Disclaimer: Even though everyone already knows that Digimon is owned by
Toei Animation and FoxKids and Bandai and Saban and NOT by me...we have
to have disclaimers anyway...so...just in case there was ever any doubt,
I do not own Digimon, or any of the characters from it (although if
anyone knows where I can get a Gomamon or a Gatomon, please let me know
~__^), so please don't sue me or anything. :) There, ya happy now? Good.
And if you're not...too bad. ;) Golly, wow, and I kinda forgot something
major in my first chapter...um, like the translation of the title...heh
heh, I guess not all of us understand Japanese... Oops. ::puts hand
behind head:: -__-* Anyway..."Nouri" means "one's mind", and "Kaisen"
means "match or game"...hence, "Games of the Mind". Yeah...guess I
shoulda told you that...um...like yesterday... ^_^* Gomen... Ah, well,
on with chapter two!
Games of the Mind *Chapter Two*
Tap tap tap, tapetta tap tap.
Kari watched in awe as Koushiro's hands flew across the keyboard. Small,
quick, and sharp as a razor, Koushiro Izumi, better known as Izzy, was,
by far, probably the smartest person Kari had ever met. Izzy brushed his
dark auburn hair back, and continued typing away at the computer. He
then picked up a small, cylindrical object resembling a fat pen, and
attached a small wire to the base of it. Then he wrapped the fine metal
wire around a small knob on the side of his laptop's hard drive. He
typed a line of code onto the computer screen and hit enter, then
pressed a button on the side of the penlike object. A red beam of light
shot out of the cylinder and played a thin horizontal crimson line on
the wall across the room.
"Prodigious!" Izzy said. "It worked!"
Kari blinked.
Tai, who was now sprawled out on the bed on his stomach, lifted his
head, as if he could look overtop the very blindness that had stricken
him. He growled in frustration.
"What worked?" he asked.
Izzy glanced up.
"Using my laptop and this laser pointer," he said, holding up the
penlike object, "I have fashioned a sort of scanner, if you will."
Tai made a face.
"Meaning...?"
Izzy grinned.
"Meaning I can use this laser pointer to scan your eyes, Tai," he
responded, "and hopefully find out what's causing this."
"So it's kinda like those tricorder thingies they use on Star Trek?" Tai
said with a smirk.
Izzy laughed.
"Sort of," he replied, happy to see Tai was in good spirits, despite the
situation, "but the Star Trek technology is centuries ahead of mine."
He waved the laser pointer in the air and picked up his laptop computer.
He walked over to the edge of the bed.
"Okay, Tai, I need you to lay your head back on the pillow," Izzy said,
"so I can scan the laser across your eyes."
Tai flopped over onto his back and stared up at the nothingness before
him. Izzy pressed the button on the side of the laser pointer, and the
red beam of light drew a thin line across Tai's forehead.
"Hold still, now," Izzy said, and slowly drew the laser down his
friend's face, across his eyes, scanning them twice. Then he turned, and
Tai heard him tap something on his laptop keyboard.
"Interesting," Izzy murmured, and ran the laser up and down across his
friend's eyes again.
"What?" Tai asked without moving.
Izzy didn't reply, rather ran the scanner horizontally a few times.
"Very interesting..."
"What??" Tai asked again.
Again, Izzy didn't answer. He sat back down on the floor and pecked at
the keyboard for a moment, and Kari watched in amazement as a line
diagram of her brother's eye appeared on a blue screen on Koushiro's
laptop. The red-haired boy made a wordless sound of intrigue, and
pressed another series of keys. The diagram rotated slowly to the left.
"Very very interesting..."
Tai remained still, but a ragged, harried tone crept into his voice.
"Koushiro Izumi," he growled, "you've said three times that my eyeballs
were interesting...what the hell is so interesting??"
Koushiro didn't look up from his laptop, rather pointed at the screen so
Kari could see what he was talking about.
"Now, mind you," he began, "I'm no doctor...but as far as I can tell,
Tai,"--he glanced up--"there's nothing wrong with your eyes."
Tai jerked upright in his bed.
"WHAT?" he cried. He waved his arms in the air. "Izzy, are you nuts? If
there's nothing wrong with my eyes, then why can't I SEE??"
Koushiro closed his eyes and lifted his computer into his lap.
"You didn't let me finish," he said, irked.
Tai silenced.
