Yamato the Vampire Slayer 2
Fog.
By the Empress of the Eclipse
Disclaimer - Don't own Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Digimon.
"Happy birthday Izzy!"
Izzy grinned at Matt who was standing on the doorstep, looking somewhat dishevelled but offering a nicely wrapped present and smiling cheerfully.
"Thanks Matt. I thought you weren't coming."
"I got distracted along the way."
Matt walked inside, brushing a few remaining leaves from his clothes and hat. He'd managed to cry some time off from patrolling owing to it being Izzy's sixteenth birthday party. Unfortunately, vampires didn't take time off just because the Slayer was and he'd been attacked by an over-zealous vampire which had been fairly easy to stake. Only problem was, she had thrown him into a bush which had snagged on all his clothes. It had taken him about ten minutes to wriggle out of the bush but he'd managed not to damage his outfit much, which was something he was quite proud of.
Izzy took him into the main room where the other Digidestined were. Izzy's parents had been convinced to go out so they could inhabit the whole house and be as loud as they wanted. Everyone waved at him, calling hellos. Izzy had already unwrapped most of his presents and the place was covered in brightly coloured wrapping paper which Davis and Tai were playing with. Ken was watching Davis in a sort of amazement as Davis happily threw wrapping paper in the air and wrapped it round himself like a little kid. Matt had a feeling that Davis had never really grown up. Maybe soon.
In a blue moon or so.
Matt went over the inspect the presents while Izzy ripped the wrapping paper open. Matt had bought him a book about computers. It had eaten up a large amount of his savings but Matt hoped it would be worth it.
"Thanks Matt!" Izzy called happily "This is excellent!"
Matt grinned, feeling relieved and looked back at the presents. His eyes fell on a small glittering snowstorm. Inside it was a tiny model of Izzy, sitting at a computer table, completely oblivious to the tiny snowflakes that fell around him when you shook the globe. The snowflakes sparkled different colours, while looking incredibly like real snow. It was really quite beautiful. Matt had never seen anything like it.
"Wow Izzy! Who gave you this?"
"Davis," Izzy said "He won't tell us where he got it from."
"I keep telling you," Davis said happily "Magic!"
Izzy threw a ball of wrapping paper at his head. Davis ducked and laughed. Matt rolled his eyes but vaguely noticed that despite his cheery appearance, Davis was looking tireder than normal. He made up his mind to ask Davis about it later on.
"Matt, your jacket's ripped," Ken said.
"Crap," Matt muttered, quickly examining the rip "I'd better hide that, Dad'll kill me!"
"No luck with a job then?" Tai asked as Matt sat down next to him.
"Absolutely nothing," Matt confessed with a sigh "I'll have to get something soon. For a start, I don't have any money!"
"Doesn't your Dad give you pocket money any more?" Kari asked.
"No. He says if I don't go to school, I need a job."
Matt crossed his eyes briefly then shrugged.
"I'll think of something."
The problem was he reflected, Ms Fuyutsuki liked him training in the daytime. If it was up to her, he wouldn't do anything but train, eat, patrol and sleep, with less focus on eating and sleeping. Matt flatly refused to obey this regime and Ms Fuyutsuki seemed to respect that - sort of. But she certainly wouldn't be happy with him doing a job.
But he'd spoken the truth. He WOULD think of something. It would probably take a while, but he'd think of something. There was always a position open for a rent-boy or so after all.
He grinned at that thought. He could just imagine Akemi's reaction to THAT. Istu would probably hire him every day.
"Food!" Izzy yelled, breaking through his distinctly strange thoughts.
They ended up eating the food on their knees, being loud and cheerful. Once again though, Matt felt the strange feeling of exclusion. No matter what he did, there was that permanent feeling of not quite belonging. And he hated it. He was still trying to convince himself it was paranoia but the more he sat there, the more he doubted it.
"Have you lot all had enough?" Izzy asked.
"Yes," came the general chorus "No!" Davis and Tai chorused together.
Izzy choose to ignore Davis and Tai. Tai had never eaten enough food, Matt only remembered two ocassions where Tai had said he was full up, and one of those had been right before he'd thrown up.
Izzy stood up and started collecting the plates.
"Put a video on," he ordered them "I promised Mum and Dad I'd do the washing up before they got home and if I don't do it now, I'll forget."
"Okay," Tai said, getting up "Now let's see..."
He began scrambling through the videos, holding up selected choices for approval. Matt swallowed, then jumped up and caught Izzy's arm.
"I'll help you."
"Oh...okay," Izzy said, looking startled.
They stood in silence for a while, Matt washing, Izzy drying and putting away, while Matt tried to summon up his courage. Eventually he swallowed and took a deep breath.
"Izzy?" he said "Is everything...okay between us?"
"Sure it is," Izzy said, sounding slightly uneasy "Why'd you ask?"
"It's just...whenever we - the Digidestined I mean - are all together I can't help feeling...well, sort of left out," Matt admitted "I know it's silly but I just feel sort of...well, excluded. I was just wondering if everything was okay."
"Of course it is," Izzy said, his voice sounding unnaturally high "There's no problems, nope, none at all!"
Matt frowned. He knew what Izzy was like when he was lying and this was definietely, definietely Izzy lying, or at least bending the truth somewhat.
"You don't have to lie," he said eventually "I'm a big boy, I can handle it."
There was another long silence as they listened to the laughter of the others as they watched whatever they were watching.
"It's just weird!"
Matt jumped as Izzy blurted it out.
"Huh? What?" he said, having vaguely lost track of what was happening.
"Everything," Izzy explained "Look Matt...it's just...well...you know."
"No I don't," Matt said slowly "I don't know at all."
He was beginning to get a very bad feeling about what might be coming. Izzy gave him an almost embarrassed look.
"Well...see from our side Matt," he said, almost pleadingly "You don't go to school any more, you don't work - but if anyone calls you, you're hardly ever in. Since you don't actually HAVE anywhere to go, it's like you just wander off somewhere. You apparently go off and kill...things...at night time and show up late to places with either no excuse or because you've been killing things!"
Matt stared at him.
"What do you mean apparently?" he demanded sharply, settling on the one thing that really stuck out in his spinning mind "Don't you believe me?"
"Well...you know," Izzy muttered, twisting a wash cloth in his hands.
"I told you; I don't know anything!" Matt snapped.
