Dark opened his eyes, but saw nothing. After a momentary panic attack, he realized what he was staring at was a blank ceiling. He looked about the room and sighed. 'Good…no one saw that.' The room around him was much smaller than the one he occupied before. Its walls were decorated by various snapshots and a few posters. He sat up and a sheet slipped off his chest. 'I'm in a bed?' The thief threw the sheet off the rest of his body and placed his feet on the floor. After further examination, he realized he had never seen this room before, but the way it was furnished looked familiar.

Dark stood up and tried to take a step forward, but he felt strangely off balance and leaned back against the bed behind him to keep from falling. A knock at the door interrupted the silence in the room.

"Who's there?" he demanded.

"It's me," the person on the other side of the door replied, "mom said if you're late to school again, you'll be grounded for a month."

'Wait, I know that voice.' Dark pushed himself back to his feet, "Daisuke?"

"Of course it's me!" Daisuke exclaimed as he threw the door open. His face showed a degree of frustration and anger. "If you don't get down there soon, mom will think I didn't come up here to get you like she told me to."

Daisuke's tone disturbed Dark's temper, "Daisuke, you little twerp! Do you know how long we've been looking for you?"

"Twerp, huh? Wow, I've never heard that one before," Daisuke replied sarcastically, "seriously, though. Mom's getting fed up with all the phone calls."

Dark stopped himself from saying something disdainful and decided he should think before starting an all out argument. 'Daisuke is here,' he thought, 'and now I'm here…I woke up in a bed I've never seen before…and Daisuke is bugging me about school….of course! I must've gotten into Krad's alternate world.' He changed his expression and played along, "oh, yeah, school."

Daisuke gave him a 'duh' look and Dark stopped himself from expressing his indignation.

'He must remember something,' Dark thought to himself as he considered changing the subject. "You know," he began, "I had the weirdest dream."

Daisuke was heading out the door, but stopped to stare back at him. "A dream?"

"What, I'm not allowed to have dreams?"

"No, that's…you're just…acting different. Are you sick?"

"I've never felt better, Daisuke," Dark assured him before trying his approach, "I dreamed I was an art thief."

Daisuke's expression changed…revealing more anger, "that's not funny, Hideyoshi! Why do you have to be such a jerk!?"

Dark clenched his teeth, 'I didn't expect that kind of reaction.' He needed some answers, "Hideyoshi?"

"Just wait 'til I tell mom you've been making fun of me again!"

"Woah, Daisuke, chill."

"I'm not gonna 'chill'! I'm sick and tired of you teasing me about it. I didn't want to imagine all that. It was the accident! I don't deserve all this."

"You're absolutely right," Dark agreed cluelessly, "in fact, I…um…I want to understand…all that."

"What?"

"You heard me," Dark replied with more enthusiasm, "I'm tired of picking on you…I heard some of…all that, but I don't know enough."

"That's so funny, I forgot to laugh."

'Ok, this isn't working.' "Daisuke, it's me." Daisuke stared at him expectantly. "It's me, Dark! You're stuck in some sort of dream world and I came here to pull you out." Daisuke ran out the door and slammed it behind him. Dark leapt after him, nearly kicking the door down, but deciding otherwise at the last minute. "Daisuke!"

"Leave me alone!" Dark's longer legs enabled him to catch Daisuke quickly. He grabbed the fleeing boy and pulled him away from the stairs.

"Mom," Daisuke shrieked as he struggled against the older boy.

"Hideyoshi, leave your brother alone!" Emiko's voice called from below. Dark slapped his hand over Daisuke's mouth.

"Brother?" he murmured to himself. Daisuke kicked his shin hard with his uniform shoe and Dark bit his lip to keep from shouting. He pushed Daisuke against a wall and held him firmly while he recovered from the sharp pain in his lower leg. "Damn, Daisuke," he muttered after regaining his composure, "you're one hell of a spaz." He dragged him back to the room and locked the door behind them before releasing Daisuke.

"You are going to get in so much trouble for this!" Daisuke swung a fist at Dark, who dodged effortlessly.

"Settle down, Daisuke! I just want to talk to you." Daisuke backed up, but kept his fists ready for a fight. Dark searched his memories with Daisuke to find some sort of proof. "Do you…do you remember the night Krad stabbed us in the shoulder? We still have the scar."

"You overheard me talking to mom about that, didn't you? Well, I don't have a scar on my shoulder. It was my imagination."

'Damn…Krad thought this through,' Dark considered more memories, 'of course…he couldn't have changed things that hadn't happened yet.' He folded his arms as he tried something very recent, "how about the night we went to steal the Angelbow?"

"The…I didn't tell…anyone. How did you know…?"

"I was there, Daisuke. It's ME."

"But…that's not possible…how did you get here, Dark?"

"That's not important. We have to get back to the real world."

"How are we going to do that?"

Dark paused to think, "we'll…figure that out."

"What!?" Daisuke screamed, "you didn't think about that before you came here!?"

"I would've if I didn't get sucked in here against my will!"

They stopped arguing when they heard banging on the door. "Unlock this door!"

Dark complied and Emiko entered the room. "Hi, mom," Daisuke greeted her with a smile.

"You two were supposed to leave ten minutes ago!"

Daisuke grabbed Dark's sleeve. "We were just about to leave," he explained as he pulled him out the door, "bye, mom!"