Searching for Justice By: me-rite-much

Disclaimer: digimon belongs to fox broadcasting and toei, u all know that already . . .

IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING!: ok, I recently received that petition to keep digimon on the air, and I have nothing against it, but I don't really like any other seasons cept 1, and I pretty much just want to see season 1 rerun again. Now another thing I want to bring up, I have been having a BIG inspiration attack lately, so its very likely that I'll have at least 5 more stories by the end of january, I said likely, not guaranteed.

a/n: This is gonna be quiteee a long fic, but I'm glad I wrote it anyway. I got the inspiration to write it this January 2nd morning actually, and I have been hard at work on it ever since. However, my computer was striken by a messed up virus, all my word files and the saved images and a few other files. What does this mean? ALL MY FANFICS WERE DELETED!!! AHHHHHHHH!!! And this time im not sorry for having the crazy moment because THIS TIME IS AN ALRIGHT TIME TO GO CRAZY!!!!! I have to start all over with my fics and it is setting back a lot of fics I had in mind. Eventually I will be back on track, but I will need at least two weeks because of school and everything to be able to rewrite everything. @@@@@@@@@@

The cold, crisp morning air helped set the look of the dark pink sky as two people were having a small argument in a very isolated corner of the city park. One of the people, a brunette with goggles and a blue shirt, was especially distressed by this incident. "Listen, it's four in the morning" Tai said as he was trying his best to stop this unwelcome conversation "It's still to early to talk about this, can I please just get some rest and we can talk later?" However, the other person simply dismissed the plea and kept going on with the argument. The fight went on for a few more minutes until Tai, desperate and tired finally began as he found out what the other figure was really trying to talk about. "I'm sorry" He said to the other figure in a morose tone as he looked sadly on the ground. "But I just can't love you, I know this will hurt you, but I'm sorry, I just don't share those feelings with you."

Tai was driven in total fear and shock as he realized the other person had brought along more than angry feelings. Tai stoop completely dumbfounded as he saw the pistol being taken out the other persons jacket and pointed at him. He desperately tried to talk his way out of the situation as he realized this was going too far. "Please, don't" he begged desperately. "You can't do this, please, I know you're hurt, but please, don't go this far, I don't want to die yet, please, don't. . ." The other figure simply smiled and brought the gun up to fire. Tai's instincts kicked in and he jumped on the person in one desperate, final attempt to remove the deadly weapon from the attackers hands. The struggle went on for a few seconds. Tai felt that he was about to rid the person of the handgun, but just as he was about to relinquish the weapon from the other persons hands, the gun fired, and Tai fell hard on the floor.

He was laying on his side, bent, covering where he had been shot. It had just missed his stomach by a few inches, but Tai knew the wound was fatal. The brunette desperately tried to escape somehow. 'I need to get to someone,' Tai thought rapidly. 'I can feel my life escaping me, oh god, please don't let me die. . .' Although he tried his best to crawl away, Tai was too injured to move more than a few inches. It was unlikely anyone heard the gunshot because of how secluded the area was, and also because it was too early for anyone to even be out. The gun had also been close to Tai's body when he was shot, so most of the sound was suppressed. The second figure quickly searched Tai's pockets for something.

'THE NOTE!' Tai thought to himself desperately. 'I have to make sure they can't find it, the police would be able to match the writing so that this murderer can't get away. Unfortunately, the shooter found the note, the very reason Tai was laying here shot and near death on the floor. It had all been a ruse for the person to get Tai to come in the park in the first place. Tai had been tricked, and now was paying for it with his life.

Using the last of his energy, Tai struggled to hold on to the note, he was only able to keep the struggle up for a little bit as his injuries were kicking in and keeping him being able to hold on any longer. The note had been ripped and the shooter was able to get about two-thirds of the letter. Some of the writing and the letter T where the signature use to be was all that Tai had left of the note. All Tai could do now was lay there on the ground, and pray that someone would find him before it was too late. The other person simply ran away, the gun lay forgotten on the ground. The piece of the note Tai still had in his hand. Now Tai simply waited for his time to come. 'I'm sorry everyone,' he thought to himself sadly. 'sorry that I couldn't hold on longer, mom, dad, kari . . . and. . .' but before he could finish the thought, Tai went unconscious. Still alive, but barely. The final things Tai noticed before his eyes closed, was the still dark sky, waiting for the sunset to bring about a new day, and the cold air that bit at his skin.

