"The Circle of the Digidestined," written by Freedom Fighter Disclaimer: None of the characters, human or Digimon, belong to me, the writer. Author's Warning: The following fanfic features gruesome character death, both of the human and Digimon kind, violence of varying levels, some profane language, and some suggestive situations. Please do not read this fanfic if you're underage or feel that you cannot handle any of said features. This particular episode features an undescriptive bedroom scene. ====== "You're serious about this?" Matt asked. "For the hundredth time Matt, yes!" replied Tai, his best friend. "I intend to attend school in America!" "What's wrong with going to college here in Japan?" Joe asked. "Yeah," added Izzy. "There are plenty of universities here you can attend." "But none of the ones I want!" "So you'd rather go to the United States?" Izzy pressed again. "To a school not as prestigious as a similarly accredited one here?" "Yes! Geese, how many more times do I have to say yes?" "You're free to go wherever you want," Sora said. "But just because you didn't do good enough on your college entrance exams to go to one of your top three choices doesn't mean you have to leave the country." "It's for the best, Sora. Trust me when I say that." "The best for us, right?" Tai sighed. "Well yeah, but..." Sora walked over and clasped her hands over Tai's. "I think it's honorable that you're finally willing to admit that there was nothing between us... but this is a little extreme, isn't it?" "Matt may have claimed your heart four years ago, but I still love you Sora. But to protect our friendship with each other and with Matt is my main concern. I'm afraid that if I stay here any longer, I'll try to get between you two." "We can work it out, Tai." "Yeah," Matt cut in. "I'd rather have you stay in Japan and talk things over. All you're doing is running away from your problems! And that's not good!" "I've already made my decision, Matt. I'm committed to going there already. It's too late to back out of it now." "It's going to be hard to say goodbye to you," Joe said, trying to hold back tears. "Having Mimi move abroad seven years ago was one thing. But seeing you, our fearless leader, leave..." "We're not Digidestined anymore," Tai told Joe. "We're not obligated to stay together in case something happens in the Digiworld. I mean, we've restored peace to the Digiworld and nothing's going to try and destroy it anytime soon. It's time we all go our own separate ways in life." "I concur with you wholeheartedly," Izzy agreed. "Izzy!" Sora snapped, making the resident genius take a step back. "I mean, of course, it would be hard to attend college in the United States. You'll have to meet new people, make new friends. Heck, you even have to learn how to speak English." "I'll manage fine," Tai growled. "Look, can you guys at least act like you're behind me?" The other four Digidestined shot worried glances at each other before Sora finally spoke up. "If you want to go to college there, that's fine by all of us. We don't agree with your decision, but it is your decision after all. And we should respect that." ====== "So, that ees what happened before you left home?" a curious Catherine asked. Now back in present day, Catherine and Tai were sitting at a table at an outdoor café in Paris. She had decided that the best way to find out the root of aggression between Tai and Mimi was to learn everything she could about their past relationship. Tai didn't agree to it at first, but now he seemed to be spilling his heart out. "Maybe I should have listened to them," Tai told Catherine as he pounded the table angrily, making her jump a little. "Then, I wouldn't have screwed up my life! Or Mimi's. Not that she damn cares about it anyway." Catherine gasped. "How could you say such a thing about her?" "'Cause our relationship was a sham! She didn't really love me! She played me for a fool!" ====== "He played me for a fool, Sora! Plain and simple!" At the exact same time, halfway across the world in Osaka, Mimi was letting out her frustration by also lamenting about her failed relationship with Tai. Not that Sora had no prior knowledge of it, but she herself was unsure of the true facts. She very well knew that Tai and Mimi's stories differed greatly, and after all of these years, she still hadn't figured out what parts were true and what parts weren't. "He never loved me! He never thought about what was best for me! It was all him, him, HIM!" "Mimi, we've discussed this. Tai's not that type of person." "How would you know? You were never romantically involved with him! You weren't the one who slept with him!" "Just because I haven't slept with him doesn't mean I don't know Tai inside and out." "You never know a person until you spend every waking moment with him. And, if you don't mind, that's one month, 17 days, 13 hours, and six minutes of my life that I'd rather like back!" ***** Episode Six - Have the Courage to be Sincere with Me! (12.10.02) ***** Elsewhere in the research lab, Kari was relaying to Izzy the details of the Koromon-Tsunomon village incident. "Just as I suspected," Izzy stated after hearing of their findings. "Another incident set up by those terrorists!" "I don't we should go as far as call them terrorists," Kari said, "but I do think that they need to be