Memory is the treasury and guardian of all things.

-Cicero

Matt stared at Daisuke in disbelief, watching the cinnamon-eyed boy as he leaned against the wall nonchalantly.

"You're kidding right? Please say you're kidding," Matt begged, allowing his eyes to wander around the hallway slowly. Daisuke gave him a lopsided grin and shrugged.

"Wish I could say I was, but I'm not," Daisuke said half-heartedly. He pushed himself off of the wall and started walking away. Matt quickly followed him.

"I don't understand it."

"Face it, Matt. Your father thinks you have some mental disorder," Daisuke explained, still grinning as he bounced down the hallway. Matt didn't reply as he followed the hyperactive preteen. He had never been in Daisuke's room, but he knew that it was only a little way down the hall from his and Tai's. Daisuke pulled a key out of his pocket and unlocked the door. The two boys stepped inside as Daisuke shut the door behind him.

"So, explain this whole thing to me," Matt demanded him as he sat down on the couch. Daisuke tilted his head slightly and gave him a questioning look.

"What's there to really explain? This is a private all-boys boarding school. Most of the people here have some mental disorder or personality defect but some are just here because of the education. Even though it sounds like a bad school, the education is one of the best in Japan," he explained.

"I see..." Matt trailed off. Daisuke nodded and lay on his back on the bed, folding his arms behind his head.

"It's really a great school. I like it better here then I do at home and I know Tai does too," he said and watched the ceiling fan spin.

"You and Tai seem to be really close," Matt commented.

"Yeah, I suppose it's because we're brothers."

"You're that close?" Matt raised an eyebrow.

"No, we're seriously brothers; half brothers actually," Daisuke replied, closing his eyes slowly.

"No way."

"Way. Same mom, different dads. Hikari's my half sister too."

"Who's Hikari?"

"Tai's full-blooded sister and my half-sister," Daisuke repeated himself. Matt blinked and realized that he just asked a pretty ridiculous question.

'I should have been able to figure that out myself.' He shook his head in disgust.

"Never would have guessed that you two are actually related," he voiced something other than his thoughts. "Although you both do have similar qualities," he added as an afterthought, studying Daisuke closely.

"Like what?"

"You both have the same expressive eyes. Not to mention the same spiky hair gene." Matt smirked. Daisuke laughed and nodded in agreement.

"Definitely. But it's sort of odd."

"What is?"

"How close we really are."

"How is that odd?"

"Tai hated me up until about three years ago!" Daisuke grinned again. Matt felt his eyes widen and he was pretty sure his mouth was slightly open.

"Are you kidding me?"

"No. Why would I be?" Daisuke sat up and leaned against the wall behind his bed.

"Well, I'm not quite sure, he just did. Every time I tried to get close to Tai emotionally or literally, he would push me away. I'm guessing it's just because he didn't like my father very much, so he took it all out on me."

"That wasn't very fair," Matt injected.

"True, but I was just a kid at the time. It's not like I knew any better," Daisuke said with shrug. "Although, everything changed about the time I had just turned nine," he trailed off, launching into a story.

A 12-year-old Tai stood by his window, watching the city below rush by. No one else was home that night.

"Nobody except that stupid brat," Tai murmured to himself. He was supposed to be looking after his half-brother, Daisuke, who was only nine years old. But in all honesty, Tai didn't see any point in it. All he needed to do was make sure he didn't leave the house. That couldn't be too hard since he stayed in his room since their "parents" left. More like, Tai's mother and Daisuke's father, Michael. Tai never did like Michael very much. There was just something not right about him. Something that Tai didn't trust.

"And he thinks that he can replace my real father. Whatever," Tai sighed. His gaze shifted down to his right hand, where he had a .45 pistol clutched in his grasp. He knew a lot of things that his mom and Michael didn't think that he knew, such as the location of Michael's guns.

"Of course, this can be used to my advantage," Tai said, gently twirling the gun in his fingers. He had finally reached the end of his rope. His mother was too occupied with Serena and Daisuke and Michael just didn't care about him.

"Hell, he doesn't even care about his own kid," Tai talked to himself again. Michael never really showed any affection to the little boy, so he couldn't help but feel a bit sorry for the kid. But Tai didn't care anymore; he was just sick of it all It was easier to end it all now than to try and figure out what was going through his mind. He slowly brought the gun up, pointing it towards his head. He cocked it and prepared to pull the trigger.

"Tai!" His bedroom door banged open. Startled, Tai pulled away the gun and fired it at the door.

