Chapter Twelve of "Tai's Downfall" by Melinda-chan
Kari and Gatomon ran to the emergency section with Kari's parents behind them. Kari and Gatomon were going very fast.
"Kari! Slow down! Running in the hospital can be risky!" her mother yelled out.
"Sorry, Mom!" Kari yelled back. She then stopped when she saw the emergency sign.
"We're here Kari" Gatomon said.
"Yeah. Mom, Dad, you ready?" Kari asked them.
"Let's see what they have to say," her father said. He looked nervous.
"Alright. Let's go in," Kari said. They then entered the emergency waiting room.
The emergency waiting room was filled with people, as it was late afternoon. Mr. Kamiya had to wait for the chair at the reception desk to be empty before he could sit down and tell the lady their situation through the hole.
"She told me that a nurse would be here to take us to Tai's room," Kari's father told his family afterward. "I only wish that I knew what was going on with him." Kari said nothing in response.
"Excuse me, are you Taichi Kamiya's family?" a nurse said from the door a few minutes later.
"I'm his father. What is his condition?" Mr. Kamiya asked her.
"Your son is in a coma right now," the nurse said. "But there's more serious matters that you need to know. Come with me"
'Oh no…' Kari thought as they headed toward the trauma section of the emergency department.
"Do you know what exactly happened to my son?" Mr. Kamiya asked the nurse.
"It appeared that he assaulted another person and his own Digimon attacked him in retaliation," the nurse said.
"You mean Tai attacked someone in the hospital?" Kari asked. She couldn't believe that he would do something like that in a public place.
"We don't know the full reason for it but we do know that Taichi attacked the person with a needle," the nurse told them. All of them became shocked.
"A needle? You mean a shot needle?" Mr. Kamiya said. The nurse nodded.
"The needle contained some type of poison, but until the results of the lab tests come in, I can't tell you exactly what it is" the nurse said. "But the victim immediately lapsed into a coma, so we're treating this very seriously."
"But why did he had the needle in the first place?" Mr. Kamiya inquired.
"We suspect that he originally intended it for Matt Ishida, but when the person tried to stop him, he attacked him instead" the nurse said. "Their Digimon told us that they fought for a while before Taichi got the needle into him."
"Wait a minute!" Kari said. "Do you know what type of Digimon the person has?"
"Yes I do," the nurse said. "It's a Wormmon."
'A Wormmon!' Kari thought. 'It has to be Ken!' She then spoke up again.
"Do you know the name of the person that Tai attacked?" Kari asked.
"Of course! He's Ken Ichijouji!" the nurse answered.
'Ken Ichijouji! I knew it!' Kari thought.
"Do you know where he is now?" Kari asked.
"I believe that he's in the poison control department," the nurse replied. At that, Kari started running. Gatomon followed her.
"Where are you going, Kari?" her father shouted.
"I'm going to see Ken!" Kari shouted back. "I'll come back as soon as I can!" She then resumed running.
'I'm sorry, Tai, but I have to check on Ken first,' Kari thought. She then went to the poison control section and to the receptionist's desk.
"I heard that Ken Ichijouji is here!" Kari said. "I just want to know how long he's in here for!"
"I'm not sure since he's in a coma," the receptionist told her. "His family and a few of his friends are already at his room. Do you know him?"
"I'm one of his friends," Kari said. "Is his parents and Yolei Inoue there too?"
"I see that you are friends with him," the receptionist said. "They're in Room 603 if you want to see them."
"Thank you so much!" Kari said, bowing in appreciation. "I'll not be too long!" At that, she and Gatomon went to that room.
"Hello! I'm Kari Kamiya! May I come in?" Kari called out, knocking on the door.
"Hey Kari! Come in!" Davis shouted from the other side. Kari then opened the door.
"Oh my God!" Kari said. She saw a bunch of people there, most of them she knew- Ken's parents, Davis, Yolei and possibly a few of his other relatives were all there. Kari suddenly felt a big weight on her shoulders. Could she really help them, knowing it was her own brother that caused this to Ken?
"Kari! You showed up!" Davis shouted.
"Yeah, what's going on?" Kari asked.
"Tai attacked Ken with a needle in Matt's room," Veemon told her. "We weren't told what it had, but it looks really bad."
"I can't believe that Tai did this!" Davis said. "I mean, I knew Tai wasn't his normal self, but I couldn't imagine that he would do something like this!" At that, Kari broke down.
"I'm so sorry!" Kari said, putting her face in her hands. "I don't know why Tai would do this either. He's like a different person now."
"Everybody knows it's not your fault," Yolei said. "In fact, I should know better than to let Ken out of my sight. He told me that something was wrong with him. I guess I didn't listen hard enough."
"My son!" Mrs. Ichijouji said, her face also in her hands. Kari saw her husband trying to comfort her. Now Kari felt even worse. They already lost their first son- losing their only other child would be devastating.
"I got to go," Kari said. She then ran out the room. Gatomon followed her, but they weren't alone this time.
'Tai, you're such a jerk' Kari thought. 'Didn't you think of how this would affect your family?' She was crying now.
"Kari! Where are you going?" Davis shouted, running after her.
"Kari! We don't hold it against you!" Yolei yelled. "I mean, you didn't know he was going to do it, didn't you?" Kari stopped and sobbed at the corner of the hallway and the elevator.
"I-I can't believe-believe that he would do this!" Kari cried. "I'm so sorry!"
"It's alright! I mean, I was his best friend, and even I didn't know this would happen!" Davis said.
"When did you become his best friend?" Yolei asked.
