I would also like to thank my online buddy, Riah-chan for unknowingly helping me out with this fic. She helped out when it came to the drama stuff and correcting my Japanese. ^^
Now, as always, I do not own any of these characters, places, etc.
Jou: 16 (Grade 10; First year of High School)
Taichi/Sora/Yamato: 15 (Grade 9; Third and final year of Junior High)
Koushirou/Mimi: 14 (Grade 8; Second year of Junior High)
Miyako: 13 (Grade 7; First year of Junior High)
Takeru/Hikari/Daisuke/Ken: 12 (Grade 6; last year of Elementary)
Iori: 10 (Grade 4)
Part 1: The Assignment!
It was a nice, sunny filled afternoon in the city of Odaiba. Birds singing, bees buzzing, squirrels gathering acorns, having their fun. Too bad you can't say that for the human children of Odaiba.
"And we're stuck in school!" Taichi complained, popping up from out of nowhere.
"Um, yes," RP said while clearing her throat. "All of the children are in school."
"And this is the perfect day to be out on the field playing Soccer! Instead, we're cooped up inside reading the play of Romeo & Juliet! How boring!"
"I agree with you on the play, but Taichi...why are you here?"
"Um, I dunno," Taichi said with a goofy grin.
"Well, shoo. I have a fic to start."
"I am going to be in this fic, aren't I?"
"Probably. I can't write a fic without you, which is surprising since you aren't even a fav of mine. You're just cool. It's the Elementary kids and the High School ones I'm not so sure of. I'll probably get Jou in here though. He is a favorite of mine."
"Cool, well I'm out of here!"
Taichi took off to leave RP and let her continue on with her story.
"Good, now back to the story. We now join a History class that is already in session..."
"Okay class, it's time for your mandatory extra credit assignment."
The entire class groaned at the thought.
"Ishidzuka-sensei, Ishidzuka-sensei," a boy called while waving his arm around.
"Yes, Tomokazu-kun?" Mr. Ishidzuka answered.
"Since when is Extra Credit mandatory?"
"Since the majority of this class flunked the last test I gave, meaning you won't see the next grade without it!"
"Not all of us are making rotten marks!"
"Does it really matter? The extra credit could do most of you some good."
Seki quieted down as the class giggled a bit, including his cousin, Yuuji, who laughed the loudest.
"Ueda-san!" Mr. Ishidzuka called. "Is there something amusing you as of the moment?"
Yuuji stood up since he was addressed and said, "No, Ishidzuka-sensei."
"If it isn't Seki acting up, it's you," the man muttered while massaging his temples.
Yuuji laughed nervously and took his seat.
"Now for your assignment..."
The students started to take out writing utensils to get the assignment.
"I want you all to write about your true family, parents, whatever and I don't want any of that same old stuff. I want something different and creative. Think of it as a real history project. Get interviews, write an article, I don't care what you do, just make this assignment as creative as you can and it's due a week from tomorrow."
A certain 14-year-old frowned at his History Assignment. He had always hated doing assignments dealing with his parents. No, he didn't hate them or anything, he just felt that he was lying whenever writing stuff about his "true" parents.
This redheaded student was none other than the computer genius Izumi Koushirou. He sat there in deep thought, thinking about his assignment. His train of thought was soon broken by that of a young girl's voice.
"Koushirou...Koushirou, the bell rang a long time ago," the girl told him. "It's time to go home."
The boy looked up to see a familiar looking girl in a green school uniform who was a pretty good friend.
"Oh, hey Mimi-san."
The young girl was none other than Odaiba Junior High's popular, outgoing Tachikawa Mimi. She had recently moved back to Odaiba a few months earlier right before the new school year. She's currently living with the Nishimura's, which consisted of her Aunt Sué, her husband--Mimi's Uncle Kichibei--and their children-- four year old Isako and her one year old brother, Ton.
Sué was Mimi's father's younger sister. Even though there was a big age difference between Mimi and her cousins, she still got along with them pretty well. At first, the girl was skeptical about moving back to Odaiba and living with her aunt and her fairly new family because she felt she would be intruding, but she truly wanted to move back to Odaiba. That's where all of her friends are afterall.
When the idea passed on to her aunt and uncle, they were thrilled to have her stay. She was Sué's favorite niece and the rest of the family liked Mimi. The move was the most difficult on Mimi's parents though. They were a bit against Mimi coming back by herself, but they wanted what was best for Mimi, so they let her come back anyway. They still babied Mimi pretty much.
