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Chapter Text

Ai's pov

His digital world was nearly complete all he needed now was some of his origins memories to give the world more life. After all humans could remember 10,000 faces and that was more then enough to make the line between this one and the real one unrecognizable. Not that he couldn't created people of his own they just wouldn't work as perfectly as those created from Yusaku's own mind. Illusions are more powerful when people create them for themselves after all. Then Ai's little family could live in this world peacefully forever while his copies figured out what to do with the rest of humanity. He wanted to give living with a humans a chance but there would always be someone who found him a threat and he was done living with the fear of losing Yusaku to anything including the teen's own limited lifespan and fragile human form. Now to finally put those fears to rest all Ai had to do now was to take a quick visit to back to the physical world to retrieve the teen so he could get on with his plans.

He trades his usual finery for a basic hoodie and jeans to go visit that run down apartment they all used to call home. His time spent with Yusaku taught him if he wanted to sneak around with out drawing attention to himself he had to blend in more.

It was easy enough to get into the old building, the locks were old fashion and he'd researched how to pick them with minimum noise. The place hadn't changed at all except now Roboppi's maid bot body was left by the stairs instead of rushing around dusting or otherwise occupying itself. His minion wouldn't need that body again but he knew Yusaku still hoped for the other A.I. to come back home one day. Ai was here to bring Yusaku to their new home so he wouldn't have to wait in this run down apart by himself anymore. So he strolled past the empty the machine into the teens room. He's seems to have made a habit of visiting people late at night like this but this was for a different reason, he wasn't here to put Yusaku into that kind of comatose state.

He walks into the room to find his obsessive origin slumped over his desk, computer still glowing harshly in the dark. The teen probably fell asleep searching for any trace of him online. Wanting the other to be more comfortable the soltis picks the teen up and carries him over to the bed on the other side of the room. The movement seems to wake the other as bright green eyes are staring at him when he tries to position the other comfortably on the bed. “Ai” he says quietly eyes still trying to focus in the dark. Somewhere in the android body of his Ai feels a twinge of rejection and sadness when Yusaku jumps away from him. It pains him to see Yusaku thinking of him as a threat but he doesn't have the time to explain his plans or soothe things over. “Hello Yusaku” the android greets softly giving the other a gentle look. "what" the other responds clearly surprised that Ai is here with him. Ai smiles a bit at his confusion as he reaches out to pull Yusaku into the digital world before the other can react. Yusaku's eyes widen some before slipping shut as he falls unceremoniously into the android's arms.

Ai takes a moment to make sure the unconscious teen is positioned comfortably before walking out of the apartment leaving the broken locks since he's sure they'll get one of their friends attention when they eventually come to check on him. Anyone else who comes by will be taken care of quickly and without mercy by either himself or Roboppi. The other A.I. has taken to watching over their old home from their new one when Ai isn't able to.

Takeru's pov

Yusaku didn't come into school today causing Takeru to worry. He was already concerned the other teen wasn't taking care of himself especially after Ai and Roboppi reappeared (though it's not like he was good at taking care of himself to begin with but still) . His friend was utterly heartbroken to see them both standing opposed to him. So much so he was back to staying up late and sleeping through classes; skirting by on the strange innate ability he had to pass school with little effort. Takeru would almost say he was jealous of the way the other didn't have to try as much as he did but he knew where that ability came from and it wasn't healthy.

Takeru planned to use some homework Yusaku missed as an excuse to bother him. Or he would have if not for his time as delinquent teaching him what a picked lock looked like. He was on alert immediately as he entered the diminishing old building. But he's confused when nothing seems to have been stolen. Even Roboppi's old form is still here and most robbers would have taken it to make a few bucks at a pawn shop. So he proceeds up to Yusaku's room. He finds Yusaku resting peacefully in bed and wonders if he should leave the other alone so he can sleep Knowing Yusaku he stayed up all night for any sign of his missing family so he doesn't want to disturb him but he also wants to spend some time with his friend. Maybe get some conformation that the other teen has at least eaten some ramen the day before and taken a shower in the last few days. “Yusaku” he calls loud enough that it should wake the blue haired teen without scaring him. However that fails so Takeru tries shaking him gently but again he doesn't seem to be waking up. The silver haired teen tries a few more times to gently shake him. Before he starts to freak out, resorting to shaking the other vigorously but Yusaku remains unconscious.

The teen is shaking as he goes to grab his bad. He has a hard time fumbling through his backpack for his phone and an even harder time dialing Kusanagi. He tries to calm down and breath as he waits for the man to pick up but it seems like an eternity before he does and Takeru can feel his heart trying break out of his rib-cage. He doesn't want to consider that Ai would do anything to hurt his partner especially in the same way Lightning did with Jin but his friend was currently unconscious in a similar manner to which Kusanagi's brother had been when he and Yusaku visited the other briefly in the hospital. While the ignis was out there saying he was going to continue lightning's plan. His mind is spinning by time someone finally picks up the phone. It's little relief when Kusanagi does answer as what he says comes out of Takeru's mouth is a jumbled mess of words. “Takeru slow down I can't understand you” says the voice on the other end of the line.

Takeru tries but all the words he can get out are “Ittt....ittss...its Yusaku he...”. “What's wrong with Yusaku?” asks the voice in alarm but the teen still can't form the words. “Takeru calm down I'll be there in a few minutes” the voice says. He didn't need to tell Kusanagi where he was because Kusanagi and Yusaku put a tracker in his phone back when Lightning was still causing trouble. They would both worry about one of them going missing during that time so he didn't mind it if it gave them some piece of mind. Yusaku even begrudgingly agreed to let them do the same to him if it would make it less awkward. Kusanagi swore it would only be for emergencies and Takeru trusts him to keep to that. It was weird at first but they were all in danger at the time.

Now he was grateful for it since he just has to wait for Kusanagi to show up without spending the time to try to tell him where he is. The panic he feels lessens some knowing Kusanagi is on his way but he's still extremely worried about his currently unconscious friend. He probably should of called the police first but that thought was just occurring to him now and Kusanagi was already on his way. So he pulls himself together enough to meet the man downstairs when he hears the other enter the apartment not that long after he hung up.

The hot dog vendor looks concerned when he meets Takeru in the living room. “What's wrong Takeru, what happened?” he asks in a rush. The teen gestures for him to follow him up stairs since he's still have trouble putting the words together. Once upstairs the man notices Yusaku resting and there's a moment of confusion until something clicks and his expression turns distressed. Takeru could only imagine that the man was thinking back to when Jin was the one laying in a bed unconscious like this. The other tries to wake Yusaku but again nothing happens. So Kusanagi checks the teens vital signs. There wasn't anything wrong from what the other could tell so they could only assume what happened. Kusanagi quickly gets out his phone to call an ambulance to take Yusaku to a hospital. They would probably tell them the same thing they said about Jin not that long ago; that Yusaku was alive but his mind was elsewhere. The paramedics arrive not long after being called to take him to the hospital while Kusanagi offers to take Takeru in the truck to follow them. He sees a gleam by Yusaku's computer as he leaves.

Ai's pov

He has Yusaku currently laid on his lap while he toys with the blue haired teen's hair watching their friends panic though the camera of Yusaku's computer from the safety of their new home. The teen in his lap fast asleep, mind still adjusting to Ai's manipulations. Ai would have felt bad for messing with the other's head like he did but in the long run he knew the teen would be happier this way. He continues playing with the other's hair as he watches Kusanagi and Takeru freak out and call an ambulance.

Good, now he wont have to pull one of their strings to get them to go check on the teen. He'd have taken Yusaku's body to a facility of his own but his copies were still working on it. He wouldn't have minded letting Yusaku die in the physical world if it meant they could be together permanently in this one but there was a strong part of him that didn't want to see him die again, in either world.

Ai didn't have time to sit around contradicting himself though. There were a lot more pieces for him to still collect. Thus he gently moves Yusaku off him as the two on screen leave the apartment. He has a couple pieces he wants to grab while those two are preoccupied. Before he leaves he takes a moment to wonder if all this might give the poor hot dog vendor some kind of heart condition. Humans are fragile things after all.

Chapter Text

Jin's pov

Shouichi calls to tell him to go home, lock himself in the house and wait for him to come home. There was the added unplug everything in the house bit that made Jin think maybe his brother was high and experiencing extreme paranoia. But he did most of what was asked of him, He went home and locked up the house but decided to settle down in the living room to watch some tv. His brother has been extremely over protective of him after he was allowed to leave the hospital somethng that's starting to annoy him and not being given a reason to essentially bunker down wasn't helping.

Thumbing through channels isn't the best distraction from Shouichi's strange behavior. His brother freaks out whenever Jin goes for something yellow for goodness sakes. Once when he grabbed a banana while they were shopping his brother snatched it and throw it into a stack of onions across the store. A worker in the department at the time told them they had to leave embarrassing them both and causing Jin to try yet again to get his brother to him what happened to make him so crazy. Jin was the one in the hospital he should be the one acting crazy but no it's the other way around and no one wants to tell him why. He was getting riled up thinking about this so he forgoes looking for something to watch for looking for something to eat. The best thing that comes from having a cook for a brother is there's always something good in the fridge. He can handle a little crazy if it means they're not living off hot dogs.

He gets up to grab some left over egg drop soup out of the fridge to heat it up. While its in the microwave he notices the tv sounding louder then it should be. He tries to ignore it as the news station he left it on always has audio issues. But then it gets to high so he goes back to the living room to turn it down.

Then he freezes because there's a stranger sitting in a chair by the tv grinning at him. His first reaction is to step back and try to run away because no one who breaks into someone's house is there for a good reason. Especially one who looks like he might be a member of one of those weird satanic cults the news likes to report about. But before he even turns around something cold grips his wrist. There's some bizarre black and purple tentacle like thing tucking him back towards the stranger. “Aww it's not very nice to run away from your guest” coos the man as whatever appendage that has a hold of him pulls him closer to the stranger,

Jins still refuses to say anything as he struggles to try to get away. “Honestly Jin, I just wanted to visit you when your actually conscious and not walking around as Lightnings play thing,” the man pouts actually looking sad. But that just solidifies Jin's theory that this man is an escaped mental patient and that he should call the police to come get him. Of course that doesn't explain the tentacle that's currently leading him back to the couch that is somehow coming from somewhere behind the man's cape but Jin's brain is currently dealing with to much to think about that. “Who are you,” Jin finally chooses to ask. The stranger has this mock expression of hurt before crossing his legs and siting back in the chair like he owns the place. “I'm Ai, a dear friend of your brother's and of Lightning” then the other grimaces a bit “Though it's not like you remember him though, after all Shoichi doesn't want you to know anything about that also we actually have meet before under truly awful circumstances but still” the other explains. As much as he knows he should keep struggling to get away that peeks Jin's interest while he's forced to sit on the couch close to the stranger.

The man clearly can tell he's got Jin attention now. “If you must know I'm an advanced A.I., one of six created from six children who were used as subjects in an illegal experiment about ten years ago” The teen blinks because clearly this guy is on another level. But somewhere deep down there's a part of wants to know more about this story. So instead of answering he nodes his head. The man waves his hand over to a purple string that's connecting him to the television. And maybe Jin is the one that got high because he's starting to believe the stranger. “I'm not here to hurt you I would just like to show you the memories you're missing and I know that your brother is instant on never telling you anything about what happened to you”he finishes watching him carefully. Hearing about this Lightning person gives him brief flashes of an angry squishy yellow creature and it eggs him on to hear more. “Tell me about lightning” he demands. Ai looks smug for a moment. “You see Ai would but I'm running out of time and your brother will be here shortly, so I can show and it'll go much faster or you can continue to be haunted by those blank spaces in your mind” hes getting up from the chiar “I wont have another chance to do this again knowing how over protective your brother is” he finishes going back to the tv, the appendage that was wrapped around Jin's wrist uncurling before vanishing into his cape.

Jin is tired of not knowing what's going on and some part of him truly believes what the stranger is saying. “Wait show me, I need to know” he says as the other is bending down somehow making his arm disappear into the tv. Ai looks surprised as he pulls out of the tv and get up to move over to the other side of the couch Jin is sitting on. The joyous expression on the others face is a little disconcerting but Jin doesn't have time to think about it as a hand appears in front of his face. The last thing he sees is a pair of glowing eyes before everything fades to black.

Ai's pov

Not wanting to harm the now unconscious teen Ai moves to lay him down on the couch before turning back to the tv. The whole episode with Lightning showed him that A.I.'s like them and Bowman could be real in the physical world without a body for set amount of time without being connected to a duel disk though they still need to be connected to something. With that idea proven he was off to get a certain red head who should still be in school.

Miyu's pov

Why did she let the school administrators talk her into taking evening classes to make up for the school she missed while she was in the hospital! And why did she agree to be the one who stays after class to clean up after everyone left! This place was scary when all the lights were off in the hallways and barely anyone else was around. She continues to whine to herself as she clears off the teacher's desk. So much for her plans to ask Aoi to hang out after school with her so they can spend more time together after all those year apart. Miyu smiled thinking about her friend she was so glad to have her back in her life especially now when she needed someone to help her readjust to the world.

Then she hears something in the hallway which causes her to flinch. She's seen too many horror movies to not be terrified by that kind of thing so she tries to ignore it because maybe it's just another teacher leaving for the day. Then while she's putting away some supplies in a cabinet in the back she hears something behind her, something electron has turned itself on. She turns around to see the projector loading something onto the screen which scares her into trying to get out of the class room as fast as she can. Who cares if it just some idiot trying to pull a prank this is just mean she wants no part of it. Aoi mentioned once that people liked to prank others with jump scare type images and such and Miyu was scared easily.

As she's thinking about that, she goes to open the door considering her options on how best to lecture whatever idiot spent the time to mess with her like this. Then something curls around her ankle and she trips against the door. Positive it's just some jerk messing with her now she turns her body over and leans against the door to see who it is. The thing that has a hold of her ankle is weird and black with some purple design on it. It appears to be trailing out of the projector lens. So she kicks and tries to get away from it before she glances at the screen to see a man projected on it that is looking in her direction but that's not something that's possible. He's dressed up in fancy clothes and has strangely apologetic expression. “My apologize Miyu, Ai hadn't meant for this to go as roughly as it has but there's not much I can do in such a cold place” comes a voice which she thinks belongs to the man because his lips are moving as it talks. The projections shrugs abit and Miyu tries to get up again but is pulled back down by the thing holding her.

“I was hoping that we'd meet under better conditions considering I'd like to get the know the person my dear Aqua was based on” The voices says sounding just as sad as the now slumping stranger on the projection looks. “Aqua?” she questions him. Aoi talked to her after she got out of the hospital about a little blue creature named Aqua that linked them together while she was still unconscious. Her friend always has this melancholy expression on her face when Miyu tries to ask about what happened to Aqua. They did talk alittle about everything that went on, Aoi told her alittle about her time going up against the A.I. That put the red head in the hospital in the first place and Miyu told her some of what people seem to be calling the lost incident was like for her.

“Oh so Blue Madien actually talked to you about her” pipes the projection moving a hand up to the screen like a mirror. Then there's a purple aura around the screen before the figure of the man jumps from the screen onto the title floor she's still sitting on. Miyu considers for a second that she hit her head falling against the door and was hallucinating due to some kind of concussion. The man gives her a sorrowful expression as he moves to stand up straighter. He's biting his lip thinking about something But Miyu doesn't intend to find out what it is after she notices the tentacles holding her ankle vanished at some point. She scurries up and grabs for the door handle only to have her wrist grabbed by something similar to what caught her ankle only this one seemed to becoming from somewhere in the stranger's cape.

“I really am sorry about this, If you give me a few minutes to talk to you I'll let you go without a fuss” claims the stranger. “Take a seat for a moment please, I'll release my grip when you do” he adds still frowning and having the gull to look so damn miserable when she's the one being held captive. She chooses instead to scream loudly surely there's someone else in the building that can hear her and come help her. Frustratingly the other just smiles sadly at her “I don't know how much I can apologize for this but screaming wont help I made sure no one else was around before I started trying to talk to you”

Fed up and annoyed Miyu decides her best option now is to listen to the man and then try to get away as soon as he leave. So shes takes a seat at the desk close to the door as he suggested. The thing around her arm lets go and retreats into the shadows of his cape. The man himself opts to sit on the floor in front of the desk she's at with his head propped on his knees. Still aggravated she refuses to say anything to her captor. “This isn't the best way to start this conversation but how much do you know about Aqua?” he asks perking up one eyebrow. “Not much” she replies flatly. “I figured as much considering Aoi didn't know all that much about Aqua when her data was absorbed and deleted by Bowman.” he replies. She's kind of interested in this cause Aoi didn't tell her much about it and she didn't want to poke at something that might open old wounds for the brunette. “In human terms Aqua would have been my sister in a way”he says quietly. This time it was her turn to raise an eyebrow causing the other to let out a small laugh. “While there's a good a spot as any to start” the man states moving around to sit criss cross with his hands in his lap. “I'm the dark Ignis or as my partner so nicely named me, Ai,”. “ Aqua, me and the rest of our family were created from six kids during an experiment everyone now calls the lost incident” he pauses for a second “Aqua was the one based on your experiences during that time, as awful as they must have been she was probably the sweetest thing ever” Ai finishes looking mournful.

As much as she shouldn't sympathize with the person holding her captive inside there's a part of her that feels like it's missing and hearing about Aqua makes the feeling more intense. “Tell me about Aqua then if she's what all this is about,”She finally says. He looks at her with a small smile “I could show you instead, I'm sure Aoi hasn't found a way to show you what she looked like”. Feeling indigent about him slightly insulting the brunette she crosses her arms and glares. Leading him to raise his hand in surrender. “I didn't mean to suggest anything by that but I would like to show you, I'm sure your curious about it too because of how your were connected to Aqua.” Then she takes a minute to consider his offer, might as well get something out of all this nonsense he's put her through just to talk to her. “Alright show me” she commands causing him to jump up with this really strange happy expression. It's kind of off putting but she doesn't get to say anything about it as she's meet with glowing eyes before the world around her fades away.

Ai's pov

He steps back to lean against the white board behind him to collect himself. If there was another way to get to Miyu without someone else around he would of done so but there wasn't and he had to be more aggressive then he would of liked. But he'll make it up to her once she's settled into her new home in his world with Yusaku and Jin. For now she'll have to settle for hating him especially since he doubts the projection would last long enough to take her into the nurses office to lay her on one of the sick beds. He moves her to the teachers more comfortable rolly chair before using the computer at the desk to check for the janitor or the one teacher that was in fact still in the building and was on his way up to check if Miyu had gone home yet. He also manipulated the camera feed to make it seem like the girl was just tired and fell asleep at the desk instead of talking to him. Once he finishes with the computer he goes back into the projector screen. Moving around the Physical world was easy when there was always something connected to the internet everywhere but there were still limitation to what he could do and he had to figure out ways to get to everyone else he wanted in his world. For now though he would take the time to integrate his latest editions into it so they'll feel more at home there.

Chapter Text

Yusaku's pov

“The tower of Brahma or the Tower of Hanoi...” There's a voice talking but the open sky around him is clear of anyone else. Around him there's only flowing streams of purple and blue diverting in several different directions. It's strange but being here is familiar somehow. “Yusaku” a new voice calls. He knows he's half asleep and in class but he doesn't want to stop dreaming about the strange winds. “Yusaku” now there's a different voice this one higher pitched. He grumbles at whoever it was trying to wake him up. “Honestly Yusaku he shouldn't sleep in class so much” complains the first voice while the second one is giggling.

Slightly annoyed for being woken up he sits up in his chair to see who it is. Takeru and Miyu are standing in front of his desk. Class must be over then, he slept through the bell, again. Miyu's has her hand in front of her face trying to hide the facts she's still laughing. While Takeru looks a little irritated. The other teen really is in no position to talk he's not exactly an exemplary student. “Come on you two we should leave everyone else has already left for the day” Miyu tells them as she goes to leave them behind.

Takeru shakes his head at him and follows her out of the classroom. He's should leave too, he needs to pick up Roboppi in about a half hour from school. Ai will lecture him for hours on safety if Yusaku lets the younger walk home alone. Takeru is out in the hall way waiting for him but Miyu must have been in hurry because she was no where in sight. But there's something off about Takeru whose standing there zoned out. “Takeru” Yusaku says flatly. It takes a minute but the other teen blinks and comes back. “Sorry” he replies. They walk in silence until they reach the gate outside. “Hey, want to come over for a bit ,” the red head asks. “Sorry you know how my brother is, he'll kill me if I don't pick up Roboppi and you know the rules when it comes to me hanging out with people” He replies. Ai is strict when it comes to him and Roboppi hanging around with other people. It probably stems from what happened a few years ago but some times he wishes his brother would at least tone it down when Yusaku wants to hang out with his friends.

“Yeah, I forget sometimes how overprotective Ai can be when it comes to you two” Takeru laughs. “Well I should get home then, try not to stay up all night on the computer again” the other teen calls sprinting the other way waving. Then there's that off feeling again for a second it feels like a scene replaying itself. Maybe it's dejavu because Takeru repeats the same waving sprinting motion before he disappears into the distance. Or he really should learn to sleep at night in stead of playing with various programs he finds online. He waves it of as just being tired and walks in the direction of the middle school. He gets to the gates of the school and he takes out his phone to check the time, the school should be out in a few minutes.

So he stands there looking out at the sky away from the other people waiting for the bell to ring. The mostly clear sky reminds him of the dream he had earlier in class about riding the winds in the open skies, it leaves a odd feeling of peace. Then he's hit with the force of a somewhat small child running into him. It will be a long walk if anyone let this hyperactive creature have caffeine. “Big brother” shouts Roboppi in his usual happy tone. He wiggles an arms out of the others hold enough to ruffle the smaller ones blue hair. “Hello Roboppi,” he greets smiling at his little brother, despite his usually detached nature he can't help but lighten up around this little ball of energy. “Guess what we did in school today?” Roboppi shouts letting go of Yusaku to jump up and down. “What,” he inquires turning to start home.

Takeru's pov

“Takeru if you don't stop pacing your going to pace a hole in the floor,” Kusanagi says from his seat down the hall. He'd just come back from calling Jin after the doctor told them to wait while they run some tests. Not having a definitive answer to what's going on is driving him crazy. Was it Ai who hurt Yusaku or did the teen have some kind of condition that none of them knew about or … “How about you come with me to get Jin, it'll probably be better than driving yourself crazy waiting,” the other suggests. Kusangi would know he has experience with situations like this. So Takeru nodes at him and they leave the hospital. The drive isn't bad it's just weird seeing the usually upbeat man so frustrated.