"Well, Matt was his best friend, but it doesn't look like that now, does it?" Davis said.
"But you know that this can't be the Tai we know" Yolei said. "We know what the real Tai is like. If something happened to him, that could be the reason why he's acted the way he did."
"But why would he want to kill Ken?" Davis asked.
"He didn't want to kill Ken! They were in Matt's room, remember? We don't know exactly what went on before the fight, but the fact that Tai had a needle suggests he was planning something serious" Yolei said.
"Why would he have a needle then?" Kari asked them.
"He probably was planning to put it into Matt, but Ken must have entered the room and tried to stop him. Tai had to attack him to prevent him from doing so. I just hope that Tai didn't really mean to kill him because that would be evil," Davis answered.
"But what would make Tai want to kill Matt anyway?" Kari asked. "I mean, they were best friends, right?"
"I know why he did it," a female voice sounded. They all looked back to see Sora standing there with Biyomon. She looked saddened.
"Nice to see you, Sora!" Davis said. "What's wrong?"
"I know why Tai did this," Sora said. "And I was the fool for not realizing it sooner."
"What is it, Sora?" Davis questioned.
"He's still in love with me," Sora answered.
"Well, that certainly explains a lot," Yolei said. "But what led you to believe that?"
"He brought me flowers the other day," Sora said. "At first, I thought it was just because I was his friend, but I found white powder in it."
"White powder! Do you know what it is?" Davis asked.
"No," Sora replied. "In fact, Matt was on his way to Ken's place so he could look at it when the accident happened."
"You didn't inhale it, did you?" Davis questioned.
"Oh no!" Sora replied. "Matt got it in a bottle and he wasn't affected, so I don't think it was an inhalant."
"Then why did Tai put it in the flowers?" Davis asked.
"It was likely to scare her," a male voice caused all of them to look at the elevator. There were two men there, dressed in detective coats, looking at them.
"Are you Ken's detective pals?" Davis asked.
"Yes," the first man said. "I'm Mishiro Oda and this is my younger brother Mikio Oda. You can call us Mitch and Mick."
"You guys sure look alike!" Yolei said. Mitch laughed.
"We get that a lot," Mitch said. "But we're only brothers, not twins."
"We didn't mean to eavesdrop on your discussion," Mick said. "But before we turned to Digimon-related cases, we've handled many homicide cases involving someone wanting to kill someone else for their boyfriend/girlfriend. We can't be certain that this is the case here, but it does happen fairly enough."
"So you think the powder was just a scare tactic?" Davis asked him.
"I don't think it could be dangerous" Mick answered. "No one would leave such clear evidence behind unless he wants to get caught."
"I know that you're just private detectives, but what do you think it was?" Sora asked.
"Chalk…sugar…flour…" Mick then shrugged. "I'm sure that the police lab will discover what it is. But if it didn't affect you or Matt, it couldn't be a strong inhalant."
"Now that I think about it, I did get a bouquet of flowers earlier from an unknown source," Sora said. "It had a really creepy message in it." At that, everyone looked concerned.
"Was it handwritten?" Mitch inquired.
"Yes" Sora replied.
"I think I should look at that," Kari said. "I should be able to tell if it's Tai's handwriting or not."
"Excuse me, but did you notice anything else about your older brother that was strange?" Mick asked, turning to her.
"He was acting a little weird recently," Kari said. "But I didn't think it was a major problem until Ken told me that he almost pushed Matt down the stairs in Izzy's apartment building."
"WHAT?" Davis yelled. "YOU MEAN HE ACTUALLY TRIED TO KILL MATT BEFORE AND YOU DIDN'T TELL US?"
"I read it in a notepad that Ken brought with him when I was at his place the other day" Yolei said. "But I never thought that Tai would try to kill Ken too!"
"So what will happen to Tai when he wakes up?" Kari asked the detectives. They were silent for a moment.
"It depends on his mental condition," Mick replied. "He'll have to serve jail time for assault at least. Whether that would be in a prison or a mental institution depends on the psychiatric evaluation that he'll likely have to receive. He'll surely be locked up for an indefinite period of time." At that, Kari felt like crying again.
"In any case, you should write what you know, all of you, and give it to the police," Mitch said. "If we knew that Ken was aware that Tai tried to kill Matt already, we would have told him to take his notes to them. We only do Digimon-related cases, but we can at least refer him to a good police officer, who could handle these types of cases better than we would."
"What will happen if Tai is committed?" Kari asked.
"You mean to a mental institution? Well, he'll be treated for whatever is wrong with him. At the very least, he'll not be able to hurt any more people," Mitch said. He then saw Kari's sad facial expression. "Don't worry about it. How long he'll have to stay will depend on how he reacts to treatment and his own behaviour. I can tell you, though, that it's best for him to go where he could get help."
"I know" Kari said. "I just feel so bad that I didn't realize how serious his problem was earlier."
"Just be grateful that he didn't kill anyone," Mitch said. "It would be harder to clear him. Of course, we don't know if Ken will be alright or not."
"We did come here to see Ken, didn't we?" Mick asked him. Mitch looked at his younger brother.
"Sorry about that, little brother," Mitch said. He then turned back to the kids. "We have to go see Ken now. Let's just hopes that he'll wake up soon and get better. Bye for now!" At that, the detectives went down the hallway, toward Ken's room.
"Isn't anyone else coming?" Yolei asked Davis.
"I called almost everyone I knew that knows Ken," Davis replied. "I even called T.O., but he didn't respond to my message. Cody and Izzy are coming, though."