"Daisuke look out!" Tai cried out. The bullet zoomed right at Daisuke and went through the wall, just above his head. Daisuke's eyes were wide in surprise as he looked upward at the hole.

"Be glad that you're short," Tai breathed out. Daisuke was visibly shaking in his place.

"Tai…what were you doing?" Daisuke whispered, shifting his gaze between the hole and Tai.

"I…don't really know actually," Tai sighed and sank onto his bed. Daisuke stayed leaning against the wall, watching his older brother.

"Daisuke, do you know what suicide is?" Tai asked the younger boy. Daisuke nodded slowly.

"It's where you die on purpose, right?" he asked, looking at Tai with bright and innocent eyes, making Tai feel even worse about what he had just done.

"Right. Well, that's what happened."

"You tried committing suicide?" Daisuke asked in disbelief as his hero told him all of this.

"Was trying too..." Tai trailed off.

"But why?" Daisuke's eyes filled with tears as he inched closer.

"It's hard to explain. You're just too little to understand." Tai shrugged. Daisuke sighed and crawled up on the bed with Tai.

"In other words, you don't know yourself," the younger boy translated, earning himself a semi-harsh glare.

"No, I know why…I just really don't feel like explaining," Tai clarified and looked away from his brother. "Mom just got so wrapped up with taking care of you and Hika's dance classes and work and everything was just falling apart," he continued, staring blankly at the wall to avoid the worried brown eyes that were watching his every move.

"I'm sorry, Tai," Daisuke said sadly as he did the unexpected. He crawled into Tai's lap and hugged him. Tai sat there blinking in surprise at the little ball of spiky mahogany hair.

"It's not your fault," Tai replied to him. Daisuke shrugged and clung to him tighter.

"I still love you," he said quietly. Tai starting blinking rapidly and hugged the boy back, finally breaking down. Daisuke didn't say anything as tears flowed down Tai's face. He was wise for his age; wise enough to know that it was best not to say anything and let Tai cry everything out of his system. It was silent between the two boys, aside from a few occasional sniffles from Tai. Soon, those had disappeared too, causing the younger boy to look up. Seeing that Tai's eyes had closed, he gently loosened the embrace and crawled off of Tai's bed. He silently padded over to the door, shut off the light, and closed the door behind him.

"No one else knows about it except for me and Tai. He made me promise never to speak of it ever again," Daisuke finished.

"So he tried to kill himself and you stopped him," Matt repeated cautiously.

"Yup."

"Wow. So is he like in total debt?"

"No, not exactly. It's kind of an eye for eye, tooth for tooth kind of thing."

"What has Tai done for you?"

"He brought me here. That was probably the best thing he could have ever done for me," Daisuke said with another smile. Matt nodded and his eyes wandered around the boy's room. It only had a standard bed, a desk, a laptop, a closet, and a small bathroom, along with a TV and an old Playstation.

"Do you live by yourself in here?" he asked the younger boy, gaze returning to Daisuke's face.

"Uh-huh. They figured it would be better that way," he stated as he nodded. Matt returned to his silent composure, questions plaguing at his mind.

"Daisuke, let me ask you something."

"Fire away," the other boy said, locking his brown orbs onto Matt's blue ones.

"Why are you here?" Matt blurted out. Daisuke raised an eyebrow while Matt sank further into the desk chair.

"Well, they said that I have some sort of mood disorder," Daisuke replied.

"That being?" Matt trailed off.

"Apparently, I'm overly happy. The common symptoms are feeling very high, very enthusiastic and quickly moving between subjects; feeling very important, able or attractive; changing sleeping patterns i.e. going to bed very late and getting up very early; feeling very comfortable, secure, loved or fearless; becoming very active, rushing around, talking a great deal; difficulties in concentrating, making decisions or remembering. Or at least that's what the shrink told my parents. I pretty much just call it A.D.D." Daisuke shrugged. He glanced at the clock on the wall and nodded towards the door. "You better go. I'm sure Tai will be wondering where you are," he noted, rising from his bed to walk Matt out.

"Yeah, I suppose. We'll catch up with you at dinner." Matt waved and walked down the hall. Daisuke nodded and closed the door behind him. Matt walked towards his own room and opened the door where he found Tai sitting on his own bed, hugging his pillow to his chest tightly. Matt closed the door and cautiously walked up to Tai, afraid of what he would do. After all, this was the boy who had just choked him previously.

