Waiting
Chapter 13:1-Countdown to Madness
by: butterflie
sequel to Untold Secrets

"Taichi. Taichi, wake up."

"Yama... go 'way..." I mumbled, half-surfacing from strange dreams to blearily open one eye and see his blurry face hovering over me.

"Taichi," he persisted, shaking my shoulders. "Get up. We got school. We have to go."

"School?" I opened the other eye and looked at him, still sleep-disoriented. "Mmm.. what day is this?"

He laughed softly. "It's Tuesday. We um, fell asleep yesterday after.. and neither of us woke up."

"Tuesday.." I mutter, thinking. Then I groan. "Tuesday."

He laughed some more. "Yes, Tuesday. Now come on, get up and get ready so we can go."

"Oh, do I haaaaaaaafta?" I whine at him, giving him a grin.

"Yes, you have to, now get UP!"

"Alright, alright," I grumbled, sitting up. "I'm going, I'm going."

-x-

The walk to school wasn't so much a walk as a panicked run. Under the assumption that I was getting up, Yamato had left me alone to go get ready himself, and I'd promptly fallen back asleep-which he didn't discover until five minutes before we were supposed to leave. So I rushed around, trying to find clothes I'd left at his house, and constantly wincing from the verbal assault Yama was giving me. And now we were racing down the sidewalk, hoping not to be late to school. In a way, I suppose this being late was a good thing. It took our minds off what was awaiting us at school. Quite frankly, I was terrified that Kento was supposed to be back today. Not so much for myself as for Yamato. I don't know what I'd do if anything more were to happen to him. He'd been through so much already, and as much as I didn't like to admit it, I'd come damned close to losing him a few times.

We finally arrived with two minutes to spare, and skidded to a halt on the steps, both of us panting, out of breath. I looked at Yamato and grinned. "See, and I could have gotten two more minutes of sleep."

"Idiot!" He reached over and smacked me lightly on the head. I just grinned again and headed inside. After a moment, he followed, and when I looked back at him, he was smiling. Perhaps the day wouldn't be so bad after all.

Classes were pretty boring the whole day, as usual. I sensed in Yamato a kind of nervousness, an anxiety about Kento that left him on edge, and so I didn't attempt to talk to him much unless he talked to me first, which wasn't often. Mostly I passed the classes staring out the window and thinking back on the events of the past months and how crazy everything was. I also kept an eye out between classes for any sign of the gang, but they weren't here. Also slightly unsettling was the absence of Kenji. Knowing now what I did about him, it made me worried and a bit nervous myself. I mean, it's not like I thought he was on their side, especially not after everything he said that night in the hospital. I was just worried that maybe he'd gotten hurt or something. Who knows.

Yamato later told me that the whole day for him didn't feel more than an hour long, but for me it was just the opposite. It felt as if the day would never end, that we'd be trapped in school for the rest of our lives, tortured with problems of algebra and crazy definitions of words like mitochondria. But yet, somehow the day finally was over with, and we were released from school, free to go home for another night.

I looked at Yamato as we walked out of our last class. "Mind if we stop by my locker first?"

He just shook his head, not even questioning the we. Normally we'd go to our lockers on our own and then meet up, but today I didn't even want to let him out of my sight for one second. In fact, we'd skipped our second period classes and went and hid in the old gym, simply because we weren't in the same class and didn't want to be away from each other. We'd mostly just sat there in silence and holding one other.

"Ready to go?" Yamato asked once we'd finished at our lockers.

I tried to give him the usual cocky Yagami grin, but it came out as more of trembling smile. For some reason, now that we were actually leaving, I found myself terrified. "Ready as I'll ever be, I guess."

Halfway down the steps, I stopped. "I can't help but feel that I'm being silly to feel this scared," I said.

Yamato stopped along with me, taken aback, I suppose. "Why should you feel silly? We've got every reason to be scared. After all, look at what they did to me, to you..."

