Chapter 2
Tap tap tap, tapetta tap tap.
Kari watched in awe as Koushiro's hands flew across the keyboard. Small, quick, and sharp as a razor, Koushiro Izumi, better known as Izzy, was, by far, probably the smartest person Kari had ever met. Izzy brushed his dark auburn hair back, and continued typing away at the computer. He then picked up a small, cylindrical object resembling a fat pen, and attached a small wire to the base of it. Then he wrapped the fine metal wire around a small knob on the side of his laptop's hard drive. He typed a line of code onto the computer screen and hit enter, then pressed a button on the side of the penlike object. A red beam of light shot out of the cylinder and played a thin horizontal crimson line on the wall across the room.
"Prodigious!" Izzy said. "It worked!"
Kari blinked.
Tai, who was now sprawled out on the bed on his stomach, lifted his head, as if he could look overtop the very blindness that had stricken him. He growled in frustration.
"What worked?" he asked.
Izzy glanced up.
"Using my laptop and this laser pointer," he said, holding up the penlike object, "I have fashioned a sort of scanner, if you will."
Tai made a face.
"Meaning...?"
Izzy grinned.
"Meaning I can use this laser pointer to scan your eyes, Tai," he responded, "and hopefully find out what's causing this."
"So it's kinda like those tricorder thingies they use on Star Trek?" Tai said with a smirk.
Izzy laughed.
"Sort of," he replied, happy to see Tai was in good spirits, despite the situation, "but the Star Trek technology is centuries ahead of mine."
He waved the laser pointer in the air and picked up his laptop computer. He walked over to the edge of the bed.
"Okay, Tai, I need you to lay your head back on the pillow," Izzy said, "so I can scan the laser across your eyes."
Tai flopped over onto his back and stared up at the nothingness before him. Izzy pressed the button on the side of the laser pointer, and the red beam of light drew a thin line across Tai's forehead.
"Hold still, now," Izzy said, and slowly drew the laser down his friend's face, across his eyes, scanning them twice. Then he turned, and Tai heard him tap something on his laptop keyboard.
"Interesting," Izzy murmured, and ran the laser up and down across his friend's eyes again.
"What?" Tai asked without moving.
Izzy didn't reply, rather ran the scanner horizontally a few times.
"Very interesting..."
"What??" Tai asked again.
Again, Izzy didn't answer. He sat back down on the floor and pecked at the keyboard for a moment, and Kari watched in amazement as a line diagram of her brother's eye appeared on a blue screen on Koushiro's laptop. The red-haired boy made a wordless sound of intrigue, and pressed another series of keys. The diagram rotated slowly to the left.
"Very very interesting..."
Tai remained still, but a ragged, harried tone crept into his voice.
"Koushiro Izumi," he growled, "you've said three times that my eyeballs were interesting...what the hell is so interesting??"
Koushiro didn't look up from his laptop, rather pointed at the screen so Kari could see what he was talking about.
"Now, mind you," he began, "I'm no doctor...but as far as I can tell, Tai,"--he glanced up--"there's nothing wrong with your eyes."
Tai jerked upright in his bed.
"WHAT?" he cried. He waved his arms in the air. "Izzy, are you nuts? If there's nothing wrong with my eyes, then why can't I SEE??"
Koushiro closed his eyes and lifted his computer into his lap.
"You didn't let me finish," he said, irked.
Tai silenced.
"Like I said before," Izzy went on, "there is no actual damage to your eyes, Tai. Nothing is scratched, burned, infected, or missing..." He paused. "Rather, there is something extra."
"Extra?" Tai and Kari echoed in tandem.
Izzy nodded.
"Uh huh," he affirmed. "That's what's causing the trouble." He poked at the screen of the computer. "Kari, if you look here, you'll see a diagram of your brother's eye. This cross-section here shows the cornea, which is the outside of the eye. It's completely in tact, no scratches, no nothing." Kari nodded, though she wasn't completely certain what all of that meant. "This is the iris, the colored part of the eye," he explained further, moving his finger in a circular motion across the monitor, "and this is the pupil, the hole in the center of the iris that regulates the amount of light getting through to the retina, the innermost part of the eye. All of the above are in tact and undamaged."
"So what's the problem?" Tai asked, getting impatient.
Izzy tapped at the keyboard again, then hesitated. He pointed at the screen.
"This is," he said. Kari stared at the screen, wide-eyed.
"What is it?" she asked.
Koushiro frowned.
"I'm not sure."
"Great," Tai muttered, "Einstein is stumped..."
"It's some sort of black film," Izzy said, "between the iris and the pupil, that's what is causing the monochrome appearance of his eyes. It's blocking the pupil, thus blocking any light from reaching the retina. That's what is causing your inability to see, Tai." He paused again. "But what exactly this black film is, I couldn't tell you."