"Like I said before," Izzy went on, "there is no actual damage to your
eyes, Tai. Nothing is scratched, burned, infected, or missing..." He
paused. "Rather, there is something extra."
"Extra?" Tai and Kari echoed in tandem.
Izzy nodded.
"Uh huh," he affirmed. "That's what's causing the trouble." He poked at
the screen of the computer. "Kari, if you look here, you'll see a
diagram of your brother's eye. This cross-section here shows the cornea,
which is the outside of the eye. It's completely in tact, no scratches,
no nothing." Kari nodded, though she wasn't completely certain what all
of that meant. "This is the iris, the colored part of the eye," he
explained further, moving his finger in a circular motion across the
monitor, "and this is the pupil, the hole in the center of the iris that
regulates the amount of light getting through to the retina, the
innermost part of the eye. All of the above are in tact and undamaged."
"So what's the problem?" Tai asked, getting impatient.
Izzy tapped at the keyboard again, then hesitated. He pointed at the
screen.
"This is," he said. Kari stared at the screen, wide-eyed.
"What is it?" she asked.
Koushiro frowned.
"I'm not sure."
"Great," Tai muttered, "Einstein is stumped..."
"It's some sort of black film," Izzy said, "between the iris and the
pupil, that's what is causing the monochrome appearance of his eyes.
It's blocking the pupil, thus blocking any light from reaching the
retina. That's what is causing your inability to see, Tai." He paused
again. "But what exactly this black film is, I couldn't tell you."
Tai frowned. "So...theoretically," Tai began, and Izzy flinched.
Whenever Tai had a theory, it was usually a bad one. "Theoretically,"
Tai said again, "all we have to do is remove this black film, right?"
Koushiro shook his head. "It's not that easy, Tai," he replied. "I dunno
how it got there, or what it's composed of...and I'm not at all
qualified to make any sort of medical diagnosis about it."
Kari snapped her fingers.
"What about Jyou?" she asked. "His father is a doctor."
"A medical doctor," Izzy replied, "not an opthamologist."
Kari pouted.
"Well it couldn't hurt," she mumbled.
"I think that probably the best thing for us to do right now is wait,"
Izzy admitted.
Tai snapped his chin up.
"WAIT??" he cried. "The only suggestion you have is for me to just
WAIT?"
Izzy put his hands up as if to block Tai's incredulity.
"Tai," he said, "I don't know how that strange black thing got into your
eyes...I have no idea what it even IS. This...this just sort of
happened? Overnight?"
Tai frowned.
"Overnight," he affirmed softly.
"Then there is a chance it will right itself in the same way."
Tai scowled. He hated it when Izzy's wild ideas made sense.
"That's ridiculous, Izzy," he shouted, "I can't just wait this out! What
about my parents? What will they say? I think they're gonna know
something is wrong when I start running into walls and stuff."
"Tai, we can't be so rash about this," Kari said loudly to get her
brother's attention, "your eyes are delicate. They're precious, they're
the only eyes you will ever have. We have to think before we act, Tai."
She paused. "Even as smart as he is, I wouldn't want Izzy taking a
scalpel to MY eyes..." She turned to Koushiro and added, "No offense."
"None taken," he replied with a grin.
Tai let out a gusty sigh and ran his fingers through his wild hair.
"Okay, okay," he grumbled reluctantly, flopping backward onto his
pillow, "we'll wait."
Kari smiled.
"Tai," she said. He turned his head as if to look at her. "Tai, you
realize...that your still in your pajamas?" she asked.
His face turned beet red and he clapped one hand onto his chest.
"Uhh..."
Kari giggled, and got to her feet. She rifled through a drawer in the
dresser and pulled out a dark colored long-sleeved shirt, Tai's favorite
blue tee-shirt, and a pair of brownish cargo shorts. She tossed the
bundle of clothing into her brother's lap.
"I have to get dressed, too," she told him, plucking at her own PJ's.
She grabbed a sleeveless yellow shirt and her dark pink capri pants.
"I'll be back in a minute, okay?"
"Uh, sure, Kari," he replied absently, and held up the long-sleeved
shirt, wondering how on earth he was going to tell if it was inside-out
or not. Kari hesitated near the doorway, then pulled gently on
Koushiro's sleeve. He glanced down at her, and she motioned for him to
follow her out into the hallway. He closed his laptop and glanced up at
Tai.
"Hey, Tai," he said, getting to his feet, "I'm gonna go get something to
drink, you want anything?"
