A Digital Day [TK/Hawk]

[Hikari Kamiya]

Kari stretched and yawned as she woke up on the first morning of summer break, the first day in a fairly long while that she'd been able to sleep in for once. Gatomon had come from the Digital World for a little while to visit, which meant she was half curled up beside Kari's pillow, close to the wall. Kari heard movement in the hallway and the sound of her brother's snoring from the next room over, which meant that she clearly wasn't the only one awake by now.

Reaching under her pillow, Kari pulled out her D-Terminal to check whether she had mail or not, and was somewhat surprised when she did. She'd have thought everyone was sleeping still at this point!

"Looks like I've got mail," she commented to no one in particular, though Gatomon clearly couldn't help commenting on it herself.

"You get more mail than I've got grains of kitty litter," Gatomon commented, and Kari couldn't help but laugh. Gatomon sure had a tendency to make some pretty interesting comments, especially along the lines like that. She noted that the mail was from T.K., asking if she had anything planned for the day. Now that she thought about it... She couldn't think of any plans she'd made for the day, which meant that she was free to do anything. Sending a quick email back detailing such, Kari clambered down from her bed and quickly got herself dressed so she'd at least look presentable for the day.

As she was running a brush through her hair and sliding a bobby pin into place in order to keep her bangs from falling into her face, Kari heard her D-Terminal going off again with another email, and her, quick to get to it as ever, automatically went to check it. It was another email back from T.K., asking her if she wanted to.. Spend the day on the beach in the Digital World? She actually kind of liked that idea, because that way there wouldn't be other people to get on their nerves. With the MaloMyotismon attack a year in the past and the Digital and Real Worlds at peace for the time being, it was rather nice to be able to traverse the Digital World without fear of having to accomplish something as one of the DigiDestined.

"What's the plan for today, Kari?" Gatomon asked as Kari began to pack her bag. She thought it would be a good idea to at least pack some snacks... Good thing she always kept a small stash hidden for trips to the Digital World.

"T.K. wants to go to the Digital World and spend some time on the beach," Kari explained with a smile. "I'm pretty sure Patamon will be there, too, so the both of you can have some fun as well." Gatomon smiled back in response, and Kari continued to pack her bag, soon leaving the room to find something to eat for breakfast. It wouldn't do for her to leave on an empty stomach, now would it? She guessed that her brother wouldn't be up yet, which meant she'd probably be gone by the time he got up, too.

"Morning, mom," Kari greeted with a wave as she took one of the buns from the bag sitting on the kitchen table.

"Good morning, Kari, would you like to try one of my bran cakes? They're really good," she offered, but Kari only waved the offer off. Knowing her mom, the recipe would probably be something... Interesting. She'd only heard stories from her brother and Izzy, but she didn't want to have to experience it for herself should it turn out to be as bad as they said it was.

"That's okay, Mom, I'll be fine. I'm going to hang out with T.K. for the day, so I'll probably be gone for quite a while," She said, munching a little more on the bun. Feeling satisfied enough, Kari went back to her room and glanced at Gatomon, who was up on her dresser and grooming her fur with her clawed gloves.

"What are you doing, Gatomon?" Kari queried, tilting her head to the side as she watched Gatomon in the mirror and zipped her bag closed at the same time.

"Just trying out a new look, that's all. Looking good takes a long time, after all," she replied, and Kari smiled.

"Well, we should get going if we're going to meet T.K. at the school, so make sure you look like a ragdoll while we leave the house. Otherwise my mom might ask questions," Kari replied as she picked Gatomon up and held her under the arms, her own hands crossed over Gatomon's stomach.

"Bye Mom, see you later!" Kari said as she ran out of the house in an eager manner and began to make her way towards the school.