stopped. "You're right. The voluntary slaughtering of innocent humans and Digimon alike is wrong. We've got to find out who these guys are. If only Mimi would give me a more accurate profile." "Speaking of which, how's Mimi doing?" "Sora took her out for some girl talk. I'm sure they're talking about your brother." "Tai's not a bad person. Mimi knows that. So why does she insist on making this a personal vendetta against him?" "If I knew that Kari, then I'd be a psychiatrist. Not a scientist." "I wonder what Tai feels like right now. I hope he hasn't done anything he'll regret." ====== Tai was unpacking his belongings and setting them up in his dorm room. His roommate hadn't arrived yet... international students were allowed to come to campus a few days earlier than everyone else. Anyway, Tai was so involved in setting up his desk that he didn't hear the door open. "Hiiii!" came the squeal from a familiar female voice. "Mimi!" Tai shouted in surprise, not expecting her to be there. "What are you doing here?" Mimi huffed as she crossed her arms over her chest. "I came here to help you, and this is the thanks I get?" "You mean... you drove all the way out here from the city?" "Of course, silly! Someone needs to make sure that you just don't throw stuff all over the place. Plus, there's no one else for you to depend on to give you a tour of campus." "I appreciate the offer Mimi, but... wait, did you say give ME a tour?" Mimi nodded. "Yep." "How could you? I thought you were a year behind me!" "Of course, silly! I'm going to be a high school senior this year, but I'm already thinking of coming to this college next year. It's just some lucky coincidence that you decided to go here too." "That's great," Tai said sarcastically. He then heard his stomach grumble for food, much to Mimi's dismay. "How 'bout I take you up on the tour offer? Starting with finding a place to eat! Is there anyplace around here open?" "Of course, silly!" "Will you stop saying that? You sound like a broken record!" "Of cour..." Tai shut Mimi up by covering her mouth with his hand before she could finish. ====== "I think it was sweet of her to help," Catherine cooed. "It would've been a lot better if she didn't bring all that pink wallpaper with her," Tai shot back, remembering the scene. "I swear, I had to do everything just to keep her from plastering that on my wall!" ====== "I only suggested plastering pink wallpaper once, yet he screamed his head off at me!" Mimi exclaimed. "Didn't you realize you were probably offending his manhood?" Sora asked. "Pink isn't exactly a guy's color, you know. Unless the guy's a pimp, but that's a totally different story." ====== Mimi remembered visiting Tai several times over the course of the year. On several occasions, she'd drive him into the city and show him the landmarks. Well, as best as they could, given the outlandishly extreme but necessary security precautions posted there. Their time together increased the following year, when Mimi started attending college with Tai. It would be their first official night on the town as undergrads when things began to click between the two former Digidestined... "So Tai, where are we going?" "A night club, where else? It's what everyone does on the weekend." Mimi began to freak out. "I'm not dressed to go dancing!" "You don't need to look like Cinderella to get into a club. This isn't a royal ball, you know." Mimi pouted. "But I want to look nice." "I think you look nice enough already," complimented Tai. "I never would have guessed you had eyes for me," Mimi said, stating what she thought was obvious... though Tai's surprised look proved differently. "I didn't mean it that way, Mimi. It's just... well... you know, you always look nice. But I never paid much attention because... well, you know why." "Only NOW you begin to notice me?" Mimi wasn't exactly pleased. "We've known each other for how long and you've never even imagined what it would be like to be with me?" "Why are you worried about that? If I didn't know better, I'd say that you've been wanting me to notice you." Naturally, Mimi didn't have a response for that. "I'll take that as a yes," Tai deduced. "So, what if I have?" Mimi shot back. Tai sighed. "Look, you wanted me to take you out for your first Saturday night as an official college student as friends. And I intend for it to stay that way." "Fine then. If anyone asks, we're just friends... not a couple." ====== "Too bad that didn't hold up long once we got in the club," Mimi told Sora. "Once we started getting into the music, we totally forgot about our friendship and danced as if we had been a couple for several months already." "From what I remember," Sora recollected before stifling a giggle. "You had said once that you had to give Tai dancing lessons right on the dance floor!" "I couldn't believe that Tai didn't know the first thing about dancing!" ====== "I couldn't believe that Mimi had me dancing!" Tai exclaimed. "It was the worst night of my college life." But Catherine wasn't buying it as she smiled. "You cannot fool me, mon ami." "It's that easy to read me?" Catherine nodded, then smirked. "Oui. I bet you and Mimi got really close that night." Tai blushed as he tried to get the whole 'after dancing' part of the story out of his brain before Catherine could pry his brain for it. Not that it