Frontier 02: The Firefly

madjack89: Hola, amigos and chums! Guess who gets a separate story this time? Hotaru!

Hotaru: …You wouldn't.

madjack89: Sorry, Taru-kun, but someone's gotta tell the story, and since you won't, I guess I'll have to!

Hotaru: Tsk…fine. Do what you want.

madjack89: Aw, don't be mad! Tell you what; at the end of this, I'll give you a little present!

Hotaru: Seriously?

madjack89: Yup!

Hotaru: …Okay then. I'm not mad anymore. I guess it'll be good to get this off my chest, anyway.

madjack89: Yay! Alright, this'll be told from Hotaru's POV, as the other two were! Ready? Set? Let's go!

Disclaimer: I really don't own Digimon, but since this is technically a story entirely about my OC, I own at least him and the other OCs that'll appear in this, so yeah!

—

My mother said his name was Daiki. Apparently, he was my now-orphaned cousin.

I had never met him, so I barely knew he existed. I had never met my aunt and uncle, his parents, either. They were sort of cut off from our family. It had something to do with some fight that happened before I was born.

But now they were dead, so the fight was instantly forgotten. Feeling guilty about past grievances wasn't going to give Daiki a new home, though. The car accident had killed his parents, but not him.

So out of the goodness of my parents' hearts, we took my cousin in.

After his parents' funeral, we went to meet our new housemate in the hospital. It was actually a miracle that this kid had survived, considering he had a pretty major heart disease. They said he'd had an attack during the accident, and he had gotten other injuries to add to it.

As we approached his room, Mom reminded me to be nice to Daiki. "Remember, he just lost his parents," she said just as the door opened.

What I expected to see was some sickly, depressed five-year-old sitting in his hospital bed and feeling sorry for himself. What I did see was a happy-looking five-year-old with a few scrapes and bruises that he seemed to be ignoring due to his attention being caught up in what looked like a manga.

He looked up when we came in and instantly planted a big smile on his face.

"You must be the aunt and uncle who're gonna take me in!" he said, getting straight to the point. "Hello! My name is Daiki, and I guess I'm your new roommate!"

All my parents could do was stare. This definitely hadn't been what they'd expected.

"As you can see, he's very cheerful for a child in his situation," the nurse said hastily, shuffling my parents out of the room. "Now, why don't we leave the two kids here to get acquainted while we fill out the all-important paperwork!"

The door shut quietly, and I was alone with my new cousin, Daiki.

The first thing I noticed was that his expression mellowed out a little when he looked at me. I frowned. Did he already hate me?

"Do you think I made a good impression on them?" he asked me, looking kind of tired.

I was confused by the sudden question, so I shrugged. He continued to stare at me, and then he giggled. I frowned again. Was he laughing at me?

Daiki saw my frown and said, "I'm sorry, but you really don't talk much, do you? Would you answer me if I asked you what your name is?"

I considered ignoring him, but instead I muttered, "Hotaru."

He grinned, this time genuinely, and said, "Nice to meet you, Mr. Hotaru Kazuki!"

It was at that moment that I resolved to stay as far away from my cousin as possible from that time on.

—

As I grew older, according to these parenting books my mom bought, my shy personality would be replaced by a friendlier, outgoing one. All kids were shy at one point, as the book said.

But I guess either I'm a special exception, or Mom's book is full of crap. Throughout my elementary school years, I stayed silent, mostly because I felt nervous when coming face-to-face with someone new.

Would they like me? This was the thought that always flashed through my mind, stilling my tongue and keeping me from saying a single word.

After awhile, the other kids noticed how quiet I tended to be, and they began to make fun of me. Usually kids would have ignored me, but thanks to Daiki's friendliness, I was recognized as his silent cousin. Daiki had no trouble whatsoever with assimilating into my school's society. He became pretty popular, and unfortunately, so did I.

Due to everyone's near constant teasing, I began to despise all of them, including Daiki. It was me against the world, because the world refused to accept me.

Then one day, on my way home from fifth grade, I witnessed a street fight. Daiki was with me, and we were just walking down the sidewalk when I heard noise coming from an alley.

I paused, causing Daiki to pause next to me. There were three people in the alley, two of them ganged up on one kid. I recognized the kid from my class. He was one of the worst tormentors I had.

I clenched my fists involuntarily, feeling an anger surge through me that I had never felt before. Seeing that kid cornered in that alley with such a look of terror on his face brought me a pleasure that I had never known before. It felt almost…liberating.

