Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Rui woke up to Nene slapping him with a sheet of paper. Not a good start to the day. “Finally, I was beginning to think you’d actually died,” she sighed, standing back a bit so he could get out of bed. The room was small, only having barely enough room for a bed and bedside table, but Rui could make do. He sat up, grabbed the mask he always wore from the bedside and slid it on, connecting it to the small port in his throat.

“Good morning to you too, Nene~” he chirped back, sliding out of bed while she walked out of the room. He followed her out, because she never woke him up like that so she probably had something big to discuss with him. She normally just used her hand. Rui followed the girl down into the shop that she ran and watched as she sat down in front of her computer.

Nene sighed and held out the piece of paper to him. “Need everything on the list. Nenerobo needs repairs again,” she practically snapped before turning on her computer. Rui took the list off her and read through it, everything on it seeming normal enough. A few circuit boards, something to make lasers, a glock, and some highly intelligent AI made by the Ootori’s. Everything on the list seemed normal enough apart from the glock and the artificial intelligence.

The glock he could get over, whatever reasons Nene wanted one for were her reasons, but where was he meant to find the AI? “Nene, if I may ask,” Rui started, already expecting some sort of witty/unhelpful answer from her. “Where would I find the Ootori’s AI?”

She groaned. “Go to their shop, enter through the side entrance. There should be a girl there, short and bubbly but kinda annoying. Ask her about Wondahoi. She’ll bring you right to it.” the girl explained before turning back to her work. All he had to remember was to go through the side entrance and ask about Wondahoi. Right.

“Well then! I’ll be going then, see you soon Nene~! Tell Rin I said good morning when you see her for me,” Rui said while leaving, taking the list Nene made and putting it in his pocket. He just had to go to the main part of the city and get the parts. No big deal. He could do that. The city might be overcrowded but he could cope.

The store where he was told he could find lasers was closed. It’s fine, he could just come back another day. The gun store was, surprisingly, open. But it scared him so Rui just got what he needed and left as quickly as he could. He could pick up the rest of the parts in the main part of the Ootori’s general parts shop before going around the side.

It was also closed. Nene was going to be pissed he could only get the gun. Rui just had the biggest part of the parts trip left. In the side entrance, which was rather conveniently just down a nearby alleyway, and ask someone about Wondahoi. Easy, right? He knew he shouldn’t be overthinking, but it wasn’t his fault it was so easy to.

The only person in through the side entrance, which led into a mixture of a storage room and a semi-living space, was a short girl with pink hair. “HI there! Anything you want here, Mr. Purple- Wait, are you a cyborg??”

She ran over to him and looked him up and down, before nodding in some sort of self-satisfaction. “Hehe, you really are! Ohoho, wait until dad hears about you! He’s gonna be so proud of me, and maybe he’ll finally see me on the same level as Shosuke and Keisuke!”

This girl was scaring Rui. She may have been short and overly excitable, but her talk of her dad being proud of her and realising that he is, somewhat, a cyborg could mean one thing: being scalped. Easiest way to get parts and make quick cash. Also somewhat illegal as one could only be persecuted for it if the scalpee had died.

“Excuse me, if you don’t mind, but I’m here about Wondahoi? My friend sent me here to ask about it,” Rui asked, cutting off the girl’s cheerful ramble about how proud her dad would be if he saw him. She stopped, smiled, grabbed his hand and ran. He was going to die, wasn’t he? The cyborg accepted his fate, knowing there wasn’t really anything he could to stop it.

***

The girl had dragged him onto a private train to the other side of the city before realising she hadn’t introduced herself yet. “Oh yeah, I’m Emu Ootori! Emu means smile!” Emu introduced herself after sitting down. “I’m also the heiress to my dad’s empire! Once my brothers and sister die though!” she then explained cheerfully, like her siblings dying was a happy topic.

“..I see,” Rui forced out. He paused for a moment to process what she had just said before introducing himself to her as well. “Rui Kamishiro, nice to meet you,” he said, pausing a bit in between words. His voicebank, which Nene and Rin had made for him since he couldn't talk on his own, was prone to breaking every so often. Usually when he hadn’t talked in a while. This wasn’t looking good for him.

Rui spent the rest of the train ride in silence while Emu babbled about anything that came to mind, ranging from her dad and how the business began as being part raiders to how when she was some game the other day a hacker killed her and then she was banned. She definitely talked a lot.

The pair got off at a run-down station that looked like he hadn’t been used in years, being one of the few places where the city had plants that weren’t government mandated. Emu then grabbed his hand and ran again once the train was gone from sight, leading him into a run down building. Rui was definitely getting scalped. Just like his father, even though that was part of a big parts raid.

Emu finally stopped running after dragging him up some stairs, leaving Rui to catch his breath at the top. “WE’RE HERE!!!” the girl squealed excitedly, jumping up and down on the spot in front of a large screen, possibly the largest one he’d ever seen. It didn’t display anything besides a jpeg of a bedroom, so Rui didn’t think they were actually there. “Emu-kun, are you sure this is the place?-”

Before she could answer his question, he was cut off by her screeching for someone. “TSUKASA-KUUUN!!!! WHERE ARE YOUUUU????” she yelled at the top of her lungs at the screen, Rui staring at her in confusion. He didn’t understand what she was doing anymore. Maybe it was all a ruse, this Tsukasa person coming in and harvesting him. It wasn’t unlikely, since cyborgs were becoming more and more sought after for hardware. 

He should’ve probably left then. He liked being able to speak. If he was going to be harvested for parts, he should’ve evacuated before that could happen. Just as Rui was about to leave though, something, or rather someone, materialised on screen. He was blonde, hair turning more sherbert at the tips, and wore clothing similar to his own. Same brand, perhaps.

“Jeez Emu, I could hear you from SEKAI, and you know how far down the datastream that is!” he scolded her, running his hand through his hair in either pain or frustration, Rui couldn’t really tell. SEKAI was a news company, as far as he was aware, but even he knew that getting into those websites were pretty difficult when trying to hack or even just getting past those pesky pop-ups.

Emu then giggled, apologising afterwards. “Sorry! Hehe, got a bit too excited with a new friend to play with us!” she explained to Tsukasa, possibly talking about Rui. He barely understood her anyways, her way of speech was a bit complicated, despite how simple and childlike it was.

“Right right, I presume you’re referring to Purple here, right?” Tsukasa groaned, seemingly exhausted by something. Emu nodded excitedly, as cheerful as she usually was, from what Rui saw of her. He did take mild offence to being called purple though, it was the second time that day after all. At least Emu had the respect to call him Mr.Purple.

“Rui Kamishiro, nice to meet you, uh, Tsukasa-kun~!” he chirped out, taking the opportunity to introduce  himself despite not fully knowing if Tsukasa was his name or if it was some nickname that Emu had given him. Not that it mattered, he just needed the guy/bot so that Nene wouldn’t get anymore frustrated without the parts she wanted.

Tsukasa nodded, almost dismissively, before flopping himself down onto the bed in the image he was stuck in. “What are you here for then? Sorry for being so downbeat, not very star-like, but surfing the stream takes a lot out of me,” he sighed, turning his head towards Rui and Emu.

“Well.. How do I phrase this nicely?” Rui asked awkwardly, knowing his request would be taken as offensive. Most AI, from what he knew, thought the idea of being chained into the physical realm was mildly offensive, as it was basically like taking a baby from its mother and shipping it across continents so it had little to none chance of getting back to her.

“HE WANTS YOU FOR HIS FRIEND!!” Emu jumped in, taking Rui off-guard. That was not something he expected her to do, but she was the type to be overhonest. She even told him how her dad harvested cyborg parts and that was why her family’s hardware store was so high-quality.

She was a bit too honest at times. This was unfortunately one of them. Tsukasa simply stared at her before sighing, sitting up and stretching, redirecting his gaze over to Rui. Not a good sign. “You’re a cyborg, right?” he asked, almost too curiously. Another bad sign, a worse one at that.

“Um, yes. Why do you ask?” Rui responded, a bit too much fear in his tone for his liking. The boy in the screen laughed a bit, who knows why, and put his hand against the screen, using his other hand to signal something to Emu. This was getting worse, he was even doing that thing cute animals did when they were in cages! And it was working!

Rui hesitantly placed his hand against Tsukasa’s, lining them up near perfect until Emu came along and ruined their wholesome moment. Rui had forgotten about her until she ran into him from wherever she had left and jammed some wires into the ports on his mask and neck. Since he was a cyborg and not a robot, he felt the pain. It burned. Didn’t really help that the electricity was flowing into him too.

The burning continued to get worse until it was replaced with an almost ticklish feeling, making Rui see white at the edges of his vision. Was this the end? Had he really given up his life for some robot he didn’t want in the first place? It was a stupid ending, not the type he would’ve wished for, but it was certainly something.

Emu finally took the wires out after what felt like hours one at a time, Rui somehow not dead yet. The wires hurt less than he had expected them to be when they were taken out, more akin to accidentally jamming his skin with a screwdriver when he was building stuff to help Nene with her shop. “Feeling ok?” Emu asked, stepping away with all the wires still in hand.

Surprisingly, he was. The physical weakness he felt from walking for hours without food was gone, and he felt more alive than before. Odd.  His head also felt heavier. Maybe he should tell Emu how he felt. Instead, Rui simply nodded, the words refusing to accompany him. His voice box was jammed. He had forgotten to talk for too long. Great.

“That’s not great at all, why are you saying that it is??” Tsukasa called out in confusion from... Somewhere, Rui couldn’t really tell and Emu didn’t notice. He was also gone from the screen too. Where did he go? He couldn’t have gone far, considering that datasurfing apparently took a lot out of him. Did he just go to a different part of the computer he was on?

