He goes to the basement, huddling in the corner of the nook under the library they keep down there.

Parts of Akari's mini-lab are still down there – and luckily she's not here today. She said something about having the chance to go to a conference, so at least Takeru won't be facing one of her lectures today. Same with Onari, who's at a retreat.

Makoto, however… Makoto is standing at the top of the basement stairs.

"How long?"

"Don't know what you're talking about." Takeru doesn't look up – doesn't want to see whatever expression Makoto's giving him.

"I think you do. How long have you been seeing memories again?"

"…This is the first time?" His voice raises at the end.

'Please stop digging, Makoto, please don't make me go into this.'

"Tenkuji Takeru, you are one of the worst liars I know. I'm including Onari in that."

Takeru sneaks a look out of the corner of his eye. Makoto has that judging-slash-concerned look going again. Takeru still gets that one a lot. 'Drat.'

"Now, then." Makoto sits down across from him. "How. Long."

"Since Pac-man." Takeru mutters. "Got worse after Enigma."

"Since Pa- Takeru! What the – That was two years ago!" Makoto sputters. "Why didn't – you should have said something!"

"There wasn't a good time."

"For two years?!"

"We were busy."

Takeru doesn't look up as Makoto leans back against the wall, groaning. "They're all worried about you, you know."

"Hm? Who?"

"Everyone upstairs. Alain's giving an abbreviated description of your memory-connection… ability, partly to stall them from trying to find you."

"'s not their fault. It's mine."

"Well, Ryuuga thought he did something wrong, since you freaked out. Hence, Alain explaining. Also, uh." Makoto laughs nervously. "We're all probably going to be getting another Talk from Emu and Shinnosuke over not telling them this was a thing in the first place."

"Uuugh. How long can we keep the two of them from finding out?"

"Shotaro was already pulling out his phone when you bolted."

Takeru tilts his head back, groaning. "Which means they'll probably have noticed that I've… kinda been avoiding Philip since we met."

Makoto huffs. "That does make sense now. As soon as he told us his backstory, you backed off."

"I didn't want to risk getting trapped. I mean, Demia almost pulled me in, and that was just people. I'm… worried about what might happen if I somehow connected to the literal planet, instead of Philip."

"I can't say that I blame you there. I'm impressed that he's able to handle it, and while you're strong… that would be a lot to take in." Makoto shakes his head. "I assume that you're going to want to stay down here for a while?"

"At least for a little longer, yeah. It's… it's bad enough that you guys've found out about all of… this." He makes a vague gesture towards his head. "But what I picked up… wasn't great."

"Hence the breakdown?" Takeru nods, to which Makoto sighs. "Alright, I've got an idea. Give me a moment." Makoto climbs to the upper section of the library, his footsteps clanging on the grate. When he comes back down, he shoves something into Takeru's face. "Here."

"Gah, hey!" Takeru sputters, pushing the intruding object away. "…Really? The Yurusen doll?"

"Well, it was down here, and if you're not ready to talk to someone who can reply, then 'she'll' have to do." Makoto rubs the back of his neck. "Not like you'd be the only one to have come down here for a sounding board when you're stressed."

Takeru raises an eyebrow, a small grin on his face.

"Don't give me that, Kanon's the one who originally gave me the idea. It helps. …Besides, the real one's not an option, I think she's probably holding Ryuuga hostage right now. I saw her entering the room when I went after you."

"The cat whisperer is dead. Long live the cat whisperer." Laughing dryly, Takeru continues. "Kanon suggested it to me and Akari, too. Just didn't think you'd have taken her up on the surrogate cat-ghost concept." He sighs. "Can you give me some time to plan out what to say to people? At least before anyone else comes to talk."

"No problem. Any preference for who interrogates you next?"

"Hm. Probably Sento and Ryuuga would be best. I'm not entirely sure what it actually was I saw, so they'd be best."

"Got it. Just keep in mind-" Takeru shoots Makoto a dirty look. "Okay, bad choice of words, sorry. Remember, we're both going to have to come clean about a lot of things at this point, so once he gets here, we're facing Emu again."

Takeru sighs again. "Just as well. Started up when we met him, after all."

"The first time was Emu?"

"In a manner of speaking."

"Oh boy."

"Hey kid. You okay?"

Takeru looks up at Ryuuga. "I'm almost 21, you know, I'm not a kid."

"I thought you said you weren't counting it until next year?" Sento quips. "You can't have it both ways."

"Yes, I can, shut up."