"Matt, it's not exactly likely!" Izzy exploded "It's scientifically impossible in fact!"
"So are Digimon!" Matt shouted "You believe in THOSE!"
"I've seen them!" Izzy flashed back.
"What do you want?" Matt demanded "Do you want to see a vampire? I can take you to one! Ms Fuyutsuki was telling me about a nest just this morning! Do you want to see it? I can take you to see vampires easily Izzy, I just don't because I thought you guys were my friends and I'm TRYING to protect you from almost certain death!"
"What the hell's going on in here?"
Matt and Izzy had got very loud during the course of their argument and Matt turned to realise that the Digidestined were standing at the doorway, staring at them in surprise. He glared at them all, filled with anger and hurt.
"I'm not crazy!" he yelled at them "Vampires are real! Why'd you think I'd make something like this up? For kicks?"
"Maybe TK's death fucked you up more than we knew," Yolei said with a shrug.
"Yolei!" Kari hissed, nudging her friend but the damage had been done. Matt gaped at Yolei in disbelief.
"Is that what you think?" he said at last "That I'm...fucked up?"
"It's what Mimi and I think," Yolei said sharply "Face it Matt. This stuff is crazy. Vampires aren't real. Neither are demons or Slayers. So you can't be one."
Matt looked at the others, waiting for them to say something. They were all looking embarrassed and fidgeting, even Tai and Davis and Ken who'd all seen the things that Matt fought against.
"I'm not fucked up," he whispered.
Almost instantly, his mind went to his hair, long and frustrating, yet something just wouldn't let him cut it. His reactions to things.
Was he fucked up?
"Hey, Matt's not crazy!" Davis spoke up defensively "We've seen vampires too!"
Yolei simply snorted.
"Are you calling me a liar?" Davis demanded furiously.
"Oh forget it!" Matt yelled "Just...forget it! Forget I was ever born! I don't care!"
He shoved past them and stalked out, only running when he'd slammed the door behind him. He did a quick patrol but the vampires seemed to know he was angry and kept away, obviously not wanting to get completely pummelled. Eventually Matt sat on the cemetery wall and stayed there, kicking it steadily, trying to think of a way of riding himself of the fury inside.
* * * *
"Hey, the Slayer-Boy's moping in the graveyard!" Zillah said.
She was staring into her scrying basin again, her shadow-dark hair spread over her back and round her face. She'd watched the argument between Matt and his friends and had watched as Matt furiously patrolled. Now she was watching him as he sat on the wall.
"Well, if he wants something to kill..." she murmured.
She turned and reached under her bed for her magical supplies and produced two things, a handful of earth and a neatly polished human finger bone.
* * * *
Matt was considering going home and carving himself more stakes - a good way of removing frustration when he couldn't kill things - when he heard a strange dry cracking noise from somewhere. For a while he ignored it but it was getting louder. He looked around, confused.
"Hello?" he called, then rolled his eyes. If there was anything out there that meant him evil, it wasn't going to reply. That was something you could learn by watching enough horror movies!
He looked around again, then stared.
The graves nearest to him had opened. Not like a vampire rising, where the earth was pushed up. The earth here had simply parted, cracked neatly open. As he watched, the bodies slowly rose out.
Matt reeled back, completely repulsed. The smell was disgusting. And as for a appearance of the bodies...
"Oh God!" he moaned "This is disgusting!"
One of the zombies lunged towards him. Matt kicked upwards. His foot went straight through the zombies ribcage with a disgusting crack-squelch noise.
"Oh God!" Matt moaned again, wrenching his foot back. The zombie kept lunging and Matt had to jump over the wall to avoid it. The other zombies were gathering now slowly walking towards him.
"Okay," Matt muttered "How in the name of hell do you kill zombies?"
He couldn't think of anything. He had never learned anything from Ms Fuyutsuki about zombies. Unable to come up with anything at a moment's notice, he settled on the best opinion open at the time and ran away. The zombies followed at a lumber and Matt knew he would be able to lose them easily. But then what would they do? He had to destroy them.
What would kill zombies? Fire perhaps? Where would he get fire from?
The crematorium!
But there were too many zombies...
He'd work that out when he got there.
He ran all the way there, still being chased by the zombies. Reaching the crematorium, he smashed the lock on the door and dived inside, wondering where they kept the furnaces.
* * * *
"He's good, isn't he?" Zillah said in a leisurely way.
"Naturally."
She ignored the patronising tone in her mentors voice and tapped her fingers on the side of the bowl.
"Do you reckon they'll kill him?"
"I don't know. Perhaps."
Zillah looked back into the bowl.
"Next time I'm making myself popcorn," she remarked.
To her, it was just a show.
* * * *
Matt was now crouched in the room with the furnace in it, hoping that the zombies wouldn't come in slow enough for him to chuck them in. He was stoking up the flames and hoping that they wouldn't crawl out again still on fire. That would go down badly.
"I need a mobile phone," he muttered, peering out into the corridor.
The zombies were marching towards him. To Matt's disgust, he saw that they were shedding bits of their bodies as they walked.
"They couldn't have resurrected something solider?" he moaned, ducking back inside and waiting.
The first zombie lumbered in. Matt lifted it up and hurled it into the flames, wincing with disgust. The flames seemed to work; it gave a piercing shriek and he could see it writhing but it wasn't trying to come out again. Matt chucked the next zombie in and dodged another that lunged. To his complete revulsion, it hit the well and disintegrated, the parts still scrabbling aimlessly.
"Oh GROSS!"
Matt kept fighting, throwing the zombies around, mainly into the fire. Some of them never reached him. Obviously the spell - for it couldn't be anything else - only had limited power. By the time no more zombies were coming, Matt was covered in body parts and slime. So was the room. And there was a combination of disgusting smells, burning flesh and decayed flesh. Matt doused the fire and looked at the mess.
"I think I'll just leave it," he said uncaringly and walked out.
* * * *
"Impressive," Zillah said "I never thought he'd manage it myself."
There was no answer and she hadn't really expected one anyway. She grinned.
"I'd best give him a little break," she said "Don't want to wear him out - the fun is only just starting!"
* * * *
"Matt! Matt!"
His father was shouting him. Matt snapped out of the meditation that Ms Fuyutsuki had ordered him to practise, blinked his eyes a few times and shouted "Yes?"