"Uhh..." Tai said, still plucking at the clothes in befuddlement, "sure,
there should be some Cokes in the fridge."
"You got it," Izzy replied, and followed Kari out of the room. Kari
closed the bedroom door behind her and clasped her hands around
Koushiro's wrist.
"Izzy," she said softly, with a sort of desperate urgency in her voice,
"what are we going to do?"
Izzy blinked.
"I thought we agreed to wait it out and see what happened tomorrow," he
responded.
Kari narrowed one eye.
"You know Tai," she protested, putting her hands on her hips, "he'll
never be able to sit still that long. He's almost as hard to control as
Skull Greymon was."
Izzy winced. It had been a little over two years now since the
children's adventures in the digital world; two years since the defeat
of the Dark Masters and the evil creatures whose very existence had
warped the time and space in the digital world, jerking it out of synch
with the real world. Two years since the children had last seen the
digital monsters--digimon--that they had fought alongside, that they had
grown to trust with all their hearts. These creatures who had risked
their very lives to help save their world and the human world. These
unusual creatures the children found they had grown to love.
Two years.
Had it really been that long? It felt like...like yesterday.
It had been even longer for Kari, he knew. Izzy, Yamato, Takeru, and Tai
had all had a chance to see their digimon a little more recently, when a
virally corrupted digimon called Diaborumon had tried to destroy the
Internet. Diaborumon had been stopped, and order returned to the
Internet, thanks to the work of Wargreymon and Metalgarurumon, who had
somehow managed to digivolve together to create Omnimon. It had been a
fantastic battle, and a good opportunity to watch his digimon in action
once more...but even so, Koushiro felt an ache in his heart to see
Tentomon again...
He shook his head almost imperceptibly, pushing away thoughts of the
past, then looked at Kari, concern in his dark eyes.
"I know, Kari, I know," he admitted, frowning, "but I honestly don't
have any better suggestions right now. I...I dunno what else we can do."
Kari looked at the floor.
"What are my parents gonna think?" she wondered aloud.
Izzy put his hands on Kari's shoulders and looked her in the eye.
"It's not anybody's fault, Kari," he said slowly, "it's not like either
of you made a mistake."
Kari looked up at him, her eyes watery.
"I know it's nobody's fault, Izzy," she said, forbidding herself to cry,
"but, well,"--she turned away and placed her hand on the doorknob,
resting her forehead against the bedroom door--"I'm scared, Izzy."
Izzy frowned, and put one hand behind his head, unsure of how to
respond.
"I dunno what to tell you, Kari," he replied honestly. "I wish I
did...but I just don't. I'm a computer whiz...not a doctor."
Kari glanced at him over her shoulder and nodded.
"Maybe you aren't," she said, "but Jyou's father is." She paused. "Im
going to call Jyou's house, Jyou might have some insight--"
Izzy grabbed her arm as she started down the hallway.
"Tai won't like that," he said. "He won't want Jyou to know...I'll bet
he didn't even want ME to know."
Kari nodded.
"He didn't..." she admitted. Then she clenched her fists. "He's so darn
STUBBORN, Izzy," she continued after a moment, "he'll go to the point of
jeopardizing his own safety before he'll admit he needs anyone's help."
"I know, Kari," he said again, shaking his head, "I know."
They walked down the hall into the kitchen, and Kari opened up the
fridge. She pulled out a soda for Tai, then handed one to Izzy. Izzy
popped open the can, then took the soda for Tai and headed back down the
hall.
"Get dressed, Kari," he said, noticing she still carried her small
bundle of clothes, "I'll go give this to Tai." He held up the soda and
then lowered his voice. "Go call Jyou, Kari," he added softly, "we may
need his help." Kari nodded, and headed toward the bathroom to get
changed.
She spun quickly when the phone behind her rang. Izzy turned around when
he heard it ring, and locked eyes with Kari. He nodded, then headed back
down the hall before Tai got to wondering what had happened to them.
Hikari reached out and picked up the phone.
"Hello," she said, "Kamiya residence."
"Kari?" a female voice asked.
"Mom?" Kari said, a trifle confused. "Mom, are you okay?"
"I'm fine, Kari," Mrs. Kamiya said into the phone, "but I just thought I
would call and check up on you and your brother." She paused. "He's not
still sleeping, is he?"
Kari smiled.
"No, he's awake now," she answered.