They arrive at the Kusangi residence and the man unlocks the door calling for his brother. “Jin, Jin” Takeru calls too. He hasn't really meet Jin before outside some brief interactions at the cafe but it's enough that the other should respond to it. Kusanagi goes in the direction of the living room while Takeru decides to see if Jin might be in one of the bedrooms. There's a creeping feeling in his spine as he does because of what happened earlier. Fortunately and unfortunately for him no one is in them. Then Kusanagi screams. So he rushes off the living room. Jin is laying on the couch as if he's sleeping just like Yusaku was but this time it's the purple haired teen who's not responding to his brother's efforts to wake him. Takeru's heart is trying to escape again judging by how fast it's beating. But he wants to try to comfort the older man but he's frozen in place while Kusanagi gets his phone out to call an ambulance for the second time that day.

After the vendor gets off the phone he goes off to a room to the side of the living room and closes the door. After a few seconds Takeru can hear the sounds of stuff being thrown around and broken. Able to move again he goes over to the couch. Two people out cold with no signs of outside distress, it had to be Ai but why, the ignis clearly didn't want to hurt either of them since both Yusaku and Jin were left unharmed physically. The noises of distress from the other room calm down but Kusanagi doesn't come out. He doesn't blame the man, Takeru has done similar things when he was angry. His temper was part of the reason his grandfather insisted on training him. Eventually the door to the room opens up again the the purple haired man walks out still looking upset but probably a fraction of bit more calm then he'd been before.

They stand in the living in silence waiting for the ambulance to arrive to get Jin. Then everything happens like it's on repeat; the paramedics come in and get Jin, they follow them to the hospital and the doctor tells them it'll be some time before they're finished running tests. Latter, rinse, repeat. As they're sitting in the waiting room a couple of officers come up to them. “Excuse me sir can we have a minute with you,” one asks staring at Kusanagi. “Officer?” the man says confused. “It's nothing we'd just like to ask you a few questions that's all” the second one says this time. Kusanagi gets up to go with them. Takeru's had some experience with a few officers so he can guess why they want to speak with the vendor. There are two kids in the hospital for unknown reasons the same day called in by the same man, it's not that hard to put two and two together.

The desire to hit something bubbles under his skin. At least that would be doing something other then waiting. Instead he chooses to go for a walk around the hospital until he doesn't know where he is. Once he realizes that he turns to walk to a nearby nurses' station. As he's walking passed another hallway he accidentally runs into someone. “Sorry,”says a familiar voice. It's Aoi she's in the hospital too and she looks like she might have been crying not that long ago. “Aoi?” he asks. “Takeru, why are you here?” she asks confused. It's understandable a few hours ago they'd both been in school and it'd been a normal day. “It's Yusaku as well as Kusanagi's younger brother” he trails off staring at the ground. “What happened to Yusaku!” she asks little too loudly, it echoes through the hallway around them.

“We're not sure both Yuskau and Jin were unconscious for some reason when we found them” he's still looking at the floor as he tells her this. “Miyu's in the room over there for the same reason, a teacher found her unconscious after her evening class” Aoi tells him pointing down the hall. That makes three people that have been hospitalized mysteriously, no three kids all of which were involved in the lost incident just like he was. It has to be Ai but what is Ignis up to and why. Then the white walls around him start to blur some and he's having trouble breathing. The hall ways around him is starting to shape into that room that seemed to stretch on forever. He's feeling claustrophobic. “Takeru” says a concerned voice but it's fuzzy. “Sir, are you alright,” another voices yells. “Sir count to ten with me,” the same voice tells him.
“1...2..3..4..5...6..7..8..9..10” they say together. His vision starts to clear up but his heart still needs some time to calm down. Aoi and a nurse are standing next to him looking concerned. The other voice must have been the nurse. “Sir are you alright?” the nurse asks. “Thank you, I okay now” he replies knowing the nurse isn't going to believe him. “You should still let one of us examine you to make sure everything is okay” the nurse suggests but the look on her face says it's an order and it is to be followed. “She's right Takeru maybe you should let someone look you over, I'll come talk to you when the're done,” Aoi says as she turns to go down the hall towards where she said Miyu's room is.

"If it's alright can you check my hearts beat and stuff in my friends room the doctor said they would be done around this time” he pleads with the nurse. The nurse looks like she wants to say no but her expression changes suddenly. “Alright as long as the doctor is okay with it, there shouldn't be an issue, Where is your friends room” she inquires. “I don't know but his name is Fujiki if it helps” He replies shyly, he's kind of useless sometimes. But the nurse just nodes and gestures him to following her. She leads him to a room that a few halls over from where he was. “Okay so I will be back in a second wait here” she states in that same commending tone. He's complies going to take a seat beside Yusaku's bed.

He's had enough for one day so he crosses his arms over the bed and lays his head down. It's nice to get a moment of peace. Of course, the bleeping universe hates him because he hears the door open so he begrudgingly sits back up. “Hello Takeru” sings a familiar voice. Just kill him now he's had done with this insanity. Ai walks in and closes the door. He has on some dark purple scrubs and a black turtleneck with his hair tied back, altogether he looks like a nurse. Still Takeru is fed up with everything right now “Ai what the fuck!?” he yells at the android, slamming his fists into the bed avoid hitting the bed's occupant. Oh fuck Ai better say something because standing over there looking like a sad puppy is just fueling Takeru's anger. Ai remains silent as he moves to the other side of Yusaku's bed giving the unconscious teen a mixed look. “I didn't mean for things to affect you as badly as they have” he states still looking down at Yusaku. “What were you expecting to happen!” he growls. “I apologize for how it's affected you, I wasn't expecting for all this to happen but im not sorry for what I'm doing.” The android states now looking at him , gold eyes staring intensely at Takeru.

Takeru is too angry to think straight so he growls at the other. Ai is completely unfazed as he walks around the bed to stand next to Takeru. “Hate me if you want, I don't mind” the looming soltis says still peering into him. Then something clicks last time he'd seen Ai, the other had said something similar. Ai wanted Takeru to hate him for some reason and right now he kind of does. The looming figure steps back and sits on the edge of the hospital bed. “Ai why are you doing all this, from what I can tell you don't want to hurt anyone but what are you doing with they're consciousness?” he asks the fire in him dying down leaving him feeling tired. The other smiles sadly at him. “You're right I don't want to hurt anyone, I just have to live with the nasty side effects as I work to make things better for everyone.” Ai mumbles with a worn expression.

“I can show you what I've been doing if you want” the other continues looking just as defeated as the teen feels. Takeru wishes he still felt the fire from a few minutes ago but he knows Ai, they're friends so he has hard time being angry at the other when he just wants to know why. “Alright, Ai show me I want to know” he says feeling slightly less worn out. Ai's expressions seems to switch back and forth between mournful and excited a few times but Takeru doesn't get a chance to ask as glowing gold eyes and a hand invade his vision. Things turn black very quickly after that.

Ai's Pov

He positions his elbow on his knees and puts his head in his hands. He meant it when he said he would live with the consequences but they were painful. Ai's been watching over the hospital from the surveillance room for the last few hours. He saw Kusanagi go outside with the police and get interrogated roughly. He'd seen Aoi rush into the hospital after she got the news about Miyu. The brunette cried for awhile by her friends side before pushing those feeling down and going to get something from the cafeteria. He'd seen Takeru freeze up in the hallway in the way Yusaku would occasionally and watching it all happen cut into him. But he has to suck it up for now and get back to the surveillance room. Ai can still help Kusanagi out. He gets up and sets Takeru into the resting state he was in before Ai walked in. All of this was for the best after all, he just has to stick the rest out for his happy ending. Still though he should take tomorrow off so he can finally spend time with his family, everyone else on his list can wait he thinks before leaving the room.

Chapter Text

Aoi's pov

Maybe she should have stayed with Takeru. The other teen is clearly having trouble dealing with whatever is going on. He could also answer some questions she has about everything How are Yusaku and the hot dog vendor's brother in the hospital? Was it Ai did he do the same thing he did to her brother to both of them? Was he the one who put Miyu in a coma again? She knows the A.I. Is still grieving the loss of his family but why is he going after his friends like this? Doesn't he see that he's hurting them doing all this?

She's over thinking things but there isn't much else she can do Akria and Emma are in the hospital too. Aoi should go home to work on her school work rather than staying here. But the idea of going home to her empty apartment isn't all that appealing either. Going outside to get some fresh air would probably be a good idea, though. So, she gives Miyu one more dejected look before going out into the hallway again. As she's walking, there's some kind of alert over the intercom. When she goes a few more steps down the hall a bunch of the hospital stuff come running down the hallway with a bed and a patient. Time seems slows for a moment the patient, their rushing down the hallway is a familiar silver and red haired boy. Did Takeru have some kind of attack or something like he did earlier? “Excuse us,” Shouts a nurse trying to get by her.

Aoi grabs one of the nurses rushing passed her without thinking. “Excuse me, that boy is a friend of mine, is he alright?” She asks him trying to sound as polite as possible. “Sorry Miss but you will have to wait for a doctor speak to you about this” He replies then rushes off. It's kind of annoying being told to wait again and again. She follows after them anyway to get some kind of answer. As she's walking passed a desk a particular nurse catches her attention she only gets a glimpse of them but the dark purple scrubs and black and gold hair caught her attention. …..Black and gold hair, Ai! She runs to the door the nurse with into but it's locked. That's so frustrating, her chance of getting an answer from the source just slipped by her. Stupidly she decides to bang on the door to vent her frustration.

“Aoi are you alright?” Asks a voice. Off to the right of her is the Hot dog vendor with a couple of police officers. The officers keep walking down the hallway in the direction Takeru went. “Yeah, sorry, I didn't mean to do that,” she replies pulling off a fake pleasant smile. Judging by his expression, the man doesn't buy it. The man somehow understands the brick wall that is Yusaku, so he's probably pretty good at reading people. “Where do I start?" she sighs. “How about with something from the cafeteria or some place nearby it's getting late and I'm guessing you haven't eaten anything,” he says. She can't help but to smile hearing that, he sounds just like her older brother. “The Cafeteria is good, it's a lot closer,” she replies. He nodes before going in the direction of the elevator.

The trip down to the cafeteria is fine, neither of them say anything but what kind of small talk can you make when you have a chaotic A.I on the loose. He offers to pay for her meal, but she turns it down, she's rich after all, might as pay for her own cheap hospital food. So, they find a table in a deserted part of the cafeteria.

“I saw Ai, or at least I think saw Ai so I ran for the door you found me standing in front of but the door was locked by the time I got there” She rushes out placing her fork down. He looks surprised. “What do you mean you saw Ai?” he inquires. “At first I wasn't sure but there was this nurse in dark purple scrubs and they had black and gold hair and it just click,” She tells him. She's starting to feel a bit self-conscious because what if it wasn't Ai. Looking into her lap “Before that there was some medical staff going by with one of those moving bed and Takeru was on it and I thought maybe he had an attack like he had when I'd seen him earlier but,,,,” she starts crying in frustration. The man's expression goes from shocked to angry before settling on concerned. He reaches out and places a hand on her shoulder to offer her comfort. “Don't worry, we'll figure things out but in the meantime you should finish your food, being hungry will just make everything worse,” he says reassuringly.

“Why were the police with you earlier?” she stutters a bit. She hates crying like this especially in public. “They think I had something to do with putting my brother and Yusaku in the hospital, so they wanted to ask me some questions” the man replies looking agitated. And now there's something wrong with Takeru so they might also blame him for that. But since there are a bunch of other people here for the same reason they can't blame him, at least not for everyone. Like the bad luck they've both been having all day one of the police officers from earlier comes up to their table. “Sorry to interrupt you both but I'd like to ask if you've seen this man,” The officers questions. placing the tablet in his hand on the table. It's a still frame of a white haired man in a pink shirt and blue jean and a white coat. The vendor's expression starts to scrunch up “Never seen him before,” he replies. The officer walks off without getting an answer from her, kind of rude but she'll take not having to deal with him too.

Her companion sighs heavily and sinks back into his chair like he's relieved but also exhausted. At some point she should probably ask his name. Right now, she wants to interrogate him a little. Something tells her, he knows the man in the picture. “If you want to know the guy in the picture is Ryoken Kogami, but you know him by a different name,” he states crossing his arms and turning serious. Aoi wants to know what gave away what was going on in her head. She blinks before getting it together again. “How do I know him?” She inquires. Aoi seems to keep finding herself in situations where she's the one being kept in the dark. While the vendor, Yusaku and probably Takeru know about her and whatever's been happening over the last couple years. Hell It's only by Yusaku's own admission that she and her brother know who Playmaker is and by default Soulburner and Unnamed are. They had their suspicions, but Aoi wasn't expecting to get any kind of conformation, even if Akira found out he likely wouldn't have told her.
“Because that's Revolver.”

Clarissa's Pov

The door to they're small computer room on the ship opens to let Aso in. “Alright, Spectre has finally dragged Ryoken outside for some fresh air,” he announces. She and Genome laugh. They're “Leader” has been obsessively working to fix Pandor after it's duel with the Dark Ignis in hopes the A.I. Will continue to be useful in their efforts to stop the Ignis. It's about time he took a break and Spectre is the only one with the ability to get him to stop for more than five minutes. So, the new arrival takes his seat next to her to resume searching.

“Get over here now,” Genome exclaims. Did he find it? “What is it Genome?” Aso asks as they get over to the other's side. “Look” the green haired man says pulling up a news article.“What?” she exclaims. “Currently police are looking for this man. He's believed to be involved in harming a patient at Den City Hospital.” “If you see him or have any information please contact the local police department” explains the news casting standing next to the photo of the suspect. It's Ryoken in some hospital room. “I found some leak surveillance footage too,” Genome continues bringing up a different video. If it weren't for the fact their leader has been cooped up on the boat with them she might have given the whole thing a brief thought. It definitely looks like the white-haired man but why would he go after the other teen in a hospital. Then there's pause between all three of them. The two teens in the room with Ryoken were part of the lost incident. What is going on? “We need to get a hold of Ryoken or Spectre,” Aso declares getting it together faster then she and Genome.

The screen in front of them flickers to get their attention. “I'm not doing that” the man seated in front of them says. The screen pulls up a black video feed with two sharp glowing eyes and a malicious smile. As a hacker she's seen a lot of creepy stuff people have put on the internet just to troll unsuspecting individuals but this was getting to her for some reason. Aso ever quick to react though goes for the door. But something whips out of the computer and grabs all of them, stopping him in the process. The black material shoves her a few feet away from Genome while the man is tossed into the wall behind him. The expression on their cohort's face is quickly turning to frighten by whatever is on the computer in front of him. Each of them is struggling to get free without any luck.

Then a strong purple light comes out of the computer screen before more black material inches out in a snake like fashion. She can see the things glaring gold eye staring at Genome like the man is going to be a good snack. In a flash it opens its jagged month and devours him. Aso is staring at it in horror and while she's in shock. What is this thing? The thing recoils back towards the computer and Genome's body thuds onto the floor. As he falls the monster collapses into a mess of boiling black materials. Ever so slowly it bubbles up to a height taller then her before reshaping into a humanoid form. Now instead of the black form, the Dark Ignis is standing in its place, the appendages holding her and Aso coming from somewhere behind its cape.

They've been right to go after it; this thing is a monster. “You know you really should get your security settings checked for gaps more often.” It says with a vexing tone. It's just standing there watching them with crossed arms like it's expecting something. Aso pushes against the tentacle holding him to grab for the door again. The A.I. watching him scowls and snaps it's fingers. The blue haired man is thrown into the wall on the opposite side as the tentacle snaps back. She feels hopeless about the situation, only being able to wiggle in the constricting grasp around her. “What do you want, Monster?" The man shouts. Something tells her that was the wrong thing to do.

The thing walks over to where Aso held before stopping in front of him. Defiantly he tries to look away from it but his head is forced to look directly at it. “If I'm a monster maybe, you should have named your avatar Frankenstein instead of Faust.” It sneers. She can't see what's going on anymore because it moved to block her line of sight. All she can see is the back of it's head and cape. “We were...” Aso was cut off and the thing steps back seemingly to appreciate what it's done as the man falls to the ground. “Right to go after my family and me because our existence will lead to humanities destruction.” it continues mockingly before turning to her. “And you, you're not much of a doctor are you, continuously breaking your oath again and again like that,” it jeers with an accusatory glare. “You're the monster hurting people,” She screams finally finding her voice.

It laughs as it gets closer to her. “We've already been over this,” it says with a casual shrug. This A.I. Is something else. She doesn't have time to think about that, though. She needs to get away before whatever is holding her squeezes the air out of her lungs. “What do you want?" she gasps finding it harder to breathe. “I want a better world for the people who you hurt during the incident, but a little vengeance for myself and everyone else you've hurt since is a plus” it chirps with that same malicious smile from earlier. Creating this thing was the biggest mistake any of them have ever made. “Oh don't be like that, you're the one who made a deal with the devil along with them,” it moves its arms to gesture to her to unconscious comrades before continuing “Now it's time you all pay your due.” It grins inhumanity wide before she's blinded by a gold light.

Aoi pov

A laugh erupts from his chest as the woman slumps down to the floor. Maybe he went overboard with the literary references but they were fitting, after all Dr. Kogami really was a demon in disguise. And still the knights went on to more horrible things after the man was gone. Ai really wants to delete them, but for now he'll hold on to them in case they come in handy getting to Spectre or Revolver. Speaking of the Hanoi leader, he really wants to see the footage he doctored yesterday, of the teen being in the hospital room with Takeru instead of him. It should make Kusanagi happy knowing that the police will being looking at someone else. Still even with that he would have liked to stay home with Yusaku and Roboppi today. Thinking of his origin he should check to see how Takeru is adjust to things. Yusaku seemed to notice the fake one glitching yesterday so he needs to make sure the real one is settled in to keep from running into problems from either of the teens. So, he slips away leaving the news feed on loop for the plant loving shade and his master to find.

Chapter Text

Takeru's pov

Something has been off since he woke up this morning. Everything today has been normal; his alarm woke him up, and he got ready and went to school, nothing out of the ordinary and yet. The strangest part was how much he wants a hot dog from Cafe Nagi. Kusanagi makes a good hot dog but still. He's probably hungry since a certain blue haired teen fell asleep on him like a cat. Honestly, Yusaku should learn to go to bed at a decent time so he wont be used as a pillow anymore. “Takeru, you want to get a hot dog?” The teen walking next to him asks. “You read my mind,” he laughs. “No, Your stomach has been growling since the bell rang” Yusaku remarks dryly.“Wait, what about your brother don't you have to pick him up from school?” Takeru asks stopping. Hold up Yusaku doesn't have any family, he's an orphan. Takeru blinks, that's not right his friend has two brothers whom he's met multiple times. Why would he think such an awful thing? “Takeru are you alright,” the other teen inquires.

“Sorry I think I'm just tired but you didn't answer my question, won't Ai get mad if Roboppi walks home alone?”he questions back.“Roboppi got out early today so him and Ai are supposed to be out doing something together.” Yusaku states resuming the walk towards the courtyard they were headed for. Those two were always up to trouble when Yusaku wasn't around. It's funny somehow the blue haired teen was the reasonable one in the family. Ai and Roboppi are like partners in crime...there's a flash of Ai seated in a chair appearing villainous with Roboppi standing at his side looking as happy go lucky as ever.

While he's caught up in his head Yusaku yanks him over a few inches. “Maybe you should go home Takeru,” Yusaku advises pointedly staring at the trashcan he would of tripped over. With how the whole day has just felt off that would be a good idea. “Your right, as usual,” he mutters. The other gives him a slightly amused look. “I'll buy you a hot dog tomorrow to make up for using you as a pillow earlier,” Yusaku offers.“I'll hold you to that, later then Yusaku,” he says turning around to start home. “Later, Takeru” he hears behind him.

But as he's walking, something tells him to go towards the bad side of town instead, the crappy apartment he's staying in while in Den City is jammed into a mess of decrepit buildings in the other direction. He frowns. No, he lives in a nice building with his parents not fear from the school. Thinking about his parents reminds him of the photographic his grandparents have in their house of them. His mouth starts twisting around because he's having trouble remembering their faces in that picture. Its starting to worry him out a bit after the odd feeling he's had all day. He ends up running home wanting to make sure his parents were okay. Takeru gets into the door of the apartment and tumbles down trying to catch his breath.

“Takeru are you alright?” questions a familiar electronic voice. Flame his brain supplies. “I'm fine, give me a moment,” he replies looking over to the little red creature floating over to him. Glancing at the other gives him sense of guilt and grief that forces him look away. He's going crazy, isn't he? Flame decides to perch on his shoulder. “I highly doubt you're alright, your on the floor out of breath,” Flame counters.“Thanks for the vote of confidence Flame,”Takeru drones. “I'm sorry perhaps I should of phased it like this” he does a fake cough.“Oh my precious Takeru you shouldn't push yourself so hard” Flame beams, his voice progressively getting higher. This creature, sometimes Flame is impossible to deal with. “Hey Flame are my parents home yet?” he asks ignoring the blatant sarcasm. “They're on a business trip remember, they'll be back in a few days” his partner replies.

Partner... He and flame were standing against some muscular weirdo when Flame tells him, he believes in their future before they end up losing, Flame didn't come back with Takeru after everything was said and done. Alarmed the teen stares at the small creature on his shoulder, something is very, very wrong.

Ai's pov.

“Big bro there is nothing wrong with you, stop asking me to check for viruses” the smaller A.I. whines.“There has to be if I want to include them!” he exclaims. It's a great thing they're off in an unfinished part of his world or that would have gotten a few looks. “You said you wanted to help the kids affected by the incident” Roboppi pouts. He's adorable, but he will not fall for the cuteness. Ai crosses his arms defensively. “Alright then how to you supposed I go about doing so?” he asks sharply. It's not like he'll be welcomed with open arms especially after that revenge trip against the Generals. At the moment every scenario in his mind ends with him being devoured by some kind of mutant plant. “You could lure them here,” the other suggests.Scanning the unfinished woods to the side of them, he gets an idea. “Hey Roboppi want to help me with something?” he inquires. “I want a hot dog first” Roboppi demands.“Alright, We'll go get hotdogs,”he chuckles. His minion might as well be a small child sometimes. While with the help of everyones memories they've been able to make food with actual taste, they still don't need to eat. But Roboppi likes to go Cafe Nagi because it remembers him of going outside for the first time with Yusaku.

“Come on then,” he says grabbing the others hand to lead them away. As they're walking along Roboppi lets go of his hand and runs off. Why that little... “Roboppi!” he yells. About a minute later there's a howl from someone nearby. May that little demon have mercy on whoever he's got now.

The ill-fated victim ended up being Takeru. The poor teen was somehow flat on the sidewalk with Roboppi sitting on top of him. It's best not to wonder too much about how this happened. He slaps his hand over his face. “Get off of him,” he orders. There's a groan of agreement from the teen trying to get up. The blue haired A.I. Huffs and forces his chair back down. “No,” Roboppi challenges. Okay, he's done with this, Ai walks over and looms over the little demon before pulling him off Takeru. “You alright?” he asks. But Takeru looks at him bugged eyed before scrabbling to get away.“See, that's why I did that,” Roboppi remarks sticking his tongue out at Ai before running after the distraught teenager. That's one way to find an anomaly in the programming of this world. …It was probably Flame, adding the fire Ignis most likely reminded the teen of his old life.

