"Enjoy life. There's plenty of time to be dead."
-Anon
Well, thanx Valerie for telling me what MST stood for :) Anywayz, agen, this isn't dedicated to Claire, HAHAHAHA C L A R E! :P, this chapter is dedicated to Nikki :) Well, read on folks, lol ;)
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The realisation struck Tai. Matt was his brother. His little brother at that. Wasn't the older brother meant to protect his younger siblings?
"Matt..." Tai whispered, as he fell to his knees.
Tai didn't know what to do. His brother had just been shot, his brother, and it was his fault in part if not whole.
"Yamato?" Tai asked quietly, observing him.
Matt still had his eyes squeezed shut and still breathing heavily, each breath more so than the last. Tai could see that his complexion was getting paler too. He had beads of reddish water on his face. Sweat mixed with blood.
Tai gently reached out and placed a hand on Matt's arm. He was afraid if he cradled Matt or moved him even slightly in any way, he would further conflict pain on him.
"Are- are you all right, Matt?" Tai asked tentatively.
Dumb, he's just been shot, of course he's not all right!
Matt didn't reply, but continued to stay still, well, as still as he could with his chest heaving up and down.
"Matt, I- I'm sorry..." Tai stuttered, "Oh god, I'm so sorry... Please, please don't die..."
Matt slowly opened his eyes, his vision was blurry. He blinked a few times, but that didn't help much.
"It- it hurts..." Matt whispered weakly.
"I know... I know..." Tai whispered back, "I'm just- God, I'm so sorry Matt-"
"It's not your fault" Matt cut in, moving his head a bit sideways towards Jeshi.
Jeshi, in the meantime, had collected himself after he saw that Matt was still alive. He had picked up the small hand gun he had used only moments ago. Tai turned his head around towards his 'friend'. Jeshi was walking towards them slowly, with the gun in his right hand, which was hanging loosely at his side. He stopped a short distance away from Matt and Tai.
"Jeshi... Why did you shoot him!? No gun was meant to be involved! Put the gun down!" Tai shouted, feeling his face heat up.
Jeshi stared at Tai, then flickered his eyes over to Matt.
"No, I'm not finished" Jeshi simply stated.
"What do you mean!?" Tai growled.
Jeshi didn't respond. Instead, he dug into his pocket and pulled out three bullets. He lifted the gun up, clicked it open, and carefully and slowly inserted the bullets, the whole time staring at Matt. Then he clicked it shut, removing the safety, and held it outstretched in his hands.
"Jeshi! What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Tai yelled.
Jeshi grinned, "Move out of the way Tai, I don't want to hurt you, just him"
"What!? Jeshi, come on, put the gun down! A little school rivalry isn't meant to lead to murder!"
Jeshi laughed, "That's not what this is about"
"Then what is it about!? Tell me!"
Suddenly, from a door directly behind Tai and Matt, Piko Tamura came through.
Jeshi smiled, "Right on time Piko. Hey Tai, remember Saeko saying that we could of at least let the basketball team deal with Ishida? Well, here is the one and only, Piko Tamura, one of Odaiba High's basketball players, and my cousin, our mum's are sisters"
"You guys are cousins? Why didn't you ever act like it? And what's that got to do with this!?" Tai asked.
"Well, we both hate Ishida" Piko said, smiling at the bloody Matt.
"So you guys want to kill him!?" Tai yelled.
"More or less" Jeshi smiled, "Though we have to give you credit on attempted murder Tai, just with your limbs too"
"It was not attempted murder" Tai growled.
"Oh no? Seemed like it to us, you had so much hatred for Ishida we thought you surpassed our passion for hating him, though not quite" Jeshi laughed, "After all, you're defending him now, whereas we are going to kill him"
"Yeah, murder scare you Tai? Why change sides?" Piko asked, sneering.
"I'm not about to commit murder" Tai said through clenched teeth, "Especially where Matt is involved"
Jeshi laughed, "Whatever then, just get out of the way"
"No, you think I would?" Tai spat.
"Well, if you value your life" Piko sneered.
"Yeah" Jeshi said, "Like I said, I don't want to hurt you, but if you stand in the way between me and Ishida, I'll kill you"
"Do you have the guts?" Tai taunted.
"I shot Ishida" Jeshi stated.
"You haven't killed him yet" Tai retorted.
"No, because you haven't gotten out of the way"
"And I'm not moving" Tai stated.
Piko pulled out a knife, and since Tai was facing Jeshi he didn't see Piko stoop down to him. Piko wasn't going for Tai though, he quickly pressed the blade against Matt's neck, crouching there on the right side of Matt while Tai was on Matt's left side.
