Slowly, Emu starts to wake up. This... this is not his room. Where – hang on, why is he on the couch at CR? Also, he sleeps on his back more often than not, so why is he face down?

"What the-"

Something's weighing down one of his arms, the one that's dangling off the side of the couch. Blinking the sleep further from his eyes, he looks to see what the issue is.

"It wasn't... that wasn't a dream..." Tired, relieved laughter starts to bubble over. "They're really here..."

At some point during the night, Parad had moved his hammock to run up against the couch. Even though he's sound asleep, he's holding tight onto Emu's hand like it's a lifeline.

Judging from the cramp in his fingers, Emu's pretty sure that until he woke up and tried to move, he was doing the same.

"Ah, you're awake. Good afternoon."

"Huh?"

Hiiro's at the table with his back to Emu, apparently reading through case files. "According to the coroner, the two of you have been asleep since about one am. Poppy's been awake for about an hour; she's with Nico at the moment. It's four in the afternoon now, for the record."

"What- oh, man, my shift-"

"Settle down. You were scheduled to be here regardless. Actually." He taps a stack of papers together, straightening them. "You're now scheduled to be here for a week. Solid. Both Parad and yourself are being kept under observation for the time being."

"...I suppose I should have seen that coming, shouldn't I?"

"You really ought to have. It's not as if this is the first time this has happened, after all."

Emu looks over at Hiiro suspiciously. Well, he looks as far over as he can from his position. He's still laying on his stomach, not wanting to try and move his arm away from Parad. ...Also, he's kind of dizzy, which makes sense if he's been asleep for that long. "What do you mean?"

"We're working under the assumption that your... impromptu nap... is – well, was – essentially your body 'resetting' back to only having you present, as opposed to you and him. The first time, of course, is when you were initially separated seven years ago."

"So that's the only reason I'm here?"

"Don't be ridiculous. Kujo said last night that we were making sure the two of you were safe, didn't he?"

Hiiro finally turns to face Emu. He's smiling, which is actually really disconcerting.

'Oh wow, I see why Taiga was not okay with him being so polite. It's really strange.'

"...Yeah, he did. Was everyone in on this, too?"

"Of course. We made several contingency plans."

"That explains the text last night." Emu mutters. Noting Hiiro's confused expression, he continues. "Taiga sent me a message last night, right after the conference call, telling me to 'find an excuse to stay at CR overnight.' Seriously, you guys could have just come out and told me, I'd have listened."

Hiiro looks unimpressed.

"Okay, fine, I'd most likely have listened. I wasn't about to leave Parad alone anyway, so whatever."

Tilting his head to acknowledge the point, Hiiro turns back to the desk. "Would you like me to get you something to eat? It's been a while, after all."

"...No thanks, I'll wait. I'm still kind of tired, probably going to nod back off soon." Grinning, Emu looks back down. "Besides, I can't really get up while I'm being clung to like this, and I probably wouldn't be able to pry him off if I wanted to. Which, honestly? I don't."

"Suit yourself."

By evening, Parad has woken up, and both he and Emu are sitting at the table.

"Soooo..." Emu turns a mug of cocoa around in his hands. "It turns out that we're both on office arrest."

Parad startles at that. "How come? Did something happen?"

"Not… exactly." Emu scratches the back of his head. "It turns out that my staying here was another one of those plans the others didn't tell me about. I wound up 'ensuring' that I was grounded when I was asleep almost as long as you were.

"Apparently when the same thing happened the first time around, the actual doctors involved, who weren't from Next Genome, assumed it was just regular exhaustion. Nobody thought of it at the time as something related to the whole infection thing."

"That makes sense." Parad's voice is quiet. "Nobody aside from Kuroto and Cronus knew that the Bugsters – that I existed."

"Yeah. ...I wish I'd known about you sooner, you know?" Emu says, subdued. "I could've gotten you out of there, or something, could've helped before you went all... revenge against humanity-y."

"It was a little late for that." Parad laughs emptily. "I'd already killed four people by then."

"What do you- oh. Zaizen and his assistants?"

He nods. "They were- I don't know what they were doing, but they were doing it wrong, I could tell, and it hurt. And I didn't know there was an us then, I didn't even know that I existed, I was still emyou/em, but I had to make them stop and..."