Emu, noticing Rui’s confusion, looked at him curiously. “Are you looking for Tsukasa-kun?” she asked, possibly the calmest in the entire few hours Rui’s known her. With his voice box still broken, all he could do was nod. Emu smiled at him. “He’s right here, Rui-kun!” she told him, reaching up for his mask. “You looked like you had been walking for a bit, so we thought it’d be easier than carrying around a computer!”

Tsukasa scoffed. “I meant to put me in a usb Emu, not be stuck in someone I barely know’s flesh,” he sighed, the girl yet again not acknowledging him. This was either going to work out terribly for Rui or brilliantly for him. Hopefully it worked out well, because if it didn’t he would probably punt Emu into space out of anger, as out of character for him that would be.

Chapter Text

A long train with Tsukasa yapping away after thinking he was going to be murdered was not how Rui thought his day was going to go. He just wanted to go home, get Tsukasa into Nenerobo and go to bed at that point. Being outside exhausted him, and the extra weight wasn’t helping.

Rui got off the train after what felt like hours and Tsukasa finally stopped talking for a bit, only speaking up when he was walking by the hospital. “Can we go in?” he asked, the question causing confusion for Rui. Why did he want to go to the hospital? There was no reason to go in, since it wouldn’t help his voicebox. Hospitals don’t deal with cybernetics.

Rui continued past the hospital and into the shop beside it, More More Mechanics, where he was greeted by the accident-prone secretary. The only reason she was put on secretary duty was because she, somehow, blew up someone’s arm. It wasn’t a robot arm she blew up either.

“Hi! Welcome to More More Mechanics! How can we help?- Oh, Rui!” Minori greeted him cheerfully. “You’re here about your voice-mask-thingy again, right? Give me a moment to find Shizuku-chan and then she’ll fix it up for you!” The secretary cheered before running off into the back to get the aforementioned mechanic. She then slipped on nothing before continuing her journey.

Minori was back there for a bit before coming back less happy. “I can’t find her!” she wailed as she slipped again, falling head first onto the counter. Ouch. Rui would’ve asked if she was ok but alas, his speaking capabilities had been revoked. She got up after a few moments and dusted herself off. “But! I can try to find Airi-chan or Haruka-chan for you!”

Any mechanic is still a mechanic. Minori went off to find either of the two while Rui sat down in one of the seats there and Tsukasa started talking again. “Is she always that unlucky? To not be able to find someone and fall over twice?” he asked, clearly not understanding how unlucky she truly was.

If only Rui could recount the story of how she nearly exploded his mask, or how she fell over outside the shop and cracked her skull open after colliding with a small child. Being unable to speak really had its downsides, huh? Hopefully that problem would be solved soon, but judging by how unlucky Minori was she’d probably end up nearly killing herself and find neither.

***

After a while of waiting, Minori came back with neither mechanic and (somehow) fully alive. “I couldn't find them but I’d be more than happy to help you myself!” she cried out gleefully, ignoring the face Rui made. She couldn’t be trusted. Then again, he didn’t really have any other option if none of the mechanics were there..

He reluctantly removed his mask and handed it over. Hopefully she wouldn’t explode it like last time. “Thank you! I’ll be back in a bit!” Minori called out from where she had run off to, most likely one of the work rooms. Usually Shizuku fixed it at the counter, but Minori probably needed to reference some blueprints. Did they even have blueprints back there?

It didn't concern Rui what she was doing back there unless she broke his sole method of communication. He probably should’ve told her about Tsukasa to the best of his ability though, now that he thought about it. She’d be fine though, if she can survive multiple near death experiences from being clumsy and unlucky she’d probably be fine.

Rui waited around for a few minutes until he heard Minori scream as she ran back into the room in alarm, holding his mask like it was some sort of object that would cause her great harm due to having some weird curse on it. “THIS THING TALKS ON IT’S OWN???” the secretary turned mechanic yelled in panic, eyes wide in alarm.

“I’M NOT A THING! I HAVE A NAME!!” Tsukasa yelled back, angered by Minori calling him a thing. If Rui could say something he would’ve explained what Minori meant and what happened, but he didn’t have his mask back yet. He got up from where he was sitting and took the mask off Minori with as straight a face as he could manage and put it back on.

He made a few noises before confirming it was working again. “You didn’t blow anything up this time then, hm? Good job!” were there first words Rui said after getting his mask back. Poor choice of words, perhaps. He still needed to explain though. “Ah, before I forget though, it can’t speak for itself. That’s just Tsukasa-kun, being delivered to Nene very soon~”

Minori paused. She never understood how that stuff worked. She knew some things, so she was better than Shizuku in that regard, but not by much. “Oh, ok then! So does Tsukasa.. kun? just live there then for now??” she asked, trying to understand better. She wanted to learn, she thought it was fun. Learning, that is.

“That is a way to put it, yes. He’s just being stored for a bit though, so please don’t get the wrong idea about it,” Rui chuckled before turning to leave. “Thanks again, Hanasato-kun~!” he chirped as he exited, Minori waving him goodbye. It was nice of Shizuku to say that he wasn’t allowed to pay due to his financial situation, since it made things a lot easier.

Rui then started walking to the hospital. He didn’t know why Tsukasa wanted to go, but if it made him happy, who was he to judge. He entered as the doors slid away, revealing the reception area. He walked up to the receptionist and Tsukasa took over the talking part. “We’re here for Tenma?” he asked, the receptionist looking up at Rui before looking through their computer.

“Room 10884, last bed on the left,” they said before going back to doing what they were doing before. It sounded like they were playing solitaire but who cares. Rui nodded in thanks and headed up the stairs to the room. There were a lot of them. Too many stairs in fact. Maybe he was just bad physically, but going up them felt like an entire workout.

It was only once he made it up onto the right floor, which was the top one unfortunately for him, did he realise there was an elevator. Well, that sucked. Could always be worse though. Rui took a moment to catch his breath again at the top, leaning against one of the room doors when someone barged through and into the corridor.

“I can’t believe that guy sometimes..” the person muttered angrily as she walked past Rui towards the elevator, swearing under her breath the entire time. The brunette didn’t seem happy whatsoever. Fortunately for Rui and Tsukasa, the room that Rui was outside of was room 10884.

“Shall we?” the cyborg asked, walking in the room while Tsukasa nodded. He didn’t physically nod, but Rui just knew he did. Transporting him had been a weird experience. It felt like in nearly every other sentence Rui was learning something about Tsukasa or the process of getting him to nenerobo.

The room was pale and dingy, two hospital beds on either side with only the left ones being occupied. The bed in the farthest corner away from them was curtained over, with the other bed’s occupant being clear to see. Ginger haired with what could only be truly described as a piss streak in it, and covered in wires hooking him up to various machines and.. computers?

That couldn’t be right. Rui took a closer look at one of the computer-looking things, only to confirm that it was a computer. Odd. Maybe it was needed for medicine or something. He didn’t really know, since he wasn’t a doctor, but that was the best guess he could come up with in the moment.

Rui then went to investigate the curtained bed. Tsukasa didn’t say anything about the ginger, so maybe this would be where the person he was looking for was. 

“Rui? What if.. No, never mind,” Tsukasa started out just as Rui was going to pull back the curtain. “This is the right room, the receptionist said so. Get yourself together Tsukasa, you're being irrational, Saki is in here,” he continued, Rui not sure if he had finished or not.

“Can I open the curtain now?” the cyborg finally asked once he was sure Tsukasa was done with his monologue, fond annoyance seeping into his tone without even meaning for it to. He took a moment to respond, but Tsukasa eventually answered with a meek agreement. Rui then pulled the curtain back.

The scene in front of the pair was near identical to the one beside them, the bed’s occupant being hooked up to all the wires, machines and computers. Only this person had a lot more wires and machines, some bags(?) of mysterious liquid, and looked very familiar, but Rui couldn’t figure out why. He felt like he had seen blonde hair with sherbet tips before yet couldn't remember where.

The more he thought about it, the more of a pit developed in Rui’s stomach. That colour of hair was far too distinct to forget about so easily, so he must’ve only seen it briefly in passing. There was a sense of dread beginning to develop in the back of his mind and he didn’t know why.

He then realised who the boy was. Mainly because the one in question started screaming like a madman, but he certainly realised. Rui could feel fear burning in his stomach. This wasn't the right room at all. It couldn’t be.

“I-I think we should.. go now…” Rui muttered weakly, leaving out of the room as quickly as his now weakened legs would take him, and out of the hospital.

***

Rui didn’t know where he had ran off to, but at least it was a secluded alleyway away from the hustle and bustle of the city, said hustle and bustle having long become white noise. He had left the mask, and Tsukasa by effect, on a box in there while he threw up. It technically wasn’t his fault he hadn’t eaten all day.

Why was Tsukasa there? Or maybe it was the Saki girl he mentioned?? Maybe they were twins who happened to look very similar. But Tsukasa didn’t fully exist as far as he knew, Tsukasa wasn’t real, he had no actual conscience or body.. right?

Was he really one of them though? He seemed too human at times, but then again Rin existed and she was somehow in charge of the finance stuff at Nene’s shop despite being a glorified chatbot and tired all the time with Rui’s faulty mask.

After a bit of panting and leaning over to catch his breath, Rui flopped onto the ground and sat cross legged while everything came back into focus. The first thing he heard when they did was Tsukasa’s confused and nervous rambling about what they had seen in the hospital.

He had enough after a few minutes of it. Rui went to ask if he was ok, before realising he didn't have his mask on and therefore had the inability to talk. Cursed be thy parts raiders and their child hating ways.