He needs to get to Takeru before Roboppi traps him again. He's turning a corner when Roboppi calls “Big Bro he's over here.” Welp too late for that. Takeru is on the floor again with the small A.I grinning in triumphant on top of the poor teen. Ai moves slowly over to them and bends down in front of Takeru. “You know running off like that doesn't instill a lot of confidence in the idea that you're doing alright,” he says calmly. “Ai, umm, ahh,” he stutters off making more random sounds. Ai frowns, he really doesn't want to mess to much with Takeru data. It was bad enough when Blood shepherd went through his memories. Still though it'll need to be done.

”Takeru why don't you stay the night with us, I'm sure Yusaku will be happy to have you over? he suggests hoping the mention of the other teen would help calm him down. He gestured for Roboppi to move. “Sorry I ran away, I've just been freaking out all day,” the teen gasps out.“It's alright,” he coos standing up and offers the other a hand. The yellow gleam in Takeru's eyes from his own leaves a bitter taste in his mouth. But It's easier on them both when the teen is docile and isn't feeling like he's going crazy. Ai will have to fix the teens memories once they get home. Once Takeru gets up, Ai places a hand on the teens shoulder directing him back to their apartment.

Aoi's Pov

“What!” she jumps up screaming. It attracts the attention of the other people in the cafeteria. “you know who Revolver is.” she whispers sounding accusing but sinking back into her chair. She doesn't want the officers to come back, so she needs to calm down. “We figured it out during the whole tower of Hanoi incident, turns out he lives very close to one of the places I like to park my truck” the vendor shrugs. It bothers her how casual he is about that. Yeah she, they and Revolver all worked together to stop bowman and Lightning but it doesn't mean she was okay with the terrorist. The man knew about all them but she didn't know anything about any of them...she frowns she still doesn't really know anything about Unnamed, Playmaker or Soulburner. “Yusaku and I haven't exactly been law abiding citizens, so it's not like we could turn Revolver in without being found out,”he adds. That's true the duo have been causing trouble for Akira and Sol tech for a few years now. Who knows what else they've been doing.

The man slumps down in his chair exhausted. “I don't like him either but for now I need his help tracking down Ai,” the vendor sighs. Aoi believes him but still wants to know more. “I'll let it go if you take me with you when you go see him,” she demands. Judging by the expression on his face, he wants to argue against that. “Fine but it'll be tomorrow, tonight I'll take you home and pick you up in the morning before I set up shop,” he replies. That's kind of a surprise. “I basically have three younger brothers at this point, I know how stubborn and crafty teenagers can be,” he laughs lightening up. She laughs too, the vendor is definitely an older sibling.

“Oh by the way call me, Kusanagi,” he tells her before continuing to laugh. They finish their meal in peace before he drivers her back to her apartment for the night. Hopefully, in morning things will start making sense.

Chapter Text

“Aoi, Aoi,” whispers a soft voice. It has to be the Tv, she must have left it on before going to bed.

“Aoi,” the voice whispers again forcefully. She really should have turned the tv off because now it's having her brain play tricks on her. Instead of getting up to turn off the offending thing she rolls over to get comfortable hoping if she ignores it long enough she'll be able to go back to sleep. Then her bed dips like someone sat on it.

“It's not very nice to ignore someone who's talking to you,” the voice whines. It sounds exactly like Miyu whenever she's teasing Aoi. Of course she would imagine her. She spend most of the evening at her bedside. ...Great she can't sleep because of a guilty conscious. That's not going to get in the way of her getting some sleep for the night, so she tries using her pillow to cover her ears. The bed moves again like whatever pressure was pressing down on it was released.

“So stubborn,” the voice huffs as the pillow muting the Tv gets snatched away. Finally, it registers that it's not the Tv or her in head, someone is actually in the room with her, in the middle of the night. She jumps up in bed hitting the headboard behind her. She must be losing it because Miyu is standing next to her bed holding the pillow with an airy expression.

“Awake now,” Miyu's ghost giggles before flopping down on the bed with Aoi. She looks incredibly happy. It's unnerving just how cheerful this impersonation is.

“Who are you?” Aoi demands moving away from them. They frown at Aoi almost looking hurt that she would ask that.

“Aoi, Akira and I have been waiting for you to join us, and now you can,” It says wishfully. Mostly awake at this point she slips off the bed and backs away from the ghost until she runs into the wall. Even if she's awake, she can't come up with explanation for the ghost of her, bed ridden unconscious, friend currently laying on her bed watching her.

“Aoi calm down, everything is alright,” it says switching back to airy demeanor they had earlier.

“What about Akira,” she spits back at it. The ghost gets up from the bed and walks over to her. In trying to get away Aoi ended up backing herself into a corner while the phantom moves to stand in front of her blocking her from escaping with that ethereal, whimsical presence.

“He wants you to be with us just as much as I do,” it replies. Really, the vagueness from the delusion is starting to be the same level of annoying as the cheerfulness is disturbing. It has to be a delusion of some kind because there isn't anything else to explain whatever is going on. Maybe if she plays along this will be over faster.

“Aright, Where have you both been then?” she asks. The ghost gives her a playful wink before bringing her pointer finger up to her lips.

“I can't tell you, but I can show you,” it replies offering it's other hand for Aoi to take. The weight of everything that's happened the last few weeks on top of the strange peaceful expression on Miyu's face makes her want to take it. It's just an illusion right? It won't hurt to her to go along with this, right?

So she grabs her friend's hand, and a wave of peace washes over her before a gold light blurs out everything around her.

Kusangi's Pov

He wants to sleep for a year after all the madness in his life; first Jin gets taken the first time leading him to become a hacker and teaming up with an obsessive Teenager, then Jin gets taken a second time by an evil A.I that's supposed to be based on said brother before having to fight the angry teen he started to view as younger sibling and now Jin's been taken again! This time by the Ai the small, lively goof that's now hospitalizing the people they both care about including Yusaku. While he's thinking about it maybe, he should track Jin the way he tracks Yusaku and Takeru, might help with this habit of getting kidnapped.

Coffee and some food should help with his headache before he goes to get Aoi. He shouldn't have said he would take her with him to see Revolver, but she would have found a way to get in trouble anyway. She's even close to Yusaku's level when it comes to technology but he'd rather have some way to keep an eye on her after Ai took both Akira and Miyu. Why are the adults in these situations so useless? Akira, Emma, him, all useless while the teens around them get kidnapped. Though the other two were taken too.

With that depressing thought he should get going he told Aoi up her in a little while. Walking into the Zaizen's upscale building makes him somewhat self-conscious. He's a hot dog vendor this kind of place is out of his league. Being greeted by the Zaizens robotic butler morphed that feeling into one of general uneasiness as it leads him up to their suite. Once he's led inside, he gawks at the place taking in it's simplistic almost cold atmosphere.

“Kusanagi it's nice to see you again” sings a voice. A familiar male voice that is definitely not Aoi's. His eyes land on Ai lounging on the couch with a tv remote.

"Eh!There's nothing good on Tv these days,”the intruder whines throwing the remote onto the table in a huff.

“Ai, what are you doing here?” he asks surprisedly. The other is being casual, like he hasn't been stealing people's consciousness and threatening humanity the last few weeks.

“It would have been cruel to leave Aoi alone when she can be with Miyu,” Ai soberly responds not looking at him. He has a momentary feeling of sympathy for the A.I. But the better part of him wants to shake the ignis until he gets some answers. As soon as he goes to move his arm is grabbed by something. In the corner of his eye, he can see a particular purple shirt and black vest. He tries to force his arm free but the soltis or whatever has a grip on him wont budge.

“Ai, what's going on,” he demands still struggling to get free.

“Sorry about my copy, they still have a few kinks to work out,” Ai apologizes getting up. It's bizarre seeing this human form instead of the little purple and black one he's used to. Where did everything go wrong for Ai to decide to look human and still chose to follow Lightning's plan?

“That doesn't answer my question Ai!” he yells. The copy holding him grabs his other arm as the original steps in front of him.

“Why don't you have a seat, so we can talk,” Ai offers gesturing to the couch he was previously on. The ignis doesn't wait for a response, Ai just walks back to the couch while the copy holding him forcefully escorts him along. It forces him to sit on the couch next to the other soltis.

“I didn't mean for things to go so roughly, the last few days I've been hoping you wouldn't have a heart attack from the stress of everything,” the other remarks getting comfortable. Shouichi would have agreed to talk without the android holding him in place, but there's a looming robot digging into his shoulders to keep him in place.

“Especially with your diet of hot dogs, your blood pressure must be through the roof,” Ai continues conversely.

“Ai get this thing to release me,” he commends not expecting it to work. The pressure on his shoulders let go without any movement from the ignis. “Thank you, now tell me what's going on, why are you doing all this, why...” he gets cut off by Ai sitting up and looking at him gravely.

“Why Yusaku, why Jin, why Aoi?” the other trails off glaring at him. “Because I've decided to have things go differently then they were supposed to...Among a lot of other details, we don't really have time for,"Ai elaborates without actually answering him. Then the mention of Aoi registers. He must be giving the android a look that expresses how agitated he feels.

“Really, it's convoluted to explain so how about I show you instead,” Ai offers. The shifting of the other's expression from intense to plain exhausted makes him sympathize to a degree. He's been worn out since everything with Bowman and the last couple days he's occasionally wondered if he'd have a heart attack from the stress or at least start turning grey. Ai's new form is looking at him mournfully waiting for him to have some kind of negative reaction. He should get up and flip out on the other like he did the other day after he found Jin but for some reason he's mellowed, he's too drained now.

“Alright show me then,” he agrees watching the other carefully for any sign of foul play. Nothing comes of it though Ai just gives him a small smile that reminds him painfully of Yusaku before moving a finger up to his forehead, eye's glowing unnaturally.

“Shouichi, stop daydreaming, you're the one who is supposed to be running the cafe,” complains Jin poking a finger into his side.

Chapter Text

“Shouichi, stop daydreaming, you're the one who is supposed to be running the cafe” Jin complains poking a finger into his side. What is going on? His brain is trying to process his brother standing next to him conscious and pouting. Wait,...wasn't he just in the Zaizen's apartment with Ai?

“I told you I was leaving earlier tonight, could you come back to Earth so I can get going” Jin huffs moving his hands to his hips.

“Aww, Jin cut your brother some slack, maybe he's had a long day,” comes Ai's voice. The Ignis is leaning on the truck's counter watching them. The change from the dramatic outfit Ai was wearing to something that makes him think of a waiter made him more confused.

“What,” he mutters glancing around the truck and out at the courtyard beyond.

“Hopeless,” Jin signs putting up his apron and hoping out of the truck.

“See you later, Jin” Ai calls after the teen speed walking away from the truck.“ Kusanagi I didn't think I'd ever see you so dazed.”

“Ai, what's going on?” he says choosing to focus on the one consistent thing, Ai. Said Ingis steps away from the counter and bounces on his heels like a giddy child. Is it possible for an A.I. To have mood swings? Five minutes ago Ai was sitting next to him defeated, now he's all excited.

“I told you it would be easier to show to you,” Ai flourishes his arms wide “this is my world,” he finishes with a smug sharp smile.

“Your world?” he questions. It makes sense but...

“This my digital world, of course I've had some help with the minute details but otherwise I have full control of this world,” Ai says. With a snap of his finger that waiter uniform changes to his usual purple and black outfit minus the cape. Kusanagi steps back bumping into the counter behind him. The A.I. In front of him observing his every move. There's a creeping sensation of fear in his spine telling him to get away quickly.

“Calm down Kusanagi I have no desire to hurt anyone," Ai says holding his hands up in sign of surrender before reverting to the deflated expression from when they were on the couch.

“Okay, if I'm here where's my body?” he asks. It's a weird place to start but he doesn't know where to begin. Might as while get an idea for what Ai has in mind. But fuck it's weird to think of his body as a separate thing from himself.

“That's why the copy was around, it's taking it a facility I built for all the people here in this world,” Ai says with a shrug.

“Ai...” he gets cut off by Takeru running up to the window with Yusaku trailing behind him.

“Yusaku!, Takeru!, how was school?” Ai greets the pair. The question is met with a grumble from both, and it's just so normal. “Come on it can't have been that bad.”

“I hate math,” Takeru groans.

“You don't even know what the word math means,” Yusaku remarks. Takeru responds with a small glare. They're still friends even in this weird world...wait are they real...what in here is real?

“Well good thing it's the weekend, you two should go pick up Jin, I'll be home later” Ai says placing his hands on Yusaku's shoulders' to empathize his point. Kusanagi zones out a bit watching them interact, they have to be real Ai wouldn't create a fake Yusaku. Something isn't right though Yusaku has loosened up over the years but there doesn't seem to be the dark cloud that usually hangs over him or Takeru. The two are acting normal for once and it's bizarre and kind of depressing. Ai rushes them off by gently pushing them to get moving.

“Yusaku, your brother is weird,” he hears takeru say as he's being shooed away.

“Eh! Teenagers,” Ai sighs walking back to the counter once the pair are out of sight. “Now you look even more lost.”

“Are they real?” he asks, there's a lot going on and it's hard to believe any of it. Even if it's something so simple as those two acting normal.

“Of course they are!” Ai huffs. “All the people who agreed to come into this world are real.”

“Agreed?” he questions. There's no way any of the kids taken agreed to this. But Ai pouts and crosses his arms defensively.

“Yes, agreed”is the indignant reply.

“Then what is going on here?” he asks mimicking Ai's defensive stance.

“Oh, Takeru and Jin finally got Yusaku to cave and have a sleep over,” Ai chirps ignoring what they both know Kusanagi wants an answer to. Then the Ignis lets out a heavy sigh and leans against the truck counter facing away from him.

“Fine, I want to give all the kids affected by the incident another chance and prevent my own horrible fate,” Ai laments. That didn't answer anything in fact he has more questions now. “Anyway, I need to pick up some pizza and make sure those three and Roboppi don't destroy my apartment,” the other says strolling away. He should go after Ai but he doubts he will get anything more from the other today. Might as well take some time to think things through. Time to close up shop for the day and find out if his apartment is in the same location.

With his parents on a business trip, he's spent a lot of time over at Yusaku's. Takeru really didn't want to be in his apartment alone even if Flame was there with him. After freaking out the way he did the other day he didn't want to be home. Really, It was nice being with them too; Ai would go back and forth between being a mother hen and being his usual over-the-top self while Roboppi would pester them. Plus Yusaku didn't seem to mind him being around so much. Maybe he should get the other teen a hot dog as a small sign of appreciation. Though It can't be healthy how many hot dogs they all eat.

“Two hot dogs please,” he says to Kusanagi. The man has been kind of weird the last few days, silently observing Yusaku, Ai, Jin and him whenever they're around. It makes him think that maybe the man is concerned about something like what happened a few years ago happening again. It's kind of freighting when adults don't want to tell them if anything suspicious is going on whether or not it's warranted.

“Here you are,” the vendor beams before turning serious.“Anything weird going on lately Takeru?” the man asks handing over the hot dogs.

“Nope, Flame and me have plans tonight so I need to get going,” he blurts out. Why did he mention Flame?

“Flame?!” Kusanagi shouts. He shouldn't be surprised, Takeru's brought Flame out hang out with Lightning before.

“Umm, so yeah I got to go,” he mutters turning to speed off.

“Wait! Takeru! Come back, I just want to talk to you for a bit,” the man claims running out of the truck. His brain is telling him to get away, but the vendor is his friend, he'd never hurt him at least no on purpose. Something like grief or agony runs through him causing him to freeze. Kusanagi hurt Yusaku badly once... but it wasn't on purpose, was it?

“Takeru are you alright,” the older man asks coming up next to him. The man wouldn't hurt Yusaku even if he had to so why would he think that?

“Sorry, I zoned out for a second there.” he says running his hand through his hair. Kusanagi frowns at him, like he doesn't believe him. Takeru wouldn't believe himself at this point, so he doesn't blame the vendor.Those strange moments the last couple days still make him think he might be going crazy despite Ai's insistence that he's not.

“How about you take a seat for a few minutes then. I'll get you some coffee,” the man offers leading him over to a table set up close to the truck window.“So Flame's alive?”Kusanagi asks from inside the truck.

“Why wouldn't he be,” Takeru replies. What happened the other day with Flame is still on his mind, why did he run out of his apartment like that?

“True, You didn't answer my question before, is there anything strange going on,” the man inquires setting down a couple cups on the table. Maybe he should tell Kusanagi about the weird flashes and moments. His silence must be worrying the vendor

“Umm, not really?” he lies. There's that 'I don't believe you' look again. “it's nothing really, I just might be going crazy,” he grumbles playing with his cup. It's still lost on him how much Yusaku and Kusanagi seem to live on coffee and hot dogs.The vendor quirks an eyebrow at him.

“Why would you think that?” the man asks. Might as well get it over with than.

“Where do I begin?" he sighs.

“If anyone has seen this man, please alert the authorities,” the news anchor repeats for the hundredth time. It's been a few days already, and Master Ryoken is still plastered all over the news like there isn't some insignificant celebrity they can report on. As distasteful as the whole thing is it is peculiar to see his leader's real face on the news instead of his avatar.

“The Dark Ignis found a way to keep me from going outside, but it isn't going to stop me from tracking him down,” reaffirms his leader coming into the room behind him.

“That was never a question, sir,” he says turning off the Tv. They will destroy the Dark Ignis not only because it was a threat to humanity, but because it dared harm their associates. They found Faust, Kyoko and Genome unconscious and thrown about after returning to the boat that evening. The annoying broadcast on loop.

“Of course not, still it's getting late we should get some sleep,” Ryoken says before leaving to go back to his room. It's just like him to come in for a second, tell Spectre to go to bed and then go pass out over his keyboard.

“You never get any sleep,” he remarks knowing the other will hear him. Still they've been working over time to find a trace of the Ignis. At the moment the only thing that's come up is the missing teens from the hospital. His fellow incident 'victims' were all missing, and Master Ryoken was the News' stations go to when it came to finding a culprit.

Perhaps the Ignis is afraid to include him in whatever its doing. He'll get back to hunting it down in the morning, he's not much use if he's tired.

For a dream this is incredibly monotonous. Usually, it would be pleasurable to get lost in a forest but the dark atmosphere and twisting trees remind him of a bad horror movie. The person who has been following him through this dream better not be some masked weirdo, his imagination must be able to come up with something better than that.

“Why don't you come out already?" he says expecting to hear whatever was behind the tree scurry away. Except a small orange light bounces out instead. The light forms into a strange orange form. It looks like the earth ignis, his Ignis, from what the video he'd seen of Queen dissecting it. He really needs to wake up now; he doesn't have time for this tomfoolery. Try as he might to swipe at the thing it keeps moving and buzzing around him. “Enough!” After a few infuriating attempt to hit the thing, he manages to whack it sending the Ignis flying into a nearby tree. He was starting to think he would need a fly swatter.

“Meanie!” it squeals, changing shape again. The Dark Ignis' blue haired sidekick is standing in its place glaring at him. Perhaps this isn't a dream then. Interesting, now he can eliminate the pest, so Master Ryoken doesn't have to.

“I told you, he wasn't going to play along,” says a voice above them. This just got even better, the Dark Ignis itself is perched in the branches soso you above them. It appears to be observing him.

“It's rude to assume one would play a role they are not informed about,” he says. The smaller A.I. Pouts like a child and it's revolting. “In fact it is preferable to have conversations on equal footing isn't it or I could just go after this thing instead.” He takes a few steps to get closer to the smaller one before a branch strikes the ground in front of him, the Dark Ignis landing on the ground in front of his cohort seconds later.

“It's rude to attack someone smaller than you,” it retorts sharply.

“Hardly, that thing is not a person, your argument is invalid” he says with a smile knowing it will anger the Ignis. However, it just ignores him to check over the A.I. Behind him.

“I told you there had to be something wrong with me to want to include them,” it says tucking the smaller one under its arms and cape.

“Oh, so I am included in your plans, I'm flattered,” he replies stepping away from them. He could take one at most but both are a threat he needs to reconsider. The Dark Ignis is still watching him carefully as he backs away. There's a noise of disagreement from the smaller A.I. Perhaps he should trying running away.

“So, what role was I assigned?” he asks. It would be ideal to gather some information before making his escape.

“I wanted you to say, I'm socially awkward,” the blue haired thing whines before the Ignis tells it to be quiet.

“Think it's time for a change of plans,” it continues, grinning at him. Fear is something he has not truly felt in a long time but something wants him to forgo getting information and to just run. He's going to listen to that instinct. For awhile it does not appear that those things followed. Out of breath he stops to take a break against a tree. He's an expert hacker, not an athlete, so he likely didn't get far and will need to start running again soon.

Then a root that was sticking up next to him coils around his ankle. As he's trying to get it off something wraps around his midsection pulling him into the tree's trunk. He's squirming but more branches take hold of the rest of his body leaving him immobile.

“Huh thought you'd enjoy being hugged by a tree,” says the Dark Ignis slithering out of the shadows. This thing is vexing. Chopping it to bits will be so satisfying. He's going to tell the Ingis all about his plans until another branch curls over his mouth effectively silencing him.

“Don't worry you'll being joining the other generals shortly,” it sneers

Chapter Text

How does he convince Takeru that this world isn't real without coming off like a crazy person? The teen clearly feels like he's losing his mind as it is and Kusanagi goes 'hey this is a virtual world and an A.I screwed with your memory'. Not going to help matters. In fact it will scare the teen and likely cause him to run away.

“Kusanagi, you wouldn't hurt Yusaku would you?” Takeru quietly asks, staring into his cup. Oh, he remembers that duel. He'd seen the footage of everything that happened after Playmaker's and his duel before they deleted every bit of evidence they could find about what happened with Lightning. He likely hurt Takeru by going after Yusaku like that even if the teen knows why he did it.

“Not if I had a choice in the matter,” he replies. The other moves his cup to the side to lay his head on the table. “Why would you ask that?” it wasn't accusatory. Takeru moves to put his head in his arms.

“But you did once, didn't you? And Flame...,” the teen mumbles then cuts himself off. It's heartbreaking knowing the memories Takeru still have are the some of the worst moments in his...oh...oh fuck...he doesn't remember the Incident does he? God he doesn't want to remind the teen about that.

“I did but you know why right?” he asks, best not to go that far back. “Lightning threatened Jin but Yusaku and I planned for if that happened.” His chair makes a few screeching noises as he moves closer to the teen who jolts up upon hearing the noise. “And you know what happened after that better than I do.” He reaches out to place his hand on Takeru's shoulder in a comforting fashion. The teen's expression is painfully distressed.

