BlackRenamon (Still crying on my shoulder)
Rika (Annoyed): Why is this big baby still balling over the last chapter.
Me (Just annoyed as Rika): I don't know, but it making it hard to write with him all over me.
Rika (Sighing): I know I'm going to regret this, but... (Pulls BlackRenamon off of me): ...then this stupid story well never gets done if its stupid writer is held up.
Me (Working shoulder muscles): Thanks, but don't think this well change anything.
Rika (Shrugging): Yeah, I'm not asking for any favor exact that you get your butt in gear.
Me (Grinning): Sure think your highness.
Shadows of the Past:
Chapter eight: Showdown in The Shadows
Matt and Rena stared at the house that was burning in shock. That lasted for about a split of a second and then the shadow fighter snapped back into reality and charged in. He jumped over the burning symbol of the Thunder Splats and ran towards the front door.
"RENA! CALL 911 AND TELL THEM WHAT GOING ON!!" Matt called to his friend and before she had a choice to reply, he went into the burning building.
The former fox finally decided to come out of her daze when she heard her friend's firm voice shout to her. She was tempted to go in after him, but after debiting the issue, she decided it was best to follow his orders.
Be safe, my friend and don't leave anyone behind, Rena thought hopefully to himself as she hurried to the nearest house to call for help.
(In the house)
"Gram! Gram, if you can hear me, please answers me!!" Matt called over the rage of the blazing inferno.
The shadow fighter surveyed his opinions as he tried to listen over the blaze of the fire. Sadly the sound of the fire drowned out any other sounds even for the acute hearing of the shadow fighter.
Sighing heavily, Matt once again went over his opinions. They were the door leading to the kitchen or the stairs leading the second floor. They both look bad because the fire had started to weaken the support and it looked like it was about to give away at any time.
Sighing again, Matt looked between the stairs and the kitchen door; unsure of which one he should take. Finally after a second of debiting, he decided to try the kitchen. He took one step in the kitchen when he suddenly got this strange feeling in the back of his head.
What's this I'm feeling? Matt wondered to himself as he looked in the direction of the stairs. It's like something is telling me to go for the stairs, but what is it?
Matt stared at the fleet of stairs, debiting weather or not to trust his guy feeling and try the stairs. He wrestled with all the possibility of both of his opinions. If he goes into the kitchen and get trapped, he had a better choice of getting out if there. But if there were no one in the kitchen, then he wouldn't be able to get to him or her in time.
"Screw this, I'm going with my gut," Matt told himself and dashed up the stairs as the flames around him grow more intense.
Matt's feet barely just touch the floor of the second story when giant piece of wood came lose and threatened to crush Matt, if he hadn't drove out of the way at the last moment.
I really hate to say this, but if it weren't for Kai, throwing all of these fire spells at me, I probably wouldn't have the guts to even try this, Matt thought as he rose to his feet and dusted himself off.
Matt once again began surveying his opinions again. There were four doors to choose from this time. There's door leading to his room, the door to his grandmother's room, Rena's room and the bathroom. And the fact that the smoke was making it hard to see and to breath really cut Matt's time in half.
Man this is really starting to bug me, Matt thought as he began coughing from the smoke.
He tore the right sleeve of his shirt of and tied it around his mouth. He then went back to his debiting of which door to take. After an another heart beat, he decided it was time to try calling to see if anyone was here.
"Gram! Gram, if you're here anywhere please talk to me!" Matt called of the rare of the flame.
Matt strained all of his hearing to see if he could pick up on anything and he was reward with the all to familiar yipping of one certain flame colored fox, coming from the direction of the bathroom. Suppressing all of his satisfaction, he quickly mode his way over to the bathroom door, which wasn't an easy task because of all the fire, but he made it nonetheless. He grabbed the doorknob and instantly regretted it because it nearly burned him. He quickly pulled his hand away and looked at the door with an irritated look slowly making it way onto his face.
"This is really starting to annoy me, big time," Matt muttered to himself as he tore off his other shirtsleeve and wrapped it around his slightly burned hand.
Getting into a ready position, Matt concentrated all of his strength onto the door and threw a punch at it with everything he had. The door flow off of it hitches from force of Matt's punch, leaving one very shocked shadow fighter.
Okay, that was something new, Matt thought as he relaxed his stance.
Matt quickly got over his shock and hurried into the room. The bathroom door was now in between the bathtub's sliding doors, but he was mainly focus on the figure spread out across the bathroom's floor. Matt quickly hurried to his grandmother's side, half in panic and half in fear. He checked her pulse and was relieved that he found one, though it was weak, but it was still there. Rika was on Sango's chest, coughing slightly from all the smoke that was coming in now.
Well now that I found them, how I am going to get them out, Matt wondered to himself. He then picked up her bridal style, carefully not to drop Rika and was amazed how light she was. Now this is really starting to freak me out. First I blow off the bathroom door and now I'm picking a woman at least twice my size and weight with little problem.
He decided to put all of these thoughts on hold for now and focus mainly on getting out of the burning house alive. Matt quickly lifted the bathroom and headed towards his grandmother's room. He remember that Sango's room faces the front, so it was the best choice he had of getting out of there with all of their skins.
Turning so the shoulder opposite of his grandmother's head, Matt plowed through the door and into Sango's room. Surprisingly the flames haven't touched this area yet and Matt was thankful for it. He went straight for the window without a moment hesitation. He bent his head down to shield Sango and plowed right through the window.
(...)
Rena waited outside of the burning building after calling for help, tipping her foot impatiently. She was worried for her friend and his grandmother, but she was more worried about her cursed partner.
What's taking them so long? If I was Renamon, I could have easily got in and got out by now, Rena thought in half irritation, half panic.
The former digimon began pacing fiercely in front of the house as she kept her eyes peeled between the house and the streets in hope that either the help she called for was coming or if Matt was going to come out. She was getting more worried with each passing moment and it didn't help that the fire was starting to get out of hand. Finally she snapped and was about to rush in when she heard the faint sounds of sirens.
Running out into the street, Rena could barely make out the faint glow of the lights that belonged to the police, the fire department and the ambulance. When the disguised fox saw them, she began jumping up and down with her hands waving in the air, all with a big relived smile on her face.
"Hey! Over here!!" Rena shouted it out as loud as she could.
The group of vehicles raced up to her and their passengers got out. Firemen and women hurried to the closest hydrant, while the paramedics waited by for the fire fighters got the victims out of burning building.
"What happened here?" a police officer calmly asked Rena as he walked up to her.
"I really don't know!" Rena answered with a fake panicky voice. "My cousin and myself were meeting a friend at the park and when we got back here, my cousin's grandmother's house was on fire!"
"Any ideas as to who might have done this?" the cop asked calmly as he began taking down notes.
"Not really, but maybe that burning thing in front of the house may help," Rena replied, once again putting on her panicky human act and pointed at the burning Thunder Splat symbol.
The police looked in the direction of Rena pointing finger and when frown when he saw the burning Splat symbol.
"That's jerks again," he muttered in a cold tone.
Rena was actually slightly surprised by that little bit of news. "You knew about the Thunder Splats?"
The cop nodded as he continued to read things down. "Yeah, these jerks muscled their way into this place about a few years ago and do these sort of things when they went to strike fear into someone. Yeah it's a real shame how many lives were lost because of this little stunt." The cops muttered the last time to himself, but Rena heard it anyways.
The disguised fox looked at the burning building, a new feeling she have never experienced as Renamon, swallowing up in her. She was over come with a sense of doubt that her friend and future father of her cursed tamer might not make out.
No, no, NO! Rena shocked her head violently to rid herself of all of her negative thoughts. You can't think like this Renamon. You most remember, he's Matthew Smith, the shadow fighter after all, he can handle anything like he daughter.
But as she stared down that blazing inferno of hate, she couldn't stop that feeling of doubt from growing or could she stop thinking about the worse either.
The fire fighters finally got everything ready and ran up to the house with their giant hose in hand. They aimed it at the house and were about to release the water onto it when suddenly a figure busted through the window on the seconds floor, stunning everyone in the area. The figure soared through the air and landed next to the shocked firefighters with the grace of a feather.
Matt lifted his head up and looked around at all shocked faces. He shrugged it off and walked up to paramedics like it was nothing. He gently handed his grandmother to a friend of Sango and began walking away. But before he could get even two steps away from the ambulance, everything from earlier finally caught up with the boy and he collapsed to the ground, unconscious before he even hit it.
"Matt!" Rena screamed as she hurried to her friends, but was stopped by the paramedics.
"Sorry ma'am, but your friend could be in a serious condensation and it could be dangerous to have someone untrained to handle him," a man in his early 20s said calmly.
"But I'm his cousin!" Rena screamed in the man face, the panic in her voice real this time.
"Then you can come with us and answered a few questions," the man stated as his teammates loaded Matt and Sango onto the blue and white vehicle. The man helped Rena onto vehicle as he began asking questions.
(Later...At the hospital)
Rena waited in one the waiting room of the hospital, a slight look of concern on her face. She was in a chair that faced that window and she currently looking down from the 16th floor while petting Rika's cleaned fur just like Matt would to Rumiko. She knew from past experienced from being a digimon herself, that Rika was going be okay and since she seemed so concerned about her during the trip to the hospital, one of the personal was kind enough to check Rika out and she was just fine, which relived the fox greatly, but that just meant that she had more time worry about Matt and his grandmother.
The former digimon would take long glaze over to the hallway in hopes of at least seeing any sighs of her friend, but sadly nothing appear. When she would heard footsteps coming her way, she would snapped her head up, waiting to see if it was Matt with any news about his grandmother, but much to her dismay, it wouldn't be him, just someone else. Finally after doing this for about half of an hour, Rena sunk into the chair slightly and closed her eyes, falling into a deep, dreamed filled sleep.
Rena awoke some time later to unique scene. Rika was quieting sipping away at some soda in a cigarette tray, while her father to be was sitting to Rena's right, rolling the empty can of root beer in his hands. Matt's eyes have this far off glare and were looking past the can instead of at it. Rena righted herself and slowly reached out to touch her friend's shoulder.
"You know," Matt said softly, causing Rena to halt in her tracks and looked at him curiously. "I always looked at my grandmother like she some kind of angel, no matter what was wrong with her, she would help others and now here she is again, all because, all because..."
Tears began walling up in Matt's eyes as he face became set in anger. He took the can into his tattooed hand and crushed it, slowly. He stood from chair and tossed the crushed can into the trashcan on the other side of the room. He retook his seat and clutched his fist tightly in anger.
Rena watched the entire scene, understanding what he was going through from his actions more then from his words. She knew he was suffering because of what the Thunder Splat did to his grandmother, but what made the whole thing worse was the fact that Matt, himself had caused all of this because he invoked the gang by fighting with their members for so long.
You caused all of this because you fought their gang member to relive stress from your life, Rena completed her friend's sentence in her head and let out a heavy sigh.
She looked at her "cousin" to see if she notice any other changes in his appearance and notice a few things she missed early. The most noticeable thing about Matt was that he was now wearing black jeans with cargo pockets. He was also wearing black low tops with neo blue streaks on them. His shirt was white tee had a big black arrow pointing up, under a slightly wore out black leather jacket.
The idea of where Matt got those clothes from slipped from Rena's mind as she looked at Matt's eyes. The anger that he kept hidden from the world for untold years, an anger that had nearly disappeared after meeting a certain blonde feline with unnatural blue eyes had returned with a vengeance and was burning greater then ever. It scared Rena a little, that a person could go through such a change in such a short amount of time.
"So what did the doctor say about you?" Rena asked in admit to change the mood.
Matt looked at his friend with such a piercing glare; that it could even chill the more harden person to the bone.
"They said my lungs were not to bad because I wasn't in the smoke for to long and the only reason I passed out was because of that fresh air rushing into my lung," Matt spoke in such an icy voice that it made Rika's voice sound like a barrel of sunshine.
Rena gulped down a nervous weed of spit and couldn't help but feel a tiny hint of fear rise up in her as she looked away from Matt's piercing eyes. She inched away as much as possible from those piercing violet colored eyes.
Matt continued to stare at Rena with his piercing glare, but that soon got boring and he just decided to let his friend off the hook. He looked forward and rested his head on his seat and went back to staring off into space.
Hours seemed too past as the two fighters wait for any word on Sango. There was a thick uneasiness in the air as they waited. Matt was just staring off into space the entire time, while Rena was trying her hardest to not stare at her friend worryingly, but she would take a quick glaze every now and then, but would quickly look away when he would catch her staring. Finally after what seemed like ages, someone came up to the two uneasy fighters and Matt immediately got to his feet.
"Dr. Akechi, please tell me how my grandmother is doing?" the shadow fighter asked in a worried voice instead of his icy voice.
Dr. Samuel Akechi was a man in his late 20thies, looked at the young man before him with sympathy shining in his forest greens eyes and shock his head.
"I really don't know how to tell this to you, Matt," the doctor said in doubt.
"Please dr., you have nearly known me all my life, so just tell me out straight," Matt said calmly, but Rena did detect a slight note of pleading in her friend's voice.
The doctor sigh heavily and looked at his clip broad, deciding of how to tell a person he concerned a son this bad news. He looked at the boy with the pleading eyes surrounded in a firm face and just decided to come out with it, even though he knew that Matt could hurt me badly.
Sighing once more, Dr. Akechi, looked Matt squarely in the eyes and said," as you know, your grandmother went under the knife about six mouth ago." Matt nodded and the doctor sigh once again," But what you main not know is that the operation want a little bad and your grandmother was lift was a extremely weak heart."
"Doctor, can you please stop beating around the bush and just tell me," Matt said, his voice becoming slightly demanded.
"Matt, your grandmother heart gave out while on the way here," the doctor said sorrowfully.
"What?" Matt gasped as he eyes went wider then ever before.
"Does that mean that Sango's..."
"No, ma'am," the doctor said quickly, interrupting Rena. "The people on the scene were able to bring her back and stabilized her until they got her here, but now it's going to be touch and go for a while and we're really not sure if she's going to be through, but then again I have known Sango to be a touch old bat just like her grandson."
The last part of the sentence was support to be reassuring, but the one it was aimed at was to wrap up in his thoughts to even hear it. Matt's knees suddenly went weak and took a seat before they gave out on him.
