Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Digidreams Do Come True! ❯ Jou’s Biological Journey! ( Chapter 7 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Well, here’s another chapter for you all. Just bare with me here; there’s only a couple of more chapters worth of abductions left: Yamato and Iori, and then the real plot starts up. Not much I can really say for this chapter, other than there being a flashback for it and another introduction of an original character. She’s not really significant to the plot. She’s just a girl that goes to school with Jou. Her character is pretty much generic for me, as I’ve used her in other fics of mine with pretty much the same background information, give or take a few changes.

Oh, I must also give you all a warning about the flashback. It involves an out of character Koushirou creeping out Jou, and you’ll see what I mean when you get to it. I hope it amuses you in the way I’m anticipating. Now, as always, I do not own anything dealing with the anime, manga, games, etc., of Digimon. Toei and Bandai have that right, for the most part.

Chapter 07: “えっ?! 学校の図書館に| 87;ジタールゲートがあ るの? 何これ!?”
“Ee?! Gakkou no toshokan ni DEJITAARU GEETO ga aru no? Nani kore!?”
“Eh?! There’s a Digital Gate in the school library? What is this!?” Jou’s Biological Journey!

“I hate writing long reports,” Jou muttered in extreme annoyance. “I’ll never finish all of this research in time!”

The now 17-year-old, Kido Jou, was sitting in his school’s library. It was pretty secluded, as he was the only one there aside from the librarian behind the desk. He still attended a private school, which held both junior and high-school students. Due to this, Jou didn’t have to worry about taking entrance exams to get into high school, like the others, but he made up for that with all of the difficult school work that was expected of him and the other students from his instructors.

“I had a feeling that I would find you here,” a girl giggled playfully. “Don’t wear yourself out, Jou-san.”

The boy looked up, curious as to who had addressed him. He saw a girl wearing a uniform similar to his. “Oh, hi there, Malissa-san.”

The soon to be 17-year-old Malissa Smith was a pretty good friend of the math & science whiz; although, as the days went by, she was growing to be more so a love interest to him, he was just too shy to even attempt asking her out or pursuing a relationship with her. The American girl moved from Florida to Tokyo about a year ago with her family due to her father's job. He was a financial consultant, and got transferred to his company's Japanese branch, and her half-Japanese mother was a doctor, and her father was a consultant.

When meeting, the two seemed to become instant friends. She had long, dark brown hair and pretty, clear-brown eyes which Jou simply loved. She was very nice and polite, and enjoyed playing sports, volleyball and swimming being two of her favorites.

Out of the other Chosen Children currently living in Japan, Jou was now the most fluent in English, *Ken coming in a very close second. Miyako, *Iori, and Koushirou would come next, but they just knew enough to get by, although, Koushirou was better at reading and translating it than actually speaking it. Out of all of them in general, though, Mimi would top them all since she’d been living in America for the past three years or so. Mimi still had her trouble, where slang and expressions spoken by her peers were concerned, but that was pretty much the only barrier for her now.

Malissa sat across from Jou, setting her books down. “Are you still working on that report of yours?”

He nodded. “Why did that science teacher of mine pick such a difficult topic,” Jou grimaced while holding his head in frustration. “Why in the world does she have to be so illogical and unreasonable?!”

“Back home, whenever a teacher would do that, it was just his or her way of challenging you. You’re one of the smartest students in your year. She’s just trying her best to intimidate you. As smart as you are, I bet you could teach her Biology/Anatomy class yourself.” She laughed a bit. “I’m sure it’s really bothering crabby old Professor Tomiya that you could be possibly smarter than she is.”

Jou gave her a small smile, his spirits lifting slightly. “Thanks, although, I doubt I’m smarter than her.”

“Jou-san, it’s getting late. Why not rest for a while? School let out almost two hours ago.”