As the two others began to close in on the kid, I found myself silently cheering them on. I wanted that kid to pay for everything he had done. They were almost upon him when…

"Hotaru!" Daiki quickly grabbed my hand, dragging me further down the street. When we got to the corner, I took my hand quickly from his grasp, glaring down at him.

"Why did you do that, Daiki?" I asked angrily. "I wanted to see what would happen!"

"First of all, it's Dai," Daiki said, glaring back at me in a hard way. "Second, those guys back there were Yankees. We shouldn't get involved with them. It's dangerous. I heard once that they'll beat a person up for fun!"

I barely heard his words, barely comprehended the warning behind them. Maybe if I had realized then that Daiki was trying to look out for me and help me, I wouldn't have made the stupid choices I did. But at that point, my mind was already made up.

I wanted to get revenge on all the people who had mocked me and harassed me day after day. I wanted to become a Yankee.

—

Now, realizing my dream would be harder than that. As Daiki had said, Yankees can get pretty violent. If I just suddenly approached them, more likely than not they'd gang up on me. But I thought that if I could get one of them alone and get him on my side, maybe it wouldn't be so hard. After all, why wouldn't they accept another angry soul to join their ranks?

I figured the best time to do this would be at night, because my parents wouldn't find out about it and stop me and I'd have a better chance of finding someone. So, on that same night, I snuck out my bedroom window for the first of many times to come.

I landed with a soft thud on the ground, getting to my feet and dusting off the black clothing I'd worn for this occasion. I glanced around quickly to make sure that no one had seen me, and then I began my search.

I crept through dark alley after dark alley, searching and searching for some sort of brawl; anything would do. But when it was about 4:00 a.m. and my search had come up fruitless, I felt a deep void of loss.

That void ate away at me as I made my slow way home, because I knew what would await me that day. Harassment…ridicule…pure torture…

"Damn it!" I pounded my fist against a wall, the void I felt turning into a swirling, fiery hate for everything in my life.

Then I heard him. A small, whimpering voice, coming from behind one of the trash cans in the alley. I turned, making my slow way over to the source of the voice. I looked behind the trash can and saw him.

It was the same kid who was about to be beaten earlier. The same one that had tormented me.

From the look of it, he'd managed to escape the Yankees before they'd hurt him too badly. The bad news was he looked very dirty and scraggly, like he hadn't been home all night. I glanced over him and noticed that his leg was bent at an odd angle. So that was it. He'd broken his leg.

When he realized I was there, he looked up, and his expression turned hopeful. "Hotaru?" he asked tentatively. I didn't answer. I was busy mulling over what I should do.

"Hotaru, please help me! I know…I haven't been the nicest person to you, but please…help me."

That did it. My hatred flowed over me as I grabbed him by his shirt collar and raised him into the air. I was so much taller than him…it was so easy.

"You're asking for my help?" I murmured, feeling the fear emanating from him. It felt amazing, so amazing that I wanted to make it last; I wanted to make him suffer.

Without another word I slammed him into the wall of the alley, so hard that it caused him to pass out. I let him sink to the ground, limbs tingling with what I'd just done. I had gotten my revenge, and I wanted more. I craved more.

I turned to leave when I heard another voice behind me, this one sounding calm and confident.

"You've got potential."

I turned my head and was met with the cold, merciless eyes of a Yankee. I met his smirk with one of my own, knowing now that I'd be able to hold my ground, thanks to the power my hatred gave me.

That was the day that I truly became a Yankee.

—

I snuck out every night after that, making myself feel more alive than I'd ever felt. After awhile, I became addicted to the Yankee lifestyle. It was better than love, better than drugs, better than anything. I didn't just want it; I needed it.

My obsessive addiction to street fighting eventually gained me a nickname: the Firefly. It wasn't very original, considering it was just the translation of my name. But that didn't matter to me. I wasn't in this game for the fame or glory. I was in it for the fights. And man, did I get them.

One good thing that came with fame and renown was that everyone suddenly wanted a piece of me. I was known to everyone as "unbeatable." And I stayed unbeaten right up to the end. Not many Yankees can say that, at least.

But that was the problem. I had become unbeatable. That small fiery pit of hate I'd felt that first night grew with each punch I threw, every person I beat senseless. It grew so large that it had almost consumed me completely. Almost.

One day, I almost crossed the line. It had been about a year, and I had been battling my way through the streets for about that long. There was no one stupid enough to pick on me anymore at school. I was finally free…until a new kid came into our class.

He was your average bully. He teased everyone and amassed a small group of idiot followers that would do whatever he said. His one mistake was trying to bully me.

