#taichi yagami was always a good character

[tobiasdrake]

YES! Digimon Adventure 02, my favorite *starts rubbing hand together* i'm going to be so obnoxious.

Anyway since you're done with Adventure could you rank the Chosen Children up to now? I'm really interested in hearing your thoughts.

Let's see. Chosen Children from Most Favorite to Least Favorite, since I don't actually have any I dislike.

1 - Tachikawa Mimi. I'm sure there are no surprises about that one. Mimi's job is to be the relatable everykid. The one who acts the most like what an actual real-life ten-year-old thrown into this situation would act like. She cries, she screams, she wants to go home.

But she still pulls it together and has a lot to contribute all the same.

All of the kids do a great job of being relatable, honestly. But Mimi has the most interesting journey to me,

2 - Kido "Joe" Jou. You know, as a kid, I adored Yamato so much. He would have been my #2. But as an adult, I can't help but appreciate how hard Jou-senpai worked at the mostly thankless job of trying to be responsible for these kids.

He's just as scared and confused and lost as they are, and in the beginning the burden of responsibility weighs so heavily on him that it nearly breaks him. But he rises to the challenge. Even after they decide Taichi is officially team leader, Jou is always looking out for them, always trying to guide them as their senpai nonetheless.

Jou giving his life to save Takeru is my favorite Crest activation of the lot.

3 - Ishida "Matt" Yamato. He's still up there, just not as high as Jou. Yamato is the most damaged of the Chosen Children at the start, though it may not be immediately obvious. He comes into the series with more baggage than anyone. He's already carrying his parents' divorce on his back and emotionally spiraling down a defensive rabbit-hole before we even know his name.

Yamato isn't capable of being a selfish person, and that much is on display left and right. His kneejerk reactions are almost always for the betterment of the group. He can't help himself but to care about everyone else. But he's so messed up that he thinks that's a character flaw. Who he is and who he wants to be are miles apart, and who he wants to be kinda sucks so that's a good thing.

4 - Takenouchi Sora. Sora's carrying some damage on her heart as well. She's similar to Yamato, in that there's a stark disconnect in her character. Not who she is vs. who she wants to be, but rather who she is vs. who she thinks she has to be.

I love how much attention her dynamic with her mom gets in the Vamdemon arc. Sora has the most interesting and dramatic home situation out of any of the kids.

But it does feel like the show starts to de-emphasize her over time, particularly in the Dark Masters arc where Sora routinely has to be protected or saved and rarely gets to be the one who looks cool. Whether she's propping up Takeru, Hikari, or Yamato, Sora often ends up taking a backseat as the series draws closer to its conclusion.

5 - Takaishi "T.K." Takeru. I didn't actually like T.K. as a kid. He just seemed like an annoying little kid. But that's because of the dub downplaying his growth and his strength. Ironically, Takeru is probably the one of the original seven who already has his shit together the most from the start.

He's innocent, naive, and abhors violence, but he's not a helpless baby either. Takeru is resourceful, strong-willed, and contributes as much as anyone to the children's survival. Which is, itself, a key factor in Yamato's arc as much as his own.

6 - Yagami "Kari" Hikari. Hikari suffers tremendously from entering the series so late. She has very limited opportunities to shine, something that 02 will help her with.

She makes good use of what she gets and has a lot of great moments nonetheless. Granted, she's a little bit deus ex machina-ey, but she's literally the Light of the Eight Gods so we can forgive her for that.

7 - Izumi "Izzy" Koushiro. He made my kid cry.

No, I jest. Koushiro's in a rough spot where, as the computer nerd of the group in the Digital World, he has to try and walk a tightrope between "Koushiro OP plz nerf" and "It feels like Koushiro should be doing more."

It's not a tightrope he walks easily. He gets off to an interesting start as he's building out his understanding of the Digital World. But that kinda reaches a head at Etemon's pyramid and after that he just starts leaning on stuff Gennai gives him.

Once the setting is well-established, we don't get to see him do cool things like writing a program that will display a holographic map of Etemon's pyramid in physical space anymore. Gennai gives him all of his tools going forward and he just... sorta becomes the Pokedex.

8 - Yagami Taichi. He yelled at my kid for grieving dead friends.

That's less of a jest. More generally, Taichi has a lot of good points. He's the one who keeps his eye on the ball during the Dark Masters arc and keeps pushing forward while Mimi, Jou, and Yamato are having their respective crises. He's usually the guy you want to lean on in a crisis.

But wow, can Taichi be insufferable at times pre-development. He's reckless, self-centered, occasionally sexist, and utterly insensitive to the thoughts and feelings of others.

Taichi is a wild card. You never really know if you're gonna get "gets everyone caught by Etemon because he thought it'd be funny to cause trouble" Taichi or "pulls this team back together after they split up" Taichi.

Though meeting Homeostasis near the end and hearing the background of their adventure seems to do wonders for Taichi putting all of this to rest and becoming an emotionally stronger leader.

[hikaritakaishi]

Takari Week 2024 - Day 2: Second Year

Days: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]

Title: Invisible [Prologue II] (Second Year)

Characters: Hikari Yagami, Takeru Takaishi, Taichi Yagami, Yamato Ishida.

Summary: It takes time to find our place. And sometimes that place isn't a place, it's someone. And even if the castle falls, we can always put the pieces back together and build it again.

Note: A collection of stories that gives us an insight into Takeru and Hikari's relationship over the years. It was really hard to put all the prompts explicitly in the story, so I tried to metaphorize some of them, in order for them to make sense at the end.

It is composed of two prologues, one for Takeru and one for Hikari, exposing events before 1999. And a final epilogue, summarizing all the feelings exposed in the previous chapters. In the intermediate chapters, we follow all the challenges that a long-term friendship has to face when it becomes a romantic relationship, and how we form solid and permanent bonds with the ones we love the most.

・。。・゜゜・。。・

She waved goodbye to her classmates from the bottom of the street and continued alone to the cluster of buildings where her house was located. It was Friday, finally.

She felt exhausted. Not physically, but emotionally. I mean, physically too, but not as much as emotionally. Her legs felt heavy, but her heart was feeling even heavier. What a suffocating week.

Several trips to the doctor later, and successive hospitalizations over the years made that physical weakness something customary to her. Casual almost. She was breathing heavily. Each step felt like a different kind of torture. And the worst of all, no one could tell her if she is ever going to be perfectly recovered.

Would she ever be healthy?

All of that caused her an almost constant absence at school. Treatments, days she could barely get out of bed, leaving classes earlier because she felt dizzy, tired, exhausted. Was impossible for her to make real friends. She barely knew anyone in her class. It's not like they ignored her, but they simply had no time to create a bond with her. A real connection. It was not something that was allowed to her.

She had no idea what they liked to talk about. What kind of games they liked to play. She felt out of place. Constantly. Most of them had good intentions, they were good kids, and they cared about her. But time. Nothing pays for the time we spend creating something with someone. It is rarely spontaneous. 

Time was cruel. And ironic. Hikari felt that no amount of time would be enough to heal that wound.

“I am home. “

She tried to sound as normal as she could.

“How was school, dear?” Asked her mother as she saw her cross the hallway.

“Great!” She faked a weak smile. “I just have a lot of homework to do.”

“I see. You must catch up the rest of the class. “

“I am trying my best…”

She went to the bedroom she still shared with her older brother and closed the door. She placed her backpack on her desk and sighed. Another day has passed, and no progress has been made. She took three steps back and fell back onto the bed.

Would it ever get better?

・。。・゜゜・。。・

“Hikari! I have a surprise for you!”

Taichi’s voice sounded like an alarm clock to her.

She was at the dinner table finishing some schoolwork when he approached her. He came near her and stood by her side, irradiating confidence.

It was a sweet and warm Sunday morning, and she didn't expect her brother to wake up so early. He had football training on Saturday and usually rested until lunchtime on Sunday.

Today was not the case.

Taichi had woken up early and she had heard him on the phone with someone shortly after waking up. He wasn't exactly… careful with the noise he made or the tone of voice he used, so he ended up waking her up unintentionally.

“Guess who's coming to visit!”

She blinked. No idea, she thought. Taichi had so many friends that it was impossible to predict. School friends, football mates, neighbours… unlike her, he had unbelievable social skills.

“Sora?”  She finally guessed. He loved spending time with Sora, so it sounded like a plausible possibility.

“Oh, no, not Sora. Do you have a second guess?”

“Ah… not really.” She looked back at what she was previously doing.

“Yamato!”

“Oh, I see. “She said unsurprisingly.

 Yamato was a regular visit as well; he often came to play with Taichi or do some homework. Although they had some conflicts in the past, it seems that now they have learned to be best friends and support each other in every possible conceivable way.

“…and… Takeru is coming along!” 

“Really?” She got up from the chair where she was sitting. “Is he really coming?” Her eyes were like stars, bright and clear.

“Now I captured your attention!” Taichi let out a genuine laugh of delight before continuing. “They are coming after lunch. Me and Yamato have some homework to do together, and since Takeru is in Odaiba, we thought that it would be nice for you two to see each other again.”

“I don’t see him since… “

“Yes, I know. I am glad you still remember him. And I can see your enthusiasm!”

She never told anyone about it, but Taichi knew how hard it was for her, not to be able to make friends. He knew how wonderful his sister was, and he knew how cruel life had been to her. She was kind, honest, and caring, she just needed an opportunity. She just needed to be seen for who she really was.

And how could she forget about Takeru?

Everything that happened was still fresh in her memory.

The laughter, all the tears, the fear.

The way they had to act like a team to survive. The way he did not let her down and cared for her, even though he barely knew her at the time. They clicked so naturally. It had never happened to her before. Time did not mean a thing for them. 

But did he remember her, the way she remembers him?

・。。・゜゜・。。・

“So…” She said shyly “Do you want to solve a puzzle or build a castle with some blocks?” 

“Oh, I love building blocks!”

“Great, me too!”

Despite everything that happened, they were still kids. They were still nine-year-olds. Who wanted to play, to laugh together and to forget their problems that seemed bigger than them.

“So, you decided to build a castle!”

Taichi’s voice sounded loudly in the living room. He looked like he had come to get something to drink from the fridge. He was in their parent’s small home office with Yamato doing schoolwork.

“Do you want something to drink as well, or to eat? It will not take us too long to finish but you can have something now if you want.”

They shared a look.

“We can wait for you!” Takeru said.

“Yes, we can wait!” 

Taichi smiled and went inside the room again.

He felt very content. Hikari never brought a friend home to play. And he was overjoyed by that little achievement of hers. It finally seemed like she was enjoying sharing a moment with someone.

Some time had passed, and they had made a lot of progress on that castle. It was almost as tall as them.

“Oh…”

Takeru couldn't say anything more; after touching one of the blocks at the top of the castle and seeing them all fall to the ground, one by one.

He blinked nervously and looked at her in the eyes. He had screwed up, he thought.

“I… am sorry, Hikari.”

She smiled.

He couldn’t believe it, but she just smiled sincerely and started to collect the blocks again.  Wasn’t she even a little upset? After all the effort they put into building that castle.

“It’s ok.” She said after a few seconds. “The base was fragile, you see. If we want to build one that would not tremble so easily, we must focus more on the base next time!”

“Ah… sure.” He answered a little insecure. “But… It was my fault that…”

“Oh no!” She stopped him. “If anything, it was OUR fault. Because we built it together. And we can always re-build it again and again…” She continued collecting the blocks.” Until it’s perfect!”

“You are… right. We can always build it again…”

“That’s the spirit!”

Their brothers, who had heard the blocks castle falling moments before, were near the door listening to the conversation, exchanging the most genuine sights of pride.

They knew that those two kids would grow up to be wonderful adults if they maintained and cultivated that empathetic and caring attitude.

“You know what Yamato… can you please bring Takeru more often?”

“Yes… definitely I will.”

・。。・゜゜・。。・

You can also find it at: Fanfiction.net & Wattpad

[beermanoftana]

endgame

header by @/earlgreymon

for @ashxketchum!! requested some time ago and finally got to finish it (there's a part that just won't write itself!). i know you asked for takari but your takari for me, my mimato for you (even though it's a little unfair since i love mimato, too). i still do hope you like it! i had a lot of fun writing this and it kinda went on and on as i typed once the part finally wrote itself. anyways! enjoy (i hope)!!

endgame | main characters ; yamato ishida, mimi tachikawa, some taichi yagami and sora takenouchi, can't forget gabumon, palmon, agumon, and piyomon | universe ; au / can be placed anywhere after 02 | ships ; yamato x mimi, taichi x sora, takeru x hikari | genre ; fluff, humor | word count ; 2,235 | rating ; 13+ | edited ; three times - forgive me for any mistakes

Yamato was never in the mood for flirting. He knew people fawned over him, he knew his band was worshiped by those his age, and sure, he did “have a feeling” that flirting was going to be part of his life. But he never even tried to flirt back. Well, maybe he did, but it was usually against his will.

The band was not together anymore, having to go their separate ways, but he still loved them. The flirting, however, did not stop. He knew he was a good-looking guy but now that he was living a life that did not involve anything that required him to “go out there and fly”, maybe a life without people flirting with him 24/7 would be nice.

He and Taichi were having a meal in a small diner with Gabumon and Agumon hidden beside them. The digimons were enjoying their food while their partners talked about school.

Although they took up different courses, they still had some minor classes together, which, despite Yamato not admitting it, was a relief from all the other students they swarmed with. He had made some friends, but no one at the same level he had with Taichi. Everyone came from different backgrounds, and if they were to be honest, it was a little overwhelming, especially since it was their first year in university.

“Are you going to Shinichi’s party on Friday?” Taichi asked.

“Who’s Shinichi?” Yamato questioned, not bothering to look up from his food.

“He’s in one of our minor classes,” Taichi responded, “cool guy. But this party is a little too early, don’t you think? It could be a way to make some friends, I guess. Wanna go together?”

“Can we go?” Agumon asked.

“A party’s always fun,” Gabumon said.

Taichi smiled at them and then looked at Yamato. “What do you say?”

Yamato looked over at the smiling Gabumon and Agumon and sighed. “Okay, let’s go.”

“Great!” Taichi exclaimed.

“But you’re driving,” Yamato said.

“Sora will.”

“Sora?”

“Yeah. She wants to go. But she wants to bring her car so that she can leave anytime she wants.” Taichi shrugged. “Her mom’s car. And she said walking would be a pain, Shinichi’s venue is a little far.”

“We can always ask Birdramon to fly us away,” Agumon jested.

Taichi chuckled, Gabumon laughed, and even Yamato gave a smile.

“So what time do we meet her?” Yamato asked.

“Not sure yet. But we’ll ask her, or message if we don’t see each other anytime soon.”

Yamato smirked. “Right. Anytime soon.”

When Friday arrived, Sora, Taichi, and Yamato, along with their digimon partners, were packed inside Sora’s mom’s car. It was just a four-seater after all, it would only be Mrs. Takenouchi, Sora, whenever Mr. Takenouchi would come home, and Piyomon. And of course, Piyomon rode shotgun, while the men were cramped at the back.

“I think we’re here,” Sora said, looking out the window.

“Finally,” Yamato sighed in relief.

“The place is packed and in full swing!” Taichi said.

“Let’s just find a place to park. Doesn’t look like there’s a lot of cars.”

As they drove around, Gabumon pointed at a spot and Sora immediately swirled to get to it. Both Taichi and Yamato looked at each other, surprised by the speed and sudden jerk of the ride.

They got out of the car and Taichi whispered how his soul nearly left his body after that short ride. Yamato rolled his eyes and stated that he was overreacting.

“His place isn’t that big up-close,” Taichi observed. “It’s just the garden.”

“You think there’ll be beer?” Yamato wondered.

“You three find a spot,” Sora ordered. “Somewhere we can see each other.”

“I don’t think there is a place where we can see each other,” Yamato said.

That could be true. The house was packed. So far, the three have not found anyone they knew. But they were just outside and there were not many people around, perhaps they would find more people inside.

“Think you three can go around without being seen?” Taichi asked.

“Of course!” All three digimons grinned.

The group dispersed, the digimons to the right and the Chosen Children straight ahead.

When they reached inside, they looked around for anyone familiar. After a minute of standing by the door, Sora was called by another young lady and she excused herself from the boys.

“We’ll leave at midnight on the dot,” she told them as she walked away.

“Yes, ma’am,” they both murmured.

After some time of just being together, people-watching, someone came up to them. Taichi straightened up while Yamato raised an eyebrow.

“Hey, glad you two can make it!”

“Thanks for the invite, Shinichi,” Taichi said, smiling.

“Yeah, the party’s great,” Yamato said, although he actually did not find the party that great.

“I’m glad you think so, Yamato. I really wanted your approval.” Shinichi grinned. “I heard you were pretty popular back then, I know you are right now. I wanted the approval of someone who knows how to party.”

“I don’t know how to party,” he replied. “I was in a band, but that didn’t mean we were always partying.”

“I see.” Shinichi pursed his lips. “I’m sorry for assuming. But anyway, enjoy the party.” And he waved goodbye as he disappeared into the crowd.

“I think he likes you,” Taichi joked.

Yamato sighed. “I don’t regret the band.”

“I know you don’t, we all do.” Taichi placed his hand on his friend’s shoulder. “But come on, enough of this. Time to have fun before the old lady tells us to go home.” He snickered.

Yamato scoffed. “I’m going to tell her you said that, I’m sure she won’t like it. At all.”

They both laughed.

The two did enjoy the party. They made new acquaintances and even stuck with a group. They invited Sora in and the three were glad they had new people by their side.

At some point, as the group was talking, Sora paused mid-sentence and everyone waited for her to continue.

“So—?”

“Mimi!”

Both Taichi and Yamato immediately looked to where Sora saw Mimi, followed by the rest of the group.

“What’s she doing here?” Sora wondered, her voice filled with worry.

“Why?” One of the members asked. “What’s wrong?”

Sora shook her head and headed straight for the young girl. Taichi and Yamato followed suit.

“Mimi,” Sora called her.

Mimi looked back and grinned. “Sora!” She stepped forward and gave her a hug, which Sora returned. When they let go, Mimi hugged both Taichi and Yamato as well. “I’m sure Palmon has found the others already.”

“Mimi,” Sora said softly. “What are you doing here?”

“I was invited,” she smiled. “They said there was going to be a party here and I thought it might be fun, you know. And Palmon’s with me.”

“Mimi,” Taichi started. “Who invited you?”

“Shinichi Ozawa did,” she replied. “Why? Is something wrong?”

“Well, no…” Sora said, tilting her head a little. “But, this is a college party. Does Shinichi know that you’re not a college student yet?”

Mimi began to think. “I went to your campus one time, and that’s when he invited me.”

“What were you doing on our campus?” Yamato asked.

“I wanted to surprise you all,” she answered, grinning at him. “But then I asked if you three were coming to the party. He said he wasn’t sure but I wanted to take my chances and surprise you here instead! Isn’t this fun?” Though she sounded unsure when she said the last part.

Yamato sighed. “I don’t think asking you to leave is an option, especially since you’ll be alone—even with Palmon.”

“So what do we do?” Taichi asked.

Sora licked her upper lip. “Babysit.”

Mimi’s eyes widened. “No!”

“Mimi, we don’t know these people. We don’t know these people. Please, stick with at least one of us. We’ll make it up to you, we promise. Just please, Mimi?” Sora pouted.

Mimi looked at all three of them but focused on Sora last. After a few seconds, Mimi sighed. “Okay. I don’t want to admit it but I am a little nervous about this.” She frowned. “Especially since I wasn’t even sure if you guys would be here.”

The three older Chosen Children sighed in relief.

Just then, the group that group the three were talking to appeared and asked what was happening.

“This is Mimi,” Sora introduced. “She’s one of our closest friends.”

“Really?” One of the guys asked. “I’ve never seen you around campus. What course are you in?”

“She’s from another university,” Yamato said quickly.

“May I visit you there?” the same guy asked, his voice a little flirty.

Yamato was suddenly feeling very protective of the younger girl. He did not like the thought of an older stranger visiting her. “Not at the moment,” he said.

“Why don’t you let her answer for herself?” the guy snapped.

Mimi smiled. “Yamato’s just always been protective of us. I don’t mind him answering for me…sometimes.” She giggled.

Yamato knew she was lying so he wondered why she was playing along.

The party was in even fuller swing about forty-five minutes later. Although the three knew Mimi was not too happy with the situation, they also saw that she was having a good time.

At the stroke of twelve, Sora ordered everyone out of the house after thanking Shinichi for the invite. As they headed for the car, the four digimons arrived by their side.