"And you reacted?"

"Mm-hm. I lashed out, and suddenly there I was. I'm sorry..."

"Hey, don't apologize for existing. Especially if it happened because you were just scared. But, thinking about all of that, I just realized something. Kuroto really shouldn't have been as surprised as he was to come back as half Bugster." Emu looks up at the ceiling. "There was already precedent."

"Eh? Are you trying to change the topic? Because it's not gonna work, since I killed him, too, and I did it on purpose that time."

"No, no, not that part. Hear me out." Emu points at Parad. "After you." He pauses. "...No, WE. Like you said, at that point, there was no us, so I should take the responsibility too."

"Wha- Emu, no!"

"M, YES. For all we know, it could just as easily have been me that wound up being a new person. I mean, we grew up as the same guy." Emu shrugs. "I – we were a lot more like you as Genius Gamer M, after all. If you were..." he pauses. "more prominent? I guess? If you were more prominent during the tournament, maybe that's why you were pulled out. If we'd collapsed when I was the one with more influence, maybe I'd be the one teleporting around instead."

"Emu, that's ridiculous."

"Well, it's not like we'll ever really know, now is it? So, back on track. After WE erased Zaizen and his flunkies, they came back. Remember how he became 'Doctor Pac-man?'"

"Right, all four of them were part Bugster. … Y'know, I'm super pissed they dragged Pac-man into it."

"I know, right?! That was completely uncalled for. But I'm assuming you and Kuroto were watching the fight I was in, right?"

"He was watching more of it than I was. I paid more attention to what Hatena was doing than to Zaizen. Kuroto used the data from him to help make Perfect Puzzle." Parad scratches his cheek. "I, uh, was also hiding when they invaded the office, on account of the whole 'having killed them' thing. I didn't think it was a good idea to let them see me."

"Yeah, that makes sense." Emu shrugs. "But they came after him to get the proto-Gashats, and they used them the same way that Graphite did.

"So since they were at least partially Bugsters, then why Kuroto so surprised that he came back that way? The main difference in the situation is that he made failsafes and backup plans to make sure he didn't stay dead. So, he knew that it was a possibility, and he didn't expect to not be human?"

Parad shrugs. "Well, he's never exactly been stable. We're living proof of that."

"Mm, true enough. ...Hey, the gamer drivers monitor everything we do while transformed, right?"

"Yeah, I thought you already knew that."

"Well, I've never had access to any of the data." Emu exhales, exasperated. "I'm wondering what it would take to find out what mine recorded that day, when Zaizen came back as 'Doctor Pac-man'. Because apparently I'm the one who defeated him, but I have absolutely no idea how I did it."

"Wait, wait, wasn't there someone else with you? What did I hear his name was... Ghost, right?"

"Yeah, but he didn't tell me anything about what happened at the end of the battle." Pursing his lips, Emu tries to think back. "…Hm. The last part of the fight that I actually remember was getting thrown across the room, as myself, and Takeru was getting what sounded like a new upgrade. After that, the next thing I know, I'm standing upright, as Ex-Aid, and Takeru was telling me that we won. I admit I really should have asked for details once we got out of there, but there were more... urgent things to worry about at that point."

Parad nods hesitantly. "We can probably look it up, to see what happened. Not gonna lie, though, that's kinda weird."

"It cut out." The two gape at the screen. "The last point of activity that was recorded during the period I remember shows me getting knocked out of my transformation, and then the next one is me leaving Level Two."

"How could there not be a record of you going back into being Ex-Aid, though?"

"I don't know, this is the first time I've even gotten to see how any of this information is displayed. And, I mean-" Emu gestures frustratedly. "There's about ten whole minutes where there's no data at all. The drivers are supposed to record the vitals of whoever wears them, as long as they're physically wearing them, even if we're not transformed. I would not have taken it off in the middle of a battle, so why doesn't it have anything?"

"I don't think Genm would have trimmed anything out... Hang on, let's check the records from the Bugvisor that Zaizen stole..."

Growling, Parad drums his fingers on the table. "Okay, so the data we have shows when Hatena was destroyed, and the same for when Zaizen was, but it doesn't say what stopped them. That's literally impossible, unless it was that Ghost kid who landed the finisher, since he isn't using the same technology and wouldn't be in the system."

