Save The Date (N-Not That It's A Date Or Anything!) [Maia]

Sometimes, Kuu seemed to have no grasp on reality. Sometimes he had more of one than anyone else in the room. Of all the Digimon Isaac had ever met, he was truly the most confusing of the bunch. Despite that, Isaac found himself slowly getting accustomed to the little guy. He'd surely grow even more so if he visited Maia more in person, but for now he was still in the adjustment stages. Sometimes, the mere existence of Kuu could be a lot to take in.

"House of the Dead? Yeah, that's Elliot's favorite at these places. He could never make it to the final boss no matter how hard he tried, but I'll be damned if he doesn't put in the effort," Isaac said. Maybe he had better luck now that Kuu was his co-pilot? Isaac didn't even want to ask how they managed to help the strange Digimon avoid detection, but Kuu was a wily one and Elliot was craftier than he looked. The two probably had some sort of needlessly overelaborate plan put in motion to make their endeavor successful. "Let's go pick him up real quick so we don't forget him here," he joked.

Elliot was over at the token machine, trying to figure out how to insert his yen. He nearly went broke trying to fish Kuu out of that claw game! As he turned around he noticed the approaching group and beamed. "Oh, thank goodness! You finally managed to fish him out," Elliot said, sighing in relief. "I thought I was going to have to call security for help again.

So! How did it go?" There was a knowing grin on Elliot's face as he looked between Isaac and Maia, only widening as Isaac started blushing. Even when it wasn't a secret anymore, Elliot still needed to stop teasing him so much! Especially when it was becoming increasingly clear that the boy had orchestrated the whole thing with the clumsiest deceptions ever. Never before had Isaac been made such a fool of.

Elliot couldn't help but burst into laughter at Kuu's description of the situation. Frankly, with how bugged Kuu seemed by Isaac sometimes, it was a wonder he got the Digimon to go along with the plan. Did he really just like bathrooms? Kuu definitely operated in strange ways, and not even Elliot could find himself on exactly the right wavelength. Still, he certainly made the weirdest, most hilarious revelations sometimes.

"Yeah, I'd say we had a great time," Isaac concluded, looking up at Maia and smiling softly. He wasn't sure if he was more embarrassed or more purely overjoyed at this point. Unfortunately, the sweet moment was cut short by a sudden rumble gargling through the room. Now it was Elliot's turn to be embarrassed, the boy blushing as he tried to keep his stomach from making more of the unnerving noises. It sounded like the roar of a monster. Just how long had he been hungry for?

"Hungry?" Isaac asked, Elliot only managing a sheepish nod in response. Naturally, Isaac hadn't been to Society Hill much before. It was a little too fancy for him, even if it apparently had the best arcade around after the Entertainment District had been destroyed. This was a problem. How were they going to find a good place to eat here? He turned to Maia, hoping she'd have some ideas considering she lived in Shibuya for far longer than he did. "Got any favorite kinds of food?" Isaac asked, hoping that Maia would have more ideas as to where they can eat. Even if she wasn't sure in general, at least this would give them a chance to wander around and spend more time together as they hunted for a place to eat.

Well, technically they were both carbohydrates. But going into any more detail than that made the brothers' heads hurt. Isaac was bad at school, and Elliot was still young enough to be putting everything together. Still, Maia was correct. Sugar was very much not noodles! With how diverse Digimon were compared to humans, maybe Kuu could get away with eating pure sugar at a Digital World restaurant. In Shibuya, he'd probably be booted out of the establishment. Also for being a talking animal. That was a pretty important barrier too. Still, sitting around and thinking about this wasn't helping Elliot's hunger any. The boy racked his brain to try and think of ideas.

"Good for sushi?" Isaac suggested. Something simple like that was probably the best choice, and it was clean enough to not be completely unappealing on this date. Wait, was it still a date? If Elliot and Kuu still had plans brewing, Kuu would probably just say something about his lucky table and end up running off. Would he end up having to pay for Kuu, even? Preemptively, he wished his wallet a peaceful passage into the afterlife. There was no way it was surviving Kuu's eating habits in one piece.