[Takeru Takaishi]

Even though it was the first day of summer vacation, TK had found himself actually up rather early. Earlier than he normally was during the break at least. Chances were it was just that his brain had not yet gotten to adjust itself to summer time sleep schedule. Sadly, that meant he had just lost out on a bunch of extra hours of sleep while Patamon was next to him, sleeping completely peacefully. Not wanting to wake his partner just yet, TK decided to be ‘nice’ and just mess around with the D-Terminal of his. Flipping through, he reached the e-mail section. Glancing through, he thought to himself who was available when his mind finally reached Kari’s e-mail. That would be perfect! She was still in town and probably wouldn’t have anything to do. Hmm, but there was also that “Hawk” guy that he had promised to bring to the Digital World…well, he could deal with that. He didn’t seem to be a bad kid, and he had promised him….

”I don’t think Kari would mind me inviting him along. I’ll even make it a surprise for her...” he started, till he remembered that Impmon. Pushing the Digimon out of his mind, however, TK soon began to furiously type on his D-Terminal just as Patamon began to wake up.

”What’cha doing TK?” the flying guinea pig said in between yawns and over all sleepiness. TK could only feel jealous at the lack of concern the Digimon had, but just petted him on the head.

”Well, since it’s summer vacation I’d thought I’d invite Kari and that Hawk guy to the beach in the Digital World. Sending the text….now.” TK responded as he finished the text and pressed “Send.” The announcement seemed to brighten up Patamon’s mood as the Digmon was quick to wake up. Admittedly, it was just a text to make sure she had no plans, but it didn’t take long to get a “No” on that and he could invite her properly. Seeing as there was still some time before they had to get going, TK finally got to actually getting dressed as Patamon floated around the room in a happy daze about a day on the beach.

Seeing as he didn’t have much concern for his fashion, minus making sure he always had his fisherman’s cap on, it didn’t take long before TK was dressed and ready to go….till his stomach grumbled. Looking over at Patamon, it was obvious the Digimon had the same experience.

”Guess we should get something to eat first. Mom’s probably already off to work so I guess we’re on our own today.” TK replied, a bit downhearted as his and Patamon’s only meal was to be a bowl of cold cereal. He’d have to see about convincing his mom to maybe make “breakfast for dinner” so he could hog all the leftovers for breakfast. It was a small trick he learned from Matt, who did the same with Dad. Oh well, they were in a rush anyway so it wasn’t that bad of a deal. Taking care of the dishes, TK grabbed a small bag he had made in case he ever needed to rush to the Digital World (Joe’s crazy preparedness had rubbed off on him some), the Digimon duo were out the door and heading to the school to meet up with Kari and Hawk….before he turned around to grab a pair of swimming trunks. They were going to the beach after all….

[/blockquote]

[hawk]

Hawk was still sawing logs in his bed. It was still summer for a little bit longer, and he would make the best of it by sleeping threw it. Impmon woke up and noticed his sleeping partner. Laughing a bit as he thought of something sneaky. The purple digimon hopped off of Hawk's bed and rummaged threw one of a near by pencil case. Finding a large black marker the trickster digimon giggled. Planning to mess up Hawk's face something fierce. Just as he took the top off the marker Hawk's D-termnial began to vibrate waking the dwarf up. Being to groggy to notice what Impmon was doing he reached for his D-Terminal and flipped it open. Reading it slowly as this early in the day it was hard for him to contemplate things. But once his brain started to work again, a smile appeared across his face. He jumped up and got of his bed, and turned for his digimon partner. Impmon hid the marker behind his back, “Impmon, T.K invited us to the digital world....we no longer have to wait!” Then he gathered his things and began to get ready.

He quickly went down stairs and snarfed down breakfast, bringing up for Impmon afterwards. Much like his partner, the digimon also ate quickly. Both were quite excited for there very first trip to the digital world. Hawk packed a back pack full of things. He had bought Bug Spray because T.K had told him how bad the bugs were in the digital world. So he was hoping that one can would be enough. Impmon packed the marker in as well, just in case he could cause any shenanigans with it. Ready to go the pair raced to the meeting point.