"Why are you just sitting there?" Mimi asked. "School's over."
"Well," Koushirou started as he stood up.
"Mimi! Mimi!" a person called before Koushirou could finish.
"Wait up, Mimi!" another person called.
The girl turned to see two familiar boys, whom of which she knew pretty well, from her class running up to her.
"Seki-kun, Yuuji-kun..."
"Hi Mimi," Yuuji greeted. "I was just wondering if you would like for me to walk you home."
"You?" Seki asked in surprise. "I was going to ask if she wanted me to walk her home!"
"Don't you have detention or something?"
"Me? You're the one who gets the detentions!" Seki retorted. "Besides, Mimi wants me to walk her home!"
"No she doesn't, she wants me to walk her home!"
"No, me!"
"Me!"
"I said me!"
The two boys continued to argue. Koushirou just stood there. Mimi just smiled at the two.
"Boys, please don't fight."
"Who do you want to walk you home?" Yuuji asked. "The handsome, wonderful me...or my annoying cousin!"
"Annoying!?!"
"A perfect description if I do say so myself..."
"Why I oughta..."
"I'm sorry you two," Mimi interrupted, "but Koushirou is goinog to walk me home."
"Huh?" both Yuuji and Seki asked in unison.
"I am?" Koushirou asked.
"We better get going," Mimi said while giving Koushirou a smile. "I promised to get home to help Sué-obachan with dinner tonight." She grabbed Koushirou's hand and turned to both Yuuji and Seki. "Sayonara," she smiled at the two boys.
She pulled Koushirou along out of the classroom, leaving a surprised Yuuji and Seki.
"Izumi? Why would she rather walk home with him than with the handsome me?" Yuuji asked.
"You probably scared her off," Seki joked.
"Hey!"
"Just kidding, cuz. I don't get Mimi. She's the most popular girl in school and one of the prettiest, yet she hangs out with Izumi all of the time."
"They were never good friends before," Yuuji pointed out. "We've always had classes with them, even back in Elementary school. Mimi didn't hang out with him at all in fourth grade until after our summer break that year...back in '99. It's like they became instant friends after that."
"I'm surprised they're still friends, actually; especially since Mimi was gone for a couple of years."
"I just don't get her," Yuuji said again while shaking his head.
"We better get going. We promised my dad to help him out after school today."
"Aww," Yuuji groaned, "I wanted to play a game of Tennis."
"It's not like you're actually in the Tennis Club."
"That's only because I'm not good enough for the Tennis Club."
"Better not let Mimi hear you say something like that. She'd persuade you to join in an instant and give you that speech about how you're good if you feel that you are."
"Yeah, she always try to cheer people up like that."
"What she says is probably true."
"I guess, but I still wish I could play a game before I go."
"Too bad, you promised to help me at pop's store, let's go!"
"I'm coming, I'm coming..."
****
Walking in the hall...
"So, what's the matter Koushirou?"
"Nothing," Koushirou lied.
"I know something is wrong," Mimi said, not at all persuaded that nothing was bothering Koushirou.
"I'm just not up to doing this project, that's all."
"Maybe you can get exempt from doing the project like me," the girl smiled.
"You were exempt?"
"Yep, sure am!" she said with a nod. "I talked with Ishidzuka-sensei while you were spaced out. Since my average for his class is a 92%, which is pretty much a B, he's letting me off."
"But he said that it was mandatory!"
"But I can't do the assignment. My parents aren't here. That's why he's letting me off. He did say that I could do something else if I still wanted the extra credit."
"Maybe I should talk to him."
"Go right ahead, he's probably in the teacher's lounge."
Koushirou nodded and the two headed in that direction. It didn't take them long to reach the door of the lounge. Neither Koushirou nor Mimi had ever been in it.
"Go ahead," Mimi urged.
"Is it okay for me to just...go in?" Koushirou asked. "This is a teacher's lounge."
"Sure it is," Mimi insisted. "Miyako-chan goes in there all the time whenever she has a problem with any of her assignments and wants to speak to her instructor."
The boy shrugged and thought, "But I'm not like Miyako-kun."
He then sighed and knocked on the door. He then entered with Mimi a little ways behind. To his surprise, he found Inoue Miyako, one of his best friends. He considered Mimi one too. Mimi and Miyako were his two best, current 'female' friends. Mimi was very good at cheering you up when you're down, and Miyako was good at giving a pep talk to get you motivated to do something.