"I'm going to assume that Daisuke told you," Tai spoke softly as his eyes desperately avoided Matt's own.

"Yeah he did. Question is, why didn't you tell me?" Matt asked, stopping a short distance from Tai. Tai shrugged and looked up at the blond boy.

"I didn't think that this would happen." He replied truthfully.

"That what would happen?"

"That I'd go off into a schizo fit," Tai said carelessly. Matt nodded and shifted his weight to his other foot.

"I see," the blue-eyed boy replied. Tai blinked and stared at him closely.

"You're uncomfortable with me, aren't you?"

"…I don't really know," Matt answered truthfully. Tai threw his hands into the air, suddenly rather frustrated with himself and with Matt.

"Why? Think about it, Matt. I'm not always like that, seriously!" he exclaimed, crawling closer to Matt and standing up.

"Tai, you can't be in control. So we never know when you'll snap," Matt pointed out the main issue. Tai remained quiet for several minutes, thinking over what Matt had just said. He bowed his head and sighed.

"I know…and I'm sorry," he whispered. Matt nodded and walked over to Tai's bed and sat down, patting the spot next to him. Tai gingerly crossed the room, but instead of sitting next to Matt, he chose to sit on his lap. Matt figured it would be better not to object and just made them both more comfortable.

"Why don't you tell me about it? Everything that you've been keeping from me, that is," Matt pried. Tai sighed again and leaned against Matt's chest, playing with the American's fingers to keep him focused.

"Well, where to start?" Tai asked him.

"What about why you and Daisuke are only half brothers," Matt suggested. Tai nodded and started into his story.

"My real father died when I was only about five years old. But before he died, he was a military man. So one time, he was gone for about 10 months, when I was about three. I remember at that time, my mother had to work to help support us, at least until my father came back."

"What did she do?"

"She worked at a strip bar. Not something I'm especially proud of, but I suppose it can't be re-done. So one night, she had this one customer come in. His name was Michael. They had a couple of drinks, Mom gave him a show, and in the end, they ended up sleeping together. Why? We will never know. Either way, nine months later, Dai was born. Now, my father didn't know about any of this because Daisuke was born before he came back. In fact, he was born about a month earlier than he should have been."

"No wonder he's little."

"Yeah, exactly. Anyway, since my mother didn't want my father to find out about him, Daisuke was sent to live with Michael. I was too little to understand it at the time, but I found out later on in life."

"Does Dai know?"

Tai shook his head. "He has no idea. He was too little to understand it and Mom just decided never to tell him," he said with a shrug.

"Why haven't you told him?" Matt asked him.

"What would I say, Matt? 'Hey Daisuke, did you know that you were just a stupid mistake Mom made?' Oh yeah, that'd blow over real well," Tai replied sardonically.

"I suppose you have a point," Matt admitted. Tai nodded and closed his eyes.

"Yep, that's pretty much all there is to it." Tai shifted a bit. It was Matt's turn to nod and he moved onto his next question.

"So how did your dad die?" Matt asked. He felt Tai tense up a bit in his lap. "Bad subject?" Matt asked. Tai shook his head slowly and uncertainly.

"No not really. Just sort of, hard to talk about, y'know?"

"You don't have to tell me if you can't handle it," Matt said in reply.

"No it's all right. Really," Tai reassured him. Matt looked at him in doubt, but let him continue.

"Well, it happened like this."

A five-year-old Tai was sitting on a swing in the park, happily flying through the air as his father pushed him from behind.

"Higher, Dad! Go higher!" Little Tai squealed in delight.

"All right, here we go!" Mr. Yagami smiled at the little boy and pushed him higher. Tai laughed as he went higher and higher. Mr. Yagami stopped pushing him and stood back, watching over his little boy. He sighed contently and glanced at his watch.

"Uh-oh," he said to himself. He stepped up to the swing and slowly stopped Tai. "C'mon Tai, time to go home," he told him, picking him up off of the swing.

"Aww, but Dad…" Tai whined, wriggling out of his father's grasp.

"Sorry kiddo, but your mom's orders. Besides, dinner will be ready when we get home," Mr. Yagami replied, taking Tai by the hand as they left the park.

"Good. I'm getting hungry," Tai told his father as they walked down the street. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a man walked up to them.

"Give me all of your cash now," He commanded him.

"Sorry, none available," Mr. Yagami replied smoothly before trying to walk away.