I didn't respond, thinking once again about everything. What Ken did, then what Kento did, Sento stabbing him, Yamato almost dying, my beating the shit out of them.. He was right, really. They were damned dangerous. Hadn't Kenji told me the same thing? And yet... "I know. I'm not saying we shouldn't be scared of them. What they did to you.. it scared the hell out of me. I could have lost you. I know that. It's just.. why are we so sure that something's going to happen right now? There hasn't been a word from them since I put Kento in the hospital. Why should we think they're suddenly going to do something just because Kento was released today? It just seems a bit absurd, is all."

Now it was Yamato's turn to not say anything. He stood there thinking moments, the expression on his face shifting and changing as he seemed to recall something. But then he just seemingly shrugged it off, like whatever it was wasn't important. "It's not silly, Taichi... They could hurt us bad, you know.."

I looked closely at him, suddenly getting the feeling he knew something I didn't, like maybe something happened that he hadn't told me about. "Yamato?"

"What?" he asked, a bit too innocently for my liking.

"Is there something else you're keeping from me?"

I watched him closely, and didn't miss him swallowing rather nervously. So there was. Something had happened, and he didn't even want to tell me about it. I couldn't help but feeling hurt. He told me, "Of course not. I'm just saying, it's not silly. But we shouldn't stand here all day arguing about it. Let's just go home. With luck we'll make it in one piece."

I couldn't believe he was just going to make light of it like that, and I told him so. I know he understood how serious this all was, so why?

He shrugged again, and after replying started down the steps again. I stood looking after him for a moment, then sighed and followed.

We walked in silence the whole way, Yamato looking around watchful, and me watching in front of us. After a while I noticed Yamato didn't seem to be paying as much attention to his surroundings. I was about to speak up and say something when suddenly Kento was in front of us. In Yamato, particularly. "Look out! Yamato!" I cried, panicked. But it was too late. Ayashi's fist slammed into Yamato's face, bloodying his nose.

But there was no time to react. Tetsuya's arms were around my waist, lifting me up, and they were surprisingly strong. I squirmed and tried to wriggle out of his grasp, but all to no avail. He walked a bit aways from Kento, Ayashi following him. "No!" I cried, not wanting to be away from Yama. Without warning, Tetsuya suddenly flung me to the ground.

"Shut up," he growled, eyes narrowed down at me, glaring darkly.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ayashi advancing towards me, and I focused my attention on him. Which left me completely unprepared for the sharp kick Tetsuya delivered to my side. I grunted, feeling the pain, knowing there'd be a bruise tomorrow. Tetsuya's foot rose to kick me again, and I reached out with my hands and grabbed it, causing him to fall flat on his ass. "I don't think so," I spit out angrily. He scrambled to his feet too quick for me to do anything though, looking slightly caught off-balance.

"You little shit," he hissed at me. "Ayashi!"

Oh shit. I'd forgotten Ayashi again. I moved to get to my feet, to scramble away or something, quick, but before I could I was yanked roughly to my feet and held back tightly against Ayashi's body, arms brought behind my back and intertwined with Ayashi's painfully. I made to run, but I was tugged back against Ayashi, and then Tetsuya was right in front of me, effectively blocking any escape. He grinned, and then lowered his face directly before mine. The next thing I knew wet lips were being pressed roughly against my own, and Tetsuya's tongue shoved into my mouth. I gagged, and he pulled back, still grinning sadistically. "I always wanted to do that. You have such pretty lips Taichi, they were practically begging to be kissed."

"Bastard," I whispered, but the words lacked much force. I was still rather shocked. Of all the things I'd been expecting from them, that had been the last thing on my mind.

"Oh, don't take it personally, Taichi. We've been ordered to distract you until Kento and Sento are finished with Yamato; why not have a little fun while we wait, hmm?" And then he laughed, truly enjoying this. For some reason, that angered me more than the kiss had, more than anything they'd ever done to me or Yamato.. Because for them to be enjoying all this madness..