The next hard part was going to be looking for a good place to eat. Society Hill skewed expensive, so the brothers rarely if ever went there. They were flying blind as far as direction went, but that would be okay. Isaac liked having a bit more time to wander around with Maia. He moved to open the door of the arcade, admittedly feeling relief as cool, fresh air filled his lungs for the first time in a while. He offered the other hand to Maia, grinning slightly. "Shall we?" he asked, Elliot resisting the urge to break into a big grin. His plan was working! Had Isaac stopped worrying and finally just said something? Seeing the often worried boy loosen up was a major source of relief to Elliot. No more fear of constant ulcers for Isaac.

"Oh, really? Perfect," Isaac responded. That was fortunate. Isaac knew there'd be at least a few places in Shibuya that had sushi, but he wasn't sure if Society Hill was too rich and fancy for it or not. Then again, they also had a big, fancy arcade, so what did Isaac know? Hand in hand with Maia he left the arcade, taking the time to appreciate the beautiful day. The afternoon was passing over to evening, leaving the sky a mature blue and the air crisp and cold. Despite all of the people around, there was an overall serene atmosphere hanging over the day. It was enough to make Isaac wonder how many days like this he had missed exploring in the Digital World. Heck, how much of his vacation had been completely derailed? As interesting as the Digital World was, days like this one were way closer to his expectation than days of high octane adventure and risky danger. In a way, he wondered if he regretted not being able to take more days like this one before leaving. Then again, if not for the Digital World, would he have met Maia? Or would they have just passed right by each other in the grand scheme of life?

Oh well. There was no time to dwell on that. More pressing questions existed, like what he would be ordering when they found the sushi place. When adventures typically ended in Isaac crashing at the dinner table and eating whatever was set out for him, he didn't really have much chance to pick out his own palate. Elliot probably already knew at least three different things he wanted, but Isaac was completely in the dark. A lighthearted question broke the silence that had briefly yet noticeably settled on the boy. "You have any favorite types?" he asked, hoping that he could try and find some suggestions based on what Maia liked. It was better than nothing, right?

"You know, we can trade if you want," Elliot suggested to Maia as Kuu evacuated to his shoulder. It seemed like both he and Kuu were insistent on giving the duo their alone time, even if Kuu's reason seemed more out of them being yucky than anything else. He let the duo pass ahead of him, figuring he'd be able to follow without much incident. Besides, what was he supposed to do? Interrupt their date? Heck, if it wasn't for the fact that it'd likely worry Isaac sick, Elliot would've heavily considered orchestrating another escape. Instead, he figured he'd just lag a little behind and help explain sushi to Kuu. "You see, its like fish, but rolled up. And there's rice, and you can get all kinds of stuff on it!" Kuu liked stuff, right?

Well, crap. There went relying on Maia's advice. Still, at least exploring menus was always fun. "Me neither. I've never really had much, honestly, and I figure while I'm on vacation here I should try it at least once," Isaac admitted. He had debated on saving face and pretending he totally knew he was doing, ut couldn't bring himself to lie in that way. He respected Maia too much for that. It didn't help that Elliot would've likely called him out on it immediately. Elliot didn't always have the best filter, even when he meant well. Still, perhaps the fact that he hadn't even done something as simple as eat sushi would hint at just how much of the vacation he ended up losing to the Digital World. Was there a hint of sadness in Isaac's voice? It was a little hard to tell, but the tones were fairly distinct.

Isaac noticed Maia turning bright red after checking her phone, too, but decided not to say anything about it. After all, it was her phone and her personal life. Not his place to butt in. He shot Elliot a quick glare to make sure that the boy didn't shoot Maia any dumb texts, but he simply shrugged innocently in response. For once, Elliot was not the culprit jere. With the trail dead, Isaac figured he'd simply keep quiet about it for now. If Maia wanted to tell him, then Maia would. If not, then he'd have no business asking anyway.

Meanwhile, it seemed Elliot's joke had missed. Darn! It was so much more fun taunting Maia and Isaac when they were in denial than when they seemed okay with it all. Isaac couldn't have possibly confessed in the laser tag room, right? That's way more confidence than the Isaac he was used to! No time to dwell on that, though. Kuu had questions, damnit! "Okay, fish. Let's see. Well, I mean, its like meat. But it comes out of the water. And its a bit saltier, but it has a really nice flavor to it. Especially when dressed up with other foods and toppings. I think its also usually kind of pink, white, or silver?" Poor Elliot, trying his best despite having no idea what he was doing!