Even after becoming a Yankee, I had still attended school every day and kept my grades up for fear that my parents would learn of my unhealthy reputation. I may have been hardening more and more on the inside, but my parents were still my parents.

So I walked through the halls alone, as usual, watching kids flinch as I passed them. It made me smirk to know that I had them all under my thumb. Daiki even seemed to be avoiding me these days. I'd managed to keep him in the dark, too, because I couldn't have him letting it slip to Mom and Dad.

Then something out of the ordinary occurred. The new kid, who had been there for about two weeks, tried to trip me. Of course, I avoided his foot. What kind of Yankee would I be if I didn't have a little agility?

But I was stirred up by it, all the same. I had almost forgotten what it was like to be picked on, and this kid had made old memories resurface for me. That just got me angrier.

After stepping over his foot, I turned and glared at the kid, hoping that would get him to back down. But he just smiled back at me in an assish kind of way.

"Oops," he said insincerely, chuckling to himself. Then he turned around and walked down the hall as if he hadn't just made the biggest mistake of his life. But he had, for he'd made an enemy of the Firefly.

I let it go on for a few more weeks to give him a chance to leave me alone. I surprisingly had some mercy left in me. But that wouldn't last, for every day my anger burned stronger as, again and again, he would attempt to trip me.

That's when I planted the note in his locker, telling him to meet me in the abandoned warehouse by the wharf, so we could "talk."

He showed up late that night, that smug sneer still on his face. I was determined to wipe it off his face forever.

I hid in the shadows as he took several steps into the warehouse, looking around for me. "Hey, short stuff!" (He was a comedy genius, wasn't he?) "You here, or were you too chicken to show up? You're the one that put this note in my locker, so let's just get this over—"

He didn't get to finish his sentence, because I was already on him. I shut him up quickly with a blow to the back of the head, causing him to stumble forward. After that, it was an all-out massacre in my favor.

It was obvious from the start that this kid didn't know how to fight at all. He'd try to flail out at me with his arms, but I'd shield his blows and hit him with a few of my own.

"Stop! Please, I'm begging you, stop!" I should have stopped when he threw in the towel and realized he was no match for me. That's what I'd always done. But this time, I didn't.

I continued to beat him, unmercifully, without even thinking about what I was doing. When I finally paused to catch my breath, I really saw what I'd done for the first time that night.

The kid was so badly bruised and bloody that I doubt even his parents would have recognized him. My eyes widened, realizing that I'd gone way too far.

"Hey, are you alright?" I asked, crouching down on the floor. When he didn't answer, I noticed that he didn't seem to be breathing. I took his pulse, hands shaking, and realized that he didn't have one.

"Oh god," I said, staring down at my blood-stained hands. "No…oh no…oh god…"

For a moment I couldn't do anything, paralyzed by the horrible shock of actually killing another human being. Then I heard a gasping breath and, looking up at the kid, saw that he had started breathing again. He was still alive. I hadn't killed him. Hadn't killed him yet, at least.

He was breathing, but it was shallow, and I knew he needed immediate medical attention. I didn't know what to do, because I'd left my own cell phone at home. I almost started to panic when I noticed the kid's cell phone sitting a few feet away.

I quickly grabbed it and dialed (*equivalent of 9-1-1 in Japan*), voice and hands still shaking. After I called, though, I realized that I couldn't stay there. I'd be implicated for sure.

So I dropped his cell phone and ran, not daring to look back at what I'd done.

—

That night, I burned the gloves I'd been wearing, along with the note I'd written, so that no one would ever find out what I'd done. That didn't change the fact that it was eating me away inside.

I climbed into my house through my window, changed out of my black Yankee trench coat, and lay in bed, trying desperately to forget the night's events. But every time I closed my eyes, all I could see was that kid's face, beaten by a complete lunatic. By me.

I got next to no sleep for the next week, constantly stopping by the hospital to see if the kid was okay. Luckily, he would recover, though it was still a mystery as to who had done that to him, because he didn't remember any of it.

I remembered, though, and it continued to eat away at me until one night, I couldn't take it anymore.

I stumbled over to the bathroom and began to rummage through the cabinets, looking for anything that would take this horrible guilt away. I had a couple choices lined up by the time that Daiki found me.

"Hotaru, what are you doing?" Daiki asked, snapping me out of my suicidal hysteria. He took one look at the pills spread about the counter and instantly knew what was going on.

"You…you didn't take any of those yet, did you?" he asked quietly, yet at the same time calmly, as if this didn't surprise him.