Rui resided to just tapping on the box he had left the mask in hopes that Tsukasa would stop rambling for a moment. He did, and Rui was met with a very agitated “What?” from the boy. Or robot. He didn’t know anymore.

The cyborg made an ok sign with his hand, tilting his head to the side in a questioning manner. He then realised that Tsukasa couldn't see because there were no cameras in the mask. How he forgot that Rui would never know. 

Tsukasa sighed in a frustrated manner. “If you’re asking if I’m ok, no I am not,” he huffed. Rui could almost see him crossing his arms in frustration. “I’m not the sick one, Saki is, but somehow I’m the one in the hospital? And I have an actual human body with flesh?? And yet somehow I don’t remember that, but I’m pretty sure someone would remember if they were sick and in hospital and had a freaking body.”

Tsukasa then continued to rant about how his life was a lie because all he could remember was being a bunch of code in the datastream and yet he somehow wasn’t a load of pixels for 5 hours straight. Fun times. He then asked if Rui could bring him somewhere. Even funner, Nene getting mad at him for not bringing the stuff she asked for home within a reasonable timeframe.

Why not, Rui had some time to spare.

He then put back on his mask, making sure to connect it to the right ports because he’ll be damned if one cable goes in the wrong spot and he couldn’t talk, thus starting the process of connecting his mask again.

And that’s how Rui showed up in front of some random apartment in the rich area of the city he lived in at the crack of dawn.

Chapter Text

He just had to knock. That was all he had to do.

But no, apparently that was too hard for Rui Kamishiro, even though he literally made robots for a living. It might not have been rocket science, but he just couldn't bring himself to do it. He was most likely just scared as to what would happen if he knocked someone actually answered, because what he say?

Rui flopped forward in defeat, sighing and closing his eyes.. Maybe he should just give up on whatever Tsukasa was thinking...

Rui then opened his eyes and realised he had hit the door, and that he had technically knocked. Now then, he just had to address the other problem. Can’t be that hard. Also it was about 5 in the morning, surely no one in their right mind would be up at that time-

The door was answered by a boy who looked nothing like Tsukasa. His fault for guessing Tsukasa would want to go visit Saki, or whoever she was. Maybe this was Saki? But he(she?) had blue hair. Tsukasa did not have blue hair and, realistically, Saki didn’t have blue hair either.

“I’m sorry,” the blue haired being started, sounding uncertain. “Can I help you?” they asked, and it was then that Rui realised that this might not even be the right one. Sure, it could’ve been, but it probably wasn't and has he been staring too long? He might’ve been staring too long, this guy is going to think he’s creep now oh no oh no oh no oh no.

“Ah, Toya!” Tsukasa greeted the blue haired one, oddly cheery. Rui watched in horror as this Toya person went from confused to concerned in the span of a few seconds. Well, it felt like that at least. “How nice it is to see you again! Where is my dearest sister though?” Tsukasa continued, Rui wanting to dig himself a six hundred foot hole and never come out.

Toya stared, his brows furrowed as he tried to make sense of the situation. “What? Who are you, sir?” he asked as he backed up into the apartment. “Saki? Can I have some help here? Please?” he called out behind him, continuing to back up as he did so.

“Huh? What is it Toya?” the twin tailed girl as she appeared behind him, looking up at Rui and taking in his tallness. “If you’re selling something we don’t want or need it.” she pouted, shooing the cyborg away with her hands. “Go on now, beat it!”

Rui could already tell that he was, for lack of a better term, absolutely fucked. If Tsukasa said anything at all, then they would both be double fucked.

“Ah, Saki!! It’s so good to see you again after all this time!”

He spoke too soon. As the gears turned in Saki’s brain, it took her a moment or two to figure out what was going on. “Oh! Big bro! And, uh, Mr.purple. I think. That’s what I’m calling you now! Anyways, would you like to come inside and rest for a bit? Me and Toya can catch up with Tsukasa while you do your own thing,” the girl offered warmly, smiling brightly as she did so.

Did Rui really look that tired? Regardless, it probably would be for the best if he came inside, if not for himself then for Tsukasa’s sake.

Ducking down under the doorframe, which was really shot for some reason, Rui made his way inside the apartment. It was surprisingly simple for someone like Tsukasa to have lived in, but maybe his sibling(s?) just remodeled it after he left. He sat up himself down on their white couch, Toya and Saki joining him on the other side of it.

“I think we owe Toya some kind explanation, right Tsukasa?” Saki asked, waving her hand in Rui’s direction. She didn’t wait for an answer before explaining, which was oddly Tsukasa-like of her. She most likely just got it from him.

“Well, you remember how I was really sick and recovered before Tsukasa went ‘missing’?” 

Toya nodded before Saki continued.

“He had decided to become a product tester for one of Ootori’s latest technologies! I never got the name, but it transferred illnesses from one person to another. Now he’s stuck with it and I’m not!”

This was definitely some sort of forbidden family lore that Rui was not meant to know about in the slightest. Although, just swapping one person’s health for another’s didn’t exactly get your consciousness on the internet.

“But how is he-”

“I’m getting to it, Toya-kun! Hold on!” Saki cut him off, only to resume what she was doing. “Anyways, back to what I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, he also decided to be a product tester for another one because being stuck in a room all day would be boring. Which it is, but still. So the other he did takes your, like, I guess soul would be a good way to put it? Online, like you’ve always been there!”

It had only been a few seconds before Tsukasa burst out yelling. It hurt Rui’s ears, and presumably Toya’s too, judging by the fact he winced at the volume. “THEN WHY DO NOT REMEMBER BEING HUMAN???” Tsukasa yelled, continuing to cause everyone except Saki physical pain.

“I might have a bit of an inkling, if you’d hear me out of course,” Rui started as Saki nodded for him to continue. “I work with robotics, and one of my colleagues is somewhat like Tsukasa-kun. While I personally would never interfere with her coding, it might be the case that whoever uploaded him removed that particular string of code, per se, that made him remember being human in the first place?”

The other two thought about it for a moment. It was a plausible theory, but that just left one question. “Why would anyone do this to a future star like meee..” Tsukasa grumbled, clearly feeling the victim he was.

“That’s the only part I can’t understand. Unless they told you something they wouldn’t want to be spread around, I can't see why they wouldn’t leave you and your memories alone,” the cyborg sighed, sitting back against the chair.

There was a brief pause as Rui continued to think about possible reasons when Saki suddenly jolted up from her seat. “I’ll go make tea!” she chirped cheerily and ran off to the kitchen, Rui not being able to explain that he in fact could not have any form of liquid with his mask on for what seemed like obvious reasons.

While the kettle boiled, Toya opened his mouth to say something but hesitated momentarily. “I have.. had a friend who did the same thing too. Akito,” he started, the cyborg looking over at him. “I told him not to, but he wouldn't listen to me. He just said it was and would be able to get ‘revenge’ quicker. I still don’t know what he meant. He also said he would contact me once he was in.”

“And, has he?” Rui asked, brightening up as the topic piqued his interest. He dimmed down quickly as Toya shook his head solemnly. “..I see. Well, I’m sorry to hear that, Toya-kun. I hope you hear from him soon.”

Toya nodded, grimacing as Saki came in with the tea. “Thanks,” he responded shortly as he took a cup from his sister, drinking it down in one swig while Rui politely declined his cup on the matter of being unable to drink.

“Hey, uh, Mr. Purple?” Saki started uncertainly.

“Just Rui is fine, Saki-kun.”

“Yeah, Rui, do you want our numbers? Y’know, so Tsukasa can still be in touch with us and all that,” she asked, tilting her head slightly to the side as she spoke. It was a good idea, so Rui nodded, took out his phone and gave it to her.

“Just put your own one in. I think I should get going now though, I’ve been gone too long and fear that my roommate will start asking where I am,” Rui chuckled lightly to himself as he stood up and made his way over to the door.

“Oh, ok then!” Saki said as she started to add herself, but was prevented from doing so by a call. “Who is ‘Anxiety Haver/Causer’?” she asked, handing the phone back to Rui who just stared down at it.

“My roommate,” he stated as he declined the call and gave his phone back to the twin tailed girl. “Here, just put your number in and I’ll be going then.”

Saki accepted the phone again finally added herself to his contacts list. “Well then, guess I’ll see ya later then!” she grinned as she gave Rui back his phone and sent him on his way. Time for a long trek back to the store then.

***

Rui never knew it was possible to hate walking as much as he did then. Running on minimal hours of sleep and having anything that he might have eaten that day having exited the wrong way, to the least he was doing too good.

“Rui?? Are you ok?” Tsukasa asked after passed by the hospital. Despite quite literally being a voice in his head, the.. blond thing sounded distant. Rui’s head felt like it was underwater. Some very hot yet cold water that made his head feel stuffed with cotton or some other soft material.

“Why aren’t you answering me?” Tsukasa continued to ask, sounding further away than before. At least the shop was finally in sight. The cyborg continued on, barely making it inside before Nene jumped out of her seat behind the makeshift till area.

As she looked him up and down, worry filled her features. “Rui, what the fuck happened?” she asked, dully noting his lack of usual nonsensical remark. Normally he would’ve responded with something like ‘Why, I was merely having a meander, is that such a crime dearest Nene?’

“Shit- RIN??” she yelled over to the yellow being in question, who poked her head out from the stairwell. “Why the fuck are you in your body for once? Anyways,” Nene then held her hands up like she was in show and tell, showing off a cool thing. “What is wrong with him?”

Rin came bounding over, her movements on the stiffer side, taking in every detail she could. “I think he’s sick,” she said, Nene groaning in frustration.

