Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Rules of Engagement ❯ Announcement ( Chapter 1 )

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

Digimon: Rules of Engagement

Part 1: Announcement

By Lord Archive

Digimon belongs to Toei Animation Co., Fox Kids, Saban Entertainment, and
so on and are used without consent. I'll return them as soon as they
release the next videotape for the series.

Time less than a year after season two. Names and ages are per the Japanese
usage.

The only couple that I'll warn about at this point is Yamun (Yamato/Jun).

--------------------
Tuesday
--------------- -----

"I'm home," Sora chirped as she entered her mother's floral shop.

Mrs. Takenouchi smiled nervously. "Welcome back. How was tennis practice?"

Sora raised an eyebrow, wondering why her mother seemed a little edgy.
"Fine."

"Do you have any plans for Saturday?"

"I was going to go to the movies with some of the girls from the tennis
team." Sora would've preferred doing something with Taichi even if it
'wasn't a date;' however, he was on vacation with his family and wouldn't
be back until Sunday.

"I'm afraid you'll have to cancel that."

Sora blinked. "Why?"

"Well... you're going to be meeting your fiance that night."

Sora stood like a statue stared at her mother in complete shock. "My
WHAT?!"

"Your fiance."

"B-but w-who?"

Mrs. Takenouchi turned around. "You'll find out Saturday."

Tears leaked out of Sora's eyes. "What about Taichi?"

Mrs. Takenouchi looked ready to cry herself. "That isn't up for
discussion."

"How can you do this?!" Sora ran to her room above the shop.

--------------------

Yamato was tuning his guitar as his father entered their apartment and
slammed the door. "Something wrong, Dad?"

Ishida pulled a few things out of his closet. "Not really," he grumbled.
"Just someone is going to get engaged soon."

Yamato slid of the chair, landing on his ass. "What?" Did Jun tell her
parents about what happened on their last date? Even if she did, nothing
really happened except that she kind of lost her bra.

"I'll be at the station." Ishida left, not answering Yamato's question.

"Oh, geez. What am I going to do now?"

--------------------

Sora sat on her bed, hugging her pillow. "What am I going to do now?" she
sobbed. "It can't be Taichi, he won't be in town until Sunday. But who
could it be? Who? I have to know."

Sora eyed her phone and then grabbed. She quickly punched in a number.
"Hello? Can I talk to Miyako?" Sora waited impatiently.

"Miyako here," finally came over the phone line.

"Miyako, this is Sora. I... I need your help?"

Miyako couldn't remember hearing Sora sounding so upset. "Problems in the
Digital World?"

"No. I need some information."

"What kind?"

Sora swallowed hard. "This S-Saturday, my M-Mom is going to have m-me
m-meet m-my f-fiance."

"Your what?!" Miyako blurted. "But isn't Taichi on vacation until-"

"YES!" Sora interrupted. "I need to know who I'm going to have to marry."

"Your Mom didn't tell you?"

"No, she didn't."

Miyako sighed. "I don't know how much I can do. I'll keep my ears open, but
I can't promise you anything."

"I understand. Bye."

"Sora, don't you want to-" Miyako stopped when she heard the phone click.
She then rubbed her temples trying to think about where to start her
search. Well, if the information can be found on a computer, the best
source would be a grade A hacker-- so she sent an e-mail to Koushiro
detailing the problem. She sent a copy to Iori just in case. But for
gossip, the only real way to find out was to join in and mingle. Too bad
Mimi was still living in America, she could have found this out quickly.

--------------------

Yamato tapped the phone impatiently as it rang.

"Hello, Motomiya residence," a girl answered.

"Jun? Hi, it's Yamato."

"Yamato," Jun purred over the phone. "How's my favorite rock star?"

"I'm not sure everything is good," Yamato hesitantly answered.

"What's the problem?"

Yamato swallowed. "Did you tell your parents about anything that happened
on our last date?"

"Of course not."

"Do you think they might have noticed that you didn't have your bra?"

Jun paused before answering, "Don't think so, why?"

Yamato sighed. "Dad was just here and was really upset. When I asked him
what was wrong, he said that someone was about to get engaged. I thought
that maybe...."

"That my parents thought you did more than play with my tits?"

Yamato's face took on a crimson shade. "Jun?! Is anybody there?"

Jun let out an exasperated sigh. "Just Daisuke, and he wouldn't dare say
anything. I know where he keeps his sex magazines."

Yamato heard Daisuke call out, "I heard nothing!"