He looked over at the girl, really wanting to take her up on the offer, but knew that it wouldn’t be possible. “I’m sorry, but I really have to finish working on this. I want to finish it so that I can do absolutely nothing this weekend, especially since I’m off from my part-time job tonight, tomorrow, and Sunday.”

“All right, but at least have dinner with me. I could cook something for you; some fine, American cuisine, and I won’t take no for an answer, Jou Kido!” She smiled sweetly to him. “My parents are going out to some benefit over at the hospital, my ten-year-old brother, James, is staying the night at a friend’s place, and my fourteen-year-old sister, Jerri, is going out to karaoke and sleep over with friends. I’ll have the entire place to myself. I would hate to sit there alone; besides, you could always work on your paper there. I could even help you.”

Jou weighed her words, thinking over the offer. He soon nodded. “Okay, I’ll join you for dinner.” He smacked his forehead and frowned. “Oh wait, I can’t.”

“Juku?” He nodded. “I find it amazing how you can go to regular school, and then rush off to cram school, and hold down a part-time job at the same time through this school. How on earth do you manage?”

“I’ve been going to cram school ever since I was in elementary school, so it’s not much of a big deal now. I’ve gotten used to it, but the part-time job makes it a little difficult to go to everyday, unless I just stay later, which his why I’m only employed there on the weekend and it is run through the school, so it’s allowed for me to work there without breaking any rules. The juku I go to lets out at about 10:00.”

“In America, we don’t really have cram schools, but we do have summer schools. Summer school is usually for students who are making up courses they failed during the year, or for those who want to get ahead of their class to graduate early.” She reached over and grabbed Jou’s hand. “You can miss just one day, can’t you?”

“But---”

“Please?”

Jou turned his head slightly, feeling his cheeks going somewhat red from gazing at the young girl. He just couldn’t bring himself to say no. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt to miss one day of lectures and mock university entrance exams.”

“That’s the spirit! You could use a break.”

“I have to go look up one more thing before I do anything.” Jou took out a piece of paper, and wrote a call number down on it.

“What’s that?”

“I have to look for this particular Biology book before I can leave. I’m sure that in it, I can actually find out who made the discovery of how blood flows and circulates throughout the body.”

“Okay, I’ll wait here for you.”

‘Of all the stupid topics to get stuck with, I had to get assigned, The History of Blood Flow! That’s nowhere near normal for a report topic!’

“Doesn’t this library scare you a little, Jou-san?” Malissa shivered. “It’s so old-looking, and just seems like it could be haunted.”

“I never really thought much of it, although, when I first started this school years ago, I was a bit apprehensive coming here.” He glanced around the ancient library and its tall book cases. “It does seem a bit old, doesn’t it?”

Malissa snatched the paper in Jou’s hand, reading off the call number. “Jou-san, are you sure about this book? It’s in the most isolated and secluded part of the library.”

“Don’t worry about it, I’ll be fine. I can handle looking for a book.”

She handed him back the slip of paper. “Hey, how long have we been friends?”

“I’d say about a year and a half.”

“A wonderful year and a half, if you ask me. I can’t believe my family’s been here for that long. I’m glad that my parents put my sister and me in this school instead of *ASIJ; I don’t understand how my parents actually managed to get out of not putting us into that school, since it’s more suitable for us, since we’re American, but I’m not complaining. If they hadn’t, we would’ve never met.”

“Very true, although, this school is known for having lots of international students and foreigners, so it’s not that much of a difference, probably, from ASIJ. The only difference is just that the classes aren’t fully taught in English here, ‘cept for advanced English language.”

“I just knew I wouldn’t make any friends here, but you were nice enough to make an attempt to. It’s also ironic how much meaning this library has, since it’s where we first met.”

“I was brushing up on my Chemistry when I saw you. You looked a bit down, so I decided to introduce myself to you. It would’ve been rude not to.”