“Thanks for pointing out the obvious, but what are we meant to do?” the green haired girl snapped, watching as Rin continued to scan Rui before coming to a sudden stop in front of his mask.

“I think there’s someone in there,” she said. “I heard that cyborgs can carry AI around in their robot parts, and lack of proper care for the body causes this!” Rin cheered, clearly proud of herself for having figured it out.

“Oh, did I cause this? Forgive me Rui!” Tsukasa replied to Rin, Nene jumping back in alarm. “By the way, my name is Tsukasa Tenma! And I’m a world future star!” he said smugly, the grin rather clear in his voice.

“How the hell did you figure that out from just looking at him??” Nene yelped, death–glaring Rin who simply smiled.

“You can tell pretty easily, you just gotta see how much the cables sag! Speaking of which,” Rin then unplugged the mask, making sure not to injure Rui, and felt it around in her hands for a moment. “Yup, too heavy. This is an actual person. Here!”

Rin then handed it over to Nene, who nearly dropped it from the weight. “Holy shit,” she breathed out, out of breath from just holding it. “This is way heavier from when I got you into Nenerobo that one time.”

“I know!” the blonde grinned happily as she took the mask back from Nene, who sighed a sigh of relief once it was out of her hands. “Usually the sickness from the new weight of carrying around data isn’t this bad until the second or third day, so it’s probably just the fact it’s a literal person on not data. So we should get Rui to bed then!”

He went to protest as soon as he heard he was being sent to bed, but winced as soon as he produced any sort of noise. “Yup, off ya go,” Nene shooed him upstairs, Rui protesting like he was a 5 year old. “Finally, we can use him for the purpose he was got for, even though he’s apparently an actual person. Rin, plug it in please.”

The blonde then plugged the mask into Nenerobo. Instead of the eyes lighting up as expected, nothing happened. Rin then unplugged and plugged it back in, hoping something different would happen, which it didn’t.

“The hell? Is it because he’s a fucking human? I swear to Crypton if Rui spent any money on this thing,” Nene complained as she dragged her hand through her hair in frustration. 

“Well, I’ve done all I can do,” Rin sighed as she sat herself down in Nene’s chair. “Welcome to the team, Tsukasa!”

“Rin, please tell me you’re fucking joking.”

And that was how Tsukasa landed himself a job with no effort at all. He was going to boast to Saki and Toya about it as soon as he could access Rui's phone, or maybe an actual body that wasn’t some mask.

Chapter Text

“So, uh, what do you wanna do now then?” Nene shrugged, slightly miffed about the fact Tsukasa had just gotten hired without any known experience. Hell, they didn’t even know if he had experience with selling parts or making them before he became the thing before them! However that happened was none of her business, by the way.

“Hmm.. Let's introduce ourselves to each other then!” Rin smiled, spinning around in her chair. “So, as you may or may not already know, I’m Rin! I’m 14 - At least, that’s what my coding says. I have a brother who, well, let’s not talk about him, and I deal with the money stuff here!”

“Why do you speak in entire paragraphs?” Nene sighed, before going to introduce herself. “I’m Nene, I like games I guess. I got someone banned when I was hacking and, uhhh..” she trailed off, slightly uncertain, looking over to Rin for guidance. The blonde just smiled at her. “Great, well, um- Hey wait, the computer s’not looking right.”

The pair looked over at the screen, only to find that it was glitching out badly. Normal glitches wouldn’t cause that level of visual errors though. “Fuck,” the green haired girl muttered through gritted teeth. “I think we’ve been hacked.”

Rin pouted. “Aw man, who would do that?? That seems like a very not nice thing to do! I hope whoever did it gets the proper punishment coming to them and dibs not going to investigate!” she giggled out the end, watching Nene groan with frustration. “What, are you mad that we have to send Tsukasa in?”

“WWWWHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTT???” the boy in question suddenly shrieked, Nene covering her ears and wincing. “I AM NOT GOING BACK IN THERE! I REFUSE UNDER MEANS OF I DON'T WANT TO!!” he continued yelling, leaving the green haired girl to go find anything that would cancel out his volume enough to be reasonable.

“Hweeeh? What, it’s not that bad in there. Sure, it’s kinda cold and prickly but ya get used to it. And so what if you get lost? You’ll get found eventually,” Rin grinned smugly, a slight rhythmic lilt in her voice. “It’ll be fine, don’t worry! I promise that if you get lost I’ll try to find you!”

“BUT WHAT ABOUT THE BUGS?????” Tsukasa continued, Nene returning with some scrap pieces of metal poorly held together over her head by thin wire. “AND WHAT DO YOU MEAN TRY?? IT’S NOT EVEN GUARANTEED YOU’LL FIND ME?? I’M NOT GOING BACK IN THERE EVEN IF YOU TRY MAKE ME!!!!!”

Rin giggled. “Relax, relax! It’s not that bad, I’ll go with ya if you really need me to,” she finally reasoned, Tsukasa making pounds that could only be described as thinking noises. “So? You wanna go in or nah?”

Tsukasa sighed. “Sure, why not,” he grumbled as Nene took Rui’s mask and plugged it into the computer. The boy then started to yell as he got flung on screen and into the corner, falling onto the hotbar with a loud thud. Well, louder for what was practically just pixels colliding with even more pixels.

He made an attempt to force himself up as Rin connected herself to the computer as well, Nene watching the lights behind her eyes dim as she returned to the digital world. “So then, Tsukasa, let’s get looking for, uh, you I guess. Where did you go?” 

Rin then began to look around for Tsukasa, despite the fact he was literally under her nose. The blond eventually got himself up, clutching his shoulder in pain while Rin continued looking for him, despite the fact he was now in front of her. 

“Tsukasa, this isn’t funny!” she began to thrash around, Tsukasa jumping back when she came close to hitting him. “I’m being serious!” she pouted.  “Where are you?” Rin asked again, sounding almost tearful. “I’m just going to stretch my arms out and hope I hit you then,” the blonde gave up with, resigning to spinning in a circle with her arms stretched out.

Nene couldn’t take it anymore. “You do know he’s right behind you, right?” she forced out with a grumble, watching as Rin came to a shaky stop, fell over, and passed through Tsukasa, who began screaming in alarm almost immediately. “What the fuck?”

“What?” Rin asked, propping herself up and looking over at Nene. “Did I do something? I don’t think I did anything,” she looked around herself, trying to figure out if she had begun to glitch out too.

“Y-Y-Y-YOU WENT STRAIGHT THROUGH ME!” Tsukasa shrieked, pointing his finger at the somehow undisturbed girl like she was a witch, bound to be put on trial for her supposed sins. “HOW IN THE NAME OF CRYPTON DID YOU DO THAT??”

Rin gave up looking and shrugged. “Eh, if he got lost it’s not my problem. I’m coming back out now, please don’t tell you’ve unplugged me Nene,” she said as she walked to where she entered the screen from, her eyes lighting up again after she went offscreen. “That’s better! Now then, why the hell are you there but I couldn’t see you??”

Tsukasa shrugged as Nene sighed. “Great, we’re sending him in after the hacker with no guide to know what he’s meant to look for,” she grumbled, slamming her head down into the table. “I wish Rui could help us with troubleshooting right now,” the green haired girl complained, her voice muffled by the table.

“Oh wait, I know this one! If somewhere looks kinda splotchy with glitches, that’s where the guy we’re after has been! At least, that’s what it’s like when my brother is messing with us?”

Rin thought about it for a moment before snapping her fingers, like she had some sort of revelation. “If it looks buggy, just go after it, it’ll be fine! Unless, ya know, you start going haywire too, then run as far away from that area as you can, or else you could get wiped out by the anti-virus - I’ve only heard of that happening though, some folks get too curious. Stay safe regardless!”

“Yeah, I will!” Tsukasa forced out, looking pale. He then turned around and started walking into the splotches of bugging, slightly shaking but it was probably just the visual glitching increasing. 

Nene sighed and stretched, looking over at Rin. “What do we do then if he gets lost?” she asked her, the blonde just shrugging in response with a careless “If he gets lost, he gets lost” mumbled out.

Great, fantastic, how wonderful even. Not only had they been screwed over by a respected business outside of the part-selling community, now the thing that they had received instead was likely to be completely lost. He would probably find himself on a malware site and get infected, or worse get done in by one of the ones that erase all your data when you’re not careful enough!

The green haired girl groaned as she flopped down to the cold floor. She hated overthinking, but there wasn’t much she could do about it at that point despite the faint knocking grounding her. Who would be knocking though? The shop had no door for crying out loud! They had to sell it when they couldn’t cover the bills last month!

Both Nene and Rin looked over, only to find a short girl with pink hair. She looked vaguely familiar, like she had been seen while outside one time. “Hi hi!!” the girl greeted cheerfully as she let herself in. “I was wondering if you could teach me finance stuff? I don’t care how much it’ll cost, Nene-chan, but I really need it! Hehe.”

Nene stared the girl up and down. She definitely hadn’t seen her before, so how would she know her name? She was probably just not remembering right. Yeah, that had to be it. “Ah, uh..” the green haired girl’s voice trailed off, not really knowing what to say next. “That’s, uh, n-not my..”

“That’s my job here!” Rin burst into the conversation smugly, that dumb grin she always wore when boasting about it plastered on her face. “I don’t really know how to teach people, but by Ka- Crypton, will I try,” she finished, her demeanour slightly less confident and certain than before.

“Oh yay!” the pink haired girl cheered, twirling around with her arms raised as she celebrated. “Thanks Rin!” she giggled, skipping happily to stand beside her. “I still wish my father would’ve given me the promotion I wanted, but nooooo, of course he wouldn't just let me have it after what happened to my sister,” she scowled, pouting as she crossed her arms.

