~~~~~

"Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the worst kind of poverty." The wise words of Mother Thersea. ~~~~~

The group, after the encounter with Myostismon and Garudamon, was feeling a bit depressed. They had no idea where they were going, they had to get away fairly quickly before Myostismon recovered, and decide what they were going to do about him.

Easier said than done.

They were just wandering, Yamato and Taichi mumbling to eachother about where to go next, what to do, both of them trying to play leader.

There was no conversation, as there was no need for noise. A dark cloud was hanging over the heads of the digidestined, as they walked closer and closer into dark uncertainity. Of course that is, until Mimi decided she wanted to be comforted by her crush. Whether he liked it or not.

"I hate this.." Mimi whined as she walked alongside Koushiro, trying to get him to care. He tolerated her yet said nothing.
"Nobody's talking, we're all so depressed, we don't know where we're going and my feet hurt!" Mimi's incessant babbling continued into Koushiro's unattentive ear. Although she noticed this and it bothered her, Mimi was never one to quit until she received what she was after.

"What if my crest never starts glowing?" Mimi continued, determined to somehow catch Koushiro's attention. "What if Palmon never digivolves? I mean how are we supposed to get out of this stupid world if our digimon don't work?"
At this point in time Koushiro longed for a break to stop and open up his laptop in hopes to save his ears from further torture.
His gaze wandered over to Jyou, and flinched at the sight of a glowering morbidness lurking in Jyou's glass-covered eyes. Everyone was depressed, however the sight of the pain in Jyou's eyes was just too depressing. 'He must be thinking about something....maybe I should ask..'
Koushiro chuckled inwardly at himself. 'However I would probably make things worse..' ~~~~~

Jyou was deep in thought, not being able to drive the nightmare from last night out of his mind.
"They hate you."
Three simple words, three words from his subconcious. Three words driving him insane.
'They don't hate me, they don't have time to hate me..' Jyou repeated to himself over and over, trying to drive the three words from his mind, trying to forget it and run away.
Only it kept coming back to haunt him. "They hate you."

Gomamon was annoyed by the dark atmosphere hanging around their humans, it was even starting to make him depressed. With Jyou definately being down in the seawater, he was really beginning to get annoyed.

"What are you all so depressed about? We got away, didn't we?" Gomamon said outloud, however only Jyou heard him.
"We're just a little worried about not getting home and beating Myostismon and our crests.." Jyou trailed off, not sure of what else ailed the other kids.
"Well I'm a bit worried too but I'm not moping around like the rest of you! Lighten up, how are we supposed to win if we're so depressed?" Gomamon said perkily. "I say you should all stop worrying yourselves so much."
Jyou said nothing. He had learned from experience that if Gomamon got himself into a sunny disposition then nothing would bring him out of it.
"I'm tired, I'm getting a headache, the grass is agrivating my sinuses, we're all going to collaspse any minute now, can we take a break already?" Jyou complained, as usual.
"Shutup Jyou.." Taichi said softly, continuing to trudge on.
Jyou closed his mouth and his dark mood became darker. ~~~~~

Koushiro had wanted to object to Taichi's dissaproval of Jyou's idea. 'Jyou was only stating the opinion of the group, we do need a rest, we've walked far enough.' Koushiro glared silently at Taichi. However Taichi's head was down and his shoulders were slumped so he decided it would not matter if he had objected anyhow. He looked over at Jyou again, and recognized further hurt on his face. 'I wish I could comfort you right now, Jyou.'
Koushiro's eyes trailed along the ground. 'I wish I could come up with some plan to make everyone feel more hopeful. If only we would stop so I would get a chance to work.' ~~~~~

Sometime later, the group did stop. At a fork in the road, where the path split into two separate roads. For awhile the group got to rest, and Koushiro attempted to come up with a plan, something, to help out, however was having no success. Jyou was trying to relax a little and give himself a rest, yet was having no success himself.

Taichi and Yamato breaking out into a fight did not help. ~~~~~

"If we split into two groups just for awhile, we could cover more ground faster and get an idea of where we are!" Taichi yelled. Taichi the egotistical leader, yet he meant well.