That was part of the reason Jou approached the girl. He had seen her around the campus a few times, and was instantly attracted to her. He noticed that she spent a lot of time in the library alone and kept trying to bring himself to go to her, but could never get the nerve to. Luckily, he discussed the matter with a certain redhead who, surprisingly, gave him the encouragement he needed to advance on the girl...
****
In the Izumi home, the phone rang, and was answered by the computer genius, Koushirou.

“Moshi-moshi.”

“Hi, Koushirou. What’s up?”

Koushirou gasped at the sound of the older boy. “I cant’ believe it! The university-bound genius has finally gotten free time to call one of his old friends!”

“Very funny.”

Koushirou sat down at his computer and began typing. “So, what’s the problem, Jou-san? Do you need help with your computer homework again?”

“Oh no, nothing like that,” Jou trailed off while fiddling with his telephone’s cord. Skeptically, he said, “I just need some advice.”

“Advice? From me?”

“Y-yeah.” Jou was growing more and more nervous over revealing such information. “I kind of, sorta, really need advice about girls.”

“Shouldn’t you be asking Taichi-san or Yamato-san about something like that?” Koushirou asked in a puzzling voice. “Both of them have more experience with girls than I do; way more in fact. I wouldn’t be surprised if both Takeru-kun and Daisuke-kun had more experience than I. I’ve never even been out with a girl in ‘that way’.”

“I would rather not talk to them about this. They would probably exaggerate or tease me and not offer any help at all,” he seriously stated, “besides, you’re more mature compared to those two and I really don’t want to talk to Daisuke-kun or Takeru-kun.”

Koushirou smugly grinned in spite of himself. “I guess I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“Other than Gomamon and Iori-kun, you are my best friend out of our group and I feel really close to you guys. Yes, I have my regular friends and acquaintances from school, but I still feel as if I can tell you all almost anything.”

“You are right about that. I agree. We all just have a strong bond that was formed due to our Digital World adventure. Now, what advice do you think I could offer you? I'm no expert on this particular subject, but I will try to assist you as much as I possibly can.”

“Thanks. Now, there’s this new girl at my school, and...” Jou went on to describe Malissa to the younger boy.

“She sounds like a very nice person,” he complimented after Jou had finished.

“I always see her in the library by herself. I don’t know how I should go up to her, though, or if I should even bother going at all.”

“Maybe my computer could bring up some information on what you should do.”

“I’m serious!”

“J-just kidding,” Koushirou replied with a sweat drop. He lowered the browser window on his screen. He wasn’t joking; he was literally going to find the information through a search engine.

“So what do you suggest I do?”

Koushirou thought for a moment - wishing he could just look it up on the net - and snapped his fingers. Jou heard the snap. “Did you come up with something? I’m curious what you think.”

“My advice to you, Jou-san, is to just talk to her. Don’t ask her out on a date or anything, just get to know her. Try being her friend if she’s as new as you say she is. I’m sure she could use a friend as opposed to a boyfriend, and from there, just let nature run its course. Eventually, your relationship will blossom. After the two of you become really good friends, then try asking her out and see if it was meant to be.”

Jou’s jaw dropped. Koushirou sounded like he was an expert on the subject. The advice itself wasn’t want surprised him most...it was the fact that the advice had come from the guy who claimed to lack experience where girls were concerned...

“Where in the world did you get that from?!”

“I was watching Romantic Teen Dramas with Miyako-kun again,” Koushirou bashfully replied.

“Again?” The line went silent for a brief moment. The silence was soon broken by Jou’s hysterical laughter. “You?!? Teen dramas!?!”

“Let’s not tell anyone about this now,” the younger boy shushed.

Jou continued to laugh boisterously. He was finding this incredibly hard to believe, but amusing all the same. “Why would you watch something like that?” he gasped between breaths.

“Miyako-kun wanted to watch them when she was here, so I told her she could.”

Before Jou could respond, Koushirou did something that was even more “un-koushirou” like and began to ramble on about how he’d fallen victim to Teen Dramas.