An hour and a half later, Mimi and her new dog, Pinky, were going for a very early morning jog around the park, as was the pink-loving girl's morning custom. "Cmon Doggy," the girl called to her small pet, "If you want to be my pet you are gonna have to learn to keep up!" she said in a playful tone. The small animal soon caught up and began to act a bit strange as they both neared an isolated patch of trees. "What is it girl?" Mimi asked her pet as she breathed in heavily, a bit tired after running for a while. 'I am going to have to wash these clothes twice!' Mimi thought to herself as she realized how sweat-filled her sweatshirt and pants were. She was snapped out of her thoughts about her sweatclothes as she realized how desperate her dog was in trying to reach the spot. Her dog kept barking at the patch of trees as Mimi held on to the leash with all her strength. 'This dog might be small, but it sure is a strong one' she thought as she tried to hold it back.

Very carefully, Mimi let her dog get closer to the trees, if anything strange was there, Mimi wanted to make sure her dog didn't get hurt in any way, but for Mimi, it was more likely the animal had found a dropped bag of kibble. Mimi noticed the dog started barking louder, and tried more desperately then ever to get the to source of it's attention. "jeez pinky," Mimi said to her dog as it was going crazy. "Whatever you found must really be important if you are going cra . . ." But what Mimi found was shocking beyond belief. There, lying on the floor, was the digidestineds former leader, Tai, dying on the ground with a bullet wound that had already created a big puddle of blood. "Oh my god!" she screamed as she scurried to Tai's limp form. "What happened." She gasped to herself as she kneed down to look for a pulse. "God I need to get some help here fast!" Mimi said rapidly as she took out the small cell phone she kept in her pocket.

She hurriedly dialed 911 and franticly told the operator on the other end what was wrong. "Please help!!" She screamed into the phone. "Oh my god! Please send help! My friend has been shot and he's dying on the ground! Please send help!" Mimi desperately tried to tell the operator. "Ok, listen ma'am" The operator on the other end explained to Mimi. "If you will please calm down I will be able to send you help, please tell me where you are."

Mimi tried to calm herself down as tears were now flooding her face, traumatized at seeing one of her friends' dying on the floor, his blood still spilling from the wound. Mimi listened to the operators instructions and ripped off a piece of her sweatpants to try to cover up the bullet wound. "Just keep the wound covered and help will be with you shortly." The operator said on the other line. "There is an ambulance coming from about a block away, you are gonna have to find them as they drive up and take them to your friend. Is he near the sidewalk, or is he far inside the park." The operator asked.

"I'm afraid he's too far in the park for the ambulance to see us." Mimi quickly responded, awaiting the next set of instructions from the operator. "I am afraid you are gonna have to leave him there for a second so that you the ambulance can find you. I know you don't want to leave his side, but you are gonna have to so that we can get him the help he needs." "Ok," Mimi said as a few more tears came out of her eyes. Mimi got her dogs leash and quickly ran to the curb to flag down the ambulance while she held the cell phone to her ear. Mimi led the medics to Tai's body. The four medics there quickly got the stretcher and lifted Tai on it. The fourth medic got ahold of Mimi as she saw her friend get lifted into the ambulance. "Miss," He began as he put a hand on her arm. "Do you know who the victim is?"

Mimi cried a bit more then responded, "Yes, he is Tai Kamiya, one of my friends." The medic quickly led her to the ambulance. "You are gonna have to come with us to the hospital, we need you to identify the victim and help us communicate the immediate family." Mimi slowly nodded as she held back a few more tears and got in the ambulance.

The medics ripped open Tai's shirt and started putting all sorts of wires and monitors on him. Another medic put an oxygen mask on his face. Mimi could only stare at the goings on. She got ahold of her dog Pinky, and just held it and cried into the animals fur. Mimi did not like Tai any more then as a friend, but he was still a friend nonetheless, and she wished deeply that it was someone else instead of Tai or any of her other friends that was lying helplessly on the stretcher, getting closer to death by the second. The ambulance arrived at the hospital five minutes later. He was taken out of the ambulance and rushed to the E.R. Mimi was able to follow him until she reached the door to the E.R. Then one of the nurses took Mimi's hand and led her to the waiting room where a police officer began to ask her a few questions.

"I'm sorry that you had to see all of that Miss." The officer began as he took out a note pad and pencil. He then introduced himself as Detective John Sazuki. Mimi noticed the detective had a calm, but tough look on his face, as if he too was disturbed when he heard about what took place, but stayed calm and didn't let his anger get in the way of him doing his job. "I need to ask you a few questions about what just happened and I need you to tell me every detail and give me as much information as possible." Mimi nodded and said "Ok, I will try to tell you as much as I remember, but I was so shocked and scared that I don't really remember much." "Whatever you can tell me is great help" The detective said as he got ready to ask the questions.