“Then Flame and I lost against that weirdo, and he was absorbed for good” Takeru cries before breaking down. Kusanagi pulls the other in for an awkward hug. “But that can't be right, he's at home now and all that weird stuff never happened!” The teen screams shoving him away. Really, he should have seen this coming, and Takeru is the type to react aggressively. “Why are you trying to make me believe these horrible things,” the silver haired teen demands this time shoving Kusanagi hard enough to knock him down to the ground.

“Takeru, listen,” he goes to get up but then he looks at the teen. Takeru's expression is absolutely mortified, like he can't believe what he just did.

“Kusanagi, I'm so sorry,”Takeru stutters, falling to his knees. There's no debating what he's going to do next. He's going to crawl over to the teen and try to comfort him.

“Don't worry about it. Things must be tough huh? Not knowing what to believe and all that” he hugs the teen again not even thinking if the other is going to flip out again. "You don't have to believe me, but those things, that duel between Yusaku and I, that duel against Bowman, what happened to Flame it all happened.”

“Then the electric shocks and that small room were real too,” Takeru whispers. He squeezes the teen tighter, he can't imagine having to relive the worst parts of his life. Ai said he wanted to give the incident kids another chance but this isn't how he should go about doing it.

“I believe you, Kusanagi.”

There was a light flashing on Spectre's duel disk indicating there was a message. Considering he spends the last half an hour trying to wake the other man up, that message is likely from the Dark Ignis. It somehow got through their defenses again, took Spectre and was now trying to lure him into something.

The logical part of his brain is telling him to ignore the message because it is a trap of some form. However, the rest of him is too worn out from staying up looking for the damn thing to ignore it presenting itself to him like this. So he picks up the disk to check the message before some holographic purple sparkles start pouring out of it. He is going to regret this. Soon something pulls him into the network.

He's dropped into what looks like an empty school hallway. It's been a few years since he'd been in one. Yeah, it was a trap and the Ignis was having fun manipulating his surroundings considering the grey scale and flicker lights. There's not much more he can do then play long for the moment then. The hall is something out of cheap urban legend, never ending and trying to be scary.

“You know if you keep that angry scowl on your face long enough it will stay like that,” says a voice from behind him but it's not the Ignis.

“Show yourself,” he demands, swiveling around to see who it was. This just got even more ridiculous, the Wind Ignis is flouting behind him.

“Don't be like that, think of me as a ghost to guide you,” it sarcastically says, crossing its arms.

“I don't have time for this,” he huffs, pivoting around to keep walking.

“Oh, you have nothing but time now,” it says. He shoots it a glare before choosing to ignore it. Maybe fifteen minutes later something tugs him towards a door he was passing by. The Ignis was trying to get him to look into it like some kind of cliché movie where he will see something that will change his life. As much as he wants to keep walking to spite this illusion, this is getting tedious and clearly the Dark Ignis wants him to play along.

He chooses to ignore the offending green thing condescendingly telling him “very good." It's a miracle he manages to not roll his eyes before peeking into the classroom. Fujiki, Homura, and Zaizen were all hanging around the back of the room chatting.

“Is there a point to this outside of the fact Fujiki shouldn't have let you watch dramas?" He says looking back to the green Ignis.

“Must you be so difficult?!” it huffs shifting into the Dark Ignis. Why hang around as the wind Ignis? Instead of asking he goes to shove it so it is not standing so close to him, But the thing throws a tantrum before he can; stamping its feet and pacing around a bit.

“Enough already,” he shouts and it gives him a sharp look. “What do you want to do with me?"

“Oh, I wanted you to have some revelation moment about how you've been living your life wrong, your going to start over and leave behind being a hack to be a normal person,” it drones. “But you're no fun so we're going to have to do this the hard way,” it's glaring at him like he messed up a surprise party or something.

'As if I would let you do anything the easy way,” he remarks. Then it leans against the lockers on the other side of the hallway with some goofy grin.

“You're just upset that you have no control over this situation.” it laughs.“ Come on you must be at least a tinge bit curious about all this” it gestures out its arms wide.

“Nope, but I would like to know why try this as the wind Ignis,” he says. The Ignis' lips curl up.

“Ooh, Professor Revolver doesn't know what happened when Bowman put everyone's data back,” it coos. “Well then I'm not going to tell you if you haven't figured it out.”

Annoyed and wanting to get out of this hallway he chooses to ignore what is probably just something thrown out to hook him, and walks away. He knows it's a cheap endless hallway setup, but he refuses to humor the A.I. any longer.

One second he's on his feet the next something constricts around his waist and flings him back into a locker. Even with whatever was holding him absorbing most of the impact, it still stung.

“You Hanoi really are so impolite,” The Dark Ignis says. Whatever has a hold of him, is a black and purple material coming from the thing. Right, this thing is data first and foremost and likely can change shape as it pleases in a digital setting...that was the trap. It wanted him to play along because the Ignis knew it would overpower him easily, no matter what he did.

“Starting to get it now, aren't you professor?” it jeers with that goofy grin.

“What do you intend to do with me,” he inquires in a defeated tone.

“What do you intend to do with me?" it mocks. “So dramatic but I'm curious about something” It looks contemplative for a second before the lights flicker off for a moment. When they come back on the thing in front of him is all Cheshire cat grin, shadows and what would be blood stains on its clothing. Even if this is just a setup something flashes in his mind of all the missing people; bloodied and tossed around with it standing over them leaving him with this cold sensation of terror. His heart rate speeds up drastically as it steps closer and closer, mouth starting to drip red before everything goes black again.

Even with all the chaos going on in his mind, he has a feeling of peace knowing someone is here with him. He can't believe he shoved kusanagi like that, the man isn't old by any means but it was still an incredibly harsh thing to do.

That and what about Ai? The man found him freaking out a few days ago and told him not to worry about any of it.

Said it was all just his overworked imagination and that he should take some time to relax. But that was a lie, wasn't it? Ai doesn't want him to remember all that stuff for some reason.

“Nothing to see here, move along now,” Kusanagi says to a couple of people watching them in the courtyard.

“Maybe it would be a better idea to get up...” a certain high-pitched excited squeal and the force of a small child jumping onto them cut him off.

“Group hug,” Roboppi squeals, squeezing the oxygen out of his lugs. Kusanagi looks at the child suspiciously. That's right, Roboppi is Ai's little minion. He needs to talk to the vendor about Ai. It's depressing thinking that the black haired man is up to something.

“Roboppi shouldn't you be with Ai?” he asks, trying to pry the small octopus off him.

“Big bro is off at work, and I got bored at home,” Roboppi pouts. Maybe he can use the fact that Ai is super protective of the small child to get him to leave Kusanagi and him alone so they can continue working things out.

“Roboppi, you know both your brothers will be upset that you're out of the house without one of them, especially Ai,” the vendor gives him a puzzled look but he continues. “You don't want to get in trouble for breaking the rules, do you?”

“You're no fun,” Roboppi replies, sticking his tongue out at them before getting up to run off. It's kind of bittersweet seeing that adorable A.I running around like a child while in reality they were a maid bot working to destroy humanity.

“We have a lot to talk about don't we?” Kusanagi sighs.

Chapter Text

The dust under his heels glitters with shattered pieces of glass and various other reflective materials from the crumble metropolis they should have been in. He knows the gutted skyscrapers and rotted out cars are all part of the simulation but it causes a shiver to run down his spine. Ai warned him before hand that he was asking to walk into a dystopian nightmare. Nevertheless, he wanted to know what was weighing heavily on his brother's mind. Everytime Roboppi or him would leave Ai alone in a room the elder would drop his characteristically happy demeanor and crumble. Only to revert back if he thought one of them was around.

After a teeth pulling conversation for both parties they ended up here with Ai leading him along the cracking pavement. He didn't get a whole lot out of the other during that conversation either, only a warning and a brief explanation about the simulations.

“Are you sure you want to do this?" Ai asks peeking back at him. Yusaku nodes his head in response leading the other to let out an exaggerated sigh as they make their way into the heart of the former city. After walking around for hours with no known reason why he was starting to get antsy especially as they stroll by his now caved in high school.

'crack' one second the ground is under him, the next he's staring down at the high voltage train tracks of an underground railway with Ai's mechanical grasp keeping him from falling. If it wasn't for the fact; the other just saved him; he'd have made jab about Ai keeping his android strength in the digital world. But the panic-stricken look on Ai's face as his brother pulls him up is enough to keep him from doing so.

“I told you, I told you...” Ai's rant gets interrupted by the sounds of rumbling tremors as the ground starts to shake beneath them. Trying to avoid being caught up in the growing sinkhole Yusaku runs towards the alleyway behind him while Ai scrambles in the opposite direction. The fissure in the road between them too wide and deep to cross or walk around.

“Yusaku!” his brother calls. However, the hole between them is still growing and he needs to run away to avoid fall into it. He'll have to find a way to rejoin with Ai while trying to avoid any potential pitfalls. It would probably be safer to just make his way back to the portal they came through to get here but there's something in these ruins Ai promised to show him. It's not like his overprotective older brother isn't tracking him, so meeting up again shouldn't be difficult.

Despite his limited knowledge of the back alleys of Den City, it wasn't hard for him to find his way around. It was still difficult enough that he should probably ask Takeru to come with him to explore the city more when he gets home. As he's walking around, he catches glimpses of people running off into buildings, maybe the city isn't as abandoned as he originally thought.

A certain dramatic black cape catches his eye from a nearby opening. But Ai wasn't wearing that obnoxious thing when they came here. As he steps close, it becomes clear that the person wearing that cape is his brother. Someone snatches his wrist before he can leave the alleyway. Ai was holding him back this one missing the useless piece of fabric.

“What?” he asks but the other just raises a hand in a gesture to silence him before tugging him along to hide against one of the walls to watch the impersonators. He figures that alternative version people he knows will show up in this world but it's uncanny to see alternate version of himself. The doppelganger is standing his ground in front Ai yelling at someone. He moves a few feet to get a better look with the pulling of his arm telling him where to stop.

Then he sees some military man standing in from of the pair, the leader shouting accusations at Ai. Something about the white haired man is somehow familiar. Then time slows as the men aim their weapons towards the other two before the man tells them to fire. That scares his adrenaline into trying to move him into the mess, but the iron grip on his wrist keeps him in place. The only thing he can do is watch in horror as bullets pierce his own chest, watch his body writhe as they pass through before it collapses into the ground lifelessly. His heart is racing too fast, and he's having a hard time breathing while his mind is reeling to separate himself and the doppelganger.

Ai's double screams before falling down to hold onto his corpse, weeping. His Ai pulls Yusaku close to his chest before lifting the teen up. The elder must be carrying him away from the scene. He won't complain, it's not like he would have been able to run after that. The image of his bleeding corpse in Ai's arms is going to haunt him. Eventually, his brother gets them both back to the cavern with all the holo screens. Once they're back Ai lets him go and they tumble to ground trying make sense of what happened.

“I've lived that same scene in that same destroyed world more times then you can feasible count,” Ai quietly says staring a hole into the floor. “Over and over again we end up in that hell with you dying like that just because I exist” his brother's android hands are digging hard enough into the rock under them to leave minor indents beside a growing number of wet spots in the ground.

“Ai,” he says, it's only thing he can say that experience isn't something he wishes on anyone let alone to have his brother live hundreds if not thousands of times. He's never really thought to much about how Ai not being human would affect either of them considering most people can't even tell the elder doesn't have internal organs like them. He almost wishes he hadn't wanted to find out what was bothering Ai so much now.

“I warned you, … I just didn't think it'd be that graphic,” Ai hiccups looking up at him. Yusaku crawls over to hug his brother who returns it with enough force to squish his insides. “You can run some simulations on the screens if you want but the only variable I've found to keep you from dying is take myself out of the equation.” Even being so close that last sentence was barely loud enough for him to hear. There has to be away for him to live without his family paying for it. Right now his mind is too muddled to think about it.

Instead, they stay on the cavern floor until his legs start going numb from the awkward position.

“Why don't we get out here and head home?" Ai suggests helping him get up so he won't fall. Maybe with some rest he'll be able to think of a way to keep his family together.

“Hey, Yusaku how about you, me and Roboppi take a trip to Stardust Road later tonight to enjoy the stars,” Ai asks as they log out to go home.

It says something about his character that, Ryoken, despite how alluring this illusion is he could not believe it. Waking with Clarissa and Aso in the kitchen playing the role of his adopted parents while Spectre is his odd not quite sibling. Hell, even the Earth and Wind Ingis were included in this weird family. Something kept telling him that no matter how much he wanted this to be true, it wasn't.

It would not take long for it all to come crashing down on him either. The reason why was such a minor detail too, a small picture of his father tucked behind a bunch of other pictures in a bookcase. The Dark Ingis must really hate his father because in here, the man died because one of his cohorts knocked him into a vat of acid before the incident could take place. Truthfully, deep down he would take that over the mess of guilt the man left him with.

“Ryoken, why don't you go outside with everyone else instead of staring a hole into the bookshelf?" Aso suggests snapping him into the living room. The older man has this fatherly look of concern that's pulling on something in his chest. “Go on then, dwelling on the past like this isn't good for you, Spectre and them are all out in the garden.”

“Yeah, you're right,” he says stepping away from the shelf slowly. Aso has been something of mentor figure for him since he could remember but the other is also his subordinate as leader of the Hanoi. However warm the ghost in front of his; the real one would never come close to being like this. He walks passed the man into the hallway that leads outsides. Only stopping to watch Clarissa putting away her scrubs for a moment. He used to wonder how someone like her even got involved with Dr. Kogami to begin with. Her ghost stops putting away her things for a moment to send him a quick smile before going back to what she was doing. His relationship to her was the similar to the one he had with Aso only she being patient oriented was more outwardly gentle.

Eventually, he makes it outside only to get blasted by a water hose. The two gremlins and Spectre grinning mischievously. The Dark Ignis probably had a hard time figuring out how the other teen would act without the incident in past considering Spectre was the one who took some kind of twisted enjoyment out of it. So it created this almost completely inaccurate mess to replace him.

“If you keep standing there like that, we'll hose you down again,” the green Ignis says. In here it's supposed to have been a gift given to him by Aso and Clarissa. Likely left with him due its real origin being dead. The combination of it and Spectre's remodeled personality are enough to tell him that he's the only one of the knights who are real people in this world. Which means the Dark Ignis has the other knights locked any the same way it has Queen.

“Time to wash that mean expression off your face,” teases Spectre a second before he's blasted with water again. How he is going to figure his way out of this? But he does not have the luxury to think about it because he gets sprayed again. He can give in for a brief period though, he's going to get that grinning bastard back for spraying him. So he lets himself be caught up in the illusion for a few hours until after dinner when he tells his parents he wants to go out for a walk by himself down Stardust Road.

He can see the sparkling water down the hill as soon as he closes the front door. The normalcy of the whole day felt like an undeserved vacation but now he needs some time to think without any of the impersonations around. There's no knowing if the Ignis has them designed to report to It.There's not a great deal about this world he knows besides the memories of the replacement life he's been given. Can he find a way to get out of here without having to face the A.I? That last encounter they had taught him he's outmatched in this digital world. He may need to find out if some of the other people it took are also in here.

Something catches his eye as he's going down the curve. There are a few people leaning over the rail that keeps people from swimming in the water. Two are tall enough to be either teens or adults while one is likely a small child. Usually, he'd ignore people to go about his own business, but he's curious about other people in this world. Slowly he creeps down the rest of the hill to hide in some bushes behind them. With a better view they all start to look familiar. Then Fujiki peeks behind him as if he can feel Ryoken watching him and for a moment there's a sliver of fear that he's been caught. However, the Ignis puts an arm around Yusaku's shoulder coaxing him to turn back around.

Now isn't the time to find out if the other teen is the real one, not with the Ignis and its minion with him. He's supposed to start his school at Den City high tomorrow, it would better to corner the other tenn then. For tonight he'll go home and start planning.

Chapter Text

The universe really hates him. First Yusaku skips class, so he can't talk to him and then freakin' Revolver ends up being the new kid everyone has been talking about all day. The older teen has been glaring daggers into his back since he was introduced too. Seriously when all this madness is over, he's going back to the country for a nice vacation away from all the madness. 'Ring' good time to put as much space as he can between him and the knight.

In a rush he throws all his things in his bag before speeding to the classroom door.

“Homura,” the white haired teen calls sending pins and needles through his body leading him to slam the door.

“what!” he demands and the smug bastard smirks. Ai did a fantastic job of recreating this asshole. Takeru's hasn't finished sorting through whats real and what's not but his seething hatred for the other teen runs deep.

“Looks like I don't even have to ask,” the older teen replies shoving his hands in his pockets approaching before Takeru casually. God he even looks pompous doing nothing. “That makes things easier.”

If someone were to ask, he would say he hated Lightning for everything. Being in the other's cave increased the feeling exponentially each second he was inside it. But Yusaku insisted on running his own data in the simulation to see if he could get a better outcome. His origin was stubborn obsessive fool. Humans were, in general; they like to think they are the exception that will change every situation for the better when in reality they are the most chaotic unreliable variable ever. The teen standing a few feet from him intensely focusing on the holo screens was not going to be an active variable again if Ai had anything say in the matter. That mess of a simulation yesterday was more than he intended to happen. It turned out too far to dangerous to take part like that.

Still it's heartwarming to watch Yusaku work so hard to figure away out of those futures. He'll put up with being this godforsaken cave if it means he gets more time with the teen. Honestly, standing here in silence Ai wants to come clean about everything. Maybe his origin would be understanding? Maybe he would hate him. Either way he's come too far now, there's only a couple more loose ends left.

“Ai, Where exactly are we anyway?” Yusaku asks turning to glance back at him. Right there's only so much he let the teen know.

“Cyberse World, or really what's left of it,” he says.

“Right, Your home world,”Yusaku mutters turning back to the screen.

'It was, but my home is with you and Roboppi'. That's one cheesy line he'll keep to himself for now. Instead, he walks over and throws an arm around the other. Before using the other to mess with one of the screens. It's about time they start running simulations with a particular neurotic variable. He hadn't expected that including the knight in the one from yesterday would go so gruesomely while being perfect for what he was doing. Trust Revolver to be one of the biggest factors in why he could never have a peaceful life in the psychical world. A tiny part of his programming tells him that's why he brought the knight to the digital world as well some other small sabotages.

His arms rest looks at him with a scowl before going back to staring at one of the screens actively trying to not look at Ai.

“Ai, what were you planning to do before you told me about these...are you still planning,” the question is cut off but it's easy to know what Yusaku means. His shoulder hunched and tense under Ai's arm. One of these days he's going to spill everything out without meaning to out of guilt but for now there's something else he wants to take advantage of.

He's points to the white avatar on the screen. “Maybe he's a variable we can change?” He gets a grunt in response. “Now, now he's been the most frequent person other than us in this simulation.”

They spend about thirty minutes failing before Ai manipulates the data to create his own ending. This one based on the lives he created for everyone in the digital world. The only action that needs to be taken in this one is to keep Yusaku and Revolver apart so the knight doesn't find out about him. Because who would have thought that, the weird obsession the man has with technology being evil would be so intrinsic to his very being...humans are strange.

“Who is that?” Yusaku finally asks glances over at him.

“Ryoken Kogami, He's supposed to start school at Den City High today,” he says. As much as he wants to believe he did an excellent job implementing the white haired teens new life. Takeru freaking out last week was a good reminder that the whole thing is really only skin deep. It would have been better to just take the other's consciousness like he did with the rest of the Hanoi but he wanted to show the man some mercy considering Revolver seemed to come around to his existence after that duel with Lightning. He changes the screen to a page he created about Dr. Kogami.

“That man is Dr. Kogami's son,” he says after a few minutes. The tension radiating from his origin is giving him flashbacks to when the other was running around as the emissary of revenge... somethings never change. Ai kind of misses the reluctant hero persona.

“You don't think he wants to continue the plans for the incident?” the teen asks.

“It's possible, You should be careful around him in any case,” he replies. He'd made it, so Dr Kogami was killed brutally in the digital world. “It's about time we call it a day then, it can't be healthy to obsess like this”

Yusaku looks defiant for a second before giving in to the suggestion. “Alright” As their walking out he stops hearing the soft sound of footsteps behind him. His companion is glaring at the ground balling his fists angrily.

“Something the matter?” he inquires softly. Yusaku is starting to remind him of his Playmaker avatar looking that intense. Sometimes he wonders how no one put two and two together and figured out that the teen was Link Vrains' hero.

“Your still hiding something,” the other accuses. Of course he would pick up on Ai leaving things out. Well, they're in Cyberse world, there is one thing he can tell him. He gives the other a sad smile before offer out his hand.

“There is something else here I can show you, if you want,” he offers. A warm feeling comes over him when Yusaku takes his hand instead of saying anything out loud. He leads the other down some dusty paths up the cliff overlooking at the remains of the Ignis world. Before stopping in front of the grave stones, he made for his family.

“Ai, what are these? What happened here?,” Yusaku asks taking in the wasteland that had been his home.

“These are graves for my family. Our world was destroyed by that man from the simulations a few years ago,” he laments. It's not a complete lie but it feels wrong like he's using this tragedy for his own gain. With how pained and shocked his origin looks, it likely hit the final nail in any relationship the other might have developed with the Ryoken in the digital world.

“It's alright Yusaku, it was a long time ago,” He says not sure if it's a lie or not. For Yusaku it would technically be years if they go by their life in the digital world. He's been with the teen since he was a little kid. His precious awkward brother squeezes his hand still looking troubled but not as mournful. The reaction reaffirms his desire to keep Yusaku with him, alive and out of danger.

“I'll protect you Ai.”

“I thought you said you were going to bring Yusaku by today?” Kusanagi asks eyeing Revolver cautiously.

Don't worry about him. He's the real bastard alright,” he growls. Just because he agreed to take the other with him to see the vendor doesn't mean he's going to be nice.

“Someone forgot to teach you manners,” Revolver comments rudely. Must resist the urge to punch, must resist the urge to punch, must...

“Alright, if you're real do you remember the Incident?” Kusanagi asks sharply before the knight huffs.

“If you're asking if I remember hearing a group of children screaming and begging to be released from torture then yes I remember the Incident,” the white haired teen states matter of factually. The vendor winces, not the best choice of words from either of them.

“Yusaku wasn't at school today but I found him instead,” he says glaring at the other teen.

“I saw Fuijiki last night with the Ignis and its minion by Stardust Road. He's fine,” Revolver says. As much as he hates it, he might need to start thinking of the other teen as Ryoken instead of his link vrains persona. “Is Fujiki aware of the situation?”

“Not that we know of, neither of us has been able to get him alone,” kusanagi says with a shrug.“Yeah, Ai or Roboppi always seem to show up whenever we talk about the real world,” he adds.

“Then we'll have to get the Ignis claws out of Fujiki” the other teen says starting to walk off.