“The drama she had me watching, the character, Takeshi-san, just tried what I suggested to you a few episodes ago. It showed to be successful because Takeshi-san, and the exchange student from Australia, Meagan-san, are doing very well right now, but to make that worse, the best friend of Takeshi-san, Ryo-san, is in love with Meagan-san, but is dating Ami-san! Another twist is that Ami-san doesn’t really love Ryo-san, and isn’t really dating Ryo-san, but his twin brother, Ryu-san!

“They look incredibly alike, but the bad thing about Meagan-san is that in the more recent episodes of the drama, Takeshi-san is falling out of love with Meagan-san and now has eyes for another girl by the name of Kiki-san, who is the younger sister of Meagan-san!”

Jou was about to give his input, but Koushirou didn’t give him the opportunity to.

“But that isn’t all!” he continued, excitement ringing in his voice, “the mother of both Kiki-san and Meagan-san is getting sick, and the doctors can’t figure out why. It’s because she’s psychic and can read fortunes. She is getting even sicklier because she senses something bad is going to happen to Meagan-san. Oh, I can’t wait to see what happens next!!”

“Um...y-eah...” Jou muttered with a sweat drop, his eyes closed and twitching.

“Marmalade Boy is good too!” Jou couldn’t believe he was getting started again. “We’re watching the Chinese Drama of that, and it’s so great!! We had an anime of it, but I like watching this live version more! Miyako-kun is bringing over the DVDs of the anime so that I can watch it all.

“The main character of the series, Miki-san, has so many guy problems! Her best guy friend, Ginta-san, has a crush on here, but can’t admit it. Miki-san seems to have mixed feelings, especially since the two have such a history together. She also seems to have feelings for her new brother, Yuu. I bet you’re wondering how she could actually like her own brother in such a way.”

Jou was about to reply with a, “No, not really”, in hopes of getting off the topic, but the redhead just continued on.

“Well, in the first episode, the parents of Miki-san told her that they didn’t love each other anymore and went on to say that they both had found someone else. It was another married couple, and they were going to swap partners. The other couple had a son about the same age as Miki-san named Yuu.

“Everyone now lives together at Miki’s home, and Yuu-kun ended up transferring to her school. She doesn’t agree to this swapping thing between the adults, but Yuu-kun doesn’t seem to care either way.”

“Koushirou?”

“Right now, no one else knows that both Miki-san and Yuu-kun are step-siblings sharing the same home, except for the best friend of Miki-san. Oh, and speaking of her best friend, she has her share of problems as well. She’s a popular, pretty girl by the name of Meiko-san, but she doesn’t have a boyfriend, which is pretty strange given her popularity and beauty. Yuu-kun, though, finds out that she is having a relationship with their teacher, Namura-sensei!

“Yuu-kun caught them kissing in the library when he was hiding from Ginta-san, who really dislikes Yuu-kun. To make the situation even more ironic, both thought the library was empty, and Namura-sensei snuck out of the library window!”

“Kooooshirou...”

“After Namura-sensei left, Yuu-kun left his hiding spot, and told Meiko-san that he saw, but promised that he wouldn’t tell. For where Miyako-kun and I are of the anime, I feel sorry for Ginta’s character right now.”

“Koushirou!”

“When it was his turn to stay back for classroom duty, along with Miki-san, Ginta-kun took a chance and kissed her, which showed to be a huge mistake! She smacked him and then ran off. Their friendship hasn’t been the same since then.

“Oh yeah, I almost forgot about Arimi-san, the ex-girlfriend of Yuu-kun, who shows up unexpectedly!”

Jou sweat dropped - still surprised that Koushirou had ignored him for so long - pretending he didn’t just hear all that Koushirou had gone on about, or the bits he could get since he was rambling the majority of the time, running his words together.

“That all sounds interesting, Koushirou, but I---”

“Ooh, Miyako-kun ought to be coming over soon for us to watch more of Marmalade Boy’s anime. I can’t wait to see what happens next! Oh why didn’t I watch this show when it originally aired years ago on Fuji TV?!”