"Yeah, yeah, sure." Ryuuga plunks himself down on the center steps, hanging his legs over the side. "So. We heard ya read minds?"

Groaning, Takeru shakes his head. "What? No, what did Alain say up there? No, it's…" he frowns, trying to choose his words. "When everything was happening, I kinda got the ability 'connect' to other people's souls? It kinda just… happens, at random, when I touch someone, and I get a flash of their memories. After a while it didn't even require the contact part, and that was a problem, but I got some control over it, so I was coping. The whole thing stopped when I came back, at first, but… it started back up around the point I met Emu-sensei, and now it just keeps happening. And, I make sure I try to pick up something from someone normal before these meetups, so that it doesn't happen as frequently with any of us. But that's clearly not going to be enough anymore, because I got something from high school from the clerk at the store this morning, so I shouldn't have been able to see whatever that was-" Takeru cuts himself off, coughing from speaking too fast for too long.

"That is one of the worst side effects I have ever heard of." Ryuuga stares. "Hate to ask, but ah, any idea what I showed ya?"

"Something with a tower and a black hole or something…"

Ryuuga lets his head hit the railing. "Aw, hell."

Sento winces. "What color was the, er, general area?"

"Red. It kind of looked like Alain's world used to. So, it kind of looked like actual Hell."

"I'm so sorry. That's… not Hell." Ryuuga clunks his head on the railing again. "That was Mars. Literally the destruction of the planet Mars.'

"Oh, no, sto- stop hitting your head like that! Why would you remember something on Mars?"

Flumping forward over the handrail, Ryuuga groans. "'s not even technically my memory. Stupid space bull-"

"That's, uh, not the only thing from you guys I've 'seen'." Takeru interrupts. "You know that time I snapped at you guys…?"

"Vividly." Rubbing at his cheek, Sento sighs. "Which means you got something from me. Was it at least this me, and not the other guy?"

Reluctantly, Takeru nods. "It was… not great. Ryuuga picked up a driver that… I think you hadn't been able to use? And… well, given what he said, there's a reason I asked both of you how many times you got self-sacrificial."

"Sento has already chewed me out for saying that stuff, as did everyone else we were with at the time, so could we not right now?" Ryuuga mutters. "I know it's not gonna be dropped for long, but 's way easier to keep it to one group's issues at a time."

"Yeah. I'll keep it under wraps for now. We… ought to head up at this point, huh? Any idea who Shotaro was able to get a hold of?"

Sento nods. "Shinnosuke's got some big case going on, so he's not coming." Takeru breathes a sigh of relief as Sento continues. "Sounded like Gou might be in for it, though. Kiriko's the one who answered the phone, and told us to call her if we see him, and also that if he shows up here, we can't let him or anyone he's with leave.

"He did get a hold of Emu and Parad, though. Emu sounded really worried, so I think they're taking a shortcut to get here faster."

Takeru shakes his head. "Time to face the music, then." Getting to his feet, he grips the Yurusen plush. "Great."

A bit of time passes. The group agrees to wait until Emu arrives to go into any more detail, to keep Takeru from having to repeat everything excessively.

Eventually, Emu and Parad arrive, both with a lingering confused look. Emu's shifts to a stern sort of concern as soon as he sees Takeru. "Sorry that we're late. There were some… complications at work. So, what's this I hear about some kind of telepathy?"

"We're getting right to the point, then. Look. I was able to see memories after I was killed. It stopped when I came back to life. At least, it stopped up until we met."

Emu's face softens from the stern expression it had before. "After the fight?"

"…No." Takeru looks down, decidedly avoiding meeting anyone's eyes, but especially Emu's. "…Look, this is going to be really awkward for everyone here no matter how this goes. If I don't want to leave anything out, I need to know what you remember happening, because we were the only two people there, and a lot went on."

"Hmm…" Emu considers this. "Well, the bugster-"

"Hatena." Parad supplies. "I looked into it before I split from Genm the first time around, his name was Hatena."

"Really? Thanks. Hatena focused on you, and Zaizen went after me. We… uh, we didn't really do so well in there, did we? Both of us went flying a lot. I vaguely remember that you got thrown through a wall at some point?"

Takeru grimaces, nodding. "Several walls, actually. At least I was still transformed for most of them."

Reluctantly, Emu nods in agreement. "Touché. Pretty sure a good number of the hits I took were without armor." Parad gives him an unimpressed look, as several other people in the room make concerned sounds. "Don't give me that, I'd only gotten Gekitotsu Robots for an upgrade at that point! Anyway, you kept powering up, but from what I saw, none of your finishers seemed to land."