Tai frowned. "So...theoretically," Tai began, and Izzy flinched. Whenever Tai had a theory, it was usually a bad one. "Theoretically," Tai said again, "all we have to do is remove this black film, right?"
Koushiro shook his head. "It's not that easy, Tai," he replied. "I dunno how it got there, or what it's composed of...and I'm not at all qualified to make any sort of medical diagnosis about it."
Kari snapped her fingers.
"What about Jyou?" she asked. "His father is a doctor."
"A medical doctor," Izzy replied, "not an opthamologist."
Kari pouted.
"Well it couldn't hurt," she mumbled.
"I think that probably the best thing for us to do right now is wait," Izzy admitted.
Tai snapped his chin up.
"WAIT??" he cried. "The only suggestion you have is for me to just WAIT?"
Izzy put his hands up as if to block Tai's incredulity.
"Tai," he said, "I don't know how that strange black thing got into your eyes...I have no idea what it even IS. This...this just sort of happened? Overnight?"
Tai frowned.
"Overnight," he affirmed softly.
"Then there is a chance it will right itself in the same way."
Tai scowled. He hated it when Izzy's wild ideas made sense.
"That's ridiculous, Izzy," he shouted, "I can't just wait this out! What about my parents? What will they say? I think they're gonna know something is wrong when I start running into walls and stuff."
"Tai, we can't be so rash about this," Kari said loudly to get her brother's attention, "your eyes are delicate. They're precious, they're the only eyes you will ever have. We have to think before we act, Tai." She paused. "Even as smart as he is, I wouldn't want Izzy taking a scalpel to MY eyes..." She turned to Koushiro and added, "No offense."
"None taken," he replied with a grin.
Tai let out a gusty sigh and ran his fingers through his wild hair.
"Okay, okay," he grumbled reluctantly, flopping backward onto his pillow, "we'll wait."
Kari smiled.
"Tai," she said. He turned his head as if to look at her. "Tai, you realize...that your still in your pajamas?" she asked.
His face turned beet red and he clapped one hand onto his chest.
"Uhh..."
Kari giggled, and got to her feet. She rifled through a drawer in the dresser and pulled out a dark colored long-sleeved shirt, Tai's favorite blue tee-shirt, and a pair of brownish cargo shorts. She tossed the bundle of clothing into her brother's lap.
"I have to get dressed, too," she told him, plucking at her own PJ's. She grabbed a sleeveless yellow shirt and her dark pink capri pants. "I'll be back in a minute, okay?"
"Uh, sure, Kari," he replied absently, and held up the long-sleeved shirt, wondering how on earth he was going to tell if it was inside-out or not. Kari hesitated near the doorway, then pulled gently on Koushiro's sleeve. He glanced down at her, and she motioned for him to follow her out into the hallway. He closed his laptop and glanced up at Tai.
"Hey, Tai," he said, getting to his feet, "I'm gonna go get something to drink, you want anything?"
"Uhh..." Tai said, still plucking at the clothes in befuddlement, "sure, there should be some Cokes in the fridge."
"You got it," Izzy replied, and followed Kari out of the room. Kari closed the bedroom door behind her and clasped her hands around Koushiro's wrist.
"Izzy," she said softly, with a sort of desperate urgency in her voice, "what are we going to do?"
Izzy blinked.
"I thought we agreed to wait it out and see what happened tomorrow," he responded.
Kari narrowed one eye.
"You know Tai," she protested, putting her hands on her hips, "he'll never be able to sit still that long. He's almost as hard to control as Skull Greymon was."
Izzy winced. It had been a little over two years now since the children's adventures in the digital world; two years since the defeat of the Dark Masters and the evil creatures whose very existence had warped the time and space in the digital world, jerking it out of synch with the real world. Two years since the children had last seen the digital monsters--digimon--that they had fought alongside, that they had grown to trust with all their hearts. These creatures who had risked their very lives to help save their world and the human world. These unusual creatures the children found they had grown to love.
Two years.
Had it really been that long? It felt like...like yesterday.
It had been even longer for Kari, he knew. Izzy, Yamato, Takeru, and Tai had all had a chance to see their digimon a little more recently, when a virally corrupted digimon called Diaborumon had tried to destroy the Internet. Diaborumon had been stopped, and order returned to the Internet, thanks to the work of Wargreymon and Metalgarurumon, who had somehow managed to digivolve together to create Omnimon. It had been a fantastic battle, and a good opportunity to watch his digimon in action once more...but even so, Koushiro felt an ache in his heart to see Tentomon again...
He shook his head almost imperceptibly, pushing away thoughts of the past, then looked at Kari, concern in his dark eyes.
"I know, Kari, I know," he admitted, frowning, "but I honestly don't have any better suggestions right now. I...I dunno what else we can do."
Kari looked at the floor.
"What are my parents gonna think?" she wondered aloud.