Yamato shook his head. "Well, something is definately wrong."

"Yes, but I don't think it's on my end. I don't think you should worry
about it either. If that was the case, your father would've said something
to you."

"I guess." Yamato sighed. "Maybe he was interested in a woman, and found
out some guy is going to propose to her."

"That'd be my guess."

"Keep your ears opened just in case."

"I will. Love you, Yamato."

"Ah, right. Same here." Yamato was blushing while he hung up the phone.

--------------------

'Re: Sora is in trouble
'From: Koushiro@prodigious.net

'I'll try to find out, but I'm kind of busy.'

"Busy?!" Miyako couldn't believe what she read. She immediately typed
another message.

'Hey, Koushiro, didn't you READ the message. Sora is getting ENGAGED, as in
being forced to get married. You know Taichi is on vacation and Sora is
going to be meeting her fiance before he would get back. So it can NOT be
Taichi who will be her future husband. Don't you CARE that your BEST
FRIEND'S girlfriend, who happens to also be your friend, is getting
engaged? I had HOPED for more than 'I'm busy.'

'Your friend, maybe,
'Miyako'

Miyako pressed send and waited for it to be delivered. Almost immediately
after it was sent, she received a new e-mail. She blinked at the message
that came up, 'Error. Unable to deliver, prodigious.net not found.'

Koushiro was too uptight with his new server to let it go down for a
minute. There was no way the message could've failed. Miyako tried to
resend it and checked her connection. The only possible explanation,
though, was Koushiro's computer was down.

Miyako went to her phone and dialed. "Hi, Mrs. Izumi. Is Koushiro there?"

She blinked. "He's out of town until next week? When did that happen?"

"Well, tell Koushiro to call me as soon as he can. Thanks, bye." Miyako
hung up the phone.

Something stank about Koushiro dropping off the face of the Earth. Well,
she was sure that he wasn't in the Digital World, and suspected that he was
at home locked in his room. But why would he shut himself off from everyone
unless he knew who Sora was engaged to. And if he did, why didn't he just
let her know?

Could it be that Sora's fiance is Koushiro? That sounded awful. Sure they
were friends, but nothing more. Sora would never be able to deal with the
way Koushiro can shut out the world and ignore everything but the problem
he was facing. Those two would never work. Besides, it made no sense for
their parents to make them get married-- he's a computer nut and that
wouldn't be very compatible with Sora's family floral business.

Miyako screamed in frustration. "This is getting me no where. If Koushiro
won't help, then I'll have to go and find out myself."

--------------------

"I'm home!" Takeru walked into his apartment and was a little surprised he
didn't hear his Mom reply. He walked into the kitchen and noticed a note on
the refrigerator.

'Dear Takeru,

'I'll be working at the office for most of this week. I won't be home much
except to sleep.'

Takeru blinked. His Mom had done everything in her power to write her
newspaper articles from home, so why would she be at the office for the
entire week?

'The frig is filled with TV diners and there's some money in the cookie jar
so you can eat out a few times if you want.'

Takeru immediately went to the jar and smiled at the amount of yen he
found. If he was careful, he could eat out for most of the week.

'Make sure you have something nice ready to wear for Saturday, since you'll
be meeting your fiancee that night.

'Love, Mom.'

Takeru read over the last line several times. "MY FIANCEE?!"

--------------------
Wednesday
---------------- ----

The alarm sounded and quickly died a painful death.

Nine minutes later, the alarm rang out again. That was followed by the
clock being slapped off the desk and crashing to the floor.

Sora irritably noted she hadn't changed since yesterday's tennis practice.
Despite that, Sora was sure she only got a few hours of sleep. She rolled
off her bed and kicked the alarm clock. She then stepped onto on of the
clock's buttons that had popped off. She paid little heed to neither the
pain nor the broken clock.

Sora pulled out her duffel bag and placed an old soccer ball into it. She
also tossed some clothes and a few odd items into it.

Dropping the duffel bag outside the washroom, Sora went inside and cleaned
up her appearance. She then walked past her mother on her way out.

"Going to tennis practice. I'll probably be getting back late."

Mrs. Takenouchi tried to ignore Sora's bitterness, but could only manage
looking like she had never seen her daughter.

"I'm sorry," Mrs. Takenouchi said, too late for Sora to hear.

--------------------

Yamato noticed his dad was still irritable; however, he wasn't sure he
wanted to know what had made him so upset.

Ishida finished his breakfast and tossed his dishes into the sink. He then
sighed. "Yamato, make sure you have something nice to wear for Saturday."

"Why?" Yamato mentally slapped himself. He had nothing to worry about.

"You'll be attending an engagement ceremony."

"E-engagement ceremony?" Yamato's eyes widened in fright. "Who's getting
engaged?"

Ishida growled as he grabbed his stuff to leave. "Don't worry about it.
Just look nice, okay?"

"S-sure." Yamato watched his father leave.

"Nothing to worry about?! I don't want to get engaged!" Yamato shook his
head. Whatever caused this, his father didn't seem approve of it. Hopefully
his father was going to get him out of this.

--------------------

Daisuke blinked, that couldn't have been what he heard. "So... you're
getting engaged Saturday."

Takeru kicked a rock. "Yeah."

Daisuke's eyes widened. "And it's probably not Hikari because she's on
vacation until Sunday!"

Takeru sighed and looked away. "Yes."

Daisuke started to dance for joy. He silently shouted, "Yes! I won! Hikari
and Daisuke forever!"

Takeru didn't turn back to look at his friend. "You can stop celebrating
any time now."

Daisuke immediately stopped and then slouched. "Eh. Sorry. It's just
that...."

"I understand. You... love her. Congratulations, you win by default."

Daisuke blushed. "Yeah, well. I know you love her, too. I can imagine how
much this hurts you. I thought you were going to be the one to end up with
her."

"So did I."

Chibimon watched the two of them standing in the schoolyard. "What's with
them?"

Patamon sighed. "Takeru is getting engaged to marry someone, and it's not
Hikari."

"What's 'engaged to marry?'"

Patamon sagged. "It has something to do with selecting a single mate to
have for life."

"Selecting a mate?" Chibimon scratched his head. "But doesn't Takeru want
Hikari as his mate?"

"Yes. But his Mom apparently selected someone else."

Patamon suddenly found himself lifted up, and staring into Miyako's eyes.

"What was that?" Miyako demanded.

Patamon blinked. "Um, what was what?"

"That 'selecting a mate' thing you were just talking about."

Patamon looked sadly towards his partner. "Well, Takeru's Mom is having him
meet his fiancee on Saturday."

Miyako froze in shock and dropped Patamon. "Fiancee? Saturday? No way...."

"Do you know who his mate is?" Chibimon asked.

Miyako looked down at the digimon. "You guys don't know?"

Patamon shook his head. "Takeru doesn't know either."

"Oh, my God!" Miyako ran over to Takeru. "You're getting engaged on
Saturday too?"

"Too?" Takeru took a couple steps away from her, his face becoming a little
paler. "You don't mean you're-"

"Not me, Sora. She's going to meet her fiance Saturday."

"S-Sora?" Takeru gulped. "No way. That'd mean that I... that she's....
Taichi is going to kill me."

"No he won't," Daisuke tried to reassure Takeru. "It's not like it was your
idea to get engaged to her."

"I'm sure you'll be fine, as long as you're no where near him when he finds
out." Miyako patted him on the back. "Now, how am I going to explain this
to Sora?"

--------------------

The soccer ball bounced off the wall in near rhythmic pattern. Sora's
tennis practice had ended an hour ago, but she had remained at her school.
She didn't want to go home and see her mother. Not after taking her choices
away from her. So she was still there, kicking a soccer ball against a
wall.

The only reason she took up tennis was because her mother was worried that
she'd get hurt while playing soccer. Was that why her mother was doing
this? Did her mom disapprove of how close she was getting with Taichi and
decided that she should marry someone else?

That would explain why her mother had waited until now to do this. While
Taichi was on vacation and unable to interfere because he won't know about
it until it was too late. There would be some means of getting out of
marrying someone she hadn't chosen, but she'd probably be disowned in the
process.

"Hey, Sora, what's wrong?"

Sora continued to kick the ball against the wall, since she was so lost in
thought-- she hadn't heard the question.

Sora blinked when the ball didn't return to her. She looked up and saw that
Yamato had stopped it. "Yamato?"

"Hey, you okay?" Yamato asked.

Sora shook her head. "No I'm not."

"What's wrong?"

Sora looked down, tears once again welled up into her eyes. "I'm getting...
engaged Saturday."

Yamato fell backwards, landing on his ass. "W-what?"

Sora wasn't sure what to make of Yamato's reaction. "I'm getting engaged."

"No way... He couldn't... That can't be...."

Sora folded her arms. "Why are you so upset about this? It's not like
you're getting engaged."