"If we split up, what if we get lost?! Are you trying to break us up again, Taichi?!" Yamato practically screeched. Yamato, the cool guy, the rebel, sometimes it seemed more like he objected to everything Taichi said just to get Taichi's attention.

However Jyou seemed to be the only one who noticed the love in their eyes for eachother. The fighting between them was merely a vent for the frustration of feeling the way they do and trying so hard not to show it.
'They're lucky, they're never lonely, they have eachother, why are they depressed about how they feel..' Jyou thought miserably, his lips forming a small pout. ~~~~~

Once again, Taichi and Yamato are fighting. 'We should concentrate more on fighting the enemy and less upon fighting eachother.' Koushiro thought grimly, typing away on his computer, in hopes of reaching a solution.
And soon before Yamato and Matt tried to kill one another. Again.

'They must really care about eachother if they fight so much.' Koushiro thought, his typing speed slowing down a little. 'Jyou and I never fought, and we cared alot about eachother..'
The typing came to a halt. 'Of course that was when..Jyou and I were friends..' ~~~~~

"They hate you."
Shutup.

Listening to the two fight again, Jyou was free to wander back to his depression.

"They hate you."
Shutup!

The voice from his nightmare resonated in his thoughts. Once again he felt isolated from the group as he did battle with those three terrible words. Taichi and Yamato's yelling grew louder and rang in his ears.

"They hate you."
Shutup!!!

"They hate you."
"SHUTUP!!!!" Jyou suddenly exclaimed, clasping his hands over his ears, losing his control, not being able to take it anymore. All eyes turned to Jyou as he blushed and realized he had yelled out loud.
"Why don't you shutup and stay out of this, Jyou?!" Taichi yelled back. Jyou got up and walked to the two.
"I am so sick of listening to you two argue all the time! If you want to explore both paths so badly Taichi and if you want everyone to stay together Yamato, why don't we just take a run down both paths altogether!!" Jyou's normally gentle and cowardly nature disappeared.
Koushiro was looking up in disbelief at Jyou's sudden outbreak.
"Why can't you two ever come to a compromise? It's so easy to do and it always seems to fly right past you two!" Jyou continued, his frustration refusing to stay dormant. "I get such a headache from listening to you two go at it-"
"You're ALWAYS complaing, Jyou! What else is new if you have something depressing to say?!" Yamato said defensively.
"-and we all get tired of having to wait around while you two fight! This isn't a game, this is serious, we could all be hurt or worse out here in this insane world, and you two are too busy with yourselves to remember that!"
Yamato and Taichi's mouths widened a little as Jyou hit a mark.
"Why don't you just admit to being inlove with one another and stop using this dumb arguments as an excuse to vent your frustration! There's more people than you two here!!!" Jyou's final blow was dealt.
Taichi and Yamato's faces turned a dark crimson as reality hit them, and as tears threatened to flow from their secret being revealed. Jyou's face fell in horror as he realized what he had done.
"I-I'm-"
Yamato suddenly bolted into a run, down one path all on his own. Taichi called after him then turned to Jyou.
"How COULD you?!" Taichi said angrily, punching Jyou swiftly and painfully in the stomach as he tore after Yamato, calling his name.
Jyou's knees buckled underneath him and he fell to the ground, clutching his stomach, his guilt hurting more than his physical pain. ~~~~~

'Jyou...' Koushiro was in shock. Yamato and Taichi were inlove? It was obviously true judging by their reaction. What was more shocking was that Jyou caught on to it before anyone else obviously did. The most amazing was that Jyou said that.

"If I had told you my secret, would you of done that..?" Koushiro said breathlessy, so quiet that no one heard him. Or at least, he thought no one had heard him. ~~~~~

Jyou's eyes widened in shock. Had he heard right? Did Koushiro really say that? 'Does he really think that I...that I would do that to him...?'
