Once everyone had been brought back downstairs…

"Okay." Shinnosuke looks at Sento and Ryuuga. "Let's start over, from the beginning. And, please, stop leaving things out, okay?"

Sento bites his lip. "Well, twenty-four years ago, this musclehead was born-"

"Oh, come on!"

"I didn't mean that far back..."

"No, no, nope!" Ryuuga all but tackles Sento to the ground. "That's my running gag and you know it!"

"Not here, okay?" He whispers so that only Sento can hear. "Please don't."

"Got it," Sento replies quietly, and then louder, "Yeah, okay, okay, fine. Ow, you're heavy, get off!"

Eventually, they manage to tell some of the major beats of their story.


"Turns out that all along he was just using us and Mii-tan to purify the bottles for him."

"Well, that'd explain why you were so angry at him when I met you."

"Yeah. Those two bottles he left – the phoenix and robot ones – turned out to be from Hokuto's 'collection.'"

"So, this means we're at the Enigma incident back in December, correct?" Shinnosuke asks.

""Uh-huh.""


"Wait, you just flat out got my suit when you used the bottles you made from my power?" Emu gapes.

"Yeah, why?"

Takatora shakes his head. "Because since we were active, every time someone has used someone else's power, they get a new form themed after the other guy. The only person we've heard of that wears someone else's suit is that Decade guy, and that was his skillset to begin with."

"What, seriously?"

"I hold the record for most powers borrowed, I think." Takeru pipes up.

"Really?" Emu looks at Takeru. "I wasn't the first?"

He shrugs. "I'd need some time to do the math, so, uh, I'll get back to you on the numbers later..."


"Hey, when you got here, where did you wind up?"

"…Several meters above a roof."

Multiple people stare at Ryuuga for a moment, before Nico speaks up. "What the actual hell."

"I know, right? Glad I can take a fall."

Emu gazes at him. "Is that what you were thinking when-"

"When OOO jumped off that skyscraper? No, that was absurd." Ryuuga glares at Emu, as if daring him to say something. "What was with that, anyway?"

Emu sighs, replying, "Eiji lost his partner, Ankh, and he's been trying to bring him back for… How long now?"

"Since 2011, I think." Shotaro answers. "He became a Rider right after us, so that sounds about right."

"Seven years, then. According to his friends, he's pretty much always been the type who's way more willing to help everyone that he can, and will do so long before so much as acknowledging that he might need help too." Emu says this very matter-of-factly, but he's distinctly looking at Ryuuga.

"Look, we all probably know what went on that day, so can we just get the rest of this over with?" Ryuuga rushes to say, before anyone can go any further.

"Things… things started getting worse after that, really, so I guess we ought to get this all out there, huh." Sento adds, hand inching up towards his head.


"...Oh."

"Mm-hm."

"Wow, that's-"

"We know."

"I'm really sorry about that comment upstairs, Sento." Micchy winces. "I didn't even consider the possibility that you'd-"

"It's alright. You didn't know. It's just that... I mean, I know asking... that of Mis- of Mii-tan was wrong, I get that. But before then... Ka- Grease would've been in the right. We were able to become friends later, but he had every right to hate me. He definitely could – probably should have-"

"Stop that!"

The sound of a slap resounds across the room, leaving silence in its wake.

"How many times?" Takeru asks in a monotone, his shaking hand still outstretched. "How many more times did you pull things like that?"

He seems to notice that everyone is staring at him, and goes to sit back down. "How many times did you try to throw yourselves away? Both of you?"

"..." Sento holds his cheek, still stunned.

"...when I got taken over, he tried to get me back. By burning himself out to take Evolt down with him."

"Wait, don't-"

"Sento, you checked out so bad afterwards that Katsuragi was back for like a week. Feel free to tell me I'm wrong, but the only reason you came back was to chew me out."

"Stop it, they don't need to hear this-"

"We had to put a tracker on you, dude!"

"...You're both idiots."

They look back over at Takeru; they'd been getting closer and closer to yelling in each other's faces.

"You can't fix anything – can't help anyone if you're not around to do it. Just. Stop it." He's looking down, face hidden behind his hair and hands clenched at his sides. "That's enough."

He stands up and heads toward the door. "Sorry. I'll be back in a little. Just need some air."

"Ah, man, how bad did we just screw up?" Ryuuga grimaces.

Takeru shakes his head. "You just hit some sore spots, that's all. Just give me a few minutes, okay?" With that, he walks out.

"You guys should probably keep going." Emu sighs. "A lot of that probably came a little close to home." Seeing Sento's confusion, he adds "Takeru goes by Ghost for a reason."

Ryuuga groans. "Okay, in fairness, I probably should have seen that coming. Thought it was all symbolic or something..."