I glanced at the pills, then at Daiki, then back at the pills. I didn't even know why I'd tried to do this in the first place. It scared me so much that before I realized what I was doing, I was crouched on the floor, sobbing softly.

"I need help," I choked out, covering my face with my hands. I heard cabinet doors being closed above me, and I assumed that Daiki was putting the pills back in their rightful places. Where was my rightful place anymore?

"Hotaru, I know what you did last summer." I looked up, staring at Daiki incredulously.

He smiled and said, "Sorry, couldn't help making a reference there! But all joking aside, Hotaru, I do know what you've been doing. You thought that you had hidden it from me, but I figured it out."

Daiki stared at me with a serious look that I hadn't known he possessed until that moment and said, "I know that you're a Yankee, Hotaru. From what I've heard, you're one of the best ones around. And I know what you did…to that new kid."

At first, I was speechless. Daiki knew…everything! Everything that I'd tried so hard to hide from him, even the secret that no one else knew about.

I stared down at the floor tiles, letting my leftover tears fall onto their clean surface. "How did you find out?" I finally asked, not looking up at Daiki.

"The Yankee thing wasn't hard," Daiki said, beginning his explanation. "I'd heard rumors, but you were doing a pretty good job of keeping them rumors for me. So I took matters into my own hands. I've been checking in your room every night to see if you were there, and you haven't been until…this week.

"But that wasn't the only thing I based it on," Daiki continued. "I also checked your closet for that tell-tale trench coat. You had it hidden pretty darn well, by the way. But in case you haven't noticed, my small size allows me to crawl into many secret places, including a crawl space under a wiggly board at the back of your closet. That's when I confirmed that you were, indeed, a Yankee."

"And the kid? How'd you find out about that?" I couldn't even feel alarm at the fact that Daiki had been able to figure out that one. I was too drained of any and all emotion at that point to care.

"Calm down; that one happened by chance," he said, trying to be reassuring. "You got really lucky, you know? No one saw you write that note and place it in the kid's locker. No one, but me."

I smirked, wondering how I could have been so careless as to not realize he'd been watching me all this time.

Daiki got up slowly and muttered, "Do you really need help, or was this a one-time thing?"

"One-time, I think," I replied, confirming it with myself. "I don't want to look at another pill again."

"Good," Daiki said, smiling at me. But past that smile, I thought I saw a distant, far-off look cross his face. It was gone in an instant, though, so I didn't worry about it then.

Before he left, Daiki turned to me and said, "I won't tell anyone what I know, okay?"

I was about to reply when he shut the door and trudged down the hall, back to his bedroom. But I had a sudden chill of nervousness course through me, because something about the way he'd said he wouldn't tell anyone made me think that he would tell everyone.

—

"Haven't seen you in a while, Firefly. Where you been?"

"Nowhere," I replied through the mask I always wore. It had taken a few more weeks of mental recovery, but I had indefinitely come back to my old Yankee ways.

"Wow, I think that's the most I've ever heard you say," said one of the regulars around those parts, chuckling.

Of course I didn't reply, instead choosing to breathe slowly. I can do this, I thought, mustering up all my courage. This is my own patented road to recovery.

"So, anyone hear about that kid that got beaten shitless?" asked a new girl who seemed to have a great, diverse vocabulary consisting of the words ass, bitch, and shit, used in multiple ways.

I knew who they were talking about right away, but I kept my mouth shut. No one was expecting me to talk, anyway. That was one of the good things about being a Yankee. No one expected you to do anything but fight.

"Yeah, that was a real hit-and-run job, you know?" said yet another of the nameless thugs that I spent all my free time with.

"Whoever did that to him had some serious issues to work out," said a shadowy guy, who hadn't spoken up until that moment. "Probably hadn't killed anyone before, and wanted to see what it was like."

Everyone else cringed, scared by the actual prospect of killing someone. I remained expressionless, lest I give something away.

The shadowy guy turned his attention to me and said, "You're the Firefly, aren't you?"

I nodded, returning his look with a glare. Something about this guy made me uneasy.

"You really don't talk, do you?" he muttered, chuckling. I didn't laugh. "Well, will you answer this for me? Have you killed someone yet?"

Suddenly everyone's eyes were on me, boring into me. I closed my eyes, annoyed by this new guy. What was his problem? But I had to answer him, or everyone would get suspicious of me.

"No," I replied truthfully.

The guy sighed, glancing at the others. "Pity; you've got so much more potential than these other wanna-bes."

This comment got everyone's tempers flared, including mine. I had potential? As in killing potential? I really didn't like this guy at all.

