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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