Uncomfortable, Takeru grimaces. "Well, they did land, technically, just. Not on the intended target. They… kind of got reflected back…"

"Well that explains a lot!" Alain exclaims, throwing his hands in the air. "No wonder you started counting Argos twice! How many times have you been hit with your Infinite finisher?"

"I mean, technically speaking just the once? The first time didn't quite count as me anymore, but since I, you know, faded as a result of both Argos's and my actions, counting it as two just seemed to make sense."

Alain starts to protest, but then seems to think better of it. "I acknowledge both of my brothers made terrible life choices, but we're coming back to this later."

Everyone watches the exchange uncomfortably. "Anyway." Emu interjects. "As far as I recall, you got some sort of gold armor, grabbed Zaizen after he threw me across the warehouse yet again…" Emu looks up, biting his lip guiltily. "Aaaand then, next thing I remember after that is you telling me I saved Tougo."

"Oh, great. I was pretty sure that was the case. That's just wonderful."

"Takeru, this has actually been bugging me for a while now, but…" Emu massages his forehead. "With everything that happened right afterward, we wound up so distracted that I didn't think to ask." Glancing worriedly around the very quiet room, he takes a deep breath. "What did I do in there?"

"Okay, you know how he was going on about payback?"

"Kind of? I do remember him going on about revenge against humanity before he showed his actual face, at least, and how he was singling me out." Emu sighs. "I found out a lot later that was because of my role in how the Bugster Virus came about, and his own involvement in kicking that off."

"It was… definitely because of that. That is what I saw – the day he died."

"Oh, no." Parad blanches. "That explains why you were so jumpy around me when we finally met."

Emu nods slowly. "So, you put it together from seeing me there?"

"Only a little." Swallowing, Takeru shakes his head. "After I saw that, he said that he was trying to get revenge specifically on you. You were… well, you were very much still awake at that point."

Wincing, Emu shudders. "Oh. It's probably not going out on a limb to say that I took it poorly?"

"Not as poorly as when he shoved both your main gashat and the prototype of it into your driver."

Emu and Parad both freeze.

Philip speaks up. "You've mentioned that the prototypes are… more than a little dangerous, even to Riders."

Parad nods in reply. "They're dangerous for both humans and bugsters. Kiriya's only able to use his because he's got two levels of filter protecting him, by being a bugster and using a driver. I've never heard of someone using a prototype and a regular version, let alone two of the same game at once." He looks at Emu, who's still not moving. "Emu? You okay?"

"…As I can be. Takeru, please keep going."

Hesitantly, Takeru describes what the gashats did to Emu, what he could see of what Emu did to the gashats, the fight that followed, and how it could barely be called a fight.

The room is silent as he talks. "So… yeah. You went back to normal, we left, and… well, everyone knows what happened after that, by now." He looks down. "I should have said something back then, I should have told you what happened, but you reacted so… violently during the fight, I didn't want to make you upset. After that I just… was too afraid of admitting anything was going on with me to bring anything up. I'm sorry…"

Emu rapidly shakes his head. "No, you – you had the right idea. I wouldn't have been able to handle knowing any of that for a long time. I want to apologize for not asking if anything was wrong after the fact."

Takeru spreads his hands defensively. "What? No! I know that I should have told someone I was picking up memories again, but I couldn't find a way to time it correctly, and then I didn't want people to get upset that I'd been hiding things, and-"

"And it's the sunk cost fallacy, right?" Sento pipes up. "You'd already put so much effort into getting used to your situation and into hiding it that it was just 'easier' to keep going the way you had been."

Nodding in gratitude, Takeru chuckles nervously. "Yeah, pretty much. That's something I think all of us know a few things about."

"Because you've seen it?"

Shotaro scoffs at the suggestion. "I'm more willing to guess it's because we're us, we're Kamen Riders." He smirks, with a self-deprecating edge to it. "We put more emphasis on protecting other people than ourselves. It's been that way for years."

Takeru laughs quietly. "Yeah, it really has been. …Come to think of it, I should probably tell you guys what happened with Hongo-san. I know we'd agreed on letting each rider tell their own stories when we got them into Reunited, but this is something he might not admit to if we ever get in contact with him."