The others were angry for a different reason. "What do you mean, wanna-bes?"

"Yeah, really!"

"What makes Firefly so special?"

"Firefly hasn't even cut off ties to his family yet!"

The last comment seemed to get the guy's attention back, and he asked, "You still live with relatives, Firefly?"

"My mom and dad," I replied curtly, then added as an afterthought, "and my cousin."

"I see," the guy said, seeming to be mulling something over. I glared at him the whole time, liking this guy less and less.

"Do they know about you?" This question caught me off guard, which revealed a worried expression from me.

The guy smirked, getting the information he needed. "It's the cousin, isn't it? He's holding it over you, right? It's why you haven't been out lately."

I stared at the ground, not wanting this guy to know he'd gotten it right, except that Daiki wasn't holding this over me. Or was he?

The shadowy guy smiled triumphantly and said, "Well, then this problem should be easy to solve. Kill your cousin, and you'll be free."

This guy knew just where to hit me hardest. I had striven for freedom all my life, and when I'd finally found a liberating existence in this world, it seemed as if it was about to shatter to pieces because of Daiki.

"M-maybe he's got a point, Firefly," one of the others said after a moment. "I mean, your cousin's got some sort of disease, right? It's not like he wouldn't die soon, anyway."

That's right. Daiki was sick. The doctors hadn't thought he'd make it as long as he had. It wasn't like it wouldn't happen already. But…

"No," I said, quietly but firmly.

The guy smirked at me, then turned and started to leave. Before he left, though, he left me some parting words. "If you change your mind, I'll know where to find you. You'll be the only one with blood on his hands."

—

What that guy had said to me troubled me the next day. Instead of just ignoring Daiki, I avoided him completely. I didn't want to look at him and think what it would be like to have him gone.

But then again, why didn't I want him hurt? I had never liked him. He had always been a nuisance, and now he was a nuisance with a deadly secret. And he was dying anyway, so why not speed the process up a bit? It would be nothing like what had happened with the kid…

No, it would be a thousand times worse than what had happened with the kid. I had lived with Daiki for years and, without realized it, had grown an attachment to him. A small attachment, but an attachment nonetheless.

That night, as I prepared to sneak out my window, Daiki appeared at the doorway, startling me.

"You're not as careful now that you know I know, are you?" he asked, chuckling. I frowned, eyes narrowing. What was he playing at?

Daiki took a few steps into my room, glancing around at the nearly bare space that was my room. "Don't worry, your mom and dad are out for the night, it's just us," he said, toning down my fear for a moment.

Then he continued, "Hotaru, I know you probably won't listen if I tell you that you shouldn't be doing this, so…just be careful, okay? Keep your temper in check and come back safe."

My eyes widened, surprised by the warmth of his gaze. I could tell that he actually cared what happened to me out there.

But I didn't. "Goodbye," I said curtly, climbing through my window and landing softly on the ground, not looking back as I immersed myself into the night.

—

"Hey kid, isn't it a bit late to be out in these parts?"

I stood in the background of the alley, watching as a few others began to rough up a kid who'd lost his way late at night. It was a huge mistake on his part.

I never began a fight anymore; I let others get their tough talk in and then I went in for the kill. Not literally, though. Not again.

I watched as the kid got shoved against a wall and the others searched his pockets for anything valuable. I saw him glance around wildly, searching for any means of escape. Then his eyes rested on me, and he mouthed the words, "Help me."

"Alright Firefly, want to finish him up?" one of the thugs asked, shoving the kid toward me.

I took one more look at the kid's face and had an epiphany. No, I didn't want to do this. I never had. And I never wanted to again. Daiki had been right all along. This was wrong.

I leaned down to the kid and whispered, "Run. I'll keep them occupied."

The kid looked at me for a second, gratitude showing on his face. My eyes widened slightly, not used to people looking at me like that. It made me feel…kind of nice. Then he ran, and my eyes narrowed. It was time to get serious again.

"Hey, he's getting away!" the others cried, making a move to pursue him. I stood in their way before they could take more than a few steps, glaring at each one of them.

"What are you doing, Firefly? You're letting him get away!" one of the guys exclaimed, making a move to get around me. I shoved him back before he could even attempt it.

I closed my eyes, for the first time knowing exactly what I had to say. "Why are we doing this? Is there any good reason for it?

"No, there isn't. That's why we're still here, right? Can't find the reason we do it, can't find a reason to stop." I paused, letting my words take effect before getting to my point.