“Where are you going?!” Takeru shouts at the receding figure. “I will never understand how Yusaku can stand him.”

“I was there when they meet in real life and I still don't get it,” Kusanagi sighs.

"Kusanagi! Takeru!" calls an upbeat voice.

Chapter Text

He's never been one for dramatics, had enough for a lifetime but his brother was a tacky drama queen whose mere existence attracts the most impossible of things. Case and point the simulations that keep pointing Ai out as the reason the world turns into a wasteland. He spent the last couple days watching himself die trying to find a way to prevent that. It left a deeply rooted fear of the future in his heart. This is why humans shouldn't be allowed to see the future. Despite telling himself it's just a simulation and that it's not set in stone he still was scared. For Ai it was a real and his brother made him understand that by taking him into that simulation.

He kind of wishes the melodramatic idiot was in the cave with him but Ai wanted Yusaku to take some time to think about things for himself. The cave has this quiet oppressive atmosphere that leaves him feeling like something is hanging over his shoulders. He's thinking to much about things. It's just the ever-present existence of death and absolute terror of living in or causing an apocalypse that's weighing heavily on everything.

Overwhelmed he rests his forehead against one of the cold screens in front of him. He has time for a much needed short break. It's not like Ai is going to turn into one of the Old Ones and destroy the earth...That was one Halloween he'll never forget, though. It's silly moments like that with Ai and Roboppi trying and ultimately succeeding at scaring Yusaku that keep him motivated. He wouldn't trade those memories for anything. The bizarre AI duo was his family after the rest of humanity had given him up whether his parents or that barely legal orphanage he had been stuck in for years.

One day he ran off when one of the caretakers wasn't watching. It had to be the most cliche day to do something like that too; dark, overcast and lacking in the number of people even the outskirts of a city should have. A young child wasn't going to take that into account, no they were going to run off because kids can be little monsters and adults incredibly neglectful. If the people at the orphanage didn't want him around, he'd find a new place, somewhere better or better to his six year old mind. So he went exploring the area around the orphanage.

Slowly he ran out of energy going around until he needed to stop to rest. While he was seated on a bench a green haired man in glasses caught his attention. It only took a few seconds for the man to creep him out enough to get Yusaku to scurry away as fast as he could.

The caretakers once warned the kids about the possible dangers of talking to strangers. They said if someone feels off to you run and if they get a hold of you try as hard as you can to get away. So that's what he did but block after block the man followed him Being already worn out he tumbles down turning a corner trying to reach a busy street. The relief he got from seeing some people a few streets away was short lived because the man grabbed his wrist and forced him up dragging him towards an alleyway nearby. He tried to get someone else's attention by thrashing about and screaming his throat sore. It only seemed to annoy the man more, though, as he forced Yusaku to walk faster.

“Excuse me sir, I think you should let that child go, he's clearly upset.” says a voice, thankfully, but the stranger picks up speed dragging him along the alleyways. Then the man stops to turn back to him with what he would now say was a calculating look before he flung Yusaku into an open garbage bin. He lands hard against the metal container, but there was something in the bags within it that cushioned the rest of the impact. The force closing the lid hanging over him.

He struggled to move the lid as muffled shouts and screams came from the outside. His young heart was going to explode out his chest at the rate things were going. While he was focused on moving the lid the screaming stop. Not expecting the weight above him to shift he stumbles when it moves. He catches sad glowing gold eyes peeking into the container. Still freaked out from his encounter with the other stranger he backs into the wall behind him terrified. This stranger just looks at him concerned for a moment before saying anything.

“It's alright, I won't hurt you; in fact if it will make you feel better, I help you out of there, contact your parents and then vanish forever,” the new stranger says with a flourish, dancing away from him. After the creep Yusaku didn't want to trust this man but he needed a way out of the bin. He takes a deep breath before nodding at the man. Right as the new stranger set him on the ground he was off. He got a brief glimpse at the green haired stranger's leg sticking out from behind another bin twitching. The nightmarish encounter with the Creep was enough to get him to go back to the orphanage for a few months.

But then even the caretakers seemed put off by him, especially since they didn't believe him about the two strangers. He spends a few weeks listening to them bemoan his overactive imagination and the trouble he was. Annoyed as any kid would be by incompetent adults he eventually decides to try his luck venturing outside the orphanage again.

It was dark, so he gets lost looking at the handfuls of stars shining through the city lights. Occasionally he comes back to check for any creeps that might be around him. That didn't keep him from running into someone when he wasn't looking. Automatically he looks at whoever it was to apologize but after he meets those same sad gold eyes from months ago he freezes. The stranger looks just as confused at seeing him. Even so the man gives him a warm smile that doesn't reach his eyes.

“Oh it's you again; you know you shouldn't run off on your own or..,” The man stops before referencing the creep from the before. “Either way, why are you out so late on you own?” it might have been about eleven but it was late enough for a little kid like him. The man gives him a curious stare while waiting for Yusaku to say something. Instead, the runaway child starts to tremble before outright crying. He didn't mean to it just kind of happened after the last few months he's had. The stranger was panicking trying to figure out how to comfort him and it made him cry harder.

“Don't cry, please don't cry,” the stranger says bouncing on his heels while flailing around uselessly.
Watching a grown man act so ridiculously was funny, it made him feel somewhat better. The stranger picked up on that as he got down on his knees to meet Yusaku's eyes directly with a sad smile that fit the rest of him.

. “I'm not good with things like this but tv tells me Ice cream helps in these kinds of situations, so how about that, I'm sure there's something open,” the stranger rambles debating whether to reaching out to comfort him or let Yusaku cry it out. After a few minutes he nodes at the stranger who offers him a hand as he gets up. That reminds him of the encounter with the Creep, so he takes a small step back with a this small feeling of fear.

“I get it, don't worry I'll keep my distance while we look for something good” the man responds gesturing him to follow him to a nearby street with lots of people.

“So what's your name then?” the man asks glancing down at him while their walking. It took a comically long time for them to realize most ice cream places closed hours ago so they settled on getting something from a twenty-four-hour store. Before they found a bench in a busy area by a nearby train station to enjoy their desert while the stranger asked him a few questions. Unfortunately, for him though the man wanted him to go back to the orphanage for the night, saying something about how worried the caretakers must be. Yusaku very strongly disagreed with that but he was a kid not a lot of people would take what he said as entirely true. So Ai as the man said his name was walked him back.

Turns out the orphanage had something of a three strikes policy. If he ran off again, he would be abandoned for good or so the woman in charge threatened him. The other caretakers under her would glare at Yusaku because his disappearing acts made more work for them and got them in trouble with their boss. They started going out of their way to treat him differently and the other kids picked up on the change in their behavior. Minor bullying he dealt with a regular basis turned into a lot of injuries that got a blind eye from the elders around them. It felt like they wanted him to leave. As a child that unwanted feeling wasn't something he knew how to deal with so he did the one thing he was told he shouldn't do.

After a couple of months since he ran off the second time he set out again this time determined not to go back. He had not idea what he was doing the first couple days but he held onto the hope of finding someone like Ai, who would be nice to him. About four days in though he was thinking of taking whatever punishment the caretakers could give him. People just weren't nice, he was less than them somehow. He was kicking a can down a dusty street not far off from the orphanage when a familiar voice calls out to him. He turns to find Ai running towards him waving with a large goofy grin. After the last few weeks, he doesn't want another adult to disregard him, so he braces himself for anything bad the man might say or do.

“Aw, why so blue Yuuusaaku,” Ai says stopping in front of him pouting. He could still see that sad shade in the man's eyes, though. Maybe this odd fellow would be more understanding than everyone else has been.

“Why are you always so sad?” he asks nervously. The man looks taken back by the question before sighing dramatically.

“I asked you first!” Ai replies sticking his tongue out at him. Yusaku can't help but laugh at the way the man acts.

“Well then good to know you can still laugh, So tell me what happened.” He doesn't want Ai to know how the caretakers and kids treated him because maybe he would start to see him the same way. So he bolts his mouth shut then takes a couple steps back.

The man makes an exaggerated gesture before putting his hands on his hips and leaning into his space. The ridiculous expression on the mans face though made it hard to keep quiet. “Alright if you don't want to talk how about lunch then? Ai says swinging back up with one finger pointed in the air like he had a brilliant idea. This time it doesn't take them long to find someplace to eat. They stop at some burger cart a couple of streets over before they walk to an empty courtyard by the sea. He couldn't help but spill everything out to Ai after they finish eating. Something about the stranger was familiar, and he was just nice to be around. The man looks heartbroken by the time he's done telling his store too. Not that he got a good look because Ai pulled him into a tight hug.

“I'm sorry about them Yusaku, it's not right for anyone to treat you like that,” Ai whispers squeezing him a bit harder before he pulls away with a strangely goofy expression.
“Why don't you come stay with me; I can be your older brother,..”Ai says before rambling off about all of the trouble they could get into together. He's only meet Ai three times now, though... it's not like his young mind could come up with a better option.

“Don't be so glum, it'll be great, I promise!”

Turns out the caretakers were more than willing to sign him off to any random stranger who came by and wanted him. How that place was allowed to operate legally he will never know but for now he would just have to get used to being around the odd man that was now technically his legal guardian but insisted they be brothers.

As easy as it was for the man to take him in, Ai had no idea how to take care of a small child being an android and all. His brother finally explained that super important detail to Yusaku after he had walked in on the android fixing his arm, he spent about a week sleeping with some random tools under his pillows in case the elder was secretly some kind of evil robot. Ai got him to stop doing that after spending some time in his squishy Ignis form which he used as a toy and stuffed animal when his brother didn't have other things to-do.

There were other odd roadblocks like Ai making the lava in his volcano project actually hot enough to melt the teachers desk when he demonstrated his project. That got him in trouble for a few days. Of course the best and most ridiculous thing Ai did was bring home Roboppi.

“Yuuusakuu, meet your little brother,” Ai calls coming through their small apartment doorway. His brother has a soft spot for strays if taking him in to was anything to by. They still ran into the occasional issue though so maybe he should talk to the elder about taking in people. Only seeing the joy radiating off both of them as they came in made him reconsider that.

“I'm Roboppi!” the shorter blue haired kid shouts right before he jumps on Yusaku for a hug. Maybe having a younger sibling won't be so bad if he gets to keep this fuzzy feeling. He hugged the other back until he spotted the blue and white gem on the younger's neck. Roboppi was an android like Ai then?
He frowns and pries the other off enough to catch his brother's eye. “He's like you then?”

Ai's happy mood falls as soon as the words come out. He didn't mean to upset him by bringing that up. They sometimes get unwanted attention from people who didn't like Ai and him calling each other family.

“Not exactly but that doesn't matter, right Roboppi!” Ai says trying to channel the 'I totally know what I'm doing, don't question me' attitude he usually takes before something goes wrong, horribly, horribly wrong. To give the elder some credit sometimes he forgets his brother is AI and he usually brushes off those close-minded strangers.

“Don't worry, Big Bro is an idiot but Roboppi will keep everything under control!” Roboppi adds with a small salute before Ai bends to retort to the insult. Yusaku watches them in amazement and slight horror, those two are going to cause so much trouble for him to clean up. Something tells him he won't trade the warm feeling he gets from watching them interact for the world. The small AI fits right into their unusual family.

'you little brat, I'm gonna send you to school early for that!' Maybe a little too well. He should probably talk to Ai about not taking in any more strays though when they're done fighting like children.

One day a few years later Roboppi roped him into cleaning the apartment when he found a box with some old reports shoved into the closet. Some of the black and white photos included were of that creepy guy he ran into as a kid a few years ago. The reports said something about a group planning to run some experiments on children for the good of humanity but the plan fizzled out for reason not included. He grabbed the box and hides it in his room while Roboppi was off cleaning the bathroom. His little brother as Roboppi came to be wis strange he could switch between being extremely clean and well organized and chaos causing black hole very quickly. Though the latter might be because of Ai rubbing off on him.

He kept what he found to himself in case the younger decided to do something that might damage the box. After a few hours of cleaning Ai came home from work and made dinner for him. For an A.I. His brother had to learn to tone down his 'but what if I do this instead' instincts to do anything remotely practically like cooking. Both his siblings could eat food but usually only did when necessary so everything in the apartment was specifically for Yusaku and he cherished being able to pick out what he wanted. Especially when he figured out either Roboppi or Ai could make him whatever he wanted from scratch fairly easily.

Part way through dinner he brings up what he found to Ai. It nagged at him all day that his brother was keeping something about what happened that first day they meet from him. Apparently the plan was to wait till Yusaku was a bit older before the elder told him about it. However, he got told what happened anyway.

The creepy man that tried to grab him was part of a group that planned to experiment on kids with the goal of somehow benefiting the future through creation of super intelligent, AI, that were modeled on humans. That didn't happen because the Creep was arrested for murdering his supervisor for the operation causing the plan to fell apart. The day he met Ai really was the luckiest day in his life, he avoided getting used as a human Guinea pig and ran into his brother. Though he kind of wants to know how his super intelligent AI older brother came to exist and how he can run around freely.

He accepts the explanation anyway and puts the box back in the closet after dinner. A couple years later he gets told about the vat of acid and how things played out in more graphic details.

Somewhere in a dark room Ryoken is hunched over his computer. After not sleeping since he woke up here. He found a small hole in the worlds programming where he could work very easily without getting the Ignis's attention. With a little a more time he should be able to create something to stop the dark Ignis and his minion. Something even the technologically inept Homura will be able to use if he gives the idiot a copy considering the other teen has a better chance of encountering any of them then he does.

'Knock, knock',"Dinners ready" Spectre calls from the other side of the wooden door. It bothers him for some reason too. The real one would have forced his way in with a tray and then manhandled him into eating what he made for diner.

"Ryoken You should go join everyone," pipes the Wind Ignis from his duel disk. He keeps forgetting it's there considering this remake isn't as obnoxious and laughable evil as the other one was. Not that he'd ever admit it, even to himself but having it around has been nice. It's like the pet he never had.

"I'm coming," he says after he locks up the files on the computer. It's likely does nothing for his privacy, though.

He closes the bedroom door softly and makes his way to the dining room. His temporary family all beaming and laughing like something out of an old catalog. Somewhere in his chest he wants this to be real however deeply buried that desire is.

"There you are, finally out of your cave then?" Aso jokes. He takes his seat at table for a while listening to them talk and interact like a real family. Until everyone finishes up and he heads back to his room.

When he gets to his door his instincts, tell him something isn't right. So he looks down at the soft purple light leaking out from beneath the door. Without skipping a beat, he lunges open the door.To be greeted only by the sound of his own footsteps and an empty room. He doesn't expect to live a long healthy life but being on edge all the time in this world likely isn't doing him any favors.

"Jumping at shadows are we?" Spectre comments from the doorway. As if the adrenaline in his body wasn't pumping fast enough. He glares at the empty space in the hallway beyond the door while the other teen snickers back to his room. Is this what it's like to have a sibling? Constantly dealing with someone who wants to mess with you every chance they get? If so he doesn't want the real Spectre to be like that, the teen is a bad day away from being a horror movie villain as and he has no desire to be on the receiving end of that.

With that horrifying thought he sits back at his computer to find an alert for an unread message. The old fashioned kind that were usually the result of accidentally downloading some kind of virus. It was large, sparkly and had the Dark Ignis' head as a stamp in the middle. It was a warning, no a threat against him doing anything against the AI.

Chapter Text

Roboppi was happy to be with his family in this world. He was very confused by the life Big Bro had scripted for them but it wasn't so bad being siblings instead of a maid bot, a loony AI and a vengeful orphan. Roboppi always knew master didn't live the best life. Even before he was as intelligent as he is now it wasn't hard to figure out with all the late nights.

It would be better in here if only it didn't seem like their Big Bro was keeping something from him. He could understand not wanting to tell master something in case it might trigger his memory but Roboppi was smart now, he could figure out there was something more to the other AI's complaints of there being something wrong with his system then a few bad jokes.

That left him here, in their living room with Roboppi running checks on Ai for the umpteenth time. This time the other AI couldn't hide some of the stress on his system. Even an outdated AI would have sent out some kind of red flag by now.

“Oi!Stop looking like that,”Ai comments choosing to avoid looking at him.

“But,” he begins but Ai gives a sharp look as footsteps come towards them from down the hallway. Not even Master could reason with Big Bro sometimes. Maybe it's a good thing they went with this plan instead of the other one.

He's not the only one who could scheme! Roboppi will find a way to make sure the other AI is alright. Maybe he can even get master to help him too!

“What are you doing?” Yusaku asks looking over them like they're up to trouble again. As much as he wants to complain that he's not a troublemaker. Ai and him did have a history of causing master a lot of undeserved trouble.

“Nothing, run along you need to get to school,” Ai replies waving off the fact he's sitting on the couch With a wire hooking him to Roboppi and a holo screen in front of them flashing a warning. No wonder master thinks Big Bro is a bad actor. Roboppi's unintelligent old system wouldn't have believed that!

“Right, try not to break anything,” Yusaku says and he could tell master was suspicious of them. They both went off without Roboppi so maybe master knows something Roboppi doesn't? He can't ask while Big Bro is around. he'd just sidetrack everyone and get with hiding whatever it was. Roboppi needs to get master alone then.

“Come on Roboppi I'll take you to school,” Master offers like usual. It was nice walking to school with him even if he still didn't talk much. Oh! This could be his chance to talk with him without Big Bro around!

“Coming!” he shouts with excitement. School was weird but he liked going even if he didn't need to as a super intelligent AI. The other AI at the school were fun to hang out with.

“No, you go ahead I'll take Roboppi to school,” Ai states waving Yusaku off again. He'd grabbed Roboppi's arm while he was thinking and was grinning menacingly at him. Big Bro is such as bad actor Master's looking at them like Ai's plotting something he'll have to clean up. Master's response is to shrug and continue getting ready because his phone says he's running late. The screen next him tells Roboppi that Big Bro did something to change it. Sometimes it scared Roboppi how much control Big Bro had over this world. However he minor flex made the warning on the screen next to them flash again.

Everyone remains quiet until master leaves. Big Bro pulls out the cord as he slips off the table.

“Come on Roboppi! We have things to do!” He wonders if he should be concerned about the manic expression on Big Bro's face.

All morning Akira had been lecturing her about how she needs to start to planning out her future. It was annoying especially since she was already a great student and knew most schools would accept her based on her family name. How could a school turn down the sister of a prestigious CEO?

The only thing she really needed to consider was how she would get around that. Aoi didn't want to be accepted based on her brother, but she also had no idea what she could do with her life.

Part of her trying to do things her own way had been going to school early to avoid anyone hoping to network with her. That's how she ran into her motley crew of friends, except Miyu, but she was always a special case.

One day her homeroom teacher was in charge of morning detention when Aoi showed up to help set up. That's how she ran into Takeru and by default the seemingly disinterested Yusaku. The latter had a bit of reputation for being stand offish and cruel. Apparently he'd gotten roped into skipping class with Takeru and had to serve detention that morning. Aoi had somehow gotten caught up in them passing notes, at least after grabbing one and reading it she understood how the two could be friends and be so different.

They'd had lunch together that day and started to hang out after that. Eventually, she dragged Miyu along to hang out too just to stop the rumors that were spreading about her and them dating.

Only they gave her another thing to worry about on top of the school stuff. They started acting funny lately, and it was beginning to bother her. The most ridiculous parts were how much school Yusaku had missed the last few weeks and how much the new kid always seemed to aggravate Takeru to no end but was usually with him unlike Yusaku who now never seemed to be around. The guy wasn't a people person but it was getting to be a little much.

Maybe she could get Takeru to talk during their lunch period. He was a lot easier to get information out of anyway.

She spent most of the day staring at the back of the new kids head wondering what about him set Takeru off so much. A lot of the other girls in the school seemed to fawn over him for being just like Yusaku appeared to be only incredibly more smug. The cocky smirk he usually wore was all she needed to see to know he was the kind of trouble she wanted absolutely nothing to do with.

Speaking of the devil he caught her watching him just as the bell for lunch rang. He'd made a point of stopping her before she could leave.

“Looks like you're starting to figure things out too,” he says using his arm to block the doorway. God could this guy be any more of a creep? Yes but Aoi's not sticking around to deal with him. She shoves his arms away and stomps out of the room, making sure to be loud enough to get some of the other students attention.

“You always were a stubborn one,” he calls as she makes her escape. Turns out he could be more of a creep...no wonder Takeru always looks like he's going to murder him. That doesn't explain why they've been hanging out recently.

After taking a quick break once she was out of the hallway she makes her way onto the roof where they all would usually meet up for lunch. Miyu is supposed to be spending the lunch period getting some extra help from the math professor while Aoi's not even sure if Yusaku showed up. Briefly she wonders if she'll spend the period alone until she catches Takeru's hair moving behind part of the building.

“Hey!” Takeru greets as she walks up. By the looks of it, he's alone today, so Yusaku didn't show up again.

“Hey,” she replies. For some reason there's an awkward tension between them. He gives her a sheepish look before siting gesturing her to join him on the ground.

“Um...so...This is gonna sound super weird but you come across anything strange lately?” he asks stumbling around trying to find the right words.

“Only the new kid being a creep,” she replies and he laughs. It's infuriating knowing there's something going on here, and he knows. “Clearly you agree, so why do you hang around him so much?” That surprised him enough to get him to stop rummaging through his pack for his lunch. He didn't answer her, instead he looked behind her like someone was there.

“I'm a creep, am I?” says the same voice that she had hoped she'd gotten away from. “Somethings never change I guess.” He walked up to stand right next to her.

“I thought you said, you'd keep her out of this! Takeru growls getting up like he's going to attack the creep.

“I haven't said anything, she's the one spent most of today trying to glare a hole through my head,” the creep remarks not even phased.

“Hey! What am I missing here?”she demands looking between them for kind of answer. While the creep just waves her off takeru at least has the sense to look self-conscious about whatever was going on.

“I'm not here to chat with someone the Ignis included out of some sort of pity,” the creep drones sliding off his backpack so that he could look through it. What planet is this jerk on? Aoi's not sure whether she's more angry or confused by the statement. Something with a light shade of blue flashes through her mind as she's thinking about it.

“Ignore him. He's a bastard,” Takeru snaps still scowling at the other teen. He'd gotten up and stood between her and the creep in an almost defensive manor. Aoi's made it clear she's never wanted that kind of treatment but there was definitely something between those two that she was probably better off not getting in the middle of. She was going to say something about it, but the creep pulled whatever he was searching for out of his backpack. He forcefully shoved it towards Takeru.

“Here, give this to Roboppi when you see him, it will help me and that vendor keep track of those two,” the creep explains dropping it in Takeru's hand. It was some kind of metal cuff or bracelet. How did the creep know about Roboppi? Yusaku never talks about his family with anyone other then them. As much as she wants to demand some answers out of him, he strolls off before either of them can ask any questions.