"Your friend Sora is here to see you."
Matt winced. That was the last thing he wanted to hear. He was tired, having got as little as an hours sleep. First he'd had to report the zombie attack to Ms Fuyutsuki, who'd made him patrol again before letting him have a bath. Then she'd roped him into research. Matt had resorted to desperate measures in the end; he'd crawled out of her bathroom window and sneaked home. His father was still under the happy deluded belief that Matt had slept at Tai's house and come home early for some actual sleep and Matt didn't intend to enlighten him.
"Send her in," he yelled, standing up and stretching sore muscles.
Sora walked in. She looked tired and a little nervous.
"Hey Matt," she said.
"Hey," Matt said "Feel free to sit down..."
He suddenly realised what a mess his room was in. Clothes were flung carelessly any old where. The only things properly tidied up were his Slayer supplies, although there was a bottle of holy water sitting on the chair in plain vision. He hadn't realised how much he'd let his room go. Once it had been very clean and polished. Feeling a bit embarrassed, Matt thoughtfully picked the holy water bottle up and kicked the clothes around it aside for Sora to sit down. She smiled at him.
"My room's worse," she said "Look...Matt. We need to talk."
Matt sat on the bed opposite her.
"Talk away," he said flatly.
Sora looked at him for a few moments. Matt waited, rather curious about what she intended to say to him.
"Matt," Sora exploded suddenly "Has it occurred to you we might act this way because we CARE about you?"
Matt blinked, startled at her anger and at the idea. It hadn't occurred to him at all. In fact, he still didn't really know what she was talking about.
"Huh?" he managed eventually.
"We're worried about you Matt!" Sora said "One day, everything's normal - or as normal as it gets being a Digidestined. Then suddenly TK's dead and you claim that a vampire's killed him and turned TK into a vampire and you're a chosen Slayer who is the only person who can stop vampires killing other people! And before you kick off, we do believe you - well, most of us anyway - but it's hard to take!"
Matt continued to blink at her. Sora sighed and reached out to take his hand.
"Matt, none of us know what to do," she said gently "What are we supposed to say? From what we've been told this is some sort of 'forever' deal. You've given up school, you've drawn away from us - oh yes you did, it was you who stopped talking to us first. It's hard to just let you back in, especially as we know that things have changed. Can't you understand that?"
Matt swallowed. Removing his hand from Sora's, he pressed his face into his hands.
"I'm sorry," he muttered hoarsely "I'm so sorry! I never thought..."
"Of course you didn't," Sora said, a little wryly "You never do."
Matt sighed.
"Mimi and Yolei don't believe me, do they?" he asked.
"Well...Yolei does sort of," Sora said hesitantly "She knows that it's there...but she's denying it. Can you blame her? Mimi doesn't believe but you can't really blame her either. She's seen nothing. All she knows is what's been said to her and quite frankly, it doesn't exactly sound believeable when presented to you on paper."
"And the others?" Matt asked.
"We believe you," Sora said "But like I said, no one's sure what to do any more."
Matt sighed. What Sora said was making sense. He didn't like it but it was making sense. It had taken Tai months to accept what had happened and he'd seen Matt's weapons and read Matt's diary. In comparison, the Digidestined had taken it incredibly well.
"What should I do?" he asked.
"Just let us in," Sora said "We've been talking and the others will be trying to make an effort. Just try and accept it - no matter how clumsy the effort might be."
Matt nodded.
"Thanks Sora," he said "You're terrific."
Sora grinned.
"I know," she said "But it would be immodest to mention it!"
Matt laughed. To Sora's surprise, he gave her a brief hug before stepping backwards and blushing. Sora grinned.
"Here," she said "Why don't I help you make this room habitable again? I don't know how you intend to live in a place like this!"
"Oooh, a cleaner!" Matt joked, leaning back on his bed "Well, get going then slave!"
Sora threw a shirt at him.
"Don't even think about it," she said "You're helping!"
* * * *
The next day, Matt was surprised to find Iori on his doorstep clutching two Kendo sticks and some clothes.
"These should fit you," he said abruptly, pushing them into Matt's arms "I think the stick will do."
He pushed past Matt and into the living room.
"There's not much room but it'll do," he said, looking around critically "We'd best put some of this furniture aside though."
"W-what?" Matt managed, closing the door behind him "Iori, what are you doing?"
"Teaching you Kendo," came the reply "Now help me move this stuff."
For a few moments, Matt was completely confused. Iori was teaching him Kendo? Did Matt get a say in this? And why?
'Just let us in when we make the effort!'
Sora's voice floated back to him and he felt himself smile slowly. Iori wanted to try and help him.
"Okay," he said "Let's get going then!"
When Iori finally left, Matt wasn't especially worn out - Ms Fuyutsuki's training was worse - but he was tired. Iori had been gruff with him but it had slowly improved as the 'lesson' had gone on. Matt had a friend again! And he was learning a useful new skill...
The phone rang. Matt knew who it was before he answered it.
"I've been trying to reach you all day," Ms Fuyutsuki said.
"I know," Matt said "That's why I left the answer phone on and ignored the phone."
"Where did you go last night?"
"Home," Matt said, stifling a sigh.
"Without informing me!"
"Yes, that would be because you're a slave driver and you wouldn't have let me go," Matt said, rather annoyedly. Ms Fuyutsuki didn't seem to realise that she was a complete tyrant and that Matt actually needed to breath and sleep occasionally. It was one of the things that drove Matt mad about her. As well as everything else of course.
"Yamato, you don't seem to realise how important - "
"I DO!" Matt yelled "I was attacked by freaking zombies which - apart from being gross - wasn't exactly a picnic! But I need to sleep once in a while!"
Ms Fuyutsuki's snort told him that she thought he was being over-dramatic.
"I want you here now," she ordered crisply.
"Can't," Matt said "I'm going out. I'm still trying to get a job."
"YAMATO!"
"Oops, got to go," Matt said quickly "The lines breaking up!"
He hung up on her outraged shouts, knowing that he wasn't doing himself any good but not caring. Ms Fuyutsuki wound him up so badly. She was authoritative and bossy and Matt hated adults like that. In fact, he hated almost anyone who tried to boss him around.
But she was his Watcher. He HAD to get along with her. The Slayer NEEDED her - HIS Watcher to survive.