"That's good." There was a moment of silence, then Mrs. Kamiya
continued, "Kari, did you watch the weather at all?"
Kari blinked.
"No, not today," she admitted, "why?"
"Apparently the meteorologists have been tracking a large storm cell
headed our way," her mother replied. "I wanted to make sure you and Tai
knew it was coming so it wouldn't catch you by surprise."
"A storm?"
Kari glanced out the window and her jaw slackened a little. The sky had
gotten so dark! It had been sunny only a little while ago...what had
happened? The wind appeared to have picked up, too, sending the trees
outside swaying like rubber.
"Wow," she breathed, "that looks intense."
"You think you two will be okay for a little while longer?" her mother
asked. "Your father and I still have some shopping to do, but if you
want, we can head home now."
"We'll be fine, Mom," Kari replied.
"Okay," Mrs. Kamiya said. "If the power goes out, you can light a
candle, or use the hurricane lamp, if you want, but please be careful."
"We will be, Mom."
"Love you," her mother said.
"Love you, too, Mom," Kari said back, "bye."
Click.
Kari placed the receiver back in its cradle and glanced up at the window
again, her hand lingering by the phone for a moment. She walked over to
the sliding glass door that led to the balcony outside and pressed her
hands up against the cool glass. She frowned, then darted into the
bathroom and quickly changed into her clothes. Upon emerging, her
pajamas draped over her arm, she again approached the glass door.
"Who was that on the phone, Kari?" Kari glanced over her shoulder to see
Koushiro standing in the hallway again.
"It was my mom," she answered, returning her eyes to the charcoal sky,
"warning us about the big storm headed this way."
Izzy walked up behind her and looked outside over her shoulder. "It
certainly looks like a bad one," he agreed.
Kari unlocked the door and slowly slid it open, stepping warily out onto
the terrace.
"Kari?"
Izzy lingered in the doorway as the wind rushed past. Kari looked at
him, then walked over to the railing. She looked toward the eastern
horizon and gasped. Izzy stepped outside after her and raised one hand
to shield his eyes from the strong wind.
"Look how dark it is, Izzy!" she said over the howl of the wind.
"I get the feeling this is going to be one heck of a storm," Izzy
replied. He paused. "But springtime storms are very unusual," he added,
then shrugged. "I'm just glad it's Spring Break and we don't have to
walk home from school through it." He frowned at the sky, then tugged
Kari's sleeve. "Come on," he said, "we shouldn't be out here, it's
dangerous."
Kari nodded, and they hurried back inside. Before she closed the door,
however, she gave one last look at the ebony sky and frowned. She had a
bad feeling about this. She only wished she knew why.
RING! RING!
"Hello, Kido Residence, Shin speaking."
Kari gripped the phone tightly and opened her mouth to speak.
"Hello, Shin-sempai," she said into the phone, "it's Hikari...Hikari
Kamiya."
"Oh, hey Kari," Shin replied with a smile, "what can I do for ya?"
"I was hoping to speak with your brother," she responded, "is he home?"
"Sure, hang on a second." Shin placed his palm over the microphone at
the bottom of the receiver and shouted, "Ototo-chan! Phone for you! It's
Taichi's little sister!" Kari giggled. "He's coming," Shin said into the
phone.
"Okay, arigatou, Shin-sempai," Kari replied, and she heard him set the
phone down onto the table.
A few seconds later, Jyou picked up the phone.
"Kari?"
"Hi, Jyou," she said, a little unsure of how to ask for his help.
"Are you okay?" he asked, a little confused. He hadn't spoken to Kari on
the phone in a long time. Come to think of it, he hadn't spoken to Tai
recently either...or ANY of the others, for that matter. He made a
mental note to start keeping in better touch with them. "Are you all
right, Kari?"
Kari smiled at the concern in his voice. Jyou might have seemed a little
fickle or flippant...even a little cowardly to anyone who didn't take
the time to look deeper, but beneath his loquacious and awkward
exterior, Jyou was a loyal young man who would have given his last
irrelevant factoid to help a friend. "Yeah, I'm fine, Jyou," Kari said,
"thanks." The smile on her face faded. "but I had a question."
"Go for it."
"Well..." she began, "Jyou...how much....how much does your dad know
about...about eyes?"
"Eyes?" he echoed.
"Yes, eyes," she affirmed. "I know he isn't an eye doctor, but I was
kinda hoping he might know something..."
Jyou narrowed one dark blue eye.
