see what you're getting at," TK sighed. "Well, come on
over tomorrow and we can start writing the first draft."
"OK," Tai said. "See you later, TK."
About a year later...
"OK, have fun at Svetlana's birthday party, kids!" Sora Ishida said
as she waved goodbye to her two children as they ran down the street.
"Hmm... Those two are so spunky. They kind of remind me of Tai and
myself at that age... I wonder how Tai's doing these days? I haven't
heard from him since I married."
It was time to run errands. Sora and Biyomon got into the car and
drove to the grocery store. At the store, Sora was passing one of
those racks of books that there are just before you reach the
checkout counter, and something caught her eye.
"'The Tragedy of the Courageous Warrior as told to Takeru Takaishi by
Taichi Kamiya.' Wow! Tai wrote a book!" She grabbed a copy and put it
in with the rest of her groceries.
When Sora got home, she found Matt and Gabumon in front of the TV,
like they always were when Matt wasn't off at work. "Hi, Matt," Sora
said, happily kissing him on the cheek.
"Yeah, hi," Matt said, shrugging and turning the volume up on the
TV.
"Hey, I found something really neat at the grocery store," Sora said,
putting the book in Matt's face. After observing it for about half a
second, he shoved it to the side so he could keep watching his
program.
"So, Tai wrote a book, huh?" Matt said. "Well, I don't blame him for
needing TK's help... He isn't really the imagining type."
"I'm going to start reading it," Sora said. "I'll be in my room,
OK?"
"Sure," Matt grunted, starting to channel surf.
Sora plopped down on her bed and opened to the introduction...
"Awww," Sora chuckled. "Tai's
such a kidder." She started reading the first few chapters, which was
pretty much a middle-ages version of their first trip through the
Digital World.
"Tai's book is really good!" Sora said at the dinner table. Matt
wasn't listening; he was just gulping down his dinner like a ravenous
wolf.
"What's it about, mommy?" little Mari asked.
"Well, it's a story about the Warrior of Courage, Stahn," Sora said.
"He's the best friend of Lovely Princess Rosa. The two go on an
adventure with a lot of other friends, but there is one Friendly
Blond Ogre, Yamana, who travels with the group and pretends to be a
friend, but he's really just scheming to steal Stahn's most important
posession. Stahn has to slay all the evil beasts while protecting
Rosa and outsmarting Yamana."
"How romantic..." Mari sighed, getting a dreamy look in her eyes.
"Slayin' beasts?" Little Colin asked. "COOL!"
"I'm just about to go into part two," Sora said. "I'll let you guys
read it when I'm done."
"OK," Mari said. "Oh, I wish you and daddy were like a knight and a
princess... But daddy seems more like an ogre."
Everyone looked at Matt, who was still busy stuffing his face.
"What?" he asked, spitting food across the table.
Sora sighed and got up to go back to her room. She sat down again and
began to read part two, where Stahn took a backseat and allowed his
successor, Dagrus, to defend the kingdom from the Black Knight
Kenouji while he rested for a while.
Sora read on about how Stahn's feelings for Rosa continued to grow
while Dagrus and his friends defended the kingdom. "Oh, that
Stahn..." Sora sighed happily. "He and Rosa are going to be such a
nice couple..."
As soon as Sora turned the page, all the joy that had been in the
story suddenly was ripped away by the next few paragraphs...
"Ohh..." Sora sniffled. "That's
so sad... Why'd she go and do it? Why? Stahn's the one who's right
for her, not that ugly troll! Oh, Rosa, you little idiot!"
Matt had been listening in on Sora. Sora always read out loud when
she was alone, and Matt could hear exactly what she was reading. He
knew what all that stuff was supposed to mean, and it made him
angry.
"Sora," Matt boomed as he barged in on her. "I don't want you reading
that trash anymore."
"Trash?!" Sora asked. "No! Tai's written a wonderful book! His
characters are so real... so alive..."
"He's making a fool out of me," Matt said, grabbing for the book.
"Give it here!"
"No!" Sora said, protecting the book from Matt's grabs and running
out of the room. She ran out of the house and down to the public
library, where she could finish the rest of the novel in private.