“Well, uh, finance stuff is what you’re here for, right? Not, um, y’know, talking about your family problems?” Nene stiffly asked, the words stuck in her throat half the time. “A-also, um, we-we don’t know your, uh, name..”

“Hehe, I forgot!” the pink haired girl said innocently, but something felt off about the way she was acting so happy. If anything Nene was just overthinking again. “I’m Emu Ootori!! Emu means... SMILE!!” she yelled out excitedly, Nene wishing she had some better ear protection.

“Oh, that’s cool!” Rin remarked half-heartedly, clearly somewhere else mentally. As close to that as something like her could be at least. “We’re kinda busy right now though, so yeah, no lessons for now!”

“Ah,” Emu instantly deflated, her smile now looked like it was stuck on by a 4 year old with no idea of how to use glue and lacked basic fine motor skills. “How’s Tsukasa-kun doing then? Is he still with Mr. Purple?”

“Oh, no, he’s-”

“Yes, but Rui’s out at the moment,” Nene practically snarled through gritted teeth, cutting Rin off as soon as she realised that the blonde fully trusted someone who knew them despite them not knowing her.

“Aw man, I’ll see ya later then,” the pink haired girl exhaled defeatedly, walking out of the shop and barely down the street before she poked her head in, then turning back and running home.

“Crypton, she’s weird,” Nene let out a sigh of relief as soon as Emu was out of earshot. “How did she even know our names and where we were?” she continued, her eyebrows knitting themselves together with worry.

“I dunno, but she seemed nice enough,” Rin answered, patting Nene on the back. “You wanna go and see how Rui’s doing? Because I certainly do,” the blonde had already gotten up before she finished her sentence, Nene not even realising she had gone upstairs until she had disappeared from her vision.

“Huh- wait, Rin!” she called out, getting up and running after Rin the best she could. After finally catching up to her, standing by Rui’s room instead of going did she say anything. “You really need to stop running aw-”

Rin shushed her and motioned the green haired girl over. The blonde then pointed inside the room, where Rui was holding an old piece of paper, staring at it intently like he was trying to commit every detail to memory. “You don’t think..?” Rin started, her voice barely above a whisper as her voice trailed off. “You don’t think that, uh, maybe he’s, y’know..”

The blonde looked uncomfortable, the type of uncomfortable you’d get from having to give a speech after falling in puddle, the water landed all over your new trousers that had been freshly steamed, and not only are your fancy new trousers ruined and it looked like you did something embarrassing, your socks were also unbearably wet and cold. She looked very uncomfortable, to put it plainly.

Nene looked down at the hard, stone ground. “..Maybe. We can’t really say for now, but...” she let go of a breath she hadn't realised she was holding. “I guess we can just hope for now, that he isn’t. I hope he isn’t, because, well, we’d be kinda fucked.”

Rin laughed softly. “You’re right about that,” she smiled weakly, looking back into him before looking at Nene. “I hope Tsukasa gets back soon, because then maybe we’d have a chance at getting Rui back to near full health. He seems like he’d know a thing or two about medicine - Tsukasa, that is.”

“Mhm,” the green haired girl grimaced in response, her lack of faith in Tsukasa’s ability to get around the internet evident. “Welp, I’m gonna go find Rui’s mask so I can ask him if he wants anything before Tsukasa gets back from his magical mystery potentially getting kidnapping trip, see ya.”

“Oh, bye!” the blonde returned cheerily, her expression turning dark once Nene was gone from sight. “I’m sorry I couldn’t do more,” she mumbled sheepishly, talking to Rui. Rin didn’t know if the cyborg - or well, current human?? Logistics were weird - had the brain function to hear her, let alone understand what she meant, but she still felt the need to apologise. 

Rin then turned and left, instead of following Nene downstairs she opened the window, and jumped out, closing it behind herself before walking off into the city. She needed to clear her head, things were beginning to feel fuzzy and that either meant forgetting old information or remembering even older coding. She hoped it wasn't the latter, Crypton only knew what could happen then.

Chapter Text

This place wasn’t the same as Nene’s computer. Was that computer even Nene’s? Was it Rin’s, or maybe Rui’s? Regardless, his point still stood; it wasn’t the same. 

Tsukasa never went prodding into bugs and glitches, he had heard enough horror stories from simply walking around. Plus, he had heard far too many where someone who actively provoked them became a glitchy mess themself, infecting anyone else who dared come in close contact with them. And that’s not even talking about what viruses supposedly did.

Poking further into them would be a bad idea, the blond knew that quite well, but that didn’t stop him. It wasn’t his fault that the buggier areas were oddly beautiful. Absolutely terrifying, but still beautiful. Mesmerising would’ve been a better way to put it, since the less buggy areas were plain purple. The buggier areas on the hand though, they swirled between the purple and an orange-ish colour. Ginger would’ve been a better way to put it.

Before he knew it, Tsukasa already found himself walking in, areas of his body glitching out. It was usually just a finger disappearing and reappearing, parts of his arms being pushed out of place, sometimes his entire body blipping out of existence momentarily, everything going black until he came back into reality, or rather the web. It was most painless, if anything just a bit tingly. He was probably going to die. Oh well, it is what it is. 

“WHAT IN CRYPTON’S NAME AM I THINKING??” he screeched out, scrambling to get away from the glitching, only to find that it worked a lot like a glue trap. Tsukasa continued to try and get out, only to find himself getting even more stuck, one of his legs dislocating itself and locating behind him, causing him to fall in. He was doomed, a fate best served cold and dead, because that was probably what he was going to be.

There came a low groan of annoyance from behind him, but that was probably just an audio glitch, right?

“Struggling won’t do you any good, y’know,” came a bored, or rather, disappointed voice spoke, coming from the same direction as the supposed audio glitch. Scratch that, it couldn’t be an audio glitch if it had a clear owner. 

Tsukasa looked over his shoulder to find a ginger man, who was unfortunately taller than him, with what could be described as piss streak approaching. So he did what any sane person would do in the situation: scream in terror until he felt dizzy from the lack of oxygen being retained. That’s odd, he thought oxygen didn’t exist on the internet, maybe he was wrong.

The ginger scowled. “For the love of Crypton, shut the fuck up,” he seethed as he picked up Tsukasa from his chest, like he was doing the Heimlich maneuver, and carried him out. Tsukasa kept screaming, who did this fiend think he was picking him up without any regard as to whether he wanted to be picked up?

The ginger then dropped Tsukasa once they were both away from the glitching, his leg returning to its original spot. “Hey!” Tsukasa went to tell him off for dropping him, but then he remembered why he was even here in the first place. “Wait, are you the one who,” Tsukasa then stood up, pointing an accusatory finger at the ginger. “Are you the one who went hacking??!?!”

The ginger shrugged. “So what if I did? I didn’t find what I wanted,” and with that, he went to leave, only for Tsukasa to stop him by grabbing his wrist. “Fine, you win. What do you want from me?” he stopped, raising his free hand in defeat.

“Tell me who you are and what you were doing at once!” Tsukasa asked, even though it sounded like more of a command, unhanding the ginger who rubbed his wrist where Tsukasa had been clutching.

“Strong grip,” he remarked, glaring over to Tsukasa. “Name’s Akito, and I thought one of the Ootori’s had gotten into your system,” he explained, not really focusing on the conversation. “I thought I saw traces of the youngest one, but I guess not,” he sighed, turning to leave again. “She’s too damn sporadic for her own good, I swear.”

“How would you even know if she had been?” the blond found himself asking, despite it most likely being common knowledge. Maybe he should’ve socialised more, but no one ever acknowledged him. It made more sense considering how Rin had reacted earlier but that just raised another question. “How can you see me?”

Akito looked at him as if he had said the most stupid thing to ever been spoken in the history of language. “They can’t see us because we’re human, obviously,” he stated bluntly “They don’t even know the likes of us exist, so why would they need the coding to see us?” he continued, looking bored. “Also, d’you see the orange there? It’s like that, everyone has their own colour.”

Tsukasa looked over to the orange and purple mess where Akito was pointing at. It also had some yellow in it now, so that made sense, but it didn’t make sense how he just knew. “How did you know-?”

“Know that you’re human? I could pick you up, can’t do that with anyone else in here as far as I know,” Akito finished, giving a curt goodbye before leaving.

“WAIT!” Tsukasa called out to him, feeling like he might’ve been coming off as desperate. “Why are you even looking for who that Ootori kid is going after anyways?? I don’t think that involves you, now does it?”

Akito’s expression darkened. “My sister can barely walk and is blind in her right eye because of what her family caused that day, who are you to say it doesn’t involve me?” he stared Tsukasa down, almost as if expecting an answer. “I had to watch as that blond bitch starting beating her until that blue-haired fucker told him to leave off - and she was only 9. Of course I’d want to fucking find out what she’s planning, what if she tries to pull another raid of that size?”

Oh yeah, that one. Tsukasa could faintly remember hearing about it on the news when he was in the hospital with Saki. Or, had he been in the hospital with Saki visiting? No, she was the sick one, how silly of him to forget such a thing. From what he knew though, most didn’t make it afterwards, whether it was from the part that was stolen being the thing keeping them alive, or from the injuries sustained after.

Speaking of which, didn’t someone have an entire heart taken? 

He was getting sidetracked. “Fair enough,” Tsukasa said, more dizzy than before from trying to think. “I have a sister too, y’know.”

“And?”

“The only reason I’m here is because I wanted to help her!” Tsukasa grinned, ready to tell the story from what he had pieced together. “She was very sickly as a child, and then I heard that the Ootori’s were looking for product testers for something that could take one person’s illness and give it to another! So, being the good big brother I am, I decided to sign up without telling her!”