“Yamato, would you take the car and bring Mimi home?” Sora asked.

“Sure,” Yamato answered. “But what about you guys?”

Taichi intertwined his and Sora’s fingers and smiled.

“Got it.”

Mimi squealed. “You two have fun!”

“Agumon, Piyomon?” Palmon looked at them.

“We’ll protect them,” Piyomon said. “But we won’t ruin their moment.”

When everything was set, Yamato, Mimi, Gabumon, and Palmon entered the car. They were quiet for a while until Palmon asked Gabumon how Takeru and Hikari were.

“They’re still very shy,” Gabumon replied. “But that’s expected, right, Yamato?”

“Either very shy or very guarded,” he said with a laugh. “Taichi is still all over them.”

“And you’re not?” Mimi asked, smiling.

Yamato smirked. “Takeru can handle himself. Even if this is his first relationship.”

“Everyone knows Takeru and Hikari would be endgame,” Mimi said with a giggle.

“And Taichi and Sora, too,” Gabumon added.

“Yamato, didn’t Sora have a crush on you before? Mimi said that she gave you something special for Christmas one time. What happened?”

“Palmon!” Mimi chided.

Yamato sighed. “I’ve only told Taichi what happened.”

“I’m sorry,” Palmon said, bowing her head. “I was just very curious now that the topic came up.”

“I knew that Taichi had feelings for her, and I couldn’t do that to him, especially since I only ever felt feelings of friendship for Sora.”

“And Sora gradually had feelings for Taichi, too. And he didn’t even have to try too hard despite having strong feelings, correct?” Mimi grinned as Yamato nodded. “It just means they’re meant to be!”

The four talked more about their friend’s love lives. Mimi’s home was a little on the farther side so they had a lot of time to gossip.

Finally, Mimi had a mischievous look on her face. “What about you, Yamato?”

Yamato smirked. “What about you, Mimi?”

“Don’t turn this in my direction. I asked first.”

“If there’s nothing to say then it only makes sense the question goes back to you.”

“Oh please, someone like you is bound to have someone in mind.”

“There’s no one, Mimi. And again, what about you? If I remember correctly, you’ve always been a hopeless romantic.”

“I still am,” she admitted. “But my goal is different now. I want to play Cupid.”

“Don’t force it though.”

“I know the limits. Now c’mon, Yamato. Answer me.”

“There’s no one, Mimi.”

“Do I have to play Cupid?”

“If it’s with you then I don’t mind.” A smirk on his face.

“I’m serious!”

“Oh look, we’re here.”

Mimi looked up and sighed when she saw the building she lived in. “Okay, fine. But you owe me an answer, Ishida.”

“Yeah, yeah.” He rolled his eyes, but a smirk appeared on his face. “It’s time to go, Tachikawa. It’s getting late. Too late.”

“Will you bring the car back to Sora’s?”

“Yes. And then Gabumon and I will walk home.”

Mimi smiled. “Okay. Thanks for the ride.” She turned to the back seat as Palmon went down. “Goodnight, Gabumon.”

Yamato raised an eyebrow.

“I’ll say goodnight to you if you give me an answer.”

“The gas is running,” Yamato said, looking at the meter. “Goodnight, Mimi. Goodnight, Palmon.”

“Goodnight, Yamato,” Palmon said with a wave.

Mimi chuckled. “Okay. Goodnight, Yamato. Goodnight again, Gabumon.”

“Goodnight, Mimi. Goodnight, Palmon,” Gabumon said.

Yamato looked at her and smiled. “G’night.”

Mimi smiled once again and closed the door.

Once Yamato saw that the two had gone inside the building safely, he drove away.

“Yamato,” Gabumon said.

“Yeah?”

“You were flirting with Mimi, weren’t you?”

Yamato choked. “Flirting? Me? I wouldn’t say so.”

“You were.”

“I was not.”

“You even said—.”

“Gabumon,” Yamato said in a warning tone. This only made his digimon laugh. “Gabumon!”

“You won’t admit it, but you were!”

Yamato sighed. “You’re not letting this go, are you?” Gabumon shook his head. “Just don’t mention it to anyone. And no, I was not flirting.”

[seventeenlovesthree]

Ever since I saw this lovely little post floating around, I felt the need to compile one of my favourite suffer plotpoints when it comes to Taichi’s character: His tendency to “shrivel” when he cannot get the band together. Or: Taichi Yagami’s love language is “quality time” and he suffers the most when he (unintentionally or intentionally) isolates himself from the others - and yet, he also has a tendency to fight the need to be with the others for their sake, displaying a sense of selflessness, even if it bothers him.

Let’s break this down, shall we:

Episode 21 is the third time* we see Taichi struggle with his sense of “want” vs. “need” in regards to his “responsibilities” for the whole group, which is also a big indication towards his role as leader of the group later on. (*Prior to this, his arc of understanding the difference between courage and recklessness as well as him overcoming his fears/cowardice to save Sora have been more about his general development, even if these moments help to understand his sense of leadership better. Up to this point, he had a tendency to rush forward head first without much consideration and got called out for that continuously by several other characters - but he had also already burdened himself with the idea of “being the only one with a crest��, so he HAD to be the first to fight and protect everyone there).

He’s happy to be back home, finally back in the real world and at first, that means that there is no need to fight anymore. But on the other hand, he knows that something is off - the others are still “on the other side” and his sense of duty is bugging him greatly. Taichi Yagami, as much as he’d like to, cannot consciously be selfish if he knows others are suffering because of it - and when the stakes are that high. When he receives Koushirou’s cryptic message, he panics first, then is visibly overcome by helplessness - but also weakly tries to justify why staying in the real world could be a good thing after all. Both Koromon and Hikari can tell that he’s pulling himself together, but he cannot get the others out of his head (indicated by his immediate instinct telling him that Yamato may have called him back once the telephone rings). He HAS to go back to the Digital World, he HAS to help the others, he could never leave them on their own devices.

And he’s right with that - because the others, even if they kept looking for him for more than two months, fell apart one by one, with one part of the group already having given up on Taichi, whereas the other part still believed in finding him; Sora was the first who left, still hoping to find Taichi, not believing that he could already have died. Koushirou was next, trying to find Gennai in order to get answers about their whereabouts (and, in my opinion, also because he had no reason to stay in the group, as Taichi and Sora had been the people he had been most attached to up to this point). Jyou and Mimi followed, leaving Yamato and Takeru by themselves. And when Taichi gets back, the group reunites bit by bit - as indicated by both Jyou and Yamato, even if Taichi himself denies that it was really HIS doing. However, this is the moment Taichi gets called the group’s “leader” for the first time - and even if he struggles with that title at first, it’s something he will fall back to for the rest of the season, if not the entire series. Feeling that sense of responsibility (and pressure) as well as learning to deal with the consequences.

And even if 02 already indicates that the kids are slowly but steadily growing up, comfortably learning to do “their own things”, Taichi is ALWAYS portrayed as the one (besides Koushirou) ditching real world obligations more easily to join and help the 02 group. However, it’s Tri where it becomes most apparent that the leader struggles when he has nobody left to “lead” anymore (which is quite an exaggeration in this case, but if you want to interpret it this way, it makes sense why Taichi appeared to be as gloomy as he did). 

Let’s look at the order of priority here: Taichi’s football match is coming up and, obviously, he’s keen to invite his friends to watch him play. It seems to be that he intends to ask Sora first, which would make sense, since she used to be his football club companion - just to witness Yamato doing the exact same thing, asking Sora to come to his concert, which takes place on the same day. And thus - Taichi hesitates and backs off. At this point, it is implied that Sora and Yamato actually aren’t dating (anymore/for the time being), yet Taichi is still hesitant to get in between them. 02 showed us that there are no animosities between these three in ANY capacity, quite the contrary, Taichi had always been supportive of his friends’ relationship. Which would also explain WHY he may feel like he shouldn’t get in the way right now; while it is not outright stated, we may interpret it as him trying to take a step back to give them time for themselves. Whatever may have happened before, they might need the time to reconcile. Taichi isn’t always able to find the right words, may be a bit too blunt or doesn’t appear empathetic due to his rashness - however, he IS observant of his friends.

Which is also shown by the fact that he doesn’t try to push Koushirou into coming to his match either once he hears that it takes place on the same day as his parents’ anniversary. He does seem a bit detached and disappointed, but tries his best to not let it show, roughly explaining that he cannot ask Jyou because of his exams, that he did want to ask Takeru and Hikari, but doesn’t expect them to come either. Koushirou voices his empathy towards them having a hard time spending time together anymore - and Taichi deflects immediately. You can tell by the fact that he averts his gaze here, pretending not to care too much, casually claiming that he “figured you might be free”. However, the fact that he cannot even look Koushirou in the eyes anymore really just shows that he is actually hurt.

... Which is also deducted by Hikari once she tells him that she doesn’t have time either. Once again, Taichi downplays it, but his grumpy tone and the way he looks away again are way too easy to read. Hikari is a highly empathetic person and she ALWAYS knows when something is wrong with Taichi - even or ESPECIALLY when he denies it. 

She’s uncomfortable with the situation, the viewer can tell that she’s THIS close to cancel her own plans in order to put Taichi at ease - but he keeps deflecting.  As Taichi has always been particularly protective of Hikari and probably still has to deal with the aftermath of how his good intentions may almost resulted in her dying as a kid. Thus, it’s not surprising that he is not intending to put that pressure on her here. And it can be argued that the same applied to Koushirou earlier - one could interpret his deflection as him not wanting to dwell on it for Koushirou’s sake, as he probably did not want him to feel guilty.

Shortly before his match starts, the urge to have the others around takes over one last time - Taichi’s just about to ride his bike, but sends a quick text to Sora regardless, asking if she goes to Yamato’s concert or not. She responds within not even 5 seconds, asking why he asks. So he just generally tells her about the time and place of his match - and starts to type “Come if you have time...”, but then, after a short moment of contemplation, decides to delete that last line again.

It is very easy to take that scene as symbol for his inner struggle of not wanting to be alone - yet also not wanting to be a bother to the others either. The fact that his fight with Yamato about whether or not they should fight and cause harm (to lives and environment as well as emotionally) in all iterations is dealing with the exact same thing on a higher scale - and is really telling: Taichi’s entire arc will always be about making (uncomfortable) decisions, whether it’s about killing a friend or in regards to choosing to become a diplomat/ambassador in the end. Which is indicated by the last screenshot from above, showing him talking to Yamato about their career choices, how difficult it is to see everyone else thrive, yet having to accept that everyone is drifting apart.

He had to learn to become more considerate, empathetic and less impulsive throughout Adventure - but once he did, he also learned how difficult it is to find a good balance in order not to hurt others. That’s why Stageplay!Taichi also mourns the loss of his younger self, thinking that he has regressed, because he cannot just move forward anymore. Which is also why we see him isolating himself throughout Tri, not really confiding in anyone, keeping away from the likes of Sora and Koushirou (the ones he wanted to ask about coming to his football match first), suffering from his dysfunctional bond to Yamato - and only choosing to talk about his emotions to Agumon and Meiko, who ALSO struggles with her sense of self and the idea of having to kill her own partner. Stageplay!Agumon tells him that he’s only struggling so much because he has realized that there are way more things he’d like to protect, but that he shouldn’t deal with all of that by himself. That’s what everyone in the stageplay is trying to tell him as well; whether it’s Sora telling him to stop pretending to be "tough”, Hikari telling him that he does not have to "play” a role when he doesn’t want to be or Koushirou telling him that he’s pushing himself and that he thought he could be honest with him.

That’s why everything always feels less disrupted, less dysfunctional when Taichi is on good terms with himself - and the others as well, as he is (mostly figuratively, but also kinda literally) what “keeps the band together”. Just because he is who he is, with all the charisma and his own sense of courage.

Kizuna shows us that he hasn’t really learned that lesson yet - he does know what’s going on in the lives of Jyou, Mimi, Koushirou, Hikari and Daisuke, but has no idea about Takeru and Sora and only meets with Yamato to really (superficially) mope about how hard adulting is. That also explains why he’s seen thriving when he gets to ditch real life responsibilities to fight alongside the others again - even if he chooses to close himself off from them emotionally (as indicated by Hikari stating that their mom tells him to come home more often), he can still shine as a leader to fight for the greater good. He has come to the conclusion that fighting IS in fact necessary - that’s already one step forward in comparison to Tri. But due to the fact that he could not make up his mind yet, rather playing the role of a stagnating adult, he starts to lose the bond to Agumon (at this point in time at least). He may use the fighting as escapism, but doesn’t see his partner as an active part of his life (unlike every other Chosen Child besides Yamato and Sora, who suffer the same fate). Furthermore - the fact that he’s denying himself emotional support time and time again fundamentally contradicts who he really is. 

He IS a people person - obviously he’s not the most extroverted extrovert, as he has always had his more contemplative, quiet moments, overthinking to find the right solution if he cannot trust in his guts (and courage!). But as much as the role of the leader was externally assigned to him once, he genuinely has that sense of responsibility - and likes the company of the people close to him, which is why he cannot (fully) grow without them. Stepping up is hard, you have to know when the right time is to take the lead and when to cut yourself some slack - and we see Taichi being on a good way by the end of Kizuna, having decided on his final thesis and taking a step closer to becoming Digital World Ambassador.

The 02 movie already implies that he has stepped up in that regard, doing PR work alongside Koushirou, which means that he has at least embraced that “you can get the kid out of the Digital World, but never the Digital World out of the kid - who is also learning to become an adult alongside that attitude”.

Hence my hope for the future is that we will actually see him thrive again, without isolating himself (or getting isolated) from his friends, fully embracing who he is and what he wants.

[dutchforstrangers]

Coping with loss - Taiora scene for 'Here With You'

For @taioraweek 2023 Day 5

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]

A/N: First of all, not my best writing at all. Second, a little explanation. I came up with a long multi chapter story that I call 'Here With You'. It's canon-compliant -for all we know- up till the 02's epilogue. From there on it's all speculations. The story is about Taichi who's a widower, mourning over the loss of his wife Rei (Saiba, from V-Tamers) and Sora, who divorced Yamato. The Sora and Yamato being divorced is based on a theory I've written about how the epilogue might staged a possible Sorato divorce. Never published it publicly, only in the Taiora Discord Server. This piece is a possible scene for that fic. Maybe I'll write it in full one day, maybe I don't. We'll see. For now, enjoy this thing.

Day 5: Jealousy | Characters: Sora Takenouchi (POV), Taichi Yagami | Genre: Hurt/comfort I think? | Rating: T | Wordcount: 1.524

Looking at her picture on top of the piano, it came to Sora how many resemblances they had. She had always found Rei quite impressive with her natural energy and sparkly personality, her beauty was unmatched in her eyes. Sora had always felt less compared to her, but looking at her picture, the flickering light of the candle shining a light on Rei’s hair and features, she saw the similarities more clear.

The biggest difference was that Sora was here and Rei was definitely not.

Sora glanced at Taichi, who stood next to her. His face looked calm.

“Do you ever miss her?” She asked him impulsively. It was obvious he did, Sora knew, still she asked him and she immediately regretted it. “Sorry, of course you miss her. I just—”

“No, it’s fine, Sora.” Taichi calmly responded, his eyes still glued to his late wife’s picture. “Yes, I miss her. I really do, just… not every day.”

The way he said it seemed genuine to Sora, yet no matter how many times he would say he was fine, she never believed he was fully honest with himself. She knew he was good at concealing what he felt and to the outside world, it always looked like Taichi was fine. That he was cool about anything and everything. Behind the mask, however, was a pain indescribable.

“I used to, the first year after Rei’s death,” Taichi continued. “That first year was tough and I thought about her each and every day. Until there was one day— it was at the end of the day that I realized I hadn’t thought of her, not even for one second. I cried that night and I felt so… unfaithful? To her, to who she was, to the bond she and I had and even to myself. I punished myself for forgetting about her and I forcefully tried to commemorate Rei every single hour of each and every day. But as you know, it made everything worse instead of better and I slipped into a deep and dark hole.”

Sora nodded. Images of Taichi trying to navigate through life again these past few years after that big of a loss, played in front of her eyes like a movie. Sora could only imagine what he had gone through, her own situation being nothing compared to his.

She admired him for his strength and how he eventually coped with all if it. It was a long way and it hadn’t been easy, still, he managed and came out as an even more caring man and loving father. Sora wondered what exactly had made Taichi be able to move forward again.

Her eyes scanned Taichi for answers. As if he felt her asking for them, he inhaled. A faint smile appeared on his face, his own gaze still consumed by Rei’s picture.

“Then, at some point, I was reminded of one of the last conversations I had with her. Before Rei died, she made me promise a few things and among those promises was one to always choose happiness over mourning. To always choose love over my feelings to be loyal to her even after her death. It took me a while to figure out what exactly she meant –to be exact three years— but once I figured it out it made me see that remembering her and being happy could co-exist. She basically told me to fall in love again when the time was ripe.”

Taichi’s head then turned to Sora and their eyes locked. Sora’s heart stopped for a moment, unsure of what it meant.

“Until now that didn’t happened, not in that deep connection-way at least.” Taichi said. Her heart dropped again and nerves crept up on her, making her shift her gaze away from Taichi and to Rei’s picture again.

In Sora’s eyes, Taichi deserved the world. She wished for him to be happy again in the best way possible. She wished for him to have and feel that kind of love again. But after hearing him say that, she felt the bitter feeling similar to jealousy.

Admittedly, for brief moments after her divorce from Yamato, Sora had let the thought of her and Taichi being each other’s consolation come and go. Except that it would never be the answer. She knew. She thought. Yet she wasn’t completely sure.

“Besides, the most important thing in all of this is that it brought me to where I am now.”

Sora felt the soft touch of his warm hand on her shoulder. She sharply turned her head back to look at Taichi again. “And where is that?” She asked.

“Here.” He stated with the kindest of cheeky smiles. “Standing in front of her picture, candle burning, I’m commemorating her in a healthy way…”

There wasn’t an end to his sentence. Sora held her breath for a second, not sure about what he was going to say, but knowing it would probably be something cheesy.

“And I’m here with you.”

She was right. The softness in his voice made her relax, as if he was telling her everything was still possible. The corners of her mouth made her lips curl into a kind and understanding smile.

“You are,” she eventually replied, any bitter feeling left steadily flowing away.

They stood there for a little while and the beating of Sora’s heart increased its pace while drowning in the depths of Taichi’s dark brown globes. What felt like an hour were mere seconds.

“You know Sor,” Sora tried to think back to the last time he had called her by that nickname, at the same time remarking he was trying to turn the tension, “you should start choosing happiness and love over mourning too!”

A bitter feeling returned.

“But… I’m not mourning?” She asked both annoyed and confused. What was he trying? She took a very small step back.

“Yes you are.” That was a blunt way to put it, Sora thought to herself. “By divorcing Yamato you lost stability and a safe connection, those are things to mourn about just as much. I mean, it’s been what?”

She thought and realized it had already been half a year. “Six months…”

“Six months! I know it was all shitty with Yamato and the children and the divorce and all. You have mourned your losses and fixed what could be fixed. And by doing so, you set yourself aside. I get that, really, but don’t you think now’s the time to pursue your own happiness and luck?”

Sora raised an eyebrow at him. The softness he had shown her just before was replaced by utter… excitement? The assumption this was Taichi’s way of coping with her problems passed Sora’s thoughts and in an odd way it felt like him bragging to her. About his own process, showing her how great he came out of it.

It annoyed her. So “I guess?” was her answer.

Maybe there was a truth in it.

“I think Rei would have said the same. No, actually, to put it in teenager Rei words: Sora, you need to get laid.”

The smug smile on Taichi’s face sent Sora into states she had no idea she could reach anymore.

“E-excuse you?!”

“You’ve heard me.” Taichi said and Sora knew he was still able to get under her skin in so many different ways. “You’re in desperate need of some loving connection to get you over that mourning a bit. Find yourself a man that makes you feel good and sexy and loved or… I don’t know, whatever suits you. Hell, for all I know, it could also be a woman!”

“Taichi…” Sora rolled her eyes.

She wasn’t right most likely, but the way he was talking to Sora made her think he was trying to show her he had decided to cope with his wife’s death by getting it on with more than one woman because Rei had said so. She couldn’t help but to feel he was sort of bragging, right? And so Sora justified it in her head.

Speaking about this though, I know a guy…” He continued once more.

“Taichi, please.”

The bitter feeling kept growing. Though where she had been annoyed at first, it felt more closely to the jealousy she felt earlier.

Jealous of what exactly, she thought. Sora wasn’t particularly jealous of the woman Taichi –maybe, apparently— had been with.