would keep her from doing so... ====== "Yeah, we snuggled that night. But we didn't take the plunge. Not yet, anyway." "It wouldn't have surprised me if you two had done it that night." Mimi gasped. "Sora! How could you believe that we were that passionately in love that soon?" "Well, you hadn't seen each other since the MaloMyotismon incident, so there was some time for both of you to mature. Tai especially." "The whole maturing part only took a week and a half. And then, well..." ====== Thanks to the darkness of night and the covers on Tai's bed, there wasn't much one could see at all. But one could definitely hear what was going on, with the bed frame bouncing, soft moaning from Mimi and some subtle grunting from Tai, and the occasional lip smacking. ====== Catherine cheered with glee. "I bet you're quite the monster in bed!" Tai began to sweat profusely. "I'd rather keep my bedroom habits in the bedroom, thank you. I usually don't talk about stuff like this out in public." "Okay, then maybe we should skip all of the passionate romantic parts. Sigh... and I was so looking forward to them." Tai looked at Catherine oddly. "Whomever said Paris was the City of Love wasn't kidding. Does everyone think nothing but romance here?" "More or less, yes." ====== "Maybe we should move on and focus on how you two broke up... and why you're both still at each other's throats," Sora suggested. "I don't know if wanna remember anymore," Mimi said sadly. "Too many bad memories." Mimi lowered her head and began to stare right into the floor. Sora sighed as she tried to decide if she should press the issue. ====== Somewhere else in the real world, inside a computer room in an unknown building, the five master criminals and their Digimon were gathered in a conference of sorts. They were in the middle of planning their next move, as a map of the Digiworld appeared on a nearby computer screen. At that moment, the leader was in the process of passing out shirts to the others... each one a different color. "Excuse me," the one with the green shirt interrupted, "what's with the shirts?" "It's to keep your identities a secret should you encounter anyone in the Digital World," the leader, who was sliding a white shirt over his head, said. "From this moment on, you shall call each other by the color of your shirt. For example, you would be Green. "But sir," Yellow jumped in, "why do I have to wear the yellow shirt?" "There's nothing wrong with wearing a yellow shirt!" White exclaimed. "Only women wear yellow." "Nonsense! Women wear anything pink, sky blue, scarlet red, or plain black! They do NOT wear yellow!" "Actually," Red cut in, "yellow can be worn by both men and women." "Nobody asked you, dunce bucket!" White shouted, slapping Red upside the head. Blue raised his hand. "What now, Blue?" "Um sir, what about the woman with that Digimon we saw back by the villages?" White smiled. "Finally! One of you had the nerve to ask a good question!" Going over to the keyboard, he punched a few buttons until a picture of Kari appeared on the screen. "This is Kari Kamiya. Brown haired, 36 years of age, female..." "Obviously," Green commented... before being hit in the forehead with a chalkboard eraser. "When I want your comments Green, I'll ask for them! Now... according to this profile, she was one of the twelve Digidestined of Japan 25 years ago. She is the holder of the Crest of Light." Upon hearing that, Red jumped out of his seat. Everyone wondered what was up with him. "Something's got him freaked," Gizamon said of his partner. "I wonder what," Mushroomon added. "Is there something wrong, Red?" White asked. Red nodded. "I know her. We kinda had a relationship a long time ago." "Is that so? Well, then, I should make a note of that for future reference." "But what if my feelings for her resurface?" "We'll worry about that if the situation arises! Now, take your seat, Red!" Red did as he was told, as his Gizamon walked up to him and started glancing at him curiously. Meanwhile, White turned his attention back to his lecture. "That woman wasn't alone there. The four others that were with her... most likely, they're Digidestined as well." "If there's 12 of them and just five of us," Yellow began, "then maybe we should just give up. We're outnumbered here!" "We will do no such thing! We need to see what they are capable of!" "But if all of their Digimon are as strong as this woman's... uh, whatever she had..." "A Gatomon, I believe," Blue said, supplying the missing information. "Right. If all of their Digimon are that strong, then we don't stand a chance. I thought no imbecile would try to attack someone stronger than them?" "That's the thing," White responded. "We don't know how strong they are. That's why we have to find out." White typed on the keyboard again, bringing back the map of the Digiworld onto the screen. "Here's my plan. Each of you will take a quadrant. You'll pick a sector and start causing random havoc. Naturally, the Digidestined will be forced to split into smaller groups to handle all of you at once. Engage them in battle, but if you feel that you are overwhelmed, do not hesitate to pull back! We're measuring their abilities, not screwing ourselves." He started to assign each of the henchmen and their Digimon to a quadrant. "Red and Gizamon, go north. Blue and Betamon, head