Both of them were thinking of what the digital world would be like. Both of them were probably very far from the truth, but it didn't matter to them. In there excitement a little boy had seen Impmon running. Tugging on his mother's dress and asking. “Mommy, Mommy. I want it, I want it.” Said the little brat, while his mother sighed and walked to Hawk. Both of them freezing in place as they knew they blew there cover.

But that Hawk was so sly and so slick. He thought up a lie, and he thought it up quick.

“Well you see my father is a toy maker, and so...he makes toys. This is a new toy, called....well it's so new it doesn't even have a name yet. So I'm testing it out, but...aww look the batteries died again.” Impmon played dead and fell limp to the ground. “The thing about this toy is it goes through batteries really fast. At least ten a day. And as you know batteries are expensive, luckily my Dad's company gives us free batteries or we'd be broke.” The mother decided that she didn't want to lose money because of a toy. So she thanked Hawk and grabbed her boy and ran.

“Well that was close.” Hawk grabbed his Digimon and ran to the school. Impmon deciding to go back to the plush toy impersonation. He was getting quite good at it.

[Hikari Kamiya]

Making her way towards the school felt somehow nostalgic, though it was kind of in an I-don't-want-to sort of way. Of course, it was ironic that despite the fact that they were out on summer break, they had to go to the school in order to enter the Digital World. She did recall that Izzy had figured out a way to open Digi-Ports from other computers, but since they usually entered through the Digi-Port at the school, it was best to do that rather than to open one at their own homes.

Some parents, like Matt and TK's, already knew about the Digital World and all that it entailed, so having them come to see an open Digi-Port and everyone gone wouldn't be much of a surprise, but for something like that at Kari's place would be rather, well, odd. Surely Tai would have found a way to cover for her - he was good at talking his way out of certain situations like that - but she didn't want to have to put her brother up to such a task.

It was rather quiet as Kari and Gatomon both walked around the streets towards the school, the area seemingly deserted. Kari guessed that it was because it was summer break, but for Kari, that was actually a good thing; it meant she could actually converse with Gatomon without looking somewhat strange and as if she were talking to, well, a stuffed animal.

"TK said we were going to go to the beach," Kari said, seeming to have a spring in her step as she walked. "I can't wait to go swimming; what about you, Gatomon?"

"But I don't like the water, and I'd prefer not to get my fur wet if that's possible at all," Gatomon replied in an almost sheepish manner, and Kari couldn't help but laugh slightly at Gatomon's words. She sure did have the mentality of a cat, after all. "But catching some sun on the warm sand of the beach does sound like a lot of fun," she added, and Kari picked up the pace towards the school, almost a little too eager to get going to the Digital World.

Upon arriving, she noticed that TK was already there, clearly waiting for her. She really hoped he hadn't been waiting too long; she noted that Patamon was also with him, and couldn't help but allow a bright smile to cross her face. Sure, she'd seen TK only a couple days ago at school, just before classes ended, but she was always happy to see him. They were pretty close friends, after all.

"Good morning, TK," she greeted, waving slightly while still carrying Gatomon with one arm. "And Patamon, too," she added, nodding with a smile to the small Digimon. She really hoped it wouldn't be gross, rainy weather in the Digital World... She wanted to enjoy her time at the beach, after all.

[Takeru Takaishi]

If it wasn’t for the Digital World, TK would never have bothered visited the school during summer break. Well, okay, he might play some ball in the gym or soccer field, but other than those things he wouldn’t visit it. Theoretically speaking they didn’t have to go to school in order to go to the Digital World. After all, the Digivices could open gates to the Digital World from any computer. However, the portal at the school computer lab was stable and well-used; everyone felt safer using it. Also deals with any trouble with families; his mother probably wouldn’t enjoy him just randomly disappearing from his room while she was home. Sure, she knew of the Digital World (she was a reporter after all; it was her job to be nosy), but she was still protective enough of him to not always want him go.

