It's been a month since Masamune Dan was stopped. It's been three weeks since The Press Conference. Of course, there are still loose ends to tie up, now that Chronicle has ended. Some are professional – working to prevent further outbreaks, finding a way to restore the victims who are trapped as data, and so on.

Some loose ends are somewhat more… mundane.

The Riders getting their own lives back to something comparatively normal, for one.

"Ugh. Long day. Man, I might actually need to sleep tonight." Kiriya rolls his shoulders, trying to relax. "Probably going have to use the bench downstairs, since it's not like Genm ever bothers to shut up." As he exits the elevator, two figures rush past him onto it, paying him absolutely no mind. One in a white coat, and one in a black one.

After pausing to process this, Kiriya shakes his head and heads up the stairs, yelling. "So that theory was right, then? You better not be taking all the credit for this one!"

"Hi, Kiriya!" A familiar, and sorely missed, voice chirps.

"Hey there, Poppy!" Kiriya laughs. "Long time, no see. Hey, where's-" He notices the Bugvisor on the table. "Oh, never mind. He's already gotten himself grounded."

"That's not funny, Kujo! Poppy, let me out!"

"No."

"Come on!"

Kiriya snorts. "If you're in there, you're in there for a reason, and you know it. Heeeey, does this thing have a mute button?" He picks up the visor and starts turning it around, ignoring the protests from inside. "Maybe I can get a quiet night for once."

"Kiriya..."

'...Whoops.'

"Kiriya, are you still living here?" Oh, no. Poppy sounds absolutely heartbroken.

"Eh heh, well, kinda, yeah. I mean, there wasn't a better choice while all that stuff was going on with Chronicle, since I had been kinda 'missing' since December, and didn't really have an apartment anymore." Kiriya shrugs. "And then I got included on the List of the Lost with 'Mr. God' over here, so… I'm kinda stuck here."

"Does anyone other than the two of you actually know that you've been staying here?"

Neither of them reply. Nobody ever wants to face a disappointed Poppy.

"Boys."

""No.""

"And why not?"

"Would you believe me if I said it never came up?"

"Really, Kiriya?"

"…Right. Stupid question on my part. I mean, it hasn't, but stupid question."

Aaand there's the frustrated Poppy face. Aw, man.

"I'm guessing there's no keeping you from telling anyone?" he asks hopefully.

"Nope."

'Drat.'

"Well, what about you? We've been using your old room as Genm's cell, so where are you going to stay?"

"You could always just let me go!" a muffled voice comes from the Bugvisor, where it's upside down on the table.

""Not a chance.""

Poppy pouts. "You have a point, though. We're going to have to bring this up when Emu and Parad get back..."

"I should hope this doesn't need to be said, but you are being allowed to work with CR on a provisional basis."

"I understand completely, Secretary Hinata."

"Doctor Kyotaro, I'm still not sure that's entirely justif-"

"Emu, quit trying to help. Right now, I'm just grateful I exist, anything on top of that is just a bonus."

The entirety of the CR team is on a conference call with the Ministry of Health, discussing the latest... 'expansions to the roster', so to speak.

"Yes, well," Hinata clears his throat. "If there is nothing additional to discuss, then-"

"Actually, Sir? There is something else that needs to be talked about." All eyes turn to Poppy, who's frowning. "We need to – oh, just a moment." With a brief flash of pink-and-green lights, Asuna continues. "We need to figure out where we Bugsters are going to stay. If this is any sort of long-term arrangement, then I don't believe it's at all practical for the three of us to live here in the office."

"Poppyyy… Don't you mean the four of us?" Kuroto whines, from his virtual cell.

She turns and glares. "It's Asuna right now, thank you very much, and you were not being included in that number on purpose."

"Hold on, hold on." Taiga speaks up from his side of the conference call. "If you're not including Genm, then who's the third Bugster you're talking about?"

Kiriya reluctantly raises his hand from the back of the room. "That. That would be me. I've been staying here since I stopped working with Masamune Dan."

Reactions are varied.

There's surprise – apparently neither Hiiro or his father had managed to notice. Which is actually really sad, seeing how Director Kagami is literally the head of the hospital.

There's indecision – looks like Taiga wants to say something, but is well aware he doesn't have much room to speak here, given the largely open secret that he stays at his clinic more nights than not.

There's frustration – Poppy again, along with Nico of all people, who is looking back and forth at Kiriya and Taiga, alternately glaring at them both.

