Author's Note: After much editing, I now have one more chapter left to go and this story will be finished. Plus, a big thanks to GrenkyoH for following.
Circuits
Human
As the final school bell rang, Kari quickly grabbed her things, leaving the classroom in a hurry. She was just about to head out the doors when she heard her name being called. Yolei had to help out new members joining the computer club afterschool while Cody had to leave early for kendo practice, leaving only Davis and T.K. with Kari.
"Hey Kari," Davis called, as he and T.K. raced to catch up to her in the hallway, "Kari, wait up!"
The short-haired girl stopped and looked at the two boys with dull eyes.
"What is it?" she asked glumly.
"Do you want to join us to go get some hot chocolate on our way home?" he asked enthusiastically, "It'll be on me and T.K., and you can get one for Tai too!"
The Bearer of Light gave a weak smile. "Thanks for the offer, Davis, but I think I'll pass."
She turned and quickly left the building before neither boy could say another word.
Following the end of winter break, the Digidestined were at a loss as to how to help the Kamiya siblings after learning of Matt's abrupt shutdown. Both groups did everything they could in hopes of cheering the siblings up but all their attempts proved useless.
Not only that, even the passion they once had for their hobbies seemed to have withered away, giving the siblings little joy.
In spite of his crush on her, Davis found himself growing increasingly agitated at being unable to help Kari move on from losing Matt.
"What makes that robot-butler of theirs so special anyway?!" scoffed Davis, "I mean, Matt was just a bucket of bolts!"
"Davis," retorted T.K., "Matt helped take care of Mrs. Kamiya until she passed away!"
Shame filled Davis as he hung his head.
"You're right, but still," he wondered aloud, "why did Tai and Kari like their robot so much?"
The two boys paused, recalling how they and the others got to know Matt.
{o}
The younger Digidestined had planned a get-together at the mall during the weekend sometime after Yuuko's death. They had felt guilty for not helping Kari out as much and were hoping to make up for it by supporting her during her loss. But as the five stood near the mall's entrance doors, Kari had yet to arrive.
Yolei checked the time on her watch, her patience hanging on a thin thread. "Kari's twenty-five minutes late! What could be taking her?"
"She would have called if she couldn't make it." Cody said. "It's not like Kari to ditch us."
"There they are!" a voice cried out.
Looking up, the five Digidestined saw Kari making her way through a sea of people as she raced over to her destination.
"Sorry, I'm late guys!" Kari exclaimed once she met up with her friends.
Davis grinned. "You're not late, we're just early!"
The others rolled their eyes but said nothing.
He was about to say more when he and the others noticed Kari turning away and motioning to someone.
A little surprised that she had not come alone, the Digidestined had first expected to see the wild brown hair of Kari's older brother coming towards them but instead, it was her android servant, Matt.
Matt stopped and stood solemnly next to his owner; his face devoid of emotion.
"Uh," the spiky-haired boy said confused, "did Tai order your robo-butler to go with you?"
T.K. agreed, "Yeah, you didn't have to bring Matt, you've been to the mall alone before."
The Bearer of Light shook her head smiling. "No, I wanted Matt to come with me. I felt like a change of scenery would be good for him. Besides, he's never been to the mall before."
The group stayed silent. They haven't seen Matt since their surprise visit to the Kamiya apartment along with the older Digidestined and though initially intrigued at first by the robot's design, they now found themselves growing uneasy whenever Matt's glass eyes fell upon them.
After buying lunch and conversing at the food court, Yolei decided to take Kari to go and check out a new store that had opened up with her, leaving the four boys with the robot.
The quartet sat around their table in awkward silence, occasionally looking at Matt before shifting their gaze at something else. It would've gone on longer had Davis broke the silence first.
"Uh, Matt, is it," the goggle boy began, "you're not mad at me, are you?"
"Mad at you for what, sir?"
"For knocking loudly on your chest when you told me to stop."
"No sir, I am not."
Davis breathed a sigh of relief but then suddenly smacked his forehead.
"What am I saying?! Robots don't have feelings!"
The artificial blonde turned away and hung his head, sighing quietly which T.K. took notice of.
"Say, Matt," the spiky-haired boy began, "I've got a question for you."
"What would you like to know, sir?" Matt asked politely.
"Do you run on batteries?"
T.K., Cody, and Ken's jaws dropped but Matt on the other hand, was completely unfazed by Davis's question.
"No, sir," replied the blonde cyborg, "I'm built with an internal charger. I don't need batteries to function, but I do have outlets on my wrists and on the back of my neck from when I was first tested."
Davis's brown eyes widened.
"Can you show us?" he asked rather eagerly. "I wanna see! Show me! Show me!"