Matt scowled at the use of 'her' in his mind. Just because Slayers were normally - okay, ALWAYS - girls...
He didn't want to think about this. Whenever he did, he ended up in a well of despair and depression. He wasn't a girl!
Unwillingly, Matt found himself going into the bathroom and removing his hat, letting his hair fall out of it. He hated that hair, hated it so much...
'So why don't I just CUT IT?'
Tears of frustration weld in Matt's eyes as he looked at himself with long gold hair. He knew that the sensible thing would be to cut it but he didn't want to. Deep inside, he wanted it to stay that length. He liked it long.
It wasn't his hair he hated. It was himself.
Matt buried his face in his hands and began to cry.
* * * *
The next day when Matt returned from training, there was a note from his father saying that Joe Kido had rung about four times. Curious, he rang Joe back.
"Hey Joe."
"Oh, hi Matt!"
Joe sounded slightly nervous but definitely determined to say what he meant to say.
"I was wondering...wondering if you wanted me to tell you some stuff about first aid!" he blurted "I mean, all this fighting...if you got hurt, you wouldn't know what to do. And I'd be happy to help out, I really want to..."
Matt was annoyed to find himself tearing up. His friends really did care.
"Sure," he said thickly "That sounds great Joe. I'd really appreciate all your help."
"Great!" Joe said "Maybe tomorrow?"
"Sure," Matt said "After school okay for you?"
"Sure."
They spoke for a few more minutes before hanging up. Matt leaned back and grinned, his heart feeling incredibly light. Joe was his friend again! Iori was his friend again! Sora said that the others wanted to be his friends and everything was working out fine...
The smile vanished from his face when his father walked in.
"Been sitting there all day?" he asked coldly.
"No," Matt said, sitting up "I've been out."
"Too much to hope that you've been doing an honest days work?"
Matt bit his lip.
"I'm trying," he whispered.
"I can imagine."
His father stalked past him. Matt sighed, then jumped as the phone rang again. He lifted the reciever, deciding that if it was Ms Fuyutsuki, he was going to find that mountainiering whistle his father had and blow it down the phone at her.
"Hello?" he said warily.
"Matt you are NEVER going to guess what!"
It was Gendo, sounding insanely excited.
"Huh? Okay?" Matt said "What?"
"You know the gig we've got coming up?" Gendo said "Well Toshiki just called me and we might get a record deal out of it!"
"WHAT?" Matt yelled "You are MESSING with me?!"
"I am not," Gendo said "Toshiki's been sorting it out. There's going to be a representative of the company there and if they like us, we are going to get to perform for them and we might get a deal!"
Matt cheered loud enough to wake the dead (metaphorically speaking of course). His father gave him a completely confused stare which he ignored.
"This is going to be GREAT!"
"I reckon we can get it," Gendo said "Toshiki thinks we can and I agree. We might get famous Matt!"
"I know!" Matt said "Fame and fortune, here I COME!"
He and Gendo briefly spoke before hanging up. Matt danced into his bedroom and danced up and down in a sort of parody of one of his training moves. If this worked out right, he might get money in, he might get famous...
Things were really looking up.
* * * *
Davis was lying on his bed. His door was bolted shut so no one could interrupt him. They'd be unlikely to interupt him as it was 12:32 but Davis was taking no chances. He was planning on trying a more difficult spell that night.
So far, Davis hadn't progressed much from simple levitation. His most complex spell had been to change a rather plain shop-bought snowstorm into the gift he'd given Izzy. That had been a sort of transfiguration and had been very hard but he'd only tried it once. As it was altering something that was already in the form he wanted, it hadn't been as hard as transiguration spells normally were. He wanted to have another go, using something bigger, and then see if he could change it back.
Sitting in front of him was a loaf of bread that he'd 'borrowed' from the kitchen. He was going to change it into a cake. Bread and cakes were still connected, which meant it wasn't going to be terribly hard but it was still tricky.
Davis licked his lips and slowly let himself relax, breathing slowly in and out until he felt completely calm. Reaching out a hand, he held it over the bread, then pictured a chocolate cake in his mind, vividly enough so he was actually feeling hungry.
"Kaeruious," he whispered.
There was a feeling of something passing through him, something that was only half pleasant. Opening his eyes, he found himself looking a sponge cake. He didn't care. He'd changed a loaf of bread into a cake!
Davis tasted a bit to see if it tasted like cake. It sort of did although there was a distinct taste of white bread somewhere. But it was more cake than bread.
Licking his lips, he held out his hand again. Could he change it back?
"Kippuous," he said.
Another feeling of something going through him. When he opened his eyes, there was the loaf of bread again.
Davis pumped the air briefly with his fist. He was getting better at this! He could change things into other things! And he wasn't collapsing with exhaustion!
Davis took out another of his magic books, absently chomping on the loaf of bread. He wanted to try more things. He could do magic! He could do magic!
Davis wrinkled up his forehead and began to read the book in front of him.
* * * *
Matt knew he was dreaming again. The swirling storm clouds that surrounded him were the same. Then he was sucked into them, flipped and tossed by the wind. When it stopped throwing him about, he found himself simply hanging in mid-air, not dropping, just hanging. As he watched, he saw Davis was there too. Davis was huddled on a storm cloud. He looked like he was meditating or doing yoga. His eyes were closed and he was talking to himself, his hands extended over a stone bowl of some sort. What looked like fog was building up in the bowl. Davis opened his eyes and blinked at it.
"Uh oh," he murmured, his voice audible from where Matt hung.
The fog grew larger. A tendril slowly slid out of the bowl and curled round Davis's wrist. Then another tendril snaked out, twining itself round Davis's other wrist. Davis stared at it, his eyes confused as the grey fog kept growing, wrapping around him, smothering him.
"Matt! Help me!" he shouted.
Matt didn't know what to do and in any case, the wind wouldn't let him go, kept him suspended. He couldn't move anywhere. As he watched, he saw the greyness swamp Davis completely. When it receded, Davis was gone, completely absorbed by the smoke.
Matt jerked awake, coughing and gasping. Taking steady deep breaths, he looked around, checking that he was safe in his own room.
"Now that was weird," he muttered.
Curling up again, he dozed off, letting the bad dream drift out of his mind.
No one had ever told him that a Slayer's dreams were often prophecies of the future.