"I said now!" the man yelled, yanking a knife from his pocket. He took aim and threw it as hard as he could, driving it right into Mr. Yagami's back, who in turn sank to his knees and keeled over, dropping his wallet on the side. A small scream was heard from Tai, as he watched in horror. The man picked up his knife and the wallet.

"Pleasure doing business with you," he smirked.

"Dad!" Tai yelled, rushing up to his dad. The man turned towards Tai quickly.

"And now to get you out of the way before you squeal kid," he growled, advancing on Tai.

"Freeze! You are under arrest!" Voices rang out as the place was soon swarmed with cops. Two cops escorted the murderer to the awaiting cop car while some others were looking over Mr. Yagami's body. Nobody noticed the little boy with wild brown hair and tear-filled eyes on the side.

"Daddy…" he whimpered quietly as tears rolled down his face, just before one of the cops came and picked him up and placed him in a cop car, taking him home.

"Wow…" Matt said the first thing that came to mind. Tai nodded and sighed.

"Yeah…now that I actually think about it and talk about it, it sounds so fake. And at the time, it kind of felt fake too. Too bad it wasn't; things just weren't the same after that," he mumbled.

"Well, no kidding. You were a little kid and you watched your father get murdered. Oh yeah, that'll turn out real well," Matt stole Tai's quote from earlier. The brunet shook his head and chose not to reply.

"So, how did Daisuke and his dad come to live with you?" Matt changed the subject.

"After my father died, Mom was out applying for a job and she bumped into Michael. I was with her at the time because I wasn't able to go back to kindergarten yet. Something about me not being emotionally stable enough, but anyway. So they started talking and after a while they were at a café and she told him everything. After that, they started seeing each other more often and Michael and Daisuke moved in with us. And about four months later, they got hitched."

"And you hated Daisuke until about three years ago because why?"

"Oh…that," Tai paused.

"Yes, that. Now why?"

"Why does it matter?"

"Because Daisuke isn't somebody that you just hate for no reason," Matt concurred.

"Look, it's not important that he took away my mother's focus!" Tai blurted out, instantly covering his mouth. Realization dawned on Matt.

"You were jealous of Daisuke, weren't you?"

Tai reluctantly nodded. "Daisuke became Mom's whole world. She dedicated all of her time to him because he was the baby of the family. He's about a year and a half younger than my little sister Hikari, so Mom babied him until he was at least 10. Anyway life went downhill and my mom didn't seem to notice, so I took it out on Dais. I know it wasn't really his fault, but I was young, naïve, foolish."

"You still are," Matt joked.

"Very funny, Blondie."

"Don't call me that," Matt pouted.

"But it suits you so well," Tai smirked, now having the upper hand.

"So sure. Now tell me one last thing."

"What would that be?"

"When did you realize you had a mental problem?" Tai was caught off-guard at this. His face showed a surprised and confused look, but soon melted into a calm exterior.

"Well, would you like to know about the first or second time?" he asked, voice dripping with cynicism, rising up from Matt's lap and the bed.

"What do you mean?" Matt replied, watching as the distressed brunet paced around the room.

"Well, there was this one time I thought about it, but wasn't quite sure."

A 12-year-old Tai was sitting on the couch, watching his two younger siblings play the Playstation 2 they had. Once again, his parents were out and he was babysitting. Of course, he didn't mind anymore, he loved spending time with the two "rugrats" as he so lovingly called them. Suddenly the game was paused and Daisuke jumped in his lap.

"Tai, I'm hungry!" he whined, snuggling up into his chest, looking up at him with big brown eyes.

"Yeah, me too, Tai!" Hikari added, jumping into the other half of Tai's lap. Tai burst into laughter and hugged both of his siblings closer.

"All right, I get it. Let's see what I can do," Tai replied, pushing them off of him.

"How long do we have to wait?" Hikari asked him, sitting back down on the floor.

"I'll just throw a pizza into the oven. Sound fair?" Tai compromised.

"Yum…pizza," Daisuke said dreamily, licking his lips. Tai stood up and placed Daisuke on the floor next to Hikari.

"Okay then. You guys keep playing your game. I'll bring it down here when it's ready," Tai called out as he strolled into the kitchen. The game was unpaused and the two younger ones went back to fighting each other on the screen. Tai smiled softly and shoved the pizza into the oven. He set the timer and sat by the counter, looking at random things. After Daisuke had stopped him from suicide, he started paying more attention to the world around him.

"What do you know?" a small voice asked. Tai froze in his spot, looking around. The only sounds he heard were coming from the TV in the den.