"I knew, she was in bad shape, but I would never thought it was this bad," he muttered to himself.
The doctor seemed slightly surprised by this," You mean you didn't know that, your grandmother was taking pills to help her because when we questioned this young lady here, she told us anything about Sango."
Matt looked at his so-called friend in shock. Rena begin getting scared as she watched the shock in Matt's eye slowly replaced with angry. She was about to bolt when Matt leapt from his seat and pinned Rena to the ground in the blink of an eyes. He also grabbed her right arm and twisted it painfully behind her.
"YOU KNEW AND YOU DIDN'T TELL ME!!" Matt screamed right in his friend's ear.
"Matt I don't think this is really need at this time," Dr. Akechi said calmly, taking a step towards the fighting pair.
"YOU STAY OUT OF THIS!!" Matt barked at the doctor.
"Right," Dr. Akechi said, slightly nervous and took a few steps back.
"Now," Matt turned his attention back to his so-called friend with great anger burning in his eyes. "Now how long did you know about my grandmother? TELL ME!!"
He twisted Rena's arm more and the disguised fox groan slightly from the pain she was receiving.
"Now if you don't tell me, there's going to be one more person in this hospital," Matt spoke in such an icy, angry voice that it made even the most evil of being look like a puppy and to ad to the threat, tightened his grip on Rena's wrist.
"Even since, Rika and myself came to live with you and your grandmother," Rena finally replied, her voice murmured because of her face being pushed against the rug.
The anger on Matt's face deepened as he released Rena and got off of her. The former digimon turned onto her back as she rubbed her sore wrist. She looked up at her friend with a mix of fear and shock on her face. Matt looked around the room and most everyone there was looking at him in the same way, even Rika, wore similar emotions on her fox-like face.
Matt scowled at them all and turned his nose up. Shaving his hands in his jacket pockets, he turned to the door and walked out of the waiting room in his usual walk.
Rena got to her foot, her sore wrist forgotten and was about to follow her friend when this mysterious voice seemed to ring in her ear.
"Leave the boy along."
Rena stopped die in her tracks and looked other the room, trying to pinpoint the source of the voice, but most of the people in the room had already gone back to their things and Dr. Akechi was leaving. So she had to ask herself, who just spoke to her?
"Leave the boy," The eerie voice once again spoke in Rena's ear, causing her to tense up. "This is something the boy need to do along."
With that said, the mysterious voice seemed to die in the air, leaving Rena even more confused them before and curious.
(With Matt)
The shadow fighter, wondered the unfamiliar streets with no true destination in mind, just aimless wondering. Though he body was wondering, his mind was struck on one thing. He was still thinking about the betrayal that one of his only friends had committed on him.
Why? Why did she keep that from me? For some reason, Matt found himself confused from this whole thing and it only added to his anger. Why? Why did she keep something so important from me this entire time?
He continued to wonder, while trying to piece this entire confusing thing together, but with little or no luck. He wondered from about an hour until his anger and frustration finally exploded in him.
"WHY DID SHE KEEP THAT FROM ME!!" Matt screamed and threw a punch with all of his might at a nearby light post.
The light post would have fallen straight on top of Matt's head, if he didn't sidestep to the left and continued on with his aimless wondering. After another hour of wondering, Matt decided it was time to head back to the hospital. But soon he found out that he was lost and with no clear way back to the hospital.
"That's just great," Matt muttered to himself angrily. "Why do things like this always seem to happen to me?"
The air in Matt's area suddenly dropped and Matt knew what was coming next. He watched in annoyance as the ghost of his grandfather appeared in front of him.
"Because you cause all of your pain and suffering and now those feelings are spreading to those you care deeply for," Souta answered Matt's question and pointed a finger at the young man.
Matt's annoyance grown and he just decided he wasn't up for this at the moment.
"Listen you wind bag of a ghost, I'm really not in the mood for you, so just go away or whatever ghost do," Matt said angrily and began walking away in the opposite direction of his grandfather's ghost.
The ghost of Souta watch as his grandson walked away with his stern look never wavering. He disappeared from sight and reappeared in front of his grandson. Matt just looked at the ghost in annoyance and walked right through him. Once again, the ghost disappeared, but this time he appeared beside his grandson and began walking with him. This only strengthened Matt's annoyance and he picked up his pace and Souta kept right up with him. They continued with this little game for a while, before Matt's annoyance finally reached it peek.
He stopped suddenly and looked the ghost of his grandfather straight in the eye and asked in a loud angrily voice," WHY WOULDN'T JUST LEAVE ME ALONG, YOU WIND BAG OF A GHOST!!!!"
The ghost wasn't phased by his grandson's outburst and replied in his calm, stern voice," I would only leave you along once you proven yourself worthy of the shadow powers."
"YOU MEAN THIS?" Matt screamed and held up his tattooed hand. "I HAVE THIS FOR NEARLY TEN YEARS, SO WANT DO I NEED TO PROVE????"
"You may have the tattoo, but you must prove yourself that your ready for its power," the ghost explained.
Well that was the lat strain for Matt; his anger finally exploded and before he realized what he was doing lunged at the ghost of his grandfather. Naturally, he past right through the ghost's body, causing it to break apart and reform seconds later. Matt landed on his hand and knees and got up, but kept his back to his grandfather's ghost. For the longest time the two kept their backs to each other, which would be strange if anyone saw it, because they would only see a young man and not the ghost. Finally Matt got bored by all of his this and he sighed.
Matt turned around and stared at his grandfather's ghost's back. "What do you want from me?" he asked in a slightly defeated voice.
"Why are you?" the ghost asked without looking at Matt.
Matt wanted to roar with all of his might when he heard that sentence. He hates it when this happened and decided to voice it too.
"Why do you always have to ask me that stupid question?"
Souta ignored his grandson's question and instead repeated his question," Who are you?"
Sighing heavily, Matt just decided to roll along with this whole thing. "I'm Matthew Smith."
"What are you? The ghost asked.
Matt sigh again before answering," I'm the shadow fighter."
"What is your purpose?"
"My purpose?" for once Matt didn't know how to answer that question, even though he knew that question was coming. He stood there for the longest time, thinking about his purpose. In the past when he was asked that question, he would answer without hesitation. So why did he feel uneasy about it now?
"What is your purpose?" the ghost asked, his voice taking on a slight level of demanded.
Matt looked the ghost of his grandfather straight in the eye and spoke in a clear firm voice," My purpose is to protect the people from within the shadows."
"But why?" the ghost asked and eagerly waited for his grandson to reply
. "Why?" Matt repeated to himself, more then anyone else. Once again he found himself feeling uneasy about answering that question, but he didn't want the windbag of ghost to get edgy again. So he looked his grandfather right in the eye and spoke firmly," Why, because it's who I am. I am Matthew Smith, the shadow fighter and it's my destiny to protect people in the light from within the shadows."
The ghost of Matt's grandfather seemed satisfied with that answer, turned his back to his grandson and looked over his shoulder at him. "One of these days, you will speak those words with true passion in your voice and on that day I can finally rest." With that said, Souta began walking away, fading away to into the darkness in the process.
"That would be the day pigs flies and a big yellow fox is standing next to me," Matt muttered sarcastically to the air.
He turned around and shaved his hands into his jackets pockets as he began looking around. Once he was sure of his bearing, he was about to head back to the hospital when he spotted three teenagers about three years older then himself and was looking a little buzzed. But that little fact want unnoticed by the shadow fighter as a boy with flat top hair, spun around and he got a clear view of the Thunder Splat logo on the boy's back.
Of course, Matt's rage return in full when he saw that logo and he did his shadow walking technique to get in front of the buzzed boys. The boys in their part didn't even think a boy appearing in front of them out of thin air was no big deal at all. One boy even offered his bottle of boos to Matt and he knocked it away in disgusted.
"Hey, man, relax this is a party, no need to get rough, unless it's with the ladies," the man in the middle said cheerfully and took a big gulp of it drink.
Matt looked at each of the boys in disgust and delivered a hard roundhouse kick to each of the boys. The Thunder Splats fell hard to the ground and two out of the three were knock unconscious in the process. Matt grabbed the only conscious member lifted, which happened to be the boy who first offered him a drink and lifted him close to his face.
"Now, you do you happened to know where the headquarter of your gang is?" Matt asked in a low, angry voice.
The boy, even with his buzz, still knew when something bad was about to happen to him and nodded.
"Good," Matt let a dark, almost evil smile beam on his face. "Now if you don't tell where is it, I'm going to gave you something a whole lot worse then a simple hangover, got it?"
Again the gangster nodded and that only caused Matt to grin more.
"Good. Now start talking."
(At the hospital)
Rena paced around the waiting room, nervously. She would glaze at the clock hanging on the wall to her right and saw the time. Three hours. Matt had nearly been gone for three hours and there was still no word on Sango yet. Tarring her eyes away from the object that was only adding to her worry, she resumed her pacing, but she could her eyes off the blast thing for more then five minutes at a times. Finally about five minutes later, the disguised fox let out a mold roar of frustration and angst and she plopped herself back in the seat she was seated in earlier. She looked at her cursed tamer, sleeping in a peaceful bliss and she let out another sigh, but this one was in exhaustion instead of anger.
To be young and foolish again like Rika, great now I'm thinking like a human. I need to get out of this time...fast; Rena leaned her head back against the head of her chair and closed her eyes.
She tried to let all of the day's tension slip off of her shoulder like she used to, but try as she meant, she can't let go of memory of the anger and betrayal in her friend's eyes. It pained her to the core to see those two emotions in a person she had grown to love like family, so close together. But what made everything worse was those emotions were aimed right at Rena's head and it seemed to cut her in half.
Sighing, Rena opened her eyes and stared up at the ceiling. Her mind was ablaze with confusing and almost haunting thoughts. She was still trying to put all of her uneasiness behind her like she used to as Renamon, but just couldn't with the human body and it emotions were running wild. She actually found herself, growing more worried with each passing second. Sighing heavily, she got out of her seat and resumed her pacing, hoping it would calm her nerves.
Did I do the right thing by keeping Matt's grandmother's secret from him? Rena wondered to herself. I mean she asked me not to tell Matt and beside I have great respect for elders.
The more she thought about the more confused she became. So she retook her seat and tried her hardest to relax, but she just couldn't take her mind off of the whole situation. She suddenly felt a big gust of wind rush passed her and she looked to her right, expecting to see her friend, but the seat was empty. She looked to her other side and saw nothing. Looking up, she saw Matt, staring at her with a piercing glare, hidden in his violet colored eyes.
"Has there been any word on my grandma?" he asked in an icy voice.
Rena needed to gulp down a big weed of split that had jumped it's way into her throat when she heard his voice, and shock her head timidly.
"Then I want you to stay here, while I go and take care of some business," Matt said icily and turned to leave.
Rena came to her senses before Matt left and quickly got to her feet, banning the table in the process. Rika woke up slightly because of the table shacking and looked up at the unique scene. Rena was holding onto Matt's wrist and the shadow fighter was sending a glare her way that could make Rika look like nothing, but a puppy with sad eyes. The cursed tamer shrugged it off and went back to sleep.
"Please Matt, tell me what's so important that you can't stay here and wait for word on her, yourself?" Rena asked in a firm voice.
Matt looked away from his friend and she knew instantly what he had in mind and it scared her greatly.
"Matt, you're not planning on going to face the Thunder Splats, are you?" Rena asked, a note of panic working its way into her voice.
Matt still refused to talk; instead he pulled his hand free and began running away as he shoved his hands in his jacket pocket. Anger rose inside of Rena, but she quickly pushed it back down as she hurried after Matt. She got in front of him just as he reached the door and held out her arms at her sides.
"Matt, tell me why it's so important to take your revenge when your grandmother could die anytime?" Rena half demanded, half screamed.
"You never understand why," Matt said in a hush whisper and pushed pass Rena.
Rena watched as Matt left the waiting room and this time couldn't stop her anger from exploding. She ran out of the room and screamed at Matt," MAYBE I WOULD UNDERSTAND IF YOU TELL ME!!!"
Matt stopped die in his tracks and hanged his head. He tightened his fist and body began shacking slightly. Rena notice this and became curious by her friend's sudden change. She walked up to Matt and placed a comforting hand on his hand, only to have him jerk away from it.
"Matt, please just tell me, I would understand," Rena said softly, trying to look at his face, only to have him pull away from her eyes.
"That's the thing, you'll never understand," Matt replied in a hush, solemn voice.
"Just try me, please," Rena asked in a pleading whisper.
Matt considered that for a minute and decided to tell her just to get her off of his back. He looked Rena squarely in the eye and for once, Rena saw emotions that she never seen in her friend's voice. His eyes seemed so tired and older then he was and were mixed with something that resemble remembrance
"When my parents died that fateful night in the blazing inferno of their car, I was there, watching the entire thing," Matt spoke in a solemn voice. "When the paramedics came, they told me it was going be okay, but I knew, even though I was five, I knew that it they were gone forever."
Sighing, Matt walked up to a window and passed his hand firmly against the cold glass. "For six hours I waited in a room like the one we're just in, crying my heart out. The doctors and nurses that past me, all gave me false reassurance and I could see through them."
Sighing again, he repositioned himself, so his back was against the window and he was looking out the window from over his left shoulder. "Then they came, my grandparents. They were the first sincere ones that also knew the truth and didn't try to hide it from me. They took me away from all I knew to some place new, to start clear and then the training began. Days after days of hard training, slowly changed me into a person I truly didn't want to be, but I still couldn't hate my grandfather because he was still a good man. Then when he died, I shed no tears, though I want too."
Sighing once again, only this time it was heavier, he pushed himself off the window. He looked out the window once more and looked out it for the longest time. Rena waited patiently for her friend to continue on with his painfully story on his own. Finally what seemed like a lifetime, Matt spoke.
"From that point on, I thought I was dry, unable to shed another tear, but when I held Rumiko's drying feline body, I felt these dry eyes watering once again and thought maybe I wasn't done crying just yet. And now, that my only family member is probably under the knife, those tears are again refusing to come. So I'm guess what I'm saying is I can't stand waiting rooms because they remained me of what I lost. But I want to ask, you Rena Kamiya..." Matt looked his friend squarely in the eye with uncertainty in his own eyes. "...What am I?"