"Well, I have found my reason, and let me tell you, he's completely worth it. So that's it; I'm done." Then I took a breath, reached up, grabbed my mask, and tore it off, letting it fall to the ground.

The others just stared at me in shock for a minute. They had never heard me say more than a few words at a time. Truth be told, neither had I. When they didn't say anything for a while, I turned and was about to walk out on them forever when one of them said, "Wait."

I glanced over my shoulder, getting ready to tell them off again. I stopped when I noticed that they were all glaring at me with colder expressions than I'd ever seen on any of them. "You know what happens to guys who quit, right?" the one who'd spoken asked me, smirking darkly.

I sighed, turning back around. "Enlighten me," I said, rolling my eyes and affecting a bored tone just to piss them off.

It worked, because now they were glaring at me and circling around. I cursed under my breath when I realized I'd just made this more difficult.

"Fightin' time!" someone cried, and suddenly they all came at me at once.

-

Marcus: Alright, what was that?

madjack89: What was what?

Marcus: You just stole my catch phrase!

Hotaru: Technically, Madjack didn't steal it, that other guy did.

Thomas: And it's not a very good one to begin with.

madjack89: Oh, I disagree, Thomas, I find it very cute!

Thomas: Think what you will.

Marcus: Screw it, I'm leaving. And by the way, Thomas, you're an asshole. I couldn't say it in the dub, so I'm saying it now!

Thomas: Yeah, whatever.

madjack89: Alright, let's let Hotaru get back to his story.

-

I knew I could handle them. I may not come out unscathed, but I'd come out on top. I could do this, it would be simple. First I'd elbow him…

"Stop!" Everyone, including me, turned at the sound of this new voice. My eyes grew wider when I saw that the person standing in the entrance to the alleyway, the one that had told us to stop, was Daiki.

I didn't say anything, not wanting the others to know what he meant to me. Then maybe he'd have a chance to run.

"Get away from him," Daiki said quietly, trying to sound menacing but failing. The others just began to laugh at his attempt to be tough.

"Hey, this your small fry cousin, Firefly?" one of the others asked me. I didn't answer. Daiki did for me.

"Well, I don't know about small fry, but I'm Hotaru's cousin," he said, smiling. What was he smiling about? He should have been running!

The others began to smile slowly, one by one. I tensed when I realized what they were going to do. They were going to go after Daiki instead of me, and Daiki was going to let them in order to save me.

"Daiki, run! I can handle myself!" I yelled, trying desperately to convince him to run. But he still wouldn't budge. He wouldn't even look at me.

"Alright, here's the deal, guys," he said, acting like he had all the authority. "You let Hotaru go and pummel me instead."

The others glanced at each other, and that's when I noticed the fear in their eyes. They were afraid of me. They always had been. The thought of fighting me had terrified them, despite their tough talk. But they'd just found an easy way out.

"Deal," one of them said, and then they were all moving away from me and headed straight for Daiki. For a moment, I froze. I realized the stakes here. Daiki was sick. He wouldn't be able to take this kind of beating. He would…

By the time I finally reacted, they'd already given him a few good hits. Nothing too major, but it wouldn't have mattered if they were only hitting him with pillows. They meant him harm, and that I wouldn't forgive.

I won't go into all the details because, frankly, everything was a big blur for me. I'll just say it was the last time I fought anyone, and it'll stay that way, because I don't just scare everyone around me; I scare myself.

I watched the last few thugs leave, hoping I'd never have to see them again. When it was just me and Daiki left, I started laughing. I was so relieved that it was finally over.

That's why it took me a second to realize Daiki wasn't laughing along with me. I turned my head slowly, afraid of what I might see.

Daiki was crouched on the ground, eyes wide. He was clutching his chest and was breathing hard, as if it were difficult for him. When he noticed me staring at him, he lifted his head and said, "Wow, I'd forgotten how much this hurts."

Then he lowered his head and clenched his teeth, like he was trying to keep from screaming in pain. The shock of witnessing this wore off quickly and I started reacting again. Luckily, I had my cell phone on this occasion, and I dialed the correct number. Soon, the ambulance was on its way.

That's when I realized there were tears in my eyes.

—

I slowly opened the hospital room door, hands shaking. I didn't know what to expect, though my parents had said he looked much better. I didn't really believe them. I couldn't.

When the nurse said we could go in and see Daiki, I'd told Mom and Dad to go in ahead of me. I needed to see him alone.

I opened he door completely, scanning the room for him. There were three occupied beds in this room, Daiki's being the farthest from the door, in a corner next to the window. He was facing away from me, staring out the window.