“That-” Akito sighed in frustration. “Unless you also applied for this, I don’t see how that connects to the current topic.”

Tsukasa felt his eyebrows furrow in confusion. “Because I also wanted better for my sister?” he half-laughed, the ginger not seeming to understand. “Saki was ill, your sister has been made disabled, and we’re both trying to get them better lives!”

“No no, I get that,” Akito pinched his nose bridge, trying to figure out how they had got there. “Who said it was for her? I just think they’re dicks who shouldn’t be in business anymore, especially considering their past.”

“Oh!”

“Yeah, oh indeed,” Akito grumbled and made to leave. “I’m going now, no word of this anywhere near anyone who could be connecting to them or that time, or I will personally seek you out and feed you to Bonzi buddy” he warned, somewhat jokingly, but the intent was there all the same. “See ya.”

“Oh, bye then!” Tsukasa waved him off, only for the ginger to stop and stare. Tsukasa stared back in confusion. “What? Is there something on my face?”

“You’re way too positive,” Akito deadpanned, reminding Tsukasa somewhat of Nene. “You’ll be taken advantage of out here like that,” he paused, thinking for a moment. “Actually, c’mere, I have an idea. You help me find out what the fuck the Ootori’s are planning, I.. haven’t thought far ahead yet.”

“Will Saki get sick again?” 

“Huh?” Akito paused again, taken off guard by Tsukasa’s sudden question. “I mean, maybe? I don’t really know how that works, I didn’t apply for it.”

“ Will Saki get sick again? ” he asked again, more desperate than before. Akito felt lost, should he lie and say she’d be fine or tell the truth?

“No idea,” he resigned to telling the truth, watching as Tsukasa’s face fell. “As long as they don’t know we’re doing this, she should be fine. They won’t have any justifiable reason to remove you from here and make her sick otherwise.”

A small, relieved smile made its way onto the blond’s face. “Then I shall aid you in your current endeavour, do tell me though, what have you found this far?”

“Nothing much yet, they usually hang around news sites like SEKAI and Synth though,” Akito explained, using his hands for emphasis. “Don’t really know why though,” he concluded as he sat down, the ground beneath pulsating with the orange colour it was being dyed with. Pretty.

“That is a good question,” Tsukasa replied as he sat down next to the ginger, a golden hue emanating from where he sat. He preferred his colour to Akito’s, mainly because it was his own one but also because it reminded him of the sun. Well, the brief bits that he could see of it when the skylines weren’t absorbing the sky and turning it dark regardless of the time. “Do you wanna come back with me then?”

Akito looked at him like he was insane. “Why the fuck would I do that, I barely even know you,” he sighed, his face devoid of emotion. It was sort of terrifying, Tsukasa had to admit.

“We can discuss your plans with my new friends! I assume they’d be more than in agreement with your ideas!” the blond boasted, resting his hand on his chest in a confident manner. 

The ginger stared at him instead of responding, his eyebrows raised in either bewilderment or disappointment. Maybe a mixture of both. “How the fuck do you even know for certain if they would be cool with this if they’re your ‘new’ friends? They could be on their side or even working for them, y’know.”

Fair point. “They run a parts shop if that helps!”

Akito then stood up. “Nope. Not going. Prime target for them. See ya around then, uh, never got your name actually, blondie.”

“TSUKASA TENMA!!” he yelled as an introduction, the ginger scowling for what felt like the gazillionth time.

“Yeah, well, see ya Tenma.”

And with that, Akito left. Tsukasa had found what he was looking for, and got roped into a plan to basically overthrow the government to boot. The Ootori’s may not have actually been the government, but they may as well have been with how much power and influence they held over the actual government.

Welp, now Tsukasa just has to figure out which direction he came from and get back.

Couldn’t be that hard, could it?

***

Tsukasa didn’t realise that he had been gone that long by the time he came back, as not only was Rui out of bed (albeit, wrapped in a thick blanket), Rin had also disappeared and Nene was busy grumbling to herself about “Rin running off too often these days”.

“HAHA!! I HAVE MADE MY RETURN!!!” the blond announced loudly, Nene nearly falling off the chair in fright and Rui looking over and giving him a slight wave. “It would be nice if I could come out now, Nene.”

“Oh, right..”

Nene then plugged Rui’s mask back into the computer, and once Tsukasa was in, handed it over to Rui, who put it on first chance he got.

The cyborg cleared his throat. “Do I  ou d ri h ?“ he asked, going into a coughing fit immediately after while Nene groaned in frustration. 

“Not in the slightest. Worse than earlier too.”

The green haired girl spun around in her chair for a bit until Rin finally walked in, gazing over at Rui in slight surprise before shaking her head and walking off upstairs. 

“Welp, I’m tired. How’d your trip go then, Tsukasa?” Nene asked, looking over from where she sat lopsided in her chair. 

“ ou w nt o  a tr p??”

“Why yes indeed, Rui! And I did find the perpetrator! Akito, uh, Something-Or-Other! He was looking for information about the Ootori’s, so that he can stop them from causing the harm that they caused his sister and others. He’s also like me, and also came out of the massive parts raid all those years ago unscathed!”

“Oh, the one run by the Troupe?” the green haired girl sighed out. “Yeah, pretty big, Rui’s parents died in it. She died tryna stop them from getting to his dad, he died after getting his heart taken- Oh shit.”

Nene had somehow forgotten that Rui was still there. He was significantly paler and more dazed than before. “Wait, Rui no, I didn’t mean it.”

“..I’  go  g to be ,” he mumbled, standing up on his shaky legs and walking himself stiffly back to his room.

“Rui, wait-” she went to go after him, but realised quickly that he probably wouldn’t want to talk to anyone. “Dear Crypton what have I done.”

Chapter Text

“C’mon Rui, let’s get some ice cream then!” his mother smiled at him, his father on the other side of them. Rui nodded eagerly as they continued walking through the city in search of the ice cream shop, despite the fact his father was lactose intolerant. He didn’t seem to mind, not when the usual place they went to also had fancy drinks.

Rui knew the directions by heart: up the big stairs, across the big platform, and straight down them again into the shopping district, and it’d be the third shop on the left. It was unmissable, at least to him anyway. “Hmmm, what flavour should I get?” he asked his father, who just chuckled and sighed.  

The three had only made it inside when the sirens went off. He didn’t know what it meant at the time, but it meant a raid. Any cyborg or cyborg adjacent being would be told to get into the nearest building they could find and lock it, while any humans would have to protect those buildings.

Only the majority of people had ignored all of the PSAs they had received when they had gotten the parts as brochures were boring, and ran outside despite being told multiple times by workers not to. 

“What’s happening??” Rui had sobbed out, as his father dragged him out of the ice cream shop in a hurry without replying. He tried looking around, only to find that his parents were blocking his view. The child started to shake in fear. What was going on? Why was there a loud, scary noise? Why did his parents seem so panicked?

Then came a loud bang. It wasn’t exactly a bang, but it was the best descriptor available. Rui looked up to see his parents staring at each other, fear in their eyes as they talked in hushed tones. Another bang rang out, and then another, and then another, the bangs eventually overlapped to the point of becoming a secondary siren, harmonising in only the way an angel at the end would sing. How horrifying.

“Mom?” Rui tried asking for her attention, voice wavering as she looked down at him, tears in her eyes. “Why do you and dad look so scared?” and, despite the innocent question, her face crumpled and she looked away from him, leaving him more confused. The child then heard footsteps coming towards them, and slightly above his mother he saw a blue haired man. The man’s gaze was cold and unfeeling, in only the way a machine could replicate.

He then muttered something to her, and when she shook her head another bang came, louder than before as her body jarred and stilled, falling down beside Rui. The man turned towards his father, Rui crouching down and covering his ears, expecting another bang. The only sound that came behind him was his father yelping and collapsing to the ground with a thud, the blue haired man now holding a metallic thing that looked sort of like a heart.

He then stared down at Rui in what could be described as pure disgust as he put the machine away, dripping with something red. Watered down paint, perhaps? 

“The fuck you looking at?” he snapped, his voice surprisingly human. Without how inhuman the man seemed, it came as such a shock to Rui that he lost his balance. He then tried to run away, only for the man to grab him by the scruff of his neck. “I asked you a question, the fuck you looking at?” he repeated himself, adjusting his grip to be around his neck, pressing his thumb into Rui’s larynx.

“I-I,” the child started, unable to get a word as he cried. “I don- I don’t kn- I-I-I, uh,” he tried again, still unable to get the words out. The man scoffed and spat on him, pushing his thumb in further.

“Pathetic,” he murmured, still loud to be heard. Rui started to feel dizzy. It didn’t feel right. His neck hurt too much and he felt like he was going to get sick all over the man, which probably wouldn’t be a very good idea. His head felt tight as well.

The child felt his eyes getting heavy as a new voice called over to the man. “KAITO??” the voice came, mechanical and slightly feminine. “Whatcha doing- IS THAT A KID??” the person shrieked as they walked over. “That’s an actual child, holy fuck Kaito. Put him down! Do you want him dead??”

The blue haired man, presumably Kaito, then dropped him. “Yeah?” he answered as Rui gasped for air, like it was the most obvious answer in the world. Rui looked up to the usual sight of blonde hair. He could never remember their face. He tried to stand up, only to find that he was no longer a child. Weird.

He fell over, not used to having legs like a gazelle as Kaito scoffed. He then spat on Rui and began walking away, only to come back, seemingly still deciding on something. He then ripped off Rui's mask, somehow blood coming with it. Rui touched his face where the mask had been, only to find it felt cold, damp and metallic, like he still had it on. He pulled his hand back, only to find more blood on it.