“A colleague of mine went through a divorce too a little less than a year ago and he’s your type! Blonde, likes playing music…

“Taichi!”

No. She was jealous of what Rei had told him when she left, giving him the ability to be open to new love connections.

“What? It’s a perfect match! So I’m going to fix you that date and you can thank me on your bare knees for it after you are ‘satisfied’, heh.”

Sora’s face turned bright red, completely robbed from any form of reaction to Taichi’s ideas. Downright annoyed with him, yet envying him in so many ways all the same.

Perhaps she was just jealous of him not choosing her for that love connection…

[ozoraslegend]

Skip Banner Quotes

I always think a Honkai Star Rail-like game with Digimon characters would be interesting... And then I saw a video of HSR characters react to their banner being skipped. My brain is like "Hey... How about..."

Headcanon time~

Yagami Taichi: "Hey, skipping? Oh, well. I mean, you will roll me later, right? No hard feelings!"

Motomiya Daisuke: "Wait, you skipped me? What, am I not cool enough? Uh, I mean… that’s fine! Really! I’m fine! Totally fine…"

Matsuda Takato: "Oh, you skipped…? That’s okay! I mean, there are so many cool banners out there. I hope you get someone amazing!"

Kanbara Takuya: "Whoa, seriously? Skipped me? Alright, your loss! But don’t come crying when you need someone to blow things up!"

Daimon Masaru: "Skipping me? Ha! That just means I’ll have to prove myself better. Get ready—you will see!"

Kudou Taiki: "You skipped my banner? That’s okay! I know certainly you’ve got your reasons. Just promise me you’ll stay strong, alright?"

Akashi Tagiru: "What? You skipped? No way! Do you have any idea how amazing I am? Next time, you better not miss out!"

Shinkai Haru: "Oh… you skipped my banner? That’s alright. I’m used to being behind. I’ll cheer for you, no matter who you pick."

Amanokawa Hiro: "Skipped me? Hmm… Well, I hope you get someone great. Take care out there, alright? Good luck."

Have a nice day, and comment if you want to correct me. I wonder what will be others' quotes...

[izzyizumi]

mE: Everyone shut up "I'll Turn My Courage Into Wings" {"Yuuki wo Tsubasa ni Shite"} sung by Taichi Yagami is playing

[patamon]

Takari Week 2022: [Day 2 prompt: First Date]

I’m kind of nervous about posting this fic but I still hope everyone enjoys! Warning: This fic gets spicy (but nothing explicit). Also, I've been terrible at editing my work so this feels so...unfinished and I apologize T-T

Also, Tumblr keeps eating this post if I include a picture, so I have to leave it plain and without my usual accompanying visuals -_-

Title: F is for Firsts Character: Hikari Yagami & Takeru Takaishi Pairings: Takari Word Count: 5939 Rating: T+ Summary: The spring of Hikari’s 18th year brought with it an abundance of firsts.

Cross-posted on AO3 Read below the cut 👇🏻

F is for Firsts

The spring of Hikari’s 18th year brought with it an abundance of firsts.

First, it was her first funeral, dressed in her modest black dress, she walked up to her grandmother’s casket as her and Taichi said their final farewell. Then, it was her first trip on a plane alone: a solo flight to Hong Kong to visit her cousins, no friends, no family member, not even Tailmon, just her suitcase and a string of worried reminders from her mother to be safe.

It didn’t end there. It was a string of firsts after that: first cup of coffee, first time riding a rollercoaster, first job at a photography studio. Hikari never thought, after 18 years of living, that there were still so many firsts to experience.

She always considered herself lucky. She had opportunities and first experiences that many people would never have a chance to live through: running through the fields of the newfound Digital World, witnessing her first digiegg hatching, watching her Digimon evolve for the first time. But best of all, she had someone to experience all her firsts with. If she was curious, she would bring it up, and often, he would comply, no questions asked, no explanations necessary.

First hug with someone other than a family member, nestling herself close and smelling the fabric softener his mother used, which was both foreign and familiar at once. It felt comfortable.

First time holding someone’s hand, feeling the satisfaction of having their fingers wound through the gaps between hers. It felt complete.

First kiss, tasting the chocolate ice cream on his lips as she awkwardly thought about where her tongues should be placed. It felt sweet.

Can we…?

Have you ever wondered…?

Do you ever think about how it would feel…?

It felt good to know that she had a scratch pad, a secure base to deposit all her hesitations and insecurities, and even if the first hug was a bit tight, the first hand hold a bit scratchy, the first kiss a bit clumsy, she knew she could make all her mistakes with him, and there would never be any misgivings.

After all, he was her hope. Her Takeru.

The summer of Hikari’s 18th year, the air was thick with sweat and restlessness. Despite the heat wave burying the city underneath its oppressive rule, the school’s soccer team carried on with their match. Hikari watched with beet-red face from the sideline as the players glistened with sweat, speeding from one end of the field to the other while calling out to each other in spirited voices.

The whistle blew, and Hikari jumped in her seat, realizing a second too late that she was once again lost in following the lean, muscular frame of the soccer team captain. Her feet jerked upward, knocking over her glass water bottle, the shatter drawing the attention of everyone around her, including said captain.

She blushed hard, ducking low to quickly investigate the aftermath of her clumsiness, only to find her water bottle now in a hundred smaller pieces at the bottom of the bleacher. She groaned quietly, but when she stood up, she was shocked to find Jun, the captain, standing opposite her with an unopened water bottle in his hand.

“Here,” he offered.

Hikari froze, her eyes skittered from the water bottle to his sharp face, dark and chiseled, and glistening with sweat. Her body was no longer hers, just a victim to the hormone coursing through her vein.

“Thank you,” a cheery voice called out from beside her. She turned and caught a glimpse of purple, then watched Miyako snatch the water bottle from Jun’s hand.

Jun’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion for a moment, before offering a loose grin.

“See you around, Hikari,” he greeted before dashing away.

Once he was gone, Hikari’s entire posture collapsed. Her body woke up to the myriads of sensation prickling under her skin. Miyako phased into her line of sight, standing before her with her hands on her hips, her long purple hair tied up in a perfect bun.

“Holy fuck, Hikari,” Miyako cried out, “You should have seen your face,” then burst into uncontrollable laughter

Flabbergasted, Hikari jumped up, attempting to cover up Miyako’s mouth while shushing madly as Miyako flailed about, laughing and pushing Hikari away. All the while, the crowd and the players on the field gawked, Jun’s amused dark eyes boring holes into Hikari’s consciousness.

“MIyako, shut up,” Hikari hissed, but to no avail.

Finally, she had enough. She grabbed her bag and hat, then pulled Miyako away by her wrist, moving past other spectators in a huff.

“Miyako, that wasn’t cool,” Hikari gritted out once they were far enough from the soccer pitch, “You’ve no idea how badly you’ve embarrassed me”

Miyako sighed, readjusting her glasses before speaking, “Fine, fine, sorry, I lost control back there. But holy fuck Hikari, you didn’t do yourself any favour either”

“What are you talking about?”

“Oh come on, Hikari, it’s so obvious how attracted you are to that soccer guy. I watched you the entire time. You couldn’t stop staring at him the entire game, and when he came up to you, you were like…” Miyako paused, opening her eyes wide and throwing her head back, mimicking the startled expression Hikari must have given when Jun tried offering her the bottle of water. She blushed, horror possessing her every limb.

Did she really look that stupid in front of Jun?

“I was not,” Hikari countered.

“Believe whatever you want, Hikari. But I am telling you, you need to get better at these scenarios, have a little more confidence, throw yourself out there a little more. Learn how to flirt, show him you’re interested in ways that are more mature than a 12-year-old girl crush”

“Miyako!” Hikari cried out in exasperation.

“Hey, I’m only trying to help. Honestly, I am. I mean, look at Mimi, she’s got guys and girls lined up around the street for her. It doesn’t hurt to have a little sex appeal,” she winked at Hikari, which prompted her to roll her eyes.

“I’m fine, thank you,” Hikari responded.

“You’re fine until you need to impress a certain soccer player,” Miyako continued with a giggle, “Between you and me, how about a little harmless girl talk? Tell me, have you ever kissed a boy?”

“Of course”

“Second base?”

Hikari scrunched her face in confusion, “What?”

Miyako rolled her eyes, “That’s a no then. So I’m assuming you’ve never been intimate with anyone?”

Suddenly, Hikari had an almost violent urge to escape the scene. She felt irritated everywhere, her fingers digging deep into the meat of her arms as she looked for a way out of the situation.

“Oh and just so we’re clear, Takeru does not count.”

Her eyes widened, the irritation melted into shock as she thought about Miyako’s declaration.

“Why doesn’t Takeru count?”

Miyako stared back at her in horror, “Wait…does that mean…?”

“No, no, no, no, I promise, nothing happened between us, but, why doesn’t Takeru count?”

Miyako sighed in relief. She then pressed her palm against her forehead, rubbing it in slow circles as she threaded her explanation together slowly.

“He doesn’t count…because…he’s Takeru. I don’t know how to explain it, but it’s just a rule. You two are like best friends and creepy twin angel children, whatever happens between you and Takeru won’t ever be real.”

“Really?”

Miyako beamed, “I guarantee you. Now, back to that hot soccer player dude. I was thinking...Would you be open to a makeover? I can rope Mimi into it. I think that’ll help catch his attention, and maybe she can teach you a thing or two about embracing your sexiness…”

“Is it...is it bad that…I don’t have any experiences?” Hikari asked in response, the sharpness of her question quieting Miyako’s rambling.

Miyako thought about the question for a long while, longer than Hikari had anticipated. Finally, she couldn’t take it anymore. She continued before Miyako could offer her responses.

“My mom...is a little old-fashioned. She always tell me to wait, to save myself for marriage…” Hikari whispered shamefully.

“I think all our parents say that,” Miyako countered with a playful laugh, “My mother did, too. But luckily, I had older siblings, and it was my older sister that told me that’s not how the world works. In fact, maybe that’s not how the world has ever worked, and your parents had to make up and enforce all these rules because they’re your parents and they don’t want you getting hurt and growing up too soon, you know?”

“Have you been intimate with anyone?” Hikari asked quietly, almost too quiet.

Miyako flicked her wrist nonchalantly, “Yeah but…I have a boyfriend, so it’s a little different.”

“Do you think…the others? Like Mimi and Sora?”

“Well, I don’t know for sure but…I think…most certainly, yes. Especially because Mimi and Sora are both with someone at the moment. Also, have you seen Mimi with her boyfriend? They can barely keep their hands off one another.”

“So then, is it bad, Miyako? Is it bad that I’ve never done it?”

“You’re overthinking it, Hikari. It’s not necessarily a good or a bad thing.”

As she spoke, Miyako shifted nervously, moving from one feet to another. Hikari decided to nod in understanding, so they could change the topic and talk about Mimi’s party this weekend. But she didn’t tell Miyako about similar conversations she’s had with her friends, and that it wasn’t the first time she’s asked herself that question and wondered if perhaps she was missing something.

To Hikari, it felt that in this new world of secrets and closed doors, she was once again being left behind.

—

Three days later, Hikari made a decision.

It would be the most daring thing she had ever done, risking more than she cared to admit. But in the end, she decided this pursuit would be worth it, and she knew in her heart that Takeru would understand.

So that night, she found herself facing Takeru’s apartment door, her mouth painfully dry as her heart hammered hard in her chest.

Before she could knock, the door opened, she almost yelled out in shock as Natsuko appeared on the other side.

“Oh, Hikari, sorry, did I startle you?”

Hikari shook her head instinctively, her head swirling with the shame of what she was about to ask her son to do for her. Natsuko, unaware of the turmoil within Hikari, threw her head back over her shoulder and called out in a cheery voice.

“Takeru, Hikari’s here.”

“Coming.”

Hikari froze at his familiar voice, her cheeks reddening as Natsuko sidestepped to leave the apartment.

“Have fun tonight,” she called out before disappearing around the corner.

Hikari almost laughed at the statement, but then Takeru appeared. his smiling face like sunshine peeking through dark clouds. And just like potent medicine, Hikari’s entire body lightened, her muscles loosening as she watched him walk down the corridor towards her.

“Hey,” he greeted her, “Hope you’re hungry, I ordered us some pizza.”

Hikari smiled in response, she stepped into the foyer and closed the door behind her, watching as Takeru disappeared into the kitchen.

This was Takeru, she reminded herself. If Takeru was her first embrace, the first pair of hands she held, her first kiss, then it would be fitting if he could be this first, too.

And besides, he didn’t count. Miyako had affirmed that whatever happened between the two of them won’t ever be real. This is practice, just to understand how it feels, so she can finally say she did it.

She entered the kitchen and was greeted by the enticing aroma of the promised pizza. Takeru had his back turned to her, busy putting ice cubes into two empty glasses.

“I know, I know,” Takeru chirped, “You like extra ice,” he turned around and flashed a smile at her. For the first time since they’ve known each other, the gesture turned her legs to jelly, her stomach churned painfully as she thought again about what she was planning to ask of Takeru.

If this ends badly, she could lose Takeru. She understood this. But still, the memory of their firsts flooded back to her, the most memorable being that time at the pier. They only had enough money for one ice cream cone, and Takeru being Takeru, insisted Hikari had it for herself, but she being who she was, insisted they shared, until they found themselves giggling and passing a chocolate popsicle between the two of them under the setting sun.

Hey Takeru, have you ever kissed anyone?

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to kiss another person?

Could we try it?

Until this day, the taste of chocolate ice cream brought her back to that moment by the pier, where the world evaporated into a haze of bliss, where sweetness invaded her every sense, and it wasn’t just from the chocolate ice cream.

“Hey, are you okay?”

Hikari’s head snapped up, the memory dispersing slowly until she cued into Takeru’s blue eyes before her.

She cleared her throat. Takeru will understand. He always understands.

“Actually, uhh…” her voice trailed off as she eyed the pizza box. Not on a full stomach, Miyako had joked to her last night. Still, she took the advice seriously.

“Are you upset I ordered mushroom topping?” Takeru asked while scratching his head, “I thought maybe we could try something different. There’s a first time for everything, and who knows, maybe we’ll like it.”

Hikari almost choked. But she shook her head and tried again, “Uhh…actually, I’m…not hungry. So maybe we can leave the food until later”

Takeru pursed his lips, but ultimately nodded with an easy smile “Yeah, of course. So, what do you want to do then?”

The anxiety returned. Her heart fluttered while her head spun, she became all too conscious of the way her fingers picked at the hems of her blouse incessantly. And of course, if she noticed, then Takeru definitely noticed as well.

He stepped forward and placed his hand on her forearm. Normally, it would be comforting to Hikari, but today of all day, she picked a sleeveless top to wear to combat the heat, and now, the feel of Takeru’s hand on her bare skin felt too overwhelming.

“How about we sit down?”

Speechless, Hikari nodded. They walked outside the kitchen, Takeru holding onto her hand as they made their way to the sofa in the sitting room.

“So, what’s going on?” Takeru asked once they sat down.

Hikari lifted her head and fixed them upon Takeru’s blue eyes, studying the way it furrowed with concern. How many times has she seen this look? How many times has she heard him speak to her with that voice laced with worry.

They’ve known each other far too long. They’ve known each other far too well. It was then that she knew in her heart, Takeru will understand.

She cleared her throat, “Umm…I…I was just wondering…”

Takeru inched closer, eyes narrowed in concentration as he attempted to pick out her words. She realized then that his hand was still on hers, and they were holding hands as she struggled to form her question. In spite of all the fear and anxiety, the gesture brought to her a brief moment of serenity.

Can we try holding hands? I want to know what it feels like.

…and it felt like they have never let go since.

“Takeru, have you…ever been intimate with anyone?”

If silence had an edge, then Hikari definitely felt it at that moment, cutting into the tense air like a thousand knives. She watched slowly as the colours drained from his already pale face, his pupils shrinking by the chokehold of fear. Hikari remained still as the space between them, waiting patiently before Takeru spoke again.

“Uh...what?”

She wanted badly to laugh at his demeanour, but swallowed it whole and repeated the question.

“Have you ever been intimate with anyone?”

“What do you mean? Like intimate as in…”

“Sex”

He flinched. Even Hikari was shocked by how brazen she was in saying the word. He brought his hand up and rubbed thoughtlessly at the back of his neck.

“Why are you asking me this?” he questioned after a while.

“I just want to know,” Hikari responded.

He bit his lips, then veered away from Hikari. The silence continued to permeate every particle in the room. But still, Hikari sat stone faced, waiting patiently for a response.

“Uhh…this is awkward,” he breathed out at last, the volume barely a decibel above inaudible.

In response, Hikari scooted closer, squeezing Takeru’s hand in-between hers.

“You can be honest with me, Takeru. There’s no judgment between us. I promise.”

Takeru turned back to Hikari, his eyes tearing up as he scrutinized her.

“What do you want me to say, Hikari? Do you want me to say yes or no?”

“I…” Hikari began, then stopped abruptly. She had thought about the possibilities of his responses, and couldn’t land on any concrete theory. She knew he never had a girlfriend, but there were plenty of girls in school throwing themselves at him to no avail, and it wasn’t a secret that Takeru could flirt. Hard. So it wouldn’t surprise Hikari either way, yes or no.

“Well?” Takeru’s pressed. She looked up and saw his lips twisted in a smug smirk. Most people hated it, she found it endearing somehow.

Hikari retaliated by offering her own sly grin, pinching his arm in jest.

“Let me guess,” she began, “You’re one of those boys Taichi warned me about.”

“What boys?”

“The boys that sleep around and around and around,” she raised an index finger and spun it in circles. Takeru shook his head and lowered her arms.

“Who do you think I am? Jun?”

Hikari blushed at the name, a part of her sank in despair as she considered the insinuation.

“Jun?”

“Yeah, the soccer captain, he’s known to break a few hearts, or many.”

No. She clung onto the disbelief, then forced herself back to her quest at hand.

“You still haven’t answered my question,” she pointed out.

Takeru sighed, he sat back against the sofa and held their hands up, studying the way their fingers fit perfectly together.

“No judgment?” he whispered.

“No judgment,” Hikari repeated.

“No, I’ve never been intimate with anyone.”

“Never?”

“Never.”

Her body lightened, breathing became easier as she processed Takeru’s response, realizing that Takeru was like her, that once again, they could be each other’s firsts.

There was something so perfect about that.

“I haven’t either,” she blurted out.

Takeru’s blue eyes snapped back at her, there was a hint of understanding to it now. Perhaps he was remembering all those times they sat together alone, when Hikari would grill him on other corners of his experiences, and ask if perhaps they could try things together, to see how it would feel, just to say they’ve done it.

“Do you…do you ever wonder what it would feel like?” Hikari asked in a shaky voice.

Takeru’s eyes widened. He fixed his posture and cleared his throat, then nodded.

“I mean, yeah, of course. You probably have no idea, Hikari, but boys talk about it a lot, like A LOT, all the jokes, all the questions, it’s kind of hard not to think about it”

Her curiosity flared. She thought back to all the times she would see Takeru in the crowded hallways of their schools, sometimes walking with his school bag in hand, other times leaning back against his locker, but always with one, two, or a gaggle of gawking girls around him. Somehow, it didn’t make sense.

“Have you never really been intimate with anyone?” Hikari pressed.

Takeru blushed, his pale cheeks colouring a deep red as he turned away, “Now you sound like Yamato,” he pouted.

Hikari winced, perhaps she hit a nerve. If she felt wholly insecure by her lack of experience, then Takeru must have felt it, too.

“Sorry, I was just curious. You just seemed so…popular around school.”

Takeru chuckled, “Let’s just say…I wouldn’t want to be one of those boys Taichi warned you about”

It was silent again after that, a pregnant silence, full of expectation and knowing. She could sense that Takeru knew what she would ask next, and it made it easier for her to finally say it.

“Could we try it?”

She held her breath, waiting and watching Takeru, but he remained frustratingly stoic, stewing in secretive silence.

“I’m sorry, I know it’s a lot to ask,” Hikari stammered, then removed her hand from Takeru’s. “I don’t know what got into me, can we pretend this conversation never happened? Please?”

She was anxious again, but for a different reason altogether. For the first time since she concocted the idea, she was genuinely afraid that this could destroy them, and she would lose Takeru forever.

Takeru gulped, with his freed hand, he resumed rubbing the back of his neck thoughtlessly. Then finally, after what felt like forever, he reached for Hikari’s hand again and nodded.

“Okay,” he whispered.

“Okay?”

“Yes, okay. Let’s try it. Together.”

