Disclaimer: Second verse, same as the first. Let it apply to all subsequent chaps as well.

One small note – I use the spelling "Ina" since that's the localization canon.

Now I actually have room to talk, phew! Well, this chapter is where I get to make my own sense of what happened to Masato after the Rebirth and all that, since canon is quite cryptic on the matter. If you wholeheartedly disagree with my interpretation, please feel free to skip those explaining paragraphs as their specifics have little effect on the rest of the story.

Guilty Universe

"Haseo…" Indou dropped his bags and grabbed Ryou in a rough hug that squeezed the breath from him.

Ryou managed to remove himself from Indou's grip after some struggling. "We're in public," he muttered angrily, but Indou continued to smile, looking only slightly abashed. Indou's display of affection only made Ryou more upset—how was he supposed to stay pissed at Ovan if the guy went around giving him hugs?

"Sorry. But, it's been so long since I've talked to anyone from The World. I missed you especially, Haseo."

"My name is Misaki Ryou," Ryou barked, grudgingly gathering up a few of the shopping bags.

"Misaki." Ryou frowned when Indou neglected to add an honorific. "Can we go somewhere to talk? There's so much to catch up on."

"All right. How about your place so we can dump this food?"

"My home at the moment…isn't exactly ready for guests. Do you mind if we go to a cafe?"

"Fine, but you're paying," Ryou grumped.

"That's also a problem. I'm out of cash at the moment and if I make a withdrawal it will reveal my location…" Indou kept smiling as Ryou huffed and twitched angrily.

"Fine! Fine! I'll pay! But I'm not carrying these." And with that he shoved the bags he had picked up into Indou's already full arms and began stomping off in the direction of the nearest coffee shop.

They sat in the corner with the shopping shoved against the wall, and Ryou sitting sideways to avoid looking at Indou's face. They said nothing until the waiter arrived. Ryou ordered a black coffee, and Indou some kind of sweet blend. If he was living on bread and instant noodles he was probably craving sweets, Ryou had to figure.

Once the waiter had left, Indou cleared his throat to begin conversation. "I'm sure you have questions to ask me. Go ahead."

"Damn right I have questions," Ryou replied with a fist to the table that made the sugar bowl clatter. "Let's start with where you've been all this time! You know, I was starting to think you were dead!"

Indou chuckled a little at that. "After I became a wanted man, so to speak, I couldn't stay out in the open. And of course I couldn't go online as Ovan, or from the same IP address. So I packed up a few things, and visited Ina to make sure she would be all right. She was released from the hospital and is staying at home with our parents, of course. She was sad to see me go, but I'll be able to come back gradually as CC Corp covers up the incidents more and more. I'm sorry to have worried everyone, but I've been getting along all right."

"So you did see Ina. You weren't a total ass like you were the last time you disappeared," Ryou grumped. In a way he was jealous of Indou's little sister. At least she knew he was all right after the Rebirth—still alive—and only had to worry about whether he was eating enough. If he were caught he would be all over the media, so no news was good news.

"I wonder, what did you think happened to me?" Indou inquired with a smile as the waiter returned to slide cups in front of them. "If I had died they would have found my body, don't you think?"

Ryou sulked over his coffee, which was scalding and extremely strong. It fit his black mood. He really should have considered that; Indou's body would have been found, probably still wearing his headset, and certainly he would have heard about it. CC Corp wasn't that fast to cover up news, as demonstrated by the last few crises that had leaked. Ryou felt rather stupid as he realized most of his worry had been for nothing. "Well, you could have just disappeared…maybe…been absorbed into the game…" Even as he said it it sounded like a ridiculous idea.

"In a sense I was," Indou mused as he added even more sugar to his drink. "Carbohydrates," he explained offhandedly. "If you're paying for it, I might as well get as much energy out of it as I can. But the game… In a way it did absorb a part of me. I often have dreams of playing, sometimes speaking to you or Shino, playing with Ina, and so on. After the Rebirth it seems I've been intertwined with The World. AIDA probably had some hand in the connection as well." He took a pensive sip and a frown formed in his brow. "Too sweet," he murmured.

"You mean you sometimes return to The World? Without a computer?" Ryou squinted at Indou, but the man didn't appear any more insane than Ovan himself. "Wait, you said you've talked to me in your dreams before—did that happen often?"

"Only twice." Indou put his chin on one hand and his eyes unfocused as he tried to remember. "Both times it was in a very white place, like the Creator's Room. You looked different…a form I hadn't seen before. Both times I felt as though you had called for me. The first time you needed help, but the second time I felt as though The World itself were calling to me." He smiled wistfully. "You were much nicer to me there than you are here," he said jokingly. Ryou choked on his coffee.

"Well, then I didn't even know if it was really you. Could've been a figment of my imagination. Besides, usually you remember someone as a better person than they really are. You're terrible in real life. Maybe I just dreamed up a nicer version of you. Wouldn't be hard."

Indou held a hand over his chest as though struck, but his face was laughing. "You're so cruel, Misaki! You sounded different the last time I talked to you. You sounded like you missed me."

Ryou turned his chair fully around with a maddening scrape, so that he faced the wall. "Fuck you," he mumbled with the cup clutched to his chest. The last thing he was going to admit to was missing Ovan. Always jerking everyone around, manipulating them in whatever way he wanted, and never explaining a damn thing! If that had been the real Ovan he'd talked to after the Forest of Pain, why hadn't he said he was all right? He just showed up, spouted some nonsense, then left before Haseo could get a word in edgewise…

"You're terribly cute when you're sulking," Ryou heard Indou mutter behind him. He bristled and spun around, knocking the chair over.

"You are—You—GAH!" Ryou sputtered helplessly. He couldn't think of any words to describe how pissed off he was, so he just glared at Indou so hard he could have popped a blood vessel. And Indou—kept—smiling—

"Here's your check," the waiter announced, apparently having decided to hurry the noisy teen out of the shop as fast as possible. Ryou glanced at it, put a wad of bills on the table, and stomped out of the cafe. In the cool air once again, he sagged against the wall. "Cute"…the nerve! Deciding to let Indou hang, Ryou made his way to the train station that would take him home, shadowed by his personal proverbial storm cloud—and someone else.

---

I do hope Masato doesn't seem too OOC, but it's entirely possible my own silly ideas have influenced my representation of him too much. I see him kind of like a big dorky nerd, who's badass and mysterious on the outside but squishy and affectionate on the inside, like he is with his sis. Argh, I'm better at writing HasEn…