Today however was just a simple pleasure visit. There was no evil Digimon to fight, not bad guy trying to conquer the world. Just Kari and him at the beach…oh, and that Hawk guy was supposed to come to. Arriving at the school, however, met them with the site of no one there yet. Surprising actually; TK and Patamon had thought they would have been one of the last to show up knowing them.

”Guess we’re here early for once Patamon.”

”Maybe we should actually get up early more often then!”

[/b][/color] Patamon responded, yawning a slight bit. The comment must have been sarcastic; Patamon had gotten a little spoiled with the sleeping in late enough this was tiring for him. TK, holding onto the guy, just rubbed his head a little.

”Hey, just be glad we aren’t going to get yelled at for holding everyone up. Just got to wait for…”

Before he even finished his statement he heard Kari greeting them, waving as she carried along Gatomon. Almost instantly Patamon was awake, flying out of TK’s arms to greet them both…and probably trying to see if Kari brought along any snacks. Food; it was the one thing no Digimon could resist. But really, he was probably just excited to see the two of them again.

”Kari! Gatomon!”

”Good to see you two again. Hope I didn’t wake you two up with my e-mail. Just thought today a good day to go to the Digital World.”
[/size][/blockquote]

[hawk]

With that incident over he got back on track and started to head towards the school. Impmon still laid limp in his arms as they walked. It was surprising that Impmon could keep still, he might have been more excited then Hawk to go the digital world. Luckily Hawk remembered how to get to school, he picked up the pace not wanting to be late.

As he ran he wondered what the other person was going to be like. T.K was the only digidestined he had ever met, so he wondered how different each person was different from the other. Worried that all digidestined were forced to be the exact same...not knowing why he thought that. But the idea of a “Chosen Child” Worried him a little bit. It was a lot of responsibly, something that Hawk usually tried to avoid.

He finally arrived at the school and looked for his new friend Takeru. Spotting the blonde under the super cool hat he wore he ran over to him. “Yo, T.K!” He shouted then finally noticing the girl...she was kinda cute. Which made him wonder if this was all some blind date that Takeru set him up on....but he doubted that were the case. Because there would be no reason to bring Impmon, unless he wanted a bad blind date.

Hawk stood beside T.K and waved to the girl shyly. “Names Hawk.”

Impmon jumped out of his arms and on to the ground. “Miss me Patamon?” The digimon asked in a jerkish tone of voice. Not bothering to introduce himself to Gotomon.

[Hikari Kamiya]

Despite the fact that summer break had just started, Kari was still quite happy to see her old friends. Sure, she'd just seen most of them recently on the last day of school, but it got boring after a while when all a person could do was sit around at home, and while her brother could be entertaining at times with his quick-witted commentary, sometimes, it started to get old and stuffy pretty quickly. Going to the Digital World was somewhat of a regular pastime for most likely all of the Japanese DigiDestined [or at least the DigiDestined group that included Kari and TK], especially when things in the real world got too boring or too dull.

As they approached, Kari let go of Gatomon so she could at least move all on her own along the ground, rather than being carried by Kari. She giggled slightly when Patamon came to greet them enthusiastically, her smile brightening her face a thousandfold. "It's nice to see you too, Patamon," Kari replied with a light giggle, obviously quite happy that they were going to do something, well, together. She'd needed to get out of the house, anyway.

"Not at all, TK; I was up early anyway, apparently sleeping in isn't one of my strong points," she commented with a chuckle. "It's a perfect day to go to the Digital World. I hope it's nice and sunny at the beach~!" She added enthusiastically, seeming rather peppy despite the fact that it was early for a summer morning [or, at least, that would have been what her brother said]. Just then, another voice greeted Kari's ears, and she turned towards the source, seeing another boy coming towards them, greeting TK in a rather, well, friendly manner.