"My dad doesn't really work much with eyes," he admitted, pushing his
glasses back up on his nose, "but I've read a lot about opthamology,
because everyone in my family wears some sort of corrective eyewear, so
I might be able to answer your question." He hesitated. "Is...is
something wrong?" Kari balked. Jyou pushed the phone a little harder
against his ear. "Kari?"
Hikari took a deep breath. Tai's gonna kill me, she thought, and
clenched her jaw.
"Well..." She hesitated.
"Kari, what happened?" Jyou demanded. He was really starting to worry
now. Kari squeezed her eyes shut. "Kar--"
"Tai can't see," she blurted out before Jyou could finish his sentence.
"He woke up this morning and he just couldn't see anything."
Jyou about dropped the phone, unable to believe what he had just heard.
"WHAT??" he cried. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Shin look up.
Lowering his voice, Jyou cupped his hands around the phone receiver.
"What??" he whispered fiercely. "What do you mean?? You can't be
serious!"
"I am VERY serious," Kari said slowly, clenching her hands. She gasped
when a thunderclap rattled through the sky above. Her face hardened.
"I'm very serious, Jyou," she repeated, "this isn't exactly something I
would joke about. He's blind, Jyou, his eyes are all glassy and one
color...Izzy says something is blocking the light from reaching his
eyes."
"Izzy is there?" Jyou asked.
"Yes."
"And he doesn't know what's causing this?"
Kari shook her head. "He can see what's causing the problem, but what we
really need is a doctor's opinion," Kari said, feeling helpless.
"Maybe...maybe once the storm is over..." Her voice trailed off.
Jyou grit his teeth and glanced out the window. The storm was right over
the city, roaring with thunder louder than he had ever heard before.
Rain fell in sheets, pounding down on the roof of the apartment building
like a drum. Jyou set his jaw and clenched his fist, pumping on arm up
into the air. "I'll be right over!"
Kari gasped, and her eyes darted back to the window.
"No, Jyou," she cried, "you can't!" She gripped the phone tighter and
hurried over to the glass door. "You're crazy, you can't come over here
now, not in this weather," she went on, staring at the black sky. "Have
you looked out your window recently? It's SUICIDE out there!"
Jyou squared his slim shoulders. "I have to, Kari," he said severely,
"and there's nothing you can say that will make me change my mind." He
smiled, and his tone softened. "Don't worry, I only live a few blocks
away, I'll be there before you can say 'Bob's your uncle'."
"But I don't HAVE an Uncle Bob!" Kari protested, and Jyou laughed.
"It's a figure of speech, Kari," he explained. "I'll be there in a
jiffy."
"O...okay Jyou," she said softly, "But please be careful!" She hung up
the phone and turned around, fear clouding her eyes.
Koushiro, standing nearby, saw the concern on his friend's face, and
frowned.
"Kari?"
She glanced up, startled. She hadn't seen him standing there.
"Jyou is coming over," she said quietly, and her eyes moved to the
window.
Izzy stumbled backward.
"Inconceivable!" he cried, staring at the storm outside. "He's crazy!!"
"I tried to talk him out of it," Kari said, lowering her eyes to the
floor, "I tried to tell him to wait till the storm was over...but
he...he wouldn't listen to me!" She paused. "I hope he'll be okay."
Izzy smiled.
"I'm sure Jyou will be fine, Kari," he said reassuringly. "Jyou may not
always be known for his courage, and he may be a little prone to only
the occasional spontaneous act of bravery,"--he made a face--"VERY
spontaneous...but he's always come out all right before."
Kari felt a little better. She smiled at Izzy.
"I sure hope you're right," she said, then suggested he go and check on
Tai while they waited for Jyou to show up.
As Izzy headed back down the hallway, he watched as Kari approached the
linen closet and pulled out a dark green towel. She hurried to the dryer
and opened it, tossing the towel inside and slamming the door shut.
Puzzled, Izzy stopped in the middle of the hallway.
"What are you doing?" he asked her.
"Putting a towel in the dryer," she grunted, attempting fruitlessly to
reach the start button that was just beyond her reach, "so it will be
warm when Jyou gets here. You know how he's always so worried about
catching cold." She glanced outside again as Izzy walked up behind her
and pressed the evasive start button and the dryer hummed to life. "I
get the feeling he's gonna need more than just a towel by the time he
gets here," she added, watching the rain slide down the windows in
torrents. Izzy squeezed her shoulder consolingly, and then headed back
down the hall.