"Do you know the victim?" the man started asking. "Yes, he is a friend of mine, his name is Tai Kamiya and I can give you the number of his home." She then gave the detective the number and he forwarded it to the nurses so they could call his family. The detective then began asking more questions. "Was anyone else near the immediate area that seemed suspicious around the time you found the victim?" he asked. "No, No one was around, I was just taking my morning jog with my new dog here, and the dog went crazy around where Tai's body was." The detective nodded and wrote down everything she said. He asked her a few more questions, then when he finished, asked her if she needed an escort home. "No, I want to stay here until Tai's parents arrive." "I guess it's good that you are gonna stay, you have everything right, your job is done, now I need to find out who did this." The detective said as he got out a cell phone and called his superiors

Tai's family arrived a few minutes later, his mother was breaking down in tears, as well as his sister. Tai's father was holding a still sleepy Kari in one arm, as he held his worried and crying wife in the other. They both saw Mimi and quickly rushed to her to find out what was going on. "What did they do to my baby!!" Tai's mother desperately screamed as she got a hold of Mimi. Mimi calmly replied as she was filling in Tai's family on what happened. "I was jogging with my puppy pinky, when she went crazy around a group of trees and there I found Tai on the floor shot and bleeding." "Oh my god. . ." Tai's mom gasped as she began to cry on her husbands shoulder. "How could all this happen?" Mrs. Kamiya asked herself as she was breaking down. "He wasn't in any gangs, at least he didn't tell us anything about making new friends."

Mimi quickly broke in "Mrs. Kamiya, I know Tai, and he would never join any gangs, I think this was a different incident. I really do think it was something else that made this happen because I don't think Tai would have any other reason to go out so early unless he needed to help a friend. He might have been assaulted by some thug as well, I just don't know, what I do know it that Tai is NOT in a gang." She said with a strong and serious tone.

Tai's mother looked at the sternness in Mimi's face as she spoke. Tai's dad then spoke up. "Listen, Mimi" he began. "you have had a long morning so you should probably go home now before your parents get worried about you."

"I can't abandon a friend Mr. Kamiya," Mimi replied. "I want to stay here to find out how he is doing." Mr. Kamiya nodded but still said, "Mimi, you need to get some rest, I promise you that I will call you as soon as we hear anything new." Mimi gave up, nodded, called her family to come pick her up. The thirteen year old girl decided it would be good to go home anyway so she could call Matt, Sora, Izzy and Joe to tell them the bad news.

Two Hours Later. . .

Tai's condition had simply been getting worse by the second, and doctors were starting to fear the worst. All the digidestined kids where in the waiting room, all of them shocked by what Mimi had told them when she called. One of the E.R. doctors finally came out of the doors while looking at the floor, then slowly raising his head to deliver the bad news. "We have done all we could, Mr. and Mrs. Kamiya, I'm afraid he won't live past this afternoon." When everyone heard the news, they all started to cry. Matt however, cried more than everyone. He started shaking violently when he heard the bad news. "No!" he screamed at the doctor. "I know you can help him! There has to be something you can do!" Matt clutched the doctors uniform in desperation. "I'm very sorry" was all the doctor said as he lowered Matt's shaking arms off of him. "No god, please, no. . ." Matt whimpered quietly as he fell to his knees on the floor and started sobbing uncontrollably with his hands covering his face. "No no no no no no!" Matt kept repeating to himself as his friends started circling around him and comforting him.

"You can go inside to see him. . ." The doctor said as he led everyone to the room where Tai was. A few of the digidestined, including Matt, gasped as they saw how pale his complexion was. "He has lost too much blood" the doctor answered. "The bullet wound was fatal as well, his internal bleeding is uncontrollable, the bullet hit a vulnerable spot, if he is lucky he will have a few more hours left." "Not my baby! Please no!" Tai's mother went crazy as she ran to the form of her unconscious sons body. "No, god no. . ." she bawled as she hugged her sun, desperate to feel any kind of movement.

Matt couldn't bear to look at Tai like that. It was too much for him to bear. The blonde stormed out of the room, not holding back any more tears, Matt just wanted to escape, he just couldn't take it. Matt ran past a few hallways until he reached the hospital entrance and got out. He ran so viciously that he was totally out of breath by the time he reached the outside. Matt let himself break down in tears. He shook so much that he himself thought he had a seizure. Matt lay there for a while until he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up and saw Mimi with a very melancholy look on her face.

Mimi kneeled next to Matt and wiped a tear off his eye. "I couldn't believe it when I saw Tai shot on the ground like that, he was my friend as well," Matt stopped crying a bit and listened more to Mimi as she spoke. "Matt, Tai has always been there for us when we were in trouble, now he needs us, and we have to be there for him."