"Another person coming, too? Awesome," Kari replied, her smile brightening even more. "The more people the better. Of course, six is definitely a crowd." She glanced briefly at the newcomer, noting that he also had a Digimon with him... An Impmon? She remembered seeing an Impmon before... As the boy shyly introduced himself as Hawk, Kari couldn't help but manage a soft, friendly smile. "Nice to meet you, Hawk. I'm Hikari, but you can just call me Kari." Apparently, in watching the way Impmon greeted only Patamon, there was a clear difference in the attitude of DigiDestined versus Digimon Partner.

"Nice to meet you too, Impmon," Gatomon replied almost snobbishly, clearly put off by the fact that not even she had been greeted. Her tone was flat and slightly sarcastic, giving her nothing more to do than to waltz back over to Kari and, essentially, sulk. "Cats can hold grudges pretty well, you know," Gatomon muttered to no one in particular. Kari simply shook her head, as there really wasn't much they could do other than let the Digimon work it out themselves...

[Takeru Takaishi]

Just as expected, Hikari was bright and happy to see them all. While she had her down times of doubt and such, Takeru could always expect her to eventually return to that bright self. Maybe that was why she was the child of Light? Eh, sounded too corny, but you never knew with the Digital World. Seeing her was, at least, a great way to brighten up his own day whenever things weren’t too bad. The day she almost disappeared into the Dark Ocean still bothered Takeru, although he never brought it up around her in fear of saddening her. After all, Hikari had a tendency to take on all the blame and responsibility of those around her on herself. Sort of like her brother, except Hikari had it to an even worse level.

But today wasn’t a day to worry about Dark Oceans or self-doubts. No, today’s focus was on going to the Digital World to the beach and enjoy the company of this girl….oh, and that Hawk kid if he ever showed up. If he didn’t, eh, he wouldn’t be too down. But if the kid was going to be another DigiDestined he did need to sort of meet the others. It just wouldn’t be that saddening if he wasn’t here.

”Then we might need to hang out with you more. Patamon here won’t get up for anything till about noon.” Takeru joked, messing with his partner who was quick to offer up his own retort on the subject.
”Hey, that’s not fair. I’m not the one who let’s the alarm go off for an hour before waking.”

This kind of joking was normal between them, but the attention was soon being brought upon the arrival of the new DigiDestined. Not surprisingly, Hikari was perfectly fine with another person coming for the ride. And, just as not surprisingly, she was kind in introducing him. However, Takeru couldn’t help but notice that over by the Digimon that only Patamon got a kind of greeting from the Impmon while Gatomon was ignored. Impmon was making a pretty bad enemy by doing that, but Patamon was the one who came to her defense….in his usual oblivious way.

”Hey there Impmon. And this here is Gatomon. You forgot to say hi to her; she doesn’t like it when that happens. She’s a very nice Digimon though so don’t worry.” Patamon send sincerely and without noticing how snobbish Gatomon was sounding, or her mumbling for that matter. Takeru just let out a slight laugh at it before focusing back on his two companions.

”So then, shall we head inside and start our trip to the Digital World? Last one there is a rotten Digitamamon.” Takeru responded as he started to run, Patamon rushing behind him in right of being such a thing. As a trained soccer player he was pretty sure he’d win, but he also knew Hikari had some experience as well. He didn’t know Hawk’s skills, but knowing how to run was a vital skill in the Digital World.

[/blockquote]

[Hikari Kamiya]

[[Due to a lack of posting, Hawk has essentially been ejected from this thread and it will continue as if he was never there.]]

Kari giggled slightly as Patamon and TK teased each other back and forth, with TK bugging Patamon about not getting up early most days... Although, Patamon came up with a good counter that TK was the one who let the alarm go off for an hour before getting up. She couldn't help but chuckle; they were both rather amusing the way they poked fun back at each other, although it was a fairly common occurence between all of the DigiDestined - or, at least, within their own little group.