"Yeah. I should've taken the chance to try some earlier, but these days I'm lucky if I make it home in time for dinner," Isaac admitted. He rarely had a hand in choosing meals, and more often than not he had to just reheat whatever he and Elliot missed in the microwave. It was a kind of worrisome habit, now that Isaac actually took time to think of it. The boy really hoped that his schedule would be able to reset some when he went back to Japan. Taking account his his broken down diet, his new propensity for dangerous adventuring, and the inevitable jetlag that would accompany going home, Isaac knew the week after returning to Shibuya would be a really rough one. And that wasn't even accounting for the possibility of finding a Digital World portal in California. Was this just his life now?

Elliot pondered how the heck to answer this question. "I mean, fish kind of tastes like chicken? I guess? It is usually less chewy though, but I like it better this way," the boy responded. It wasn't a one to one comparison, but there was a type of tuna called Chicken of the Sea, right? So yeah! Fish could totally chicken! Upon thinking that, Elliot immediately realized how weird it sounded. Kuu just loved changing the ways words worked, didn't he? The second question would be way easier to answer. "Why would you want to eat something purple? That would be like eating your hair. That's just silly," Elliot said. He hoped he'd never have to explain grapes, eggplants, or red cabbage, but did Kuu really seem like the type to eat his fruits and veggies? Not at all! It would be more likely for him to reveal that he already ate hair or something like that.

They approached the sushi place by now, and Isaac was shocked to see just how upscale it looked. He peered in through the tinted windows and saw it looked even nicer on the inside than on the outside. This caused the boy to shoot a self-conscious peek at his own clothing, dressed to look nice but still quite casual. Would he be okay to go into such a fancy looking place? Or maybe he was just worrying too much. After all, this was a restaurant. They wanted his money. How bad could it be? He paused at the entrance, hoping their time spent waiting would also be a chance for Kuu to hide. Him proving to be a real Digimon in a crowded place like this would be a disaster. "This place looks nice. What do you think, Mai?"

Elliot paled slightly at Kuu's statement, especially when the fox had been riding on his shoulders for the grand majority of the day. "Please don't eat my hair," he said meekly, instinctively feeling the back of his head for patches. He figured he would have noticed if Kuu did anything, but when he was at the arcade he was in the zone! He could've been way too focused on blasting zombies to even pay mind to the current state of his hair. At least on the bright side, Kuu would likely respect his wishes if he said please first. Right? Of course as Kuu went into the cartridge, Elliot soon found the question could be a non-issue.

"I could take him," Elliot offered as Maia mused over where to hide the Digimon. "I mean, I don't mind my stuff smelling like fish. Besides, I bet you two still want some alone time, right?" Really, Elliot wasn't even sure why he was still here. He should've escaped while he had the chance so that he wouldn't end up being the third wheel. However, running away and getting lost would probably leave Isaac even more worried than his clumsy bathroom plan did. It was probably for the better that he came along with the group this time, even if he couldn't help but shake the feeling that his mere presence was messing up the date. Unlike Isaac, he was far less concerned with how he looked right now. Sure, the place was fancy, but it was fun! At least he wasn't wearing the Goku shirt.

Elliot promptly ordered a table of one for himself, giving Maia a quick chance to hand off the cartridge before he was lead to his table. That left Isaac and Maia (and possibly Kuu) behind. "Excuse me. We would like one table for two, please," Isaac said, trying his best at speaking in formal Japanese. It wasn't very great, and the employee at the front gave him a quizzical look over some of his pronunciations, but he still lead the duo to their seats with menus in hand. Isaac's eyes lit up a little when he realized that the nearest table for two was a window seat even. Score!

In a way, this was going to be really nice. The arcade was so hectic and full of stuff to do. Here at a restaurant, they'd have time to finally just sit down and talk with each other. It was the only thing that had sorely been missing from today. "What's it like living here? Like, for more than just two weeks?" he asked, a bit of a wistful tone on his voice.