‘He actually sounds like he enjoys that type of stuff...’ Jou blinked, quite dumb-founded. He had to stray away from this incredibly dull, and disturbing topic. “Maybe I should try what you recommended; she does look like she could use a good friend or an acquaintance.”

“Bingo! What a perfecto idea!”

A “what in the world” expression found its way to Jou’s slender face. Koushirou was literally starting to scare him. “What?”

“Prodigious,” Koushirou quickly corrected very defensively. “That’s a prodigious idea. I didn’t say anything else. I’m sure that it will help you out some.” He felt himself sweating some, hoping that he hadn’t been too obvious.

“Do you think you’ll ever try out your own advice someday?”

“I already am,” he obliviously murmured.

“What did you say?”

“Nothing, nothing at all!” he answered, perspiring even more due to his current, extreme embarrassment. “I didn’t say anything.”

“I know my ears aren’t bad. I’m certain that I heard you say, ‘I already am’, meaning that you do have an interest in something other than your computer.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Th-that’s ridiculous.”

“Who is it?” Jou demanded, continuing on with his interrogation. “Is it anyone I know? You can tell me. I promise I won’t tell anyone.”

“I don’t know if I really should,” Koushirou replied shyly.

Jou smirked, coming up with a sure-fire way of getting the computer nerd to talk. “If you don’t tell me who it is, I will accidentally mention to Taichi that you watch Teen Dramas and shoujo anime, and actually enjoy them!”

“No, no! Anything but that! Don’t tell Taichi-san that! He’ll never let me hear the end of it!!”

“What makes you think that I won’t?” Jou laughed. He heard the redhead whimper. “Calm down, Koushirou. You don’t have to tell me who the girl is.”

“I don’t?”

“Nope.”

“But why not?”

“Because I’m pretty sure I’ve figured it out already.”

“Y-you h-have?”

“It’s pretty obvious who it is. *You even said ‘Bingo’, which isn’t your usual catch phrase.” Koushirou gave off a strangled laugh, while pulling his shirt collar. “Don’t worry,” Jou continued, noticing the fear in Koushirou’s laugh, “your secret is safe with me.” The redhead sighed out in relief. “I’ll keep the drama one secret too. I’ll try to keep my mouth shut about it.”

“You truly promise not to tell about the dramas? Miyako-kun already promised not to if I watched them with her.”

“Yeah, I promise; besides, I don’t think Taichi would even believe me if I did tell him.”

“Thank you so much, Jou-san. You are a very good friend, and you sound truly sincere with your promise.”

“It’s no problem at all, but a quick note of advice. Don’t make yourself so obvious if you don’t want others to know about it. I figured out who you were referring to just by this conversation.”

Koushirou blushed slightly in embarrassment. “G-good idea.”

“I hope I can manage to get the nerve to introduce myself to her.”

“I’m sure you’ll do fine, Jou-san.”

A knock was heard on Koushirou’s door. “Hold on a moment, please.” He left for a brief moment. Jou heard some talking, which sounded to be Mrs. Izumi. At one point, he heard Koushirou go, “Prodigious!” He then heard someone running back towards the phone. “Jou-san, I---”

“You have to go, right? Miyako-kun is there to start your drama-filled afternoon, isn’t she?”

“Y-yeah.”

“I’ll talk to you later, and thanks.”

“Alright, Jou-san, and good luck to you.”

“Thanks again.”

Both hanged up the phone. ‘Come on, Jou! This is the biggest obstacle that I’ll probably ever have to face! I must bring myself to speak with her, and I plan on doing so the next time I see her! Nothing shall hold me back!’
****
“I’m just glad that I knew some Japanese before moving here. My sister, brother, and I, started learning it a good while before we actually moved here, and that was about a year before we actually did move here. When mom announced the move, we were all pretty surprised, and even more shocked to find out where. I guess you could say that we went to a cram school to learn Japanese. The main thing we were forced to study almost constantly was grammar, reading, and writing.”