"Maybe you should just learn to get up early and nap throughout the day, like me," Gatomon commented, stretching her arms upwards as if she were tired. "That way you'll always wake up feeling refreshed. A good nap in the sun is pretty nice, too." Kari smiled at Gatomon. She was such a little kitten sometimes... She wondered if she'd be able to coax Gatomon into a bit of swimming, although it wasn't really a likely idea; Gatomon essentially disliked the water a fair amount, despite the fact that she had to drink it in order to survive anyway. Kari had never understood that. How could you dislike something that you had to deal with when it was a necessity to life, anyway?

”So then, shall we head inside and start our trip to the Digital World? Last one there is a rotten Digitamamon.” It didn't take long for TK to quickly scoop up the lead to the computer lab, essentially leaving Kari and Gatomon in the dust. Kari should have been a little quicker to catch on, but today she wasn't, and was caught a bit off guard by TK's sudden urge to turn things into a race.

"I had to race Tai when I was little, so there's no way I'll be the rotten Digitamamon!" Kari called, the sound of laughter in her voice as she ran to catch up. There was certainly a good chance that she wouldn't end up catching TK, but at least they were having fun even before entering the Digital World. Kari felt very "at peace", much like she had for the past year or so. Ever since the defeat of MaloMyotismon, things had been quiet, with the occasional rogue Digimon causing them trouble, but other than that, things had been... Peaceful. Almost too peaceful. At times, Kari was a bit wary, but today she wasn't going to dwell on that. Today, she was going to do nothing but have fun lounging on the sand, building sand castles, swimming, and getting a nice summer tan.

[Takeru Takaishi]

As the two argued, Takeru could hear Hikari giggling at the two of them. She always enjoyed watching the two of them playing around and teasing each other like this. That giggle was always a sign of things looking better in the world for him. When it stopped, he was worried. In the past, things weren’t ever good when Hikari got depressed. That usually lead to….it. That dark ocean, whatever it was. He was afraid she would go there one day and never return. So as long as that giggle was going on, he was happy. Though admittedly his first thoughts on the moment were just defending his own laziness against Patamon’s when Gatomon interrupted them.

Takeru just gave her a grin when she suggested naps throughout the day like she did. Well, she was a cat Digimon, so of course she could do catnaps. But the two of them were more active than she was; they weren’t going to nap in and out all day. Besides, they had school; such a thing was pretty good at training you to NOT sleep during the middle of the day since you’d end up being punished for it.

”Oh really? Well we’re a little more active than that. We don’t like wasting our day napping in and out, right Patamon?” he said, joining sides with his partner against their common enemy.

”Right TK! We might sleep in a little late, but once we’re up it’s a nonstop party.” he confidently replied. The two of them laughed a bit and, taking advantage of that energy, made a race out the run to the computer run. Hikari was apparently out of it today as she was slow on the uptake. He was tempted to let her have some time to catch up, but decided to just mess with her today. However, the door was stuck a little bit on opening, so it wasn’t as clear cut as he hoped it to be.

Patamon, meanwhile, was busy flapping his wings, keeping up somewhere between Hikari and TK.

”Hurry up you two, or it’ll be dark before we get there,” he replied sing-songly to stir the girls into action. He wanted to get there as fast as possible. The Digital World was at peace for once with MaloMyotismon gone. Takeru was a little worried things were too peaceful, but Patamon convinced him to be laid back for once and just enjoy the time they were going to have on the beach. They already saved the world twice in their lifetimes after all; why be so worried for a third time?

Soon Takeru was in the final, with Hikari most likely right on his heels. Between doors and stairs proving troublesome to him today. Panting, he started down the hall; he wasn’t going to let Hikari win after all.

”Just..a bit…further….”

[/blockquote]

[Hikari Kamiya]

"First one to touch the door is the winner!" Kari called ahead as she tried to catch up, laughing as she did so. If it was a competition TK wanted... It was certainly a competition he was going to get. She was right on his heels as they neared the end of the race, but Kari could see that TK was panting; she herself pulled back her speed a little, allowing herself to lag behind a little. The stairs and all weren't exactly the most fun of things...