"Honestly, you can't believe that you're totally relieved of the stress, do you?" the voice came again, this time sounding closer, mocking him with each word. Tai had to admit, it was right. He was still stressed out. The only things keeping him from going back over the edge were Hikari and Daisuke.

"See the knife? Take it. Use it. Heal the wounds of your soul," the voice instructed him.

'Oh, what kind of crap do you know? Heal the wounds of my soul?' Tai snorted.

"Do it!" Without realizing it, Tai picked up the knife and held it in his hands. Slowly and carefully, he brought it down on his arm, dragging it along his wrist. Watching the blood flow, he felt relieved, light, and complete. Until reality brought him back. He jumped in surprise at the heavy blood flow and the many cuts on his arm. He cried out, afraid to do anything.

"Kari!" he choked out, sinking to the ground. Kari heard her brother's call for her and bolted for the kitchen, Daisuke on her heels. She skidded onto the tile floor and spotted Tai.

"What happened?" she asked, bending down to look at Tai's arm.

"Not too sure," Tai replied, feeling slightly light-headed. Kari raised an eyebrow and shook her head, looking over to Daisuke.

"Dai, go into Mom and Dad's bathroom and grab some disinfectant and a ton of bandages," she said sternly. The little boy nodded and darted out of the room.

"What do you mean you're not sure, Tai?"

"It just happened," Tai said nonchalantly, slowly loosing conscious.

"Oh no. Come on, Tai, stay with me."

"It's too hard, Kar…it's just too hard…"Tai droned off, finally passing out, just as the front door swung open.

"Did you ever tell Kari and Daisuke about hearing things?" Matt asked, his eyes trained on the bathroom door.

"Are you kidding me? Of course not," Tai's voice came from the bathroom.

"Well, then what?"

"The only one who knows is the shrink that my parents made me go see, and my mother of course," Tai replied and the sound of the toilet flushing followed. He walked out and sat on his own bed.

"Well, why did they send you to a shrink?"

"Because of the second thing that happened."

"What else happened?"

"Well, it's kind of strange."

A 13-year-old Tai was sitting outside on the porch of his house, just watching the summer breeze brush across the dandelions, causing the white fluff to fly. He could here the sound of kids playing down the street. He sighed and laid on his back, crossing one leg over the other.

"I'm so bored," he breathed out, closing his eyes. Suddenly a baseball landed next to him.

"Hey Tai!" a voice called out to him. Tai opened his eyes and saw a short boy with spiky red hair.

"Kou, what's up?" Tai asked and pulled himself into a sitting position.

"We're all down playing baseball. Wanna come?" Koushiro asked, picking up the baseball at hand.

"Yeah, sure!" Tai said. He jumped up, yelled to his mother where he was going and ran off with Izzy. The boys reached the park and started playing again. Things were going fine, nothing out of the ordinary. Tai was up to bat when the voice came back.

"Well now, look it here……a nice little game."

'Shut up.' Tai told the voice, ignoring it to concentrate on the game at hand.

"Good luck. You suck at this game. In fact, you suck at everything. You can't do anything right," the voice persisted.

"I said shut up!" Tai yelled out loud. The rest of the kids looked at him.

"Uh, you okay Tai?" Koushio asked, raising his eyebrow.

"Huh?" Tai looked around wildly, blinking in confusion. He slowly gave them an embarrassed grin.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry. Just pitch," Tai ordered, getting back into batting stance. The pitcher shook his head and threw the ball. Tai bit his lip and swung, making contact with the ball. He dropped the bat and ran, heading past first and rounding to second. But before he could touch the base, Koushiro tagged him.

"Sorry Tai, you're out!" Koushiro grinned at him. Tai turned to him and nodded. He started to walk away when something snapped in his brain.

"No way. Not gonna let that happen. Attack him," The voice spoke again. Tai lunged onto Koushiro and started throwing wild punches. A couple of boys ran over and pulled him off of the redhead.

"Tai, what's wrong with you?" somebody asked.

"Yeah man, this isn't like you," another voice was heard.

"I…I…" Tai didn't reply as he ran for his life. He raced back to his house and ran through the front door, slamming it behind him. He broke down into tears as he collapsed on the floor behind the door. Ami Yagami walked by and saw her son on the floor, sobbing uncontrollably.

"Tai? What's wrong?" she asked him.

"Ball park. Voices in my head. Attacked Koush," Tai choked out, coming to find that he couldn't speak clearly.