Hikari beamed. The disbelief at her own audacity knocked out all the fear from her. But it wasn’t until they moved to his room, when she sat on the edge of the all too familiar bed when the panic returned.

What was she doing?

This is crazy.

Is she really going through with this?

Is this really happening?

Her breathing quickened, until she was taking in shallow gasps while sweat condensed all over her body. Takeru swooped down, landing beside her on his own bed. Within her line of sight, she could see stacks of notebooks laid on top of one another, the spine crinkled with frequent use. She counted the books in her head, mentally tracing the stroke of each title to dissociate herself from her fear.

“Hey…look at me,” Takeru whispered.

Hikari obliged, staring deep into Takeru’s eyes until she could see her own reflection imprinted in those orbs.

“We don’t have to do this if you don’t want to,” he assured her.

To her own surprise, she shook her head. Her hands moved on their own to grasp onto Takeru’s.

“No, I want to do this.”

“Are you sure?”

She nodded, “I want to know…what it would feel like.”

“Is that it? You just want to know what it would feel like?”

“Umm…” she looked away. Because really, there was another reason, a part of her that wanted to get this first over with.

“Because I think it would be different with different people, it won’t feel the same every time”

Her throat dried up, thinking of what it would feel like with Jun, wondering if she could ever have a chance to try it with Jun. But she was sure of one thing, if she did find herself with Jun, she would want him to know that she knew what she was doing.

She grabbed Takeru’s waist with conviction, turning his body until they faced one another.

This doesn’t count, she chanted in her hand, Takeru doesn’t count. This was practice, a scratchpad, the first pancake in the batch.

“I’m ready,” Hikari declared.

Takeru balked, he looked away from her. But she kept her gaze, watching as his Adam’s apple bobbed with discomfort.

“Hikari…are you…are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure. That’s why I’m here. That’s why I came tonight”

“O…okay,” Takeru breathed out, then he leaned forward, and much to her dismay, she found herself on the receiving end of the second kiss they shared.

This time, it tasted like peppermint and faded cologne. His lips were dried too, his breathing heavy, and beneath the anxiety and uncertainty, Hikari sensed a little something else too. Desperation. Relief.

Maybe he was desperate to get this over with as much as she was. Maybe he was relieved that he could finally say he did it, and not have to feel pathetic around his friends.

But she couldn’t dwell on the curiosity for long, because things moved quickly after that. Hikari remembered undressing, that part she was never nervous about, because if it was anyone beside her family seeing her bare and naked for the first time, she was glad it was Takeru. Takeru was home and comfort and familiarity. In a way, she had already exposed herself in ways far more vulnerable than this to Takeru, so being physically bare felt comparatively easy.

But after that, no matter how much she grasped onto the present, how much she worked to commit the moment to memory, everything smudged together into an incoherent blur. She could recall certain details afterward, like the unsteady rhythm at the start, almost erratic as Takeru laboured to figure it out. She remembered him apologizing a lot, they came as quiet whispers in her ears. She never realized he could sound this abashed, this nervous as he struggled on top of her. But then something clicked, and the rhythm came as if it was second-nature to both of them, and afterward, instead of hushed apologies and jittery groans, she heard a different question repeating at regular intervals.

Does it hurt, Hikari? Am I hurting you?

I don’t want to hurt you.

Yes, it hurt a little at the beginning, but the pain was miniscule compared to all the sensation she was feeling now. For the first time in her life, she understood pleasure and ecstasy. She heard novel sounds bubbling forth from her parched throats, her toes curled inward as her hips buckled around Takeru.

But what surprised her was how it felt, nestling herself within Takeru’s body and running her fingers through his hair, inhaling his scent, feeling the sturdiness of his body, the smoothness of his skin, and tasting him again and again as his lips plowed into her.

It felt comfortable. It felt complete. It felt sweet. It felt…real.

Impossible, she told herself. This shouldn’t count. Things that happened between them weren't real, shouldn’t be real. This was practice for when she found herself with someone she was truly interested in.

But yet, the question haunted her. Why then did this feel so real?

—

They laid in the dark afterward, catching their breath together. She curled her body towards him, and Takeru knew to pull her close, wrapping her up in his hold. It felt so natural, like they were on the same wavelength, moving to the same rhythm.

“So…how was it for you?” Takeru asked timidly once he caught his breath.

Hikari thought about it for a moment before answering, “I’m not sure, because I don’t really have anything to compare it to.”

Takeru chuckled, “Are you saying you want to do it again?”

Hikari laughed with him, but remained quiet. Yes, she was sure she’ll do it again, but most likely with someone else. After all, this was practice. This wasn’t real. They weren’t real.

“I didn’t…I didn’t hurt you did I?” he asked again.

Hikari smiled against his skin, the kindness of his tone enough to melt her heart.

“No, don’t worry, Takeru. That wasn’t an issue at all.”

“Oh…okay good. Because I thought I heard you strain a few times, I was worried…”

Hikari giggled, “Well, you don’t have to. I promise you”

He sighed in relief, before relaxing against his bed. They laid in silence for a while, until Hikari thought she should excuse herself and leave. But there was something so intoxicating about being in this moment, wrapped up in Takeru’s essence, so she stayed, basking in a different type of intimacy, her first experience of this kind.

Another first, just between her and Takeru.

“Hikari?”

“Hmm?”

“Remember that time when we were young, I think we must have been 9 or 10, I can’t even remember. But it was the first time we came back to the Digital World after we left, remember?”

“Yeah”

“We hadn’t seen each other in so long. I remembered…all the older kids got together and was talking amongst themselves, and I was so glad you were there, because then we wouldn’t be left out again by my brother and his friends”

Hikari smiled, remembering the two of them underneath the tree, while Taichi and the others were occupied by some other businesses with Gennai.

“You made fun of my new hat”

“That’s because it was ugly”

“It was not ugly,” Takeru countered.

“Yes, it was”

The sounds of their laughter bounced through the room, then, Takeru spoke again.

“I remember you telling me about the movie you watched the night before. You saw a couple holding hands, like this,” he linked his fingers through hers and raised it until they could both see it, “And then you asked…if I have ever held hands with anyone before.”

Hikari emitted a soft smile. Until this day, she could still recall Takeru’s confused expression in response to her question.

“I said no, you asked if I ever wondered what it would feel like, then you asked if we could try it, and I said yes. Then we held hands, and…it felt so…comfortable and just so…right. I couldn’t explain it, but I just knew that we fit together so well. Do you remember what I asked next?”

Hikari nodded, the sound of Takeru’s boyish voice filtered into her memory. It sounded much higher, squeakier than the one his voice has deepened to today.

Does this mean we’re boyfriend and girlfriend now?

“You were so dumb,” Hikari commented with a chuckle.

“Yeah…yeah I was,” Takeru mumbled half-heartedly, then cleared his throat. Hikari felt his body stiffened against hers, ushering in an uneasiness within herself

“Hikari…can I…can I ask you something?”

She bit her lips, no please don’t go there, Takeru, please

“Sure, what’s up?”

“What are we?”

“Uhh…humans?”

“No, that’s not what I meant, Hikari. I meant…you and I…what are we?”

Hikari squeezed her eyes shut, the alarm bells ringing in her head. This can’t be real. This conversation cannot be real.

“What do you think we are?” she ventured.

“Well, that’s the thing, I don’t know. I only know that there’s no one else in this entire universe that’s more important to me than you, Hikari, and you understand me better than anyone else I have ever met. We hang out, we talk, we laugh together, we cry together, we share so much together. We were each other’s first kiss, first everything…”

Hikari shot up suddenly, untangling herself from Takeru as she grabbed for her clothes.

“Hikari?” he called out timidly. He switched the lamp on, and watched nervously as she began pulling on her clothes.

“We’re friends, Takeru,” she asserted as she hooked her bra on. She kept her head down, working furiously to dress herself.

“Friends?” he repeated.

“Yes, friends,” with her blouse in place, she turned to face Takeru, scooting close and putting her hand on top of his, “Takeru, please, I think you and I both know this wasn’t real. This didn’t count. We were just trying it out, practicing for when we do have a chance to follow through with someone we actually like.”

For a moment, Hikari caught the crack in Takeru’s demeanour, the shadow that flashed as quick as lightning. But much to her relief, Takeru donned on his smile and nodded.

“Yeah, yeah, you’re right. We were just experimenting”

“Yes, and there’s no one else I would have asked to do this with, because there’s no one else I feel more comfortable with. I’m so thankful to have you as a friend, Takeru, I hope you feel the same.”

Takeru nodded, while Hikari forced herself to ignore the way his eyes glistened, or the way his shoulders slouched down in defeat.

“I do,” Takeru assured her, “Sorry, I just wanted to make sure we were on the same page. But I think…maybe I was being dumb again.”

“No, you weren’t. I’m glad you asked, I’m glad…we are on the same page.”

He flashed a small smile, but Hikari could see the tension in it, the emptiness. Takeru smiled with his entire face, his eyes practically lit up with the glow of his smiles. But now, they were faded and dim. Still, she chose to ignore this detail, because there was no way this moment could really be real.

“Walk me out?” Hikari offered, to which Takeru agreed.

Hikari excused herself immediately, citing his mother’s imminent return as the reason. But she couldn’t escape without half the box of pizza in her hand, because as Takeru put it, he wouldn’t know how to explain why they didn’t touch the pizza the entire night.

As she walked down the stairs and out into the night sky, she couldn’t help but embody a new type of swagger, acknowledging the invisible frontier she crossed into a new chapter of her life. She was so much more aware of her body, the physical aspect of her existence. At the very least, she’s done it once, and at least she’ll know what to expect when it happens again.

At the door of Takeru’s building, she turned and looked up towards his balcony. The curtain was drawn open behind shuttered windows. She caught a brief glimpse of Takeru’s blond hair streaking away from the screen, then she was left staring at the darkness of his room.

Her heart quickened, and she laid her hand on her chest.

“Be still, my heart,” she whispered, “Not for Takeru, please, not for Takeru.”

But her heart rebelled.

She continued home, forcing her thoughts on Jun on the soccer pitch, imagining what it would feel like to be with him for the first time. But when the dust settled in the thick of night, as Hikari laid in her bed stewing in dreams and fantasies, the person she imagined in her arms was Takeru. Takeru and his bright smile, Takeru and his hair full of sunshine, Takeru and his warmth.

Takeru, Takeru, Takeru.

“It wasn’t real. It wasn’t real. It wasn’t real,” she chanted to herself in the dark.

But still, the question lingered, the smell and taste of Takeru still all over her, his essence drenching her every pores.

Why then did it feel so real?

—

The summer of Takeru’s 18th year brought with it an abundance of firsts.

First funeral, first job, first meal he cooked on his own, first time learning French, first solo trip overseas.

First time.

First time being together with the girl he dreamt about.

First time realizing his deepest fantasies, the one he was too embarrassed and scared to admit to anyone, even himself.

First time accepting he was truly, madly, deeply in love with his best friend.

First time understanding it was real.

First time having the courage to ask the question he mulled over for years.

Then…

First heartbreak.

And as he now watched her walk away from his building, her scent and taste still all around him, her rejection still piercing the delicate fibers of his heart, he wondered if perhaps, this should have been the first time he stood his ground and finally asked her…

Can we try it, Hikari? Because I want to know what it feels like, I want to know what it’s like living in the hopes that I could be your first…and last.

[bokura-no-digital-world]

Ken Week 2023 - Day 1: Kindness/Grief/Selfishness

Days: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] Title: Kindness (and the lack of it) Pairing: Ken/Hikari Characters: Ken Ichijouji, Wormmon and Hikari Yagami Summary: Ken's relation with his crest, for better and worse.

Cross-posted on AO3 and FFN

Ken looked at the drawing of his crest in his hands. Kindness. It had been a few months since he had to use it to save the Digital World and a couple more since Daisuke and the others defeated the Digimon Kaiser, but he still couldn’t understand why he was given that crest. After all suffering and pain he had made a lot of Digimon and his now fellow Chosen Children go through, he didn’t think he was worthy of such a virtue. “Ken, what are you thinking about?” Wormmon lifted his head beside his partner and looked into his eyes. “That’s a beautiful drawing. Did you draw it yourself?” “No.” He replied quietly without taking his eyes from it. “Hikari did.” There was a palpable pause, during which Ken bit his lower lip and contemplated to speak out what was on his mind with his partner. “She’s good at it, isn’t she?” “Yes, she’s very talented. Wormmon?” “What is it, Ken?” “If I ask you something, will you promise to be honest with me?” “Of course. I thought you weren’t going to ask.” “Wait, you knew I was going to ask you something?” Ken looked at him surprised. “Absolutely. I know you better than you think.” The boy couldn’t help but smile and felt like a lot of weight was taken away from his shoulders. When he thought about it, it didn’t seem so surprising that Wormmon knew it beforehand. It’s a known fact humans and Digimon partners had a strong bond. “What were you going to ask me?” “Do you think I deserve the crest of kindness?” “Definitely. There isn’t anyone else worth of it than you. It’s perfect for you.” “I’m not sure about it.” He shut his eyes hard and winced at the mere thought of hurting other Digimon in the past. “I captured Taichi’s Agumon and turned him evil. I made him fight his friends. I’m not worthy this crest.” “Yes, you are.” Wormmon climbed on his body and stared into his eyes with determination. “They have forgiven you and you made peace with your past a few months ago. You’ve moved on and is trying to be a better person and to make up for what you did.” “That’s true, but it isn’t easy to forget sometimes. It’s hard to look at them knowing it’s all my fault. I don’t deserve their sympathy.” “They all know by now there was someone else behind the Digimon Kaiser. Everything changed and I’m sure it’s just a matter of time until they trust you.” “I hope so.” “I have absolutely no doubt you will all be friends within time, and it’s going to be sooner than you think.” “I wish I could be as optimistic as you are.” “You will get there, I’m sure. But Ken… I never doubted you, not even for a second. I’ve always known this lovingly and sweet boy was hiding somewhere all along and now he’s finally here.” “Wormmon.” Ken couldn’t help but smile kindly and felt his shoulders relax. “I love you, Ken. I know you feel like some things were your fault, but they really weren’t. And if you need someone to hold your hand and help you go through it, I’ll be right here to go through it with you. I didn’t let go back then and I’m not doing it now.” “Wormmon.” “You deserve to be happy. No one should be punished for something they had no idea they were doing for the rest of their lives. They deserve the chance to move on and learn from them, if they truly regret it.” “You’re right.” “So if you need to, you should make peace with your past one more time. Maybe it’ll make you feel better about it.” “I guess so.” He shrugged, unsure. “Why don’t you get some rest? It’s late.” “I’ll try.” Ken turned on his side and stared at the window across his room. “Good night, Wormmon.” “Good night.”

****

“Ken?” Wormmon walked out his bedroom and joined his partner in the balcony. “What are you doing here? It’s too cold.” “Is it? I haven’t realized it.” “Here.” He climbed over the boy and put a warm blanket over his shoulders. “It’s not the ideal, but it should keep you warm a little.” “Thanks, Wormmon.” Ken smiled gently at his Digimon and fixed the blanket over him. “So what are you doing out here?” “I was just thinking about the kids with the seeds. I feel like I have to do something. I can’t help but feel responsible for their situation.” “But it’s not your fault, Ken. They are being used by Oikawa just like you were.” “Another reason why I have to protect them no matter what. Who knows what can happen to do if he gets what he wants?” “We’re not gonna let that happen, I promise. And I’m sure neither will the rest of the Chosen Children. We’re gonna find a way to turn things around.” “I know, but…” Ken stopped talking and looked over his shoulder when something inside his room started making noise. He realized right away his phone was ringing and buzzing over his desk. He quickly grabbed it and sat on his bed. “Hello?” “Hi, Ken.” “Hikari, is everything alright?” “Yes, everything’s fine. I just wanted to check on you. I’ve seen how much you were affect about the children.” “We all did, to be honest.” “That’s true, but you were more than us. Hold on a second.” Hikari did something on her phone. “I think it worked.” “It did.” Takeru’s voice echoed in his bedroom. “Hello, Ken.” “Hi.” “Takeru and I were talking and we’re worried about the kids, so we decided to go talk to Noriko’s parents tomorrow. Maybe it will help.” “That’s right. And we wanted to know if you’d like to come along.” “You want to talk to her parents?” “At this point we need to try everything we can.” Hikari spoke. “I’d rather try and fail than not trying at all and seeing Oikawa and his troupe get away with it without consequences.” “If you don’t want to, it’s fine too.” “Exactly. We understand it’s a tough subject for you.” “No, no. I do.” Ken said firmly. “What time are you planning on going?” “At 9 a.m. It’s not that early, but it’s not late either.” “Great. Count me in.” “Cool.” “Eh.. Ken?” Hikari said unsure and bit her lower lip. “Yeah?” “Are you sure you’re okay with this? I mean, you can count on us if you need. You know that, right?” Takeru couldn’t help but smile. “It’s her way of saying she’s worried about you.” “Thank you. I appreciate it.” “So I’ll see you tomorrow?” “Absolutely. I’ll see you both tomorrow.” “Alright. Have a good night.” “Good night.”

****

Ken was making his way out of college that Friday. He was supposed to meet Hikari, so they could go Christmas shopping together. He was waiting for her when he spotted a woman seemingly being harassed by a few boys men in the sidewalk. “Hey!” He said firmly and loudly when he approached them. “Leave her alone.” “Mind your own business, old man.” “What did you call me?” He grabbed the man’s collar and forced him to look at him. “Chill out, man. We weren’t doing anything bad.” “Do you even hear yourself right now?” He ground his teeth and hissed. “You all were harassing this woman.” “Ken?” Hikari’s voice echoed in his ears and he loosened the man’s collar a little, but still held it. “What’s going on?” “Hikari, it’s not…” “Were you fighting these guys?” “No, no.” He stood up and fixed his black shirt. “I was just warning them. Shall we go?” “Sure.” Hikari pressed her lips together, clearly not believing a word he had said.

Hikari was quiet the whole way to the mall, but Ken knew quite well she was still thinking about what she had witnessed fifteen minutes ago. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened. No, actually, I do. Those boys were harassing that woman and I couldn’t stand still and ignore it.” “I get it, but did you have to beat them?” “I didn’t beat them.” “You were going to, had I not arrived at that moment.” “I’m sorry. I lost my mind, it won’t happen again. I promise.” He placed his hand over hers and squeezed it lightly. “Okay, I believe you.” She smiled kindly at him. “Good, because I don’t like fighting with you.” “I don’t like it either.” They didn’t realize they were staring at each other until the driver behind them honked and Ken turned his attention to the traffic ahead. Hikari couldn’t stop laughing at what had just happened, and it didn’t take him to long to join her.

“Are you sure you’re okay with this?” Hikari asked when they walked into the mall together. “I know you don’t like Christmas shopping that much.” “I like Christmas shopping, I just don’t like spending hours and hours choosing what to buy.” “Well, today is your lucky day then. Your girlfriend doesn’t like it either.” “That should make things easier then.” Ken placed a hand on her hip and touched her right cheek with the other one. “Once we’re done choosing each other’s presents, how about we go to the movies or something?” “That sounds perfect to me.” She looked up at him and wrapped her arms around his waist. “I have a condition though.” “What condition?” “We’re gonna buy hamburgers, fries and milk-shake from a fast food store?” “You want me to ditch my diet?” “We can go jogging a little more over the week to make up for it. Besides, we barely eat junk food.” “You have a good point. Alright, let’s do it.” “Great.” Hikari stood on her toes and kissed him briefly. “We can meet in front of the fountain in about an hour and a half?” “That sounds good to me. Try not to miss me that much.” “I can’t guarantee anything, but I’ll try.” She smiled.

****

Ken started going through some stores, looking for the perfect Christmas presents for Hikari. They haven’t set a price limit, but he decided to spend about 2500 yen on them. He thought it should be enough to buy two or three presents. So first he stopped by at a stationery store and bought her a very beautiful agenda he’s seen. She’d been getting a new one each year since she started college, so she wouldn’t forget her exam dates or assignments dates. He counted the change and had more than enough to buy her two more presents.

Next, he went to a clothing store to see if he could find something Hikari’d like. She loved wearing winter hats during the season and had quite a collection of them, but he still thought another one would be nice. He found a lilac one that would match her pink coat perfectly. He still had quite some money, so then he went to a bookstore and bought two books she’d be eager to read, but haven’t yet.