About ten minutes later, there was an urgent knocking at the door. Kari
glanced up from where she had been sitting on the couch, and cocked one
ear toward the door. The knocking came again, and she quickly turned off
the weather channel she had been watching, hoping to learn something
about the unusually violent storm that seemed to have overtaken the
city. She hurried over to the door.
"Jyou?" she called through the door. The only reply she got was the
angry howl of the wind and the spattering of the rain against the
apartment building. Izzy hurried down the hall at the sound of Kari's
shout, and watched as she carefully opened the door--
--and was promptly thrown backward as the powerful winds blasted the
door open the rest of the way. With a cry, Izzy lunged forward and
caught Kari under the arms as she fell backward. He glanced up in time
to see Jyou stumble in the door and lean hard on the wall, catching his
breath.
"Jyou!" Kari cried, and jumped up, pulling the tall, slender boy into
the apartment. "You're DRENCHED!" she said, horrified, as she struggled
to close the door against the raging wind. Finally managing to get the
door latched and locked, she leaned her back on it for a moment before
hurrying over to the laundry closet. Pulling the dryer door open, she
grabbed the green towel, now warm and soft, and rushed back out into the
main room. "Jyou, you maniac," she chided as Izzy helped the older boy
over toward the couch. "You could've been KILLED out there in this
weather. Now, look at you, you’re soaked, you'll catch your DEATH!"
Jyou looked up at her, still leaning over, his hands on his knees.
"I had to come, Kari," he said as she extended the hand she held the
towel in, "I had to. All those times when all of us were in the digital
world, when we were in trouble, when we were lost, when we would have
fallen apart...Tai was always there for us, to pull us together. To
remind us that, as long as we worked as a team, we couldn't be beaten."
He raised his hand and tapped his index finger under Kari's chin. "Now
what kind of friend would I be if I just abandoned him when he was the
one who needed help?"
Kari grinned, and tossed the towel onto Jyou's hair, shaking her head at
his reckless loyalty. Jyou vigorously rubbed the towel over his
saturated dark indigo hair, then wiped the raindrops from his large
rounded glasses. Pushing the lenses back up onto the bridge of his nose,
he stood up straight and looked down at Kari.
"All right," he said, "let's see if we can't do something to help your
brother."
Kari and Izzy nodded together, and the three of them started down the
hall.
"Now, mind you, Jyou," Kari said softly without looking back at him,
"this is really hitting Tai hard." She turned around and stared hard at
Jyou. "He'll never admit it, but he's totally a mess. Whatever you do,
whatever the true prognosis you have is...try to sound optimistic about
it..." She lowered her eyes and tapped her fingertips together.
"And, for Pete's sake, Jyou," Izzy added, "TRY to be tactful..."
Jyou nodded, wondering who in the world this Pete character was.
"Tactful," Jyou repeated. He nodded. "You got it."
Kari looked at Izzy helplessly, and Izzy just shrugged. Kari slowly
turned the doorknob, and Jyou stepped into the room as Tai lifted his
head and sat up.
"Hey, there, Tai," Jyou called, waving one arm up in the air, "long time
no see!"
Kari let out a moan and slapped her hands over her face. Koushiro's
shoulders slumped, and he raised one hand to his brow, shaking his head.
Jyou balked when he realized what he had said.
"Oops..." he said, his face reddening.
Surprisingly enough, Tai laughed. Kari snapped her head up.
"Jyou?" Tai asked in disbelief, flopping backward onto the bed again.
"What the heck are you doing here?"
Jyou blinked.
"Kari told me what happened," he said seriously, pulling a chair over to
the bed and sitting down on it. "I came to see if there was anything I
could do to help."
"In this weather?" Tai said, astonished. "Man, you're NUTS! You know a
storm is bad when you can hear the rain louder than your own doorbell."
Kari walked up behind Jyou and took her brother by the wrist. "What do
you say, Tai," she asked, "will you let him take a look? Maybe he can
help you."
Tai shrugged and sat up again.
"I suppose he can't really do any more damage than what's already been
done..." he said with a wry smile. Jyou beamed.
"Okay!" he said, and reached into the large duffel he wore over one
shoulder. He pulled out a small flashlight. "You're in good hands, Tai,
just trust me."
Tai made a face, looking rather like he was about to throw up, then
sighed.