"Well… When we were on the way out, he said that he had been the one to defeat Hatena. And since Takeru said that I saved Togo, that would imply that I defeated Zaizen. But he never said how I pulled it off, and, like I said earlier, we wound up being really busy with a more pertinent problem immediately afterward."

"I guess we won't know what happened unless you guys can bring Zaizen back with all the others, or if Ghost tells you at some point."

"Guess not."

-the next day-

"Okay, so we can agree that this is really awkward, right?"

Taiga glares at Emu. "Very much so. Now sit still, and shut up. I don't know why they let you leave here even to get anything in the first place." He frowns. "Not as though I'm one to talk... but I would have thought thatthey'd have learned from my mistakes to stop you and Brave from doing shit like that."

"Hey, language."

"Oh, like you haven't heard worse, mister 'pro gamer'."

"We're at work." Emu shoots Taiga a judgmental look.

"Pfeh. I'm at work, you mean. Need I remind you that you are currently the patient here?"

Emu groans. "I know, I know." He's on the exam table in the CR patient ward. "Hence the awkwardness. I mean, I get the reasoning, and I agree with it, but. I just hate being on this end of the job."

"Welcome back to the hell that is being a doctor in need of care, I'll be your tour guide." Taiga rolls his eyes. "To your left, you'll see your own workstation, which you're banned from going to until they give you permission again. Story of our lives at this point."

"Ugh. How long did they say I was going to be down here for, again?"

"At least a week. Seriously, though, I do actually need you to turn to your left."

"Oh, right, got it. Wonder how they're going to handle my scheduled appointments up in pediatrics..." Emu mumbles as he obeys.

"Don't know, don't care, and you should be more concerned about the whole thing yesterday than you seem to be. To the right."

"Well, like they said, it's not the first time this has happened." Emu sombers. "Sorry if I scared everyone."

'Emu… if everyone is going to worry about him… why am I being kept around? It's my fault, after all...'

"Hey, Parad, quit that! I've told you, this is just part of who I am, and the same goes for you. Also, if you're gonna use the intercom, then you have to go closer to the mic; you're barely coming in."

He's met with dead silence.

"Um. Hojo?" Taiga sounds... nervous.

"What?"

"I didn't hear anything just then. What were you hearing?"

(click)

Asuna appears at the observation window. She also looks nervous. "Emu, the intercom was off on this end. We can hear you, but you shouldn't be able to hear us. I only just turned it on."

Parad joins her. "I was talking to myself, I was just thinking out loud- what's going on?"

Emu gapes. "Wha- no, I definitely heard you! I mean, I haven't heard anyone else up there, and you were really muffled, but I definitely heard you blaming yourself. What do you mean this was the only end broadcasting?"

Kiriya chimes in over the intercom. "Uh, how about you get back to that exam, I'm gonna turn both ends of this thing back off so we don't distract you guys, okay? Okay."

Both doctors downstairs nod, visibly shaken. "All right then." Taiga hesitates. "Not as though any of this is normal in the first place... That was the routine exam done, anyway. Lie down, let's get to the 'routine for here' exam."

"Okay..." As the scanner does it's first pass, he chuckles. "You know this thing doesn't actually work correctly on me, right? I mean, Hiiro tried the scope once, without telling me, but apparently all that showed up was a bunch of static."

(click)

"Wait, when was that? Because if it was that time I took over, right after Genm spilled that you were infected, I might have messed up the readings. None of my data was put in the systems that you guys got."

Emu tries to sit up to look at the window, only to duck right back down as the machine starts to make its way back. "Kiriya, I thought you said you turned the intercom off?!"

"I did, got no idea what you said, Ace. I mean, I assume it was about something from when I wasn't around, but that's all from context clues."

"Lazer, what the hell? I could definitely hear Emu just then."

"I didn't hear anything either, Parad." Asuna joins in. "Taiga, Emu, we're coming down. Something's going on here."

(click)

Taiga turns to Emu. "You two can't go one day without dismantling everything we know about the game illness anymore, can you?"

Emu just sighs in resignation.

"So."

"Yeah. So."

"Gotta be honest, I wasn't really sure about it, but looks like I was right, that I was actually feeling your terror before. I mean, there was every chance it was just mutual, because what Masamune-"

"Cronus. He doesn't deserve to be called by his name."