south. Yellow and Mushroomon, take the east. And Green and Hagurumon, you're left with the west." "What about us?" Gazimon, White's Digimon, asked. "Patience. We'll get our shot at the Digidestined another time." He then turned to face his henchmen. "Do whatever it takes to lure them out. Destroy forests, villages, and any Digimon that stand in your way. Don't show these guys any mercy!" "And what are you going to do?" questioned Red. "Do some more research on these Digidestined, what else? Anything we can learn about them will be an asset to us in our battle against them. Now, go and cause chaos as I have commanded!" Each of the four henchmen and their Digimon nodded. They then broke down into their teams, each going to a different computer terminal. The foursome then pulled out their D-3s and aimed them at the monitors, opening portals to their respective destinations. ====== Ten minutes later, over in Osaka... Rena was back in the lounge, presenting Izzy and TK with details of yet more attacks in the Digiworld. "Will this ever stop?" TK asked. "We'll have to split up to take care of these as quickly as possible," Izzy shouted as he glanced at TK. "Inform Kari and the others, and then you need to join them. Split into two teams. Half of you go to the incident in the north quadrant, the other half to the south." Izzy handed TK the printouts with those location coordinates on them. "What about the ones in the east and the west, sir?" Rena asked. "Sora will come with me. We'll take the east quadrant. I'll contact Tai and Catherine, and tell them to meet Mimi in the west." TK couldn't believe what Izzy had just suggested. "You SURE you want to be sticking Tai and Mimi together?" Izzy nodded. "They need to work out their problems, and the only way they'll do that is if they're face to face." "But how will you get them to go?" Izzy looked at Rena. "Rena, inform Mimi of the situation and give her the Digiport coordinates. But don't tell her that I'm assigning her with Tai." "Yes sir," Rena saluted. She then turned and ran out of the room. "I'll talk to Tai and do the same... not letting him know about him being with Mimi." "I hope you know what you're doing," TK said worriedly. "Me too. Either they'll get the job done... or they'll tear each other to pieces." ====== It didn't take long, but after getting the briefing from Izzy, Tai teleported to the scene of the incident in the west quadrant. Catherine was in tow, just happy to be part of the action for once. "We have arrived, mon ami!" she exclaimed happily. "West Quadrant, Sector 1.02!" "Now we just have to wait for our Digimon to get here, along with whomever Izzy assigned us with," Tai said. They didn't have to wait long, as not too far away another Digiport appeared. Out of it popped Agumon, Floramon, Palmon... and Mimi. Obviously, neither Tai or Mimi were pleased about that. "This is nuts!" Tai shouted angrily. "Why the hell did Izzy have to send you?" "You're just lucky I'm not taking out my anger on you!" Mimi shot back as she clenched her fist. "Izzy's REALLY going to get it this time!" "Could we please not fight?" Catherine asked, getting in between the two of them. "Can't we all just get along?" Agumon cried. "I'll never understand what's up between them," Palmon said to Floramon. "You're lucky you didn't have to hear the argument earlier." "I'm wishing I wasn't here to hear this one," Floramon stated wishfully. Catherine and the Digimon sweatdropped as Tai and Mimi quickly got into a glaring contest, their heads only a few inches apart from each other. Luckily... or unluckily, depending on how you look at it, the sound of the huts in a nearby desert village being destroyed interrupted the duo. "We'd better take care of business first," Tai said, not taking his eyes off of Mimi. "Fine!" Mimi shouted. "Just stay out of my way!" "And you stay out of mine!" "Agumon/Palmon, let's go!" the two yelled in unison before running off to the village. As the two Digimon reluctantly followed their warring human partners, Catherine and Floramon were standing in disbelief. "If this is what break-ups in Japan are like," Catherine began, "then I can certainly rule out dating any Japanese guys in my lifetime." "Catherine, I think we'd better help them out." "Yeah, we'd better. With those two arguing, they may need me just to get the job done." Additional Author's Notes for this Episode: Well, the Tai-Mimi relationship is out of the bag, but you'll have to wait one more episode before we really find out why they broke up in the first place. A little bit more information about the five villains was revealed! Their 'real' names have yet to be discovered, but eventually they'll come about. And what's this about Red having had a 'relationship' with Kari? What's that all about? Stay tuned and see... The next new episode of "The Circle of the Digidestined," won't be until after the holidays, probably around January 6th or something like that. ***** Next Episode - Mastering Time ***** The Digidestined are supposed to be fighting the bad guys, but tension between Tai and Mimi hits an all-time high during their battle with Green and Hagurumon. Can Catherine get their minds focused on the task at hand, or will they fall? Meanwhile, one Digidestined has been left uninformed of the situation thus far... but someone wants that to change.