"Voices in your head?" Ami repeated. Tai nodded and wiped away a few tears.

"What kind of voices, Tai?" she asked him sternly, getting his attention quickly.

"They can control me and I don't know why," Tai sniffed.

"Tai, this isn't normal."

"So I've noticed. This isn't the first time."

"What?"

"This isn't the first time. It's happened before. The first time was when I cut all over my arm. The voice told me to," Tai filled her in. Ami didn't reply as she continued to hug her son, comforting him the best she could.

"Tai, sweetie, I think it's time we went to go see some help," she said. Tai didn't say anything as he started crying again. He was scared of what was going to happen, and there was nothing he could do.

Tai, Ami and Michael were on their way to the psychologist's office one week after the baseball incident.

"Why do I have to see a shrink Mom?" Tai complained from the backseat.

"Don't call the doctor a shrink Tai. Dr. Coleman is a very respectable doctor and can help you," Ami replied. Tai sighed and slid back into his seat. They pulled into a parking lot and got out of the car. The trio rode the elevator to the 5th floor and sat in the waiting room of Dr. Coleman's office.

"Taichi Yagami?" Tai stood up and followed the receptionist into the office. He sat down in a chair and faced a desk.

"Dr. Coleman will be with you right away." The receptionist smiled.

"Thanks," Tai replied. He looked around the office. Seemed all right, with a few house plants here and there, rather organized place. Suddenly the door opened again and another woman walked in.

"Hello, I'm Dr. Coleman. You must be Tai," she said warmly.

"Yeah, that's me." Tai smiled weakly.

"Don't be so nervous, I won't bite." Dr. Coleman smiled back and sat at her desk. She opened a file and took out a pen.

"So, explain to me why you think you're here…." she started off, looking back at him expectantly..

"Well, it's because I can't keep my mouth shut mostly," Tai stated bluntly. Dr. Coleman chuckled.

"Your mother said you complained about hearing voices?"

"Right. It's so weird. I mean everything will be normal one minute and then the next, these different voices will pop into my head and take over. Causing me to do crazy stuff like cut my arm up with a knife, destroy my final paper for one of my classes last year, and recently attack one of my close friends while playing a baseball game. I don't understand it," Tai sighed. Dr. Coleman nodded and wrote some stuff down.

"All right Tai. I'm going to send you back out into the waiting room and talk to your parents for a bit. Then we'll have you come back in," Dr. Coleman said. Tai nodded and rose from his seat, walking back out to where his Mom and Michael were. The pair rose and walked into the office. Tai sat there for quite some time, reading some boring magazines to pass the time.

"Tai, you may come back in now," his mother called to him, about half an hour later. Tai got up and walked back into the room.

"Well Tai, we're going to have you do some tests today just to see what's wrong," Dr. Coleman explained.

"What kind of tests?"

"Psychological stuff. Nothing to be afraid of."

Tai nodded slowly and followed Dr. Coleman out of the room. The testing took a long time too, and most of them didn't make a lot of sense to the young boy. Tai didn't quite comprehend what was happening until they were back in the room with Michael and his mother.

"Well, what is it?" Tai asked impatiently as he sat back down.

"Tai, be polite," Ami scolded her son. Tai pouted but obeyed.

"It's quite all right. I'd be impatient too if I was thought to be crazy." Dr. Coleman smiled She looked back at Tai and dropped the bomb. "Well, it seems like you have a mild form of schizophrenia that is forming at a quick rate," she told him.

"I what?" Tai yelped, standing up again.

"You have schizophrenia. Now this can be treated with a few simple medications." Tai didn't hear the rest of the conversation.

'I'm a schizo. I'm a defect child. I'm no longer who I thought I was.' He hung his head low and closed his eyes, hoping that when he opened them, this would all be a bad dream.

"What a weird way to find out that you were schizo," Matt commented. Tai snorted and rolled his eyes.

"Tell me about it."

"So after that, they sent you here?"

"Not exactly."

"Well then what?"

"Well, about the time of October, things got a little rough."

It was mid-October that same year Tai found out about his…problem. He was in his last year of junior high and everything seemed all right: until that day. Tai was sitting on the wall outside of his school, waiting for his mother to pick him up. He had a split lip and a swollen eye that hurt like hell.

"I hate school. I hate people. I hate everything about this place!" Tai growled to himself. That day, word got out that Tai was mental. Everybody in the entire school knew by lunchtime, and they made sure that he knew it.