I froze, getting nervous. What would I say to him? What could I possibly say to him after all this? He had always been so nice to me. He had tried to save me and gotten hurt himself. I had never been kind to him, not once. How could I face him?

"Hey, if you're just gonna stand there, could you at least close the door?" I jumped when the girl lying in the bed by the door spoke to me, looking annoyed.

Her voice had gotten Daiki's attention too. As he turned to see what was going on, he caught sight of me and seemed to freeze as well. We shared a brief look before he lowered his head, hiding his eyes from me.

"Sorry," I muttered listlessly to the girl who had spoken, closing the door behind me. I then made my way over to Daiki's bed, getting more and more nervous with each step I took.

Finally, I stopped at the foot of Daiki's bed, glancing over the various instruments strapped to him. I noted that his heart monitor was beeping rhythmically and normally, taking my stress down a notch.

Daiki glanced at me, then quickly hid his gaze again. "Close the curtain," he said quietly, gesturing to the white curtain partition next to his bed. I obliged, pulling the curtain around us and hiding us from everyone else's view.

There was a moment of silence between us, Daiki still not looking at me. I took this as a cue to say something, so I began, "Daiki, tha—"

"Don't say it!" I flinched, taken aback by Daiki's harsh whisper. He lifted his head and stared at me, and I noticed his eyes begin to soften.

He smirked and continued, "I'm sorry, but please don't thank me. I don't deserve your thanks."

"What do you mean?" I asked, suddenly confused. "You saved me, Daiki. If you hadn't been there for me all the time, even though I didn't acknowledge you, I would be out there right now, screwing up my life. You saved my life."

Suddenly Daiki's eyes widened, surprised by my speech. I was surprised myself. I never talked that much, but the words just seemed to be flowing now. I glanced at my feet, embarrassed that he'd thought what I'd said was stupid.

Instead, he said, "Please, just call me Dai."

"What?" I asked, confused again.

Daiki smirked. "You always call me Daiki, and I always tell you I prefer Dai. It's easier to say because it's shorter!"

"Um, alright, Dai," I muttered awkwardly. "I'm sorry if I offended you or anything…"

"No offense taken!" Dai said quickly. "I'm just glad you're okay now."

I noticed that as Dai said he was glad I was okay, his expression darkened. My eyes narrowed. "Dai, why did you follow me?"

Dai's expression darkened even more when I asked this, so much so that he realized he couldn't hide what he was thinking anymore. I pulled up a chair and sat down, prepared for a lengthy explanation.

Dai glanced at me and sighed. "You remember how I became an orphan, right?" he asked suddenly.

I lifted me eyebrow, not having a clue what this had to do with my question. "Well, yeah, there was a crash and your parents…"

"My parents died," Dai said, putting it bluntly. I started, surprised by the cold tone his voice had taken on. Then I regained my composure and nodded.

"They crashed into a truck," Dai continued, beginning to get a far off look in his eye. "A head-on collision. They died instantly. I should have died instantly." Dai paused, staring down at his hands. "But I didn't.

"I'm alive, and they're dead. Why was I the only one to survive? Even the truck driver died, but I'm still here. Why is that?"

"You got lucky," I said quietly, beginning to get uneasy.

Dai glanced at me and smirked. "I guess that's what it is; luck. I was lucky. I should probably be happy about that, but…I would give it all away if I could!"

At that moment, Dai's appearance that he'd been keeping up for years shattered, and I was there to witness it.

Dai clutched his sheets in his hands, eyes shut tight. "They were just taking me to an appointment, one of those routine check-up things. We were just driving along, like any old day. And then…I had a stupid attack!"

I glanced around, wondering if anyone else could hear what I was hearing. It didn't seem like that was the case. "Dai, why are you telling me all this? I already know this story."

"You don't know the story!" Dai snapped back, shutting me up quickly. "At least not the part I played in it. You just know the story up to there, but then you skipped a chapter. Let me fill you in on what happened next.

"First my mom turned around to see what was wrong. She saw what was happening and climbed over her seat and into the back seat, probably with her motherly instinct driving her. Then Dad turned around, just to see what was wrong. He was turned around for about two seconds. Two insignificant seconds was all it took to drift into the opposite lane and hit a truck head-on."

Dai paused, turned his head, and stared me straight in the eye before continuing. "I don't really remember much of what happened next. I was out of it for most of the time, and the images I do remember are all blurry. But there was one distinct thing I remember seeing in the car after that crash. That image was of my mother's sightless eyes staring straight back into mine."

