Chapter 36 : Speak of the Dead

Yamato

My thoughts go in sections, ranting out one thing at a time like an organized play. Act I, Scene I, lets bitch about Sora. How did she find me? I doubt she was telling the truth when she said she overheard people talking about me. But how else could she have found me here? It wasn't that obvious was it? I hadn't come here very often back before all this happened - damn, that made it seem so long ago. But how did she find me? If she could find me, surely the police and Aymichi could? But they hadn't so far, not a single patrol had been through my alley since the fight two weeks ago.

How dare the little bitch come to me anyway? Hell, she didn't even recognize me at first, how did she expect to convince me to come home? What did she expect? Even an idiot would have realized by now I don't plan on turning back. Not until TK was avenged...and even then, could I turn back? No, I would have 'murdered' the bastard Aymichi. There was no turning back. Not for me. Sora's pleading with me didn't help the least, maybe she thought she was helping me but really, geez. They don't understand. They could never understand.

Sora said Mimi was dead. She said that Takeru's killer got her too. Aymichi had mentioned Mimi during our fight. Could it be true? Did I care? Why should I care? I had tried to kill her myself hadn't I? So why would I care if she was dead? I wanted her dead. Maybe it bothered me because that would be two digidestined down, and Aymichi still wasn't caught. Would that twisted person get away with what he planned to do? Murder all of us? Ha, funny I should call him a twsited person, when I was one myself. Sora wouldn't go off on a rampage because Aymichi killed Mimi, would she? No, she would be practical and sane, and huddle behind the police. What about the others?

Would Tai go off with this fierce vengence because the murderer killed Mims? Would he join me in my insanity? Would he go off if it was Hikari that had died? I knew he loved his sister. So would he? For some fucked up reason I didn't even want to begin to fathom I wanted to know. Would Tai do what I had done if Kari was killed like TK? How would he feel if it had been his sister instead of my brother dead on the hospital bed. Face pale and drained? Arm completely gone and bruises and cuts everywhere? Would he understand how I felt if Kari died? Would he...?

Izzy wouldn't go crazy. He was too smart to be lured into this pathetic rage. He'd be like Sora, hide behind the idiotic police. What about Joe? The guy hadn't been around much since all this started. Why would he even care? It wasn't as if he seemed to care then, why would be care now? Blah. I stood up and walked to the other side of the bare room I had been sitting in. What the fuck am I doing here, wasting my time thinking pointless crap. I needed to locate Aymichi...yeah, I know I have this hideous gash in my stomach that's probably gonna scar, but he was worse off than I was, and I should be able to take him.

I could take him...I almost did last time. And now he was injured. I could take him. But first I had to find him. I had to find him before the police found either of us. If what Sora said was true, about Mimi, then the police would be more concerned with finding Aymichi than me. Hell, they could have found him already. I didn't know, I had no idea. And that didn't really help. Fuck this...who was I kidding? I couldn't find him. I'm a pathetic high school drop out on a hopeless mission. I could assume all I wanted about my chances against him, but how could I really tell? The bastard could have aquired more knives, a gun even, after all, he's been on the streets longer than I have. He knew them better. How long had been been slinking around in Odaiba, learning so much about us? And TK, he didn't even live in Odaiba.

Augh. I leaned against the crumbling, dirty walls, and my stomach lurched. It still stung. It had been two frikkin' weeks since I fought the bastard, and about nine days since Sora dropped by. Is Mimi dead or not? I don't know why, but I wanted to know for sure. How was I supposed to find that out? The graveyard would be start I suppose...the graveyard meant seeing TK's grave. But it wasn't as if I had much else to do. If Mimi was dead before the fight, then someone else could already have been killed. And that meant more police looking for Aymichi. If they him, I wouldn't be able to get to him. Pulling on my stolen trench coat, I stepped into the chilly November air.

No one was out on this Sunday afternoon, the streets were empty and deserted, even though it was only mid-afternoon. Eh, I just remembered something. The school's Fall Fest thing, it was supposed to have been yesterday. I wonder how it went, the thing was one of the most anticipated events of the school year, everyone looked forward to it...but wait. Mimi had been the one organizing it. If she was dead..then what would they do? Heh...no Fall Fest, maybe the rest of the population would care now. No would cared that Takeru died, no, my little brother wasn't important to them. But if Mimi died, they'd weep, because she worked for so many of the school's evenys. Yes, they'd miss Mimi, not because of who she was, but because of what they wouldn't get to do. Not that I cared. The only thing left for me to look forward to in life was Aymichi's death. The Fall Fest could rot in hell for all I cared, because if it did, I'd get to see it every year when I went down there.

The graveyard was empty just like the streets, but then I didn't really expect for there to be a crowd there. There were hundreds of graves here, how was I supposed to find one I didn't even know existed? The gate creeked as I entered the resting place of a bunch of people I didn't know. And my feet took me directly to Takeru's. I hadn't been here since his funeral,...the funeral I hadn't even stayed until the end of. I never saw them put in the headstone; but I still knew exactly where it was. I didn't know what I expected, I didn't even know I was going to his grave.

The headstone was atrociously cheap looking. TK certainly deserved better, but I guess the pathetic insurance didn't cover very much. Staring at the grave pissed me off. He didn't deserve to die. Angels don't deserve to die. But when they did, the least they could have done was given him a decent gravestone. I glanced around at the surrounding graves, and snatched fresh white roses off of one of them. I put the flowers on my brother's grave. They helped, sort of. It still looked as if no one took care to Takeru's grave.

"I didn't expect to see you here...Yamato." I twirled around, caught totally off guard, but I recognized the voice the instant I heard it. He stood a few yards away and looked as he always had, but his expression was more...solemn. A white bandage was wrapped tightly around the upper half of his left arm. A bundle of assorted flowers in his other arm. His hair looked worse than mine probably did. "Taichi." I said simply, my voice didn't hold any emotion that I was aware of, and my face had looked the same for weeks - angry and fusterated. I didn't bother giving an explaination for my being there, it didn't matter. I knew what he was going to say to me. Same as Sora. Lecture to me and tell me that I was wrong and ask me to come home. They just didn't understand.

But the Keeper of the Crest of Courage didn't say anything, instead; he walked forward, came up beside me, and looked at Takeru's grave. I turned back, still waiting for the words that I knew would come. "Did you bring him the flowers?" he asked, making a small gesture to the roses. "No. I stole them off another grave." I told him bluntly. Tai laughed. The sound was familiar, yet...not. I hadn't heard him laugh in what seemed like forever, I hadn't heard anyone laugh. I hadn't heard myself laugh. The only person I had heard laugh was Aymichi. His disgusting little psycho laugh. There was a silence, I kept expecting him to start on me, tell me what I already knew. But he didn't. After a while, he lay a few flowers down on TK's grave next to the roses I stole, then he moved on past TK's grave.

I stared after him for a few seconds, confused at the way my old friend was acting. Ha, I called him my friend. Did I really think of him as a friend anymore though? He was just another obsticle in my path. He wanted me to stop what I was doing and turn back, he was just like everyone else. Sora, Koushirou, ... they weren't my friends anymore. What we went through as the Digidestined is ancient history. He was just in my way. He's not my friend, not anymore. I saw Tai stop in front of another grave, one with a large headstone. I headed towards it as well, stopping a few feet from the beautifully carved marble rock. I read the engraving. Mimi Tachikawa. So she was dead.

Tai dropped some flowers onto her grave as well, leaving a few in his arms. There was another grave to visit? Who else was dead? The freak-haired goggleboy moved on once again, and I trailed after him, feeling very ackward. I almost wanted him to say something to me, tell me I was insane, anything to break this stupid silence. We stopped at a final grave, smaller than Mimi's, larger than TK's. Joe Kido. Joe was gone as well, huh? Why him? Easy picking, I guess. Aymichi was smart. He was taking the easy ones first. My brother, the youngest. Mimi,...the... .... .... Joe, the other one, who wasn't as close to the group, the eldest one. So who would he be after next? Hikari? Sora? Izzy? Taichi? Where would he go? How could I find out? How could I find him?

"He's gotten three of us, Matt." His voice startled me, caught off-guard again. Damnit. I stared blankly at Joe's grave, not really knowing if I was supposed to say something to that. "How many more will he get?" Tai continued on, kneeling down to place the rest of his flowers onto the soft dirt. I scoffed, "He'll get all of us." I turned from the grave and started out of the graveyard, Tai followed me. "How do you know?" his voice was finally showing some hint of anger. "He's smart, he knows us, how I don't know, who knows how many other people he's killed? If he can get three of us, he can get all of us." I told him matter-of-factly. "He gave you that wound didn't he?" I said, pointing at his bandaged arm, "He gave me mine. Three dead, two injured, and all he's got in a gash in his stomach and a handful of pathetic policemen on his cold trail."

"Wait, what? You fought him? And put a gash in his stomach?" I turned around, "Yeah, I did. What's it to you?" I growled. "Heh, if you can do that, then you can take him." Tai laughed again, I glared at him. Did he want me to go after Aymichi? Did he want me to continue doing what I was doing? Was this some kind of trick? "By the way where did you get that coat?" he asked, as if this was a normal everyday conversation at a normal everyday meeting. "Stole it." He kept laughing, "It looks like you're doing alright then." I blinked at him. So far nothing had gone as I had expected. "So you're not going to tell me I should turn back? Go home?" I asked sacasticly, trying to figure out what he was acting the way he was. The last time I spoke to him - back in the alley with Mimi - he had been patheticly trying to get me to rethink my plans. Now he sounded as if he supported me all the way.

"No, I do want you do come home. But it's not going to do any good. You're a stubborn idiot." he answered calmly. So he did still feel the same as the others. Still thought what I was doing was wrong, still probably thought I was insane...but he had accepted it....that was weird....I don't even know if I had accepted it. I knew what I was doing, I knew why I was doing it, and I knew I wasn't going to stop until Aymichi was dead. But did I accept it? I don't know... "You still think I should go home eh?" I started walking again. He kept following me, "Yes, I do. I really don't think you're going to accomplish anything." I laughed, it was an eerie sound, echoing throughout the graveyard, damnit, even I thought it was freaky. "It's not about accomplishing anything. It's about revenge." "So you're throwing away everything you had for this. You're letting him win. He wants to ruin our lives, and you're letting him." I stopped dead in my tracks.

"What?" Letting him win...I wasn't letting him win....I was ending his miserable existance...I wasn't letting him win...I was showing him the pain he'd caused me...I wasn't letting him win... ... .... was I? "You heard me, Yama. You're letting him win." he repeated calmly. I felt my rage boil up, gods, I just wanted to punch his face out. But I resisted, if we fought, I would aggravate the gash in my stomach, and I didn't need it to flare up again. I didn't know when I would see Aymichi again, I needed to be as ready as I could be. "You don't understand, Tai. You never will. Not until Kari's dead, like Takeru." I spat, then turned and walked quickly out of the graveyard. He didn't follow me this time.

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© Kiriska