"Hey Tai, be careful. You better listen to what those voices say."

"Does that mean they're gonna put you in the Sped classes, Yagami?"

"Dude, you shouldn't play soccer. Those damn voices might tell you to score for the other team."

All day, comments like that were made. And finally, Tai couldn't stand it. Especially from one boy named Keshi.

"I always knew you were a bit messed up, Yagami." He came up to Tai after school. Tai was busy putting away some stuff in his locker and continued to ignore the other boy. "I mean, I heard you tried killing yourself twice." Tai shut his locker and faced Keshi with cold, hard brown eyes.

"Who told you that?" Tai said in a low voice.

"Does that really matter? Question is, is it true?" Tai broke his gaze and started fiddling with his bag. Keshi took this as a sign.

"That's a yes then. I knew it. Only a screwed-over nutcase like you would do that. After all, not your fault your mother was a dime-store slut." Keshi hit the final target. Tai looked up and dropped his bag.

"What did you call my mother?"

"Well, it's true. That's where your little brother came from, after all. I looked in your file. You have one screwed up life, Yagami. Too bad," Keshi smirked. Tai cried out in rage and jumped him, pinning him to the ground. He got in a few good punches before Keshi turned over, putting Tai on the bottom. The two boys continued wrestling around when the principal walked by. He pulled apart and sent them both to his office.

After about a 20 minutes lecture, they were sent to detention, which is why Tai was still there. The sound of a car pulling up brought him out of his reverie. He stood up and walked to the car, getting into the front seat and closing the door. His mother didn't say anything as she pulled away from the school. Tai couldn't stand the silence. Luckily, Ami broke it.

"Fighting. You got in a fight, Tai? How could you get into a fight? What have I always told you about fighting?" she yelled at him, causing Tai to shrink back further into his seat.

"I'm sorry," he whispered almost inaudibly.

"We'll discuss this at home," she finished the conversation for the time being. Tai sighed and turned his gaze to the window, dreading his arrival at the house. Unfortunately, it came too quickly. It wasn't long before his mother marched him into the house and up to his room. Daisuke was sitting in there playing on the laptop.

"Out Daisuke!" Ami barked at her younger son. 10-year-old Daisuke looked up and did a double-take at his mother's face.

"All right, I'm going, jeeze," he said, dashing out of the room that he and Tai shared now.

'Thanks a lot, Dai.' Tai thought glumly and sat on his bed, waiting for his mother to speak.

"Now tell me. Why on earth would you start a fight?" Ami questioned him.

"He provoked me," Tai simply replied.

"How so?"

"He said I had a screwed-up life, he mentioned some stuff he found in my file and called you a dime-store slut."

Ami paused for a moment before choosing her words carefully. "You should have ignored him, but nailed him for the slut part. I'll give you credit for that."

"Yay," Tai mumbled. Ami sat on the bed next to Tai and looked him in the eyes.

"What else happened today?"

"Nothing, why?" Tai lied, hoping she would buy that excuse. His attempt failed.

"Something happened to seriously upset you. Now tell me. What happened?" Ami pressed on. Tai sighed and swallowed.

"Everybody found out that I'm a schizo," he said softly. Ami's face changed from angry to concern.

"How did that go?"

"Everybody made such a big deal about it. 'Tai, listen to those voices.' 'Tai, are you in the Sped classes now?' People don't get it and they wouldn't just shut up about it and it's been going on all day and I can't stand it!" Tai said in one breath before collapsing face first into his pillow.

"Oh Tai," Ami said gently, rubbing her son's back to sooth him from his stress.

"I don't want to go back. Don't make me go back," Tai pleaded, voice muffled by the pillow.

"We'll see what we can do, okay?" Ami replied. Tai nodded and said nothing more. Ami rose from the bed and left the room quietly to talk to Michael about the whole situation. Tai laid on his bed for the longest time, drifting in and out of sleep. Daisuke was too scared to go back into the room yet so he was left alone until about dinner time. A knock on his door got his attention.

"Come in," he called out. Ami opened the door and Michael followed her.

"Tai, we've decided on something," Ami said, sitting next to him again. Michael pulled out the desk chair and sat in front of them.

"About?"

"What to do with you," Michael filled in.

"We've decided to take you out of the public school," Ami took over. Tai say up quickly.

"Are you serious?" he asked, blinking his eyes rapidly.

"Quite serious."

"So, what are you going to do with me?"

"We called another school and they have decided to accept you," Ami replied.