"I..." hesitating, Rena looked around the room, hoping to found the answer she was seeking. Not finding what she was looking for, she returned her eyes to Matt's and decided to spoke her heart. "I honestly don't know. I used to think that you can only find yourself by yourself, but during my travels, I meat some people who change all of that. I now believe that, you don't have to face things alone and with friends by your side, everything is possible."
By the time, Rena was finished with her little speech; Matt was leaning against the window with his hands once again shoved in his jacket. He seemed to be thinking over, Rena's words over carefully. But after a minute of it, just shrugged it off and pushed off of the window.
"That's would always by the bar that will set you and me apart," Matt said calmly. "Stay here and look after my grandmother."
With that said, the shadow fighter walked away, his shoes echoing in his wake. Rena watched at her friend's retreating form and decided right then and there to stay by his side, like she did with his future daughter during her rough times. Turning back to the waiting room, Rena needed to have a little chat with the said cursed tamer before hurrying after her friend.
(...)
"Can I ask, why are you here?" Matt asked his companion without taking his attention away from what he was staring at.
Rena lightly shrugged her shoulders and spoke in a lay back voice," Hey someone have to watch your back and are you sure this is the place?"
Matt turned his eyes to look at his companion with a half of a glare, but the disguised fox thankfully missed it. She was to busy eyeing the building in front of them, suspiciously. The shadow fighter returned his eyes to the building before and began studying it himself.
It was one of those old style warehouses/packing plants from the late 60thies with a smoke pipe and everything. The building was a complete wreck, with paint chipping and roof titles giving away. Some windows were broken and old newspaper was flying around in the light night wind. But what stood out the most was the green and red outline Thunder Splat's logo on the front of the building. It was just one of many warehouses of the old warehouse complex that looked ready to be tore down.
"I once heard a rumor that this building and many other around here that was support to be tore down about two years ago, but it never happened, instead some say they saw loading trucks with fresh building martial, late at night coming here," Matt said in a lazy voice.
"And what does that have to do with us?" Rena asked, placing her hands on her hips like Rika's does when she wants to be threatening.
Matt grin casually and shrug lightly as he said," Nothing, just thought it would build up the drama that's all."
He then walked up into the plant's grounds, leaving his partner behind. Rena have a mixed of pout and anger on her face as she stormed her way onto the grounds.
Here I used to wonder at times were Rika got her sarcasm from, she thought a little angrily.
As the two began looking around the area for anything suspicious, a Thunder Splat position himself in one of the top windows, facing the fighters and readied a sniper gun. Loading the gun, he positioned it on the window frame and looked into the scope. Once he had a lock-on on Matt's head, he allowed a grin to spread across his face and he pulled the triggers. The bullet want flying straight towards Matt's head, but before hitting, he kicked up a large piece of large pavement and it took the bullet. The pavement exploded apart, but Matt wasn't behind it, leaving one very confused gangster.
"Looking for me punk?" an eerie calm voice said from behind the gangster.
Startled, the gangster spun around and stared into the violet colored eyes of his target. He dropped his gun and was about to run when Matt punched him in the face. The gangster fell out of the window and was caught by Rena. Looking at her friend, she notice that there was a coldness coming off of his eyes as he jumped from the window and landed in front of her. She quickly shook it off and looked at Matt with a shape glare.
"You know, you could have really hurt him with that little stunt if I wasn't there to catch him," she said in sharp tone.
"How did you know I didn't want to that to happen," Matt stated in a plain cold voice and turned towards the building.
Rena couldn't stop the shiver that sourced down her spine when Matt used that tone. She hated to admit this, but at the moment, Matt was scarier then even his daughter when Rena first meant her. She set the guy down and quickly looked him over for injuries. Say for the broken nose, the guy was basically fine. Sighing in relief, she hurried into the building, hoping that Matt wasn't in a kind of danger.
"Take this you punk!" Matt screamed as he dropped from the sky and planted his foot onto a gang member face.
He jumped off of his last victim and lunged for another Thunder Splat on his right. The gangster in a fruitless attempt to fight back threw a punch, only to have Matt dodge to the right and delivered a devastating punch to the guy's ribs. Rena winced and turned her head in disgust when she thought she heard some bones breaking. When she next opened her eyes, she saw that Matt had nearly beaten all the Thunder Splat and was giving the only conscious member a mean game of 20 questions. Sensing danger, Rena quickly ran up to her friend and grabbed him by his shoulders.
"Matt! You scared this guy well enough by beating his friends into ground," Rena said, trying to reason with her friend.
Matt easily broke free from Rena's grasp and sent her a piercing glare that caused the usually stonewalled digimon to step back in fear. He looked back at the frightened Thunder Splat and spoke in that eerie calm voice.
"Now listen here, I want to know where you boss is and I want to know."
The gangster gulped down nervously and with a trembling hand, pointed to back of the plant. "H-H-He's in t-t-the back r-r-r-room."
"Thanks," Matt said coldly and turned towards the door.
The boy was in some much shock over everything that happened that he fainted. Rena watched as Matt slowly made his way to the door, being on the alert for any more trips that gang might have set out. Sighing, she quickly hurried after her friend and future parent to her cursed tamer.
Will you let your rage control you over something that you had a hand in making? Rena wondered.
Matt examined the door; looking to see if anything was going to jump out at him, while Rena notice how the wall seemed so new, so out of place with the rest of the building. Once he was sure the door was safe, he grabbed the knob and slowly opened the door. Looking into the room, he saw nothing out of the ordinary and stepped into the room. Rena was close behind him and look over the room. For what she was able to gather was, that the room must had once been part of the shipping area, only now it had been redone and turned into what appeared to be a part quarters of some kinds. In front of the fighters was a small seating area with a couch and couple of chairs. To the left of that was a punching bag and to the bag's right was a small icebox.
"You'll think with all the money these gangs get, they could get themselves a better hide out then an old warehouse," Matt said, making one of his dry jokes.
"True, but I always like place like this because its can set the fear in person off, just like I can," a collected voice said from the seating area.
The two fighters snapped to attention when they heard that voice and waited for its owner to show himself. There was movement from the couch and then a figure stepped into the fighters' view.
He was man about mid 30thies, wearing black sweatpants, a black tank top under a well-kept brown leather jacket. His brown, blondish hair was cut so short, some would say, he was bold. His stone gray eyes had lust for a good fight and had piercing feeling to them.
"You're the big wig around here?" Matt asked, his piercing glare meeting his opponent's.
"Yes. I'm Yugi Thunder, leading and founder of the great and powerful Thunder Splats," Yugi said, wearing a smooth over smile.
"Humph, well at least we know were you get the name Thunder Splats from," Matt said cold sarcasm.
"Oh Thunder isn't my real last name, I just decided that my last name sounded too weak for a leader of a powerfully gang such as my," Yugi's smile faded away and slight anger frown replaced it. "A gang who reputation you have nearly ran into the dirt."
Matt shrugged and said lightly," Hey it isn't my fault that half of your guys are weak and don't know how throw a punch. Now are we here to fight or just to become good buddies or something like that?"
"Humph, wanting a quicker death, I see," Yugi took off his leather jacket and took out a roll of bandages from one of his jacket's pockets. Throwing the jacket aside, he bandaged all his arms and hands and got into the classic boxing stance.
"We'll see who beat who?" Matt said as he also removed his jacket. "Rena I want for you to stay out of this, got it?"
"I got it," Rena said calmly, though she was screaming her mind off at her friend's reckless.
Matt didn't acknowledge his friend's words as he threw his leather jacket away and walked up to the center of the room. Yugi took his sweet time joining the shadow fighter in the center of the room and that slightly ticked off Matt. The two got into their respecting stances and Matt wasted no time in attacking. He jumped up and tried to bring his foot down on Yugi's face, only to have the Thunder Splat's leader catch him by his ankle and toss him into the couch. Matt quickly jumped to his feet and lunged at Yugi. He threw a punch and Yugi dodged to the right, grabbing Matt by the wrist in the process. Getting behind the shadow fighter, Yugi twisted his arm painfully behind him.
"Did I forget to tell you that I'm a master of kickboxing and know some grasping moves too?" Yugi asked with a smug grin plastered on his voice.
"Yeah, you lift out that," Matt said, his voice tight with pain. "But then again, I'm not without my little secrets either."
Pushing off the ground with his foot, Matt threw all of his weight onto his opponent, causing him to become unbalance. Yugi tried to mention his footing, but just couldn't and tripped, falling onto his back with all of Matt's weight knocking the wind out of him. Matt quickly jumped off of his opponent and Yugi slowly worked his way back to his feet, giving himself some time to get his second wind. When he looked up again, he found his opponent gone. He angrily looked around the room, but couldn't find his opponent anywhere.
"Looking for me?" an eerie calm voice asked and Yugi felt an icy breath running down his spine, causing him to shiver slightly.
Turning around slowly, Yugi was meant was the shadow fighter's haunting, piercing glare. His eyes widened as he actually took a step back in fear from those ghostly eyes.
How did he just do that? Yugi wondered to himself in a slight panic. How did he get behind me so fast? Just calm down Yugi, he's just missing with your head, so I think it's time you missed with his head.
Yugi sent the shadow fighter a cold grin and there was some kind of glint in his eyes. From that look, Rena had a feeling something bed was about to happen. She just hoped that Matt was able to hold off anything that the leader of the Thunder Splat could dash out.
"So Smith how your grandmother doing?" Yugi asked in a smug voice.
"None of your business," Matt answered in a float voice and resumed his fighting stance.
"Really, well I just thought your grandmother was under the knife now after that whole thing I put her through," Yugi said as he also resumed his stance.
"What?" Matt asked, his voice rising slightly.
"I was there when my gang sent that old bat house on fire," Yugi looked to see if his touting was getting under Matt's skin and was glad when he saw several sigh that it was working. "You know, the old bat was just sitting on her front porch, petting a freak of a fox when my gang rode up to her place. In fear, she took the fox in her arms and ran into the house. We then put our wooden logo in front of the house and tired a gas soaked rope around it, leading to your front porch and lit it. The old bat never knew what was going on until it was too late. But I do have to say, she does have a nice set of lungs."
"Shut up! Shut up! Shuuuuutt UUUUPPP!! Matt blindly threw himself at Yugi and threw a punch.
Yugi easily dodged the punch and delivered an uppercut to Matt's chin. Matt quickly recoiled from the blow and began blindingly throwing punches, which Yugi dodged without effort. He began moving backwards until he was back up against a wall, but he didn't look worried as Matt threw a punch his way. Yugi easily dodged the punch and jumped over the shadow fighter. Landing behind him, Yugi got Matt's head in a lock and tossed him back into the center of the room. Ignoring the pain shooting through his entire body, Matt leapt to his feet and threw himself at Yugi again.
From the sidelines, Rena watched as her friend threw himself at his opponent and began another useless assault. She knew what was happening and she didn't like it one bit.
Yugi has gotten inside Matt's head and clouded his thinking, I only hope Matt could come to his sense in time, Rena thought a little worryingly.
"HIIAAAHH!!" Matt jumped over his opponent and tried to plant his foot into Yugi's skull, only to end up early, expect this time, he was thrown into a wall. Having wore himself out with all of these useless attacks; Matt struggled to get back to his feet.
I don't get it! Matt thought angrily. I have the power and the skull so why is he taking me apart.
"Because your head's just isn't in the game," the voice of his grandfather whispered in his ear.
"I'm really not in the mood for you, old man," Matt muttered to the air.
"But you can't win in the state you're in now," the voice said.
"Then what would you have me do?" Matt asked.
"Clear your head and remember your training," the voice replied and faded into the air.
"REMEMBER WHAT?" Matt screamed into the air.
"Hey freak, I think you finally lost it," Yugi said insultingly.
Matt glared at his opponent as he finally managed to get back to his feet. Holding the wall for support, he watched as Yugi readied himself and lunged for the batter fighter.
What does he want me to remember? Then as if to answer his wondering mind, Matt heard a drop of water hitting the ground. Where did that come from?
Time seemed to stop all together as Matt looked for the source of the water. Surprisingly he found it right next to him. There was some water coming in from the storm that had started during Matt and Yugi's fight. Watching as the tiny droplets of water fell onto the little wet sport they were creating seemed to kick an old memory of Matt's into high gear.
Yes I remember now...
(Flashback)
A nine-year-old Matthew Smith waited in the slightly freezing weather, wearing nothing by a green training gi, for his grandfather to set something up. His grandfather, Souta was on the roof, busy with something that happened to do with Matt's training. Matt for his pointed waited impatiently for his grandfather to finish so he could get out of the cold and go back to his nice warm bed. Once Souta was finished with his task, he grabbed a small piece of rope at his side and jumped to the ground with grace someone his age shouldn't have.
"Are you ready, Matthew?" his grandpa asked him in a firm, yet somewhat gentle voice.
Matt sighed in boredom and then looked up at his grandfather," Why am I doing this again?" There was a small hint of anger in the boy's voice.
Souta sighed at his grandson's question. He had known for a while now of Matt's growing temper and was planning on squashing it here and now. "I already told you this last night, Matthew. This exercise is going to help your hone your senses to their fullest?"
"But why do that when I can see just fine?" the boy asked in childish curiousness.
The former shadow fighter kneeled down to the current Shadow fighter's eye level and said in a gentle voice only an elder had," True, your eyes are great, but they can be fooled, but using, sight, hearing, touch and smell together can make an unstoppable team."
"But what about the other one?" Matt asked curiously.
"Taste is another good sense to use, but I wouldn't suggest to use it all the time or trust me it would leave a nasty taste in your mouth for weeks," Souta said gently, but then turned serious. "Now Matthew, I would let a single drop of water from the device I just set up, your goal is to break that droplet."
"Easy," Matt said in confidence.
"We'll see, my grandson," Souta grabbed the rope from early and readied himself. "Ready?"
Matt got into his family usual fighting stance and said," Ready."
Then without giving any kind of warning to his grandson, Souta gave the rope a little tug. Matt heard the creek of wood being moved and he thought he saw something moved. In one swift motion, he thrust his hand out and threw a punch. He grinned in triumph, thinking he hit the droplet, but that was soon changed when he heard the droplet hit the ground.
"Again!" his grandfather ordered.
Sighing, Matt resumed his stance and stressed his eyes to see in the darkness. He once again heard the creek of the woodland thought he saw something falling. He threw a punch, only to have it end in the same results as before.