When he was younger, he would've probably considered his best female friend to be Sora since he had known her for such a long time and even before his adventure in the Digital World. Now that Sora was older and was busy with a various amount of other school related activities, he rarely even spoke with her. When he had entered his last year of Elementary and Sora entered her first year of Junior High, the two could never really talk or hang out together due to their different years; same went for his friend, Taichi, his best male friend, as well. Due to this, this resulted in Koushirou spending the majority of his time alone, until Mimi and Miyako both came along.
"Hey Izumi-senpai, Mimi-oneesama!" the glasses-wearing girl greeted. "What are you two doing here?"
"We're looking for our History Instructor, Mr. Ishidzuka," Mimi explained. "Have you seen him?"
"Oh, he's in the kitchen drinking coffee."
"Why are you here?" Koushirou asked.
"Classroom duty this week. I needed some more cleaner for the desks."
"You have Classroom duty all by yourself?" Mimi asked in surprise. "We've always been paired up. I'm glad I finished my week with Koushirou a while ago. I hate Classroom duty."
"I hate it too, and I have a partner. His name is Tenichi Hirokumi. I just lost to him at Janken (Paper, Rock, Scissors) and had to get more cleaner."
Miyako picked up the cleaner and the extra cloth.
"Well, I better get going! I have to hurry up and finish if I want to meet up with Ken-kun and the others this afternoon."
The girl headed towards the door, waving.
"Sore ja!" she called as she ran off.
After Miyako left, Koushirou and Mimi continued on to the kitchen. They found their instructor, just like Miyako had said said, drinking coffee, looking over some papers. Mimi pushed Koushirou along.
"Um...konnichiwa, Ishidzuka-sensei," Koushirou quietly responded.
The man looked up from his papers and looked over the rims of his glasses.
"Ahh, two of my best students, Tachikawa and Izumi," the man said, pleased to see the two.
Mimi smiled and Koushirou tried to speak, but he just couldn't. Mr. Ishidzuka noticed.
"Is there a problem, Izumi-san?"
"Well, um, I...er...about our assignment..."
"Yes?"
"Well, I was just wondering if, well, I could get out of doing it," Koushirou finally said. "Could I maybe be exempt, like Mimi-san here? I have an A average, a low A average, but I've kept it this entire school year!"
"Is there any particular reason why you want to get out of this assignment?"
"Um...no, not really," he said while lowering his head.
"Then I can't allow you to get out of this assignment. Tachikawa's situation is different. She has special living arrangements and doesn't live with her mother and father."
"Yes sir."
"To be honest, I really want you to work on this project," the man admitted. "I've seen projects similar to these that you've done in the past from previous years and they're all quite dull, Mr. Izumi. I've pulled up files on you going back to your second grade year and any type of an assignment dealing with family is dull. Only worth C material or lower."
"That's why I didn't want to do the assignment, sir," Koushirou lied.
"It seems that whenever your parents are mentioned in general, you seem to space out," Mr. Ishidzuka said while taking off his glasses. "Any assignment dealing with your family is never done with your full potential."
"Yes sir."
"Miss Tachikawa, on the other hand, has done marvelous work in the past," the man complimented.
"Thank you, sir," Mimi said with a smile.
"I've pulled up files for the entire class, so don't feel as if I'm picking on you or singling you out, Izumi. Now, I want you to go work on this project and I want it to be A material!"
"Yes sir," Koushirou responded as if the world was going to come to an end.
Koushirou turned and headed out of the lounge with Mimi walking right behind him.
"Hold on a moment..."
The two stopped and turned to face him.
"Izumi, since you really don't have a knack for this type of thing, I want you to have a partner."
"A partner?"
"Hai!" the man nodded. "I want Tachikawa to be your partner. She's the only one who's exempt from my assignment and she did want to try some alternative project to replace this one."
"I would be glad to help out, sir," Mimi said with smile. "I was just going to write a paper about what it's like living with my aunt and her family, but now I can help out Koushirou."
"Good, now you two better get home and get some work done."
"Hai, Ishidzuka-sensei," the two bowed.
The two left to go on home, Koushirou frowning. His teacher noticed
his frown and shook his head and headed towards his cell phone...
****
"That didn't do any good," Koushirou muttered as they left Odaiba Junior
High.
"Aww, Koushirou, stop worrying about it. I'm sure you'll do a good project on your parents, especially since I'm helping you."