****

After buying everything he wanted to, he headed to the fountain to wait for her. There was a coffee shop near where he was and the smell of hot black coffee filled his nostrils. It didn’t take long for Hikari to arrive with a couple of bags too, as well as a bag from a fast food and two cups of milk-shake. Ken stood up the moment he saw her. “You bought it already?” “Yeah, I passed by one and thought ‘why not?’ Thank you.” She added when he grabbed the cups of milk-shake from her hands. “I hope I got the one you wanted, by the way.” “You did.” He took a sip of his vanilla and strawberry drink. “I think we should take these bags to our car, so we don’t have to carry them around.” “Oh.” Hikari looked at her hands, feeling a little stupid for not thinking of it beforehand. “I should’ve really waited to buy food. Now they’ll freeze when we go outside.” “Don’t worry.” Ken grabbed the bags she was holding and then handed her his milk-shake. “I’ll take them to the car. I’ll be right back.” “But…” “It’s much warmer here. I don’t want you to risk getting sick.” “Okay, I’ll be here.”

****

Hikari was spreading her Christmas’ presents under Ken’s tree when he walked in. She stood up the following second and smiled widely at him, holding a large package wrapped in a Holiday themed red paper. “Can we exchange gifts now? I’m really curious to know what you think of what I got you.” “How much was it?” “What?” She blinked a few times, taken completely by surprised. “Does it matter?” “I just wanted to know if it didn’t cost more than we established when we went shopping for them.” “We didn’t establish how much we were going to spend on them. Why are you worked up with them, by the way?” “It’s just money that could be well spent.” “It was well spent though. It was spent on you. Also, what’s going on with you? You were never this greed before.” “I’m sorry, I’m just thinking ahead.” “Ken,” She put the package away and grabbed his hands softly. “I completely get it and agree with you, but it’s Christmas. It’s okay to spend a little more on yourself or on people you love. Of course you’ll have to be reasonable and not spend all your money, but it’s okay to let loose.” “You’re right, you’re right. I feel stupid now.” “Don’t feel. We’re all learning here.” She grabbed the present and handed to him. “Come on, open it. I think you will like it.” “Okay.” Ken grabbed it and sat down next to the Christmas tree. He noticed she had done the same through the corner of his eyes. He tore the paper off and came across a full set of working out related stuff. “Wow, there are a lot of things to do exercise with here.” “I know, I thought I’d put them all together in just one package. I thought they’d come in handy because you love jogging in the morning and in the ending of the afternoon too. Now you can have a suit just for that.” “I don’t know what to say.” He put his hoodie over his thighs and looked at her, before leaning over and kissing her briefly. “Thank you.” “You’re welcome.” Hikari smiled and gave him the next gift. “No, it’s your turn now.” He took it away and placed one of the presents he had bought in her hands. “Alright.” She looked down and ran her hands through it. “I don’t even need to open this to know it’s a new agenda.” “Sweetie, if you keep guessing it right before you open your gift will take away all the fun of it.” “I’m sorry.” She laughed while she leaned over towards the second gift she got him. “I promise I’ll guess it wrong next time.” “That’s much better.” He smiled and proceeded on opening his second Christmas present.

[shihalyfie]

A meta and analysis on Yagami Taichi

Being the face of Adventure and arguably the rest of the franchise, Taichi has the honor of being an important figure in the realm of shounen anime overall, which has the unfortunate side effect of very often being described with things that don’t actually match him at all -- the way people often talk about him (especially mainstream press) tends to portray him like a stereotypical shounen hero who charges aggressively into everything and is hot-blooded all of the time. That’s not...quite on the mark.

I think “impulsive” is certainly a correct way to describe him, but in a very different way than one might think -- and, in fact, Taichi is much more of a multifaceted character than he’s often pigeonholed as. How? Well, let’s talk about it!

Taichi in Adventure

The main reason it’s probably incorrect to call Taichi “hot-blooded” by nature is that, in actuality, he is far more often too chill than otherwise. It’s not that he aggressively charges into everything without any rhyme or reason! Rather, it’s more like he takes everything very easily and has a “don’t worry about it!” attitude.

In fact, I think our friend the Animation Chronicle explains it better than I can:

If he doesn’t know/understand something, he acts while he tries to figure it out...

So in other words, rather than our conventional version of “being impulsive” meaning beelining to the most aggressive possible action, rather, it’s more like “the first thing that pops into his head” -- even if it’s a fairly easygoing or relatively harmless-seeming solution, he just goes for it because it sounds like it’ll work and he doesn’t see any reason why not.

That said, it’s also made abundantly clear by multiple sources that his ideas do come with some kind of consideration:

From the Animation Chronicle: “He appears to move with reckless abandon, but he actually does take in his surroundings and he takes good care of his juniors in the soccer club.” 

From the Adventure novels: “Taichi treated everyone without discrimination, as equals. That attitude of his didn’t change, even towards Koushiro. If Taichi hadn’t invited him, Koushiro was sure that he would have never gone to summer camp.”

Sora and Koushirou even back this up personally in Adventure episode 16, when Koushirou points out that Taichi had always been kind to his juniors, and Sora recalls an incident when he’d foregone an opportunity to score a goal because he’d known Sora was more likely to pull it off successfully.

So in other words, Taichi is, fundamentally speaking, not someone who does things for personal glory, but does want to work for other people’s sake. It’s just that, in trying to carry that out, he has a tendency to default to the first thing that pops into his head. Or in other words, Taichi’s primary way of thinking is “act first and figure out the details later” -- and this has both good and bad things about it.

Firstly, the fact that Taichi has such an “action-first” philosophy means that he’s capable of acting very practically in situations when others would freeze up. A very good example of this is Adventure episode 21; after angsting for half an episode considering quitting the fighting and enjoying his life at home, the moment he realizes that everyone else will be in danger if he leaves everyone be, he immediately instinctively steps in to help everyone. It’s not necessarily that Taichi doesn’t feel the stress or danger of fighting; it’s just that when he sees the practical impact of people he cares about getting hurt in front of him, all bets are off, because he needs to help people now.

The second thing is that, as Koushirou points out, he’s very kind to his juniors, and people in general -- he doesn’t really pay much mind to things like seniority, and is more concerned about treating everyone in accordance to their practical capabilities. This means that he’s someone who has a certain sense of charisma, especially since he’s appreciative of people’s abilities.

This is best indicated in Adventure episode 28, when two important things about Taichi are brought to the forefront:

Taichi’s natural charisma and ability to appeal to people makes him someone good at “bringing people together” -- indicated by the fact that the group hadn’t taken long to completely fall apart after he’d momentarily departed in Adventure episode 20, but came back together after he’d rallied them. The Adventure kids, coming from rather different social circles and backgrounds, were not originally the type to stay together or be particularly tight with each other by default, and so, during the first half of the series when they still had ways to go in terms of having any kind of meaningful bond with each other, they were unconsciously dependent on the charismatic Taichi to keep them together.

Taichi is a “natural leader” in every sense -- “leader” meaning not only someone who pushes people forward, but also someone who recognizes others’ abilities and is willing to delegate rather than trying to do everything by himself. This was briefly demonstrated in Sora’s Adventure episode 16 flashback when she remembers that Taichi willingly gave up the opportunity for a goal when he understood she could do it better (it’s reflected in his soccer position, too), but also here in Adventure episode 28, he gives the task of solving the card puzzle to Koushirou because he (correctly) determines that Koushirou, not himself, is best equipped to do the job. Also note that the episode makes clear that everyone agrees to it specifically because Taichi appointed him to the position -- much like how “understanding everyone’s abilities and delegating properly” is an important and necessary skill for a leader, everyone trusts Taichi to make that decision, and therefore trusts in Koushirou because he was appointed by said well-informed decision.

So those are the good things about him. What about the drawbacks?

The first is that Taichi is, unfortunately, a little emotionally insensitive. He doesn’t mean badly, of course -- you can’t deny that his penchant for teasing or trolling people makes him quite a fun person to be around -- but he tends to lack a bit of emotional insight and is prone to crossing the line with his remarks. Again, this is a symptom of him being too chill about things at times; he tends to react with “what’s the big deal?!” -- a statement that one should absolutely not say when arguing with someone, and which tends to get Taichi in hot water, especially with Yamato.

While the trope of “the shounen hero and the cool rival often having friction” is quite common in anime like this, Adventure’s play on it is actually quite different from how it would usually be played elsewhere. In most other shounen anime, this kind of relationship would have to do with something like the hot-blooded protagonist wanting to charge in and the cool-headed person wanting to be more “rational” about it, but in Adventure, Taichi and Yamato are pit against each other due to reasons that have to do with emotions. Yamato, contrary to what his character archetype might suggest, is someone who’s openly passionate and emotional, and is also someone who goes out of his way to care about others and their welfare -- so he often gets into fights with Taichi because he perceives Taichi to be insensitive and not putting sufficient thought into the others.

Yamato’s reactions are certainly extreme -- Adventure episodes 9 very clearly depicts him as the one losing control of his emotions and escalating the argument with Taichi to a full-on fight, whereas Taichi wanted him to calm down -- but he’s not fundamentally wrong in that this is an aspect Taichi needs to improve about, because it is true that Taichi tends to take the first suggestion of “what’ll get something done” that pops into his head, but also has a problem of vastly underestimating how dangerous things might be.

Again -- and this is very important to stress -- it’s not that he doesn’t care about others, and it’s not that he’s unaware of the dangers around him or the potential for repercussions! As Sora says in Adventure episode 16, he is conscientious of his surroundings and aware of potential risks. He has always put thought into his actions, and he doesn’t just charge into things with no rhyme or reason. He just has an abysmally poor sense of judgment, because he’s so naturally chill that he thinks “it’ll be fine, don’t worry!” -- and thus starts stubbornly locking down on what he wants to do because he’s so sure it’ll be fine and that everyone (usually Yamato) is overreacting.

If you want a specific example about Taichi’s tendency to misjudge: in Adventure episode 9, Taichi and Yamato get in a fight when Yamato perceives Taichi as too insensitive about Takeru’s potential welfare, which weirds Taichi out because Yamato’s being awfully overprotective. On its face, it might seem hypocritical because we later find out in Adventure episode 48 that Taichi is just as overprotective of his own sister, but it’s important to note that in the relevant episode, Taichi states that he has to go out of his way because Hikari continually fails to vocalize whenever she’s hurt or in pain. This implies that Taichi sees Takeru as someone who’s clearly capable of taking care of himself because he expresses himself better (and thus, Taichi doesn’t understand why Yamato has to go out of his way for him). Indeed, Takeru ends up latching onto Taichi because he sees him as treating him with the independence that Yamato won’t -- but Takeru has his own very deep-seated emotional issues that he just happens to be very good at hiding, and while Taichi is certainly always looking out for Takeru, he never seemed to have become aware of this problem.

This difficulty in judgment leads into a certain pattern of behavior that Taichi exhibits that only comes up in very specific situations, but is so consistently depicted that it’s basically an inherent trait of his: what I call the “Yagami Taichi stress response”.

Taichi is the kind of selfless person who prioritizes others’ welfare over himself, and there are times when it will often fall into almost self-destructive levels. (This is a trait he actually shares with his sister, although the two of them naturally deal with it in very different ways.) His first priority is “helping everyone”, and especially “helping anyone who’s in trouble” (especially when it’s happening right in front of him). Which means that whenever he feels that others are depending on him for something, he ends up often taking too much responsibility for everyone’s welfare, and starts cracking under the pressure.

Because Taichi is the kind of person who prioritizes “action first” and figuring things out as they go along, this means that his reaction to stress is basically becoming a completely unfocused mess. Or, in other words, he lets the thought of but we have to do something!! completely consume his head, methodology be damned, and he starts panicking and doing everything in every which way to get it done, to the point he starts lashing out at others or becoming an emotional wreck because of the stress. The first time we see this is Adventure episode 16, where, being the only one with a working Crest and feeling that he and Agumon have the responsibility of protecting everyone, starts pushing himself and Agumon to carry everyone’s burdens, resulting in everything going wrong and the dark evolution to SkullGreymon at the end of the episode.

Again: It’s important to remember that, even at his “worst”, Taichi’s main priority is helping and protecting others, which means that his way of responding to that stress is basically determining that he’ll take all of the responsibility onto himself. That involves things like forcing himself to “work harder for everyone’s sake”, or becoming dangerously self-sacrificial, or at least allowing himself to become an emotional wreck because as much as he knows better, his one strongest thought is always we have to do something!!

Taichi exhibits more of this behavior in Adventure episodes 48 and 49, to the point he gets unusually aggressive with Koushirou (which is also explicitly pointed out as him not acting like his usual self) once he starts panicking about Hikari’s welfare. Again, note that all of this stems from we have to do something!! -- he basically starts panicking because despite Koushirou clearly doing the best he can, once things start going south, it’s just not enough.

So, speaking of things going south: because Taichi often misjudges situations, whenever things go wrong, he takes it badly. This is someone whose first course of action is to “act first and work it out as we go along,” but the number one thing he can’t stand is seeing other people get hurt, and so when other people do get hurt because of the consequences, Taichi shuts down -- for instance, when he learns that his ploy to attempt to get Greymon to evolve ended up hurting Koromon and everyone around him in Adventure episodes 16-17, and when his taking the Digital World too lightly (taking Koushirou’s explanation of it being “like a game world” at too much face value) ends up getting Sora in trouble and his own life in danger.

Which leads to a certain degree of irony: Taichi’s behavior isn’t normally out of solely recklessness -- mainly really poor judgment and a tendency to underestimate things -- but when he does slip up and start having to deal with consequences, he does become reckless. But because this recklessness is out of a desire to “not let anyone else get hurt”, it results in him being reckless specifically with his own welfare --  he’s the kind of person who “takes too much responsibility onto himself”, and his way of responding to the issues of “someone might get hurt” and “but we have to do something!!” means that he, by default, responds to everything with “okay, then I’ll be the one who gets hurt!” Or in other words, his solution to preventing other casualties while still doing something to help others involves becoming dangerously self-sacrificial. Because in the end, Taichi is the kind of person who hates seeing people being in trouble or hurt in front of him, and his instinct is to always protect people, no matter what.

But, again: Taichi’s way of “action first” is not a fundamentally bad thing -- remember, Adventure episode 21 established very well that this trait of his is very good for bringing him out of his biggest bouts of hesitation, because he has a very practical understanding of the need to fight in order to prevent more casualties. This is especially because the final arc of Adventure deals heavily with the concept of “collateral damage”, or the question of how to handle fighting to save people, when people are inevitably hurt (or, in this case, dying) in the process.

Yamato accuses Taichi in Adventure episode 43 of not being conscientious enough about the friends they’ve lost in the process, but once Yamato succumbs to his resentment and personal beefs and starts selfishly picking a fight with Taichi in Adventure episode 44-45, Taichi indicates that he is keeping his fallen friends in mind -- it’s just that, to him, not continuing the fight is an insult to everything they’d died for (especially because, indeed, more people will get hurt if they don’t do something). 

And, ultimately, in Adventure episode 50, Taichi does conclude that Yamato, Jou, and Mimi are right about one thing: while he’s always been right about them needing to do something, they do at least need to be careful about how they go about it so that they don’t incur more sacrifices along the way. Fortunately, Taichi is a soccer captain and perfectly capable of quickly coming up with a suitable plan on the fly (he even cites it in this episode, and in fact had already demonstrated an ability to come up with tactics when necessary back in Adventure episode 20) -- it’s not that he’s never been able to do flexible thinking, it’s just that his natural tendency to be “too chill’ about things and overestimate the efficacy of the first thing that popped into his head was something he needed to learn to think through a little harder.

And so, the final episodes of Adventure indicate him finally starting to tap into his capacity for that -- thus truly becoming the definition of the Adventure group’s “leader”.

Taichi after Adventure

We learn in Our War Game! that Taichi still has a bit of a way to go in terms of the “emotional sensitivity” part, most notably when Taichi starts getting defensive when he accidentally disrupts the computer connection, and Koushirou (most likely correctly) pinpoints this insensitivity as the likely reason he and Sora got into a nasty fight prior to the events of the movie. In fact, while Taichi already clearly had some shades of this in Adventure, when his “teasing” of others or stepping over their boundaries could sometimes go a little too far, it’s especially indicated here that Taichi is very, very bad at dispute resolution, because he keeps trying to deflect blame for his own actions and indirectly accuses Sora of being the irrational one in regards to their argument. (Again, for anyone entangled in a dispute with a friend: “dismissing the other person’s feelings” and going for the ad hominem, instead of at the very least acknowledging them in the process of making your point, is the number one worst way to handle this.)

Of course, Taichi wouldn’t have gotten this far if he didn’t have the natural charisma to compensate -- again, he’s fundamentally someone who cares about other people and attends to them. But, unfortunately, he’s still bad at knowing how to deal with other people’s emotions and learning to deal with them with proper empathy...

...So, in fact, it’s striking that the Taichi we initially meet in 02 is someone who, most of the time, seems to come off as very mature and put-together. The fact that he so willingly turned over his goggles to Daisuke at the beginning of the episode is a really huge deal, frankly -- even if you don’t subscribe to the theory that there’s any major sentimental backstory to it a la V-Tamer, that’s still an item he’s kept on him since he was a tiny child and clearly must have a huge amount of attachment to, yet he immediately handed it over to Daisuke the moment he felt Daisuke was worthy of it.

It’s actually quite a bit of a swerve for those of us used to the more “playful” Taichi who sometimes took things way too lightly, but it’s also important to realize that this is the Taichi that Daisuke and his friends see. This is especially in light of the fact that Daisuke starts off the series with a very severe inability to be assertive, so Taichi, who’s always been naturally assertive from the get-go (almost too much sometimes), is everything he is not, and therefore admires.

Taichi is still Taichi, which means that he’s still subject to the Yagami Taichi stress response, and he gets very close to blowing up angrily at the others when they show up late. But unlike how he had a whole train of being rather out of control when emotionally compromised in Adventure episodes 48-49, he gets himself together fairly quickly and admits that he also didn’t want to force everyone to come if they didn’t want to (to the point where he had even thought about going alone with Hikari in the worst-case scenario -- again, note the tendency for self-sacrifice and putting responsibility on himself).

We also see him about to lapse into it again at the end of the episode, when he freezes up because he’s not sure about what to do in regards to the potential of hurting Agumon in the process of getting him back -- but Yamato manages to get him back on his feet, rather literally, and with a punch to the face.

This punch tends to be really often misinterpreted as if violence is just a fact of life when it comes to Taichi and Yamato, but it is very, very important to understand the context behind this scene and how it differs from the two’s relationship in Adventure. Whenever the two fought back in Adventure, it would be a very vicious argument with the two genuinely angry at each other, and with Yamato accusing Taichi of being insensitive and thus becoming hostile and resentful towards him. In this scene, however, Yamato has become conscientious of Taichi’s own feelings and reasons for hesitating. This is evidenced by the fact he only does a single punch and holds out his hand to Taichi right after -- said punch was strictly meant as one meant to snap him back to reality, and Yamato holds out that hand knowing that Taichi will not take it as anger or resentment, but rather “I did this because you needed something to get you back into focus, I know you also know this and won’t take it as an insult, and I understand your feelings and want to help you.”

It’s important in establishing the level of deep trust Taichi and Yamato have where they understand each other’s positions now without fighting over it -- the two of them even point out in the next episode that the reason they can get away with this is because of how much worse they used to go through before, but now, the two of them treat each other with mutual sympathy, understanding, and support, and devoid of condescension whatsoever. And because of that, Taichi is able to “snap out” of his hesitation much more quickly than he would three years prior, because now he has Yamato’s emotional support, and Yamato even frames the situation in a way the “we have to do something!!” Taichi would understand: if they don’t do something, Agumon will continue to be the Kaiser’s slave destroying everything that he himself would never want to see destroyed, and even if they end up accidentally losing him in the process, it would arguably be a bigger mercy to him than it would to let him continue in this state. It’s all very practical reasoning that works best with Taichi’s way of thinking, and because of that, they’re able to push forward into the events of the next episode.

But just because he’s become more mature doesn’t mean he’s lost his characteristic charisma or ability to be playful or a tease -- after all, Taichi has always had a penchant for a bit of a smug personality, sometimes even bordering on the petulant. This especially comes out when he’s with Agumon, but, really, Taichi is a person who really likes fun.

On another interesting note, however, Taichi sends Sora off in 02 episode 38 when he’s very heavily implied to have caught on that Sora is about to confess to Yamato, and pushes her on without giving her grief for it. Regardless of whether you subscribe to the theory that Taichi has his own unresolved feelings in the situation, the important part is that he understood that this was a grave enough situation for Sora that this did not merit teasing her or insensitively poking into her feelings on it -- in other words, it’s a huge contrast to Adventure episode 26 when he was clearly at a loss on how to deal with her when she was emotionally compromised, and Agumon and Gabumon commented that he wasn’t as mature as Yamato in dealing with this.