"Well, it's about fifty-fifty whether our Rider names are incredibly literal or not. Kouta was 'Gaim' because that was our dance team's name, and I got 'Ryugen' because my weapon was a gun that looked like it fired a dragon." Micchy shrugs. "Some people got lucky." He looks over at Kiriya.

"I freely admit that Taiga and I came out on top with our handles."

"Hey, Sento, that reminds me. Where did you pull 'Cross-Z' from?" Ryuuga asks.

Sento shrugs.

"Aw, come on!"


"I understand why you all called it Pandora's Box. They opened it, and everything terrible came out. Fine. But why," Takatora asks "why did they think it was a good idea to keep it on display in the first place, to say nothing of after it released the wall?"

"Um, Takatora?"

"Mitsuzane, I know what you are thinking, and I understand why. But keep in mind, I am not the leader of a country. I also was not hit by what sounds rather like a brainwashing ray."

"Takatora..."

"You know, I'd been hoping that we would have had the most unambiguously threatening enemy, if only so that no-one else had to top it." Takatora leans on a side table. "I didn't think anyone would be able to top it."

"He has a point, you two." Micchy picks up the thread of conversation. "Black holes? Really?"

"Yeah. He took out the moon as a demonstration to humanity, and was erasing sections of Japan to taunt us as we made our way up the tower. We weren't the first planet he attacked, but." Ryuuga growls. "But we made damn well sure we were the last."

"You didn't have to go up there with him, though." Sento adds quietly.

"Yeah, I did. Had to make sure he was gone. You didn't have to follow."

"Of course I had to. We're a team, and we'd already lost way too many people. Why would you think I'd let you go up there alone?"

"'Cause you're supposed to be smarter than that!"

"I thought we've established that I'm actually not?"

"Okay, okay, guys, come on, cut it out!" Emu interjects. "I really don't think anyone can handle any more existential crises tonight."

"Too late. I think you guys broke Takatora." Micchy is trying to get his brothers attention. "At least your guy is gone. Ours is still out there, technically. At least, that's what Kouta told us."

"I'm fine. I just really had hoped we'd have the worst foe for a very, very long time."

"Hey." Takeru speaks up from the doorway. "How many people did you guys say were at that café with you?"

Sento pauses to think. "Toward the end there were six of us total. Why?"

Nodding, Takeru turns. "Mr. Kureshima? I'd like to make a suggestion."


"Now, we're holding the both of you to this, okay?" Shinnosuke asks.

"Yeah, we get it. Neither of us go anywhere without a babysitter." Ryuuga grumbles.

"It's fair. You're trying to help I and I threw it back in your faces." murmurs Sento.

The two are promptly assaulted by pillows being thrown at them from all around.

"I'm just not sure that turning tonight into a… an actual sleepover was really necessary. It seems… excessive." Takatora sighs. "I know I gave the okay, but still."

"Look." Takeru fixes him with a glare. "It's hard to adjust to suddenly not being surrounded by a crowd of friends. If this is all going be a support group, then it's going to be. A. Support. Group."

"Where did you even get all of this?"

The sound of static can be heard, then "This is the last load, right?"

"That would be us taking advantage of Parad and Kiriya's skills to raid his place." Emu grins, going over to help an equally grinning Parad carry in a stack of blankets. "Thanks for letting us do this!"

Sento watches this. "Is it just me, or are the three of them really excited for this?"

Shotaro sits over with Sento, Ryuuga, and Shinnosuke. "Not just them. Phillip's pumped too." He chuckles. "I get the feeling this is going to be a recurring thing in my future for a while."

"Oh, right, he said something about you two being partners. What way did he mean?"

"We're married. We're super married, he chose me, and that will never cease to amaze me, but..." Shotaro grins. "Neither of us would have it any other way."

Neither of the senior Riders miss how Sento and Ryuuga seem to light up at that.


(Several hours later, late at night)

Nope. This isn't working. He can't sleep. It's really nice to be comfortable again, but he's too wired.

Sento gives up on the theoretical concept of sleep, and opens his eyes. Looks like there's two other people not sleeping, either. Kiriya is lit by the pinprick of a booklight, and Parad is playing a game of some sort. "Huh? Why are you two up?"

Parad shrugs. "Bugsters don't sleep as much as humans do. Winds up meaning Emu's the only person in the apartment with anything resembling a normal sleep schedule, but it does mean that there's pretty much always someone awake if a call comes in."

Kiriya shrugs. "I'd love to be asleep right now, but it's not happening, apparently. I really miss just plain, old, regular sleep."

"I'd apologize, but that one's more on the literal computer code aspect than anything else."