After a few minutes of watching Takeru mess with the cuff she starts to ask him about it but he turns to her quickly.

“Sorry,” he says before running off after the creep. Damn it! She started the day, only vaguely concerned the creep, had caused some kind of fight between the two but now she was starting to worry something more was going on. It was better when she was just worried about school.

“Can I have one hot dog, pretty, pretty please,” Ai coos hanging all over the trucks counter like it was a regular table top. For someone who was acting like an evil Ai bent on going Skynet on humanity, he sure spends a lot of time ordering hot dogs from him. Not that Kusanagi is going to complain. As long as he's hanging around here, he's not causing trouble.

Jin told him something about Ai working as a waiter in some high class restaurant when he asked Jin if he knew anything. Apparently the AI had made entire fake lives for everyone including himself yet Ai was still hanging around here.

“Can I have one too?" asks Roboppi whose just short enough that he can barely be seen do to the counter blocking him. Shouldn't he been in school too? Why does a robot need to go to school? Kusanagi knows better than to question the strange decisions Ai makes but somethings are just too much.

“Fine, make that two hot dogs then,” Ai adds peering down at his much shorter companion with a goofy smile on his face.

“Sure thing, what trouble are you too up to today anyway?" Kusanagi jokingly asks hoping to have a casual conversation with Ai so that he might be able to get some information out of him without having to pry.

“Oh nothing much, Ai just wanted to spend some time with my favorite vendor while Mr. Terrorist isn't around,” Ai replies still slouching all over his clean counter top. Eh not like the vain AI would somehow make it dirty...wait, he knows about Revolver.

“Ah there's the look I was hoping for,” Ai snickers out shifting around just enough to give him something of a sharp look. Of course he would know about Revolver he brought the other man into this world. It was only safe to assume he'd team up with Kusanagi if it meant getting out. “Ooh I love watching you put things together.”

“Anyway Ai don't exactly have the time for this and neither really do either of you, in fact you're running out of it,” Ai warns finally moving away from the counter. At this point Kusanagi had forgot the hot dogs he was cooking in favor of watching Ai. Roboppi seemed to be just as surprised by what Ai saying as he was.
“What?” he asked not getting the implication Ai was trying to tell him.

“Remember how I told you my copies were flawed.” Ai offers off offhandedly. He nodes his head in response because he remembers the discussion that got him trap here very clearly.

“While they're not exactly around to look over the physical bodies of everyone in here anymore,” the AI finishes with a manic expression. A couple of weeks ago when Ai brought him in here, he was worn out and depressed but now he seemed to be enjoying the hell out of being villainous.

“What?!” Kusanagi demands slamming his fists into the counter in a rage. Some of the dishes and appliances on it made a loud banging noise but Ai just stood there unfazed.

“Be sure to tell Mr. Terrorist that or I'll have a nice conversation with Jin,” Ai noted cheekily.

“Big Bro?” Roboppi asks sounding confused but Kusanagi is still seeing red over the threat to his brother. Even if he doesn't think Ai would go that far. What he's implying is much worse.

“Don't worry Roboppi. I've just figured out how I was going to deal with that issue from this morning,” Ai replies smiling down at the other AI like he really was the small child he looked like. Roboppi just looked at him unsure but stayed quiet.

"Well Ai guess we won't be getting our hot dogs,” Ai chirps wrapping an arm around the other to lead them away.“Be sure to keep what I said in mind Kusanagi” with that they disappeared into bits of data.

Kusanagi shoulders slump down as he watching the empty space the two used to be occupying. He wants to wonder where they went wrong but the more pressing issue was how did they get out when both he and Revolver had very little luck getting around Ai's system and now they were short on time to do it.

Chapter Text

The school day didn't get any better or worse after that confrontation on the roof. In a way the anti climatic nature of going through normal classes made whatever seemingly harmless conflict going on between her friends and the new kid feel much more important then it probably was.

Even the simple act of having someone pass her a note in class made it feel like Aoi was missing something. A note from the creep, Ryoken Kogami asking to talk to her after school.

'I'll see you by the gate after school'. She's not sure why she decided to agree to that but here she was standing idly by the school gates as a the flood of students slowly dissipate. Even Miyu and Jin walked by her without a single glance in her direction. Miyu likely chatting Jin's ear off as they walk passed in their own little world.

There was something strange about seeing those two walking together like that, somewhere in the back of Aoi's mind there lived the thought that the two had never meet the other before therefore their friendship wasn't possible. Ashamed of that though Aoi would chalk the idea up to stress from school causing her brain to come up with weird delusional nonsense. Wouldn't be the first time she had strange thoughts and ideas after all.

She watches them disappear down the road thinking maybe she have ignored the note in favor of going off with them instead. The presumptions feeling she got from the note was more than enough to warn Aoi brushing it off as something from another creepy weirdo.

Aoi checked her phone getting a little impatient before peering back towards the front entrance of the school. Thankfully Takeru comes out of the entryway followed by the creep.

“Good, now come with along we have a lot to discuss,” Ryoken commands still behind Takeru who turns around to look at the other teen confused and apprehensive.

“Aoi, I don't know what he's been telling you but you don't have to come along if you don't want too,” Takeru says looking back at her something shiny peeking out from under his shelve catching her attention. He had the unusually plain cuff on despite his own objections from earlier. It made Aoi more curious about the dynamic between them and their missing friend.

“Don't worry, I want to know what's going on too,” she replies, hand reaching up to gripe her backpack tightly. Takeru slumps his shoulders and sighs before starting to walk off ahead of them. Ryoken gives her a self-satisfied smirk before strolling by her too. The part of her that came up with those bizarre ideas about Jin and Miyu, told her to be careful around the creep, that'd he somehow wronged her in the past.

“You know, we're going to start getting calls from the Principle if you keep missing school like this,” Ai says behind him, voice echoing around the formerly empty cave.

“I'm pretty sure she doesn't want to talk to you ever again after the last time you volunteered there ,“ he replies turning away from the screens in front of him. “Besides you didn't take Roboppi to school either.”

“Caught me red handed,” Ai reveals with a few exaggerate hand gestures before strolling seamlessly across the room. “Either way time for me to drag you home, I want us to have a nice diner together after the hectic few weeks we've all had.” There's a concerning hint of distress in his voice that worries Yusaku.

“Fine,” he concedes waiting for the silly overreaction. It doesn't come, instead Ai gives him a soft smile before turning around. The ridiculous cape limply flapping around behind him.

It was silent between them as they made their way out of the cave. That continued until they made their way home.

“Big brother!” Roboppi yells jumping on Yusaku as soon as he gets out the VR room. At least one of them was in a good mood.

“Hello, Roboppi,” he says not being able to help the small smile that spreads on his face at excitement coming radiating from his younger sibling.

“Try not to be too rough with him Roboppi, I think our dear Yusaku needs a break,' Ai chaste needlessly. Yusaku was doing just fine, his brother was starting to go into overprotective mode again for some reason and he's fairly sure the simulations aren't the only reason.

Roboppi lets him go and looks at Yusaku wide eyed before immediately going back to trying to squeeze the life out of him.
“Don't tell me there's something wrong with Big Brother too,” Roboppi whines still holding to tight for him to breathe. It would be nice if either of the androids in the remembered he needed to breathe. He ends up trying to squirm out of the smaller ones hold until what Roboppi said sinks in.

“Oi! Let him go, you're squeezing the air out of his lungs!”Ai finally protests trying to wrench Yusaku out of their little brother's hold.

“No! I might not be able to help you but I can keep Yusaku safe if I keep him here!”Roboppi whines sticking his tongue out at Ai childishly. Hearing Yusaku's name instead of Big Brother was a shock to both Yusaku, himself and Ai. It was rare that the younger brother ever called him by his name.

“Squeezing him to death isn't exactly keeping him safe,” Ai points out still trying to get between them. Roboppi probably realized that since he let going of Yusaku but not without sulking.

“While if that's settled I'm going to start dinner,” Ai says getting up and leaving the room. Roboppi pouts, glaring out the empty doorway while Yusaku tries to catch his breath. Only downside to having robotic relatives was the possibility of them harming him if they're not careful even if it rarely ever happens.

“I'm sorry, Big Brother,” Roboppi mumbles glancing back at him sheepishly.

“It's fine Roboppi,” he starts torn between wanting to comfort the somehow crying android and asking him about Ai. Deciding the first option was the better one Yusaku hugs Roboppi surprising the tiny robot...something was strange about that description.

“Big Brother, I want to talk to you about something,” Roboppi begins but gets cut off by Ai sweeping back into the room looking disheveled, goo dripping off his shoulder, down his blouse and onto the floor.

“So, change of plans let's order out and watch some movies instead!” Ai declares snatching Roboppi off the floor. “Since Ai picked last time why don't you pick, Roboppo?” What chaos was Yusaku going to have to clean up in the kitchen later?

Roboppi's expression turns thoughtful and opens his mouth to answer before stopping to reconsider.

“How about Chinese?” Not the reply either Ai or him thought he'd give if the surprised look on Ai's face was anything to go by.

Yusaku knew that he wouldn't get any answer out of either Ai or Roboppi tonight if the former had anything to say about it. What was Ai keeping from him?

One of the perks to being a student at a dojo was the deep-breathing excesses his grandfather taught him that to help Takeru center himself. He's put those excises into practice a lot since Ryokan showed up.

The other teen clearly had his own plan and wasn't going to let either Kusanagi or him in on it while still trying to get Aoi involved. This is why he didn't like the other teen, Ryoken might not be the same as Dr. Kogami but he was just as dangerously intelligent. Scratch that he was just like his father.

Meaning Takeru was out matched in this situation and had to rely heavily on Kusanagi when it came to anything technical going on in this world. He was self-aware enough to understand most of his anger about their situation came from Takeru's lack of ability to do anything about it and knowing he's being used for something.

Ryoken had at least been upfront enough to tell him the cuff was meant to track Roboppi but that can't be all it's for, though? The Hanoi leader always had more up his sleeves.

That's what made him worry about Aoi, while Takeru had most of a grasp on the fact this world wasn't real. Aoi still thought they were all just regular high school students. The kind that didn't moonlight as heros in a virtual world.

“Well this is a surprise,” a voice says next to Takeru. It sounds like someone he hasn't seen in awhile.

“Yusaku!” Takeru cries surprised to see the other teen actually in school for once.

“Good morning.” Yusaku dully replies before going to his seat.

The rest of the his classes before lunch flew since Takeru's brain busy going in circles the whole time. Finally, it came to lunch time. He was strangely excited to go up to the roof with his friends, like old times. While new...maybe when they get home, they could do something similar.

“Takeru!” Aoi calls coming down the adjacent hallway next to the stairwell. Ryoken changed his mind yesterday about explaining anything to Aoi leaving Taekru to try to weasel his way out of the conversation. It was wrong, but what else was he supposed to do? He still wasn't 100% on anything, and the asshole left it on him.

“Hello!” He greets, and they make their way quickly up to the roof. They stopped chatting about regular things like school once they spot Yusaku already sitting in their usual spot like nothing had changed.

“Yusaku! Where have you been?” Aoi demands once she notices him.

“Sorry, I've had some family stuff going on,” Yusaku replies gazing out at the sky instead of at them.

“You still could have said something, We were all worried about you!” Aoi huffs and Yusaku has enough sense to appear a little embarrassed. Hell has no fury like an angry Aoi. “I'm glad you're back, though.” Both Aoi and him shared the sentiment.

“Things are back to normal now, Ai said I'm not allowed to miss any more school or he'll force me to go to theater camp,' Yusaku jokes drill while they settle in next to him for lunch.

“I'm sure the Ignis could come up with a better form of punishment,” remarks the one person Takeru was hoping would come up to the roof today. He hadn't seen Ryoken in class and assumed he'd skipped to work on something. What worried him was the sharp glare Yusaku was sending Ryoken, the two haven't meet each yet right?

“It doesn't concern you,” Yusaku comments flatly. Takeru's only seen him look that intense while being fighting as his Playmaker avatar. “Leave.”

“It did a great job manipulating you didn't it,” Ryoken sneers returning Yusaku's glare. Aoi looks at him confused. He's only slightly less perplexed than she is.

“As I said it doesn't concern you, leave,” Yusaku replies gravely.

“No,” Ryoken states flatly stepping closer toward them. Takeru figures now would be a good time to get between them before Yusaku actually tries to murder Ryoken. As strange as that thought should have been the expression on his friends face told Takeru he was going to if someone didn't get between them. “I've waited long enough to talk to you without the Dark Ignis and its minion around.”

Takeru kind of wanted to let Yusaku attack the idiot for talking about Ai and Roboppi as if they were things but right not that wouldn't be a good idea. Even Aoi looked like she was going to intervene in their weird exchange. Does she know Ai and Roboppi are AI?

“I don't know what's going, but you can't just go up to strangers and demand things of them like that,” Aoi injections before he can.

“You do know what I'm talking about, you both do, that's why we need to talk,” Ryoken says gesturing between himself and Yusaku.

“I have no reason to talk to you Kogami,” Yusaku replies lowly.

Wait has Yusaku meet Ryoken? The statement confused Taekru enough to leave him dazed giving Ryoken the opportunity to stand in front of his prey. At the moment the former terrorist was looking at his friend as if Yusaku was prey.

“I see, if that's how the Ignis wants to play, two can play at this game,” Ryoken jeers and Yusaku fed up grabs his stuff and storms off in his own quiet broody way. Surprisingly the older teen lets him walk past without another word.

“What is your problem!” Aoi yells glaring at Ryoken. “And you, why have you been going along this creep if you knew Yusaku clearly hated him?” Honestly Takeru's more surprised she didn't ask about the strange accusations Ryoken throw at Yusaku. Still he doesn't blame her for being upset. He wants to throw the Hanoi leader off the roof, he would have already if it wasn't for the fencing.

“I'm feeling generous, stop by cafe Nagi later with Homura and maybe we'll answer those questions,” Ryoken comments mysteriously before shoving his hands into his pockets. There he goes twisting the narrative to fit his own ends, again. The contentious teen huffs and walks off leaving Takeru and Aoi staring at each-other confused and more than mildly pissed off.

“You're going to tell me what's going on and this time you're going to tell the truth,” Aoi states as the bell rings.

Chapter Text

“You know if this had been a restaurant in the 'real' world, you would have been arrested for being creepy by now,” observed a bored voice behind him. Ai was leaning on one of the light posts behind Kusanagi studying him.

“True but I wouldn't have to if this was the real world,” he counters turning to face the AI. Kusanagi had come to this strangely empty part of the city in hopes of talking Ai down after what he'd said yesterday about his copies and the real world.

“Well, if you're going to be like that, I have better things to do,” Ai says. Right, He's going to have to be careful with the temperamental AI. “Cat got your tongue?”

“Look, I just want to talk about all this,” Kusanagi sighs waiting for the other to decide to walk away. It wouldn't surprise him if Ai decided to just disappear and leave them to figure this all out on their own.

Instead Ai quirks an eyebrow curiously before laughing hysterically, needing to grasp the light post to keep from falling over.

“What's so funny?” Kusanagi demands not seeing anything to joke about in this situation.

“So serious, lighten up” Ai jokes straightening up. The goofy grin on his face was starting to unnerve Kusanagi.

The AI swept passed him, gesturing for him to follow him down the sidewalk.

“Well, are you going to talk or stare at me like I'm crazy?” Ai questions. “I mean I am crazy, but you should know that already.”

“I want to know the same thing, I've been asking since you started whatever this is,” He replies waiting to see how Ai will dodge the question this time. Instead the android looks off at the pinkish red evening sky above them and sighs.

“You'll need to be more specific.”

Taken somewhat by surprise it takes him a few minutes to focus on one question. After having to avoid running into an AI person holding too many shopping bags he comes up with one.

“Why,” he finally asks while the other is still a few feet ahead of him.

“That's not very specific, and I already answered that,” Ai remarks turning a random corner.

“Yeah, you said you wanted to give them better lives but I think you also know this isn't how to do that,” Kusanagi accesses casually trying struggling to keep up until Ai stops abruptly, looking back at him.

“You got me there but it is the only way to keep my family together,” Ai looks away before continuing.“What kind of life to you expect any of them to have after what they've been through?What kind of life can something like me have when there will always be people willing to kill the only person I have left just to get to me, what...”

“What does that mean Ai?” he cuts off the increasingly quieter ramble. The android glancing back to him sadly.

“You really think Queen is the only person willing to go the extremes out of greed even after figuring out how far Sol was willing to go to cover up the lost incident? Ai counters quietly.

“And you're afraid of those people hurting Yusaku, I get that but you can't keep him in a bubble like this just because you're scared,” Kusanagi says stepping closing to the slumping AI. He could understand wanting to protect the people he loved but trapping them in a virtual world was taking it too far. He gently grabs Ai's right wrist to tell the AI despite everything they could all work this out. “Why not be his overprotective older brother in physical world?”

Ai chuckles “Like the stubborn mule would let me, still I..” he looks away again.

“What's stopping you from giving that a try?” Kusanagi injects.

“I wanted that more than anything,” Ai mumbles and Kusanagi thinks maybe he's starting to get through to him. “But I made my choice already and I just have to live with it now”. His grip on Ai's arm tightened, trying to keep the equally stubborn idiot in place. He's made a lot of stupid mistakes since this all started and he's not going to let the chance to get out slip by him. Not when they're lives were in danger like this.

“It's not just you living with that choice though, I don't even think you gave Yusaku one let alone anyone else!” he shouts frustrated at the emotionally erratic idiot.

“You've right about Yusaku but everyone else agreed to my vague terms,” Ai explains trying to pull his arms out of Kusanagi's hold vainly. He's stronger than Kusanagi if he wanted to get away he could have and it's enough of to reform that Ai doesn't plan to run off if he lets go.

“You mean you tricked them, or most of them, from what Takeru said he was just to tired too deal with you,” Kusanagi accuses again this time letting the other go.

“I did apologize to him while we were in the hospital room,” Ai points out absentmindedly rubbing his wrist. “He was happy here”

“Takeru's been a mess since he started remembered his real life, you really want Yusaku to go through the same thing?” he questions, thankful for once that Lightening seemed to have taken Jin's memories of the incident.

“...”

“You don't really believe that whole 'I made my choice I have to live with thing', if you did you would have altered my memories too and you wouldn't have involved Revolver,” He advances waiting for the other to respond.

“Well in...I...I.. you see...” Ai stutters playing with his fingers nervously.

“I'm right aren't I” he says softly. There's something wrong with him not being to upset with the idiot for causing all this madness but Ai had been their friend and was overcompensating in his grief.

“It's alright Ai,” he adds trying to sound convincing. He understands why Ai's been doing this and he can see everyone but Ryoken being somewhat understanding. AI hasn't necessary hurt anyone outside of Queen as far as he knows and when it comes to her and Sol he can't see them blaming him for wanting retribution for Earth. Still they need to find a way to deal with Ai once everyone is back to normal.

Ai smiles sadly back at him before responding.

“Maybe you're right, maybe you guys can help me,” Ai replies nodding. He can tell there's something Ai is leaving out but right now it would be better to have this discussion with everyone else around so they work on getting out of here before time runs out.

“We'll have to talk more about that with everyone else, come on let's go meet everyone by the truck, my cafe has become quiet the hangout,” he jokes taking the lead in heading back towards the courtyard he practically lived in since coming here. Ai doesn't say anything he just nodes again and follows behind, the sound of his boots telling Kusanagi he's still there.

It's strange having the other behind him being quiet, hell it's strange seeing him with hair and human limbs. Despite the strangeness he wants to ask him about the muzzled version of Lightning that was living with Jin and him as while as Flame who was apparently living with Takeru.

The low clicking sound of Ai's heels stop behind him though causing Kusanagi to glance back to make sure everything is alright.

Ai's frozen amongst the holograms of people trying to get around him. His eyes as wide as they can get, completely unfocused. Worried Kusanagi cautiously steps closer to ask what's wrong.

Some part of Ai seems to begin functioning again. He blinks and tears slowly running down his face without warning. Concerned kusanagi reaches out to try to comfort him but Ai shoves him off glaring at him menacingly.

“Ai what's going on?” he asks confusedly by the sudden change in attitude. This was extreme even for the mercical AI.

“As if you don't know, you probably helped him pull it off!” Ai retorts angrily stumbling away from him. All the holographic people vanished around them.

“I can't believe...how could...” Ai cut himself off with a pained cried hunching inward like he's been injured.

“Ai tell me what's going on!” he demands somewhat shaken by the sudden mood swing. Ai doesn't answer instead choosing to disappear into a stream of data leaving Kusanagi alone on the empty street with no idea what was happening. Something told him, Takeru and Ryoken were in involved in this somehow and he needs to know how immediately.

“You're insane,” she states bluntly. It's a great thing they decided to skip the rest of their classes in favor of finding a nice quiet place to talk because Aoi's positive if someone overheard that Takeru thought they were in the matrix they'd have gone to a counselor complaining that he's delusional.

“You asked, I'm told you what you wanted to know,” he says with a shrug. “Still want to wait around here for the creep to show up?” They ended up by the hotdog cart that was usually the courtyard close to the school but for once it wasn't open so they had to hang out on some benches.

“Might as while see what his side of the story is,” Aoi replies checking her phone for the time. School should be over soon, but the creep seemed like the type to skip if he had other plans. While she's got her phone in her hand she sends Yusaku a text to see how he's doing. She'd finally seen her missing friend again only to have their nice little reunion interrupted by this madness.

“So tell me again how Ai's a robot?” she asks, maybe hearing the story one more time will cause this to make sense. Takeru chuckles before starting his story over again.

They spent another thirty minutes debating how outrageous everything was until the creep, Kogami showed up.

“Is the vendor off today?” he asks looking at over her to Takeru. Rude, she was here too.

“I don't know,” Takeru replies frowning.“Why did you go after Yusaku like that?”

“Reasons,” Ryoken states ignoring Takeru groaning at the vagueness of his answer.“Did he already explain what he knew?' He turns to her expectantly.

“You could be a little nicer, and I think you're both crazy,” She says. It's true she's completely sure they're all crazy and she wants to know how they all ended up this way...on second thought she's better off not knowing.

“Believe what you want, you're about as useless as he is anyway,” the creep drones sitting on the bench next to the one she and Takeru were on. If he doesn't want to be around them why is he even here then?

“So you're exactly the leader of a cyber terrorist organization with a thing against AI?” she inquires thinking he's not going to reply. “I mean you're like nineteen, the only ways that's possible is in a bad roleplay game.”

“Eighteen,” the creep corrects.“and yes it is possible, your brother made CEO at a young age didn't he?” Okay, he's got a point there but at least Akira being CEO was reasonable in comparison.

“Don't mind him, I already told you he's an asshole,” Takeru mumbles glaring at the laptop the creep pulled out.