"Again!"
The continued on for the next half an hour with Matt missing every drop of water that was sent down and he was close to blowing his top. But before that could happen, his grandfather stepped in.
"Do know why I pick this night for this type of training?" Souta asked.
Matt shocked his head though he doubted his grandfather could see him in this moonless night.
"Because there's no moon out tonight, thus there's no light to help you see," his grandfather stated, knowingly. "Thus you need to use your other senses to help guide you."
"But how, grandpa?" Matt asked with a hint of anger in his voice.
"Listen to when I opened the door, then feel the change in the wind with your sense of touch as I taught you years ago. Smell the freshness in the water with your sense of smell," Souta instructed for the shadows.
"I'll try, grandpa," Matt answered with doubt in his voice.
"Just remember this, anything you put your mind to, you can do."
Matt nodded once and closed his eyes, focusing on his others senses. What he felt at the moment was incredible to say the least. He could hear the sounds of the nighttime creatures. The sounds of owls hooting in the night air or a cricket, singing it nighttime songs were full in the air. He could even hear the almost mute sounds of his grandfather's breathing.
"Now, Matthew, I'm going to be letting another drop fall, understand?"
Matt nodded his understanding and focused all of his attention on the familiar sound. He heard the creek as before, but this time, felt the wind like he was taught too. He felt the wind rippled around the droplet and using his sense of smell, targeted it. He threw out his right fist and felt the cold-water splash across his fist as it rimmed through the little droplet.
"Good. Now do it again, but this time only your eyes," Souta told his grandson
Matt did as his grandfather told him and waited, his senses on full alert. He heard the creek, singling that it had started, but this time it was different. This time there were two droplets instead of one. But Matt was a fast learner and by now learned to control his senses to a degree that he could make a mental picture of his surrounding, so he could see the droplets as their fill. Matt punched both of them in no time.
Good," Souta committed from the side.
This went on for about an hour, Souta would keep raising the number of the droplets by one and Matt kept up easily. By the end, Matt's was shivering worse then when they began and trying to warm himself up was only making it worse because his hands were soaked to the bone. Seeing this, Souta got a towel from the porch and his jacket and went over to his grandson. He dried Matt's hands and draped his jacket over his grandson's shoulders.
"Better?" he asked and his grandson nodded shyly. "Good, now lets get your inside so you can warm up and get back to bed."
Then grandfather took his grandson in his arms and together they went into the nice warm house, where they both know that a certain someone was waiting for them with something to warm their bone.
(End of Flashback)
I think I finally get something, grandfather, Matt thought. By anger held me back didn't it? You saw what was happening to me and tried to crush it when I was small, but it didn't work. But how do I get rid of something that has been with me for ages?
"Remember her," his grandfather voice ringed in his ear as if answering his questions.
Her? Then a picture of Rumiko Makino appeared before the boy and a wave of relief washed over the boy. He imagined seeing her smiling face and hearing her beautiful voice. That caused the walls of fire around his heart to die and for the first time in his life, he felt the true power of the shadow fighter to course through his vein.
The image of the smiling girl was replaced with that of dripping water and Matt readied himself. Like when he was nine, the boy targeted the droplet through he senses and threw a punch. He broke the droplet like last time, but in reality he just stopped a punch Yugi had threw at him.
The leader of the Thunder Splats was high surprised by this suddenly act. Yugi had thought that his opponent was lost in his own rage to even move and decided to go in for the kill with a punch, only to have his opponent to block it. But he wasn't the only one surprised by all of this.
On the sidelines, Rena watched the entire fight with worry growing a pit of her gut. When she saw that Yugi was going in for the kill on the unexacting Matt, she was about to move in when he blocked Yugi's punched, stopping the disguised fox in her tracks.
Shrugging the whole thing off as a fleck, Yugi jumped back from Matt and went at him with a kick this time. Once again, Matt saw a droplet of water in his mind's eye and this time use a knee jab to broke the droplet, thus stopping Yugi's kick in mid-process. Loosing his balance because of that little Stunt, Yugi stumbled backwards a few inches before regaining his footing. He looked at the man in front of him, a man he thought he had beaten, in complete shock.
Matt opened his eyes and looked at his opponent with the eyes of a warrior. All of the navigate emotions that were buried deep within his eyes were now gone and was replaced with new emotions. Yugi stared into those eyes for the longest time and for the first time since he started his gang; he felt fear building inside of him. But he quickly crushed it and grew angry from that stare.
"WHAT ARE YOU STARING AT FREAK?" Yugi screamed angrily and threw himself at Matt.
He threw a punch at the shadow fighter and Matt easily caught it by holding out his right arm. He then twisted his opponent's arm under his and brought his face close to Yugi's.
"You'll never be able to beat me now," Matt spoke those words with calmness; completely devoid of any kind of navigate emotions.
He then grabbed Yugi by his shoulder with his free hand and lifted the man off of his feet. Needless to say this greatly scared the leader of the Thunder Splats greatly. Here he was, a man being held up by a boy half of his size. Matt then let the man go and spun around quickly, kicking the larger person square in the chest. Yugi was sent flying back right into his couch. Pain ran through Yugi's back like a wild bull in the desert
He's really is a freak, Yugi thought as he sank to the floor. Struggling to looked up, he asked," What are you?"
"Me? I'm something you're never understand," Matt answered in a controlled voice.
Yugi stared at Matt in slight shock, but then he suddenly began to laugh. "HAHAHAHA! Don't try to make yourself seemed high, Smith. You and I are the same." Yugi spotted his jacket and a plan began forming in his hand. He began edging closer to the leather object as he kept Matt business. "Just admit it, Smith, you and I are the same, we both long for a good fight."
"That may have been so, but I change," Matt said calmly.
"No one can change that much in just a minute," Yugi said as he unnoticing inched closer to his jacket.
"My change was clouded because of my anger, but now it's gone and I'm ready to fight for something more," Matt replied.
"Ha! What's there's left in this world to fight for," There was a level of controlled anger in Yugi's voice as began slowly reaching for his jacket. "I learned when my no good parents left me in the cold winter night, that the only person worth fighting for is you."
"I don't believe in that," Matt said softly. "In fact I owe a person a lot for what she done for me and when I see her again, I'm going to tell her how much she's means to me."
Hearing all the babble that Smith was dashing out finally got to the Thunder Splat's leader and he broke out in an insane laughter. "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! YOU KILL ME, YOU KNOW THAT SMITH? If you relay on others, sooner more then later you're going to regret it!" Ignoring the pain shooting through his back, Yugi grabbed his jacket and threw himself onto his feet. He whipped out a gun and aimed it at Matt's head.
Matt stared at the barrel of the gun with cold determination and replied in a slightly hardened voice," You should talk. You hide behind a gang and now you have a gun at my head, yeah that's relaying only on yourself." Matt said the last part sarcastically.
There was an insane glint to Yugi's eye as he chuckled at that commit," If it's help get power, who cares how it's done."
"No, you don't know power," Matt hissed in a sharp tone.
"I own nearly all of this city you live in and you don't call that power?" Yugi asked with an edge growing in his voice. "THEN TELL ME, FREAK! WHAT DO YOU CALL POWER?"
"The power...my power is fueled by emotions," Matt spoke softly, touching the place were his heart was located.
"WHAT DOES THAT MEAN, FREAK?" Yugi screamed violently.
"LET ME PUT IT IN A WAY EVEN YOU CAN UNDERSTAND!!! EMOTIONS LIKE LOVE AND KINDNESS ARE THE POWER BEHIND THESE FISTS OF MY!!!" Matt got into his usual black lightening strike stance and black lightening began surging off of his tattoo.
"IS THAT SO, FREAK? WELL THEN TAKES MY POWER!!!" Yugi screamed at the tops of his lungs and fired his gun. The gun back lashed as the bullet went flying from the barrel and went straight towards Matt.
"I don't think so," Matt said surprisingly calm and jerked his hand forward. All of the black lightening gathered into his palm and he fired for the first time, the true honest to god, black lightening strike.
The black lightening strike meant the bullet in a headlong collusion in which, the bullet was thrown to the side. The bullet zoomed past Rena, but the disguised fox was so engross in what was happening, that she didn't even feel the heat the bullet was emitting.
The black listening continued on it course after deflecting the bullet and Yugi didn't even think about moving. He cried out in agony as he was threw off his feet and went flying into his couch once again. Half of the leader of the Thunder Splats was hanging over the back of the couch while the other half lay on the front of the couch.
"I...can't...move..." Yugi gasped as he struggled with all of his might to move, but it seemed like his all of his muscled were frozen stiff.
"You won't be able to move for some time," Yugi heard Smith said and stressing all of his neck muscles, looked up at the face of a boy who had just became a man. "Know this now, Thunder, that was my family power and when it wears off, you still feel it pulling at your heart like a bad habit."
"What...are...you...freak?" Yugi asked in anger.
"I told you already, Thunder. Bu know this, your Thunder Splats end here and with it your reputation I make sure of that." Matt looked to his right as his friend came up to him with his jacket. "I'm sorry for early, Rena, can you forgive me?"
Rena let her trademark smile appeared as she held out her friend's jacket and said," It's already in the past."
Matt let a real causal smile beamed on his face as he took his jacket and threw it over his shoulder," C'mon, let blow. I know of two very special ladies that are waiting for us in a white room."
Rena just continued to smile as she nodded her agreement and then the two left.
"Smith, were are you going? We're not done here!" Yugi screamed to himself. "SMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITH!!!"
The Thunder Splat's leader cry echoed through the empty warehouse, but it want unnoticed as the fighting pair made their way out of the complex, thus closing this dark chapter in the legacy of the legendary family of fighters.
(...)
As the first morning rays of the sun, entered through the hospital room's window, it crept on one unexacting flame colored fox. She squeezed her eye shout tighten in admit to block the ray threatening her sleep. When that didn't work, she opened her eyes lazily and shifted, so her back was facing the window. Lying back down, she closed her eyes, ready to resume her rest, when she felt the surface beneath her shift, causing her to roll onto her right side. Rolling back onto her feet, Rika looked towards the head of the bed in a half asleep, half irritated way.
Sango was surprisingly up after going through never seven hours of surgery. She was staring at the rising sun through her room's window. She had that soft, gentle smile that only an elder could possess.
Having her irritation replaced with curiousness, Rika walked up to her great-grandmother and let out a tired yip. Slightly surprised by the noise, Sango looked down at the fox for a second before smiling again. She took the cursed tamer of the future into her arms and began rubbing her back, gently.
"Hallo, little one, did you stay by my side all night," the elder asked softly.
Rika nodded her head, quit shyly for some strange reason. The elder's smile grew slightly and she looked up.
"Well at least you wouldn't along," she said softly.
Rika titled her head to her side in slight confusion and then followed the elder's glaze. She saw her humanoid partner, sleeping in a chair to the right of Sango's bed, a black leather jacket acting as a blanket. Rika would have smiled if she weren't still half asleep. Turning back to the elder, the cursed tamer noticed that Sango was staring out her window again with a relaxed looked in her eyes.
"Look little one, the sun burns as if this day brings new beginning for all," she spoke in a relaxed tone.
Rika stared up at the grandparent of her future father and not for the first saw a likeness to her own grandmother. Letting the memory of the elder who she spent most of her childhood with, Rika got herself comfortable and drifted back off into a nice sleep.
(...)
Standing on top of the hospital was the shadow fighter himself, watching as the sun rose, setting it peaceful feeling into Matt's heart. This was one of those rare times when Matt had his strange colored hair out of its ponytail and was flying freely in the morning's breeze.
The sun burns with the passion of a new day, a new start, just as I feel at this very moment, Matt thought easily as he gently shoved his hands in his jeans pockets.
He felt the change in the wind way before he felt the drop in temperature, causing a faint smile to appear on the fighter's lips. In few seconds, the ghostly image of Souta was right next to his grandson, staring at the raising sun also.
"What do you want, you old wind bag of a ghost," Matt asked lightly.
The ghost of the former shadow fighter looked at his grandson, the same smile as Matt, on his face as well.
"Who are you?
The small smile on Matt's face grew slightly as he looked up at the sun. "Who am I? I am Matthew Smith."
"What are you?"
"I am the shadow fighter."
"What is your purpose?"
"...To protect the people from within the shadows," Matt spoke in a whisper.
"But why?"
"Why? " Matt got into his usual fighter stance and when he next spoke, there was passion behind his spoke as he began throwing punches and kicks at the air," I protect people from the shadows because that's who I am. I am Matthew Smith, the shadow fighter and it's my destiny to protect people in the light from within the shadows."
"Yes that's who you are and much more," Souta said softly and turned away from his grandson.
"Where are you going?" Matt asked.
"Your training is complete and you have proven yourself to be a true shadow fighter, so I'm now no longer need in the plain," Souta replied without looking at Matt.
"Well I ever see you again?" Matt asked a little sadly.
Souta looked over his shoulder and gave Matt and elderly smile. "When you cross over and when that's happened, I like to have a long drink with you and nice friendly talk, but for now never lose who you are." With that said, the ghost of Sango's husband and the grandfather to Matthew Smith disappeared with one finally saying," See you later, shadow fighter.
"Yeah, see you later, shadow fighter," Matt knew that this would be the last time he ever sees his grandfather for a long time, wasn't sadden by this.
As he looked towards the sun one more time a thought pops into his head. I owe a lot to one person for who I am now and when the winds of destiny blow us together, I'll tell my beautiful wildcat, just how she's truly means to me. So until that time, Rumiko Makino, be safe and happy.
(...)
Rika (Poking an unconscious BlackRenamon with a stick): This stupid digimon is worse then gogglehead when I first meant him.
Me (Shrugging my shoulder): Yeah, but what are you going to do about it?
Rika (Dropping her current activate): True. So empty head, mind telling what you have in store for the read of this limb story, or do I have to beat it out of you like the others.
Me (Shrugging again): Well there's only about four more chapter to go and this last three were probably the highlight of it.
Rika (Not believing my words): Really, so you're going to do a limb reunion of my forks?
Me (Catching onto Rika's plan): I never said that, but before sighing off, I can tell you this. The next chapter had something to do with four years.
Rika (Confused): What does that have to with anything?
Me (Grinning slyly): You'll just have to wait and see.