"Get up and move away, Tai" Piko said.
Tai had a look of panic on his face.
Shit! What should I do!? If I don't listen to them, Piko will cut Matt's throat, but if I move away, Jeshi will have a clear shot of Matt. Either way, Matt ends up... If I can get them talking, I'll buy some time, hopefully maybe someone will come...
"Come on you guys, you don't really want to kill anyone, you don't want to be classified as murderers!" Tai shouted.
"Move Tai" Jeshi said, advancing a bit.
"What's the good in killing Matt?" Tai continued.
"Just move Tai or I swear I'll pull the trigger on Ishida even with you in the way" Jeshi growled.
"Jeshi-"
"Just move Tai!" Matt yelled, surprising everyone.
"Listen to him Tai" Piko grinned, pressing the knife into Matt's skin, causing a thin red line to appear on Matt's neck.
Tai stood up slowly, all the while his eyes were on Matt.
"Now move" Jeshi ordered.
Tai flicked his eyes towards Jeshi, then took a step away. Jeshi and Piko started laughing.
"Can you believe our dream is going to come true, finally?" Jeshi asked.
"I almost can't believe it" Piko grinned.
"Tell me" Tai demanded, "Why are you guys doing this?"
"We have our reasons" Piko said.
"Yeah, and what are they!?" Tai shouted.
"Easy there Tai, you wouldn't want to get us mad and make us kill you, now would you?" Jeshi smirked.
"I don't care if you kill me, I just want to know why you want to kill Matt" Tai said coldly.
Jeshi stared at Tai for a moment, then said, "I know what you're trying to do, buy time so we won't hurt and ultimately kill Matt just yet. Well, Piko?"
Piko laughed, "You know Tai, killing someone swiftly in one go is better than letting them suffer"
Tai looked at Piko then turned his attention back to Jeshi.
"Well?"
"Oh all right, if you wanna know so much" Jeshi smirked.
Piko laughed again, and took out a rope and roughly grabbed Matt's hands which were still covering his shot wound. Tai turned back to Piko who was now tying Matt's hands together and lifting it above his head, and shoving them under his head so it would stay.
"What are you doing?" Tai demanded to Piko.
Piko shrugged, "Playing around while you two 'talk'"
Jeshi laughed, "I did tell Piko to hurt him while we're talking, didn't you get what I was saying? Apparently not"
"Well?" Tai said again, choosing to ignore whatever Piko was doing at the moment, it seemed unharmful enough.
Jeshi smiled, "Do you remember Uwaki? Mr Uwaki?"
"Yeah..." Tai said slowly, "That was the teacher Matt punched..."
"Yeah, and he got expelled, Uwaki however, resigned from teaching at Odaiba High, his reason, he didn't want to handle any violent trouble makers like Ishida" Piko said angrily, drawing his knife into Matt, from his chest to his stomach, ripping Matt's shirt and causing another red line to appear, this time only longer and more deeper.
Matt clenched his teeth down hard as he felt the pain.
Piko snorted, "You're lucky I'm not stabbing you... Yet"
"Leave. Matt. Alone" Tai growled, anger building up inside him.
"Calm down Tai" Jeshi smiled, "Anyway, do you wanna know or what?"
Tai glared at both Piko and Jeshi, "What does Uwaki have to do with this? And Matt must of had a good reason to punch him anyway"
"Uwaki and Ishida were fighting over something" Jeshi said, "Isn't that right Ishida?"
"What?" Tai asked.
"Ishida was pissed at Uwaki, Uwaki was giving him his opinion about a personal subject and he didn't like it. Soon, they were screaming at each other for the whole class to hear, mostly just swearing words so no student found the story behind it. Ishida then punched Uwaki and well, that was their little fight"
"I would've punched Uwaki too" Tai said, "What right does he have to pry and give his opinion on something personal?"
"When it somehow ultimately involves him" Jeshi growled.
"How's that?" Tai asked.
"The personal issue of Ishida's that Uwaki didn't like. Ishida had slept with Uwaki's daughter"
Tai's jaw dropped open and he looked at Matt.
"You had sex at fourteen!?" Tai yelled.
"That wasn't the point Tai!" Jeshi yelled.
Tai looked back at Jeshi.
"What does anything to do with Uwaki have anything to do with wanting to kill Matt anyway? What, Uwaki was your favourite teacher or something and you're mad cause Matt punched him!? That's pretty dumb to want to kill" Tai stated.
"Well, you see, Uwaki and his daughter are dead" Jeshi said harshly.
Tai seeing Jeshi angry, couldn't help pushing his buttons some more.