They were finally at the top of the last set of stairs, and Kari saw her opening as TK started to slow down. She instantly took a deep breath and made for a sprint, her speed increasting almost drastically. When she was only a few feet away, she dropped in a soccer-style powerslide and slid on her hip towards the door. Once she reached it, she slapped her hand on the door and breathed a sigh of relief.

Standing up, she brushed herself off and opened the door to the computer room. "I learned that one from Davis," Kari replied with a smile across her face as she sauntered into the computer room. Of course she was pleased with herself; she'd managed to win that particular competition. She'd have to make a point to thank Davis later for his inspiration... If she even remembered.

Turning to the computer, Kari held her D-3 up towards the screen. "Digi-Port open!" It didn't take long to travel through the Digi-Port to exactly where they'd wanted to go: the beach. It was relatively sunny today from what she could tell, which just made the day even better.

"Wow, it's so sunny here!" Kari exclaimed, clearly happy that they were going to be spending the day at the beach. Enthusiastically she ran out onto the sand, taking her backpack off and reaching in to pull out her towel. She made a point to lay it carefully on the sand, in case she wanted to suntan on it a bit. Stretching, she looked out across the vast expanse of ocean... The beautiful ocean of the Digital World. It was bright and blue, reminding her of the ocean you could see off of the coast sometimes. Kind of a grey colour...

Wait, what? Grey? Kari shook her head for a second. Since when was the water grey? She looked again. It was a bright blue... Her eyes must be playing tricks on her. That was it; she must've still been groggy from sleep. Imagining things, of course. Probably just the way the sun was glinting off the clear waters, that was all. Or something floating. Perhaps a piece of driftwood... Old driftwood.

"Weird," she muttered, shrugging it off. "Hey, TK... Up for a round with a beach ball?" She queried, pulling out a deflated beach ball from her bag. Whilst waiting for him to reply, she started to blow it up to full size, bouncing it on her fingers like a volleyball to test its bounciness. Once it seemed fine to her, she threw it up in the air and volleyball-served it down towards the water. There was certainly nothing more fun than playing a round of mock beach volleyball with a beach ball...

[Takeru Takaishi]

”Deal, and I’m going to get there first.” Takeru responded as Hikari decided to meet his challenge. He was ahead for most of the run, and he expected Hikari wanted to save one last burst of energy for the last bit of the race. But he was an actual athlete, so he could hold on at this pace for the most part. He slowed down on the stairs, but was generally fine. It was in that last leg of the race, however, that would soon prove who the winner was. He saw Hikari catching up, but he had enough of a lead that he didn’t think it would matter. Soon, however, she was sliding right past him and into the door. That was an…interesting way to win.

Being a good sport though, he had to laugh at it, especially since she apparently learned it from Daisuke. Taking his hat off, he acted like he was going to be giving praise towards Hikari…and Daisuke.

”Well then, I guess I should salute Daisuke for being a worthy opponent, and you as well.” he replied with a grin as he placed his hat back on his head. Patamon flew in after him and sat safely on his head as they approached the computer. Hikari opened up the port, and soon they were off to the Digital World. Lucky for them, it was a good day in the Digital World to relax.

Patamon enthusiastically flew off to play around in the sand as Takeru went to take care of setting up a place to relax. Taking out a towel, he placed it on a ground, a little less careful than Hikari had. After all, he wasn’t planning on suntanning; there was an entire clear, blue ocean to play around in. That alone would get him the tan he needed. Once set up, he turned around to face Hikari when he noticed she was acting a little weird as she stared off into the ocean. Looking over, expecting maybe a Digimon, he didn’t notice anything. That was strange, and troubling. The last time she acted like that….

Soon she was back to herself, however, offering up a game of Volleyball for them to enjoy. Patamon was over in the sand playing around in it, and from what he could hear, muttering about an inability to mold a sandcastle properly. Smiling, he started to run towards Hikari.