And… Oh no. Yup, Emu's disappointed face has made an appearance. That's just as bad as Poppy's. Worse, really, because Emu is quickly on his way to either joining or outright replacing Poppy as the mom friend, but doesn't seem to have actually noticed that fact yet.

"I mean, that's still better than the warehouse Graphite and I were hanging out in during the second half of Chronicle, so-" Parad stops. "I shouldn't have mentioned that."

Welp. At least the disappointment is being split between two people now.

The room is silent for a few moments, everyone clearly thinking. Secretary Hinata clears his throat. "Miss Karino and Mister Kujo bring up a valid point. We will, of course, have to look into a solution for this… dilemma, but it will take an amount of time."

"...Or..." Emu's brow creases in thought. "Or people could just, you know, move in together." He looks over at Parad. "I mean, I kind of assumed that once your probation was up we would, you know, share a place. It makes sense, right?"

Rubbing the back of his neck, he continues. "Mind you, I'd have to find a bigger place, since I've only got one bedroom, and that'll take a while, but it's still a plan. If you guys want to, too..." His gaze wanders to Kiriya and Asuna.

"Hey!" Nico shouts, pushing Taiga out of view. "No way in hell are you all going to M's place!" She points at the camera. "Poppy, you're my roommate now, no take backs."

Pastel lights flash, stream into one of the monitors at CR, and out of one at the clinic. Poppy appears, grabbing Nico's hand in her own. "Nico! You really mean that?"

"Duh!" Nico laughs. "No way am I leaving the only other girl here to have to deal with these losers everyday outside of work!"

Poppy latches onto Nico, hugging her. "Thank you so much!"

(Kiriya is pretty sure he hears Taiga muttering off screen, something about "Don't mind me, I don't know what goes on here, not as though it's my office or anything...")

Hinata clears his throat again, apparently trying to reassert some semblance of order to the situation. "Yes, well, we will look into that... idea, as well. That will be all for today." He exits the conference call.

"Well! You heard him! That's all, so back to work!" Director Kagami nods sharply, before heading out himself.

People start moving in their own directions after that, the monitor that had displayed Taiga's end of the conference blinking back into into its screensaver. While most everyone is wandering off, Kiriya notices Emu jump slightly, then pull out his phone, looking at it with an unreadable expression. "Something up?"

"Oh, uh." Emu looks over, hastily putting said phone back to sleep mode. "Nothing, just one of those automatic alerts. Didn't expect it, that's all."

"Uh-huh. If you say so."

-That evening-

"Emu?" Parad blinks. "What're you doing here?"

"Until the ministry gets the apartment situation settled, I'm not leaving you guys here by yourselves."

Kiriya shakes his head. "You don't have to do that, Ace. It's not like the four of us really sleep all that much."

"Yeah, but I want to. Besides, if the three of us are going to be sharing an apartment soon anyway, we might as well start getting used to it now." Emu sets a small suitcase off to the side of the office. "Makes sense, right?"

"Well..." Parad looks surprised. "Yeah, but..."

"But, nothing." Another voice answers. "Guy's got the right idea. Someone wanna help me with this? I can't get it up these stupid stairs by myself."

Poppy gets off the chair she'd draped herself over. "Nico?!"

"No, you think? Seriously, I can't make it around the turns without someone on the other end."

"O-okay, I'll be right there." Poppy darts downstairs. "What is this? How'd you even get in here without Taiga?"

"I've got my own code now, duh. Same way I was able to get this from where the ministry was holding all of Genm and Parad's stuff." Nico backs around the top of the staircase. "Who designed this place, anyway? Why the spiral staircase?"

"I've been wondering that for the last year. Let me help, here." Emu goes to help the girls bring Nico's item up into the room. "There."

Poppy comes back in, bringing up the rear. "I can understand you having an access code, since it looks like you're working for Taiga, but how would that let you get a hammock of all things?"

"A what?" Parad jumps up, darting over. "Nico, how'd – what – where – why'd you get my old hammock?"

Nico shoots an accusatory look at the others. "You haven't told them?"

"I don't acknowledge your position!"

"Knock it off and deal, Kuroto." Emu rolls his eyes. "We've only had one day. There hasn't been enough time to catch them up on everything yet." He turns to Poppy and Parad. "It's not quite that Nico's working for Taiga, and kinda more like we're working for her."

Kiriya chimes in. "Nico's majority holder in Genm Corp now. She's the one who got Kobochi instated as the new CEO."

"Wait, who?" Parad looks confused.