Rika (Annoyed): Why is this big baby still balling over the last chapter.
Me (Just annoyed as Rika): I don't know, but it making it hard to write with him all over me.
Rika (Sighing): I know I'm going to regret this, but... (Pulls BlackRenamon off of me): ...then this stupid story well never gets done if its stupid writer is held up.
Me (Working shoulder muscles): Thanks, but don't think this well change anything.
Rika (Shrugging): Yeah, I'm not asking for any favor exact that you get your butt in gear.
Me (Grinning): Sure think your highness.
Shadows of the Past:
Chapter eight: Showdown in The Shadows
Matt and Rena stared at the house that was burning in shock. That lasted for about a split of a second and then the shadow fighter snapped back into reality and charged in. He jumped over the burning symbol of the Thunder Splats and ran towards the front door.
"RENA! CALL 911 AND TELL THEM WHAT GOING ON!!" Matt called to his friend and before she had a choice to reply, he went into the burning building.
The former fox finally decided to come out of her daze when she heard her friend's firm voice shout to her. She was tempted to go in after him, but after debiting the issue, she decided it was best to follow his orders.
Be safe, my friend and don't leave anyone behind, Rena thought hopefully to himself as she hurried to the nearest house to call for help.
(In the house)
"Gram! Gram, if you can hear me, please answers me!!" Matt called over the rage of the blazing inferno.
The shadow fighter surveyed his opinions as he tried to listen over the blaze of the fire. Sadly the sound of the fire drowned out any other sounds even for the acute hearing of the shadow fighter.
Sighing heavily, Matt once again went over his opinions. They were the door leading to the kitchen or the stairs leading the second floor. They both look bad because the fire had started to weaken the support and it looked like it was about to give away at any time.
Sighing again, Matt looked between the stairs and the kitchen door; unsure of which one he should take. Finally after a second of debiting, he decided to try the kitchen. He took one step in the kitchen when he suddenly got this strange feeling in the back of his head.
What's this I'm feeling? Matt wondered to himself as he looked in the direction of the stairs. It's like something is telling me to go for the stairs, but what is it?
Matt stared at the fleet of stairs, debiting weather or not to trust his guy feeling and try the stairs. He wrestled with all the possibility of both of his opinions. If he goes into the kitchen and get trapped, he had a better choice of getting out if there. But if there were no one in the kitchen, then he wouldn't be able to get to him or her in time.
"Screw this, I'm going with my gut," Matt told himself and dashed up the stairs as the flames around him grow more intense.
Matt's feet barely just touch the floor of the second story when giant piece of wood came lose and threatened to crush Matt, if he hadn't drove out of the way at the last moment.
I really hate to say this, but if it weren't for Kai, throwing all of these fire spells at me, I probably wouldn't have the guts to even try this, Matt thought as he rose to his feet and dusted himself off.
Matt once again began surveying his opinions again. There were four doors to choose from this time. There's door leading to his room, the door to his grandmother's room, Rena's room and the bathroom. And the fact that the smoke was making it hard to see and to breath really cut Matt's time in half.
Man this is really starting to bug me, Matt thought as he began coughing from the smoke.
He tore the right sleeve of his shirt of and tied it around his mouth. He then went back to his debiting of which door to take. After an another heart beat, he decided it was time to try calling to see if anyone was here.
"Gram! Gram, if you're here anywhere please talk to me!" Matt called of the rare of the flame.
Matt strained all of his hearing to see if he could pick up on anything and he was reward with the all to familiar yipping of one certain flame colored fox, coming from the direction of the bathroom. Suppressing all of his satisfaction, he quickly mode his way over to the bathroom door, which wasn't an easy task because of all the fire, but he made it nonetheless. He grabbed the doorknob and instantly regretted it because it nearly burned him. He quickly pulled his hand away and looked at the door with an irritated look slowly making it way onto his face.
"This is really starting to annoy me, big time," Matt muttered to himself as he tore off his other shirtsleeve and wrapped it around his slightly burned hand.
Getting into a ready position, Matt concentrated all of his strength onto the door and threw a punch at it with everything he had. The door flow off of it hitches from force of Matt's punch, leaving one very shocked shadow fighter.
Okay, that was something new, Matt thought as he relaxed his stance.
Matt quickly got over his shock and hurried into the room. The bathroom door was now in between the bathtub's sliding doors, but he was mainly focus on the figure spread out across the bathroom's floor. Matt quickly hurried to his grandmother's side, half in panic and half in fear. He checked her pulse and was relieved that he found one, though it was weak, but it was still there. Rika was on Sango's chest, coughing slightly from all the smoke that was coming in now.
Well now that I found them, how I am going to get them out, Matt wondered to himself. He then picked up her bridal style, carefully not to drop Rika and was amazed how light she was. Now this is really starting to freak me out. First I blow off the bathroom door and now I'm picking a woman at least twice my size and weight with little problem.
He decided to put all of these thoughts on hold for now and focus mainly on getting out of the burning house alive. Matt quickly lifted the bathroom and headed towards his grandmother's room. He remember that Sango's room faces the front, so it was the best choice he had of getting out of there with all of their skins.
Turning so the shoulder opposite of his grandmother's head, Matt plowed through the door and into Sango's room. Surprisingly the flames haven't touched this area yet and Matt was thankful for it. He went straight for the window without a moment hesitation. He bent his head down to shield Sango and plowed right through the window.
(...)
Rena waited outside of the burning building after calling for help, tipping her foot impatiently. She was worried for her friend and his grandmother, but she was more worried about her cursed partner.
What's taking them so long? If I was Renamon, I could have easily got in and got out by now, Rena thought in half irritation, half panic.
The former digimon began pacing fiercely in front of the house as she kept her eyes peeled between the house and the streets in hope that either the help she called for was coming or if Matt was going to come out. She was getting more worried with each passing moment and it didn't help that the fire was starting to get out of hand. Finally she snapped and was about to rush in when she heard the faint sounds of sirens.
Running out into the street, Rena could barely make out the faint glow of the lights that belonged to the police, the fire department and the ambulance. When the disguised fox saw them, she began jumping up and down with her hands waving in the air, all with a big relived smile on her face.
"Hey! Over here!!" Rena shouted it out as loud as she could.
The group of vehicles raced up to her and their passengers got out. Firemen and women hurried to the closest hydrant, while the paramedics waited by for the fire fighters got the victims out of burning building.
"What happened here?" a police officer calmly asked Rena as he walked up to her.
"I really don't know!" Rena answered with a fake panicky voice. "My cousin and myself were meeting a friend at the park and when we got back here, my cousin's grandmother's house was on fire!"
"Any ideas as to who might have done this?" the cop asked calmly as he began taking down notes.
"Not really, but maybe that burning thing in front of the house may help," Rena replied, once again putting on her panicky human act and pointed at the burning Thunder Splat symbol.
The police looked in the direction of Rena pointing finger and when frown when he saw the burning Splat symbol.
"That's jerks again," he muttered in a cold tone.
Rena was actually slightly surprised by that little bit of news. "You knew about the Thunder Splats?"
The cop nodded as he continued to read things down. "Yeah, these jerks muscled their way into this place about a few years ago and do these sort of things when they went to strike fear into someone. Yeah it's a real shame how many lives were lost because of this little stunt." The cops muttered the last time to himself, but Rena heard it anyways.
The disguised fox looked at the burning building, a new feeling she have never experienced as Renamon, swallowing up in her. She was over come with a sense of doubt that her friend and future father of her cursed tamer might not make out.
No, no, NO! Rena shocked her head violently to rid herself of all of her negative thoughts. You can't think like this Renamon. You most remember, he's Matthew Smith, the shadow fighter after all, he can handle anything like he daughter.
But as she stared down that blazing inferno of hate, she couldn't stop that feeling of doubt from growing or could she stop thinking about the worse either.
The fire fighters finally got everything ready and ran up to the house with their giant hose in hand. They aimed it at the house and were about to release the water onto it when suddenly a figure busted through the window on the seconds floor, stunning everyone in the area. The figure soared through the air and landed next to the shocked firefighters with the grace of a feather.
Matt lifted his head up and looked around at all shocked faces. He shrugged it off and walked up to paramedics like it was nothing. He gently handed his grandmother to a friend of Sango and began walking away. But before he could get even two steps away from the ambulance, everything from earlier finally caught up with the boy and he collapsed to the ground, unconscious before he even hit it.
"Matt!" Rena screamed as she hurried to her friends, but was stopped by the paramedics.
"Sorry ma'am, but your friend could be in a serious condensation and it could be dangerous to have someone untrained to handle him," a man in his early 20s said calmly.
"But I'm his cousin!" Rena screamed in the man face, the panic in her voice real this time.
"Then you can come with us and answered a few questions," the man stated as his teammates loaded Matt and Sango onto the blue and white vehicle. The man helped Rena onto vehicle as he began asking questions.
(Later...At the hospital)
Rena waited in one the waiting room of the hospital, a slight look of concern on her face. She was in a chair that faced that window and she currently looking down from the 16th floor while petting Rika's cleaned fur just like Matt would to Rumiko. She knew from past experienced from being a digimon herself, that Rika was going be okay and since she seemed so concerned about her during the trip to the hospital, one of the personal was kind enough to check Rika out and she was just fine, which relived the fox greatly, but that just meant that she had more time worry about Matt and his grandmother.
The former digimon would take long glaze over to the hallway in hopes of at least seeing any sighs of her friend, but sadly nothing appear. When she would heard footsteps coming her way, she would snapped her head up, waiting to see if it was Matt with any news about his grandmother, but much to her dismay, it wouldn't be him, just someone else. Finally after doing this for about half of an hour, Rena sunk into the chair slightly and closed her eyes, falling into a deep, dreamed filled sleep.
Rena awoke some time later to unique scene. Rika was quieting sipping away at some soda in a cigarette tray, while her father to be was sitting to Rena's right, rolling the empty can of root beer in his hands. Matt's eyes have this far off glare and were looking past the can instead of at it. Rena righted herself and slowly reached out to touch her friend's shoulder.
"You know," Matt said softly, causing Rena to halt in her tracks and looked at him curiously. "I always looked at my grandmother like she some kind of angel, no matter what was wrong with her, she would help others and now here she is again, all because, all because..."
Tears began walling up in Matt's eyes as he face became set in anger. He took the can into his tattooed hand and crushed it, slowly. He stood from chair and tossed the crushed can into the trashcan on the other side of the room. He retook his seat and clutched his fist tightly in anger.
Rena watched the entire scene, understanding what he was going through from his actions more then from his words. She knew he was suffering because of what the Thunder Splat did to his grandmother, but what made the whole thing worse was the fact that Matt, himself had caused all of this because he invoked the gang by fighting with their members for so long.
You caused all of this because you fought their gang member to relive stress from your life, Rena completed her friend's sentence in her head and let out a heavy sigh.
She looked at her "cousin" to see if she notice any other changes in his appearance and notice a few things she missed early. The most noticeable thing about Matt was that he was now wearing black jeans with cargo pockets. He was also wearing black low tops with neo blue streaks on them. His shirt was white tee had a big black arrow pointing up, under a slightly wore out black leather jacket.
The idea of where Matt got those clothes from slipped from Rena's mind as she looked at Matt's eyes. The anger that he kept hidden from the world for untold years, an anger that had nearly disappeared after meeting a certain blonde feline with unnatural blue eyes had returned with a vengeance and was burning greater then ever. It scared Rena a little, that a person could go through such a change in such a short amount of time.
"So what did the doctor say about you?" Rena asked in admit to change the mood.
Matt looked at his friend with such a piercing glare; that it could even chill the more harden person to the bone.
"They said my lungs were not to bad because I wasn't in the smoke for to long and the only reason I passed out was because of that fresh air rushing into my lung," Matt spoke in such an icy voice that it made Rika's voice sound like a barrel of sunshine.
Rena gulped down a nervous weed of spit and couldn't help but feel a tiny hint of fear rise up in her as she looked away from Matt's piercing eyes. She inched away as much as possible from those piercing violet colored eyes.
Matt continued to stare at Rena with his piercing glare, but that soon got boring and he just decided to let his friend off the hook. He looked forward and rested his head on his seat and went back to staring off into space.
Hours seemed too past as the two fighters wait for any word on Sango. There was a thick uneasiness in the air as they waited. Matt was just staring off into space the entire time, while Rena was trying her hardest to not stare at her friend worryingly, but she would take a quick glaze every now and then, but would quickly look away when he would catch her staring. Finally after what seemed like ages, someone came up to the two uneasy fighters and Matt immediately got to his feet.
"Dr. Akechi, please tell me how my grandmother is doing?" the shadow fighter asked in a worried voice instead of his icy voice.
Dr. Samuel Akechi was a man in his late 20thies, looked at the young man before him with sympathy shining in his forest greens eyes and shock his head.
"I really don't know how to tell this to you, Matt," the doctor said in doubt.
"Please dr., you have nearly known me all my life, so just tell me out straight," Matt said calmly, but Rena did detect a slight note of pleading in her friend's voice.
The doctor sigh heavily and looked at his clip broad, deciding of how to tell a person he concerned a son this bad news. He looked at the boy with the pleading eyes surrounded in a firm face and just decided to come out with it, even though he knew that Matt could hurt me badly.
Sighing once more, Dr. Akechi, looked Matt squarely in the eyes and said," as you know, your grandmother went under the knife about six mouth ago." Matt nodded and the doctor sigh once again," But what you main not know is that the operation want a little bad and your grandmother was lift was a extremely weak heart."
"Doctor, can you please stop beating around the bush and just tell me," Matt said, his voice becoming slightly demanded.
"Matt, your grandmother heart gave out while on the way here," the doctor said sorrowfully.
"What?" Matt gasped as he eyes went wider then ever before.
"Does that mean that Sango's..."
"No, ma'am," the doctor said quickly, interrupting Rena. "The people on the scene were able to bring her back and stabilized her until they got her here, but now it's going to be touch and go for a while and we're really not sure if she's going to be through, but then again I have known Sango to be a touch old bat just like her grandson."
The last part of the sentence was support to be reassuring, but the one it was aimed at was to wrap up in his thoughts to even hear it. Matt's knees suddenly went weak and took a seat before they gave out on him.