This wasn't how it happened. It ended after he had been dropped. Kaito had walked away, leaving him to gasp for air. That’s where these usually ended, that’s where they always ended. Why was it ending now with this? Did it have to end like this? 

Rui tried to stand up, no feeling in his legs as he rushed himself towards Kaito. Maybe he could change the ending, just this once. Maybe just this one time he wouldn’t wake up fearing to go to sleep until he inevitably passed while working and remembered that he wouldn’t be tormented every time he slept. Unfortunately, he fell over. Cursed be his long legs.

“Hmph, predictable,” was all Kaito said as he turned and woke Rui, the sound of a gunshot ringing in his ears as he shot up. He looked around, only to find he was in his room again. He must have fallen asleep at some point. Cursed be this horrific flu.

!

“Oh, G-Good morning Rui!” Tsukasa greeted, sounding slightly uncertain. “So, uh, WHAT IN CRYPTON’S NAME WAS THAT??” he suddenly yelled, his voice echoing through Rui’s head. Cursed be however his mask worked as well. Cursed be also how Tsukasa had the option to practically become telepath. Actually, cursed be everything at this point.

Rui breathed in and exhaled shakily. “That was.. Well, it was how my parents died, Tsukasa-kun. It’s why I have the mask,” he said, mildly taken aback by how sorrowful his tone sounded. “I don’t know enough about anatomy to explain it, but as far as I know that guy, Kaito, he had damaged my larynx to the point of being unusable with extreme pain. But, ah, I do wonder how it was you were able to witness that too?”

“I live in your head?” the blond answered, slightly confused. “What, did you think I wouldn’t be able to hear your thoughts? I’m like a part of you at this point, we share the same body,” Tsukasa paused. “That’s scary now that I think about it. Imagine having multiple people in one body, that’d be novel, wouldn’t it?”

“Sure it would be, anyways,” Rui said dismissively as he made an attempt at standing up, only to fail miserably and fall back down onto his bed. His vision blurred, but he just blinked it away to the best of his ability. His stomach hurt, most likely from hunger. He couldn’t remember the last time he had eaten. That was probably making him feel worse. He was a mess. 

“Glad to see you’ve realised the mess you are!” Tsukasa grinned while Rui sighed. “Now, why don’t you enjoy a fine luncheon! Or, at least toast,” he reasoned. He got no reply. “I am going to scream as loudly as I can if you don’t get anything.”

“No need for that, Tsukasa-kun, just give me a moment and I’ll get going,” the cyborg mumbled out as he made another attempt at standing up, shuffling himself along like an old man once he found his balance. He (eventually) made it downstairs, greeted by Rin stirring something in a mug.

“Oh, heya Rui!” she smiled at him, tapping her spoon against the rim of the cup and taking a swig from it. “How are you doing? You don’t look too good,” she asked, setting her cup down beside the monitor. “Do you want anything? A chair by the looks of it,” the blonde laughed grimly to herself, wheeling over the chair for Rui to sit in. “Go on, get in.”

“Ah, thanks Rin,” he said as he slid himself into it, Rin then pushing him back over to the desk and going back to drinking her.. Drink. Who knew what it could be. “I’m mostly fine, but, ah, forgive me. My words are failing me at the moment.”

Rin spat out her drink. “IT FUCKING HAPPENED AGAIN???” she yelled in alarm and confusion, nearly dropping her cup in the process. “I thought you were done after we took you to that white-haired girl! What was she called again- the therapist, ya know who I mean, right? Anyways, what brought this on?”

“Oh, Nene said something about that parts raid!” Tsukasa chimed in. “The big one, it was really scary to watch it happen from Rui’s perspective!”

“You could see all that?” Rin paused, then took another sup from her drink. “Damn. That makes sense then, so what do we do now then? If therapy doesn’t help, what does then? Like, genuinely.”

“Murder.”

Rui and Rin turned to the door, only to find Nene there. “Oh yeah, you went to touch grass for once, how’d that go?” the blonde asked as the green haired girl ignored her.

“Just hear me on this, please? I know you’re pacifist and all that Rui, and you’re... y’know, Rin. If someone’s annoying you in a game, you’d kill them, right?” Nene asked before continuing her explanation, “And if they’re annoying everyone, you report them to the mods, but if they’re basically hacking then you get them permabanned.”

“I don’t follow-”

 “Shut up Tsukasa. So, let’s assume permabanning is the same as death. We can assume this guy has been reported to the police, who would be the mods here, and nothing has been done. So, we have to permaban him ourselves. In short; murder.”

“Holy shit,” Rin paused. “Why does that make so much sense?? Hell yeah do I wanna kill that guy, he literally abused me and my friends! Let’s do it!”

“Rin, what is that meant to mean?” Rui asked, taken aback. How did she, out of all things, have a connection to the Troupe?? At most she seemed like she’d have barely been associated with them!

“Oh yeah, I never told ya. Kaito was my boss! More like dad, since he made me, but y’get what I mean. Then he tried to kill a child. So of course I said nah, fuck that and left! What else was I meant to do? Let him kill a child??” She said, before clicking her fingers in realisation. “Ah! That’s why I never told you - That kid was you!”

“HUH??!?!” Nene and Tsukasa exclaimed in unison. 

“Wh-wha-whawh-awh-ha?? The fuck do you mean that you literally saved his life??” Nene continued, absolutely flabbergasted.

“And she’s even humble enough to say it so casually too!” Tsukasa pushed out, in a state of shock.

“Why yes dearest Nene, we shall kill a man~!” Rui chirped, oddly cheery despite literally being informed that one of his dearest friends was the reason he hadn’t died alongside his parents. “I shall thank you properly later Rin, but I do quite like the idea of committing a felony right now, especially considering the history between us and him.”

“WHOOPIE, MURDER!!” Rin cheered, raising her fists in celebration. “So, how are we gonna kill him then, huh? Stabbing, mutilation, gun, drowning, poison, gangbanging, strangulation, public hanging, slitting his throat, preparing him like a turkey dinner, beating him to death, burning at stake..” she counted all methods she could think of on her fingers, listing them off without a worry.

“One of those is not like the others.”

“THAT’S the thing you notice, Tsukasa? I thought better of you!”

“I like strangulation!” Rui decided. “It is what he tried to do to me, so it seems most fitting. Almost poetic,” he explained, pausing momentarily. “Do pray tell, Rin, how is it that you’re able to come up with all of these on the spot?”

“I have a lot of free time, hehe. Now we just gotta figure out where he is and when we’re gonna do this!” she grinned, somehow ecstatic.

“I think I know someone who can help!” Tsukasa said, everyone turning to look at Rui. That sounds rather odd, doesn’t it? “The guy I met while in the datastream, I think he’d be more than happy to help since he’s trying to get rid of the Ootori’s for good, and I think he said something about them being connected to the Troupe.”

“I doubt you can find him again, but if you can then I’d be willing to see about it,” Nene groaned, looking disinterested. 

“Challenge accepted! Just pop me back in and I’ll bring him here within the hour!”

“Fine then, good luck. Uh, sorry Rui, but-”

Nene then proceeded to pull his mask off, Rui looking dazed for a moment before going to touch where it had been. He looked down at his hand and brought it down again, probably muttering something about how silly that was if he was able to speak. The green haired girl plugged the mask back into the computer, Tsukasa popping up on screen.

“I’m off then, see ya!”

Tsukasa then walked off.

He probably wouldn't be back within the hour.

Chapter Text

“AKITO?” Tsukasa called out to him for what felt like the bajillionth time, being met with no answer yet again. Did he know how long he had been walking? No, not in the slightest. Did he care though? Well, besides the fact his aR s kept glitching all over the place, not really. It was annoying but he had things to do that wasn’t worrying about the state of extremities.

                                                                                                                                         m

He continued walking near aimlessly through the borderline void, the ground below him turning into a golden hue with each step he took. Maybe he should look for Akito by searching for orange footprints, but that felt more time consuming and he had promised Nene he’d be back within the hour, so continuing to walk around waiting for the ginger to show up it was.

It felt like years before Tsukasa saw the very thing he told himself he wasn’t going to look for: orange footprints. They were leading into SEKAI. Great, just great, how was he going to get past all the pop-ups? If only he knew how to just code them away, but unfortunately the mandatory school coding lessons only cover the bare minimum of what's needed to get a job. Fantastic, wonderful even, may as well just wait outside like a pathetic excuse of a being then.

After what felt like another few years Akito finally spawned outside of the news website. Finally. The ginger flinched slightly upon seeing Tsukasa out of the corner of his eye, turning into static for a brief second before turning to face him fully. “What do you want now?” he groaned, his resting bitch face becoming more and more apparent by the second.

“Do you remember how you couldn’t think of anything to offer in return for me helping you figure out more about the Ooto-”

Tsukasa was met by Akito’s hand being slammed over his mouth. “Listen, shut the fuck up for one sec0nd. We’re outside SEKAI, anything that happens around them will get turned into news. Even us talking right now,” the ginger scolded, shaking his hand off after removing it from Tsukasa’ mouth. It looked like it became his hair for a moment before turning back. “Besides, I do, but barely. Memory’s been fr13d or something.”

“Oh, mine too! Shall we find somewhere a bit more secluded to talk about this then?” the blond asked, meeting Akito’s slight concern with a cheery grin. “I’m sure it won’t take us too long to find one,” he continued, misunderstanding the ginger’s worried expression as being worried about it taking a while to find somewhere to talk.