"Now, where were we?" Sora asked herself as she sat down in an
obscure area of the library and pulled out the book. "Hmm... I wonder
why got Matt so upset about this?"
Sora continued to read about how much it hurt Stahn to see Yamana and
Rosa together, with his ogre arm over her shoulder. As she read on,
Sora could tell that tears were starting to dribble down her own
face.
Finally, she reached the epilogue...
"Oh..." Sora sobbed. "No, that's
not how this book should have ended... (sniffle) They were so MADE
for each other... Why did she fall for that dumb old ogre in the
first place?! Hey, wait... What did it mean by 'Rosa Ishida?'"
Sora turned the page and found a paragraph marked 'AUTHOR'S
NOTE.'
"Truths?..." Sora sniffled. She
read over the parts that were unhappy and miserable and started to
notice things she hadn't before. "This must be the Christmas concert,
this 'Feast of the Golden Moon,' and this scene must be very
familiar..."
After reading those parts over about ten times, the light finally
went on in Sora's head. "Oh, no! This is a story about Tai and
myself! Oh, I had no idea how much this had hurt him... And he loves
me so much... I never knew..."
Sora tucked the book inside her coat and walked out into the now
rainy weather. Even though she hadn't talked with Tai in years, she
knew where he lived because Mari and Colin and TJ were friends and
played at each other's houses on occasion.
The rain was pouring as Sora walked up the steps and knocked on Tai's
door.
The door opened, and Tai stood there, looking at Sora with both love
and anger. "Can I help you?" he asked without emotion.
"I, um, I just read your book," Sora said, pulling out her copy.
"It's, uh, really good."
The two just stood there, looking at each other for about another
minute. Then Sora ran up and put her arms around Tai and start
sobbing. "I'm so sorry, Tai!" she wailed. "I didn't know! I didn't
know!"
"I had to get you to understand my plight somehow," Tai said. "You
never really seemed to notice it. I thought that maybe a book would
catch your attention."
"You're right..." Sora sniffled. "I figured it all out. You're the
knight, I'm the princess, and Matt's the ogre, right?... Oh,
Tai!"
Sora buried her face in Tai's chest and kept bawling. Tai led her
inside the house and let her bawl herself out on his couch. Finally,
she stopped crying and just looked up at him. "Why didn't you ever
say anything?" Sora asked.
"It wasn't my place," Tai sighed. "You were so happy and didn't seem
to care what happened to me."
"Of course I care!" Sora said hotly, elbowing Tai in the shoulder.
"You're my best friend, for cryin' out loud!"
"When you married Matt, I knew that I had lost," Tai sighed. "So I
just left you to your happy life and went away so you'd never take
notice of me again."
"All this because..." Sora started to asked.
"Yes, Sora," Tai said. "I still do love you..."
"Oh, Tai..." Sora said, putting her head on his chest. "I'm so
sorry... I love you too..."
"And what about Matt?" Tai asked.
"We've been drifting apart over the years," Sora sighed. "He showed a
lot more interest in me before we were married... It's kind of like a
kid who wants a toy and gets bored with it a short while after he
owns it."
"So what're you going to do?" Tai asked, stroking Sora's
caramel-brown hair.
"...Books can change the way people think," Sora said. "Now that I've
read yours, I see where I went wrong... I'm so sorry, Tai... Could
you ever forgive me?"
"Already have," Tai said. "You look sad enough to make a demon
flinch."
"I'll talk to Matt," Sora said. "When all this is settled, we can...
start over..."
"Yeah..." Tai sighed.
Agumon and TJ were watching from another room. "Finally, they're
letting it all out," Agumon sighed.
"Am I gonna get a mommy finally?" TJ asked.
"Looks like it," Agumon said.
Sora and Tai sat there on the couch for a long time, watching the
fire that Tai had built in the fireplace before she had arrived.
"Tai?" Sora finally said.
"Yes, Sora?" Tai asked.
"Would you like to take me to a concert?" Sora asked.
Tai beamed. "I'd love to," Tai said.
The two leaned forward and met in a passionate kiss that lasted for a
long, long time.