“And you still have not learned any manners,” Kogami chides not glancing up from whatever he was working on. Takeru huffs angrily and Aoi really wants how these two could hate each and come with this kind of extravagant delusion. She's got two sides of the story, maybe she can get Yusaku's too. The other teen seemed to be in the middle of the weirdness. But he hadn't replied to her text like usual.

“Ok children, can you two get along, long enough to tell me why were waiting for the hot dog vendor?” She asks, it was kind of odd to think the man who occasionally served her hotdogs when she came by was some kind of elite hacker.

“Kusanagi and this creep have been trying to find a way to get everyone out of here,”Takeru explains running one of his hands through his hair.
“How am I a creep?” Kogami questions offhandedly still typing away on the computer.

“How are you not a creep?" replies a voice that didn't belong to any of them. “Big Brother you shouldn't be so mean!”

Yusaku and Roboppi must have walked up behind them while they were arguing.

“Hello?” she greets smiling mostly towards the younger of the odd siblings but she was glad to see Yusaku too.

“You should listen to the talking vacuum,” Kogami comments finally looking up from his computer. Yusaku glares at him while the younger of the two pouts about not being a vacuum. Maybe the creep actually needed to see someone about those delusions.

“You are, and I don't have the patience to deal with all of you right now,” the creep complains, packing up his computer and preparing to leave swiftly. “Think about what I've said to you Fujiki, do you really think a couple of robots can take the place of real people?” With that Kogami abruptly left leaving them to stare after him as he walked away.

“Why are you here?” Yusaku asks once the creep is out of sight.

“We were going to talk the vendor and that weirdo,” Aoi supplies pointing to where the other teen had been.“I was hoping they'd explain more about whatever's going on” Roboppi peeked up curiously at her.

“Did you notice something wrong with Big Bro too?” he asks eyes sparkling with excitement. It'd be cute if it wasn't from him being worried about his older brother.

“Roboppi, this isn't the place for that,” Yusaku chides looking back towards where kogami disappeared. Something tells Aoi, he doesn't trust the guy either.

Takeru quietly fiddles with his sleeve not paying attention to them.

'But,” Roboppi pouts childishly and Yusaku puts a hand on his should in response. “Sorry, I'm just worried.”

“Why are you worried?” Takeru asks. He'd stopped playing with his clothing once Roboppi replied.

“No reason,”Roboppi replies quickly like he wasn't supposed to say anything.

“It's nothing, Ai's just being strangely overprotective again and Roboppi's worried about him because of it,” Yusaku adds.

“In that case, I've got something for you Roboppi,” Takeru says wrangling the cuff off his wrist and offering it to him.

“Are you sure about that?” Aoi asks cautiously, he did get it from the creep after all and Kogami did say it would be used to keep track of Roboppi and Ai.

“Ooh, shiny, are you sure I can have it?” Roboppi asks that spark of childish excitement back.

“Yep, it's yours,” Takeru assures him.

“What is that?” Yusaku asks studying for any indication of something funny. Aoi decides to leave it up to Takeru to tell them about it. It's supposed to from him after all.

“It's a cuff, see,” Takeru says offering it out in his hand for Roboppi to take.

“And it'll help me deal with Big Bros weirdness,”the younger Fujiki questions snacking the shiny bit of metal out of Takeru's hand and the other teen grimaces a bit instead of answering. It's cute how happy he looks putting on the simple accessory.

“Takeru where'd you get that?” Yusaku asks staring intently at the other teen, it'd be kind of intimidating if either she or Takeru didn't know him.

Then he gets distracted by Roboppi aggressively wiggling the arm he put the cuff on. The younger sibling upset by it not coming off for some reason.

“Roboppi, you alright?”Yusaku asks letting go of his shoulder to grab his arms instead.

“It won't come off and it's getting tighter,” Roboppi whines stopping his frantic flailing to try to pull it off but something happens when the other hand touches it. Green lines start appears in the formerly plain cuff.

“Big Brother what's happening,” Roboppi panicky asks looking to his brother for an answer. At a loss for one Yusaku tries to ripe the thing off while she and Takeru watch in horror as the lines start running across Roboppi's skin and clothing. From Ao's point of view, it looked like the lines were cutting into the small child.

Only instead of blood it looks like bits are disappearing off him, like he's disintegrating before their eyes.

“Master help me! Please,” Roboppi pleads terrified as his body disappears. Yusaku at a lost for words holds his younger brother tightly as he vanishes into fragments of green light. The clank of the awful metal cuff on the ground the only sound between them as the lights fade into the pinkish red sky.

Chapter Text

Somehow he found himself surrounded by the jagged stones walls of the cave he hadn't been in a couple of days. Ai told Yusaku, he needed to stop running the simulations as obsessively as he was and then threatened to send him to camp. But that had been a few days ago hadn't it? Hadn't he just been hanging around the cafe with Takeru and Aoi? Did something happen? Or did he fall asleep on Takeru again?

It wouldn't be too surprising if that was the case. If he's dreaming about being in that dark dingy cave Ai might have the right idea about him needing to take a break.

Still knowing that didn't stop the nagging feeling in his chest that he was missing something. Frustratingly he couldn't figure out what that was.

Standing here glaring at the rocky walls around him wasn't doing anything to solve that dilemma.

The quickest way to solve that problem would be to wake up. Getting out of here would likely be the fastest way to. Only he was somehow in the middle of a long stretch of the cave with no idea, which direction was the exit. If he goes one way, it'll let to the exit while the other will lead to the opening where they've been running simulations. Either way would eventually lead outside, or the alarm will wake him up for school.

As he's walking along the well lit cave, there's a loud echo of footsteps behind him.

Unsurprisingly it was Ai coming up behind him with a strangely sober expression. In fact he didn't even spare a glance at Yusaku as he stalked by burrowed eyebrows and all. It was like he didn't see him standing right there.

He's dreaming right? Maybe his brain is telling him to follow Ai towards what is definitely the area with the simulations. It might be a better idea to ignore the weirdness and continue on the path out of the cave. At least once he's awake he can actually talk to the real Ai about the weirdness. And figure out whatever that nagging feeling is

A few minutes later he's standing between the edge of the opening and the rest of cave watching Ai sneer at a menacing version of Lightning. Who knew the little creature that lived with Jin could be so threatening? Ai swiftly shattered the cackling projection into glittering bits of data before bring up the screens they'd been using to run those simulations.

It was heartbreaking watching Ai frantically swipe away apocalyptic simulation after apocalyptic simulation. One after another the screens faded out before being replaced instantly with a new one with an equally if not worse outcome then the last. All he can do is watch as each ending tears way at Ai.

What's wrong with me? This might not be real, but I'm not this useless!

'You're right, we're not' He would assume he was just hearing things except the bright bold form of Playmaker stood next to him mirroring his own pained expression as they watched Ai collapse onto the ground completely broken down.

Rarely has he seen the avatar outside of dreams about flying around and the occasional popup that came up while he was running simulations.

The avatar's random appearance isn't as important to Yusaku at the moment as trying to comfort historical Ai. He doesn't make a step before Playmaker grabs his shoulder to stop him.

Playmaker shakes his head. He just said we weren't useless.

'This already happened, we need to focus on what's going on now

He shoved off the hand on his shoulder and glared at the impersonation. “What do you mean?"

'We've never been one to lie to ourselves so why are you so insistent on doing so now?' He's not sure which was more aggravating the non explanation or fact the avatar's mouth didn't even move to say it. Playmaker just kept staring intently at him like Yusaku should know what he's talking about.

Ai left you alone with the internet, You've seen the articles and videos about us, about Soulburner, Blue Maiden, Revólver.'

He didn't even have to ask the impersonation what they had to do with anything.

'You can't help Ai if you keep lying to yourself about what's going on.' He gestures over to Ai who's standing up and yet slumped over defeated as he lumbers across the opening to leave.

'I wonder if Ropobbi was waiting outside for him?' Who? What?!

'You don't remember your adorable younger brother?'Playmaker's blank expression remained firmly fixed and somehow it felt smug. Did he really act like this before?

'Yes. Kusanagi likes to joke with Takeru about how bad we are at acting like a normal person.'

Instead of continuing to argue he starts following after Ai as he makes his way passed them through the cave back towards the entrance. Thankfully the annoying avatar stayed quiet as the three made their way out of the cave.

Standing outside the cave was a little kid eagerly waving and calling out to Ai. The excitement radiating from the kid dims somewhat when it was halfheartedly returned but he still ran up to Ai with a huge innocent grin. Ai tried to and failed to act like he wasn't miserable while talking to the kid but even the stranger could see through his bad acting.

Yusaku looked at the stranger and watched him interact with Ai while a sharp pain continued to grow in his chest. Why did it feel like there was an empty hole in his chests when he thinks about them together like this? Why did he want the stranger and Ai to just come home with him?

'Are you really going to let Ai make you forget the one person who has been constant in our lives?' Something in Yusaku snapped and grabbed the impersonation throwing him into the nearby cave wall as Ai and Roboppi...Roboppi his little brother...the only person who's been with Yusaku since the incident. The Incident- six months of starvation, electric shocks, and dueling just because a bunch of scientist wanted to play God.

'For what it's worth I really wished it didn't have to be like this.' His grip on Playmaker's jumpsuit slips and Yusaku sinks down onto his knees wanting nothing more to then to go back to the life he has now. The one where he's a normal teen with a couple of odd siblings and friends and a life...The one where his younger sibling disintegrated before his eyes. That's what he was missing, he was grieving for Roboppi and it left an aching hole in his chest.

Playmaker was right he was lying to himself. Who wouldn't in his situation? He had a life now with a family and friends who cared about him. He didn't want to go back to an empty apartment and being unable to connect with the rest of humanity. His avatar quietly settled down on the ground next to him, resting a hand on his shoulder trying to reassure Yusaku.

'The one where you're the hero'

The odd habits he'd picked from observing humans weren't something he thought all that much about but since Ai's been staying in his soltis form for long periods of time it's dawned on him how many little things he started doing. Like inhaling when he doesn't need to breath or biting his lip when he used to not have any most of the time.

He did have a mouth in his Eldritch horror form as Yusaku liked to call the form he was in now. Ai was spread thin maintaining the digital world and trying to keep Yusaku in dark about what was going on was weighing heavily on him t so he defaulted to his non-human form. It was less work to keep up while he waited for sleeping teen to wake up.

Ai had fallen asleep too once he got them both settled in after-he didn't really want to think about what happened. He dreamed of the day the hope he had in any kind of future was taken from him. Only something was off about the memory. It felt like someone else was in the cave with him. Not just Lightning's copy either. He really was a mess if he couldn't keep people out like that.

Suddenly he wasn't hovering over an unconscious Yusaku, the teen sprung up without warning scanning the room for any sign of whatever he'd been dreaming about. After a few seconds his eyes seemed to finally focus in on Ai.

Ai grin at him “Morning sleepy head!”

Yusaku blinked a couple more times stilling focusing on him before a look a pure relief washed over him. In a second Ai is being squished tightly into his chest. “Ai!”

Ai would have made a joke about it being a good thing he didn't have bones but he could feel Yusaku trembling. One glance over at his face prove Yusaku was in fact crying. Something in his expression read like he hadn't seen Ai in a long time and was relieved to see him. But that can't be.

“What's wrong Yu?” he asks while Yusaku lets go of him to rub his eyes. For second Ai remembers how worried and defensive the teen had been when he originally stopped by to bring him into the digital world. Something in his coding, heart, soul whatever was inside him warmed knowing Yusaku was happy to see him this time.

Yusaku's expression twisted suddenly. “Ai you have to let everyone go.”

“What!” He flung himself back shifting to look human only to trip over his feet and stumble hitting the desk on the other side of the room.

“Ai!” Yusaku called scrambling out of bed.

“No! I can't lose you too!” He cries feeling the room freeze the same way the street did when he was running around with Kusanagi. Ai still hadn't processed Roboppi's death, and he didn't want to, it hurt almost as much as losing the other Ignis had.

“I'll stay here with you, but you can't keep everyone else here,” Yusaku says stepping closer and closer as if trying not to frighten him. Like Ai's some kind of cornered wild animal he's trying not to startle. Maybe he was in a way.

Still he needs to pull himself together! Ai draws himself up to loom over his charge.

“Ai you know this is wrong!” Yusaku doesn't even flinch under his gaze. Like the old Yusaku.

“I knew something was off with that dream I just didn't think things would cross like that,” he sighs, and the other glances at him confused.

That didn't stop Yusaku from persisting. “Ai!”

“Yes Yu?” he replies plastering on a big grin.

“You can't keep everyone here like this, everyone has lives they need to get back to. Takeru's grandparents are probably worried sick looking for him again! You really want to make them suffer searching for their grandson again?”Yusaku stops for a second not breaking eye contact with him before continuing, “And what about the Zaizen's? You really want someone like Queen to come back as Sol's CEO? Or what about Miyu's family, they waited years for her to wake up and your going to make them suffer because she's in a coma again!”

Ai places both hands on Yusaku's shoulders trying to get him to look back up at him. “What about you Yusaku?”

“I already told you, I would stay here with you. Just let everyone else go,”Yusaku replies and something in eyes says he means it.

Ai should just end this argument now. It would be easy enough to modify Yusaku's memories again.

“But you won't,” Yusaku states glaring up at him definitely. Eep looks like there are still some crossed wires between them or he's just really easy to read.

“You're right I don't want to do that again so I'll be honest. Your out of time to play the hero.” he sneers sidestepping around the teen to make his escape.

“What?” he exclaims gawking at Ai like he's grown a few extra heads.

“Surprised? Seems like whatever canary bought you back didn't tell you everything.”He wanted to keep Yusaku with him, keep him safe and this is the best option he's come up with.“Well since you've offered so kindly to stay with me I'll give you a until sunrise to get everyone else out.” Ai finishes with a bow.

“I'll be watching. Be sure to keep your word.” He disappeared as Yusaku tried to reach out to him again. They'll meet again soon enough.

'How could you?'

God, he was suspicious of that awful thing since it was handed to him and still he gave it to Roboppi. How could he be so stupid? How could he put any faith in the person he wanted revenge against despite Yusaku and everyone else telling him to move on.

He'd help destroy the one person his best friend had always considered family and for what?

'How could you?”

Ai hadn't even said the words. It was his own guilt that made Takeru feel like Ai should have said something, should have yelled, screamed, freaked out, done something.

But the truth was Ai showed up as the last bits of Roboppi faded into the sunset. The only action the grief-stricken AI took was to sweep his remaining sibling off the ground. Glancing at him and Aoi for a second before vanishing with Yusaku. The mournful expression had been more then enough to send Takeru spiraling deeper into guilt, regret, despair and a lot of other feelings he couldn't place.

In his haze Takeru somehow found his way back to his apartment and into his bed. Which is where he's been for he doesn't know how long. He didn't have the energy to check. Maybe he would be better off staying in his room like he used too when he was younger? Being a shut-in had to be easier in a fake world, right?

“Takeru what's wrong,” whispers the electronic voice of Flame. Or as close to a whisper as his this fake could get to a whisper.

“Go away,” he replies using his pillow to cover his face. He didn't want to the glowing form that was starring at him.

“Sure I'll go away while slip back into being an anti-social hermit who only goes outside to be a delinquent,”it mocks. Way to keep kicking a man when he's down. Takeru tries to bury himself deeper into the sheets wanting to out the jab. What did this imitation know anyway?

“Come on! What happened to the fiery spirit! So what you got used...You don't have time to dwell in your own misery like this!” Flame raves trying in vain to remove the blanket covering him.

“What do you know?" Takeru cries twisting around and flinging the blanket away causing the small creature to be thrown back. “You're not Flame!”

He's been avoiding going 'home' as much as he could because it stung to be surrounded by ghosts. Once he started realizing that, the idea of having his family back, having his partner back was painful. It's why he put up with having to being around Revolver, at least being with him and Kusanagi was better.

“You're half right, kindof, it's complicated,” Flame replies calmly finding his way to back towards the bed.

“What does that mean?" he shouts frustration from everything boiling over. The little creature ignores him in favor of going over to the window.

“Ask Yusaku once you guys get out but right now well look outside,” It says pointing into the black night.

“Its dark so what?” he huffs refusing to move.

“This is supposed to be a city and it's pitch black out there,” Flame counters flatly.
“Get on with it. I'm tired and nothing is making sense,” Takeru replies settling back into bed.

“How do I put this? You-Are-In-Danger!Revolver didn't take into account Roboppi's role in all this,” Flame pauses for a minute seemingly trying to figure out whether he wanted to tell Takeru about the rest of not.

“That's the easiest way to put it and that means this world isn't going to hold up long and you'll either be absorbed again or disappear.”

“What can I do?” he asks trying to keep from panicking. It's not like he knows how to keep this world together or where anyone else was; Ai grabbed Yusaku, Revolver disappeared, Aoi had gone home and Kusanagi had been missing the whole time! God he was useless.

She'd just watch a small child disintegrate before her eyes. How was she supposed to process that?! On top of the insane stuff Takeru talked about and Ai just shows up and disappearing out of thin air.

Aoi's brain hurt from the loops it's been through to understand all this. She'd ran home hopping Akira was around to talk things out but the place was empty. In fact the city felt empty. There hadn't been anyone around since she was in the courtyard with everyone. The last ten minutes or so she's been looking out from the balcony and so far no one, not even a stray pigeon walked down the street below her.

It wasn't unusual for Akira to work late. Aoi just wanted some company. Preferably the kind that didn't make her feel like she's crazy.

Miyu!

She'd be perfect to talk to. Or perfect to chew Aoi out for needing more sleep or something because the lack of it isn't doing good things for her health. The lecture would be better then the silence resonating throughout the apartment complex.

Quickly she steps back inside to find her bag. Once she finds her phone inside, she automatically dials Miyu's number and hops on the couch.

“Aoi?!” Miyu says sounded really excited for some reason.

“Hey, you have a few minutes to talk?” She asks hopping she didn't catch her friend at the wrong time.

“Actually I was on my way over to do just that,” Miyu nervously laughs.

“Really? Um..so how close are you then?”She replies wondering if she somehow missed Miyu while she was outside.

“I'm just a couple blocks off now,” the other girl answers.

“Guess I'll meet you out front then,” Aoi says. It'll be nice just to hang out with Miyu tonight but why was she coming over anyway and why hadn't she called Aoi ahead of time.

“Alright meet you there!”

With that the line went dead, leaving her in the silent apartment again. Maybe she should bug Akira into getting some kind of pet. At least a dog or something would make noise, hell even a mouse would service.

It was nice to wonder whether or not Akira would let her have a mouse or some kind of small animal while she made her way down to meet Miyu out front.

She was squinting through the dark to a study sign on the front of building about rules for pet owners when Miyu comes to a hult next to her panting.

“Did you really have to run all the way here?” Aoi teases turning to look over her worn out friend.

“I wanted to get here before it got to dark out,” Miyu pants still catching her breath.

“I guess, it is a little weird that the street lights aren't on,” she replies observing the lack of lightning from the buildings around them. When Aoi originally got to the apartment she thought maybe there was a power outage but when she managed to get into her and Akira's, the lights worked just fine.

“Well we're going to have to walk up a dark empty staircase anyway to get to my apartment.” The solution to that problem was simple, though, Aoi used the flashlight on her phone to guide them along.
Of course Miyu complained about her poor feet but she followed Aoi back to her apartment only whining occasionally.

“Why did you feel the need to run all the way here anyway?' she asks letting them in and turning on some lights.

“I needed to talk to you. I mean Aqua directed me to talk to you instead of freaking out in house on my own,” Miyu rambles sheepishly walking over to the nearby couch

“Aqua?” Aoi asks, strange as it was the name felt familiar. Miyu takes off her bag and smiles taking out an old duel disk. The screen a odd blue color.

“You can come out now,” Miyu says staring at the disk in her lap. Aoi wondered for a minute if she was the only sane person left In the city or if she'd missed a memo or something?

“Don't worry Miyu's not crazy,” says an electronic voice. Out of the dual disk popped a little blue creature. It was kind of cute.

“Hello Aoi,” It greets pleasantly.

Chapter Text

Thinking about it now, seeing the AI people vanish made running around the now vacant city even more unnerving. Didn't help that neither Takeru or Ryoken would pick up their phones! He didn't really except the latter to pick up but Takeru was usually glued to his phone.

After a couple of hours searching for them Soichi wonders if he should have found a way to track them. Their lives were really messed up if he's thinking of putting some kind of tracking a device into the teens' phones including Jin.

His brother being the one person to pick up the phone. Somehow Jin still had no idea what was going on in this world. Whether that was a good or bad thing Shoichi didn't know. He's just happy Jin's memories of the Lost Incident, and Lightning were gone before this madness started.

At a loss of where to search for the other two Shoichi runs home. Ai did make the threat to take Jin, so there's not telling if Jin is actually still here or not.
Standing outside his and Jin's building are Aoi, Takeru, a girl he didn't know. They were looking into the windows unsure whether or not they wanted to try to get inside.

“Can I help you?” he says. Takeru all but jumps out of his skin as he spins around surprised while the girls simple turn around to greet him. Accompanying them was Flame and Aqua or their replicas at least. Flame shakes his head at Takeru's sheepishness.

“Hey Kusanagi, what are you doing here?”

Dumbfounded he replies “I live here, what are you doing here? And why haven't you been answering your phone? I've been trying to get a hold of you the last few hours!”

Aoi and the other girl giggle beside the nervous teen.

“He was in bed having a crisis took me awhile to get him out,” Flame says scowling at Takera.

“Hey!” Takeru whines.

“Anyway why are you all here?” He asks ignoring the feeling of normalcy that came form see Flame and Takeru interact.

“I told them to,” comes Yusaku's voice form behind the two girls. He stepped out of the building followed shortly by Lightning and Jin. The former hovering closer to Yusaku then Jin.

Shoichi can't help taking a step back. Momentarily worried that this was the real Lightning and they all stepped into a trap.

Yusaku catches the small action and blankly replies,“I told all the Ignis to get everyone together.”

“Why?” he asks. Shoichi had a lot of questions. First Ai freaks out then Yusaku shows up like nothing happened? Of course he's going to be suspicions.

“To get everyone out,” Yusaku lies. He's never been good at lying so Shoichi can see right through it.“Ai's given us sometime to get out.”

“Yusaku he's on his way,” Lightning injects cutting the teen off.

Yusaku tenses up and glances over at the Ignis.

“Earth and Windy are dragging him along now,” the AI continues returning the strange look between them.

It was surreal watching Yuskau conspiring with Lightning. Shoichi's never mentioned it but he knows their all lucky the teen sided with humanity. Who knows where'd they be if Ai or Yusaku had agreed with Lightning.

While he's contemplating that worse case scenario Takeru's off to the side of Yusaku fiditing.

“Umm, Yusaku,” Takeru starts and Yusaku turns to him still as unreadable as the wall behind him.