"Son of a bitch!" I screamed at him, then. Breaking hold of Ayashi's tight grip, I flung myself forward, tackling Tetsuya, my weight throwing him quite easily to the ground. I started to beat the shit out of him, but was shortly pulled off by Ayashi. I was pushed to the ground, and Tetsuya jumped on top of me. I reached up and spit in his face. His eyes darkened, and his mouth opened-whether to say something or spit back, I'll never know, because just then the most unearthly sounding scream I'd ever heard rang out across the sidewalk, echoing off the buildings around us. It froze my blood, and even managed to stop Tetsuya and Ayashi in their tracks. I took advantage of their momentary distraction to shove Tetsuya off me, and looked over to where the others were. What I saw... Yamato was sitting on top of Kento, who was looking decidedly beat up. And there was a large gaping hole in Yamato's side where blood was rather rapidly pouring out. Sento was standing a bit off to the side, holding his knife, now tainted with Yamato's blood, looking smug and satisfied with himself. I could only stare in horror as Yamato slowly reached his fingers down and touched the wound, then screamed, the sound so intense and full of pain and horror that I physically flinched from it.

It was the sound of Sento's sick laughter that brought me out of the strange trance I seemed to have been in.

"You fucking BASTARD!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, and, quickly clambering to my feet, launched myself at Sento. Hastily Ayashi reached out and grabbed my legs, I fell down flat on my face. I raised my head to look at Yamato, not even caring that I'd bloodied my nose and scraped up my face pretty bad in the fall. I started to kick my legs, trying to get free, and was glad when my shoe connected squarely with Ayashi's jaw. However, he didn't loosen his hold, and I was forced to remain in his grasp, watching helplessly as Kento and Sento beat the shit out of Yama. Dimly I heard Tetsuya and Ayashi laughing and shouting, cheering their fellow gang members on, but I ignored them both, no longer caring.

"Yama..." I whispered, pained, hating myself for not being able to save him, to protect him and never let harm come to him, as I'd promised so foolishly the night before. Why! Why did it have to come to this! I swore.. I swore I wouldn't let anything happen to him.. How optimistic, how careless and foolish I'd been. Yamato was right. Never make promises you can't keep. I didn't realize how much it would hurt when you realized you'd broken them. If only there was something I could still do, something to save him...I tried once again to break free from Ayashi, but he just swore and held on tighter.

Annoyed at being interrupted, Tetsuya turned around and slapped me. "Stop it and stay still!" he commanded, angrily. So I continued to watch, helplessly, hating myself all the more. Then Yamato suddenly slumped back against the wall of the building Kento had tossed him against, and I had to close my eyes against the sudden tears. He'd fainted. I had to do something fast, or else he'd lose too much blood and he'd...

"NO!" I cried, opening my eyes again. I wouldn't let that happen! Yamato won't die, I'm not going to lose him! That's what I told myself, and I only hoped it'd stay true..

Loud shouting in the distance caught my attention, and I jerked my head up and towards the source. My mouth literally dropped open at what I saw making their way up the sidewalk. Kenji was racing towards us, shouting words I couldn't quite make out and waving his arms a bit frantically. And trailing along behind him, coming a bit slower-almost reluctantly, it seemed-was Ichijouji Ken. I nearly fainted myself. What exactly did this mean? Whose side were they on? Kenji was Yamato's friend, but he was also the brother of Kento and Sento. And then there was Ken. Ken, who'd tortured and abused Yamato, who'd plagued him with nightmares and fear for months, who'd nearly killed him, who'd driven him to attempt suicide, who'd used Yamato's body for his own twisted pleasure just because Yamato didn't return his feelings. Ken, who'd never been quite right in the head, who'd lost not only his older brother, but his baby brother as well. Ken, who'd been the Kaiser in the Digital World all those ages ago. Ken, whom no one ever fully trusted other than Daisuke. Ken, who'd been locked away for good, only to escape some weeks later. Ken, who was now coming up the sidewalk towards us, with good or bad intentions I had no way of knowing.

Kenji was now close enough for me to make out his words. I was somewhat relived to hear the words, though still a bit wary. "Kento! Sento! Stop it! Stop hurting him! Let them go!"

The two of them reached us, and Ken came over to me. I cringed back a bit, unsure, but instead he looked at Tetsuya and Ayashi, glaring. "Let Taichi go," he hissed menacingly, and there was such venom and loathing in his voice that I flinched, much the same way I had at Yamato's scream.

Obediently Ayashi let go of me, and the two of them backed off, hands raised in the air. "H-hey.. no harm done, right Ken? We were just following your cousin's orders.."