”I’m game. Have to make up for loosing that race earlier.” he grinned as he jumped to hit the ball back away from the water and towards Hikari. This was turning out to be a pretty good day for the two of them. Still, glancing over at the ocean, he couldn’t help feel a little worried. Hopefully it was just some piece of driftwood that had caught her eye. If it was, well, that one place again….

[/blockquote]

[Hikari Kamiya]

As the ball was hit back to her, Kari jumped up, as it had flown relatively high in the air, and whacked it hard with the heel of her hand, giving it a good open-palmed smack like a volleyball player. It wouldn't soar nearly as good as a volleyball would, but it would certainly get some air; she'd filled the ball well, after all, and the sound of her palm contacting the rubber could be heard around them.

"You can try making up for the race," Kari teased, dashing down the sand after kicking off her sandals and towards the ball. If she could get closer, she'd be able to knock it over TK's head, meaning he'd have to run to get it and it'd just get closer to the water. She looked up to the bright sun for a moment...

And it was there.

She blinked.

It was gone. Her brief moment of exposure to... What was it, even? A flashback? Yeah, that sounded logical. She'd seen so much here that it still haunted her mind. Her eyes were just playing tricks on her. There was no more access to there... She hadn't seen it in years. Then again, this place was the place where she'd last encountered it, too... Which made sense as to why she'd be having mental flashbacks about it. She'd seen nothing good in that place, at all.

Her brief moment, however, meant she lost her footing on the sand... And tripped forward with a small squeak. Her arms slammed down in front of her face to keep her from getting a faceful of sand, but she still skidded, and could now feel the sand within her garments. Definitely not a comfortable feeling. The look on her face when she looked up was one of annoyance, one of saying, Did I just seriously do that?

"Oops, I'm okay!" she called, waving a hand as she got up. From how things looked, she hoped it looked like she'd only tripped. She didn't want to say anything to TK, because she knew he'd get worried; he always did. He didn't like that place at all... And she didn't want to worry him any. If anything, she could say she'd just been distracted by something... She'd come up with something if he asked about it.

Maybe she was just tired...

[Takeru Takaishi]

As Kari hit the ball back, she also decided to tease him about the race earlier. Sure, he lost the race, but he wasn’t going to lose this game of volleyball. He had the advantage here; taller, stronger…okay she might be more flexible, but those first two would help out a lot more in volleyball. A couple of good spikes and the game would be his. Of course, Kari could be sneaky, and she probably had a plan on how to get rid of those first to advantages. Running through the sand, he was about to hit the ball back towards Kari when he noticed her acting odd all over again. She had stood still for just a second when….

”Kari?!” TK slightly yelled out in surprise when she fell forward onto the sand. In his worry the ball just went right past him, but he didn’t care at all about that. Patamon, still playing in the sand, heard TK yelling out. Looking up, he could see the boy starting to run towards her. As he had missed it all, he was unsure what was going on.

”Hey Gatomon, do you know what’s going on between those two?”

As TK got closer, he saw that Kari had looked more annoyed than worried about something, and her little wave as she got up told him that she must have been fine. She just tripped up, right? That happened to people, didn’t mean anything. Still, her occasional freezing throughout this trip was starting to seriously worry him. He knew full well about what happened the last time such things had occurred, back in the real world. Was being at the beach just bringing up those memories to her, was that just it?

”All right, if you say so Kari, but just try and be more careful with the sand okay?” he said, trying to sound teasing but still showing a slight hint of worry in it. With all the excitement, TK almost forgot about the ball. Turning around, he had to deadpan a bit when he saw that it had floated out into the ocean. Must have rolled right into it when he was distracted by Kari’s fall.

”Don’t worry, I’ll get it.”

With that he headed off right into the water, back turned to Kari. He hated to do that though, afraid something might happen to her. It was doing things like that before that….ah, what was he saying? He was just being paranoid. It was a bright sunny day out here; it would be easy to just get blinded by the sun or something like that. He shouldn’t have been afraid to turn his back on her for one second like this, right?

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