"What kind of school…" Tai asked warily. Michael reached into his pocket and pulled out a brochure, handing it to Tai. Tai looked at the front and read it.

"Odaiba Academy?"

"Yes. It's a private boarding school only about an hour and a half away from here."

"You're sending me away?" Tai asked fearfully.

"Sweetie, it's for your own good. There are kids like you who also have problems to deal with. This school can help you," Ami said. Tai read through the brochure and sighed in defeat.

"When do I leave?"

"This weekend," Michael replied.

"Gre-eat," Tai drawled out. Ami kissed his forehead and stood up.

"It'll be all right, Tai. Just wait," she said, leaving the room. Michael just looked at him with fake sympathy and left.

"Well, I suppose this is better then public school where the world can take free shots," he said to himself and went back to sleep.

After a long drive to the middle of nowhere practically, Michael, Ami, Tai, Kari, and Daisuke pulled into a large town that Saturday. They drove down the street until they turned to a road, leading to a huge castle-like building.

"Whoa…" was all Tai could say. The car stopped and the family got out. They walked into the school and went into the office.

"Hello. You must be the Yagamis," the lady behind the desk said.

"That's right. I'm Ami. This is my husband Michael and my two other kids Kari and Daisuke. And this" she pointed to Tai, "is Tai."

"Hello Tai."

"…hi."

"Well, he's all ready to move in. Just bring his luggage in and we'll show him to his room." She turned to Tai and handed him a piece of paper. "Those are your timetables. Breakfast is at 7:30, class starts at 8:30. Lunch is at noon and dinner at 6. Weekends are free and holidays you're allowed to visit family," she rattled on. Tai simply tuned her out. He followed his parents around and then they stopped in a room he assumed to be his.

"Well Tai, this is goodbye," Michael said. Tai nodded and said nothing. Ami smiled softly and wrapped her arms around Tai.

"You'll be all right, Tai. Just remember, call me if you need anything and you have the laptop to email us and we'll see you at Thanksgiving and-"

"Mom, I'll be fine. Calm down." Tai's face held a look of embarrassment for the way she kept prattling on. Ami stopped and moved away, still flustered a bit. Just as soon as she was off of him, both of his siblings attacked him.

"Tai, I'll miss you!" Hikari wailed and clung to his waist. Daisuke's eyes filled with tears and he wrapped himself around his middle and neck.

"Tai, I don't wanna sleep by myself! I'll be all alone at home and I don't want you to go!" he cried, burying his face into Tai's chest. Tai lifted the still small for his age boy up and held him.

"Hey, c'mon guys it'll be fine. I'll come back to visit at Thanksgiving and Kari will still be with you," he comforted both kids at the same time. Daisuke sniffled and Kari let go of him. Tai handed Daisuke to his mother and stood back.

"See you soon everybody." He smiled for them.

"Bye honey. Be good. We'll miss you!" Ami said. The others chorused goodbyes and walked away. Tai flopped down on his bed and looked at the ceiling.

"Well, this will turn out interesting," he sighed to himself and started to unpack.

"Wow, long story," Matt said.

"Oh yeah, you know it. But then again, you asked." Tai shrugged.

"That I did. But you know, it's not a bad thing."

"What makes you say that?"

"Now I understand you a bit better. And it makes me happy. I'm glad I know everything."

"Not quite everything," Tai whispered quietly, but Matt still caught it.

"Oh? And what didn't you tell me about?" Matt raised his eyebrow sneakily.

"Let's save that for another time, shall we?" Tai said, rising from his bed. "Besides, it's time for dinner," he continued as he bounced through the door. Matt slowly got up and followed him.

"There's so much more to you then I thought," Matt said to himself, before closing the door and heading downstairs for dinner.

Again, another edited, yet finished, chapter.

Thanks to: neo, LilGoldFishie, LadyKNa-No-Da, Redrum, Phunky Phish, Meg-chan2, sakurablossoms4, TsukinoLomelinde, Luna Wolf, Violette Mai, CSMars, Sillie, Splash-Yaoiluv, Squrlie Jack, shadow-seraph, Quazimodo, BessArtist, fiendmage, Devina, just someone, Raku Ozzarian Princess, Beta 4 Hire, Kenren19, Aero-Grrl, LaffyTaffy, creepyzuzet, Wolf-Knight-Angel, Winnie and Genauso, Sovereign of Silence3, Du S'undavar Freohr n' Zar'roc, and Zeto. Your reviews make me happy.