Cousin? I frowned, confused, even less sure of what was going on than I had a minute ago.

"Well, now you're following mine," he told them coldly. "And don't even think about going anywhere."

"Of-of course not!" Ayashi laughed, a bit nervously. "Wouldn't miss any of this for the world.."

I ignored the rest of this, and ran over to Yamato, kneeling down anxiously by his side. Very, very gently, I touched the hole in his side, trying to assess the damage and see how deep it was. The second my fingers touched him, his eyes snapped open wide, and he let out another ear-shattering scream. It tore at my heart, but I put my hand on his shoulder, trying not to show any of the fear and pain I felt. "Yama, it's me, Taichi," I said softly. "Look, help's here, everything's going to be fine. Okay?'

He just looked at me, eyes filled with tears I doubt he even noticed, and nodded, slowly. Then he closed his eyes again, dead to the world once more. Knowing there was nothing more I could do to help him, I got to my feet and turned to see what the others were up to. Ken was currently beating the shit out of Kento, Tetsuya and Ayashi hovering around them nervously. I figured Ken could handle himself, though he was both younger and smaller than the other boy. Yet he seemed to have the situation under control, and I wasn't worried. I turned to Sento, shocked to see him and Kenji locked tight in a struggle. Sento had his knife out, and Kenji was only just managing to keep his brother from sticking it in his chest. However, blood was falling from both his side and his stomach, and I knew Sento had already had a bit of fun with his brother.

"Shit!" I cursed. Kenji heard me and looked at me, eyes pleading for help, though he'd never admit it out loud. I rushed over and bowled into Sento from the side, knocking him away from Kenji. Then I came around him from behind and pushed him to the ground, throwing myself on top of him. It didn't matter though, in just a few seconds the situation reversed and Sento was sitting on me, pinning me to the ground. I cursed and struggled and tried to push him off me. Where the fuck was Kenji? Why is it I was willing to help him when he was in trouble, but when it was I who was in trouble, he was nowhere around? Bastard, I fumed silently.

"Asshole!" I cried. "Get... OFF!" I tried once more, vainly, to shove Sento away. He merely laughed and stayed firmly on top of my chest. I was actually starting to have trouble breathing, he was so heavy, and he was crushing me.. It felt as if he'd push my lungs straight through my back and into the concrete below.

At once Kenji came bowling into Sento from behind, throwing him off and stumbling over me, landing on top of my legs. Great. I no longer had Sento on me, but now I was trapped by Kenji, who was too injured to move himself anymore.

Momentarily forgetting me, Sento righted himself and snatched his knife off the pavement, then turned to face his brother. "You stupid little fucker," he hissed. He advanced toward Kenji, knife in hand.

"Sento! Please! Stop this," Kenji begged. "It's.. insane. It's gone too far.. Please, just stop.." there were tears in both his eyes and voice.

"Kenji," I said. "It's not going to do any good.. he won't listen to you. You might as well not try."

"But I have to try! I have to.. I can't.. I can't let anyone get hurt anymore. I'm sick of it, sick of living with the guilt and fear.. sick of living with the knowledge of all the awful things my brothers have done. Not only to me, and to my friends and family, but to others as well, people I don't know.. some I never will because they're now dead thanks to my brothers!" There was no mistaking the disgust in his voice when he referred to them as his brothers, and quite suddenly I felt ashamed for ever having doubted him before.

"Kenji, shut up little brother," Sento growled softly, still moving slowly toward him.

"Kenji," I whispered. "Kenji, quick, listen. You've got to get off me, let me move and stop him. Otherwise he'll kill you. Quickly now."

"I.. I can't," he cried.

"Why not! You've got to!"

"But.. I can't.. I can't move.. it hurts way too much!"

"Kenji.. please," I pleaded. "Otherwise he'll kill you, and then me and Yamato and Ken. If you care about any of us at all, please move. Now."

Kenji stared at me for what seemed an eternal moment, and then he nodded. He tried to stand, his face grimacing and contorting into a horrifying expression of pain. Then he collapsed back on top of me, breathing heavily, sweat pouring down his face, skin gone pale. "I can't!" he cried again.