"Right," he muttered. "So, Doc, what do I do?"
"Just hold still a second," Jyou replied, shining the flashlight into
Tai's eyes. He watched in amazement as the pupil of the eye tried to
constrict itself in the sudden light, but failed. "Hmmm..." he said
softly, and tried the other eye. "Any difference, Tai?" he asked. "Any
change in light...or...or anything?"
"No," Tai replied. "What are you doing?"
Jyou didn't reply, rather turned to Koushiro, who had lingered in the
doorway.
"Izzy," he said, "Kari told me you knew what was causing the problem?"
Izzy snapped to attention.
"Yes," he said, and walked to where he had left his computer sitting on
the floor. Tapping at the keyboard, he again brought up the diagram of
Tai's eye.
"Wonderful!" Jyou exclaimed, looking at the scan.
"I assume you can make more sense of this than I could..." Izzy said,
scratching his head. "I can hack into high-security computer systems and
read encryption codes and other various forms of technobabble," he went
on, "but I could never make heads or tails of an anatomy blueprint."
Jyou barely heard what the younger boy had said as he sidled up beside
him to look closer at the monitor. He pointed at the screen.
"Can you rotate this?' he asked, moving his fingertip across a part of
the screen. Izzy tapped at the keyboard, and the diagram moved.
"There!" Jyou said, poking at the monitor. "Enlarge this area." Izzy did
so. "That there," Jyou said excitedly as Izzy and Kari frowned at each
other in confusion. "This opaque lens here is blocking any light from
reaching the retina."
"Meaning what?" Kari asked.
Jyou paused. "Okay..." he sighed, "a quick lesson in the anatomy of the
human eye. The eye is composed of three parts," he said, feeling rather
like a professor. "The cornea is the outermost part of the eye; it bends
the light that hits the eye and enables you to focus. The iris is the
colored portion that controls how much light actually enters the eye,
that's why the pupil--the hole in the center of the iris--dilates when
it's dark, so it can let as much light into your eyes as possible."
"Uh huh..." Kari said, not quite sure where this was going.
"The last major part of the eye is the retina," Jyou continued, "which
is the part that does most of the work. Once the light is bent off the
cornea and filtered through the iris and pupil, it hits the retina, and
the retina sends an electrical impulse to the brain. The brain then
turns that impulse into an image."
"So whatever that black thing is," Koushiro said, more to himself than
anyone else, "it's blocking the light from filtering through the iris or
going beyond it, preventing the retina from identifying anything."
"Precisely," Jyou said, pleased that he had explained sufficiently. He
looked back at the screen, and ran his finger over the lines. "There
doesn't appear to be any actual damage to the eye," he said, "which is
good. The sclera is in tact--"
"The...the what?" Kari asked.
"The sclera," Jyou repeated, "the white part of your eye."
"Ah."
"So..." Koushiro began, "if the sclera and the cornea and...all that
other stuff is fine..." He tapped his finger on his chin. "All we really
have to do is get the black lens out of there, right?"
"Theoretically, yes," Jyou replied.
"Excuse me," Tai interrupted, slicing one hand through the air, "that’s
all very fascinating and stuff...but nobody's going to test out their
surgical abilities on MY eyeballs..."
Jyou shook his head.
"Wouldn't dream of it, Tai," he said with a grin. His expression
hardened. "Eventually, however," he went on, "something will have to be
done. If this doesn't rectify itself on it's own, we'll have to figure
something out."
Taichi sighed, and draped his arm over his forehead, listening as the
rain slapped heavily against the apartment. There was absolute silence
for a few unbearable seconds, then Tai made a sound as he fingered
something near his collarbone.
"Kari..." he said.
She perked up like a cat who had seen something move in the grass.
"Yes?"
Tai sat up, and pulled at the collar of his shirt. Kari tilted her head
to the side when she saw him tug on a small whitish object near the neck
of the shirt. He rubbed it between his fingers.
"Kari," he said again, and paused a moment, still holding the small
whitish object attached to the shirt, "why didn't you tell me my shirt
was on inside-out and backwards??"
Please review!! Tell me what you think! Oh, and in case any of you
wondered, yes, all that medical jargon about your eyes is true...I have
an interest in medicine myself, so Jyou makes for a fun character to
write, I can rattle off all my medical stuff and feel all smart. ^__^
More to come soon! Yakusoku shimasen! ^_^ Oyasumi nasai!
~~hikari
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