"I knew, she was in bad shape, but I would never thought it was this bad," he muttered to himself.
The doctor seemed slightly surprised by this," You mean you didn't know that, your grandmother was taking pills to help her because when we questioned this young lady here, she told us anything about Sango."
Matt looked at his so-called friend in shock. Rena begin getting scared as she watched the shock in Matt's eye slowly replaced with angry. She was about to bolt when Matt leapt from his seat and pinned Rena to the ground in the blink of an eyes. He also grabbed her right arm and twisted it painfully behind her.
"YOU KNEW AND YOU DIDN'T TELL ME!!" Matt screamed right in his friend's ear.
"Matt I don't think this is really need at this time," Dr. Akechi said calmly, taking a step towards the fighting pair.
"YOU STAY OUT OF THIS!!" Matt barked at the doctor.
"Right," Dr. Akechi said, slightly nervous and took a few steps back.
"Now," Matt turned his attention back to his so-called friend with great anger burning in his eyes. "Now how long did you know about my grandmother? TELL ME!!"
He twisted Rena's arm more and the disguised fox groan slightly from the pain she was receiving.
"Now if you don't tell me, there's going to be one more person in this hospital," Matt spoke in such an icy, angry voice that it made even the most evil of being look like a puppy and to ad to the threat, tightened his grip on Rena's wrist.
"Even since, Rika and myself came to live with you and your grandmother," Rena finally replied, her voice murmured because of her face being pushed against the rug.
The anger on Matt's face deepened as he released Rena and got off of her. The former digimon turned onto her back as she rubbed her sore wrist. She looked up at her friend with a mix of fear and shock on her face. Matt looked around the room and most everyone there was looking at him in the same way, even Rika, wore similar emotions on her fox-like face.
Matt scowled at them all and turned his nose up. Shaving his hands in his jacket pockets, he turned to the door and walked out of the waiting room in his usual walk.
Rena got to her foot, her sore wrist forgotten and was about to follow her friend when this mysterious voice seemed to ring in her ear.
"Leave the boy along."
Rena stopped die in her tracks and looked other the room, trying to pinpoint the source of the voice, but most of the people in the room had already gone back to their things and Dr. Akechi was leaving. So she had to ask herself, who just spoke to her?
"Leave the boy," The eerie voice once again spoke in Rena's ear, causing her to tense up. "This is something the boy need to do along."
With that said, the mysterious voice seemed to die in the air, leaving Rena even more confused them before and curious.
(With Matt)
The shadow fighter, wondered the unfamiliar streets with no true destination in mind, just aimless wondering. Though he body was wondering, his mind was struck on one thing. He was still thinking about the betrayal that one of his only friends had committed on him.
Why? Why did she keep that from me? For some reason, Matt found himself confused from this whole thing and it only added to his anger. Why? Why did she keep something so important from me this entire time?
He continued to wonder, while trying to piece this entire confusing thing together, but with little or no luck. He wondered from about an hour until his anger and frustration finally exploded in him.
"WHY DID SHE KEEP THAT FROM ME!!" Matt screamed and threw a punch with all of his might at a nearby light post.
The light post would have fallen straight on top of Matt's head, if he didn't sidestep to the left and continued on with his aimless wondering. After another hour of wondering, Matt decided it was time to head back to the hospital. But soon he found out that he was lost and with no clear way back to the hospital.
"That's just great," Matt muttered to himself angrily. "Why do things like this always seem to happen to me?"
The air in Matt's area suddenly dropped and Matt knew what was coming next. He watched in annoyance as the ghost of his grandfather appeared in front of him.
"Because you cause all of your pain and suffering and now those feelings are spreading to those you care deeply for," Souta answered Matt's question and pointed a finger at the young man.
Matt's annoyance grown and he just decided he wasn't up for this at the moment.
"Listen you wind bag of a ghost, I'm really not in the mood for you, so just go away or whatever ghost do," Matt said angrily and began walking away in the opposite direction of his grandfather's ghost.
The ghost of Souta watch as his grandson walked away with his stern look never wavering. He disappeared from sight and reappeared in front of his grandson. Matt just looked at the ghost in annoyance and walked right through him. Once again, the ghost disappeared, but this time he appeared beside his grandson and began walking with him. This only strengthened Matt's annoyance and he picked up his pace and Souta kept right up with him. They continued with this little game for a while, before Matt's annoyance finally reached it peek.
He stopped suddenly and looked the ghost of his grandfather straight in the eye and asked in a loud angrily voice," WHY WOULDN'T JUST LEAVE ME ALONG, YOU WIND BAG OF A GHOST!!!!"
The ghost wasn't phased by his grandson's outburst and replied in his calm, stern voice," I would only leave you along once you proven yourself worthy of the shadow powers."
"YOU MEAN THIS?" Matt screamed and held up his tattooed hand. "I HAVE THIS FOR NEARLY TEN YEARS, SO WANT DO I NEED TO PROVE????"
"You may have the tattoo, but you must prove yourself that your ready for its power," the ghost explained.
Well that was the lat strain for Matt; his anger finally exploded and before he realized what he was doing lunged at the ghost of his grandfather. Naturally, he past right through the ghost's body, causing it to break apart and reform seconds later. Matt landed on his hand and knees and got up, but kept his back to his grandfather's ghost. For the longest time the two kept their backs to each other, which would be strange if anyone saw it, because they would only see a young man and not the ghost. Finally Matt got bored by all of his this and he sighed.
Matt turned around and stared at his grandfather's ghost's back. "What do you want from me?" he asked in a slightly defeated voice.
"Why are you?" the ghost asked without looking at Matt.
Matt wanted to roar with all of his might when he heard that sentence. He hates it when this happened and decided to voice it too.
"Why do you always have to ask me that stupid question?"
Souta ignored his grandson's question and instead repeated his question," Who are you?"
Sighing heavily, Matt just decided to roll along with this whole thing. "I'm Matthew Smith."
"What are you? The ghost asked.
Matt sigh again before answering," I'm the shadow fighter."
"What is your purpose?"
"My purpose?" for once Matt didn't know how to answer that question, even though he knew that question was coming. He stood there for the longest time, thinking about his purpose. In the past when he was asked that question, he would answer without hesitation. So why did he feel uneasy about it now?
"What is your purpose?" the ghost asked, his voice taking on a slight level of demanded.
Matt looked the ghost of his grandfather straight in the eye and spoke in a clear firm voice," My purpose is to protect the people from within the shadows."
"But why?" the ghost asked and eagerly waited for his grandson to reply
. "Why?" Matt repeated to himself, more then anyone else. Once again he found himself feeling uneasy about answering that question, but he didn't want the windbag of ghost to get edgy again. So he looked his grandfather right in the eye and spoke firmly," Why, because it's who I am. I am Matthew Smith, the shadow fighter and it's my destiny to protect people in the light from within the shadows."
The ghost of Matt's grandfather seemed satisfied with that answer, turned his back to his grandson and looked over his shoulder at him. "One of these days, you will speak those words with true passion in your voice and on that day I can finally rest." With that said, Souta began walking away, fading away to into the darkness in the process.
"That would be the day pigs flies and a big yellow fox is standing next to me," Matt muttered sarcastically to the air.
He turned around and shaved his hands into his jackets pockets as he began looking around. Once he was sure of his bearing, he was about to head back to the hospital when he spotted three teenagers about three years older then himself and was looking a little buzzed. But that little fact want unnoticed by the shadow fighter as a boy with flat top hair, spun around and he got a clear view of the Thunder Splat logo on the boy's back.
Of course, Matt's rage return in full when he saw that logo and he did his shadow walking technique to get in front of the buzzed boys. The boys in their part didn't even think a boy appearing in front of them out of thin air was no big deal at all. One boy even offered his bottle of boos to Matt and he knocked it away in disgusted.
"Hey, man, relax this is a party, no need to get rough, unless it's with the ladies," the man in the middle said cheerfully and took a big gulp of it drink.
Matt looked at each of the boys in disgust and delivered a hard roundhouse kick to each of the boys. The Thunder Splats fell hard to the ground and two out of the three were knock unconscious in the process. Matt grabbed the only conscious member lifted, which happened to be the boy who first offered him a drink and lifted him close to his face.
"Now, you do you happened to know where the headquarter of your gang is?" Matt asked in a low, angry voice.
The boy, even with his buzz, still knew when something bad was about to happen to him and nodded.
"Good," Matt let a dark, almost evil smile beam on his face. "Now if you don't tell where is it, I'm going to gave you something a whole lot worse then a simple hangover, got it?"
Again the gangster nodded and that only caused Matt to grin more.
"Good. Now start talking."
(At the hospital)
Rena paced around the waiting room, nervously. She would glaze at the clock hanging on the wall to her right and saw the time. Three hours. Matt had nearly been gone for three hours and there was still no word on Sango yet. Tarring her eyes away from the object that was only adding to her worry, she resumed her pacing, but she could her eyes off the blast thing for more then five minutes at a times. Finally about five minutes later, the disguised fox let out a mold roar of frustration and angst and she plopped herself back in the seat she was seated in earlier. She looked at her cursed tamer, sleeping in a peaceful bliss and she let out another sigh, but this one was in exhaustion instead of anger.
To be young and foolish again like Rika, great now I'm thinking like a human. I need to get out of this time...fast; Rena leaned her head back against the head of her chair and closed her eyes.
She tried to let all of the day's tension slip off of her shoulder like she used to, but try as she meant, she can't let go of memory of the anger and betrayal in her friend's eyes. It pained her to the core to see those two emotions in a person she had grown to love like family, so close together. But what made everything worse was those emotions were aimed right at Rena's head and it seemed to cut her in half.
Sighing, Rena opened her eyes and stared up at the ceiling. Her mind was ablaze with confusing and almost haunting thoughts. She was still trying to put all of her uneasiness behind her like she used to as Renamon, but just couldn't with the human body and it emotions were running wild. She actually found herself, growing more worried with each passing second. Sighing heavily, she got out of her seat and resumed her pacing, hoping it would calm her nerves.
Did I do the right thing by keeping Matt's grandmother's secret from him? Rena wondered to herself. I mean she asked me not to tell Matt and beside I have great respect for elders.
The more she thought about the more confused she became. So she retook her seat and tried her hardest to relax, but she just couldn't take her mind off of the whole situation. She suddenly felt a big gust of wind rush passed her and she looked to her right, expecting to see her friend, but the seat was empty. She looked to her other side and saw nothing. Looking up, she saw Matt, staring at her with a piercing glare, hidden in his violet colored eyes.
"Has there been any word on my grandma?" he asked in an icy voice.
Rena needed to gulp down a big weed of split that had jumped it's way into her throat when she heard his voice, and shock her head timidly.
"Then I want you to stay here, while I go and take care of some business," Matt said icily and turned to leave.
Rena came to her senses before Matt left and quickly got to her feet, banning the table in the process. Rika woke up slightly because of the table shacking and looked up at the unique scene. Rena was holding onto Matt's wrist and the shadow fighter was sending a glare her way that could make Rika look like nothing, but a puppy with sad eyes. The cursed tamer shrugged it off and went back to sleep.
"Please Matt, tell me what's so important that you can't stay here and wait for word on her, yourself?" Rena asked in a firm voice.
Matt looked away from his friend and she knew instantly what he had in mind and it scared her greatly.
"Matt, you're not planning on going to face the Thunder Splats, are you?" Rena asked, a note of panic working its way into her voice.
Matt still refused to talk; instead he pulled his hand free and began running away as he shoved his hands in his jacket pocket. Anger rose inside of Rena, but she quickly pushed it back down as she hurried after Matt. She got in front of him just as he reached the door and held out her arms at her sides.
"Matt, tell me why it's so important to take your revenge when your grandmother could die anytime?" Rena half demanded, half screamed.
"You never understand why," Matt said in a hush whisper and pushed pass Rena.
Rena watched as Matt left the waiting room and this time couldn't stop her anger from exploding. She ran out of the room and screamed at Matt," MAYBE I WOULD UNDERSTAND IF YOU TELL ME!!!"
Matt stopped die in his tracks and hanged his head. He tightened his fist and body began shacking slightly. Rena notice this and became curious by her friend's sudden change. She walked up to Matt and placed a comforting hand on his hand, only to have him jerk away from it.
"Matt, please just tell me, I would understand," Rena said softly, trying to look at his face, only to have him pull away from her eyes.
"That's the thing, you'll never understand," Matt replied in a hush, solemn voice.
"Just try me, please," Rena asked in a pleading whisper.
Matt considered that for a minute and decided to tell her just to get her off of his back. He looked Rena squarely in the eye and for once, Rena saw emotions that she never seen in her friend's voice. His eyes seemed so tired and older then he was and were mixed with something that resemble remembrance
"When my parents died that fateful night in the blazing inferno of their car, I was there, watching the entire thing," Matt spoke in a solemn voice. "When the paramedics came, they told me it was going be okay, but I knew, even though I was five, I knew that it they were gone forever."
Sighing, Matt walked up to a window and passed his hand firmly against the cold glass. "For six hours I waited in a room like the one we're just in, crying my heart out. The doctors and nurses that past me, all gave me false reassurance and I could see through them."
Sighing again, he repositioned himself, so his back was against the window and he was looking out the window from over his left shoulder. "Then they came, my grandparents. They were the first sincere ones that also knew the truth and didn't try to hide it from me. They took me away from all I knew to some place new, to start clear and then the training began. Days after days of hard training, slowly changed me into a person I truly didn't want to be, but I still couldn't hate my grandfather because he was still a good man. Then when he died, I shed no tears, though I want too."
Sighing once again, only this time it was heavier, he pushed himself off the window. He looked out the window once more and looked out it for the longest time. Rena waited patiently for her friend to continue on with his painfully story on his own. Finally what seemed like a lifetime, Matt spoke.
"From that point on, I thought I was dry, unable to shed another tear, but when I held Rumiko's drying feline body, I felt these dry eyes watering once again and thought maybe I wasn't done crying just yet. And now, that my only family member is probably under the knife, those tears are again refusing to come. So I'm guess what I'm saying is I can't stand waiting rooms because they remained me of what I lost. But I want to ask, you Rena Kamiya..." Matt looked his friend squarely in the eye with uncertainty in his own eyes. "...What am I?"