'I just did it to Taichi and Yamato...' Jyou's eyes started to spill over as he started to cry, for loneliness, for guilt, for his mistake. ~~~~~

Later that night, Taichi and Yamato did come back, and the group finally found out the truth about their relationship. The group was surprised, however no one said anything bad. They just needed time to get used to the knowledge, however they all swore to remain loyal friends.

Taichi and Yamato had said nothing to Jyou, however, not like it would of mattered. Jyou was too far down in his own world to hear anyone.

A worried and questioning gaze was upon him without his realizing it.

As the night grew darker, everyone eventually drifted off into peaceful sleep.
Yet Jyou's sleep would not be peaceful. ~~~~~

"Did you want to meet the Izumi's new baby?" Mom said cheerfully, squatting to Jyou's level and offering her hand.
"Is it a girl? If it's a girl I'll get cooties." Little Jyou said decisively, determined to protect himself from the plague of cooties.
"It's a baby boy actually, named Koushiro."
"A boy? Maybe he'll be my friend.." Jyou's eyes lit up at the prospect of friend. "Maybe even my best friend! We could be heros or something together!" Jyou grabbed his mother's hand as he continued to babble about his new best friend, while his mother smiled at him lovingly. ~~~~~

"Hi!" Jyou said politely, bowing to Mrs.Izumi with grace.
"I know who you came to see, Jyou." Mrs.Izumi smiled gently. "He's in the living room, building a castle. Would you like to help him?"
"YEAH!" Jyou said as he ran to find the living room. It took him a few minutes until he finally heard someone sobbing, and quickly located the source.
'I hate it when people cry, it makes me cry too.'
The source of the tears was a baby with a mess of red hair, sitting near a pile of fallen building blocks.
"Aww..don't cry. What's the matter?" Jyou knelt near the baby, finding it very fascinating. The baby looked up at him in wonder for a minute and then resumed crying.
"You must be Koushiro. Did you knock over your castle?" Jyou inspected the blocks, noticing that one or two were still standing in a straight line. The baby clutched at one block and sucked on it, sniffling.
"Well fallen blocks are no match for Super Jyou! I'll fix your castle!" Jyou quickly went to work, building a castle as tall as him with all of the blocks. When he was done, he stood proudly in front of his work. "TAA DAH!" He announced proudly, showing off his fortress.
For a moment, baby Koushiro looked at the castle in awe. Then he giggled as he grabbed one of the bottom blocks and caused the castle to crumble. Jyou fumed.
"YOU WANTED TO BUILD A CASTLE JUST TO MAKE IT FALL DOWN!?" Jyou shouted, stamping his feet and pulling at his blue hair. Baby Koushiro giggled again and applauded the show Jyou was putting on.
When he heard the giggling, Jyou stopped and looked the baby in the eye. "You're silly!" he said as he flopped to the ground, grinning at the baby. ~~~~~

'That was the first time I ever met Koushiro..' Jyou thought, smiling fondly at the memory.
'We were best friends from that moment on, I came to see him whenever I could...'
'Until..'
"Until he starting hating you. Until he found something to hate about you.
Tired of fighting, Jyou did not bother to run. He was just too tired. Too tired of destiny, of loneliness, of these nightmares. Just too tired.
"That bothers you, doesn't it? You really care about him, don't you?"
Koushiro was Jyou's best friend. His only friend.
"Then he left you. Then everyone left you."
When Jyou became depressed, people became frustrated with him very easily over it.
"You hate that, right? You hate that they hate you. You especially hate that Koushiro hates you."
Only one friend in the world. He was more than happy with that one friend, until that one friend was suddenly gone.
"If you admit it, you could just let it go. You could just let everything go..."
The words from earlier came back to his mind.
"How COULD you?!" Taichi shouted angrily.
"If I had told you my secret, would you of done that..?" Koushiro asked softly.

That was more than enough of a good reason. There was no denying the painful truth now.
"They hate me.." Jyou choked, then started to sob bitterly in the darkness of his heart. "They HATE me!!!" ~~~~~

As Jyou tossed and turned in his sleep, a sudden pain was caught in his chest. For a moment he was paralyzed with pain as a black gear flew out of his body and into the endless night.