End of Part 3.
Fog.
By the Empress of the Eclipse
Disclaimer - Don't own Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Digimon.
"Happy birthday Izzy!"
Izzy grinned at Matt who was standing on the doorstep, looking somewhat dishevelled but offering a nicely wrapped present and smiling cheerfully.
"Thanks Matt. I thought you weren't coming."
"I got distracted along the way."
Matt walked inside, brushing a few remaining leaves from his clothes and hat. He'd managed to cry some time off from patrolling owing to it being Izzy's sixteenth birthday party. Unfortunately, vampires didn't take time off just because the Slayer was and he'd been attacked by an over-zealous vampire which had been fairly easy to stake. Only problem was, she had thrown him into a bush which had snagged on all his clothes. It had taken him about ten minutes to wriggle out of the bush but he'd managed not to damage his outfit much, which was something he was quite proud of.
Izzy took him into the main room where the other Digidestined were. Izzy's parents had been convinced to go out so they could inhabit the whole house and be as loud as they wanted. Everyone waved at him, calling hellos. Izzy had already unwrapped most of his presents and the place was covered in brightly coloured wrapping paper which Davis and Tai were playing with. Ken was watching Davis in a sort of amazement as Davis happily threw wrapping paper in the air and wrapped it round himself like a little kid. Matt had a feeling that Davis had never really grown up. Maybe soon.
In a blue moon or so.
Matt went over the inspect the presents while Izzy ripped the wrapping paper open. Matt had bought him a book about computers. It had eaten up a large amount of his savings but Matt hoped it would be worth it.
"Thanks Matt!" Izzy called happily "This is excellent!"
Matt grinned, feeling relieved and looked back at the presents. His eyes fell on a small glittering snowstorm. Inside it was a tiny model of Izzy, sitting at a computer table, completely oblivious to the tiny snowflakes that fell around him when you shook the globe. The snowflakes sparkled different colours, while looking incredibly like real snow. It was really quite beautiful. Matt had never seen anything like it.
"Wow Izzy! Who gave you this?"
"Davis," Izzy said "He won't tell us where he got it from."
"I keep telling you," Davis said happily "Magic!"
Izzy threw a ball of wrapping paper at his head. Davis ducked and laughed. Matt rolled his eyes but vaguely noticed that despite his cheery appearance, Davis was looking tireder than normal. He made up his mind to ask Davis about it later on.
"Matt, your jacket's ripped," Ken said.
"Crap," Matt muttered, quickly examining the rip "I'd better hide that, Dad'll kill me!"
"No luck with a job then?" Tai asked as Matt sat down next to him.
"Absolutely nothing," Matt confessed with a sigh "I'll have to get something soon. For a start, I don't have any money!"
"Doesn't your Dad give you pocket money any more?" Kari asked.
"No. He says if I don't go to school, I need a job."
Matt crossed his eyes briefly then shrugged.
"I'll think of something."
The problem was he reflected, Ms Fuyutsuki liked him training in the daytime. If it was up to her, he wouldn't do anything but train, eat, patrol and sleep, with less focus on eating and sleeping. Matt flatly refused to obey this regime and Ms Fuyutsuki seemed to respect that - sort of. But she certainly wouldn't be happy with him doing a job.
But he'd spoken the truth. He WOULD think of something. It would probably take a while, but he'd think of something. There was always a position open for a rent-boy or so after all.
He grinned at that thought. He could just imagine Akemi's reaction to THAT. Istu would probably hire him every day.
"Food!" Izzy yelled, breaking through his distinctly strange thoughts.
They ended up eating the food on their knees, being loud and cheerful. Once again though, Matt felt the strange feeling of exclusion. No matter what he did, there was that permanent feeling of not quite belonging. And he hated it. He was still trying to convince himself it was paranoia but the more he sat there, the more he doubted it.
"Have you lot all had enough?" Izzy asked.
"Yes," came the general chorus "No!" Davis and Tai chorused together.
Izzy choose to ignore Davis and Tai. Tai had never eaten enough food, Matt only remembered two ocassions where Tai had said he was full up, and one of those had been right before he'd thrown up.
Izzy stood up and started collecting the plates.
"Put a video on," he ordered them "I promised Mum and Dad I'd do the washing up before they got home and if I don't do it now, I'll forget."
"Okay," Tai said, getting up "Now let's see..."
He began scrambling through the videos, holding up selected choices for approval. Matt swallowed, then jumped up and caught Izzy's arm.
"I'll help you."
"Oh...okay," Izzy said, looking startled.
They stood in silence for a while, Matt washing, Izzy drying and putting away, while Matt tried to summon up his courage. Eventually he swallowed and took a deep breath.
"Izzy?" he said "Is everything...okay between us?"
"Sure it is," Izzy said, sounding slightly uneasy "Why'd you ask?"
"It's just...whenever we - the Digidestined I mean - are all together I can't help feeling...well, sort of left out," Matt admitted "I know it's silly but I just feel sort of...well, excluded. I was just wondering if everything was okay."
"Of course it is," Izzy said, his voice sounding unnaturally high "There's no problems, nope, none at all!"
Matt frowned. He knew what Izzy was like when he was lying and this was definietely, definietely Izzy lying, or at least bending the truth somewhat.
"You don't have to lie," he said eventually "I'm a big boy, I can handle it."
There was another long silence as they listened to the laughter of the others as they watched whatever they were watching.
"It's just weird!"
Matt jumped as Izzy blurted it out.
"Huh? What?" he said, having vaguely lost track of what was happening.
"Everything," Izzy explained "Look Matt...it's just...well...you know."
"No I don't," Matt said slowly "I don't know at all."
He was beginning to get a very bad feeling about what might be coming. Izzy gave him an almost embarrassed look.
"Well...see from our side Matt," he said, almost pleadingly "You don't go to school any more, you don't work - but if anyone calls you, you're hardly ever in. Since you don't actually HAVE anywhere to go, it's like you just wander off somewhere. You apparently go off and kill...things...at night time and show up late to places with either no excuse or because you've been killing things!"
Matt stared at him.
"What do you mean apparently?" he demanded sharply, settling on the one thing that really stuck out in his spinning mind "Don't you believe me?"
"Well...you know," Izzy muttered, twisting a wash cloth in his hands.
"I told you; I don't know anything!" Matt snapped.