"And am I suppose to care?" Tai said, smirking.
Tai's smile vanished when he heard a half scream half groan. He quickly faced towards Matt. On the opposite side of the bullet wound, the right side of his body, Piko had half buried his knife. Tai reacted on mere instinct, and started to turn his body towards Matt. Jeshi however stopped him in his tracks by pointing his gun at him.
"You should watch what you say, Tai. We don't take kindly to comments like that, and besides, Ishida deserved it" Jeshi growled softly.
Tai growled back, "That was uncalled for Jeshi"
Jeshi shrugged, smiling , "What's a little more pain if we're gonna kill him anyway"
Piko then pulled the knife out of Matt, who shouted out. Tai growled at Piko.
"Hmm, I should stop all this bleeding, huh?" Piko said.
He ripped away all of Matt's shirt then rolled the fabric up. Putting it aside for the moment, Piko gently placed both hands over Matt's bullet wound. Then, pushed down on it hard, making Matt scream through his teeth. Jeshi and Piko started laughing, and Piko proceeded to do the same to the knife wound.
"Stop it!" Tai shouted.
Piko's hands were covered in Matt's blood. He looked up at Tai and shrugged, grinning. He took the fabric he had put aside and wrapped it around Matt's body just below his ribs where the two painful wounds were.
"See, I'm stopping the bleeding" Piko said, smiling.
He tied the two ends of the fabric together once it covered the wounds. Then he tightened it, making Matt yelp, and him laughing.
"I said stop it!" Tai screamed.
"Hey, you tried to buy some time, we're wasting that time" Jeshi smirked.
Tai growled, "Uwaki and his daughter are dead, what does that have to do with Matt? It's not like he's a murderer like you two"
"Correction, we're not murderers yet, until of course, Ishida's gone. But it has to do with Ishida because, as far as me and Piko are concerned, it was Ishida's fault our uncle and cousin are dead" Jeshi said darkly.
"Uncle and cousin!?" Tai exclaimed.
... Wait a second, the message at the back of the wedding picture, 'Marriage of Jahyi Otsuka and Mandi Uwaki'... Mandi Uwaki! Mr Uwaki must be Jeshi and Piko's mothers' brother! So Jeshi and Piko are seeking revenge because Uwaki and their cousin are dead... But what does Matt have to do with their deaths?
"Why was it Matt's fault?" Tai asked.
"Simple. He shouldn't of had sex with our cousin, Miria. If he hadn't, then our uncle wouldn't of gotten mad at him. Therefore there would have been no fight between them two at all. And our uncle wouldn't of resigned because of 'violent trouble makers'."
"... And that so explains it" Tai remarked.
Jeshi raised an eyebrow at Tai, then seemingly lazy, raised his gun at Matt, and pulled the trigger. At the sound of a second shot tonight, Tai immediately closed his eyes, as he heard another hurtful shout from Matt. Tai opened his eyes, and saw Jeshi smiling, loking him straight in the eyes. Tai only stared at Jeshi for half a second before turning to Matt. Blood was now dripping out of a hole from a tear, made obviously by the bullet, on the side of his left thigh. And Piko, to say the least, wasn't doing anything except grinning like a maniac. Matt's breath was by now short ragged gasps and whimpering.
Tai, breathing hard himself, turned back to Jeshi with a look of pure hatred.
"Why the hell did you shoot him!? Again!?"
Jeshi smirked, "I told you to watch what you're saying, so you can only blame that incident, like the knife one, on yourself"
Tai growled.
Jeshi smiled, "Anyway, back to the topic... Uwaki wouldn't of resigned and decide that America was the place to go to teach... And to keep Miria away from Ishida. He and Miria were going to America. They boarded the plane but... But, they never reached America. The plane crashed, they died. I don't think you need to guess that they did mean a lot to both me and Piko"
Tai frowned, "Their plane crashed. They died because their plane crashed. That does not involve Matt"
"Haven't you been listening!? It's all Ishida's fault!" Jeshi screamed.
"No, it's not! Their fucken plane crashed! They died because of a plane crash! Matt didn't murder them or anything! For gods sake, they died because of a plane crash! Accept the facts!"
"It was all Ishida's fault!" Jeshi yelled.
"It was not!" Tai yelled back, "Just accept the facts!"
Jeshi narrowed his eyes at Tai, breathing hard.
"Your time is up, Tai" Piko said quietly, his eyes also narrowed, then grinned and looked at Matt, "Or at least his time is nearly over"
Jeshi smiled, "Looks like maybe I don't have to kill Ishida after all, we can just watch while he gets drained of his blood... But then again, it would be sweet if I was the one to kill him..."
"Look! Jeshi, Piko, let Matt go, let me take him to the hospital. You don't really want to kill him! It's not really his fault like you guys think! Please, there's been enough bloodshed tonight" Tai urged.
"There's going to be even more bloodshed, more of Ishida's blood" Jeshi grinned.
Jeshi winked at Tai, then proceeded to Matt. Tai panicked, he didn't know what he should do. Then he made up his mind, without giving any second thoughts, he tackled Jeshi. Jeshi held onto the gun securely though, and Tai grabbed Jeshi's hands, trying to wrestle the gun out of them. The two struggled for a while, then another shot rang through the air. Luckily, from Matt's view, though still blurry, on the ground, he had seen the gun pointed at him, and had moved his head the other way, facing Piko. The bullet had grazed his ear, ripping a bit off. Of course, blood came seeping out. His ear hurt, sure, but what hurt more were his other wounds, they didn't exactly like moving. Matt grunted from the pain. The gun was dropped from the shot, it came tumbling out and bounced on the ground a bit before stopping. Piko couldn't reach it, but both Tai and Jeshi could. They caught sight of it at the same time, and both boys dove for it. Piko looked to see who was the victor.
Tai came up with the gun in his grips, and pointed it straight at Jeshi.
"You wouldn't dare" Jeshi snarled.
"Oh? Matt's life is more important to me than yours" Tai hissed.
Jeshi scowled.
"You're forgetting something, Tai" Piko said.
Tai looked at Piko, who had the knife raised over Matt's heart.
"Back off" Tai stated.
"Give the gun to Jeshi" Piko ordered, "Or next time you see Ishida, he'll be in a coffin"
"Back away from Matt, or you'll be seeing Jeshi in a coffin" Tai threatened.
Piko smirked, "Do you have the guts to shoot someone? You know I don't care about hurting or killing Ishida, so I will plunge this knife into him if you don't give the gun to Jeshi"
"Come on Tai, give me the gun, or Piko will kill Ishida whom you seem to care for more than me, your friend, well, ex-friend now since you're taking Ishida's side" Jeshi smirked.
"I'm not joking, I'll shoot you Jeshi, if Piko doesn't back away" Tai said.
"You only have one bullet left" Jeshi said.
"Therefore, you can shoot Jeshi, but not me, and I'll kill Ishida anyway" Piko stated, raising the knife above his head.
"No!" Tai yelled as Piko brought the knife down.
The knife stopped dangerously close to Matt, merely millimetres from his skin. Piko looked up at Tai with a small smile.
"Give the gun to Jeshi, Tai" Piko said.
Tai's heart slowed down considerably, but he was still breathing extra hard. Tai looked at Jeshi who had his hand outstretched for the gun, and Piko who was still holding the knife above Matt's heart several millimetres away from it. Tai sighed inwardly in defeat. Slowly, he began to offer the gun to Jeshi. Though just then, the door that three of them had entered from, opened. Tai brought his hand back. In the doorway were Kari, T.K, and Sora.
"Matt! Tai!" All three of them shouted.
Behind them were some police officers. Tai grinned in relief.
"All right, what's going on in here!?" One policemen asked, walking into the room.
He looked at Tai, Jeshi, Piko, and Matt.
"Someone call an ambulance" The policemen said to the other police officers, "And you kid, give me the gun, and you, drop that knife. Ok, all of you, stay where you are, what's been going on?"
A policemen pulled out his cell and dialled while the rest of them entered the dim lit room. Tai handed the gun over to him gratefully and Piko reluctantly dropped the knife.
"These two were going to kill him, the one that's injured" Tai said, pointing at Jeshi and Piko, and then at Matt, who some of the police officers were crouching around.
"We were going to kill a murderer" Jeshi retorted angrily as someone handcuffed him.
"Yeah, we were trying to rid the world of violent trouble makers" Piko added, grinning insanely as he was also handcuffed.
Two policemen's forced Jeshi and Piko out of the room. When they were gone, Tai, Kari, T.K, and Sora rushed to Matt's side.
"Matt!" T.K cried out as he got a good look at just how bad off his brother actually was.
Matt didn't respond.
"He's- he's not dead, is he?" Kari said, tears welling up in her eyes.
"No" A police officer said, "He's just unconscious, either from the pain, or from the alcohol..."
Tai couldn't help grinning sheepishly. Sora saw him.
"What are you grinning about?" She demanded, "I bet this is all your fault, well, am I right?!"
"Well... I suppose..." Tai said slowly.
SMAAAACK!
Sora slapped him.
"Oww! What was that for!?" Tai exclaimed, rubbing his cheek.
"What do you think!?" Sora retorted angrily, "If it wasn't for you and your stupid jealousy-"
"Hey" Tai interjected, "You don't know the whole story!... But I admit, it is my fault..."
"Would you kids cut it out!" The police officer said, "Your friend here is barely hanging onto life!"
"But- but you said-" Tai sputtered.
"I said he was unconscious, that doesn't mean he's all right. I'm no doctor, but I can tell when someone has lost too much blood"
"You mean he's going to die!?" Sora yelled.
"I didn't say that! ... He might"
"Matt won't die" Kari stated, placing her hand on his arm.
He's so cold...
"Yeah" T.K added, "He won't"
Sora nodded her head, and bent down to kiss Matt on his face. She could taste blood. And she started crying.
Tai enveloped her in a hug, T.K did the same to Kari.
A police officer then came up to Tai.
"Since you were involved with this, we need to ask a few questions" He said.
"Now?" Tai asked.
"Are you needed somewhere else?"
Tai looked at Matt.
"Yeah, I am"
The police officer looked at Tai then finally shrugged,
"We'll do it later"
As the police officer went, Tai looked at Kari.
"Why are you and T.K here?"
Kari looked startled then,
"I- I know..."
"Oh" Tai replied, glancing at Matt, while T.K and Sora held a look of puzzlement.
"And well, I had a feeling you were going to do something, no offense..."
Tai chuckled dryly, "None taken"
"And then T.K came, we were talking on MSN and I guess he thought I acted weird so he came, we met outside the front, and when we entered, we met up with Sora who was looking for you and Matt. I told Sora and T.K I had a bad feeling and that I thought we should call the police. We needed to tell them why we wanted them here so we told them there was alcohol and minors were drinking. After that, we searched for you guys together, then we finally saw your friends on a couch. We asked where you guys were. They didn't seem like they wanted to tell us, but then the police came and then one of them came out with it about you guys being in here, saying he was worried why you guys were taking so long to bash 'Ishida' up"
Sora glared at Tai, "You were going to do it again!?"
"Yeah..." Tai muttered, "And well, that's why it was my fault..."
Sora sighed, deciding blowing up at Tai at a time like this wasn't any good. She just hoped that the ambulance would be here soon...
And as if on queue, a bunch of nurses it seemed, came into the room.
"Ok kids, step aside, we need to take him to the hospital pronto" A nurse said as she looked at Matt.
The DD's moved away, and several men came in with a stretcher. They placed it beside Matt. A nurse checked his injuries to see if he had any broken bones. Making sure he didn't, she carefully examined his wounds, and then the nurses that were men carefully lifted Matt onto the stretcher, trying their best not to hurt him.
"Can any of us come with him?" Tai asked.
"There's only room for one" A nurse said, as the men carried Matt out of the room.
The DD's followed them. Everyone in the party had evaporated into thin air it seemed, they were no where in sight. The cops had frightened them.
Everyone then reached the front, and the nurses were loading Matt into the back of the ambulance.
"All right, as I said, only one can fit, who wants to go?" A nurse asked, "Keep in mind, relatives only"
T.K opened his mouth but before he could say anything, Tai spoke up first.
"I'll go" He stated.
The nurse gave him a look, "Are you related?"
"Yeah, I'm- I'm- ..."
Tai looked at T.K and Sora, who were giving him puzzled looks.
"I want to go" T.K stated, looking dubiously at Tai, "I'm Matt's younger brother"
"All right then" The nurse said.
"T.K's too young, I should go" Tai retorted.
"I'm the only one here that's related to Matt" T.K stated.
The nurse raised her eyebrows, "Looks that way to me too, so c'mon then"
"No, not true" Tai said.
T.K and Sora raised their eyebrows.
"I- I- I'm related to Matt too. I'm his older brother"
The nurse raised her eyebrows as T.K and Sora gaped at Tai, "You look the same age as him, and you do not look anything like him"
"Yeah, that's because I'm his half brother" Tai said.
The nurse was silent then, "Well, ok then, it would be better if someone older were to come so you get in"
The nurse entered the back, and Tai followed, passing T.K and Sora.
"You lied!?" Sora said.
"No" Tai simply said as he entered.
"I'll explain later" Kari told T.K and Sora as the door shut and the vehicle drove away.
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So I'm no medical expert :D And yeah, sorry that this wasn't really realistic @_@ Anyway, plz review! Oh and, chapter 7 will DEFINITELY be the last chapter :) It'll just be the aftermath or whatever though *_*