Matt paused for a moment and was about to push the sleeves of his uniform back when the other boys intervened.
"NO!" they cried in union. "We don't want to see them!"
The blonde android nodded and readjusted his sleeves.
"Aww, why did you guys have to ruin the fun?" whined the goggle boy, "I bet Matt's also got some hidden lasers in his eyes or other cool weapons built inside him!"
"Davis," Cody retorted, "Matt's a domestic robot not a swiss army knife!"
Ken nodded. "Cody's right, he's not like the evil Digimon that are programmed to destroy things."
"What's a Digimon?" Matt asked.
The boys tensed up.
"N-nothing!" T.K. quickly answered, "Nothing! Just a…cool video game, right guys?"
Cody, Davis, and Ken nodded their heads rapidly in agreement, then Ken spoke up.
"I know that it's your basic programming but do you…like serving people?"
Matt was silent for a moment or two and was about to respond when Kari and Yolei returned, carrying many shopping bags, most of them were Yolei's.
As the day progressed, so did the number of items that were purchased. Davis and Yolei had initially ordered Matt to carry their stuff while they looked for more things to buy, but Kari scolded them for giving him more than he could hold, to their surprise. It wasn't until late in the afternoon when Kari decided to leave.
"Let's go home, Matt." Kari said as she took some of the shopping bags from the android, "It's getting late and we don't want Tai to worry."
"Yes, ma'am."
Saying their goodbyes, the five Digidestined watched as Kari gave a gentle smile to Matt as they began heading off for home, puzzled by their friend's fondness towards the artificial blonde.
{o}
Davis clenched his fists. "UGH! I just don't get it!"
"Get what?" the blonde asked, as they left the school, pulling his jacket tighter around him. The wind had started to pick up a bit.
"The robot! Just…the robot!"
The Bearer of Hope opened his mouth to respond but the words failed to come and he continued to walk alongside his friend in silence and once they bought their hot chocolates, Davis and T.K. parted ways to go home.
Going up the elevator, T.K. thought about what Yolei said to them once Kari left with Matt.
Kari told her the reason why they were late was because of Matt, the Bearer of Hope thought to himself, Yolei had pointed out that Kari could've ordered him to hurry up, but Kari said that Matt was…intrigued by the things she showed him.
But that doesn't make sense! Robots can't feel, they just follow a command given to them and do it without question.
Taking a sip of his hot chocolate, the blonde entered his apartment where he found his mother seated on the couch, reviewing her report assignments in the living room.
"I'm home."
"Hi, T.K." Nancy greeted, looking up at him, "How was school today?"
"Fine, I guess." he answered.
"Are Kari and her brother doing any better?"
The young boy frowned. "Not exactly."
"It just isn't fair." Nancy said sadly, laying the documents on the coffee table, "They've been through so much."
Setting his backpack aside, T.K. sat next to her on the couch.
"Mom, there's something I want to ask you."
"What is it, dear?" Nancy asked.
"Do you think that feelings are just for people?"
He nervously fiddled with his cup as he waited for an answer.
There was a prolonged pause that seemed to T.K. was stretching even longer and longer until Nancy finally spoke.
"Well," she began, "feelings aren't limited to only people, animals have their own ways of displaying emotion too."
The blonde smirked a bit.
The same goes for Digimon as well, he thought, except they act more like people rather than pets.
"However," Nancy continued, "I think that sometimes, emotions can be felt by those that you would least suspect. Now, they may not share the same feelings as you but they can sense it."
T.K.'s blue eyes widened as the message in his mother's words were becoming clear to him.
"I hope that answered your question."
"It did." he said, wrapping one arm around her as he gave her a gentle hug.
"Thanks Mom."
Now, I know how to help them.
…
"Welcome home," greeted the robot servant once Tai and Kari entered their apartment.
The two siblings didn't answer back as they removed their shoes and left their schoolbags in the foyer as they went into the living room.
Just as Susumu promised, he bought a new cyborg in Matt's place.
However, unlike Matt, the android was a female maid and very monotonous in her servitude. She always cooked the same meals, cleaned the same sections of each of the rooms, and assisted the Kamiya siblings in only one subject. Although the family tried to change this by ordering her to do something different, their efforts were in vain.
Turning on the television, Tai and Kari attempted to wind down from school when the robot maid stood in front of the T.V. and began dusting it, blocking their view.
Tai and his sister struggled to try and see the show, stretching their necks in an attempt to look over the maid but whenever they moved to look at the screen, the artificial maid moved right in their line of sight.
"Hey!" the older brunette shouted, "We're trying to watch!"
"We can't see over you!" Kari said, "Please move!"