"Matt wiped off a few more tears and said "Mimi, I know I should be there, it's just that. . . I don't know, I just can't take it, I can't take seeing him so helpless. He's about to die and none of us can do anything to help him!" Matt started bawling again, Mimi brought his head to her shoulders as she tried to soothe him. "Matt," she began. "we need to see him once more if he is really going to die, you know it would be hard to live with yourself if you didn't get to say good bye." Matt slowly started to stand up as Mimi helped him. They both walked back to the room. Matt tried his best to not run away again at the sight of Tai on the hospital bed. It was a very terrible thing to witness. His breathing was very shallow, there was a longer than usual gap between the time he inhaled and exhaled. The heart monitors had such a weak signal, it looked like this was the end for Tai Kamiya.

Matt looked over at Tai's family. All of them totally destroyed over what took place. Then he saw Kari. She was breaking down completely. He thought about how sad he was when his parents divorced. At least he would still be able to see his mother and brother, but Kari, she was going to lose her brother and would never see, or hear from him ever again. He saw the fear in her eyes as she tried desperately to wake her brother up. Matt knew deep inside Tai would never wake, but there is always hope. . .

Matt finally walked over to Tai. Taking one deep breath, he sat on the chair next to Tai's bed, and took a hold of Tai's hand. For a second, it felt like Matt was all alone, it was just him, and Tai on the hospital bed. 'You can't die yet Tai!' Matt thought as he held his friends hand. 'You still have a sister to take of, you can't abandon her like this! You can't abandon me like this. . .' Matt was shaken back to reality as he felt Tai's hand squeeze back. "I just felt his hand move!" Matt screamed out excitedly. Everyone looked up in amazement as they heard him. Even the doctor was surprised by what he heard. Tai was very weak, only able to half- open his eyes. In a soft tone, he weakly said "Bye everyone." Then he let his grip on Matt's hand go as he closed his eyes. All of a sudden, the heart monitor gave that one long beep that signaled the end of human life. "NO!" Matt screamed as he held on to Tai's hand. "Please god! Not my brother!" Kari screamed as she hugged Tai's body on the hospital bed. All the doctor could do was check the pulse to confirm the death.

Tai's funeral took place inside a church two weeks later. The weather outside fit the emotion many were feeling. The hard rain beat down ever since last night. All the digidestined were there, along with their parents. Matt could only look on blankly as he saw Tai's body resting in the coffin. 'At least you are now finally in peace.' Matt thought. Every digidestined had been allowed to give a personal eulogy, and the first one to give it was Kari. Heartbroken over what happened; she was now standing by Tai's coffin, a few tears in her eyes as she saw her dead brother. No one could still believe that Tai was dead.

A few days earlier Matt even picked up the phone to call Tai's house when he remembered what happened. Of course, staying at home was all Matt had done during the days before the funeral. He just stayed in his bed, mainly because he literally hadn't slept ever since the day Tai died. It seems like Matt was so tired he kept ending up delirious. It seemed as if all sense of reality had escaped him. Even though he was tired but unable to sleep, Matt still went to the funeral anyway, just so he could his final farewell. Matt had even barely noticed it was his turn to say something. A bit disoriented, he got up and slowly started that walk over to Tai's coffin were he would speak. 'I still can't believe this,' Matt thought to himself as he neared the coffin. 'He just can't be dead, I know that when I get home I am gonna get that call from Tai telling me this was all just one big joke.' Matt did the best he could to lie to himself, but it didn't work.

He almost broke down totally and ran out of the church, but before he could, he felt a small hand clutch his. "Please don't run Matt" Kari said as Matt looked down and saw her. "Please give your eulogy Matt, we all know it's hard, but please, for Tai. . ." Kari got a bit teary-eyed as she finally let go of Matt's hand and walked over to her pew by her family. 'Cmon Matt' the blonde thought to himself as he built up the courage to continue. 'If Kari can do this, you definitely have too.'

He took one big breath and walked to the coffin. Matt had always heard stories about people looking so peaceful when they are dead, as if they were asleep. But Tai just looked dead. There was no peaceful look on his face, his eyes were just closed and he was just dead. With one last look at Tai, Matt turned around and faced all the people in the church. The families of the digidestined and lots of Tai's relatives came to the funeral. 'I have to do this' Matt concluded in his thoughts, 'for Tai.'.