Akito hesitated momentarily before answering. “Yeah, sure, whatever, I know a place not far from here. Far enough to keep them from hearing us though.” He then started walking, pausing when he realised Tsukasa wasn't following. “You coming or not?” he asked, Tsukasa making a face that seemed like something straight out of a cartoon and running after him in a similarly cartoonish manner.

They walked in silence, their footsteps muffled by the, well, who really knew what the ground was off. Maybe code? Anyways, the majority of sound the pair could’ve made wasn’t snuffed out by it. Akito eventually stopped in front of a glitching mess. It looked like it was dripping out code in areas and.. images? Huh? The flow and structure was sort of like a man made waterfall. Who knew something like that could exist online? Not Tsukasa, certainly.

“Right, we’re here,” Akito said with a hint of relief in his voice as he sat down in front of the bugging waterfall, only to lay down on his back once he was sitting. “So what was it you wanted again?” the ginger asked, teleporting upwards and staying put there like he was still on the ground. He looked less harsh than he normally did despite the obvious bugging of his own. Huh, that’s weird. 

“Oh yeah, uh, dearCryptonhowdoIputthis?” Tsukasa started, immediately tripping over his words, because how does anyone go about explaining that their friends want to not only kill someone, but you had pitched the person they were talking to as the one to find their address and current whereabouts? Maybe just saying it out straight would work.. But no, risky. That just sounded like a bad idea.

“You wanna sit down first?” Akito offered after finally being put down on the floor(?) again, staring up at Tsukasa, who was still floundering trying to find the right to ask him to help commit a felony. “I come here to think when things go bad and can’t think straight, somehow literally sitting on it helps. Might help you, just saying.”

Tsukasa’s nose wrinkled in disgust. “Why the fuck would I do that, there’s bugs and shit on the ground,” he muttered, shaking his head in disapproval. Akito then rolled over him, propped himself up with one of his arms and used the free one to pull Tsukasa down. The blond made a small noise, clearly caught off guard before hitting the ground with a solid thunk . 

Akito let out a slight laugh. Small, but still there. “That sounded like it hurt,” he said, voice stuttering as he continued trying to suppress his laughter. While the landing did hurt, there was the new feeling attached as well, the sense of clarity. The order of being to sort his thoughts neatly, almost like pinning things in place on a corkboard and tying it all together with the little red string they always use in tv shows when the characters were playing detective. 

It felt weird, having everything feel more structured for once, but that wasn’t saying it was a bad weird. Just weird.

Tsukasa sat there, still processing the lack of chaos until he finally figured out how to say what he had even come to Akito for. Frustratingly enough, it was to just say it out straight. All of that for nothing then, he almost grumbled out loud, but decided to keep it to himself. That felt like it would've been rude to say aloud anyway. 

“So,” Tsukasa started, Akito sitting up. “Do you know how to dox people?”

The ginger stared at him in either confusion, denial, anger, bargaining or depression. Maybe it was just the stages of depression but confusion's mother acceptance said it could come instead. "The fuck? I mean, I know the basics but why the fuck would you ask me that?"

"My friends want you to dox the blue haired guy from the Troupe so they can kill him," Tsukasa sighed out, waiting for Akito to say literally anything that meant no. He just continued to stare, probably wondering if his friends were high, making a really bad joke or maybe even both.

Akito eventually groaned, running his hand through his head in frustration, only for it to phase through his head and down to his neck. "Ignoring how insane that sounds without the context, fine. I’ll try, no guarantees though. But if I get taken out for this shit it's on you to work from the inside on the family," he grumbled, trying to get his hand unstuck. He failed, stood up and walked away.

Tsukasa got up and followed after him, already missing his newfound mental organisation skills. It shouldn't have taken him an hour or two's worth of walking to ask where they were going, but then again Tsukasa was oblivious as all hell. "So, uh, where are we going then?" he asked, refusing to acknowledge his hesitation before asking. If he didn't say anything about it, maybe Akito wouldn't either.

The ginger paused, now using his unstuck arm to try pull his hand out. "..I'm gonna be honest, I have no idea."

They're officially screwed.

Well, maybe not. Tsukasa could maybe guide them back to where he had come from? If only he knew where he was. As far as he could remember he had gone in the same direction he and Akito were going in now when looking for him, so going in the opposite way seemed like the best option. “Alrighty,” Tsukasa announced, having made up his mind and then turning on his heel. “We’re going this way!”

“Wha- ok then,” Akito groaned, his voice looping quickly over his words. He seemed to be in a lot of pain, but then again glitching did seem like it would cause some sort of injury.

***

Nene smirked slightly to herself. “That officially marks the hour. Should’ve actually bet something though,” she sighed out with a slight yawn as she sat up, leaving her game console on the table as she propelled her chair forward to put out the sign that simply said “closed”. If only they didn’t have to sell the door to keep with the bills, then they wouldn’t be risking the shop being robbed every night. If only the Ootori’s hadn’t decided to set up shop in their city, if only. 

She let out a slight grumble as she rolled herself back to where she had left her game. The green haired girl was still stuck on the final boss - if only they hadn’t rendered her entire party useless. She kept trying to beat it but kept on dying. Clearly being a literal flower for no reason besides the fact she found it hilarious that a literal plant was class was a bad idea.

She eventually gave up, as clearly she was going to be defeating it any time soon. Nene looked over at her monitor - the time was 22:54. In short, Tsukasa had been gone for a lot longer than just an hour. In fact, that was about seven hours she had made that bet with him. It took her six hours to trying to defeat the final boss in her game to realise that playing as a fucking plant was an absolutely horrendous idea. It was almost laughable it took her that long.

Nene would've gone to bed right then and there if it wasn't for her hearing a rather distant Tsukasa screeching in panic for her, Rui and Rin. She must be dehydrated or sleep-deprived, or why else would she be hallucinating Tsukasa of all people? She averted her gaze from the on screen clock to the middle of it, only to find two smudges of differently coloured pixels, one moving a lot more than the other that it was leading along. That smudge was yellow. It was Tsukasa fucking Tenma wasn’t it.

It was Tsukasa fucking Tenma. It turned out Nene wasn’t hallucinating either, because he was screeching for all three of them. “What the fuck is it?” she snapped, pausing upon seeing some ginger guy with him who, rather unfortunately, had his hand and most of his forearm stuck going through his neck. It looked sore. “You ok dude?” she asked, turning her attention to him.

“More or less,” he shrugged to the best of ability, Tsukasa still panicking beside him. “Been glitching out lately so I’m too fussed. It could be worse, imagine if it was stuck in my brain or some other organ,” he continued, Nene horrified by the apathy in his tone.

“Do you know how to fix it..?” she asked, watching as the ginger shook his head. This must be the Akito person Tsukasa had said about earlier. She could only assume for now because Tsukasa probably wouldn’t answer her in his worry. Nene thought about any solutions she could try before deciding against them all. Trying to fix his code just seemed like a dangerous game, like playing as a fucking flower in a RPG. She had to call in someone more experienced with this stuff. “RIN!!”

The robot came bounding down the stairs at the sound of her yelling. “What’s going on?? Do you finally want my help with that boss guy- oh holy shit,” the blonde cut herself off as soon as she saw Akito’s condition. “Have you tried turning yourself on and off again?” she asked him, almost as if that was her instinctive response.

“Excuse you?”

Rin shook her head. “Never mind. Doesn’t work like that for humans,” she resigned, watching as the screen began to stutter and go black, Tsukasa being the only thing working as it should. Nene brought her knees up onto her chair and grabbed the keyboard. She would've gone into the system files and fixed it from there if it wasn’t for Rin deciding it was a great idea to bring her hands together like she was doing a spike in volleyball and bring them down onto the top of the monitor as hard as she could.

The screen flickered back to life as Tsukasa toppled backwards, Akito resting against the screen. “Dear Crypton,” he panted out, clearly out of breath as he continued to glitch out. “Anyways,” the ginger started up again, wiping sweat from his forehead as his arm was finally released from his neck. “What was I here for again?” he mumbled to himself, somewhat groggy.

“Doxing the blue bitch,” Nene deadpanned, despite the concern seeping into her voice. Rin nodded in approval behind her. “Are you ok though? Like genuinely, you don’t look like you’re doing too good-”

“I’m fine,” Ak1t01101111 shouted, his brows crossed as he clutched his stomach. “Sorry, uh, doxing that guy, right,” the ginger thought about it for a moment, moving himself away from the screen and sitting on the bin, which was oh so affectionately named Rui Kamishiro. “You do know he lives underneath the Ootori’s big ol’ tower near where your ip ad-”

<Critical Error: Character Data not Found. System Reboot Required.> then started vibrating, his final syllable turning into a single mechanical whir as multiples of his body started spanning out behind him, all of which were faceless and muddy. He then turned into static and then Ootori Industries logo on a white background top of a loading bar, despite retaining his original outline. The ginger then turned into a windows blue screen before disappearing with an error message that simply read “Error: b3tt3r lu(k n3xT t!m3 n3n3-ch4n :DDD k41t0 s4ys h! btw r;n :)”

“..What the fuck just happened,” Nene muttered in shock and panic before Tsukasa erupted into the most ear splitting scream ever. 

***

A boy awoke in a hospital bed. His body burst into borderline heart stopping pain as he sat up and his head felt foggy. Static filled would be a better way to describe it. He looked over to his left where a brown haired girl sat, jaw agape looking over at something behind him before staring down at him. He knew her better as his sister. She said something, the words not quite catching up with his brain for a moment. It was almost like he was lagging. He didn’t recognise what she had said at first, but once it registered everything that had happened prior to waking up hit him like a ton of bricks.

His sister had uttered his full legal name. Akito Shinonome.