"You mean Tsukuru?!" Poppy beams. "He's the one who originally created Burgermon! Nico, that's great!"

"I know, right?"

"So," Kiriya resumes, "since CR's a joint effort between Genm Corp and the Ministry of Health, and Nico's kind of a big deal now..."

"I'm technically one of your bosses." Nico grins. "I mean, I'd figured it'd mostly be a title, but I actually wound up with a lot more pull than I expected."

"Awww~!" Poppy coos. "Look at you! Being all responsible!" She squeals, grabbing Nico in a hug.

"Well, someone had to step in," Nico laughs, trying to squirm out of Poppy's grip. "I couldn't just let the place crash when everyone still needs you guys out here. C'mon, let go!"

Poppy gives one final squeeze before letting go. "Thank you, Nico. For that, and all your help before, and for letting me move in with you, and just. The general everything."

Grinning cheekily, Nico laughs. "Like I said, not leaving you alone. Many have tried to rid themselves of me, none have succeeded."

Kiriya cackles as Emu gives an incredibly fake gasp.

"But..." Parad speaks back up, quietly. "That doesn't explain why you'd help me."

"Eh," Nico shrugs. "M's willing to vouch for ya. He's not always the best judge of character." (Emu mock-gasps again.) "But he's usually pretty good at it.

"'Sides." She sombers a bit. "You were willing to sacrifice yourself to give the guys a chance to take down Cronus and Gemdeus. That's worth a ton of points towards a redemption arc, if ya ask me."

"Anyway." Kiriya attempts to lighten the mood. "It has been a long day for pretty much everyone, so we should probably figure out the actual sleeping arrangement in here. I know I'd prefer it if you two-" he points at Poppy and Parad "-don't pass out where you stand."

"Wait, wait, hang on, hang on." Emu holds his hands up, pausing the conversation. "Is that actually a thing? Can Bugsters actually pass out? Without having been in a battle or anything?"

"Technically, yeah, it's a possibility." Kiriya scratches the back of his head. "Still technically physical beings, after all. I mean, I know I don't need nearly as much sleep as when I was human, and I'm assuming that full Bugsters need even less, but it's definitely still necessary."

"Neither of you get to say that it only applies to Kujo and myself, for the record." Kuroto points out from his cabinet. "I maintained data regarding everything. Including when each Bugster first came into existence, and what happened after."

Poppy bites her lip, folding her hands in her lap. "Why am I not surprised?"

Parad nods. "It's true, though. I dunno about you, Poppy, but I know that after I was separated from Emu… well. About a day later, I just sort of… collapsed. Apparently I was unconscious for, what, four days?" He looks over for confirmation, to which Kuroto nods. "Yeah, four days. We tried to warn Graphite, when he took over Miss Momose, but he didn't listen to us, and two days after that he dropped like a rock for another three."

Shifting uncomfortably, Parad continues. "As far as I know, none of the others were really around for long enough at once for it to make a difference. I'm still not sure where Lovelica came from, but I'm guessing he dealt with it too? Um… basically, I guess that creating a body pretty much from scratch is really energy intensive, so, yeah, Poppy and me are gonna need to rest sooner, as opposed to later, or else that's probably gonna happen again."

"On my end, when I got revived?" Kiriya waves. "I got warned, and actually knew to try to rest, and got away with only being out for… Eh, I think it was about a day. I dunno, maybe because I'm still kinda human but kinda not it went differently?" He shrugs. "But yeah, outside of being digital constantly like certain jerks, Bugsters do need to sleep at least some. That first time after starting to exist is an outlier, but being on the corporeal plane has it's standard practices."

Emu squints at Parad. "So, what you guys are saying is that if you and Poppy don't wake up in the morning, we shouldn't panic."

"Yeah." Parad confirms. "Pretty much."

"Good to know."

Eventually, conversation turns to updating Poppy and Parad on the assorted events of the past month, and then gives way to discussing plans for when their new apartments are acquired.

"We should let us see if they'll let us set up in the same building." Nico brings up. "It'll be a lot easier if we want to hang out or anything, and if they want to get a hold of everyone it'd be a whole lot faster."

Parad tilts his head, blinking. "So… you and Emu are actually friends now?"

Emu laughs. "Well, it's a work in progress, but yeah. Seeing how we were the only two gamers involved in everything that… well, that made it out as far as we knew, of course we'd to try and get along. Turns out that when she's not on a roaring rampage of revenge, Nico makes a pretty good gaming partner. Also seeing as she's one of my bosses, I figured it was a good idea to stay on her good side."

"I'd be more offended if I hadn't been tracking you down for six years." Nico yawns. "Sorry. I've got class tomorrow, so… I should probably turn in soon."

Kiriya chuckles. "Eh, we should all probably turn in at this point." He pauses, looking at Parad. "Wait, hang on..."

"Oh!" Emu seems to come to the same realization. "You're always in that jacket, aren't you?"

"Yeah. So?"

Poppy narrows her eyes. "Well, that won't do. Come on. Lesson time." Grabbing a protesting Parad by the arm, she turns to Emu and Kiriya. "The level three gashats are still kept here, right?"

Nervously laughing, Kiriya points at one of the cabinets. "Yeah, over there. Not like any of us used 'em that often, so they get left here."

"Great!" She grabs one, activating it.

~Doremifa Beat!~

"Let's go!"

"Wait, hang on, what are you-" Poppy drags Parad into the game world.

"Uh." Nico cautiously looks at the others. "D'you think she's gonna teach him how to do that costume thing?"

"Looks like it." Emu shakes his head. "This ought to be good."

About twenty minutes, and most everyone else getting prepped later, the two finally emerge.

"Ta-da~!"

"Poppy. It's not that I don't appreciate the help, because I do. But how… where did this come from?"

Poppy is now wearing a frilly nightgown in her usual yellow, with pink and green music notes patterned across it, to absolutely no-one's surprise.

Parad is hiding his face in his hands. He is in a kigurumi, to everyone's surprise, apparently including his own.

A kigurumi that looks an awful lot like the first phase of Ex-Aid's Double Action Gamer form.

"Oh no, that's adorable." Nico grins. "Didn't know you liked kigus."

"Please stop."

"But it's so you!"

"Nico, I am begging you to stop." Parad whines, keeping his face buried.

"Well, she's not exactly wrong on either count, is she?" Kiriya's biting back his laughter, with little success.

"You all suck."

Emu darts around to inspect Parad's new outfit. "Huh. It's not quite the same as the level X form, though, is it?"

"Emu, what're you doing?"

"I wanted to see something. Check this out." He tugs the hood over Parads head.

"Hey!"

"Ha! Cool! Nico's right, it's literally you – the helmet's entirely in your orange, not the orange and blue that it usually is before we split into two." Emu turns to the room. "Anyone know where there's a mirror or something?"

"Can do you one better, Ace." Kiriya goes to grab his laptop. "Webcam. Plus-" He grins. "We can get a picture of you two together."

"Why this?" Parad sighs, pulling the hood over his eyes.

Kiriya is disturbed from dozing by an incessant tapping sound. It's faint, but rapid, and very definitely there.

Grimacing, he reluctantly opens his eyes. Parad is sitting on the floor, knees curled to his chest and his back up to the wall. He's got one arm wrapped around his knees, and the other tapping a rhythm on the floor.

Everyone else is asleep, or close to it anyway. Even Kuroto's the quietest he gets, a muffled typing sound coming from his cell.

"Hey. I thought you were gonna try and sleep tonight."

Parad startles, flinching before looking slightly in Kiriya's direction. He shrugs.

"I mean, I know that this isn't the first time you've, uh, came into existence. But you were 'gone' for a month, and speaking from experience, coming back from the dead is mentally exhausting, too. Plus, you went straight into a fight besides that."

Another shrug.

Kiriya sighs, and gets up from the spare cot they'd dragged in, going to sit next to Parad. "What's eatin' ya, kid?"

"I'm not a kid."

"Well, I'm still older'n you and the ace, so yes you are."

Parad pouts a little at that, but doesn't say anything else.

"Alright, guessing game time, then." Kiriya makes a show of thinking. "Well, ya might be wondering what game releases you missed while you were away. There's nothing, by the way, if you've got the same taste as Emu and Nico. They were complaining the other day that the whole industries in a dry spell."

Parad shakes his head.

"No? Okay. Maybe you're confused as to how Nico became a stockholder?"

"No, that makes sense. I looked her up when she started being a contender in Chronicle. She's good, won a lot of huge tournaments, and could definitely afford it if she'd been saving up. Besides, I figure a lot of people would have pulled out after everything happened, so she could get even more than otherwise."

"True enough. So, if it's not that…

"Then my money says you're trying to figure out why you're not locked up like Mister Delusions of Godhood over there." He nods sharply in the direction of the game cell, as Parad curls further in on himself, hiding his face and nodding.