"I..." hesitating, Rena looked around the room, hoping to found the answer she was seeking. Not finding what she was looking for, she returned her eyes to Matt's and decided to spoke her heart. "I honestly don't know. I used to think that you can only find yourself by yourself, but during my travels, I meat some people who change all of that. I now believe that, you don't have to face things alone and with friends by your side, everything is possible."
By the time, Rena was finished with her little speech; Matt was leaning against the window with his hands once again shoved in his jacket. He seemed to be thinking over, Rena's words over carefully. But after a minute of it, just shrugged it off and pushed off of the window.
"That's would always by the bar that will set you and me apart," Matt said calmly. "Stay here and look after my grandmother."
With that said, the shadow fighter walked away, his shoes echoing in his wake. Rena watched at her friend's retreating form and decided right then and there to stay by his side, like she did with his future daughter during her rough times. Turning back to the waiting room, Rena needed to have a little chat with the said cursed tamer before hurrying after her friend.
(...)
"Can I ask, why are you here?" Matt asked his companion without taking his attention away from what he was staring at.
Rena lightly shrugged her shoulders and spoke in a lay back voice," Hey someone have to watch your back and are you sure this is the place?"
Matt turned his eyes to look at his companion with a half of a glare, but the disguised fox thankfully missed it. She was to busy eyeing the building in front of them, suspiciously. The shadow fighter returned his eyes to the building before and began studying it himself.
It was one of those old style warehouses/packing plants from the late 60thies with a smoke pipe and everything. The building was a complete wreck, with paint chipping and roof titles giving away. Some windows were broken and old newspaper was flying around in the light night wind. But what stood out the most was the green and red outline Thunder Splat's logo on the front of the building. It was just one of many warehouses of the old warehouse complex that looked ready to be tore down.
"I once heard a rumor that this building and many other around here that was support to be tore down about two years ago, but it never happened, instead some say they saw loading trucks with fresh building martial, late at night coming here," Matt said in a lazy voice.
"And what does that have to do with us?" Rena asked, placing her hands on her hips like Rika's does when she wants to be threatening.
Matt grin casually and shrug lightly as he said," Nothing, just thought it would build up the drama that's all."
He then walked up into the plant's grounds, leaving his partner behind. Rena have a mixed of pout and anger on her face as she stormed her way onto the grounds.
Here I used to wonder at times were Rika got her sarcasm from, she thought a little angrily.
As the two began looking around the area for anything suspicious, a Thunder Splat position himself in one of the top windows, facing the fighters and readied a sniper gun. Loading the gun, he positioned it on the window frame and looked into the scope. Once he had a lock-on on Matt's head, he allowed a grin to spread across his face and he pulled the triggers. The bullet want flying straight towards Matt's head, but before hitting, he kicked up a large piece of large pavement and it took the bullet. The pavement exploded apart, but Matt wasn't behind it, leaving one very confused gangster.
"Looking for me punk?" an eerie calm voice said from behind the gangster.
Startled, the gangster spun around and stared into the violet colored eyes of his target. He dropped his gun and was about to run when Matt punched him in the face. The gangster fell out of the window and was caught by Rena. Looking at her friend, she notice that there was a coldness coming off of his eyes as he jumped from the window and landed in front of her. She quickly shook it off and looked at Matt with a shape glare.
"You know, you could have really hurt him with that little stunt if I wasn't there to catch him," she said in sharp tone.
"How did you know I didn't want to that to happen," Matt stated in a plain cold voice and turned towards the building.
Rena couldn't stop the shiver that sourced down her spine when Matt used that tone. She hated to admit this, but at the moment, Matt was scarier then even his daughter when Rena first meant her. She set the guy down and quickly looked him over for injuries. Say for the broken nose, the guy was basically fine. Sighing in relief, she hurried into the building, hoping that Matt wasn't in a kind of danger.
"Take this you punk!" Matt screamed as he dropped from the sky and planted his foot onto a gang member face.
He jumped off of his last victim and lunged for another Thunder Splat on his right. The gangster in a fruitless attempt to fight back threw a punch, only to have Matt dodge to the right and delivered a devastating punch to the guy's ribs. Rena winced and turned her head in disgust when she thought she heard some bones breaking. When she next opened her eyes, she saw that Matt had nearly beaten all the Thunder Splat and was giving the only conscious member a mean game of 20 questions. Sensing danger, Rena quickly ran up to her friend and grabbed him by his shoulders.
"Matt! You scared this guy well enough by beating his friends into ground," Rena said, trying to reason with her friend.
Matt easily broke free from Rena's grasp and sent her a piercing glare that caused the usually stonewalled digimon to step back in fear. He looked back at the frightened Thunder Splat and spoke in that eerie calm voice.
"Now listen here, I want to know where you boss is and I want to know."
The gangster gulped down nervously and with a trembling hand, pointed to back of the plant. "H-H-He's in t-t-the back r-r-r-room."
"Thanks," Matt said coldly and turned towards the door.
The boy was in some much shock over everything that happened that he fainted. Rena watched as Matt slowly made his way to the door, being on the alert for any more trips that gang might have set out. Sighing, she quickly hurried after her friend and future parent to her cursed tamer.
Will you let your rage control you over something that you had a hand in making? Rena wondered.
Matt examined the door; looking to see if anything was going to jump out at him, while Rena notice how the wall seemed so new, so out of place with the rest of the building. Once he was sure the door was safe, he grabbed the knob and slowly opened the door. Looking into the room, he saw nothing out of the ordinary and stepped into the room. Rena was close behind him and look over the room. For what she was able to gather was, that the room must had once been part of the shipping area, only now it had been redone and turned into what appeared to be a part quarters of some kinds. In front of the fighters was a small seating area with a couch and couple of chairs. To the left of that was a punching bag and to the bag's right was a small icebox.
"You'll think with all the money these gangs get, they could get themselves a better hide out then an old warehouse," Matt said, making one of his dry jokes.
"True, but I always like place like this because its can set the fear in person off, just like I can," a collected voice said from the seating area.
The two fighters snapped to attention when they heard that voice and waited for its owner to show himself. There was movement from the couch and then a figure stepped into the fighters' view.
He was man about mid 30thies, wearing black sweatpants, a black tank top under a well-kept brown leather jacket. His brown, blondish hair was cut so short, some would say, he was bold. His stone gray eyes had lust for a good fight and had piercing feeling to them.
"You're the big wig around here?" Matt asked, his piercing glare meeting his opponent's.
"Yes. I'm Yugi Thunder, leading and founder of the great and powerful Thunder Splats," Yugi said, wearing a smooth over smile.
"Humph, well at least we know were you get the name Thunder Splats from," Matt said cold sarcasm.
"Oh Thunder isn't my real last name, I just decided that my last name sounded too weak for a leader of a powerfully gang such as my," Yugi's smile faded away and slight anger frown replaced it. "A gang who reputation you have nearly ran into the dirt."
Matt shrugged and said lightly," Hey it isn't my fault that half of your guys are weak and don't know how throw a punch. Now are we here to fight or just to become good buddies or something like that?"
"Humph, wanting a quicker death, I see," Yugi took off his leather jacket and took out a roll of bandages from one of his jacket's pockets. Throwing the jacket aside, he bandaged all his arms and hands and got into the classic boxing stance.
"We'll see who beat who?" Matt said as he also removed his jacket. "Rena I want for you to stay out of this, got it?"
"I got it," Rena said calmly, though she was screaming her mind off at her friend's reckless.
Matt didn't acknowledge his friend's words as he threw his leather jacket away and walked up to the center of the room. Yugi took his sweet time joining the shadow fighter in the center of the room and that slightly ticked off Matt. The two got into their respecting stances and Matt wasted no time in attacking. He jumped up and tried to bring his foot down on Yugi's face, only to have the Thunder Splat's leader catch him by his ankle and toss him into the couch. Matt quickly jumped to his feet and lunged at Yugi. He threw a punch and Yugi dodged to the right, grabbing Matt by the wrist in the process. Getting behind the shadow fighter, Yugi twisted his arm painfully behind him.
"Did I forget to tell you that I'm a master of kickboxing and know some grasping moves too?" Yugi asked with a smug grin plastered on his voice.
"Yeah, you lift out that," Matt said, his voice tight with pain. "But then again, I'm not without my little secrets either."
Pushing off the ground with his foot, Matt threw all of his weight onto his opponent, causing him to become unbalance. Yugi tried to mention his footing, but just couldn't and tripped, falling onto his back with all of Matt's weight knocking the wind out of him. Matt quickly jumped off of his opponent and Yugi slowly worked his way back to his feet, giving himself some time to get his second wind. When he looked up again, he found his opponent gone. He angrily looked around the room, but couldn't find his opponent anywhere.
"Looking for me?" an eerie calm voice asked and Yugi felt an icy breath running down his spine, causing him to shiver slightly.
Turning around slowly, Yugi was meant was the shadow fighter's haunting, piercing glare. His eyes widened as he actually took a step back in fear from those ghostly eyes.
How did he just do that? Yugi wondered to himself in a slight panic. How did he get behind me so fast? Just calm down Yugi, he's just missing with your head, so I think it's time you missed with his head.
Yugi sent the shadow fighter a cold grin and there was some kind of glint in his eyes. From that look, Rena had a feeling something bed was about to happen. She just hoped that Matt was able to hold off anything that the leader of the Thunder Splat could dash out.
"So Smith how your grandmother doing?" Yugi asked in a smug voice.
"None of your business," Matt answered in a float voice and resumed his fighting stance.
"Really, well I just thought your grandmother was under the knife now after that whole thing I put her through," Yugi said as he also resumed his stance.
"What?" Matt asked, his voice rising slightly.
"I was there when my gang sent that old bat house on fire," Yugi looked to see if his touting was getting under Matt's skin and was glad when he saw several sigh that it was working. "You know, the old bat was just sitting on her front porch, petting a freak of a fox when my gang rode up to her place. In fear, she took the fox in her arms and ran into the house. We then put our wooden logo in front of the house and tired a gas soaked rope around it, leading to your front porch and lit it. The old bat never knew what was going on until it was too late. But I do have to say, she does have a nice set of lungs."
"Shut up! Shut up! Shuuuuutt UUUUPPP!! Matt blindly threw himself at Yugi and threw a punch.
Yugi easily dodged the punch and delivered an uppercut to Matt's chin. Matt quickly recoiled from the blow and began blindingly throwing punches, which Yugi dodged without effort. He began moving backwards until he was back up against a wall, but he didn't look worried as Matt threw a punch his way. Yugi easily dodged the punch and jumped over the shadow fighter. Landing behind him, Yugi got Matt's head in a lock and tossed him back into the center of the room. Ignoring the pain shooting through his entire body, Matt leapt to his feet and threw himself at Yugi again.
From the sidelines, Rena watched as her friend threw himself at his opponent and began another useless assault. She knew what was happening and she didn't like it one bit.
Yugi has gotten inside Matt's head and clouded his thinking, I only hope Matt could come to his sense in time, Rena thought a little worryingly.
"HIIAAAHH!!" Matt jumped over his opponent and tried to plant his foot into Yugi's skull, only to end up early, expect this time, he was thrown into a wall. Having wore himself out with all of these useless attacks; Matt struggled to get back to his feet.
I don't get it! Matt thought angrily. I have the power and the skull so why is he taking me apart.
"Because your head's just isn't in the game," the voice of his grandfather whispered in his ear.
"I'm really not in the mood for you, old man," Matt muttered to the air.
"But you can't win in the state you're in now," the voice said.
"Then what would you have me do?" Matt asked.
"Clear your head and remember your training," the voice replied and faded into the air.
"REMEMBER WHAT?" Matt screamed into the air.
"Hey freak, I think you finally lost it," Yugi said insultingly.
Matt glared at his opponent as he finally managed to get back to his feet. Holding the wall for support, he watched as Yugi readied himself and lunged for the batter fighter.
What does he want me to remember? Then as if to answer his wondering mind, Matt heard a drop of water hitting the ground. Where did that come from?
Time seemed to stop all together as Matt looked for the source of the water. Surprisingly he found it right next to him. There was some water coming in from the storm that had started during Matt and Yugi's fight. Watching as the tiny droplets of water fell onto the little wet sport they were creating seemed to kick an old memory of Matt's into high gear.
Yes I remember now...
(Flashback)
A nine-year-old Matthew Smith waited in the slightly freezing weather, wearing nothing by a green training gi, for his grandfather to set something up. His grandfather, Souta was on the roof, busy with something that happened to do with Matt's training. Matt for his pointed waited impatiently for his grandfather to finish so he could get out of the cold and go back to his nice warm bed. Once Souta was finished with his task, he grabbed a small piece of rope at his side and jumped to the ground with grace someone his age shouldn't have.
"Are you ready, Matthew?" his grandpa asked him in a firm, yet somewhat gentle voice.
Matt sighed in boredom and then looked up at his grandfather," Why am I doing this again?" There was a small hint of anger in the boy's voice.
Souta sighed at his grandson's question. He had known for a while now of Matt's growing temper and was planning on squashing it here and now. "I already told you this last night, Matthew. This exercise is going to help your hone your senses to their fullest?"
"But why do that when I can see just fine?" the boy asked in childish curiousness.
The former shadow fighter kneeled down to the current Shadow fighter's eye level and said in a gentle voice only an elder had," True, your eyes are great, but they can be fooled, but using, sight, hearing, touch and smell together can make an unstoppable team."
"But what about the other one?" Matt asked curiously.
"Taste is another good sense to use, but I wouldn't suggest to use it all the time or trust me it would leave a nasty taste in your mouth for weeks," Souta said gently, but then turned serious. "Now Matthew, I would let a single drop of water from the device I just set up, your goal is to break that droplet."
"Easy," Matt said in confidence.
"We'll see, my grandson," Souta grabbed the rope from early and readied himself. "Ready?"
Matt got into his family usual fighting stance and said," Ready."
Then without giving any kind of warning to his grandson, Souta gave the rope a little tug. Matt heard the creek of wood being moved and he thought he saw something moved. In one swift motion, he thrust his hand out and threw a punch. He grinned in triumph, thinking he hit the droplet, but that was soon changed when he heard the droplet hit the ground.
"Again!" his grandfather ordered.
Sighing, Matt resumed his stance and stressed his eyes to see in the darkness. He once again heard the creek of the woodland thought he saw something falling. He threw a punch, only to have it end in the same results as before.