Then Takeru starts rambling, “I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry,” as he starts crying. Flame sighs and shakes his head at the action while Yusaku continues to stare at the other teen blankly.

“Don't be, it wasn't your fault Kogami took advantage of your technophobia,” Yusaku replies flatly.

Shoichi frowns Yusaku has always been vaguely cold but he warmed up to them over time. Watching him disregard the other teen's misery about whatever happened between them made it seem like that were all back at step one with each other.

“So one of you want to fill me in on what's going on?” he says looking over the five of them standing outside his building.

“I would be happy to tell you how I got rid of that ridiculous mini AI.”

He turns around to see Ryoken approaching them with Earth and Windy following behind him.

“What?” he stammers out confused by the whole situation. What could he have missed in the last few hours?

“By the way I should thank you for helping me, I don't think I would have been able to get it down so quickly with you,” Ryoken says.

Kusanagi did what! He couldn't contain the deep growling sound that barreled out of his throat. When all of this is over Yusaku is cutting all of them out of his life. He's done being the hero. Done with suffering the consequences of people not thinking things through.

The man glanced over his shoulder, “Yusaku.”

“Don't,” He replies glaring daggers passed the man towards the smirking Kogami. Turns out Ai didn't have to give him a reason to despise the Hanoi. He's manipulating two people Yusaku trusted on top of the crap he pulled with the another stunt and the whole tower of Hanoi fiasco.

He was seething with rage but shoves it down tightly. He'll play the role of hero like Playmaker always did and get everyone else out.

“Yusaku,” Takeru starts and Yusaku repeats himself, “Don't”

Instead of answering he decides to approach the coward. “Kogami we can keep playing this game or we can get out. The VR room in my house connects to Cyberse world and Link Vrains, so we can leave.”

“You expect me to go along with you like that? How do we know that the Dark Ignis isn't using you as a pawn in some scheme?”Kogami had the gull to sneer at him.

“If you don't believe me, you can stay here trapped, I don't really care,” he replies with as flat a tone as he could muster. Why couldn't the idiot's guilt complex kick in already? It always seemed to pop up whenever any of the kids from the Lost Incident were involved and now their all there and Kogami was in still in cyber terrorist mode.

Why did Yusaku once want to make amends with him?

Kogami didn't respond to the statement he just continued to return his glare. It sent the rage Yusaku was trying to suppress boiling until he couldn't contain it. His fist connected with the right side of man's face in an instant. Either the shock or the force caused Kogami to take a step back while Kusanagi moved to get between them.

He studied the group of people spend the last few hours trying to get together before deciding it would be a good idea to start walking towards his house. They can follow him if they want if not they can stay here. Yusaku might have chosen to be honest with himself about everything, but that didn't mean he'd managed to come to terms with his two different lives. His sense of justice be damned.

The mess of anger and grief boiled under his skin making him want to just let them deal with this on their own but the better part of him knew that Takeru, Kusanagi, Jin, Aoi, and Miyu weren't at fault here.

Takeru jogged up next to him as Yusaku made his way down the street. Everyone else or most of them followed after him from a distance. He didn't look back to check.

“Yusaku,” Takeru tried but it fell on deaf on ears. Everyone stayed quiet as they made their way across the no longer lit city.

Silently he held the door to his apartment up for them. Kogami didn't even glance in his direction as he went in.

Kusanagi was the last one behind Kogami. “Alright Yusaku we're all here now what?”

“Now you walk in there,” he says pointing at the outline of the door across the living room. “You, Jin, Aoi and Miyu go in first.”

The two girls exchanged looks and shrugged. It wasn't like they had another option.

Jin walked up to the door unsure about how to get inside. After watching him feel around for some kind of door handle Yusaku pointed towards the panel that was right next to the door.
“I knew that,” Jin mumbled embarrassed before hitting the button. A small silver room opened up in front of them.

Quickly the other three filed into the room waiting for Kusanagi. The man stared directly at him. “We need to talk when this is over.”

Yusaku keeps the fact that's not going to happen to himself. It's better they not know he willingly offered to stay here with Ai.

“Sure,” he lies. Almost immediately Kusanagi and Takeru send him looks that say they don't believe him. “Don't worry I'll be right behind you.”

Reluctantly the man goes to stand next to his brother. As soon as he steps through the door Yusaku hits the button to send them off. There had been a flash of light before the small room was vacant again.

“Fujiki where is the Dark Ignis hiding?” Ryoken demands.

Despite his desire to punch the other man again he gave him an honest answer, “I don't know. Ai only said that he would be watching,” and that he wanted Yusaku to stay here.

He half expected him to argue but the room went back to being silent. Takeru kept watching them unsure about how to react. Funny considering how the other teen once wanted nothing more then to beat Kogami into the ground. Seems like something stomped out his fiery spirit.

He felt a twinge of guilt about Takeru being dragged into this mess but the feeling was gone as quickly as it came. There wasn't any point dwelling on it.

“Yusaku? You are going to come in here to?”Takeru asks walking to the back of the small room to leave some space.

“Yes, there's a button off to the left. Kogami are you going to inside?” Yusaku questions dully.

“Of course, and once I'm out I'm going to finally get rid of that AI,” Kogami replies and steps into the room too.
He scuffs before pressing the button not giving either of them the time to be surprised. Yusaku already planned out how he wanted this to go. Kusanagi, Jin, Miyu and Aoi would go directly back to the real world while Takeru and Kogami would be sent to Cyberse world. As for him he would meet Ai in the cave where this mess started.

That just left him with the other Ignis for the moment. Actually having his memories back now made interacting with them difficult. Flame particularly considering he'd seen the footage of his and Takeru's duel against Bowman. Poor Takeru had to go home to a world without Flame.

“Playmaker it was nice to work with you again,” Flame says.

“Yes it makes me wish we had could have been on the same side back then,” Lightning comments.

“Don't worry about us Playmaker we'll be alright,” Aqua says while Windy and Earth remain quietly disinterested.

He nodes his head to them before walking into the room himself. It was time to meet Ai and see what insanity he has in store for Yusaku.

“Oh Yusaku I didn't expect them to go along with you so easily, maybe I should have made it harder for you to get everyone out. Maybe added some horrible monsters that you all had to conquer to get out,” Ai rambles as soon as he appears in the room. Ai wasn't even looking in his direction to busy watching the screen in front of him.

“Maybe it would have been better off being an RPG world? Wouldn't it have been more fun to be some kind of faerie?”

“Now you want my input on this world?” Yusaku questions crossing his arms.

“I walked right into that didn't I?” Ai said glancing back over his shoulder before going back to the screen in front of him. “Either way it looks like Kusanagi's group got back alright, he seems to be searching for you. Didn't tell them I asked you to stay with me in return huh?”

“No I didn't. it didn't seem necessary,” he replies. Yusaku decides he might as well see what Ai was up to.

On the screens is everybody else. Kusanagi was helping the other three get out of of the building they were in. Takeru was staring off at the ruins of Cyberse world while Kogami scuffed around kicking up dirt pissed that Ai and him got away.

“He always was a sore loser,” Ai says throwing an arm around Yusaku. “I wanted to teach him something about appreciating the people around him, but I doubt that got through his thick stubborn skull.”

“What now Ai?” Yusaku asks. What else could they do now?

“Now I send you back to your world,”Ai turns to him. All traces of his usual jovial nature gone. He looked to Yusaku just as miserable as he did when Ai thought there wasn't anyway to keep Yusaku alive other then taking himself out of the picture.

“Goodbye Yusaku, I love you.”

"No! No! Ai you can't do this!" He reached for Ai but his hand went right through him. Yusaku was being forced out. Everything began to blur and blend together until it all faded out.

Once the world came back together he found himself sitting up in a dark room. After a few seconds he zoomed in on the Soltis collapsed over the bed next to him. There was a quick flash of Ai taking care of him when Yusaku was sick. Ai had passed out in a similar way. But it wasn't like that now. His real life didn't include anyone looking after him like that.

He didn't have time for that now. Knowing that Soltis was in here with him means it must have been the main one Ai used. There was a chance he could use its duel disk to connect to Link Vrains and track Ai down.

Yusaku wasn't going to let Ai getting away with making his choices for him again!

"In to the Vrains!"

Chapter Text

Ai did you run a simulation of what happens after you throw your life away for me?

Did you ever consider how it would effect me?

You did this all for me but didn't give me a choice in it. Why didn't you just ask me instead? I just wanted you and Roboppi to come home.

I just wanted you to be safe.

I just wanted us to be a together. Our little family was all I wanted.

But no, you decided to stick everyone, and their nemesis in a virtual world that stretches you so thin your programming is unstable at best and non-existent at worse.

Or in the case of the simulation you're currently hiding in; frayed and tearing apart at the seams. What had been a post-apocalyptic wasteland is slowly fading into the cyberspace around it leaving stray opening of data everywhere.

Lightning and Aqua fazed into the world by a wall in the opening he'd come in through. The former with his eye's bunched up in the same wicked expression the real one had plastered on all the time.

“Playmaker are you going to stand there and pose heroically and disappear with the rest of us or get on with finding that idiot. The last of us left, and this is how he reacts, the moron.” If he could, the light Ignis probably would have rolled his eyes.

“Aqua do you know where Ai is?” he blatantly overlooked the other AI. Aqua was more likely to actually help Yusaku while Lightning would probably give him directions into a virus.

“He's where you expect, just follow your instincts you'll find him,” she replies eagerly.

“I still think you would have done better as part of Bowman.” Thankfully Aqua lovingly whacked her fellow Ignis upside the head.

“I think I liked it better when you couldn't talk.”

He didn't have time to listen to the two bicker back and forth. Ignoring the raving of the formerly homicidal AI, Yusaku dashed off into the city. If his hunch was correct Ai was probably in the same area where they'd watched it, all fall apart the first time.

Ai you moron. Why would you force yourself to relive this over and over again? Each time Yusaku himself ran the simulation, and it always felt like it would take something out of him. What had it taken from the idiot to make him keep coming back?

Him.

Yusaku came to sudden halt in some random alleyway as that though sank in. He's known that since the beginning and yet it hadn't really sunken in just how lonely Ai must being feeling as the only ignis left and the one responsible for Yusaku's seemingly inevitable death.

God damn it he needs to track down the idiot and force him to realize Yusaku isn't going anywhere if he has anything to say about it. This time he will have a say about it.

“Oh looky I found Playmaker! Think you're getting warmer in finding him?”Windy teases coming down from the alleyway with Earth in toe. The other Ignis didn't look to pleased to be there.

“Stop teasing, we need him to fix this situation.”

“If I'm getting warmer where is he?” his link sense was telling him there was still a good distance for him to go. The crumbling world around them told him he didn't have the time to search around like a headless chicken.

“I might be 'normal' now, but I still don't like you. Go find that idiot on your own,” Windy sneered.

“Go a few blocks north and take a right; he was walking around some tanks last time I check,” Earth said ignoring his companion.

“Hey I just told him to do this himself!”

“We don't have time for that childishness.”

“Why can't you just stick to being socially awkward?”

“This is a serious situation.”

He's run into four out five of the remakes. Is Flame going to show up to sidetrack him too? He wouldn't mind Flame showing up if it meant he could send the copy back to Takeru in the real world. At least than the other teen would have his partner back.

A frighteningly familiar cracking noise caught his attention in time for Yusaku to see the ground starting to fissure like it had the first time. Only this time he's in claustrophobic alleyway with very little way of escape.

“Grab him!”

“What!? Fine.”

The ground under him started collapsing into a dark abyss, and he was barely managing to stay a foot ahead of it until he couldn't. There was a small misstep leading him to fumble enough for the abyss get close enough to swallow him. Miraculously Yusaku started floating away from the dark hole consuming the alleyway.

Earth and Windy managed to snatch him just before the void could, however begrudging Windy seemed.

“Don't think to much about it. We need you to fix the situation since he won't listen to us.”

Once they let him back down on a main road he intended to ask Windy what he was talking about but they both disappeared before he got the chance.

Yusaku was on his own again in the delapited city with his own instincts and some vague directions on where to go. That's more then enough for him, though. He took off again to find Ai with even more questions then he had originally.

When they're out of here Ai's going to have all the time in the world to answer his questions. Every single one no matter how painful.

“Playmaker watch out!”

Flame's shout came in time to alert him to falling pieces of debris coming down from the building next to him. A few large chunks came crashing into the ground where he was seconds ago.

“Thank you,” he replied glancing around to find the Ignis but Flame was nowhere in sight.

“Over here!” Flame came down a nearby street looming overhead in his larger monstrous form. The whole thing wasn't as unsettling as it could be with the AI waving happily at him.

“Ai's around the corner sulking and refusing to listen to reason like usual,” Flame sighs gesturing down the street he'd just come from. “Good luck Playmaker.”

The fire Ignis was about to disappear when Yusaku shouted, “Wait! How are you all here?”After working with them to get the others out he knew something was off about them.

“Don't worry about us Playmaker. We're just copies.”

“No, you're not, none of you are just copies. What did Ai do?”

“Go ask him if you want to know.” With that he dissolved into glittering bits of red that disappeared a few seconds after.

He didn't have time to be frustrated at the vagueness of any of the other Ignis. The one he was searching came first, then he can deal with them. At least Flame was right about Ai being around the corner.

He spotted Ai sitting on the edge of some ruble curled in on himself. His head buried in his heads weeping hard enough for his body tremble. It broke Yusaku's heart to see him like this. In both lives Ai was always upbeat and relaxed. Seeing him like this was just wrong.

“Ai!” He yells running up to the base of the wall Ai's sitting on. The idiot didn't make any kind of motion indicating he even heard Yusaku yelling. “Ai! Ai I know you can hear me!”

“You should have stayed out there!” Ai shouts back not looking up.

“You know I would never leave you like that,” he replies searching the debris for someway to get up on the ledge too.

Ai mumbled something lowly to himself before sitting up a little bit. Even from the ground Yusaku can see the fade edges of Ai's human form. Some parts faded enough to see the strings of code underneath.

“Why don't you come down here?”

“Maybe I like being up high,” Ai chirps peering down at him with a twisting smile. There was still a steady stream of tears flowing down the sides of his face but he was trying hard to force a cheery expression.

“Ai please come down,” he pleads slamming his fist into the wall in front of him.

Of course even if he's a glitching wreck Ai still lands gracefully on his feet. That ridiculous cape flapping around him dramatically. “Your such a brute Yusaku.”

“And you're an idiot, I think we're even,” he says, and there's the telltale sound of rumbles close by them. “Ai we need to leave!”

Ai just frowns at him, “You know I can't do that, I'm going to disappear with this simulation and the digital world. It's why I sent you away so that you wouldn't disappear with me.”

“There you go making decisions for me again,” he growls. The Idiot isn't getting away with this again.

“I want to be with you. I don't care if our lives were fake or not your still my family and I want you to stay with me!”

“That's a lot of I's, your starting to sounds a bit self centered there Yusaku,” Ai says looking off in the distances as the ground shakes a bit beneath them.

“And dragging me out of bed into a digital world and creating a whole new life for us where you have full control of my life isn't self centered?” he replies watching a good chunk of Ai's left arm start fading out.

“Ai please come with me!” he pleads again. They don't have time for this back and forth.

Ai shakes his head. “I can't I'm stuck tangled into this mess. In a few minutes I'll be unrecognizable scattered bytes of data.”

No! He can't disappear like that! Yusaku reached out for Ai this time he'd managed to grab a hold of his upper arms forcing Ai to look directly at him. “Ai please there has to be a way for me to save you!”

“I'm sorry Yusaku. I loved you.”

This can't be the end. He won't let it end this way. They've come too far to let Ai give up like this.

“Ai let me fix this then,” he says feeling confident in what he wants no needs to do. “I have an idea.”

Good bye everyone I've made my decision and I wont regret it.

Ai gives him a quizzical yet somewhat hopeful look, “Oh what does the great Playmaker have in mind?”

Five Years Later

“I've finally figure out the stupid password for the screens in the cave, Meet me there in an hour if you want to help me analyze it,” Ryoken stated flatly before walking away. The other man didn't even ask for a hot dog like he would usually. He and shoichi had developed a strange work relationship since the incident a few years ago and that typically involved at least one hotdog. They both were still working to find out what happened to Yusaku and by extension Ai.

The former teen was still unconscious in the hospital, and Ai hasn't been detected since. When hei returned to real world shoichi found himself in the care of the Knights of Hanoi of all people. Apparently Ai left them instructions to look after all the people he had taken after the he could no long handle his copies on top of the digital world. Everyone but Yusaku had woken up in that weird warehouse Ai stashed everyone in with Knights looking after them.

Takeru and Aoi occasionally pitched in to help them search for the missing teen. Still the only clue they found was a bunched of holo screens with security Sol Tech could only dream of having in a cave in Cyberse world.

Takeru was the one to stumble onto them too. He still wasn't good with computers, but he'd developed some skills with them and figured the former Cyberse world deserved a sweep. It was the only time the former teen would speak to Shoichi. Ever since the former teen moved back to his hometown, he hardly spoke to any of them outside of their search.

Which meant Ryoken probably messaged Takeru about his discovery.

Shoichi couldn't help letting out a deep sigh before starting to pack up the cafe for the night. Years later and he's still doing this. Isn't too old for all this excitement yet?

Still finished up and logged into Vrains in time to meet up with Revoler and Soulburner. Both standing outside the cave in silence before he walked up.

“Hey Kusanagi!” Takeru calls out with excitement.

“Hey?”

“Come on them let's see if this leads anywhere,” Ryoken says and walks into the cave expecting them to follow him without further comment. Takeru's shrugged and followed after quietly.

“So what is the password we've all been trying to figure out?”

“Aiisthebest,” Ryoken replies with a groan. “Even now that Ignis continues to be aggravating.”

Takeru rolled his eyes and heads over to one of the screens to type in Ai's nonsense of a password. It took them this long to figure out that dumb of a password. He tried very hard not to facepalm.

The bittersweet part was it worked. They were let into the system without a fuss.

For only about a minute until the something took control of the screens and a video feed popped up.

It was video of Yusaku and Ai walking down a regular looking street laughing and interacting like nothing happened. Both didn't look like they'd aged either and with Yusaku that was incredibly disconcerting.

“What the fuck?” Takeru asks out loud. They all want to know what's going on even more now.

“Ai! Yusaku!”A girl came rushing down the street the two were walking down.

“Yes Aqua?” Ai answers smiling. The whole this thing was surreal. This girl was supposed to be the water Ignis? She did kind of look like a Blue Angel fan with the pigtails.

“They finally got through!” she chirped.

“Ooh, took them long enough right Yusaku?!”

“...”

“Flame should be on his way to talk to them now,” the girl says before the video feed cuts out.

“What just happened?” Takeru asks speaking their thoughts out loud again.

“We've reconstructed the digital world for us to live in together peacefully,” says a voice standing behind them. The person behind them kind of resembled Soulbuner in an off putting way.

“I assume you're the fire Ignis then?” Ryoken says staring down the newcomer.

“Yes I am Flame, My name...Oof,” Takeru more or less tackled the stranger only to pass right through him.

“Sorry Takeru I'm mainly a projection, none of us can be physical outside of our world,” Flame apologizes looking sadly at his partner.

“You were alive all this time and you didn't say anything!”

“We're 'alive' only in the sense that we barely exist. I don't even have the capacity to leave this cave,” the man replies reaching out to his former partner and having his hand faze right through him.

“How are you even able to manage that, your data should have been absorbed into Bowman?” This time Ryoken speaks up.

“And large chunks of our data are based on our origins so he couldn't tell our data from their's. Ai being an Ignis noticed and was able to separate and recreate a version of us after he pulled everyone in. You and Windy though I hear might have been a case of spitefulness on Bowman's part. While I'm technically Flame. I'm not able to do half the things I could before Bowman cheated,” Flame stopped his explanation to give them time to process.

“How come you look like me?” Takeru aks.

“I helped you design that avatar remember and I happen to like the way I look!”

“That doesn't explain why you look human,” Ryoken injects stepping closer to the fuzzy projection.

“Because it's fun to be human sometimes.”

“What about Yusaku, Why is he still in there?” Shoichi finally asks reminding everybody else he was there too.

“Because this was my idea,” The flickering form of the teen popped up next to Flame.

“So you decided to become data,” coming from Ryoken it wasn't a question. He always had his own ideas of why Yusaku never came back when they did.

“More or less yeah, I'm only data now.”

“What does that mean!?”

“It means he's given up his humanity to stay with the Ignis,” Ryoken replies stomping out of the cave.

“Again what?!”

“Goodbye Takeru, Kusanagi. Thank you for everything,” Yusaku sent them an apologetic look before disappearing.

“I swear he's just as dramatic as Ai and refuses to admit it,” Flame jokes and disappears too leaving only him and Takeru in the cave.

“Yusaku! You can't just disappear on them like that! I thought I taught you better then that!,” came Ai's voice only he didn't show up with in the cave with them. The holo screens were showing the video feed again and this time the two looked like they were in a house.

“...”

Shoichi didn't want to continue watching he had enough of an idea of what happened and need time to adjust to it. He spent years looking for someone who didn't want to return.

“Come on Takeru, let's go home,” he says before logging out. When he gets home, Shoichi is going to pester Jin into watching a movie or something with him. Just for a sense of knowing one person in his family was within reach and okay.

Yusaku didn't know what else to say to his friends when they found them. He's basically been living a completely different life that he and the Ignis constructed in their own bubble. One constructed based on Ai's original plan with Yusaku and the other Ignis' influence.

Yusaku offered himself up to help Ai stabilize himself and the world the same way Roboppi had before Ryoken distingrated him. He was now a being made of data instead of flesh and had no way of going back to his body due to his connection to Ai.

He knew that when he told Ai to use his data to keep himself from fraying out completely. With the help of the other Ignis they were able to keep the idiot in one piece along with their home.
Yusaku doesn't regret that. Their life in this world was better than his old one and included a few more odd family members he didn't expect to have.

Who would have thought Lightning would become the political uncle no one likes to listen to during the holidays.

Or that Flame would be the sporty bro-y older brother while Aqua was the sweet strict older sister.

Or that Windy would be that one wild family member that always has a story to tell but is a huge dick about it.

Earth was the only one that didn't fit himself into some strange role with the rest. He remained the steadfast wall that spends most of his time gardening. But he didn't seem bother whenever Yusaku tried being around him.

He wouldn't trade this life for his old one. Even if he was somewhat of a nexus for his old friends. Maybe now that they finally know he's here, they'll let him go and move on with their lives.

"Something never change eh Yusaku?" Who could forget his strange older brother/guardian figure, Ai. Even if the idiot has no idea what that means he still tries anyway and that's all that matters. He's given him a past and a family when Yusaku had neither, not really. Kusanagi started to see him as a younger sibling but he has Jin back now.

"Hey Yusaku! You still with me! Hello?!" "Yeah, come on you said you wanted to help with dinner tonight."