Takuya was a man of many gifts, all of which had served him well in his relatively short but eventful life. Perhaps not the most notable, but definitely one of the more useful of these, was his ability to sleep. Or rather, the total control his body exerted over his mind when it became exhausted enough. He could sleep on buses, on benches, on rocks and branches and thorns. Wherever he was and whatever he was doing, when he got tired enough, sleep inevitably came to Takuya, which physiologically speaking was a good thing. Situationally it had its drawbacks. Like when exam time came around and Takuya had a million things he hadn't finished yet. How many times had he woken up with the pages of some textbook stuck to his face? How many times had he decided to take a quick break and come to hours later, curled up and drooling on the carpet? Inevitably, regardless of the worry in his gut or the static in his brain, sleep overcame Kanbara Takuya. And when that eventually happened, Takuya slept like the dead.

When the incident with the PCP ended it was just barely 7:00 AM, which was still well before Takuya's preferred 'start-the-day' time. Compounding the matter was the fact that this was probably the least pleasant morning of his entire life. Not only did he feel like a worthless pile of diarrhea, everyone except good-old Dorian was confirming it with every tangible fiber of their being. Koji tended to his brother, cleaning and bandaging his hand, stripping him of his sweat soaked clothes. He worried the blood and salt from Koichi's clammy skin, rinsing the vomit from his mouth, and finally redressed him in a fresh shirt and carried him back down to his first-floor apartment. The whole process took a good three hours.

10:00 AM. Izumi sat cross-legged in Dorian's kitchen, trying to chew her thumb nail back to the bed, eyes forward, foot twitching irritably. She neither spoke nor moved except to fetch Koichi's new clothes, and hadn't so much as looked at Takuya since warning him out of her way as she confronted Duskmon. Dorian worked at his computer, swearing and muttering in French as he tried to process whatever data he'd managed to collect.

Feeling decidedly unwelcome, Takuya'd gone for a walk, wandering the streets of Tokyo, his mind bouncing from question to question in an attempt to avoid what he'd just done and the repercussions. How many of these people were part of Tache's cult? What day was it? Was he even going to try and do his summer homework? Had he brought it? Was it a good day to go to the park? Which park? Had he brought bus or train money? Where would he go? What was he going to have for lunch? Could he afford lunch? Did he deserve lunch? If he could do it over, knowing what his choice would do to his close friend, would he change anything? Would he do it anyway? Each was little more than an entry in a random set, each a more pathetic attempt than the last at dodging his real question. Was it worth it? 2:00 PM

Frustrated, he'd returned to their secret lair, noting how the dilapidated building looked extra depressing this afternoon. It should've been raining or sleeting or something, but it wasn't. It was a lovely summer day, hot and humid, with a soft breeze and tingle of laughter on the air. Takuya had never imagined a situation where such lightheartedness would set his blood boiling, and the realization that that was the emotion steaming in his gut just made it worse. Still, Dorian was working and cursing and Izumi was not speaking to him. So he did what he'd been trying not to do all day and went to check on Koichi.

The dark twin… wasn't there. Sure, his body was in bed, panting and working up a fresh sweat, but his mind was gone. Sometimes he slept, fitfully, whimpering and moaning through cracking lips. Sometimes he sat up and just stared at the wall, face working it's way through some repetitive aerobic exercise as it passed from apathy to fear and back. Once, when Takuya had dared to venture too close, he sprang out of bed, kneed him in the solar plexus, pinned him to the ground, and held him there with a combination of his body weight and paralytic psychic powers. Then he just as quickly backed off, scooting away from the Warrior of Flame and pressing his bloodstained eyes into his palms. Just like a cat.

Koji, who seemed to think enduring the repercussions of his choices was at least a good start to his punishment, had done nothing to prevent the assault but guided the dark twin back between the blankets afterward. The room was silent but for Koichi's intermittent, incoherent fragments of whatever hell he was living behind his eyelids. The threat of something terrible if he did or thought anything Koji didn't approve of was ever-present. And it was all way more than Takuya could bear. 7:00 PM.

In the end Takuya found himself in a third floor apartment next to the one that served as his room (walls for privacy but no Faraday cage), back pressed to the wall, phone held to his ear. He was calling Shinya's number. Over and over and over. Ring six times, request for a voicemail, hang up. Ring six times, request for a voicemail, hang up. Takuya's fingers worked independently of his mind, persisting when, rationally, he knew it was hopeless. He wanted his little brother safe, so badly it hurt. He wanted him home and carefree and forever removed from danger. And if that was too much to ask for right now, he wanted to know that, in the near future, Shinya would be alright. So he was reaching out in the only way available to him, waiting for the answer that never came. Between the rings he planned what he would tell his little brother and after every long, silent voicemail he scripted what he could say to Tache's subordinates. Perhaps they'd take him instead? He was important to Koichi, right? He could be leverage? Yeah, not any more…

Eventually the building just stopped putting up with the tension. The walls retreated and he was outside again, walking the now empty city streets. Without cars and crowds, the roads looked never ending and, the longer he walked, the more plausible that seemed. At regular intervals there were street lamps, their orange glow holding off the inky blackness and allowing Takuya safe passage. But he could see past their rays and into the oppressive darkness, and what he saw made his heart thunder. There was no sky above this city. Instead, a clear membrane stretched from horizon to horizon, creating a fragile bubble. Past the bubble… there was an ocean. Its waters had replaced actual life with a mere hunger for it and, as he walked briskly down the street, Takuya could feel that hunger dogging him, waiting for him to slip.

A figure loomed ahead, standing stone still in the place where the lights ended. In one hand he held a gel-coated helmet with wires like a mane of hair. The other gripped a long, wavy, crimson blade. Takuya froze as he simultaneously identified the figure and understood that he could not know this person. Glowing carmine eyes met his in an expressionless stare. A face he had come to love and respect had been twisted, stripped of all humanity. And the worst part was, in his gut, Takuya knew this was his doing. He'd made this monster and he couldn't unmake it. Duskmon tilted his head ever so slightly and pressed the point of his blade into the membrane, stretching its delicate surface, threatening. Takuya opened his mouth to protest but his throat was too parched to make a sound and only air slipped through. Useless. The Warrior of Darkness cut away their only defense as Takuya watched, horror twisting in his gut. The ocean spilled in, engulfing him in ice-cold wetness, coating his skin with needles and pressing over his face, suffocating. It trembled around him, rhythmic, buzzing against his cheek. Bzzz. Bzzz. Bzzz. Taunting him with a childish melody even as the water forced its way into his lungs. Bzzz. Bzzz. Bzzz.

Takuya hauled himself into wakefulness, prying his cheek off of his cell phone screen and shaking off the last of the nightmare. Groggily, he glanced down, mind working too hard to separate past, present, and fitful dreaming. There was a name flashing beneath the glass, a name he couldn't register at first. Then consciousness hit him and he fumbled to answer, bringing the phone sharply to his ear.

"Shinya! Are you alright? Where are you?!"

"Nice to hear from you too."

"I'm serious Shinya, where are you!"

"I'm at home! What's the big emergency?"

"Are you okay? Did they hurt you?"

"Hurt me? Takuya, what are you talking about?"

"Why haven't you been answering your phone?" Accusatory.

"Because it's been dead and I didn't bring my charger?"

"Bring your charger where?"

"Uhh, the summer retreat? You know, the one my class goes on over summer break? Like, every year?"

Takuya's insides froze, stilling his breath in his lungs and cramping his stomach. The summer retreat… The bonding ritual school classes preformed every summer. Why hadn't he thought of that! Why hadn't he remembered!

"Is everything alright with you? You left, like, a hundred messages and none of them had any words…"

"Everything's fine." He said it much to fast and he could hear Shinya frowning on the other end. "I was just… you know… Thought you were supposed to be back already. No one tells me anything." A forced laugh meant to lighten the mood shattered like glass instead. Pins and needles shot through the arm holding the cell as it reminded Takuya that it had been compressed under his body for far too long to be expected to function. Wincing, he transferred hands, letting out a little cough to fill the silence.

"Mom says we're not supposed to be bothering you because you're working hard."

"Yep! Nothing but blood, sweat, and tears over here!" The irony left a bad taste in his mouth. Feelings rose like a tide within him, heat mixing with the ice in his organs, sickness and elation churning, overwhelming. He coughed again, fighting for composure. "That doesn't mean I don't have time to catch up with my little bro!"

"Don't be weird! You're freaking me out with the sudden concern!"

"It's my privilege as your sibling to freak you out whenever I want." He paused for a moment, licking his lips and wondering, briefly, why he was having such a hard time seeing. What the lump in his throat was doing. "But seriously…I'm really glad to hear you're safe."

"Yeah, I figured. That's why I called, because it was weird. They were all like "You should let your brother know you're home," and then I get my phone back and there's a thousand messages from you, and I remembered that you had that Train Gang stuff going on, and-"

"They?" Takuya cut in sharply, his mind focusing like a laser as a new emotion poisoned his relief and guilt. "Who are they?"

"Just some people who run the camp. Kinda odd, but nice. They held onto my phone for me during the retreat; said they'd look for a charger or something. Actually, it was really weird. We were supposed to be back yesterday, but they said the road had washed out or something and kept us there until last night. That's when they gave me back my phone and told me to call my family. And on the way back the road didn't look washed out…"

"Shinya, I need you to listen to me." Takuya's voice had taken on a steely edge, his fingers pressing the phone so hard it was leaving a mark on his face. "What, exactly, did they say? And what did they look like?"

"Takuya, you're acting really strangely-"

"What did they look like!"

There was a long pause filled with Takuya's heavy, anxious breaths. Shinya chose his words carefully. Uncertainty stained his tone.

"Black eyes," he said slowly. "They looked like regular people except they had black eyes. And they told me to call you specifically. Not Mom or Dad, just you."

A shaky breath tore free before Takuya could stifle it, wracking through the air like a sob. He brought his numb hand up to his mouth and bit into his finger, trying to regain some semblance of control over his body.

"Takuya… why are you asking? What's going on?"

"It's big kid stuff," he answered automatically.

"Don't patronize me! I know something's up!"

"I know you do little man," Takuya almost laughed. "And I know you could handle it. But I need you to stay safe, okay?"

"How am I supposed to stay safe when you won't tell me what's happening!?"

"Those people with the black eyes. You see any of them, I don't care where you are or what you're doing, you run. Do you understand? And you watch out for Mom and Dad too. Don't let them near our family."

"Takuya-"

"I promise to explain if you promise to stay safe. Deal?"

"… Deal."

"I love you."

There was a long pause during which Shinya tried to process that. How bad were things that his too often scornful older brother was saying that he loved him? How desperate was whatever situation Takuya had become entrapped? Should he tell an adult? Every fiber of his body said "yes," but there was something in his soul that held his tongue. Something in his memory… In this, Shinya just knew that he had to trust his sibling. Swallowing, he decided to wait it out. To calm his brother's frantic nerves if nothing else.

"I love you too."