"I'm not deluded, Kujo. I. am. a."

"Shut it, the adults are talking."

"Hmph."

"I just," Parad whispers, "I don't get it. I killed a lot of people, right in front of Emu, and now he's nice to me, even after that, and that doesn't make sense."

Kiriya looks over towards Emu, who was ostensibly sleeping on the couch. He had one eye open, watching the discussion, and is moving to get up. Hastily, Kiriya tries to motion him to stand down.

'Come on, Ace, let him get this out. Doubt he'd say a thing about this if he knew you were listening. Just wait.'

Emu gets the unspoken gist, nods, and settles back down, still watching out of the corner of his eye.

"I didn't – still don't understand why Emu's being so forgiving, or why any of you are putting up with me, when by all rights you should all hate me at a minimum." Parad raises his head enough to look at Kiriya.

"And the terms of all this? I got away with one month of being limited to staying here, unless I'm accompanied by two other people, or for going off with Emu to be Para-DX?" His voice hitches as he digs his hand into his hair. "That's. That's absurd, why is that so lenient, I. It doesn't... it doesn't make sense."

"Ah, geez… Emu's not the only person here who vouched for you."

"What?!" Parad's voice gets a little louder than the hushed tone they'd both been using, before he winces and quiets back down. "Who would do that?!"

"Most of us, actually. Only reason we don't have anything from Poppy is that she wasn't available either.

"There's... look, there's a lot of records just about the six years between you two being separated and Emu putting on that driver, when you were staying at Genm Corp. There's even more records from after that, and... well,"

"I kept track of you two for ten years, as well. How did you think Hojo was brought to Zaizen?" Kuroto has stopped typing again, keeping his voice low. "As if I would let all that work go to waste."

"You're an ass." Kiriya glares.

"Seeing as you won't listen, I won't bother making any claims to the contrary." He resumes typing.

Kiriya groans. "Anyway." He softens again. "The whole 'one month provisional trial period' thing is more of a formality than anything else."

Emu's eyes widen a bit, not moving enough to make it obvious that he's awake if someone wasn't already watching, but Parad's are doing the same, so. Yeah.

'Oh, right, we didn't tell Emu about any of this, did we? Welp. No time like the present.'

"Parad. You're considered a victim in this about as much as anyone. The one month isn't entirely 'probation.' It's a little of that, yeah, on account of the copious violence, but it's more an 'observation period.' We want to make sure you two idiots are safe."

Both of them clench their fists – Parad gripping his sleeves, Emu gripping his blanket.

"How did you get that set up in less than a day?"

'All or nothing, Kiriya.'

"We didn't. We've been working this out over the month since everything ended."

(thump)

"A month?!" Emu's fallen off the sofa. "You- you guys knew about him for a month and didn't say anything?!"

"E-Emu! You're awake?"

"I've been awake, more to the point, you all knew Parad was here?!"

Kiriya looks away, uncomfortable. "Less knew and more strongly suspected. We didn't say anything 'cause if we were wrong... well, we didn't want to get your hopes up if we were wrong."

"But a month?!"

"HEY!"

All eyes turn to Nico, who's glaring at them from her sleeping bag.

"Those of us who are still baseline human have classes tomorrow, and would like to sleep. SHUT. UP." She flumps back down, folding her pillow over her ears. "Hmph."

"Sorry Nico..." comes from around the room.

"Kinda resent some of the implications there," Emu mutters. "But she's probably not entirely wrong… probably couldn't have been counted as 'normal human' since I was like ten..."

"Maybe you two could have the emotional breakdown over all this in the morning?" Poppy chimes in.

Parad whimpers. "You were still awake, too?"

"Rhythm game. You were tapping, and I recognized the song. Do the math." She yawns. "Kiriya's right, though, you should be way more tired than any one except maybe Emu and Nico. Get some sleep."

"...kay."

End Notes:

Hey guys! New fic time!

This story comes in right where episode 45, and thus Event Flag XX, left off. And yes, I could have made this and Event Flag one story. However, Event Flag has a specific style to it, and is intended to be a stand-alone work. It wouldn't function well as a 'first chapter.'

My goal here? Character interactions, worldbuilding, fun, the works. This work is, like my other Kamen Rider fics, part of my "Riders (Re)United" universe. I'm just... you know, working from two different points on the timeline. Try and Re-Build is the main storyline, and this is... let's call it 'backstory'.