"Again!"
The continued on for the next half an hour with Matt missing every drop of water that was sent down and he was close to blowing his top. But before that could happen, his grandfather stepped in.
"Do know why I pick this night for this type of training?" Souta asked.
Matt shocked his head though he doubted his grandfather could see him in this moonless night.
"Because there's no moon out tonight, thus there's no light to help you see," his grandfather stated, knowingly. "Thus you need to use your other senses to help guide you."
"But how, grandpa?" Matt asked with a hint of anger in his voice.
"Listen to when I opened the door, then feel the change in the wind with your sense of touch as I taught you years ago. Smell the freshness in the water with your sense of smell," Souta instructed for the shadows.
"I'll try, grandpa," Matt answered with doubt in his voice.
"Just remember this, anything you put your mind to, you can do."
Matt nodded once and closed his eyes, focusing on his others senses. What he felt at the moment was incredible to say the least. He could hear the sounds of the nighttime creatures. The sounds of owls hooting in the night air or a cricket, singing it nighttime songs were full in the air. He could even hear the almost mute sounds of his grandfather's breathing.
"Now, Matthew, I'm going to be letting another drop fall, understand?"
Matt nodded his understanding and focused all of his attention on the familiar sound. He heard the creek as before, but this time, felt the wind like he was taught too. He felt the wind rippled around the droplet and using his sense of smell, targeted it. He threw out his right fist and felt the cold-water splash across his fist as it rimmed through the little droplet.
"Good. Now do it again, but this time only your eyes," Souta told his grandson
Matt did as his grandfather told him and waited, his senses on full alert. He heard the creek, singling that it had started, but this time it was different. This time there were two droplets instead of one. But Matt was a fast learner and by now learned to control his senses to a degree that he could make a mental picture of his surrounding, so he could see the droplets as their fill. Matt punched both of them in no time.
Good," Souta committed from the side.
This went on for about an hour, Souta would keep raising the number of the droplets by one and Matt kept up easily. By the end, Matt's was shivering worse then when they began and trying to warm himself up was only making it worse because his hands were soaked to the bone. Seeing this, Souta got a towel from the porch and his jacket and went over to his grandson. He dried Matt's hands and draped his jacket over his grandson's shoulders.
"Better?" he asked and his grandson nodded shyly. "Good, now lets get your inside so you can warm up and get back to bed."
Then grandfather took his grandson in his arms and together they went into the nice warm house, where they both know that a certain someone was waiting for them with something to warm their bone.
(End of Flashback)
I think I finally get something, grandfather, Matt thought. By anger held me back didn't it? You saw what was happening to me and tried to crush it when I was small, but it didn't work. But how do I get rid of something that has been with me for ages?
"Remember her," his grandfather voice ringed in his ear as if answering his questions.
Her? Then a picture of Rumiko Makino appeared before the boy and a wave of relief washed over the boy. He imagined seeing her smiling face and hearing her beautiful voice. That caused the walls of fire around his heart to die and for the first time in his life, he felt the true power of the shadow fighter to course through his vein.
The image of the smiling girl was replaced with that of dripping water and Matt readied himself. Like when he was nine, the boy targeted the droplet through he senses and threw a punch. He broke the droplet like last time, but in reality he just stopped a punch Yugi had threw at him.
The leader of the Thunder Splats was high surprised by this suddenly act. Yugi had thought that his opponent was lost in his own rage to even move and decided to go in for the kill with a punch, only to have his opponent to block it. But he wasn't the only one surprised by all of this.
On the sidelines, Rena watched the entire fight with worry growing a pit of her gut. When she saw that Yugi was going in for the kill on the unexacting Matt, she was about to move in when he blocked Yugi's punched, stopping the disguised fox in her tracks.
Shrugging the whole thing off as a fleck, Yugi jumped back from Matt and went at him with a kick this time. Once again, Matt saw a droplet of water in his mind's eye and this time use a knee jab to broke the droplet, thus stopping Yugi's kick in mid-process. Loosing his balance because of that little Stunt, Yugi stumbled backwards a few inches before regaining his footing. He looked at the man in front of him, a man he thought he had beaten, in complete shock.
Matt opened his eyes and looked at his opponent with the eyes of a warrior. All of the navigate emotions that were buried deep within his eyes were now gone and was replaced with new emotions. Yugi stared into those eyes for the longest time and for the first time since he started his gang; he felt fear building inside of him. But he quickly crushed it and grew angry from that stare.
"WHAT ARE YOU STARING AT FREAK?" Yugi screamed angrily and threw himself at Matt.
He threw a punch at the shadow fighter and Matt easily caught it by holding out his right arm. He then twisted his opponent's arm under his and brought his face close to Yugi's.
"You'll never be able to beat me now," Matt spoke those words with calmness; completely devoid of any kind of navigate emotions.
He then grabbed Yugi by his shoulder with his free hand and lifted the man off of his feet. Needless to say this greatly scared the leader of the Thunder Splats greatly. Here he was, a man being held up by a boy half of his size. Matt then let the man go and spun around quickly, kicking the larger person square in the chest. Yugi was sent flying back right into his couch. Pain ran through Yugi's back like a wild bull in the desert
He's really is a freak, Yugi thought as he sank to the floor. Struggling to looked up, he asked," What are you?"
"Me? I'm something you're never understand," Matt answered in a controlled voice.
Yugi stared at Matt in slight shock, but then he suddenly began to laugh. "HAHAHAHA! Don't try to make yourself seemed high, Smith. You and I are the same." Yugi spotted his jacket and a plan began forming in his hand. He began edging closer to the leather object as he kept Matt business. "Just admit it, Smith, you and I are the same, we both long for a good fight."
"That may have been so, but I change," Matt said calmly.
"No one can change that much in just a minute," Yugi said as he unnoticing inched closer to his jacket.
"My change was clouded because of my anger, but now it's gone and I'm ready to fight for something more," Matt replied.
"Ha! What's there's left in this world to fight for," There was a level of controlled anger in Yugi's voice as began slowly reaching for his jacket. "I learned when my no good parents left me in the cold winter night, that the only person worth fighting for is you."
"I don't believe in that," Matt said softly. "In fact I owe a person a lot for what she done for me and when I see her again, I'm going to tell her how much she's means to me."
Hearing all the babble that Smith was dashing out finally got to the Thunder Splat's leader and he broke out in an insane laughter. "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! YOU KILL ME, YOU KNOW THAT SMITH? If you relay on others, sooner more then later you're going to regret it!" Ignoring the pain shooting through his back, Yugi grabbed his jacket and threw himself onto his feet. He whipped out a gun and aimed it at Matt's head.
Matt stared at the barrel of the gun with cold determination and replied in a slightly hardened voice," You should talk. You hide behind a gang and now you have a gun at my head, yeah that's relaying only on yourself." Matt said the last part sarcastically.
There was an insane glint to Yugi's eye as he chuckled at that commit," If it's help get power, who cares how it's done."
"No, you don't know power," Matt hissed in a sharp tone.
"I own nearly all of this city you live in and you don't call that power?" Yugi asked with an edge growing in his voice. "THEN TELL ME, FREAK! WHAT DO YOU CALL POWER?"
"The power...my power is fueled by emotions," Matt spoke softly, touching the place were his heart was located.
"WHAT DOES THAT MEAN, FREAK?" Yugi screamed violently.
"LET ME PUT IT IN A WAY EVEN YOU CAN UNDERSTAND!!! EMOTIONS LIKE LOVE AND KINDNESS ARE THE POWER BEHIND THESE FISTS OF MY!!!" Matt got into his usual black lightening strike stance and black lightening began surging off of his tattoo.
"IS THAT SO, FREAK? WELL THEN TAKES MY POWER!!!" Yugi screamed at the tops of his lungs and fired his gun. The gun back lashed as the bullet went flying from the barrel and went straight towards Matt.
"I don't think so," Matt said surprisingly calm and jerked his hand forward. All of the black lightening gathered into his palm and he fired for the first time, the true honest to god, black lightening strike.
The black lightening strike meant the bullet in a headlong collusion in which, the bullet was thrown to the side. The bullet zoomed past Rena, but the disguised fox was so engross in what was happening, that she didn't even feel the heat the bullet was emitting.
The black listening continued on it course after deflecting the bullet and Yugi didn't even think about moving. He cried out in agony as he was threw off his feet and went flying into his couch once again. Half of the leader of the Thunder Splats was hanging over the back of the couch while the other half lay on the front of the couch.
"I...can't...move..." Yugi gasped as he struggled with all of his might to move, but it seemed like his all of his muscled were frozen stiff.
"You won't be able to move for some time," Yugi heard Smith said and stressing all of his neck muscles, looked up at the face of a boy who had just became a man. "Know this now, Thunder, that was my family power and when it wears off, you still feel it pulling at your heart like a bad habit."
"What...are...you...freak?" Yugi asked in anger.
"I told you already, Thunder. Bu know this, your Thunder Splats end here and with it your reputation I make sure of that." Matt looked to his right as his friend came up to him with his jacket. "I'm sorry for early, Rena, can you forgive me?"
Rena let her trademark smile appeared as she held out her friend's jacket and said," It's already in the past."
Matt let a real causal smile beamed on his face as he took his jacket and threw it over his shoulder," C'mon, let blow. I know of two very special ladies that are waiting for us in a white room."
Rena just continued to smile as she nodded her agreement and then the two left.
"Smith, were are you going? We're not done here!" Yugi screamed to himself. "SMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITH!!!"
The Thunder Splat's leader cry echoed through the empty warehouse, but it want unnoticed as the fighting pair made their way out of the complex, thus closing this dark chapter in the legacy of the legendary family of fighters.
(...)
As the first morning rays of the sun, entered through the hospital room's window, it crept on one unexacting flame colored fox. She squeezed her eye shout tighten in admit to block the ray threatening her sleep. When that didn't work, she opened her eyes lazily and shifted, so her back was facing the window. Lying back down, she closed her eyes, ready to resume her rest, when she felt the surface beneath her shift, causing her to roll onto her right side. Rolling back onto her feet, Rika looked towards the head of the bed in a half asleep, half irritated way.
Sango was surprisingly up after going through never seven hours of surgery. She was staring at the rising sun through her room's window. She had that soft, gentle smile that only an elder could possess.
Having her irritation replaced with curiousness, Rika walked up to her great-grandmother and let out a tired yip. Slightly surprised by the noise, Sango looked down at the fox for a second before smiling again. She took the cursed tamer of the future into her arms and began rubbing her back, gently.
"Hallo, little one, did you stay by my side all night," the elder asked softly.
Rika nodded her head, quit shyly for some strange reason. The elder's smile grew slightly and she looked up.
"Well at least you wouldn't along," she said softly.
Rika titled her head to her side in slight confusion and then followed the elder's glaze. She saw her humanoid partner, sleeping in a chair to the right of Sango's bed, a black leather jacket acting as a blanket. Rika would have smiled if she weren't still half asleep. Turning back to the elder, the cursed tamer noticed that Sango was staring out her window again with a relaxed looked in her eyes.
"Look little one, the sun burns as if this day brings new beginning for all," she spoke in a relaxed tone.
Rika stared up at the grandparent of her future father and not for the first saw a likeness to her own grandmother. Letting the memory of the elder who she spent most of her childhood with, Rika got herself comfortable and drifted back off into a nice sleep.
(...)
Standing on top of the hospital was the shadow fighter himself, watching as the sun rose, setting it peaceful feeling into Matt's heart. This was one of those rare times when Matt had his strange colored hair out of its ponytail and was flying freely in the morning's breeze.
The sun burns with the passion of a new day, a new start, just as I feel at this very moment, Matt thought easily as he gently shoved his hands in his jeans pockets.
He felt the change in the wind way before he felt the drop in temperature, causing a faint smile to appear on the fighter's lips. In few seconds, the ghostly image of Souta was right next to his grandson, staring at the raising sun also.
"What do you want, you old wind bag of a ghost," Matt asked lightly.
The ghost of the former shadow fighter looked at his grandson, the same smile as Matt, on his face as well.
"Who are you?
The small smile on Matt's face grew slightly as he looked up at the sun. "Who am I? I am Matthew Smith."
"What are you?"
"I am the shadow fighter."
"What is your purpose?"
"...To protect the people from within the shadows," Matt spoke in a whisper.
"But why?"
"Why? " Matt got into his usual fighter stance and when he next spoke, there was passion behind his spoke as he began throwing punches and kicks at the air," I protect people from the shadows because that's who I am. I am Matthew Smith, the shadow fighter and it's my destiny to protect people in the light from within the shadows."
"Yes that's who you are and much more," Souta said softly and turned away from his grandson.
"Where are you going?" Matt asked.
"Your training is complete and you have proven yourself to be a true shadow fighter, so I'm now no longer need in the plain," Souta replied without looking at Matt.
"Well I ever see you again?" Matt asked a little sadly.
Souta looked over his shoulder and gave Matt and elderly smile. "When you cross over and when that's happened, I like to have a long drink with you and nice friendly talk, but for now never lose who you are." With that said, the ghost of Sango's husband and the grandfather to Matthew Smith disappeared with one finally saying," See you later, shadow fighter.
"Yeah, see you later, shadow fighter," Matt knew that this would be the last time he ever sees his grandfather for a long time, wasn't sadden by this.
As he looked towards the sun one more time a thought pops into his head. I owe a lot to one person for who I am now and when the winds of destiny blow us together, I'll tell my beautiful wildcat, just how she's truly means to me. So until that time, Rumiko Makino, be safe and happy.
(...)
Rika (Poking an unconscious BlackRenamon with a stick): This stupid digimon is worse then gogglehead when I first meant him.
Me (Shrugging my shoulder): Yeah, but what are you going to do about it?
Rika (Dropping her current activate): True. So empty head, mind telling what you have in store for the read of this limb story, or do I have to beat it out of you like the others.
Me (Shrugging again): Well there's only about four more chapter to go and this last three were probably the highlight of it.
Rika (Not believing my words): Really, so you're going to do a limb reunion of my forks?
Me (Catching onto Rika's plan): I never said that, but before sighing off, I can tell you this. The next chapter had something to do with four years.
Rika (Confused): What does that have to with anything?
Me (Grinning slyly): You'll just have to wait and see.