"Tai was a good friend" Matt said in a strong tone. "He would always be there for his friends, and helped whenever he saw the need for it." Matt looked at the body in the coffin again. Even though the sight of Tai dead haunted Matt, it also seemed to give him the courage to go on. " I remember how much he helped us when we needed it. He never gave up on anyone, but in the end, someone had taken our friend away from us." Matt was getting an angrier tone. "How this monster could kill someone so full of life I will never know. I just . . ." Matt started to hold back tears as the hatred for whoever did this built up inside him. "I just wish that we were there for him. . ." A few tears escaped his eyes as he walked over and put a hand on the coffin. "I promise you Tai, we are gonna find the sick person who did this, you never deserved it."

Matt simply couldn't stand to think about the situation anymore and finished his eulogy quickly then walked back to his seat and broke down in tears just as he finished sitting down. The other digidestined kids came over to comfort him and eachother as well as they mourned the loss of their former leader. The funeral ended a little while later. Matt slowly walked out of the church and followed his dad to the car. Before he left the church, the other digidestined kids had pulled him aside for a second. "Matt," Izzy began as looked at the rest of the group for support. "We know this has hurt you especially hard seeing as how good friends you and Tai were. But you have to promise us you won't do anything crazy." "Yeah" Mimi agreed as he walked next to Izzy. "You can't let Tai's death get to you this much, you have to move on, please don't anything like contemplating suicide. I know you would try that. You have to learn that Tai is gone and none of us can do anything about it. All we can do is find the killer and move on. Matt, you can't end your life simply because Tai is dead."

"Simply because!?" Matt screamed as he pushed them aside. "How is Tai's death simple?!?! Don't you know what we all went through while he was suffering!? You careless. . ." Matt could not finish because by then, Sora had slapped Matt hard across the face. "How DARE you act like we don't care about Tai!" Sora screamed at Matt after she hit him. "Don't you know how much we are affected by this as well?!? And how dare you act like if you were the one who has seen the worst! Mimi was the one who found him bleeding to death on the fucking floor! But she isn't going as insane as you! We know you miss him. All of us do. But you have to learn to move on!"

That scene kept playing over and over inside Matt's head as his dad drove him home. "Matt," his father began when he saw how depressed Matt was looking. "If you want, I can get someone else to cover my assignment so you don't have to be alone this week." Matt shrugged off the idea. "No, it 's ok dad, I'll be ok, I just need some time for the reality to sink in is all." It didn't seem to convince Matt's dad but he didn't want to argue with his son about it so he just continued driving to the apartment.

3 days later. . .

Matt was still in his room, his dad had left for Australia the day after the funeral. He would be there for about a week, but said he would try to come home earlier. Matt was getting tired of just staying in bed and finally decided to get up and watch some t.v. There was nothing good on, but at least some of the news coverage of Tai's death had stopped. He was tired of hearing the same terrible news over and over again. Since the murder happened at the park, a few officers have been there for their shifts, making sure no shootings would happen there. 'It's all bullshit.' Matt thought as he put a video in the vcr. 'I know the killer only struck once, and Tai was meant to be killed. I know it just wasn't something random, Tai would never leave home so early to go outside, he would only leave if someone needed help.'

Matt began to watch the video sitting on the couch as he heard a knock on his door. "Who is it" Matt asked as he checked the peephole to see who it was. Matt was surprised when he saw it was a police officer standing outside his door. "This is the police, please open the door." Wondering what was going on, Matt opened the door and faced the officers. There were three of them, and it seemed they were looking for someone. "Are you Matt Ishida?" the officer asked as he examined the blonde. "uh, yeah, that's my name, what's going on? Why are you here?" The officer who knocked on the door nodded to the other and turned Matt around. "You are under arrest for the murder of one Tai Kamiya," "WHAT?!" Matt screamed in bewilderment as he was being handcuffed by the officer. "You have the right to remain silent," The officer continued as he finished handcuffing Matt. "Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law."

Matt was being led to a police car outside as he still didn't believe what was going on. "Is this some kind of sick joke?!" "You have the right to a lawyer" The officer continued as he put Matt in the patrol car, "If you cannot afford one then one will be appointed to you." "What the hell?!" Matt screamed out. "Im only 12?! What the fuck is going on?!" He kept yelling and kicking as the officer closed the door and got inside to drive off to the police station.

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A/n: Well, that's the end of chapter one, sorry I couldn't have finished sooner, but like I said, that virus raped my comp good and now I gotta start all over. I will be done with chapter 2 in about a week. Questions and comments can be e-mailed to quake3rox@aol.com I am now taking requests for Yamachi fics, so if ur one of those people who are too lazy to write you own fics like I use to be, send in ur yamachi fic request and I will write it up. WHY?!? BECAUSE I HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO!