A day off from hacking

After the incident with the chloroform bombs, Shadow was pissed. Not only did his son humiliate him, he also turned his back on the clan! To him, such a thing is inexcusable.

Night, on the other hand, couldn't be happier! For once in his life, he was free to play games; so long as his homework was done first of course. Daisuke was learning what having an older brother was like, and Star? Well she moved back into her apartment, next to Satoshi.

Things couldn't be better in Night's opinion. That is, until his father tried one last, desperate attempt to bring him back!

"Oh, dear…Night, I'm afraid to say that you've gone and caught a fever. Care to explain how that happened?" said Emiko.

"Well it is the season for fevers and colds, Emiko. Besides, Night hasn't been out enough to catch it. I wonder where he got this fever from…" said Kosuke.

"Um, mom? How high is the fever?" asked Night. (He had started to call Emiko 'mom' and she had no complaints about the name. Since he was a junior PT, she was okay with it.)

"It's nearly 100. I'm afraid you can't play games tonight."

"That's okay. I'll spend the night hacking into Satoshi and his dad's personal comps. I haven't done that in a while…"

"Oh no you aren't. You're going to sleep early tonight! No comp either!" said Dark, concerned.

"He's right; you need sleep more than anything right now. If you go to sleep early, then I'll consider letting you improve your hacking skills tomorrow. Does that sound fair to you, Kisuke?" said Emiko. (Since he called her mom, she let him change his name. For some reason he chose Kisuke.)

"Yes mother. Do I get to skip school and the traps?"

"I don't see why you can't…" said Kosuke.

"I think it's time for you to go to sleep. Sleep tight, my little Thief!" said Emiko.

He fell asleep pretty quickly after she turned off the lights. Emiko waited until she was certain he was actually sleeping before she went to have a talk with Dark.

"Dark, do you suppose his alter ego is beginning to come out?"

"Maybe. Why do you ask?"

"I think his fever came from Argentine. He isn't used to having an alternate form, which would explain where that high fever came from."

"It is close to the time that he gets his wings…you may be right. We'll know soon enough!"

"I just hope that his temperature doesn't go any higher…" said Emiko.

The next morning, Daisuke walked to school, alone. This is the first time he's gone to school without his brother in a while. His classmates noticed Kisuke's absence.

"Yo, Daisuke! Where's your bro?" asked Takashi.

"He's in bed with a high fever."

"Yikes. I hope he gets better soon, I need someone to help me with these pics I got of Phantom Thief Loki!"

I hope he gets better…I'm worried about him…

Same here.

Kisuke was sleeping soundly when he felt the first wave of pain shoot through his body. Emiko heard him thrashing and went to see what was wrong. She was upset that he was hurting, but she couldn't do anything to help.

"So I was right, his fever was caused by Argentine. Poor thing…" said Emiko. All she could do was wait until Daisuke came home.

Kisuke was lucky. School let out early that day and Daisuke went straight home to check up on Kisuke. His father met him at the door and told him that his brother's fever went up. Dark immediately took over and went to Kisuke. What he saw made him even more concerned.

"Kisuke! You have to quit fighting Argentine; you're making it worse!"

At the sound of Dark's voice, the thrashing gradually went away. Dark knew that when the sun set, Argentine would come out. Emiko went to Kisuke and retook his temperature. It had gone down considerably after the struggling stopped. It seemed as though Kisuke would be back to normal soon, possibly even before nightfall!

But they never knew that Kisuke was in for even more pain than he had ever experienced that night…