Yamato looked at Sora with a blank expression. "Dad told me this morning
that I'm going to an engagement ceremony this Saturday."

"You're...." Sora pointed at Yamato.

"Jun's going to be pissed." Yamato then blinked. "Taichi is going to kill
me!"

"I doubt it."

"If I'm there when he finds out, oh yeah-- he'll kill me. I'm taking away
his girl."

Sora turned around. "I'm hardly HIS girl. Sometimes I wonder if we're only
friends. We never go on dates or anything like that."

"You two don't have to do that stuff. You've been a couple for a long
time."

"No we haven't."

"He took you back from me." Yamato smirked. "Besides, how far have you
gotten with him?"

Sora looked over her shoulder and glared. "Not that it's any matter to you,
we've kissed. That's it."

"That's it?" Yamato scratched his head. "I wouldn't have been surprised if
you said that you've had sex with him. But only kissed?"

Sora blushed and looked away again. "Yes, we've only kissed. Why would you
think that we've done more than that?"

"It's just that you two are so close. The time we spent in the Digital
World solidified your friendship. You know each other's quirks better than
anyone else, and you're still together."

"Being friends does not equate to being lovers." Sora huffed. "Remember,
that's why I dated you for a while. Because Taichi was only a friend."

Yamato nodded. "True, but friends don't kiss each other, and neither did
we."

Sora sat down abruptly. "What are we going to do?"

Yamato shrugged. "I don't know."

--------------------

"I'm home!" Takeru called out, but received no answer.

Takeru checked his mother's room to see if she came home to get some sleep,
but she wasn't there. She had left for her office yesterday and still
hadn't come home. She hadn't come home last night. He would've known since
he had slept in the doorway.

Takeru went through his mother's desk searching for the phone number to her
office. After a half-hour of searching through her mess, he found the
number. He quickly went to the phone and dialed.

"Tokyo Daily, can I help you?" a receptionist answered.

"Hello. This is Takaishi Takeru, I'd like to my mother, Takaishi Natsuko."

"Just a moment."

Takeru tapped the phone impatiently.

"Is this an emergency?" the receptionist asked.

"Well, not really-"

"Then your mother has this message for you. She's fine and is really busy.
She'll see you Saturday." The phone line clicked.

Takeru blinked and hung up the phone. His mother was avoiding him. She left
a note saying that he's going to get engaged, and then hides. How could she
do this? She wasn't giving him a chance to get out of it, nor give him any
information at all.

Takeru slumped onto the couch and turned on the television. He wasn't
really watching it as his mind tried to come up with what seemed to be an
impossible problem to solve.

--------------------

"Hi, Miyako." Sora waved sadly as she entered Inoue's convenience store. "I
think I've found out who I'm engaged to."

Miyako nodded. "Well, I think I found out too."

Sora sighed. "What I can't understand is why Mom would chose Yamato over
Taichi."

Miyako blinked. "Why do you think it's Yamato?"

"His dad told him that he was going to an engagement ceremony on Saturday."

"I'm sure Yamato is going to one, but not his."

Sora looked at Miyako blankly. "Then whose?"

"Takeru was told by his mother that he'll be MEET-ing his fiancee on
Saturday."

"What?!" Sora shouted in disbelief. "Takeru?! That CAN'T be right!"

"Afraid it is. But there's more."

"More?" Sora was having trouble standing.

"Bingo." Miyako nodded. "I asked Koushiro for some help, and he then fell
off the face of the Earth. I'll bet he knows what's going on."

"But if he knows, why wouldn't he tell us?"

Miyako shrugged. "My first thought was that he was going to be your fiance,
but then I found out about Takeru."

"If Koushiro knew that Takeru and I were the ones getting engaged, I'm sure
he would've told us. It wouldn't make any sense for him to hide that."

Miyako shrugged. "I don't have a clue."

-----------------------

"Time and dimensions are infinite," came a disembodied female voice. "How
this world came about after the end of Digimon Adventures... I have no
clue," she sounded perplexed.

"From what I can tell, Jun wasn't the same fickle girl from the main
timeline. She did not give up on Yamato and move on to Kido Shuu when
Ishida started to date Sora. Rather Jun helped Taichi and Sora work out
their feelings, and at the same time learned a little from Sora just what
she was doing wrong in her approach to capturing Yamato's heart.

"Still doesn't explain this engagement mess." She sighed. "It's like
Takahashi-sensei took over this world... but it could be worse."