But now, Taichi is much more capable of showing actual empathy for others and understanding when it’s the time to hold back on the teasing or potential insensitivity, and for that, Agumon compliments him on the same maturity he’d failed to express three years prior.

By the time we get to Kizuna, the fact that Taichi is one of the lead protagonists is for obvious meta reasons (he’s the protagonist of Adventure, after all), but it also makes sense that a movie centered around the millennial existential crisis -- and, specifically, the issue of career uncertainty -- would have him as a major player in it. Remembering that Taichi is fundamentally the kind of person who operates as “act first, deal with it later,” it makes perfect sense that the terrifying pressure of dealing with something as vague and uncertain as career pressure would be something that Taichi would continually put off. Again, Taichi is a very practical-minded person who usually works best with things that are clearly happening in front of him, so “wide-ranging” things are things he plays badly with.

Despite Taichi being very clearly depicted as “out of it” for this movie, at the very least, certain fundamental personality traits of his haven’t gone away -- for one, he’s still one of the most expressive characters in the movie (to the point many a fan has commented on his jackpot of facial expressions) in terms of petulance, sometimes getting a little defensive, and driving poor Koushirou a little nuts with his tendency to be reckless with electronics. He also gets a bit cocky during the battle with Eosmon, which, again, tracks with his tendency to do that every so often (and to be fair to him, everyone was guilty of severely underestimating Eosmon at the time, so it’s not like this was a major miscalculation on Taichi’s part).

Moreover, much like in 02, Taichi and Yamato are understanding of each other’s feelings to the extent that Yamato is the first person Taichi calls to dump his feelings about his existential crisis over. Even though they’re still prone to some mild bickering at the beginning of the movie, they immediately go back on high-fiving terms right after, so it’s a very far cry from the time back in Adventure when Yamato would look down on Taichi for being insensitive.

But here, we have this one line that basically represents the source of all of the problems Taichi ends up going through in this movie, including the reason for his loss of Agumon: Taichi is trying to “force” himself to become an independent person, and in the process is pushing Agumon away, and, on a more metaphorical level, his own self.

Taichi moved out of his parents’ house under the pretense of not burdening his family, but Hikari’s comment about their mother wanting him to drop by indicates that it’s not likely they necessarily wanted him to move out -- and despite that, Taichi is miserable in his daily routine of walking back and forth from school and working at a part-time job and eating convenience store food. He’s clearly lonely, yet he won’t allow Agumon into his room (it’s stated that his visit midway into the movie is his first time here). He keeps his old goggles and Digivice, yet he shuts it in a drawer and only opens the drawer to stare at it from time to time, and when Agumon finally does visit and finds his AVs, Taichi freaks out and pins it as an “adult thing” before he finds himself in the awkward situation of basically gatekeeping his own partner with a societal standard he doesn’t even understand.

I should point out that the AVs are not strictly porn, if you want to be really technical about it; it’s “gravure” videos, involving a cosplayer dressing up in sexy/high-exposure outfits and striking suggestive poses, but it’s not actually explicit porn. Moreover, a toned-down version of this scene exists in the Shueisha Mirai version of the novel, where the issue is not about AVs but rather the fact that Taichi only has alcohol in his fridge -- absolutely nothing non-alcoholic, despite how impractical this is -- because “[he’s] an adult, after all.” So the point of this scene is that Taichi’s being performative, or in other words trying to do Adult Things because That’s What Adults Do. And since a Digimon partner is representative of the inner self, and especially established in 02 to have relevance to one’s “less dignified and more childish dreams”, Taichi looking down on Agumon, i.e. looking down on himself, becomes the reason why he ends up losing him at the end of this movie.

As things get worse for Taichi and the crisis escalates, we actually get another glimpse of the Yagami Taichi stress response -- Yamato confronts him on whether he’s okay with going in to save all of the Eosmon victims despite knowing what’ll happen to their partners. Taichi, frantically (Hanae Natsuki’s voice acting really sells it here), has an emotional outburst and professes that, no, of course he’s not, but, again: they have to do something!! Because in the end, Taichi is a selfless person who understands that bad things are happening to people now, and the important thing is saving them now and dealing with the consequences once that’s done with, and even Yamato admits that, as much as he hates it, this is the correct answer.

Taichi does, unfortunately, lose Agumon at the end of the movie, but there are multiple indications he’s already on his way to getting him back, given that Taichi’s starting to address all of the problems he was neck deep in at the start of the movie. In the middle of the movie, after having shut his goggles in the drawer all of this time and only pulling it out whenever he was depressed, he decides to embrace the courage they initially symbolized and puts them back on his neck, and when we reach the climax of the movie, he uses Hikari’s old whistle to wake everyone up. This needs to be distinguished from all of the “nostalgia” everyone else had been drowning themselves in by looping themselves eternally in old memories from a desire to never move on from them; symbolically speaking, Taichi’s blowing of the whistle represents acknowledging the important things in your past, and making productive use of them to move onto the future, rather than the unhealthy reactions of either drowning eternally in nostalgia, or performatively shutting everything out about your past in a bid to reach some arbitrary standard of adulthood.

Hence, Taichi’s thesis -- the one he had failed to write at the beginning of the movie -- is only filled out once Taichi embraces that past version of himself, because his thesis summary is about reflection on his past experiences, and making use of those to think about how to apply them to the future.

This is, obviously, intended as a lead-up to the 02 epilogue in which Taichi becomes an ambassador -- or in other words, someone who indeed specializes in “bringing humans and Digimon together” and offering proposals on how they can coexist in the future. Agumon, of course, is an important part of this job (look at his suit and bowtie!), instead of Taichi shutting him out and treating him like someone who doesn’t belong in his adult life.

Of the careers depicted in the epilogue, Taichi’s is the most “furthest-reaching”, since, as a diplomat, he has influence over a pretty huge range of things, which fits with Taichi’s tendency to shoot for some pretty high things -- and, also, conceptually, it works well with what we’ve always known since Adventure to be Taichi’s true specialties as a “leader”: having the charisma and understanding to bring people from different places together, and to lead them all forward.

[sincerelytan]

Girlfriend V / S Bestfriend

Girlfriend v / s Bestfriend

Word count: 4245

Prompt: “Free Day” Day 7 of Digiweek 2021

Features Characters: Yamato, Mimi, Taichi, Sora, Takeru, Kari, Koshiro and Joe

A / N: I had written this a while back and thought I would post it during day 7 of free day. Hope you enjoy my attempt at this little humours fic.

Also Today is August 1st - Happy Odaiba Day

@digiweek

Summary: Yamato finds himself in between yet another argument of Taichi and Mimi, but this time Sora has a solution that just might solve the age old question or just make things more awkward for Yamato

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“I hope we are not too late,” Sora commented as she, Yamato and Takeru were making their way to Taichi’s house.

“We are very late,” Yamato replied blandly.

“We would have been on time if you hadn’t taken so much time in picking out a gift for your girlfriend,” Sora shot back caustically. “besides, you asked us for our help.” she further pointed out.

“She’s right you know,” Takeru added; “who knew you would take so much time!” he muttered “in choosing a dress,” last part almost to himself.

“Yeah, whatever,” Yamato said rolling his eyes, clearly having heard what Takeru said.

“Thanks for helping though,” Yamato murmured after a bit of walking in silence. “I really want this date to be special.” And Takeru; Yamato said halting and turning towards his brother, “She better not find out about this surprise.” Yamato commanded Takeru in a playful warning tone, remembering how Takeru had a habit of confiding in her in just about anything and everything.

“My lips are sealed!” Takeru said enthusiastically. “Relax, she will love it! I’m sure, besides your anniversary is next week! He said beaming at a nervous Yamato.

Sensing Yamato still needed some assurance, Takeru added, “You got the black dress, the necklace, you booked the table at Il Ristorante - Luca Fantin,” he stopped and looked at Yamato, “You booked it right?”

“Yes, of course, a month ago” Yamato added.  

“And we got the limo, I know because I booked that one, Sora’s going to give you the flowers in the morning” Takeru added counting down the list on his fingers, “We have the perfect coverup story so now,” he continued as they reached Taichi’s house “let’s just hang out with the others and not let her suspect anything.” He said beaming to a somewhat confident Yamato.

Great, poker face, Yamato thought as they rang the bell to Taichi’s door.

 When they arrived at Taichi’s all 3 of them were revising their excuse as to why they turned up together and that too late. The excuse was going to be that Yamato and Takeru were held back by their mum and on the way to Taichi’s place they bumped into Sora who was going to say she came from her tennis class that was near Takeru’s place and thus they ended upcoming together.

As it turned out they didn’t really have to worry about their excuses because they could hear Taichi and Mimi arguing while they waited outside for someone to open the door.

“What’s the argument about this time?” Sora asked as Joe opened the door.

“You wouldn’t believe me even if I told you” Joe sighted back rubbing his forehead.

“Are they finally here?” Kari called out from the room.

“Yeah,” Joe shouted back.

“Tell them to come here and end this now.” they heard Koshiro say clearly sounding annoyed.

 “We have been friends forever.” They could hear Taichi claim loudly at Mimi.

“So have we! and we’ve been dating for 3 years now.” Mimi shot back.

“Ha please, you’ll didn’t even talk with each other during elementary school.” Taichi declared assuming his victory.

“So what! I know things that you would never ever know,” Mimi replied back with a smirk, “I am the one that sleeps with him.”

Yamato blushed bright red overhearing this conversation as he, Takeru, and Sora entered the room.

“Are you two fighting; over who knows Yamato better?” Sora asked with amusement.

 “Obviously I do!” Mimi smiled as she approached Yamato and gave him a quick kiss.

“Kissing someone doesn’t necessarily mean you know them,” Taichi said shrugging his shoulders. “I kissed Catherine a couple of times; didn’t know she already had a boyfriend.”

“That’s because all you guys did was kiss,” Sora commented back dryly.

“Touché!” Taichi smirked at the guys as Sora and Kari shook their heads. 

 “Anyway,” Yamato said butting in “I guess I would say, Mimi does know me better than you, sorry Taichi.”

“That’s my man,” Mimi said happily sending an air kiss in Yamato’s direction.

“Whipped” Taichi smirked as he received a glare from Yamato.

“Anyway, I know you are just saying this because you want to continue sleeping with her.” Taichi continued now rolling his eyes at Yamato. “and you know I am right, thus further proving my point that I know him better,” Taichi concluded with his hands gesturing and looking at everyone to agree with him.

As Yamato opened his mouth to argue back, “A quiz!” Sora chimed in quickly.

“I will ask both of you’ll a few questions about Yamato, and whoever answers most of them correctly is the winner.” Sora continued excitedly as Yamato, Mimi and Taichi looked at her with confusion.

“That’s a good idea but obviously Yamato will agree with Mimi and cheat,” Taichi said shooting a look at Mimi.

Before Mimi could argue back to that, “Written cards” Koshiro butted in. “Sora can ask the question, all 3 of you’ll get a card to write the answers and then everyone can reveal the answers that they wrote at the same time, so no one can cheat,” Koshiro explained.

“You can’t be serious!” Yamato said facepalming while Taichi and Mimi were giving it a serious thought.

“This is a great idea” Takeru chimed. “Although technically I am supposed to know him better than both of you’ll.” He said pointing at Mimi and Taichi, “but this way I will find out things I don’t know about you” he added with excitement.

“This is going to be so much fun” Sora smirked with gleaming eyes as she looked directly at Yamato.

“I’m sorry Yamato”, Joe added sympathetically patting Yamato on his shoulder. 

  While the others prepared the questions, Yamato, Taichi and Mimi waited in the other room.

“Better game up Tachikawa,” Taichi said stretching his neck, getting his game mode on.

“You’re going down Yagami,” Mimi said narrowing her eyes at Taichi.

“Oh Boy!” is all Yamato could mutter.

 “Okay, we are ready,” Kari giggled as Taichi, Yamato, and Mimi entered the room.

“Please sit at your assigned seats,” Joe said, pointing to the chairs that had each of their names, a bunch of empty cards, and a marker for them to write with. “This way no one can cheat,” he said as Yamato, Mimi, and Taichi took their seats.

“Rules are simple,” Koshiro continued, “Sora will host, asking you’ll questions about Yamato, you get 10 seconds to write your answers on the cards and when asked you will reveal what you have written after which Yamato reveals his answer, Kari keeps score, and we can see which one of you’ll knows Yamato best.” He finished taking his seat near Joe and Takeru as Sora stood in front of the three participants.

 “Welcome to the game of Girlfriend v/s Best friend; a game where Mimi, the girlfriend, and Taichi, the best friend or is it the other way around?” Sora spoke commanding everyone’s attention as she began the game joyfully in her best host voice.

“Anyway, where both will try and answer some questions about Yamato. The person with the most correct answers wins the game and proves to the other that they do indeed know Yamato better.” She continued gleefully.

 “Okay, let’s do this!” Mimi said with a determined look on her face. 

“Bring it on!” Taichi answered equally determinedly.

“You all are enjoying this way too much,” Yamato said annoyed.

“You have no idea,” Sora replied giggling.

  “Starting off with an easy Question, Question 1 for girlfriend vs best friend is What colour M&Ms are Yamato’s favourite?” Sora asked grinning at the three.

As soon as Sora finished asking the question Mimi, Taichi, and Yamato quickly wrote down their answers as Koshiro timed them.

And “Mimi” Sora said pointing at Mimi as Koshiro gave her the nod indicating the time was up.

Blue – Mimi’s card read. “He always snatches up the blue ones while I go for the red ones.” She said smiling broadly.

Blue – Taichi’s card also read “this is too easy.” He said lazily.

“And now for the reveal, Yamato?” Sora asked turning to Yamato.

Yamato sighed and held up his card, where it was written Blue, “remind me why I agreed to this again?” he asked in a defeated tone.

“Because it’s fun and we get to take your case,” Sora said with a bright smile. “Also, I get my revenge on you for dragging me through 20 different shops” She added the last part softly to Yamato while Mimi and Taichi were busy taunting each other. “A point to both Mimi and Taichi” She concluded loudly pointing at Kari who giving a thumbs up and wrote down the score on the board.

 “After an easy start moving on to Question 2!” Sora continued with the same enthusiasm; What is Yamato’s favourite food?”

As before all 3 of them wrote down the answer as soon as Sora asked the question and Koshiro began his timer. With a nod from Koshiro, Sora asked Taichi and Mimi to reveal their answers.

Pizza – Taichi’s card read. “obviously” he muttered while showing his card.

Onigiri/Mochi – Mimi’s card read “I know this because I cook for him.” She answered giving Yamato a sweet but dangerous look indicating his answer better be this.

Onigiri – Yamato’s card read. “I like pizza and mochi as well,” Yamato said looking at Taichi apologetically, while Mimi gave him one of her widest smiles.  

“Oo bad luck Taichi, looks like Yamato’s favourite food is Onigiri.” Sora concluded in her host voice. “and that’s a point to Mimi." She said pointing at Kari who put another point up for Mimi.

“Whose favourite food is not Pizza!” Taichi said out loud and annoyed as he threw his answer card down.

“We all like pizza but you have an unhealthy obsession with it Taichi,” Kari said sighing. “Seriously I once saw him finish 2 large pizza’s in 1 go,” she added looking at the group.

“Hey, those pizzas were to die for,” Taichi said defending his love for pizza.

“Oh, is it the place you insisted we go for my birthday?” Koshiro asked. “Oh yeah, those pizzas were really good” he agreed, much to Taichi’s delight.

“The very same” Taichi answered happy that Koshiro was there to back him up.

 “Which reminds me, we should order some food for later,” Joe said taking out his phone to place an order. “Any suggestions?” he asked looking around.

“Pizza” Taichi answered before anyone else could. “And Yamato my Pizza is on you for not answering pizza.”

“And mine too” Mimi added. I agree with Taichi on this, she giggled much to Taichi’s delight.

“Wait, What! But Onigiri? Fine!.” Yamato said just throwing his hands up and giving up.

“Hey, I am the host, my Pizza is on you as well,” Sora added to the mix.

“I keep the score” Kari chimed in.

“and I time you guys,” Koshiro added.

“and I am your brother,” Takeru said giving his best puppy dog face.

“you guys torture me like this and expect the pizza to be on me?” “Some friends you are!” Yamato started protesting.

“Pizza is on me and Yamato,” Joe said giving Yamato an apologetic look as Yamato put his hands on his face in annoyance.

 “As Joe orders the Pizza, we move on to Question 3, What is Yamato’s preferred pizza topping?” Sora continued in her host mode.

“Was that question on the list?” Koshiro asked giving Sora a confused look.

“Well, I just thought of it” she added. “come on guys it’s a relevant question!”

Alright, muttered the three as they wrote down their answers.

“And for the reveal,” Sora said pointing towards her best friend, “Mimi”

Double Cheese – Mimi’s card read. “Yamato really loves cheese”

Double Cheese – Taichi’s card read as well; “you better not answer anything else, our friendship is literally at stake now” Taichi said dramatically.

Double Cheese – Yamato’s card read, “you know it” Yamato exclaimed as Taichi grinned chanting, “Our friendship is saved.”

 “Mimi leading by a point, we move on to Question 4,” Sora said laughing at the exchange. “Which is Yamato’s favourite band?”

“And answers,” she said as she got the nod from Koshiro.

Mimi and Taichi held up their cards at the same time

Nirvana – Mimi’s card read, “Yamato absolutely loves them, he also likes Linkin Park though.”

Nirvana – Taichi’s card also read. “Yeah, I remember this from elementary school.” He said shooting a look at Mimi.

Nirvana – Yamato’s card also read. “I think everyone knows this.”

“Apparently they do, adding a point each to Mimi and Taichi.” Sora concluded.

 “For Question 5” Sora continued; “Which sport does Yamato least suck at?”

“Thanks for putting it that way,” Yamato said rolling his eyes at Sora.

“My pleasure, and Mimi?” Sora smirked, clearly enjoying her role as the hostess.

Basketball – Mimi’s card read “He loses against Takeru every time,” she said earning a grin from Takeru and a very annoyed “hey” from Yamato.

“Taichi?”

Basketball – Taichi’s card also read. “He really sucks at soccer.” Earning a further “hey!” from Yamato.

“I can beat every one of your asses in Basketball,” Yamato stated as he showed his card that read Basketball.

“and yet somehow you always lose to me”

“Shut up Takeru.” Yamato glared at Takeru as everyone laughed.

 “Moving on to Question 6,” Sora continued. “What is Yamato’s favourite guilt trip series to binge?”

Doctor who – Taichi’s card read when Sora called out his name to reveal his answer. “I don’t know why but he loves that show.”

Glee – Mimi’s card read next.

“Mimi that’s your favourite guilt trip series, not mine” Yamato said, showing his card that read – Doctor who.

“but you always watch glee with me” Mimi pouted.

“yes, because you enjoy it, I watch it with you,” Yamato said smiling at her, at which she further pouted.

“Looks like Taichi knows Yamato’s Tv preference here better than Mimi” Sora concluded. “With a point to Taichi, he is now caught up with Mimi.”

 “And for Question 7,” Sora continued in her best hostess impression. “If Yamato could have anyone’s superpowers from the Avengers team, who’s powers would he want to have?”

“Great question!” Kari said looking at Koshiro, who had suggested the question. Blushing at Kari’s comment, Koshiro nodded to Sora as the time ended.

 “Mimi? Your answer please” Sora asked her friend.

Captain America – Mimi’s card read as she looked at Yamato with a dreamy expression.

“Oo Captain America, that would be a hot choice,” Sora giggled. “Taichi?”

Iron Man – Taichi’s card read. “Please, Yamato is more like Tony Stark, also he’s the coolest.

Thor – Yamato’s card read. As everyone gave him a bland expression. “What?” he added.

“Seriously? I thought you like Captain America, you have a keychain of his shield” Mimi squealed, somehow offended, “also he’s the hottest! and you definitely have the Ass, perhaps not America’s but definitely Japan’s Ass.” Mimi added winking to a very red Yamato.

“Hmm I don’t know, maybe; Yamato, give us a twirl now, will you?” Taichi said trying to check out Yamato.

“And deleting that image from my mind,” Takeru said making a face at Yamato.

“Yeah, but I would prefer Thor’s powers, I could fly and manipulate thunder and also not to mention I would be a God.” Yamato tried defending his answer.

“Okay, no points for anyone, looks like you guys need to buck up your game, if you wanna win who knows Japan’s Ass better,” Sora concluded laughing.

“Shudd up.” Is all Yamato could say red in his face as everyone laughed.

 “Moving on to DC, Question 8!” Sora continued as the laughter died down. “Who is Yamato’s all-time favourite DC character?”

“I actually like DC more than Marvel” Takeru added to the room.

“Nah aa, marvel all the way” Kari shot back at Takeru. “They have better movies”

“Please, who can compete against Batman?” Takeru chimed in.

“Have you read any of the comics?” Koshiro asked them both.

“some” Takeru mumbled while Kari shook her head.

“And before this gets into a Marvel vs Dc or TV vs Comics, answers please!” Sora slipped in halting that discussion.

Batman – Taichi’s card read. “obviously”

Nightwing – Mimi’s card read. “This time it’s definitely the butt," she added with a squeal.  

Nightwing – Yamato’s card read. “It's not because of the ass” Yamato added to a gleaming Mimi.

“Okay, seriously Yamato, you have got to give us a twirl!” Taichi exclaimed.

All Yamato could do was glare at Taichi as the girls giggled and the boys laughed.

 “We are just getting started on to the good questions” Sora added cheekily as the laughter subsided. “Moving on to the next question! Question 9” “What age did Yamato have his first kiss?”

Yamato and Mimi both blushed hiding their faces behind their cards as they wrote the answer.

“And Mimi?” Sora asked

13 – Mimi’s card read

16 – Taichi’s card read. “He was a late bloomer” Taichi teased

13 – Yamato’s card read as he held it up to cover his face.

“13? Really? Who?” Sora asked surprised, asking the question that was on everyone’s mind as Yamato was extremely closed off as a person that time.

“Mimi,” Yamato answered slowly “the day she was leaving for the states”

“But you guys weren’t together that time,” Koshiro asked. “or were you already secretly dating”

“Well, it was unexpected for me as well, I mean I did have a crush on him that time but didn’t think he had, so imagine my surprise when I went to tell him goodbye, he kissed me.” Mimi smiled at the memory, “And he’s really improved a lot since then in that department” she added in a teasing tone.

“I knew I saw the two of you kiss, you told me I was seeing things,” Takeru exclaimed at Yamato.

“I didn’t really want anyone to know,” Yamato said apologetically to Takeru.

“Those mood swings make so much more sense now” Takeru added laughing.

“Okay, moving on” Yamato gestured to a smiling Sora.

 “This game is just getting started,” Sora said amused at Yamato’s embarrassment.

“I am going to kill all of you,” Yamato replied pointing towards Sora and the other spectators.

“Kari, would you tell us the score please,” Sora said sticking out her tongue at Yamato.

“Taichi needs to game up, as Mimi is leading by 2 points.” Kari added with a giggle.

  “Revealing more secrets of the lone wolf, moving on to Question 10” Sora smiled “What is Yamato’s favourite alcoholic beverage?

Even before sora could ask for an answer,

Beer – Taichi’s card read. “phh please” he added with an air of confidence.

Old Fashioned – Mimi’s card read. Please, Yamato likes his classic gentleman’s whiskey drink”

Old Fashioned – Yamato’s card read.

“What old fashion? Are you kidding me!!!! We always drink beer together” Taichi bellowed.

“But I like a good whiskey, bourbon, or scotch.” Yamato tried to defend himself.

“And you don’t like the beers we drink together?” Taichi asked absolutely furious.  

“Yeah, of course I like beers but that’s not my favourite alcoholic beverage Taichi” Mat tried to explain.

“oh! So now beer isn’t sophisticated enough for you! First, you turn your back on Pizza and now Beer!” Taichi crossed his arms absolutely fuming.

“Taichi” Yamato tried to continue.

“Next boys’ night you get your own fancy-ass drink” Taichi pouted cutting Yamato off “Sora, next Question”

“Taichi” Yamato tried again.

“Next Question Sora”  

 Giving Yamato an apologetic look, Sora continued “Moving on to Question 11, What is Yamato the most afraid of?”

Ghosts – Taichi’s card red. “Remember the time when me, Takeru, and Mimi pranked Yamato” Taichi said laughing at the memory as they had spooked Yamato quite badly.

Ghosts – Mimi showed her card, smiling at the memory.

Ghosts – Yamato’s card read as well, cursing Takeru for revealing his secret.

 “With Mimi still in the lead, Question 12” Sora continued with a knowing smirk towards Yamato. “Which celebrity is on Yamato’s list? Basically, which celebrity does Yamato wish to sleep with?” she further clarified.

Mariya Nishiuchi – Taichi held up his card excitedly

Merei Kiritani – Mimi held up her card with a stoic expression.

Mariya Nishiuchi – Yamato held his card, looking anywhere except at Mimi.

“oo she is pretty” Joe let slip to everyone’s amusement.

“Didn’t she come for one of your shows?” Takeru asked with an innocent curious look, while Mimi looked surprised, and Yamato tried to signal him to shut up.

“I don’t know what you are talking about” Yamato dismissed Takeru.

“Hang on!” Mimi added looking at Yamato now. “When was this? And how do I not know about this?”

“She came backstage as well” Takeru added. “I remember it was when you were in New York for your work visit,” Takeru said looking at Mimi.

“Mimi, I swear, nothing happened. She came to meet the band and that was it, I walked out of my dressing room when she came in”

“Okay this even I didn’t know,” Takeru said amused. “I just remember she came backstage to tell you guys she really enjoyed the show.”

“Are you telling me, you had the opportunity and you chickened out?” Taichi roared with laughter.

“Excuse me?” Mimi said tartly to Taichi.

“I didn’t chicken out Taichi, I didn’t want anything to do with her.” Yamato replied just as tartly.

“Not what you said when we were watching ..” Taichi continued in a teasing tone

“Shut up Taichi” Yamato cut Taichi off. “Mimi, babe, its not ..”

“We shall talk about this later,” Mimi said narrowing her eyes.

 “Is this over yet?” Yamato asked to the room where the others were just giggling at his misery.

“no no, I want to see what else I don’t know about you.” Mimi replied in a teasing manner.

“Is it lets torture Yamato Day, today?” Yamato asked rhetorically.

“Mimi,” Joe asked cautiously, still not convinced of her mood, to which the ever bubbly girl just smiled and winked. Satisfied that Yamato won’t be in much trouble, Joe cleared his throat, “I think we have 3 more questions” to which Sora and Koshiro nodded.

The bell rung indicating the pizza was here. Joe and Yamato went to get the pizzas and pay for them, with Yamato insisting to pay for the whole thing and Joe politely but sternly telling him that they can split it amongst both of them.

 Handing everyone their food and beverages, as Yamato and Joe got back in their place, Sora continued the game.

“To continue on to Yamato’s torture, Question 13,” she asked, “What type of porn category does Yamato like?” in a very serious and calm voice.

Joe almost choked on his drink while Koshiro spat out his drink, as the remaining two roared with laughter.

 “Taichi?” Sora asked barely able to contain her laugh,

Cheerleader – Taichi’s card read. “I remember the time when he used to fantasize about Mimi in her cheerleading outfit all the time. I don’t think he’s gotten over that.” Taichi said raising his eyebrows cheekily at Yamato and Mimi.

Threesome – Mimi’s card read. “Really? You used to fantasize about me back then?” she asked amused. “And here I thought you were dropping hints for a 3way.”

Cheerleader – Yamato’s card read. “That wasn’t a hint, Mimi. I told you it was a misunderstanding.” He said blushing furiously than he ever had.

“Shame,” Mimi said casually checking her nails, “I might have been game.” She added with a wink towards him.

Taichi nearly fell off his chair, while Koshiro did fall off his chair, his mouth open with shock.

“You lucky lucky son of a gun,” Taichi added to a blushing Yamato, with a slight hint of jealousy in his voice.

“Misunderstanding?” Sora asked trying to fish for the story, while Kari just laughed and Joe looked down embarrassed.

“Okay, too much information for me,” Takeru said clearing her throat. “Next question please,” he said gesturing towards Sora.

 “So having that opportunity taken away from him, moving on to Question 14.” Sora continued still between her laughs. “What is Yamato’s safe word?”

Sora wiped the tears rolling down her cheeks and gestured for all of them to reveal their answers.

Orangutan – Taichi’s card read.

Orangutan – Mimi’s card also read.

Orangutan – Yamato’s card read as well.

Seeing the shocked look on everyone’s face, Mimi looked over to Taichi’s card and in a very loud pitch voice, almost shouting exclaimed, “What!!”

“What! No way, What! How do you even know that?” Mimi bellowed.

“Are you fucking kidding me right now?” Taichi laughed falling off his chair, as Yamato just stared at Taichi with total shock. “Dude we really are soulmates.” Taichi managed to say between laughs as he struggled to get off the floor.

“I’m done, you know what I am done. All the other questions are irrelevant now” Mimi dropped her cards, got up, and walked out the room.

“Mimi come back,” Taichi tried calling behind her. “Princess,” he called after her as he got up and ran behind her still laughing his head off at the coincidence.

Yamato just shook his head, covering his face with his hands, as the rest of the people in the room erupted in laughter that went on for quite a while.

[bacomon-art-blog]

I found your blog right now, and can I say how much I love your art??? Your expressions and designs are so fun and I can’t stop looking at them. Would you mind explaining more about your Camp Cretaceous and SCP AU? It’s totally fine if you don’t want to though!

I’m sorry, I’m overwhelmed with emotions since your art is so good.

Omg! Thank you so much! You can not believe how happy seeing this ask got me! As for the AUs? I would be more than happy to info dump about them, but be warned the SCP au doesn’t have as much development as the Camp Cretaceous AU.

SCP AU:

Originally, the digidestined were SCPs themselves, with their own unique abilities, and I will probably put more thought into that idea, but I decided to change it after I had issues thinking about what to do with the characters. Now, the AU has the SCP Foundation finding out about the digital world and decided to label it as SCP-9901, with the digimon and the digidestined labeled SCP-9901-02 and SCP-9901-03 respectively. This leads to digidestined across the world being kidnapped by the foundation and trying to escape. Some of the digidestined get ahold of some of SCPs to help them escape, some being ones that already exist or some that I thought up.

Camp Cretaceous Au:For this au, I will talk about each character separately, and will only mention stuff from the first two episodes.

Sora: She is 18 years old and one of the Camp Counselors at Camp Cretaceous.(Don’t worry, They had to take classes before this!) Her father got her and Tai the job. He works as a digsite researcher for Jurassic World. She and Tai were already friends before getting the job, and both taught children how to play soccer which is why her father thought they would be good for the job. Her mom didn’t think it was a good idea as she thought Sora could get her, and boy was she right! She and the other counselors will follow Roxie and Dave’s storyline where they try to find the kids. Things will go differently for them as they won’t end up on the boats like Roxie and Dave did.

Taichi: You already know that he only took the job because he had to make sure that Kari was safe. Most info for Taichi is already explained in Sora’s paragraph, but I do plan for him and Yamato to have several arguments throughout the storyline, though I plan for them to better get to know each other after they have to go search for the kids. For episode two, instead of two campers going to the Carnotaurus cage, I plan for Yamato and Taichi to go with Daisuke. Yeah, Sora wasn’t too happy about them endangering one of the campers, but hey, Daisuke had the time of his life and helped save Yamato.

Yamato: He is 18 like Taichi and Sora, which should have made working with him easier, but no. He decided to be difficult. He’s only here to make sure his brother is safe. (He had to beg a lot for his friend to get him the job.) He’s good with the kids at least. The kids also like to hear him play songs,which ends with Miyako always freaking out about how they have a famous rockstar as a counselor. He has issues getting the youngest kid to relax,but Sora seems to have got it covered.

Takeru: He is 15 and he got invited to come to Camp Cretaceous after winning a writing contest involving the Park. He met Hikari before any of the others as they arrived earlier with the Camp Counselors. He and Daisuke argue a bit, and sometimes Miyako will join in. The others usually don’t though Iori asked them to be quiet once, which led to Daisuke getting a bruise on the head, and all four parties involved apologising. Though now, they’ve all learned that Iori can kick their asses if he ever chose to. Takeru plans on writing a book about their times here with Hikari’s beautiful pictures to go along with it. Once they found out Iori drew, they dragged him into it too.

Hikari: She got invited to Camp Cretaceous after Ingen saw her photography blog. Her first day sadly didn’t lead to anything interesting, but she, Takeru, and Daisuke all snuck out to go see if she can get any cool photos of the velociraptors. They almost got killed if the counselors hadn’t shown up. The Counselors scolded them for a while, and Daisuke was barred from going to Wu’s lab, she and Takeru wouldn’t have been able to either, if their brothers weren’t their counselors. Poor Daisuke though. Atleast, she won’t have to deal with his flirting while they are at the lab.

Daisuke: Daisuke is 15 years old and his soccer team is sponsored by Ingen, and that led to him and the captain of the other soccer team sponsored by Ingen to be Invited to Camp Cretaceous. He was so happy to hear that he and Ken both got invited. After their teams got sponsored by ingen, they had to go against each other a lot. This led to a rivalry between them, and it sadly wasn’t a friendly one at first, but then Ken warmed up to him and they became quick friends. He and Ken get to play soccer with two of their counselors as they are also soccer players. Isn’t that the coolest! The other counselors and campers try to play too, sometimes. Hikari seems to know a bit about soccer from her brother, while Takeru and Iori have experience with sports, so they fared better than Miyako and Yagami. Once when Iori asked him to be quiet, he retaliated by calling him a pipsqueak and Iori threw a book at him, though he had already realized that it was uncalled for before the book was thrown.

Ken: He had never really been a fan of Ingen, his parents weren’t either, but he could never really remember why. He thinks it has something to do with Sam. So when he found out that ingen would be sponsoring his team, he was not pleased. He knew it would help his players though, so he allowed for the sponsorship. He found the captain of the other team rather annoying and overbearing, and chose to kick his ass in soccer. Though one day, he was accidentally injured by Daisuke, and Daisuke helped him get to the bench. They ended up talking some more, and became friends. When he and Davis were invited to the camp, he planned on declining, but Davis got him to agree. It took a lot of persuading for his parents to agree as well. The first day wasn’t that eventful for him, though he knew that was different for some of the others. Davis told him all about it when he woke up. Sadly, Davis wasn’t allowed to go with them to the lab, but they still had fun. One of the assistant doctors was very nice to them all, though he felt like he had seen the guy before. He couldn’t place where though.

Iori: He is the youngest of the Campers, at 13 years old, but he would say that he’s also one of the most mature out of the group. Especially since he didn’t try to get himself killed on the first night, unlike some of the other campers. He doesn’t understand why Miyako was jealous, sure they got to see velociraptors but they also almost died, yeah no thanks. Though, he’s pretty sure Miyako wasn’t as jealous once she found out Daisuke had to clean dino excrement. When he got to the lab, Miyako ran off, but he atleast got to talk to the nice doctor that was walking them around. He got to watch some ankylosaurus hatch, the doctor even let him hold and name one. He remembers the doctor mentioning it imprinted on him or something like that. Sad that he didn’t get to learn the doctor’s name.

Miyako: Miyako is 16 years old and she wasn’t even invited to the camp, but Cody wasn’t going to go unless she went, and Ingen was surprisingly easy to hack anyway. She was excited to see what Camp Cretaceous had to offer too! The first day was pretty boring, but then she found out that some campers snuck out without her! Though Daisuke ended up with a rather unfavorable job, instead of going to the lab, so that sucks for him. While she was there, she decided to snoop inside Dr.Wu’s office. She got caught though, and Dr.Wu forced them to leave. Cody was pretty unhappy with her afterwards, Hikari told her about what happened while she was snooping, and explained why he was upset. She and Cody talked though, and he wasn’t too mad anymore.

Jou: That assistant doctor that’s been mentioned, yeah that's him. He is 19 years old and he works for Dr.Wu. He thinks Dr.Wu is pretty pretentious. His parents and one of his brothers work for Ingen, too. When he’s not working at the lab, he is hanging out with his friends, Mimi and Izzy. He even got them access to check out the lab. While they were doing that, he was assisting in giving some kids a tour. They were all very nice, and the youngest one seemed to really like the baby ankylosauruses, one even imprinted on him. Jou decided to let the kid name that one. Sadly, the kids had to leave after one of them was caught in Dr.Wu’s lab. This meant his friends had to leave too.

Mimi: She is a famous 17 year old vlogger and singer. She wanted to get some good videos on the park, and it was a perfect excuse to see Jou! She dragged Izzy along for the ride too! They spent their first week there just checking things out and making silly videos, but for the second week they decided to do a deep dive, starting with the lab. They just looked around the lab in the beginning, but then they got bored and decided to check Wu’s office. They found out about some weird dinosaur before they heard someone coming and left the room.(It was only Miyako though,) What they found seemed to upset Izzy though, she doesn’t know why though.

Koushiro: He is a famous programmer that sometimes joins Mimi in her videos. He lost his parents in an accident involving the construction of Jurassic World, and he plans to find out more about what happened that day. He goes to the park with Mimi, using the excuse that he also wanted to see Jou. When Jou invited them to the lab, he knew that it would be the best chance of finding out more information. What he found was somehow worse though. Did they really think this dinosaur would be better than the last one they made? He needed to know if Jou knew about this, but he couldn’t do that if Mimi was with him. Maybe he could ask his friend Tai if he could get him in, since he’s working at the camp for the summer. (Sadly, he doesn’t get the chance though.)

God, that was so many words. If you have anything else to ask, feel free to!

[firstagent]

Since it popped up on the Podcast, how would you rank the sibling dynamics from healthy to trainwreck?

This is an innocent-sounding question until you go over the franchise and realize just how many sibling relationships there are in Digimon and that all but like three of them have elements that might raise eyebrows. In the interest of being comprehensive, this includes all named characters in any anime, manga, and game I’m familiar with, treating the reboot separately and including Survive because... (looks at Kaito and Miu’s bios) ...holy crap.

Sibling Relationship Rankings! (Healthy is Higher)

Joe & Shin Kido (Adventure): Shin understands Joe’s hang-ups and offers support to make his own choices without steering him in any specific direction, for or against the family. And Shuu exists too (depending on the language you’re watching in)

Juri & Masahiko Kato (Tamers): For all of the awkwardness and potential points of fracture in the family, Juri and Masahiko are very close. Fun Fact: She started carrying around her iconic hand puppet to amuse and entertain him!

Keito & Nozomi Tamada (Re:Arise): Even with very different personalities, Keito and Nozomi have a lot of respect for each other. Unlike some big brothers, he comes to a mature conclusion when he realizes she’ll be just fine with Pumpmon at her side.

Yamato Ishida & Takeru Takaishi (Adventure 2020): Yamato’s worry over Takeru only affects his reluctance to take on time-consuming side quests when he might be in danger. Far more chill about trusting Takeru with the rest of the team, he’s a motivation rather than a mental handicap.

Masaru & Chika Daimon (Savers): Perhaps a more controversial pick for the healthier side, but Masaru and Chika have a playful relationship that proves that Chika dishes out as much as anyone in the family. Given how much harm DATS and Digimon have done to the family, Masaru risks her love to keep them away from her.

Joe & Shin Kido (Adventure 2020): Shin’s still supportive and still encourages Joe to make choices for himself, but having that bugout bag ready to go raises some serious questions about that family and which side Shin’s really on.

Ai & Makoto (Tamers): Toddlers fight. It’s okay. They come together for Impmon’s sake and the fact that they’re the only duo in the franchise with mutual custody over a digivice has to say something about the strength of their relationship.

Nene & Kotone Amano (Xros Wars Manga): Nene’s tactics are still desperate but not quite as extreme as the anime, and it counts for so much that Kotone fights so hard for Nene once the tables are turned. And good lord that backstory...

Takuya & Shinya Kanbara (Frontier): There’s definitely a sense of Takuya lapsing into thinking Shinya encapsulates everything frustrating about having an older brother, but he gets over it.

Miyako Inoue + Three (Zero Two): Perfectly normal large household. And while wondering what it would be like to be an only child is something every youngest does... top of mind fantasy, Miyako? Really?

Jianliang & Shaochung Lee (Tamers): Speaking of four-packs... there’s no doubting how much they care about each other, but Jian’s occasional short fuse with Shaochung betrays his usual calm demeanor, and we never get a picture of the full family dynamic once Rinchei and Jaarin are included.

Daisuke & Jun Motomiya (Zero Two): Everyone likes to paint Jun and Daisuke as something uglier than it really is. As much as they annoy each other, it’s still a pretty conventional sibling dynamic and they’d still fight hard for the other... even if the feeling’s closer to obligation.