"Matt, it's not exactly likely!" Izzy exploded "It's scientifically impossible in fact!"
"So are Digimon!" Matt shouted "You believe in THOSE!"
"I've seen them!" Izzy flashed back.
"What do you want?" Matt demanded "Do you want to see a vampire? I can take you to one! Ms Fuyutsuki was telling me about a nest just this morning! Do you want to see it? I can take you to see vampires easily Izzy, I just don't because I thought you guys were my friends and I'm TRYING to protect you from almost certain death!"
"What the hell's going on in here?"
Matt and Izzy had got very loud during the course of their argument and Matt turned to realise that the Digidestined were standing at the doorway, staring at them in surprise. He glared at them all, filled with anger and hurt.
"I'm not crazy!" he yelled at them "Vampires are real! Why'd you think I'd make something like this up? For kicks?"
"Maybe TK's death fucked you up more than we knew," Yolei said with a shrug.
"Yolei!" Kari hissed, nudging her friend but the damage had been done. Matt gaped at Yolei in disbelief.
"Is that what you think?" he said at last "That I'm...fucked up?"
"It's what Mimi and I think," Yolei said sharply "Face it Matt. This stuff is crazy. Vampires aren't real. Neither are demons or Slayers. So you can't be one."
Matt looked at the others, waiting for them to say something. They were all looking embarrassed and fidgeting, even Tai and Davis and Ken who'd all seen the things that Matt fought against.
"I'm not fucked up," he whispered.
Almost instantly, his mind went to his hair, long and frustrating, yet something just wouldn't let him cut it. His reactions to things.
Was he fucked up?
"Hey, Matt's not crazy!" Davis spoke up defensively "We've seen vampires too!"
Yolei simply snorted.
"Are you calling me a liar?" Davis demanded furiously.
"Oh forget it!" Matt yelled "Just...forget it! Forget I was ever born! I don't care!"
He shoved past them and stalked out, only running when he'd slammed the door behind him. He did a quick patrol but the vampires seemed to know he was angry and kept away, obviously not wanting to get completely pummelled. Eventually Matt sat on the cemetery wall and stayed there, kicking it steadily, trying to think of a way of riding himself of the fury inside.
* * * *
"Hey, the Slayer-Boy's moping in the graveyard!" Zillah said.
She was staring into her scrying basin again, her shadow-dark hair spread over her back and round her face. She'd watched the argument between Matt and his friends and had watched as Matt furiously patrolled. Now she was watching him as he sat on the wall.
"Well, if he wants something to kill..." she murmured.
She turned and reached under her bed for her magical supplies and produced two things, a handful of earth and a neatly polished human finger bone.
* * * *
Matt was considering going home and carving himself more stakes - a good way of removing frustration when he couldn't kill things - when he heard a strange dry cracking noise from somewhere. For a while he ignored it but it was getting louder. He looked around, confused.
"Hello?" he called, then rolled his eyes. If there was anything out there that meant him evil, it wasn't going to reply. That was something you could learn by watching enough horror movies!
He looked around again, then stared.
The graves nearest to him had opened. Not like a vampire rising, where the earth was pushed up. The earth here had simply parted, cracked neatly open. As he watched, the bodies slowly rose out.
Matt reeled back, completely repulsed. The smell was disgusting. And as for a appearance of the bodies...
"Oh God!" he moaned "This is disgusting!"
One of the zombies lunged towards him. Matt kicked upwards. His foot went straight through the zombies ribcage with a disgusting crack-squelch noise.
"Oh God!" Matt moaned again, wrenching his foot back. The zombie kept lunging and Matt had to jump over the wall to avoid it. The other zombies were gathering now slowly walking towards him.
"Okay," Matt muttered "How in the name of hell do you kill zombies?"
He couldn't think of anything. He had never learned anything from Ms Fuyutsuki about zombies. Unable to come up with anything at a moment's notice, he settled on the best opinion open at the time and ran away. The zombies followed at a lumber and Matt knew he would be able to lose them easily. But then what would they do? He had to destroy them.
What would kill zombies? Fire perhaps? Where would he get fire from?
The crematorium!
But there were too many zombies...
He'd work that out when he got there.
He ran all the way there, still being chased by the zombies. Reaching the crematorium, he smashed the lock on the door and dived inside, wondering where they kept the furnaces.
* * * *
"He's good, isn't he?" Zillah said in a leisurely way.
"Naturally."
She ignored the patronising tone in her mentors voice and tapped her fingers on the side of the bowl.
"Do you reckon they'll kill him?"
"I don't know. Perhaps."
Zillah looked back into the bowl.
"Next time I'm making myself popcorn," she remarked.
To her, it was just a show.
* * * *
Matt was now crouched in the room with the furnace in it, hoping that the zombies wouldn't come in slow enough for him to chuck them in. He was stoking up the flames and hoping that they wouldn't crawl out again still on fire. That would go down badly.
"I need a mobile phone," he muttered, peering out into the corridor.
The zombies were marching towards him. To Matt's disgust, he saw that they were shedding bits of their bodies as they walked.
"They couldn't have resurrected something solider?" he moaned, ducking back inside and waiting.
The first zombie lumbered in. Matt lifted it up and hurled it into the flames, wincing with disgust. The flames seemed to work; it gave a piercing shriek and he could see it writhing but it wasn't trying to come out again. Matt chucked the next zombie in and dodged another that lunged. To his complete revulsion, it hit the well and disintegrated, the parts still scrabbling aimlessly.
"Oh GROSS!"
Matt kept fighting, throwing the zombies around, mainly into the fire. Some of them never reached him. Obviously the spell - for it couldn't be anything else - only had limited power. By the time no more zombies were coming, Matt was covered in body parts and slime. So was the room. And there was a combination of disgusting smells, burning flesh and decayed flesh. Matt doused the fire and looked at the mess.
"I think I'll just leave it," he said uncaringly and walked out.
* * * *
"Impressive," Zillah said "I never thought he'd manage it myself."
There was no answer and she hadn't really expected one anyway. She grinned.
"I'd best give him a little break," she said "Don't want to wear him out - the fun is only just starting!"
* * * *
"Matt! Matt!"
His father was shouting him. Matt snapped out of the meditation that Ms Fuyutsuki had ordered him to practise, blinked his eyes a few times and shouted "Yes?"
"Your friend Sora is here to see you."
Matt winced. That was the last thing he wanted to hear. He was tired, having got as little as an hours sleep. First he'd had to report the zombie attack to Ms Fuyutsuki, who'd made him patrol again before letting him have a bath. Then she'd roped him into research. Matt had resorted to desperate measures in the end; he'd crawled out of her bathroom window and sneaked home. His father was still under the happy deluded belief that Matt had slept at Tai's house and come home early for some actual sleep and Matt didn't intend to enlighten him.
"Send her in," he yelled, standing up and stretching sore muscles.
Sora walked in. She looked tired and a little nervous.
"Hey Matt," she said.
"Hey," Matt said "Feel free to sit down..."
He suddenly realised what a mess his room was in. Clothes were flung carelessly any old where. The only things properly tidied up were his Slayer supplies, although there was a bottle of holy water sitting on the chair in plain vision. He hadn't realised how much he'd let his room go. Once it had been very clean and polished. Feeling a bit embarrassed, Matt thoughtfully picked the holy water bottle up and kicked the clothes around it aside for Sora to sit down. She smiled at him.
"My room's worse," she said "Look...Matt. We need to talk."
Matt sat on the bed opposite her.
"Talk away," he said flatly.
Sora looked at him for a few moments. Matt waited, rather curious about what she intended to say to him.
"Matt," Sora exploded suddenly "Has it occurred to you we might act this way because we CARE about you?"
Matt blinked, startled at her anger and at the idea. It hadn't occurred to him at all. In fact, he still didn't really know what she was talking about.
"Huh?" he managed eventually.
"We're worried about you Matt!" Sora said "One day, everything's normal - or as normal as it gets being a Digidestined. Then suddenly TK's dead and you claim that a vampire's killed him and turned TK into a vampire and you're a chosen Slayer who is the only person who can stop vampires killing other people! And before you kick off, we do believe you - well, most of us anyway - but it's hard to take!"
Matt continued to blink at her. Sora sighed and reached out to take his hand.
"Matt, none of us know what to do," she said gently "What are we supposed to say? From what we've been told this is some sort of 'forever' deal. You've given up school, you've drawn away from us - oh yes you did, it was you who stopped talking to us first. It's hard to just let you back in, especially as we know that things have changed. Can't you understand that?"
Matt swallowed. Removing his hand from Sora's, he pressed his face into his hands.
"I'm sorry," he muttered hoarsely "I'm so sorry! I never thought..."
"Of course you didn't," Sora said, a little wryly "You never do."
Matt sighed.
"Mimi and Yolei don't believe me, do they?" he asked.
"Well...Yolei does sort of," Sora said hesitantly "She knows that it's there...but she's denying it. Can you blame her? Mimi doesn't believe but you can't really blame her either. She's seen nothing. All she knows is what's been said to her and quite frankly, it doesn't exactly sound believeable when presented to you on paper."
"And the others?" Matt asked.
"We believe you," Sora said "But like I said, no one's sure what to do any more."
Matt sighed. What Sora said was making sense. He didn't like it but it was making sense. It had taken Tai months to accept what had happened and he'd seen Matt's weapons and read Matt's diary. In comparison, the Digidestined had taken it incredibly well.
"What should I do?" he asked.
"Just let us in," Sora said "We've been talking and the others will be trying to make an effort. Just try and accept it - no matter how clumsy the effort might be."
Matt nodded.
"Thanks Sora," he said "You're terrific."
Sora grinned.
"I know," she said "But it would be immodest to mention it!"
Matt laughed. To Sora's surprise, he gave her a brief hug before stepping backwards and blushing. Sora grinned.
"Here," she said "Why don't I help you make this room habitable again? I don't know how you intend to live in a place like this!"
"Oooh, a cleaner!" Matt joked, leaning back on his bed "Well, get going then slave!"
Sora threw a shirt at him.
"Don't even think about it," she said "You're helping!"
* * * *
The next day, Matt was surprised to find Iori on his doorstep clutching two Kendo sticks and some clothes.
"These should fit you," he said abruptly, pushing them into Matt's arms "I think the stick will do."
He pushed past Matt and into the living room.
"There's not much room but it'll do," he said, looking around critically "We'd best put some of this furniture aside though."
"W-what?" Matt managed, closing the door behind him "Iori, what are you doing?"
"Teaching you Kendo," came the reply "Now help me move this stuff."
For a few moments, Matt was completely confused. Iori was teaching him Kendo? Did Matt get a say in this? And why?
'Just let us in when we make the effort!'
Sora's voice floated back to him and he felt himself smile slowly. Iori wanted to try and help him.
"Okay," he said "Let's get going then!"
When Iori finally left, Matt wasn't especially worn out - Ms Fuyutsuki's training was worse - but he was tired. Iori had been gruff with him but it had slowly improved as the 'lesson' had gone on. Matt had a friend again! And he was learning a useful new skill...
The phone rang. Matt knew who it was before he answered it.
"I've been trying to reach you all day," Ms Fuyutsuki said.
"I know," Matt said "That's why I left the answer phone on and ignored the phone."
"Where did you go last night?"
"Home," Matt said, stifling a sigh.
"Without informing me!"
"Yes, that would be because you're a slave driver and you wouldn't have let me go," Matt said, rather annoyedly. Ms Fuyutsuki didn't seem to realise that she was a complete tyrant and that Matt actually needed to breath and sleep occasionally. It was one of the things that drove Matt mad about her. As well as everything else of course.
"Yamato, you don't seem to realise how important - "
"I DO!" Matt yelled "I was attacked by freaking zombies which - apart from being gross - wasn't exactly a picnic! But I need to sleep once in a while!"
Ms Fuyutsuki's snort told him that she thought he was being over-dramatic.
"I want you here now," she ordered crisply.
"Can't," Matt said "I'm going out. I'm still trying to get a job."
"YAMATO!"
"Oops, got to go," Matt said quickly "The lines breaking up!"
He hung up on her outraged shouts, knowing that he wasn't doing himself any good but not caring. Ms Fuyutsuki wound him up so badly. She was authoritative and bossy and Matt hated adults like that. In fact, he hated almost anyone who tried to boss him around.
But she was his Watcher. He HAD to get along with her. The Slayer NEEDED her - HIS Watcher to survive.
Matt scowled at the use of 'her' in his mind. Just because Slayers were normally - okay, ALWAYS - girls...
He didn't want to think about this. Whenever he did, he ended up in a well of despair and depression. He wasn't a girl!
Unwillingly, Matt found himself going into the bathroom and removing his hat, letting his hair fall out of it. He hated that hair, hated it so much...
'So why don't I just CUT IT?'
Tears of frustration weld in Matt's eyes as he looked at himself with long gold hair. He knew that the sensible thing would be to cut it but he didn't want to. Deep inside, he wanted it to stay that length. He liked it long.
It wasn't his hair he hated. It was himself.
Matt buried his face in his hands and began to cry.
* * * *
The next day when Matt returned from training, there was a note from his father saying that Joe Kido had rung about four times. Curious, he rang Joe back.
"Hey Joe."
"Oh, hi Matt!"
Joe sounded slightly nervous but definitely determined to say what he meant to say.
"I was wondering...wondering if you wanted me to tell you some stuff about first aid!" he blurted "I mean, all this fighting...if you got hurt, you wouldn't know what to do. And I'd be happy to help out, I really want to..."
Matt was annoyed to find himself tearing up. His friends really did care.
"Sure," he said thickly "That sounds great Joe. I'd really appreciate all your help."
"Great!" Joe said "Maybe tomorrow?"
"Sure," Matt said "After school okay for you?"
"Sure."
They spoke for a few more minutes before hanging up. Matt leaned back and grinned, his heart feeling incredibly light. Joe was his friend again! Iori was his friend again! Sora said that the others wanted to be his friends and everything was working out fine...
The smile vanished from his face when his father walked in.
"Been sitting there all day?" he asked coldly.
"No," Matt said, sitting up "I've been out."
"Too much to hope that you've been doing an honest days work?"
Matt bit his lip.
"I'm trying," he whispered.
"I can imagine."
His father stalked past him. Matt sighed, then jumped as the phone rang again. He lifted the reciever, deciding that if it was Ms Fuyutsuki, he was going to find that mountainiering whistle his father had and blow it down the phone at her.
"Hello?" he said warily.
"Matt you are NEVER going to guess what!"
It was Gendo, sounding insanely excited.
"Huh? Okay?" Matt said "What?"
"You know the gig we've got coming up?" Gendo said "Well Toshiki just called me and we might get a record deal out of it!"
"WHAT?" Matt yelled "You are MESSING with me?!"
"I am not," Gendo said "Toshiki's been sorting it out. There's going to be a representative of the company there and if they like us, we are going to get to perform for them and we might get a deal!"
Matt cheered loud enough to wake the dead (metaphorically speaking of course). His father gave him a completely confused stare which he ignored.
"This is going to be GREAT!"
"I reckon we can get it," Gendo said "Toshiki thinks we can and I agree. We might get famous Matt!"
"I know!" Matt said "Fame and fortune, here I COME!"
He and Gendo briefly spoke before hanging up. Matt danced into his bedroom and danced up and down in a sort of parody of one of his training moves. If this worked out right, he might get money in, he might get famous...
Things were really looking up.
* * * *
Davis was lying on his bed. His door was bolted shut so no one could interrupt him. They'd be unlikely to interupt him as it was 12:32 but Davis was taking no chances. He was planning on trying a more difficult spell that night.
So far, Davis hadn't progressed much from simple levitation. His most complex spell had been to change a rather plain shop-bought snowstorm into the gift he'd given Izzy. That had been a sort of transfiguration and had been very hard but he'd only tried it once. As it was altering something that was already in the form he wanted, it hadn't been as hard as transiguration spells normally were. He wanted to have another go, using something bigger, and then see if he could change it back.
Sitting in front of him was a loaf of bread that he'd 'borrowed' from the kitchen. He was going to change it into a cake. Bread and cakes were still connected, which meant it wasn't going to be terribly hard but it was still tricky.
Davis licked his lips and slowly let himself relax, breathing slowly in and out until he felt completely calm. Reaching out a hand, he held it over the bread, then pictured a chocolate cake in his mind, vividly enough so he was actually feeling hungry.
"Kaeruious," he whispered.
There was a feeling of something passing through him, something that was only half pleasant. Opening his eyes, he found himself looking a sponge cake. He didn't care. He'd changed a loaf of bread into a cake!
Davis tasted a bit to see if it tasted like cake. It sort of did although there was a distinct taste of white bread somewhere. But it was more cake than bread.
Licking his lips, he held out his hand again. Could he change it back?
"Kippuous," he said.
Another feeling of something going through him. When he opened his eyes, there was the loaf of bread again.
Davis pumped the air briefly with his fist. He was getting better at this! He could change things into other things! And he wasn't collapsing with exhaustion!
Davis took out another of his magic books, absently chomping on the loaf of bread. He wanted to try more things. He could do magic! He could do magic!
Davis wrinkled up his forehead and began to read the book in front of him.
* * * *
Matt knew he was dreaming again. The swirling storm clouds that surrounded him were the same. Then he was sucked into them, flipped and tossed by the wind. When it stopped throwing him about, he found himself simply hanging in mid-air, not dropping, just hanging. As he watched, he saw Davis was there too. Davis was huddled on a storm cloud. He looked like he was meditating or doing yoga. His eyes were closed and he was talking to himself, his hands extended over a stone bowl of some sort. What looked like fog was building up in the bowl. Davis opened his eyes and blinked at it.
"Uh oh," he murmured, his voice audible from where Matt hung.
The fog grew larger. A tendril slowly slid out of the bowl and curled round Davis's wrist. Then another tendril snaked out, twining itself round Davis's other wrist. Davis stared at it, his eyes confused as the grey fog kept growing, wrapping around him, smothering him.
"Matt! Help me!" he shouted.
Matt didn't know what to do and in any case, the wind wouldn't let him go, kept him suspended. He couldn't move anywhere. As he watched, he saw the greyness swamp Davis completely. When it receded, Davis was gone, completely absorbed by the smoke.
Matt jerked awake, coughing and gasping. Taking steady deep breaths, he looked around, checking that he was safe in his own room.
"Now that was weird," he muttered.
Curling up again, he dozed off, letting the bad dream drift out of his mind.
No one had ever told him that a Slayer's dreams were often prophecies of the future.
End of Part 3.