“I understood your Japanese pretty well,” Jou complimented while thumbing through a book. “Also, because of you, I’m starting to understand English a lot better. I’m so confident with my English speaking skills and abilities, I feel that I could go to America to visit my friend in New York, and actually sightsee on my own without much trouble; although, money may be a problem. I’m still not good at converting yen into dollars.”

“You have an American friend?”

“I never mentioned her to you?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“Her name is Tachikawa Mimi. She moved there a few years ago with her family because of her father’s work. The last time I saw Mimi-kun, was about a year ago; a little while before we met, actually.”

“I would like to meet her some day. We could talk about the changes we had to make when moving.”

“She’s a very nice person, and seems to have this way of cheering you up when you’re down. I still keep in touch with her, just not as often as we used to because of my being busy with school.”

Malissa stood, staring around the library once again. “I sometimes wonder why my mother and father considered putting me in this school.”

Jou closed up the book he’d been thumbing through, and gave her a curious look. “Why?”

“Well, I’m not all that smart.”

“But you’re in high-level classes, just like your sister. Your class is rival to mine’s in test scores. Your score is usually in the top five of your class; you had to take an entrance exam to get into this school and a transfer exam; those are usually hard, but you still managed to score high.”

“I know, but I’m still only average, I feel. I only did well on the entrance exam, just like my sister, because I studied very hard and even got tutoring, but my sister has always been naturally smart.” She sat back down. “I still don’t know what I want to do with my life entirely, yet, so I don’t know if the subjects I’m taking are for me. My father wants me to become something like a lawyer, to help ‘uphold justice’, while my mother wants me to become a doctor to help ‘save lives’.

“Both careers take a lot of work to achieve, but I don’t want to be either. At first, I was interested in computers.”

“I have a couple of good friends who go to Odaiba Junior High who are great with them.”

“Thanks, but no thanks. I've lost interest in that. At one point, I was considering a career in accounting, since I was taking that before moving here, or either something else dealing with mathematics, but I lost interest in that, too. Either way, I don’t think I’d be too good at it.”

“What makes you say that? If you’re good at math or accounting, then you should go for it! As far as I know, you’ve always done well with math, and you did say you did well with accounting before moving here to Tokyo.”

“I don’t know...I just know I’ll mess up.”

Jou shook his head. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Quit being such a pessimist! What you need to do is to gain some self-confidence,” he scolded. “When I was younger, I thought like that a lot, but I realized that you won’t know what you can achieve, until you actually try it.

“As you know, I’ve finally decided that I want to become a doctor. When I was younger, I never felt hat I could accomplish it, or get scores good enough in school to even attempt it. I worked hard, though, and gained some confidence in myself and my abilities, and realized that I could do whatever I set my mind to! If you don’t believe in yourself or show to believe in yourself, then nobody else will.

“You don’t want people to think that of you, do you?” he asked her. ‘I’m actually starting to sound like Gomamon. I wonder how he’s doing. It sure would be nice to see him again, and show him how well I’m doing with my school work. It's been so long since I’ve seen him.’

She stood there a moment, taking in Jou’s wise words. “Maybe you’re right. Being so negative, and constantly putting myself down, isn’t going to solve my problem, any, and I should go for whatever it is that truly interests me. That something is writing, but I’m hesitant since I can’t really make a living off of writing.”

“Sure you can! I believe in you. You can do whatever you set your mind to.”

Before Malissa could reply to Jou’s praise, the short, plump, old pepper-haired woman from behind the check-out desk spoke up. It was the librarian. “Kido-kun, I’m about to lock up. If you want to check out anything, you’ll have to do it now.”

Jou stood, and politely bowed. “Hai, Tosho-sensei. May I please go look for one more book, first, before I go?”