"Look, if you just-" But it was too late, Sento was upon us. "Need some help, Kenji?" he asked nastily, grinning. Then he pulled Kenji off of me by the hair. Kenji let out a shrill scream of pain, closing his eyes and whimpering softly. "No, Sento, please don't.. I don't want to die..."

"Too late for that, little brother," he smirked. "You should have just done what you were told and stayed at home. Then you could have lived to see tomorrow." He tossed Kenji down on the ground, such a look of contempt and hatred in his face that I was shocked, too shocked to move, to do something before it was too late. Then Sento raised his knife, and I closed my eyes and turned my head, not wanting to watch, knowing whatever I did now would be too late, yet hating myself even then for not being a better friend, for not trying to save Kenji before it was too late. I should have done something, should have shoved him out of the way, or pulled him back against me.. if it had even just been his arm stabbed or something... I felt the blood spatter against my cheek, heard two sudden screams from both Kenji and Sento, heard more shouts and scuffling, and only then did I open my eyes. Ken was tangled up with Sento. I looked for Kento, and saw him some feet away on the ground, unconscious. Tetsuya and Ayashi were kneeling beside him, such wide-eyed looks of shock and horror and disbelief on their faces that I almost felt sorry for them. I don't think this is what they'd quite been expecting. Then I looked at Kenji. His chest was rising and falling slowly, the front of his shirt soaked in blood. Blood was also trickling down on his side, forming a little puddle around him. Somehow I managed to get to my knees and crawl over to him. His breathing was ragged and uneven, and little bubbles of blood kept popping in his mouth, making a small wet smacking sound.

"Oh man.." I whispered. Frantically I started to rip off my shirt, angry as it got caught on my elbows. Finally I had it off and anxiously pressed it against Kenji's chest, trying to stop the blood, as if it would somehow save him now, though I knew he was too far gone. "Kenji, listen.. shit man, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, look, please.. don't die, ok? You can't die, the band needs you, Yamato needs you, we all need you... Oh please," I moaned, tears spilling down my cheeks and splashing onto his red-stained shirt. "Kenji I swear to God man if you die on us... Oh man... Kenji..."

"I..h..." Kenji moved his mouth, opened and closed it a few times.

"Huh? What? Kenji?" I asked, hastily wiping away a few tears. "Look man, just don't try to talk. Gotta save your breath, save your strength so you'll pull through, you can make this.."

"S... sorry..." he rasped out, completely ignoring everything I'd just said.

Despite my best efforts, more tears welled up in my eyes and overflowed. "Sorry? Sorry for what?"

"I.. tried... couldn't save.. you guys..."

"You.. you idiot," I choked out. "Of course you did.. You saved Yamato, and you saved me, and I'll always be grateful. There's nothing to be sorry for. But none of it matters, because you aren't going to die, do you understand!"

Very faintly, he nodded. Then he closed his eyes, and took one last burbling breath. I watched as his chest stopped moving up and down, not wanting to believe it.

"Kenji? Kenji! SHIT!" I pressed down harder with my shirt, as if it would do anything now. "Kenji! Fuck man! I didn't say you could do this, I didn't give you permission to go and die on me!" I was crying so hard now I could barely see anything through my tears, but I certainly felt Ken's hands roughly shoving me aside.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing!" I shouted at him, voice slightly slurred from my grief. "You asshole, get off him!"

"Taichi!" Ken's voice cut through sharply. "Now is not the time! Help me!" I watched, confused, as he began to make some sort of pumping motions on Kenji's chest, and then I understood. CPR. Not that I thought it'd do much good. Kenji had lost too much blood. Still, I bent down over his face and put my lips against his mouth, trying to breath the life back into him.

"I called an ambulance a bit ago," Ken grunted. "Should be here shortly."

I looked up at him then, only just noticing the tears making their way down his own cheeks. In a way, I should have been surprised, and relieved, but all I felt was a strange numbness that masked anything else I might have felt. So I just nodded, and went back to my futile efforts of dragging Kenji back from the dead.

The two of us were still like that when the ambulance arrived.

End Part 13:1.