"Yeah, I guess," Koushirou said, not really believing her.
"Okay, now when do you want to start the project?"
"You know, I don't feel like talking about that right now," he sighed annoyingly. "Do you still want me to walk you home?"
"Not if you're going to have a cranky attitude like that," Mimi frowned at him with her hand on her hip.
"Look, I'm sorry," he apologized. "I just have a lot on my mind, that's all. I'll walk you home."
"Oh-kay," Mimi said slowly, "but you don't have to if you don't want to."
"I don't mind," he insisted. "It's nice out and I don't have any meetings today."
"Yeah, no Computer Club meet for you or Miyako-chan today. Too bad the others are busy. Both Sora-san and Taichi-san have a Tennis & Soccer Club meet today and Yamato-san has band practice. I had a Volleyball Club meet today, but I asked to skip it just this once."
"How come?"
"I dunno," Mimi shrugged. "I did promise to help out obachan today, so that's probably why."
The two continued to walk, talking about everything they could think of, more than likely, about their other Chosen pals, but every time Mimi got on the subject of their project, Koushirou would change the subject quickly. Mimi gave up on trying to get him to discuss their project and came up with another idea. She knew Koushirou loved to eat and was going to use that to her advantage.
"Here you are, you're home."
The Nishimuras lived in a big house which had two floors, a very large attic, and five bedrooms, one of which was a guest room, which meant that the family was pretty well off financially. Most residents of Japan lived in apartments since houses are quite expensive.
Sué was a teacher and worked at Odaiba Kodomo Schoolhouse which was pretty much a preschool/daycare. Isako went to that school and Sué could watch Ton too so she didn't have to worry about hiring a babysitter to watch Ton during the day. Kichibei worked at an Insurance Company that had been around for years and made pretty good business. He was also just recently promoted.
"Want to come in?"
"Um...I don't think..."
"I could make you a snaaaack," Mimi said in singsong with a smile.
"A snack?!?"
"Some nice ohagi," Mimi nodded with a playful smile. "We have some I made last night. I know how much you love those and I got the recipe from the mother of Iori-kun. Miyako-chan told me how much you love those."
*Note: In the first ep of 02, Koushirou (Izzy), Iori (Cody), and Miyako (Yolei) weren't eating 'browines,' they were eating ohagi. In the original, it's referenced that Iori's mother is a very good cook.*
"Ohagi?!?" Koushirou shook his head. "No, I have to pass," he said regretebly since he loved ohagi. "I better get on home to...mom."
"Aww, too bad," she frowned. "I was going to try and get him to talk! So much for my plan," she muttered to herself.
"Neechan!!" a person called, running up to Mimi.
"Sister?" Koushirou asked.
Mimi turned around and was attacked by a small four year old girl smothering her with a big hug.
*Note: "Neechan" is one way of saying "sister" and I only used it that way since the girl is so young and the fact that Mimi is family. Oneesama is another way of saying it. Miyako really respects Mimi, hence the -sama honorific, and sees her as a sisterly figure. It seems pretty common for younger children to refer to older ones as brother or sister. At one point, I think 01 Takeru was referring to Taichi as "brother." The ep where he thought Yama abandoned him and he only had Taichi around.*
"Isako-chan, hi there," Mimi hugged the girl back.
After getting out of Mimi's embrace, she turned to face Koushirou.
"Konnichiwa niichan," Isako said to Koushirou with a bow.
*Note: Niichan is one way of saying "brother" and apparently, Koushirou hangs out with Mimi quite a bit so the girl sees Koushirou as an older brother, like she sees Mimi as an older sister.*
"She's so polite," Mimi smiled proudly.
"Yes, she is. She's very polite for a child her age," Koushirou complimented. He then turned his attention to Isako. "Hello there. How are you today?"
"I'm doing great! I had a lot of fun today at school!"
"That's nice, but I better get going. Bye Mimi-san. See you in school tomorrow. See you later Isako-kun. Say hello to your mother for me."
"Sayonara, Kou-chan!" the girl waved. "I'll say hi to her for you!"
The boy walked off to head towards the bus stop nearby to take the city bus home. Mimi stared at her redheaded friend, wondering what was the big deal about doing a project on your family...
"I'm glad you're home neechan! I learned how to read a new book today in school! Can I show you?"
"Of course, but after I help out your mother like I promised."
"Okay neechan! Mommy's making pies!"
The girl grabbed Mimi's hand and the two went into the house...