Koji Minamoto & Koichi Kimura (Frontier): There’s no questioning the bond they develop, but there’s no way Koji and Koichi go from “don’t know the other exists” to “ZOMG Twinzies!” without a ton of awkwardness and feeling each other out. They’ll get better, but from our standpoint this is where we start to drift into trainwreck territory.

Tomoki & Yutaka Himi (Frontier): Tomoki can spin it all he wants but Yutaka comes off as a real jerk. Not that some resentment isn’t a little justified given how much Tomoki is coddled, but taking it upon himself to be the bearer of tough love is still not cool.

Taichi & Hikari Yagami (Adventure 2020): Hikari has a blind faith that Taichi can save the day in any circumstance, up to and including international shipping crisis. Meanwhile Taichi sees Hikari lapsing between typical friendly eight year old to brainwashed robot and doesn’t find any problem with it.

Yamato Ishida & Takeru Takaishi (Adventure): Lessons in how not to be an overprotective big brother. Yamato freaks out at the slightest notion that Takeru might be exposed to danger, including his very presence in the Digital World. When you have a complete nervous breakdown realizing that little bro’s actually pretty capable on his own, it’s not about your relationship with him anymore.

Touma & Relena Norstein (Savers): There’s caring about a little sister, making her plight a central cause in your life, and then involving her in a chess match with a madman. There’s a lot to forgive here (they are raised in a family where your kneejerk reaction to Grandma is “I bet she supported the Nazis in World War II”), but everything about their relationship just makes you uncomfortable.

Kaito & Miu Shinonome (Survive): Maybe it’s not fair since their game is the franchise’s unicorn, but their bios have warning flags all over it. He’s overprotective, ready to fight at the slightest hardship, and she repays this attitude by being rebellious and weird and eager to pursue trouble. May end up being worse once the game actually comes out.

Rei & Hajime Katsura (Appmon): Another one where their backstory makes you sympathize with the lengths they go to in order to stay together, but risking the security of actual guardians to go it alone? Jesus. Even with their ride or die attitude, you still sense a bit of friction in their relationship, and so many of their hardships are their own doing. 

Nene & Yuu Amano (Xros Wars): There’s nothing seemingly wrong on the surface between Nene and Yuu, but that’s why their actions are so extreme. Yuu’s more than happy to treat her as an enemy general in his game, while Nene’s aligning herself with dark forces and causing real trouble to get him back. It’s all very loud and intense for a relationship that, without external influences, is just nice and cordial.

Yuuko & Yuugo Kamishiro (Cyber Sleuth): You can be anything you want on the internet! So why not take the identify of your big brother who was stricken with a mystery illness at a young age and lead a legion of hackers? And if you’re Yuugo, use your digital body to take control of that avatar! Nothing weird about any of this!

Ken & Osamu Ichijouji (Zero Two): Like Tomoki, Ken can come up with whatever rationale for Osamu’s abuse he wants, and Osamu at least had some kind moments, but there’s no denying that this family was a mess. And of course Ken’s reaction to Osamu’s death... could have been better.

Taichi & Hikari Yagami (Adventure): Hikari’s introduction to the series was intended to be a little creepy, and that just sets the tone. Her blind loyalty to Taichi is a primary point of emphasis through three series, and Taichi sometimes goes ballistic worrying about her... when not accidentally endangering her life. And that’s before she unleashes a world-destroying abomination at the mere suggestion that Taichi’s dead, and why telling him “what you’re doing is wrong and I kind of hate you for it” is a big moment for her, even though she’s wrong.

Neo & Rei Saiba (V-Tamer): There’s going a little overboard to keep your family together or save a sibling’s life, and then there’s aligning yourself with evil forces to avoid having to deal with your sister’s manageable disability. Call it being jaded or delusional, but when it drives your sister to attempt suicide there are definitely issues you two need to work through.

Erika & Ryuji Mishima (Cyber Sleuth Hackers Memory): Because aligning oneself with Arkadimon is always a fantastic idea. He’s overprotective, she manipulates him because of it, there’s resentment, there’s anger, and basically the entire game is spent watching these two outdo each other in terms of causing wanton destruction throughout the city and cyberspace.

Honorable Mention: Bagramon & DarkKnightmon (Xros Wars): The battle of who can stab the other in the back last.

Want to support my site and/or my work? Buy me a coffee!

[seventeenlovesthree]

Fandom Shipping Polls - Taichi Yagami Shipping Analysis (Poll I + Poll II)

As pointed out in the main post, every single Chosen Child will get their individual analysis post to check on the status of the current popularity of their ships. With that out of the way, let’s take a look at Taichi, shall we!

The overall results / spreadsheet

Disclaimer: As the “Someone from 01/02″ and “Others” options from poll 1 and the “Someone from 01/02″ option from poll 2 have been excluded from the final analysis due to redundancy reasons and all results were culminated in another “final count”, the results will not be 1:1 to what the polls look like:

Overall votes: 164 (approx. 131 in sum after the exclusion), the main poll got 107 votes, the secondary poll got 57 votes.

The “Others” choice in the main poll received 6% (approx. 6 votes) and 7% (approx. 4 votes) in the secondary poll. The comments/tags did not specify any preferences here (aside from characters that were already part of the main choices).

Ship Analysis

1st place: This was actually a clutch one - and we may assign Koushiro’s victory (27%) here to the fact that Taichi’s poll was reblogged by Taishiro centric blogs as well. Initially, Yamato was leading the poll for the majority of the voting time and only got surpassed by Koushiro in the last few days (by round about 7 votes). Taishiro is still a well liked ship overall, presenting a “breaking your typical brawns/brains trope with a lot of mutual loyalty and devotion” bond that is still appealing to many, with them being all ride or die for each other. With several blogs even having picked it up in recent months, it should not be too surprising that they did get a lot of votes in comparison - however, a lot of big fandom names have moved on to different fandoms and it has become rather quiet outside of the Japanese spheres. Taiyama/Taito on the other hand has always been going strong and is a very popular choice for both parties.

2nd place: As mentioned above, Yamato (21%) was leading the poll for the majority of the time. And for good reason, as Taiyama is, not only in fandom but also in canon, a relationship that is highly focused on in terms of how they clash, but also complement, support and make each other better - which is also why there are tons of official promotional art that could have been used for the graphic! Taichi is Yamato’s (development) foil for a reason and the way their dynamics are being presented make them an appealing choice for one another. If the poll had been shared in Taiyama spaces, the results may have looked differently.

3rd place: Sora (16%) has been in the race for Top 3 the entire time, there wasn’t really any competition coming even close to them - however, she wasn’t surpassing Yamato at any moment of the voting. She did share second/third place with Koushiro quite a few times though. The poll was also making rounds in Taiora centric spaces, and even if there have been less enjoyable times in the past, tumblr itself is still having a dedicated  group of fans committed to making content, as Taiora has always been a viable ship for Taichi, just like the other two. Since Sora has been presented as main heroine in Adventure 01, being ride or die next to Taichi and foiling his development to the point of even indirectly activating his Crest of Courage, it is not surprising that their bond is still as popular as it is.

Honorary mentions: Daisuke is the only other character who surpassed the 10% mark for his senpai, but only picked up speed in the last few days. Mimi and Meiko were the only other ones who got past the 5% hurdle, which is interesting considering that other internet spaces (such as Facebook or Pinterest) are a lot more active in the Michi department.

“The 1 vote squad”: As Taichi’s polls were the ones to get as (comparably) many votes as they did, there actually are no “just 1 vote” answers - every other character in the Adventure verse (except one) got 2-3 votes, making those quite the niche options.This includes not only the main characters (Jou, Takeru, Ken and Miyako), but also the minor side characters (such as Menoa and Catherine).

“0 votes go to...”: Iori is the only character who didn’t get a single vote (which can probably be assigned to the lack of screentime/interaction as well as the age gap).

Annotations: Hikari was automatically excluded as a choice up front. Taikari does not seem to be a wide-spread choice in English speaking fandoms, even if a look at Japanese centric spaces may suggest that it’s fairly popular there.

What did the other polls say?

Interestingly, the other polls mirrored the results above and thus, Taichi won Yamato’s (37%), Sora’s (32%) and Koushiro’s (55%) polls as well, making him the character to win most polls overall.

He was also coming in second in Meiko’s (22%) poll and ranked third for each Mimi (13%) and Takeru (6%).

In Jou’s (2%) and Daisuke’s (3%) polls, he was quite a niche choice overall. 

He received 0 votes in the polls for Ken, Miyako and Iori.

Notable additions / comments / thoughts

As mentioned above, Taichi’s polls were the ones to receive the most votes overall, hence the numbers might be a little bit more accurate in comparison to other polls. He’s our main character after all, so he is likely to have interaction points and dynamics with a huge chunk of the cast. And thus, it’s no surprise to see people having different and also varying preferences for him - even if the results were pretty clear on who exactly was favoured most. However, the biases are still to be taken into account here. Thus, I really hope to reach a wider audience if I choose to repeat the polls.

Nevertheless, on a very personal note, I am both relieved and also not really surprised to see Yamato, Koushiro and Sora being represented as  the most popular choices for Taichi, as canon does frame them to be the most viable options, trope wise and screentime wise at least (rival/foil/opposite, right hand, female childhood friend). 

Seeing people slightly fancying characters like Meiko and Takeru is interesting, presumably due to his protective attitude towards them - a huge focus on Tri had been his and Meiko’s arcs being intertwined, making them contemplate whether and how to make very difficult choices, thus relating to each other. Takeru may look up to Taichi in a more brotherly way, that could also turn into more as they get older. Mimi is also represented for similar reasons, as the fandom sees a lot of potential in Michi, even though their anime interactions are more rare. Jou’s and Daisuke’s minor appearances suggest a niche interest in their dynamics after all; with Jou and Taichi gaining understanding and respect for each other through the series and Daisuke looking up to Taichi has his senpai, maybe even putting him on a pedestal there.

The comments in the tags have also only mentioned the three winners overall, so the “Others” option did not reveal any other potentially preferred suitors. This leaves room for speculation, but usually, the option is reserved for OC ships or for when people prefer to not ship a character at all (which will definitely be a future option to include as well!)

Other Analysis Posts 

Yamato Ishida Shipping Analysis

Sora Takenouchi Shipping Analysis

Koushiro Izumi Shipping Analysis

Mimi Tachikawa Shipping Analysis

Jou Kido Shipping Analysis

Takeru Takaishi Shipping Analysis

Hikari Yagami Shipping Analysis

Daisuke Motomiya Shipping Analysis

Ken Ichijouji Shipping Analysis

Miyako Inoue Shipping Analysis

Iori Hida Shipping Analysis

Meiko Mochizuki Shipping Analysis

[dutchforstrangers]

Suit and tieTai - Taiora one-shot

For @taioraweek 2023 Day 4

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]

A/N: Another WIP that finally sees the light of day. Because I will never get tired of making these two oblivious dorks kiss for the first time in every universe possible.

Summary: It was one simple kiss that turned their ignorance into awareness of what had already been there the entire time...

Day 4: First kiss | Characters: Taichi Yagami (POV) x Sora Takenouchi | Genre: Subconscious blooming romance | Rating: K+ | Wordcount: 1.344

7:47am. When he woke up this morning, he had told himself he would start early, so he was sure to leave Hikari and Sora’s apartment on time for a change. But it had already been eight whole minutes since he had started fighting the tie around his neck in front of the mirror.  

Frustrated with himself and that stupid string of fabric around his neck, Taichi growled. “I have this very important meeting at work I cannot mess up,” he said to no one in particular.

“You good?”

The female voice came from the kitchen and belonged to Sora, since Hikari had already left the house for her internship at the kindergarten. From the corner of his eyes, Taichi could see her peeking.

“Yes.” Taichi said, but didn’t sound to convincing. He decided to switch his answer. “No. This tie, I swear, these should be forbidden!”

Sora grinned, with her elbows she nonchalantly leant on the kitchen counter. “You’d think as someone working in suit and tie every day, you’re good at tying it by now.” She teased him.

“Except I’m not.” He was fully aware of his tone sounding annoyed. And he was, because somewhere deep down in him, he knew he would always struggle with it. “And never will be. Sor, can you help me one more time, please?”

He definitely needed her help. Like he had needed it all the other times he had stayed over these past couple of weeks.

Sora chuckled as she made her way over to him. “Come here.”

“Good thing I’m staying over.”

“You’re practically living here by now,” Sora joked while her hands prepared the two sides of the tie around his neck for the actual tying. Her eyes fixated on the accessory.

Sora’s joke was one with truth though. The girls’ apartment was closer to Taichi’s work than the loft where he lived with the three boys, plus, it had a more cozy atmosphere compared to the messy boys’ energy. He had lived with Yamato, Koushiro and Jyou during his entire time at university, but now that Taichi had started working, he was ready to go a different direction regarding his living space.

“I don’t want to be near Yamato and my cousin getting it on constantly.” Which was another big reason why he wasn’t at home right. He watched a blush forming on Sora’s cheeks, her hands still working on his tie, softly and with care.

“Too much information,” she said. “How about Koushiro-kun and Jyou-senpai?”

“Ugh, Jyou’s never at home, either in the hospital or with his girlfriend, and Koushiro is busy most of the time, hidden behind his desk and wall of computers. Different from me, the boy is resistant to Yamato and all of his bedroom shenanigans.”

Sora laughed. She spent a lot of time with Koushiro, her being one of those rare friends who could talk to him without any form of technology between them, and she was very much aware of Koushiro’s ability of radiating the ‘I’m not giving a shit’ energy.

“Jealous?”

“Please,” was Taichi’s answer.

He wasn’t jealous, it was just him being ready for a change of pace. And so he found himself crashing on the girls’ couch quite a few days per week. He had to admit though, it also came in very handy that Hikari or Sora –but mostly Sora—were always available to help him out with his daily outfit struggles. 

Maybe he was in need of a life partner to settle down with, who could match his changed needs and wants, Taichi thought to himself, knowing he couldn’t keep crashing the girls’ couch forever.

“I much rather stay here with my lovely little sister and incredible friend who is—”

Sora patted his chest lightly and Taichi shifted his attention towards her hands after returning from his thoughts.

“… great at tying your ties.” Sora finished for him. Her feminine fingers worked their magic once more and a perfectly knotted tie hung loosely around his neck. She carefully adjusted his collar and the tie itself, making it look sharp. “There, you’re all set.”

The softness and collected happiness in her voice made Taichi smile. He showed her his signature grin before turning himself to the mirror to look at himself. Behind him he saw Sora look at him too and his own heart weirdly skipped a beat.

“Thanks,” he quickly said to cover himself, still genuinely happy with Sora’s fashion knowledge and friendly help. He walked past her to get to his jacket and coat.

“Oh! There’s this dinner thing at my place tonight, will you be there too?” Taichi remembered as he put the jacket and coat on.

“Sure will be,” Sora answered while on her way back to the kitchen. Again, he felt a bolt of luck going through his body and warming his chest.

“Great! Looking forward to it.” He hastily slid into his shoes, his eyes checking out the time on the watch around his wrist. “Shit! Okay, gotta rush, see you toni—”

“Wait! Not yet.” Sora shouted from the kitchen. Taichi already had the door opened, doorknob in his hand, as he turned his head around to see Sora crossing the small living room towards in a rushed pace. In her hand she held his lunchbox and he instantly remembered it was what he not only forgot to grab, but forgot to prep and pack as well…

“You left this,” she said it as if he hadn’t seen what she was bringing him. He took the box from her, immediately feeling it wasn’t empty, meaning she had not only noticed he forgot, but had actually prepped and packed it for him. The heat from his chest slowly rose to his cheeks. “Have a good day at work.”

She smiled at him with her kindest and most genuine smile. It made him smile in return and for just the briefest of moments, time stood still.

“Thank you, you too,” he said, suddenly realizing he was in a hurry. With the lack of air between the two of them, he swiftly close the gap and planted a quick kiss on her lip—

Wait.

He did what? When— how?

Time seemed to stand still once more.

“Erm… sorry,” Sora spoke first, face completely red, chest high from all the gathered air inside of it. “That wasn’t supposed to happen…”

Taichi shook his head, with that trying to get him out of his daze. “Right… So much for all the accusations of us looking like a married couple huh?” He joked, automatically resolving to comedy to cover up his own redness.  

“Y-yeah, hehe…” Sora nodded as one hand moved itself nervously to her lips, her fingers touching the spot where he had pecked her like a husband kissing his spouse goodbye for the day.

Even though he had been unaware of his own feelings at first, apparently, his body had known what to do. The kiss blissfully happened by itself, showcasing both him and her what sparks had been exchanged. Not only during the time spent in this apartment together, but during their entire life by now.

It occurred to him that, rather than searching for someone to settle down with, perhaps he had already found that someone. Sleeping underneath the same roof, she tying his ties, bickering like only lovers could.

That it was just one simple kiss turning the ignorance into awareness.

The smile on his face grew bigger. As much as Taichi wanted to stay, especially now –to reflect a bit longer, to talk about his newfound excitement— he had to run.

“See you tonight, Sora.” Taichi said emphasizing her name as he took off.

He looked over his shoulder one more time, just to be met with the view of Sora waving him goodbye like they had indeed been married forever. To that, Taichi snickered to himself, in his securing Sora would be the one to untie his tie at the end of at least today.

Perhaps he could even steal another kiss from her…

[ozoraslegend]

So, you come here to read my blogs, which are about 9Digi-Protagonists. It's clear, based on the name of my blog and the blog rules. But what exactly is the '9Digi-Protagonists'?

Well, let's talk about the context. I am talking about the Japanese sub.

When I say about the 'Digimon characters', it means all of the characters, main or side, good or bad, have appeared and will appear in all media branches of the Digimon franchise. When I say about the 'Main characters', it means all important characters whom the show is around.

'Protagonists' are the ones the show focuses on. They are (usually) the symbol of the show, and even when the audiences almost forget the show, they will remember them.

So, in conclusion, the '9Digi-Protagonists' are:

Yagami Taichi (14) and Agumon from Digimon Adventure (1999-2000)

Motomiya Daisuke (11) and V-mon from Digimon Adventure 02 (2000-2001)

Matsuda Takato (10) and Guilmon from Digimon Tamers (2001-2002)

Kanbara Takuya (11) and his Spirit (Agnimon/Vritramon) from Digimon Frontier (2002-2003)

Daimon Masaru (14) and Agumon from Digimon Savers (2006-2007)

Kudou Taiki (14) and Shoutmon from Digimon Xros Wars (2010-2011)

Akashi Tagiru (13) and Gumdramon from Digimon Xros Wars: The Young Hunters Who Leapt Through Time (2011-2012)

Shinkai Haru (14) and Gatchmon from Digimon Universe: Appli Monsters (2016-2017)

Amanokawa Hiro (13) and Gammamon from Digimon Ghost Game (2021-2023)

Some of you may have the following questions, and I will answer:

Why is Yagami Taichi from Digimon Adventure: (or, as you may know, 'the reboot of the original') not listed here? Reboot Taichi and Original Taichi may have the same name and appearance, but they are very different. I respect Reboot Taichi as a character. However, I… have mixed feelings about the reboot generally. Not that I hate it, but… By the way, I think it's better to not include him in the group. Although the shenanigans when we have two Taichi in the room are very fun… You can still ask me about him, of course!

Why do you include such annoyed/flat characters? I can't imagine how you can make interesting interactions by including them! In my opinion, there are no bad characters, only bad writing and bad interpretation. Characters' developments exist after all. And I think all Digimon characters have been written very well! It's just that Adventure (and especially 02, remove tri) have a specific, implicit, signature way of writing characters' personalities and developments. And Tamers has a special general way of writing (actually, not because it's dark). But not because other series don't have that way of writing characters that their characters have bad writing. You can see a lot of characters over there have really bad ways of writing. So, no, I think all the characters I have chosen above are very suitable.

Why is the Japanese sub? I think the sub and the dub are the same, right? Uh… It's a truth that no matter how good your dubbing is, there will always be differences. Japanese culture has very unique differences. We cannot add a long note about those differences in the show; that is obvious. And although Digimon's dubbing is very good compared to other dubs, I just want to respect the original one. So we come to the conclusion that the sub and the dub are very different. The main reason, after the fact that some people don't know about this large gap, is that not many people rewatch another version of what they have seen. That is absolutely beyond blame. And to avoid bias or discrimination, we are talking about the previous American dub. Modern dubs or non-related-to-American dubs are usually closer to the original.

If you have any other questions, please ask me!