"Alright then, Cronus. What he did to Lovelica was really messed up. I was scared too, so I started thinking that maybe I was projecting? And then I. Um." Emu casts a sideways glance at Parad. "Well, then we fought."

Parad nods. "You fought, you mean. That was a terrible showing on my end. But… I guess that means you saw that, then. The dream? I mean, if you can call it that."

"… one where you're drowning, right?"

Parad nods again. "Mm. I'd been having that since... since Lovelica. When you took me down... right then, at that moment, it felt like you'd dropped me into an ocean, even more than before"

Emu looks down. "That one night, between doing… well, that, and letting you back out, when you were here-" he reaches to his chest "-I had that dream. Guess I got it from you." He smirks. "I should probably have realized you were here again sooner, huh? I'd thought it was just survivors guilt, but I've been having that one again for the past month. It's longer now, though. It starts off the same, but now it keeps going, and I dive down to pull you out. It's at about that point I wake up."

"Well, you did. Pull me out of the dark, I mean. Twice now, even." Parad lightly punches Emu in the shoulder, a small smile on his face. "Thanks."

"We need a new topic. This is super depressing."

"Yeah."

They sit there, in the office, in silence for a bit.

"So, let's catch up, then. I hear they aren't even letting you do paperwork while you're here?"

"Nope!" Emu throws his hands in the air. "I am just that incredibly grounded! I never thought it was possible to miss paperwork, of all things." He slumps, letting his head hit the table. "I'm so bored, and it's only been a day and a half..."

"You're in full-on pediatrics when you're not working here now, right? How's that going?"

Emu turns his head, still on the table, but now he's grinning. "Okay, okay, so here's the thing. The kids have finally started to warm up to me. Somehow, word spread about my old career. Well, technically our old gig, but they don't know about the whole us situation. As you and I know full well, small children are always super excited to be encouraged to talk about the things they like. Thing is, they're even more excited that they can not only have an adult know and appreciate what they talk about, but an adult who can explain and prove to their parents that they aren't necessarily wasting their time when they play games."

He straightens back up. "And then I led the press conference about what happened with Chronicle. Some people started putting two and two together, and now not only am I 'Doctor Hojo, who actually understands kids,' I'm 'Doctor Hojo, who is probably a real-life superhero.' I mean, if someone asks, I'm not allowed to say that I'm Ex-Aid, but I'm not exactly saying that I'm not, either. It's way more useful to let the rumors run themselves than it is to confirm them outright."

"That's awesome!" Chuckling, Parad continues. "Okay, next. I know they've seen you trip over thin air before. It pretty much goes without saying."

Emu grumbles at that. "That's cold, and I'd be offended if it weren't a thing that has definitely happened. Multiple times. In front of many small children. And coworkers."

"Hey, there's a reason I teleport all the time, and it's to not do that, just in case. So how do they all reconcile you being a hopeless klutz with you being a superhero?"

"Remember how 'Genius Gamer M' played it off, and made it look like it was on purpose?"

"Right, I think that was mostly you for that, rather than being my influence. It worked really well as a disarming tactic for a while there, until our opponents got used to it. So then..." Parad laughs incredulously. "People think you're either exaggerating it, or faking the clumsiness completely."

"Yup! And I would like to keep it that way, thanks."

"Got it. Next… how're the people covering for you telling your patients you're not in?"

"If anything happens with a patient for the game illness, and someone asks questions regarding Ex-Aid, the stock answer is that I'm 'monitoring a person of interest in protective custody.' Which is technically true. They're just leaving out that there's two people, and that I'm one of them. If it's a kid asking, one who's one of my 'normal' patients, and they ask if I'm not in because I'm busy being Ex-Aid, the cover is that I'm on 'superhero bodyguard duty.'"

Parad laughs. "That's sneaky, and I love it."

"The official reason that we marked down for my leave of absence is 'medical leave'. You want to know what I'm calling it, though?" A warm smile slowly spreads on Emu's face as Parad shakes his head. "Family reunion."

"…!" Blinking, Parad looks away. "...Last question. Do you really mean that?"

Emu puts his arm around Parad's shoulder. "Of course. We are brothers, after all."

"… … Thank you."