"Eh, 's a small price to pay for not being dead. Besides, it's been over a year. I'm dealing with it. Get a lot more reading done now."

"...you died?"

"So many people in this room have died, the both of us included." Kiriya pauses. "Actually, I think Emu's pretty much the only one here who didn't die to get their absurdly high-powered form."

Sento laughs quietly. "Do you all count death of personality in that?"

"Yeah, why not? We count it for Parad, so we can use it for you, too."

"Hey!"

"Well, am I wrong?" Parad doesn't answer. "Exactly. The record's, like, 98 deaths, though – that's Genm and his stupid zombie obsession – followed at a distant 'either three, five, or seven' for Takeru."

"Wait, Kiriya, I thought we counted that one puzzle trap Genm made as a second for you, so we used it as his second as well... how many is he at?"

"Ah, man, making me do math at this hour?" Kiriya groans. "Okay. There's the time you killed him, where he stayed dead for a while. There's the time me and the others dragged him into his own black hole of despair – that's two. And he's down to 2 remaining spare lives now, from the ninety nine he gave himself. So he's died 97 times since he was brought back initially... which means he's actually at 99."

"This guy died ninety nine times?"

"He COULD have adapted his suit to give him some actual defense at any point, but noooo. Dan Kuroto has an aesthetic, and it is zombies… Wait." Parad stops. "When he started using Dangerous Zombie, he used his own death to make that, from the finisher Emu hit him with." Parad groans. "Which means we should count all the times he didn't stay down while using that, from before I took him out. Great, now we have to do the math on him all over."

Kiriya huffs, spreading his hands. "Don't look at me for references, I was a bit unavailable at that point."

"What about Takeru?" Sento interrupts. "He was pretty adamant on this sleepover thing, is that related?"

"Like Emu said, Takeru's title is Ghost for a reason."

All three look over.

"Sorry Shinnosuke," Kiriya apologizes. "Didn't know you were up."

"I wasn't. I'm a light sleeper – being dad to a one-and-a-half-year old does that. Not like I was exactly a deep sleeper before Eiji – I've been a cop for a while now, and it comes with the territory.

"As for what happened to Takeru, you'd have to ask him. He and his friends got into some really messed up stuff, and I know they aren't telling us everything. He died before he put on the belt, though, he said as much when I met him. That's why he became a Rider in the first place, to try and come back to life. Still, not my story to tell.

"But he grew up at his fathers temple, so he always had a lot of people around. And then once he was a Rider, more kept coming into his life. Back into, in some cases, and they all lived there with him because they didn't have anywhere else to go. Most of them have moved out now, so I think this was as much a chance for him as it was to help you two. He knows what he's talking about with 'suddenly being alone after being in a crowd.'

"How'd you guys even get on this topic?"

"I couldn't sleep, and made the apparent mistake of asking why Kiriya and Parad don't."

"That makes sense. Why are you up, though?"

Sento sighs. "I wasn't nearly this wired earlier, but now? I just can't get my brain to shut up."

Shinnosuke chuckles. "You did get an hour or so on the ride here. It's that and residual nerves, probably. How's Ryuuga?"

"Out like a light. Why?"

"You two have been on the road for a while, and it doesn't look like he's been getting any more rest than you have. Pretty sure he was awake out of spite on the way in. Try to get him to take care of himself better, would you? You both need to."

"Uh. Sure. Thanks?"

"You're welcome. Also, all of us should be asleep – digital folks included. Kiriko's bringing Eiji tomorrow, and Phillip said that the Teruis were coming – which means Haruna's coming along."

"Yessssss!" Kiriya hisses, clicking off his booklight, "the kids are coming!"

"You know Emu's jealous she likes you better than him?"

"That kid liking me is the only good thing to come out of turning into a bike."

"You turn into a what?"

"Talk later, you three."

"Uggggh. Fine." Parad turns down the light to his game. "Let me finish this fight. Can't save in the middle of a battle."

"Um, Shinnosuke? Does it ever stop being weird around here?"

"Parad! We forgot to add in his count before the reset!"

"Oh nooooo..."

"Not really, no. Get some sleep, Sento."


(Half of the people here didn't exactly have childhoods conducive to sleepovers, so they are all super pumped, despite being grown men.)

With regards to Takeru dying 'either 3, 5, or 7 times', I figure there are actually a few different ways to tally up his deaths. Three would be the number of times he is straight up killed - the first time, the one that led to getting Infinite, and the Doctor Pac-man incident. Five is the usual count - which adds in when he reaches his first deadline, and the 100 Eyecons movie. Seven? That's if we include the times he gave up his chance at revival so that someone else could have their own - when he reached his second deadline, and, for reasons that he won't tell anyone else, he has started counting the events of 100 Eyecons twice.