"Besides," Tai added in a vexed tone, "you cleaned the T.V. yesterday!"
The maid didn't answer nor did she turn around to address her owners. She just continued spraying and wiping as if the siblings weren't in the room. They attempted to re-assign a task to her but it went unnoticed. When the maid at last finished cleaning the television, the program that Tai and Kari were planning to watch was on commercial break.
"Great, just great!" the bushy-haired teen grumbled, "We missed the first half of it!"
When their father returned from work later that evening, it wasn't any better. Though Susumu had bought takeout, the cyborg maid had once again prepared the same dinner as before and around midnight, she began to vacuum the hallway, waking the family. Having had enough, the Kamiyas decided that by the weekend, the maid would be sent back.
…
The next day back at school before separating for their classes, Sora handed Tai a note, asking him to meet her and Izzy in the computer lab after school. The brunette teen knew what they were planning and although he would eventually face his friends sooner than later, the day passed rather quickly and the moment all of the students were released from their classes, Tai was ushered into the computer room by Izzy and Sora.
"We need to talk." Sora declared firmly the minute the door closed behind her.
Tai said nothing. He could tell from Sora's tone that she wasn't going to take no for an answer.
"Now, I know it seems like we're ganging up on you," she told him in a calmer voice, "but we can't help you and your sister if you keep brushing us off."
"Sora, I-"
"What was it about Matt that you had both Digidestined teams search the entire city district looking for him?" she questioned.
"He's simply a domestic robot," Izzy added, "Why are you and Kari so affected by losing Matt?"
The Bearer of Courage's eyes narrowed.
"What does it matter to you?" he shot back, "None of you came to help out like you said you would!"
Both Sora and Izzy looked away, ashamed. Tai noticed this and frowned, realizing that his words came out curter than he intended.
"I'm sorry…" he apologized and was silent for a few minutes before speaking again.
"I can't explain it, guys," Tai said, "at first, I didn't give Matt a lot of thought but following my mom's passing, back when I was practicing soccer obsessively, Matt…He…he helped me…"
"Well, of course Matt helped you." Izzy stated as-a-matter-of-factly, "That's what he was programmed to do."
"No, Izzy." Tai said, slumping into one of the empty computer chairs, "It's more than that."
Izzy and Sora paused and began to contemplate what Tai said.
Whenever Matt accompanied Tai during his outings with his friends, Matt always helped them out as well, regardless of what it was. Sora won more tennis matches, Izzy's knowledge of mechanics grew and Joe's study habits improved vastly in thanks to Matt tutoring him, much to the older boy's delight.
Looking back at it now, the two realized that Tai didn't order Matt to assist them, Matt had asked himself if they needed any help.
"Matt may have been created to follow orders," the brunette teen said, "but looking back now, it was as if he understood what Kari and I were going through with our grief."
"There was something…human about him."
Sora and Izzy exchanged perplexed looks.
"Human?" the two repeated.
Tai nodded as he continued.
"Although he wasn't needed anymore after Mom died, we…let him stay with us. And when Dad sent him away, Matt couldn't tell us why at the school because he knew that it would hurt us. After we proved Matt's innocence, we had to bring him home, no matter what. Matt had become a part of the family. He changed Kari, me, and even Dad for the better."
"And now…" he said, taking in a shaky breath, "and now that Matt's gone…I…I feel like I…played a role in it."
"But Tai, you had nothing to do with Matt shutting down!" protested Izzy.
"EXACTLY!" the bushy-haired teen snapped, "I DID NOTHING!"
His voice then lowered to a faint whisper. "Just like how I did nothing…for Mom…"
Biting his lip, Tai hung his head, fighting back the tears that were threatening to spill.
Tai gave a sudden gasp when he felt Sora put her hands on his shoulders.
"Tai, look at me."
He did so and saw the compassion shining in her eyes.
"Don't ever blame yourself! Before you bought Matt, you helped take care of her. You were by her side in her final moments. You and Kari both did everything you could to help your mother because you loved her."
Sora then paused briefly, remembering the fractured relationship she once had with her mother, "I don't know if I could've endured what you two went through."
Izzy nodded.
"We're all here to help you and your sister," the Bearer of Knowledge said, walking towards the door, "after all those times you helped us in the Digital World, we'll return the favor and finish where Matt left off."
The minute Izzy closed the door behind him, Sora removed her hands from Tai's shoulders and wrapped him in a warm hug.
"I'll be there for you, always," the auburn-haired girl whispered, "I promise you, Tai."
Hearing the truth in her voice reassured Tai and as he slowly started to return the embrace, a silent yet gentle feeling filled the room.
-To be continued…