Shotaro sighs heavily after Takeru explains what happened when he had his first encounter with Shocker. "I had wondered what happened to the power that day, but this… I'd like to make the request to join you in calling Hongo out on his hypocrisy next time we see him."

"Because of the Badan fight in 2014, right? That's more than fair." Takeru grins, before his shoulders droop as he sighs. "So, is there anything else that I have to say, or can I go have a small emotional breakdown in private?"

"Well…" Emu rubs the back of his neck. "No offense, but we should probably work out a system for what happens when you see things. It's clearly been bothering you more and more, to say nothing of how it is an invasion of privacy, no matter how unintentional."

Makoto makes a small sound of agreement. "Before, the flashes usually weren't very long, right?" At Takeru's nod, he continues. "So it's usually not too much information, but between how many detectives, cops, and doctors are Riders…"

Takeru grimaces. "That's been worrying me, too. I haven't picked up on any private or confidential information, for the record, but it is a possibility. I think…" He pauses. "I promise that I'll say if I do, as soon as it's safe to. But for other times I see things… I don't know."

Parad frowns. "They're your powers. We can suggest things, but in the end, since you know the most about the way they work, how you handle this should probably be up to you."

When Takeru doesn't respond, Ryuuga speaks up. "Important stuff like fights and stuff that's, you know, like what you got off of me and Sento, those probably ought to be in the 'tell the person as soon as you can' category, too. But you're a smart guy, you can probably just, like, judge it."

"I know, but-"

"Takeru. I, for one, am absolutely willing to trust your judgement." Emu gives him a small smile. "If you have trouble, we can work out more ideas. Okay?"

Looking around the room, Takeru sees that everyone is giving him similar expressions of agreement and reassurance.

He really needs to stop being so worried about letting people down by telling them about problems, huh? They're his friends. Not only are they not upset, they're offering help and support.

It's just like what they told Sento and Ryuuga the other month, and what his team told him ages ago… he doesn't have to carry his burdens on his own.

"Okay."

The day continues without further incident. Well, for the most part.

At one point, Philip looks up from whatever he was researching. "I thought of a caveat."

"Huh?"

"On your psychic powers. If I'm not allowed to use the Gaia Library to get an advantage in the betting pools, you shouldn't get to, either."

Takeru laughs. "Trust me, I haven't been. That one should go in the betting pool rules for anyone who gets mind reading powers and the like, I think."

Snickering, Parad pulls out his phone and starts typing. "I'll let Kiriya know to write it in."

As everyone is starting to leave, Takeru stops Emu on his way out. "Thank you for… understanding. I'm really sorry that it took this long to tell you about…" he trails off.

"You really did make the right call, Takeru." Emu's smile is a little sad. "It sounds like me blocking it out at the time was probably for the best. I couldn't cope when I found out about the Patient Zero thing later, and I wasn't in the middle of a very one-sided fight that time."

"Still…"

"It's okay. You meant well, and nobody has been seriously hurt by you keeping secrets, except for you."

Hesitating for a moment, Takeru nods. "Okay. I'll do better about the 'coming clean' thing, too, I promise." He grins, and suddenly frowns, remembering something. "You mentioned 'complications' when you got here. Is everything going okay at the hospital? Should you have even come today?"

Emu looks over his shoulder at Parad, the two of them seeming to share some sort of conversation before Emu slowly answers. "That's a good question. I don't really have an answer. Not because it's confidential, but because I don't… know."

He frowns at his phone. "I was actually going to call out, because of an ongoing situation but… then I was told that it would be taken care of 'like it never happened', and that this was where I needed to be. That part, at least, was true…"

Makoto notices his hesitation, same as Takeru, and beats him to the punch at responding. "Who told you all of that?"

"I can't say." Shaking his head, Emu sighs. "Anyway. Today was worth it. See you guys around?"

Takeru nods. "See you around."

When Onari comes home the next day, he, unsurprisingly, starts crying for a little while about not having noticed Takeru was struggling. And, just as unsurprisingly, he quickly stops.

"Master Takeru…" Onari begins, a grin spreading on his face. "You do know what's coming next, do you not?"

Oh, he knows. Oh, boy, does he know. "Onari, do you really think I haven't been trying to train to get better control?"

"There's no better time to start again than the present!" Onari beams. "And, should we train together, perhaps you might regain some other abilities you once had!"

Chuckling, Takeru shrugs a little. "You're probably right. Getting those barriers back would be nice, for a start."

"Then we shall begin anew, once again."

With a decisive nod, Takeru smiles. "Right!"