I didn't know what to say after he told me that. It was a horrifying shock, but at the same time, it explained everything. That's why what Dai said next didn't come as much of a surprise to me.

"I didn't remember that image right away, but when I did, it haunted me. I saw it all the time, whether I was awake or asleep. It was driving me to the brink of insanity until I realized why it affected me so much. It's because I caused my parents' deaths. I killed my own parents."

"It's not true," I murmured.

"It is true, Hotaru," Dai said with conviction. "And once I realized that myself, I felt so much better, like I'd had some amazing epiphany. It all just became so clear. That was the day before you met me."

"Dai, that's not the way to make things right," I said, glaring at Dai.

"What's not the way…you figured it out." Dai smiled, realizing I knew already what he was getting at with this story. "Tell me, Hotaru, what happens to murderers?"

"They go to jail," I answered. "You're not a murderer."

"I am, but that's not what I'm getting at," Dai said. "I mean when there's a really horrible murderer. What happens to them?"

I didn't answer, instead choosing to stare at the ground.

"They're executed," Dai said with feeling. "And I'd say that killing your own parents is a horrible crime. That was my reasoning behind it. I'd been contemplating a way to do it for years, and then the opportunity presented itself."

"You wanted to die saving me, because then you'd be able to redeem yourself," I said, finishing his thought for him.

Dai's eyes widened in surprise. It looked like I'd actually startled him with how much I understood his situation. "Dai," I began, "when I was out in that waiting room, I think I went through the same thing you're talking about, only times a thousand. I've hurt so many people, and it took you almost dying to finally make me stop."

"No, don't make me out to be the hero," Dai said quickly, interrupting me. "You made your decision before I came out."

"I made my decision because of you," I said firmly. "You did save me, Dai, even with your ulterior motives. But despite feeling that I deserved to just disappear, I knew that wouldn't solve anything. It would make things worse for everyone. My parents would be devastated; maybe you'd be devastated…"

"I would," Dai muttered. It was my turn to be surprised when I saw a tear form in Dai's eye. He noticed my surprise and chuckled. "You really should talk more, you're pretty inspiring.

"But I need you to tell me something honestly," Dai continued, getting serious again. "Would you miss me if I suddenly disappeared?"

I paused, considering what I should say. Of course I would, but how could I make Dai see that? I'd never been kind to him…

Then I knew exactly what I should say. Just one simple word. "Yes."

That word did the trick, because suddenly Dai had his arms wrapped around me and he was crying into my shoulder. I wrapped my arms around him and leaned closer.

"What do I do, Hotaru?" Dai began to talk through his sobs. "I can't do it. The guilt is eating away at me! I know it wasn't my fault, but I keep telling myself it should be, and then I get these horrible thoughts…what am I gonna do?"

It was at that moment when I finally realized my purpose: why Dai had come to live with us, why everything that had happened, had happened. It was all leading up to this point, when I would find my calling. I knew what I had to do.

I had to save Dai, the way he had saved me. I had to protect him when he couldn't protect himself. And I would, but without the help of the Firefly.

That was the other vow I made that day. I would never turn to the Firefly for anything again. He was too dangerous and unstable, and I didn't want to risk hurting anyone else.

I get close to him every time I Spirit Evolve into Mercurymon, but I manage to keep him in check. He'll always be a part of me, but I swear I'll fight him. He won't take me over again. For Dai's sake, for everyone else's sake, and for my own sake.

The Firefly is dead.

—

madjack89: Wow, that was long!

Hotaru: Life stories can get that way.

madjack89: Are you attempting sarcastic remarks?

Hotaru: …I guess.

madjack89: Do you want your present?

Hotaru: …I guess.

madjack89: Okie doke, I'll give it to you! But the thing is, it's not an actual physical gift!

Hotaru: Then what is it?

madjack89: I'm gonna tell you a secret!

Hotaru: Is it a secret involving me?

madjack89: Yup!

Hotaru: Okay, shoot.

madjack89: Alright, here it is! Much later on in Frontier 02, you're gonna get a girlfriend!

Hotaru: …I'm what?

madjack89: You're gonna get a girlfriend! I can't have you be alone, after all!

Hotaru: …Who?

madjack89: Sorry, that remains a secret, but I promise you'll like her!

Hotaru: People usually like their girlfriends, don't they?

madjack89: I suppose.

Hotaru: …So a girlfriend?

madjack89: Yup!

Hotaru: Um…thank you, I guess.

madjack89: Oh, you're very welcome! Alright, see ya later, alligators!