Izzy put his hands on Kari's shoulders and looked her in the eye.
"It's not anybody's fault, Kari," he said slowly, "it's not like either of you made a mistake."
Kari looked up at him, her eyes watery.
"I know it's nobody's fault, Izzy," she said, forbidding herself to cry, "but, well,"--she turned away and placed her hand on the doorknob, resting her forehead against the bedroom door--"I'm scared, Izzy."
Izzy frowned, and put one hand behind his head, unsure of how to respond.
"I dunno what to tell you, Kari," he replied honestly. "I wish I did...but I just don't. I'm a computer whiz...not a doctor."
Kari glanced at him over her shoulder and nodded.
"Maybe you aren't," she said, "but Jyou's father is." She paused. "Im going to call Jyou's house, Jyou might have some insight--"
Izzy grabbed her arm as she started down the hallway.
"Tai won't like that," he said. "He won't want Jyou to know...I'll bet he didn't even want ME to know."
Kari nodded.
"He didn't..." she admitted. Then she clenched her fists. "He's so darn STUBBORN, Izzy," she continued after a moment, "he'll go to the point of jeopardizing his own safety before he'll admit he needs anyone's help."
"I know, Kari," he said again, shaking his head, "I know."
They walked down the hall into the kitchen, and Kari opened up the fridge. She pulled out a soda for Tai, then handed one to Izzy. Izzy popped open the can, then took the soda for Tai and headed back down the hall.
"Get dressed, Kari," he said, noticing she still carried her small bundle of clothes, "I'll go give this to Tai." He held up the soda and then lowered his voice. "Go call Jyou, Kari," he added softly, "we may need his help." Kari nodded, and headed toward the bathroom to get changed.
She spun quickly when the phone behind her rang. Izzy turned around when he heard it ring, and locked eyes with Kari. He nodded, then headed back down the hall before Tai got to wondering what had happened to them. Hikari reached out and picked up the phone.
"Hello," she said, "Kamiya residence."
"Kari?" a female voice asked.
"Mom?" Kari said, a trifle confused. "Mom, are you okay?"
"I'm fine, Kari," Mrs. Kamiya said into the phone, "but I just thought I would call and check up on you and your brother." She paused. "He's not still sleeping, is he?"
Kari smiled.
"No, he's awake now," she answered.
"That's good." There was a moment of silence, then Mrs. Kamiya continued, "Kari, did you watch the weather at all?"
Kari blinked.
"No, not today," she admitted, "why?"
"Apparently the meteorologists have been tracking a large storm cell headed our way," her mother replied. "I wanted to make sure you and Tai knew it was coming so it wouldn't catch you by surprise."
"A storm?"
Kari glanced out the window and her jaw slackened a little. The sky had gotten so dark! It had been sunny only a little while ago...what had happened? The wind appeared to have picked up, too, sending the trees outside swaying like rubber.
"Wow," she breathed, "that looks intense."
"You think you two will be okay for a little while longer?" her mother asked. "Your father and I still have some shopping to do, but if you want, we can head home now."
"We'll be fine, Mom," Kari replied.
"Okay," Mrs. Kamiya said. "If the power goes out, you can light a candle, or use the hurricane lamp, if you want, but please be careful."
"We will be, Mom."
"Love you," her mother said.
"Love you, too, Mom," Kari said back, "bye."
Click.
Kari placed the receiver back in its cradle and glanced up at the window again, her hand lingering by the phone for a moment. She walked over to the sliding glass door that led to the balcony outside and pressed her hands up against the cool glass. She frowned, then darted into the bathroom and quickly changed into her clothes. Upon emerging, her pajamas draped over her arm, she again approached the glass door.
"Who was that on the phone, Kari?" Kari glanced over her shoulder to see Koushiro standing in the hallway again.
"It was my mom," she answered, returning her eyes to the charcoal sky, "warning us about the big storm headed this way."
Izzy walked up behind her and looked outside over her shoulder. "It certainly looks like a bad one," he agreed.
Kari unlocked the door and slowly slid it open, stepping warily out onto the terrace.
"Kari?"
Izzy lingered in the doorway as the wind rushed past. Kari looked at him, then walked over to the railing. She looked toward the eastern horizon and gasped. Izzy stepped outside after her and raised one hand to shield his eyes from the strong wind.
"Look how dark it is, Izzy!" she said over the howl of the wind.
"I get the feeling this is going to be one heck of a storm," Izzy replied. He paused. "But springtime storms are very unusual," he added, then shrugged. "I'm just glad it's Spring Break and we don't have to walk home from school through it." He frowned at the sky, then tugged Kari's sleeve. "Come on," he said, "we shouldn't be out here, it's dangerous."
Kari nodded, and they hurried back inside. Before she closed the door, however, she gave one last look at the ebony sky and frowned. She had a bad feeling about this. She only wished she knew why.