“Go right ahead. You’re one of the most serious students I’ve ever had the honor of meeting, Kido-kun.”

“Doumo, Tosho-sensei.”

“Don’t take too long.”

“Oh, Malissa-san, you worry too much. I’ll be fine,” he promised while giving her a thumbs-up, and a wink.

With that, the boy took off to look for the book he needed, leaving both Malissa and the polite, Mrs. Tosho behind.

“Let’s see,” Jou muttered while reading the call number of the book, “it should be right over here.”

He found the section where the book was to be, and spotted it almost instantly. Unfortunately, it was on the very top shelf. He grumbled in annoyance, as he climbed the sliding ladder to get the thick book. Once he reached the top, he retrieved it. He noticed that it was dusty, and blew it off.

‘Malissa wasn’t kidding; this library is ancient.’ He opened the book, to make sure that he hadn’t mixed up his call numbers, and after confirming that, to make sure it had information that would actually aid him in some way. When he opened it up to the first page, he noticed something a bit unusual. “File Island? Why would a map of File Island be in a medical science book, and how would this author know of the Digital World?”

Suddenly, Jou felt himself falling, the book emitting a bright light. He instinctively screamed as he fell, dropping the book, and landing right on it...
****
“How did you and Kido-kun become such good friends, dear?” Mrs. Tosho asked while organizing some books that some other students had returned earlier.

“I was sitting right here in this library. The table Jou-san was sitting at, is where I was when first meeting him. He came over and introduced himself to me.” She smiled enchantingly. “I was still new here, and didn’t have any friends yet. Jou-san saw me, and came right over, offering to help me with my work, and started talking. We’ve been good friends ever since.”

“I see,” she nodded knowingly, giving the girl a gentle smile. “You have that look.”

“Look? I have a look?”

“Yes you do. You have that look in your eye; true admiration for Kido-kun.”

“Wh-what do you mean?” she asked, blushing furiously. “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh, I think you know what I mean.”

Before Malissa could think of something to defend herself with, the two of them heard Jou’s scream, and noticed the bright, white light coming from the part of the library that he was in.

“Jou-san!”

Malissa took off and ran in that direction, Mrs. Tosho slightly behind her. By the time they got there, they saw Jou scrambling, trying to grab hold of something to keep from being pulled into the bright, whirling light behind him. There was also quite a bit of wind blowing at them. Malissa and Mrs. Tosho shielded their eyes from the bright light.

“Jou-san! What’s going on!” Malissa shouted, trying to keep her hair from out of her face.

“I don’t know!!”

After the light disappeared, Jou was no place to be found. The only thing left was the book he was planning on checking out, and it was now closed shut. Mrs. Tosho walked over and picked up the book, and for no reason at all, tried to open it, but it wouldn’t let her. Both stood there flabbergasted, quite lost on what had happened to Jou...

Author’s Notes

Note 1: For my fics, Ken is fluent in English. I honestly don’t know if he is or not, I’m just saying that he is for the sake of argument. He’s also maybe fluent in Spanish, which we saw in Adventure 02 when he was in Mexico, unless it was conversational. I used Iori since he could write in English. In movie 3, he wrote out the sign to get them to “Summer Memory”. I decided to make it so that he learned some English over the past couple of years outside of the classroom.
***
Note 2: ASIJ means “American School in Japan”, which is located in Choufu-shi (調布市), a city in Tokyo. It’s a school with an English curriculum, meaning all the subjects, to my knowledge, are taught in English.
***
Note 3: Just thought I’d point something out. For the original, Koushirou really doesn’t have a “catch-phrase”, per se. “Prodigious”, is a dub invention. So is “perfecto” for “Yolei”. In the original, though, Miyako does have a catchphrase (no folks, it is not “perfecto”), and I’m sure you all have noticed it by now, or either it’s already been mentioned by me and I just forgot about it. It’s “bingo”.