Location Unknown: Research Lab

A black haired boy, looking to be about 18 or so, was sitting lifelessly in a chair, cords attaching to circuitry and ports in his chest and where his ears would normally be. "Keep searching for that file." A middle aged man stated from behind a wall of bulletproof glass. "If you do as we ask, we promise not to destroy your home… and we promise that your siblings will not be harmed. Do you understand, Basara?"

"Shut up and leave already." There was no voice… only a message that appeared on the screen next to the man. "You're disturbing my processes." The older man sighed and walked away, knowing that he could do nothing to make the boy more obedient. His personality programs were locked down, and his interior programming for the so called intelligence programmed into him was so heavily guarded that anyone who tried to get in literally got their systems fried. He'd broken over a dozen high-output processing computers, not to mention all the experimentation monitors he destroyed. But Basara was the only thing that could work past the barriers in place separating this man from his goal. He walked out a door, and as it closed the experiment number B454R4 flashed in the light of the hallway along with the word "ISOLATION".

Meanwhile

Japan: Ryugazaki House

Tsubasa woke from his charging, checking the time. 5am. He was "exhausted" despite the charging sequence having taken 8 hours. But he knew he needed to keep looking for his brother, and figure out what he was after. "Brother… where are you?" he asked, plugging himself back into the computer and beginning a wide range scan to find his brother's server ID. "Please… come home…"

Ueda, Japan: Jinnouchi House:

After the sun came up, Kazuma opened his eyes and yawned, sitting up and heading out of his room to clean up for the day, pausing in front of Ayumi's door when he heard keys being typed on. It was rapid, but the pauses sounded like they were sequential. What was it? He just walked by, telling himself not to interfere in what she was doing. After the thing that happened last night, he wasn't sure what to say to her. Her brother was the black clad avatar that was tearing up OZ and beating up anyone who challenged him. He washed his face and walked back towards his room when he heard Ayumi swear, slamming her laptop shut.

Ayumi was angry, cursing under her breath and slamming her laptop shut. No matter what she tried, no matter which passcode she tried, Basara kept changing his passcode before she could hack into it. "Basara, the hell are you doing?" she asked. "… Do you hate me…? Are you angry because of something I did?" she was gripping her wrist till it was almost painful, letting go and trying to compose herself. "Why won't you let me in, brother? Why are you doing this?" she took a breath, hearing the floorboard creak under someone's foot. "… Kazuma-kun?"

"How'd you know it was me?" he asked from outside the door.

"You walk on lighter steps than the other people in your family." She said, having heard him walk down the hall earlier. "I will assume you practice martial arts?"

"… yeah." He sat down in the hall, back to the outside wall of her room. "You're looking for your brother?" he asked.

"… Yes…" she sighed again. "Basara has never locked me out before… I don't know what to do…" she mumbled. "I can't figure out what he's trying to do, I can't locate him via his GPS… I don't know if he okay…" she bit her lip in frustration. "I haven't felt this useless since my parents vanished…"

"… They're serving breakfast soon… do you want to stay in your room? I can bring you back a plate or something…" he muttered, hearing her breathing in a way that let him know she was trying not to cry. She took a moment to let her breathing come back to normal before she opened the door just enough to look out at him.

"I don't want to be a bother…"

"It's fine. I'm coming back to my room anyway…"

"… Then, yes please…" she bowed to him, the boy averting his gaze. "Thank you, Kazuma-kun…"

"It's not a big deal…" he got up and walked down the hall, heading to the kitchen to grab some food for himself and for Ayumi. The women in the kitchen seemed concerned that Kazuma was just being antisocial, but when they realized he'd taken two plates and grabbed two cups and a bottle of juice, the just stared at him until he went back to his room, soon beginning to gossip.

"Did he just…?"

"Oooh he took her food? That's cute."

"He wants to keep her to himself I bet."

"Haha, I don't think that's it." Kazuma's mother Kiyomi smiled, the others turning to her. "He looks like he's worried about her…"

"Worried?"

"Well, she DID just lose her parents, right? She must be feeling pretty upset…" the women sighed. "This is quite the issue…"

Kazuma returned to Ayumi's room and noticed her door was open. He looked inside and saw her sitting against the wall. "Food's here." He said, putting her plate down next to her without entering the room.

"Come in…" she said, looking to him. "Please…?" he paused before nodding, entering the room and sitting near by. "Thank you… I'm sorry for making you bring it back here…"

"It's fine." He said, putting the cups down on coasters and pouring the juice. "You're feeling better?"

"Yes…" she smiled a bit. "I got a message from Tsubasa this morning about Basara's IP having come online for a split second, so I tried tracking him down… but you see how that went." She chuckled cynically. "… I really can't do anything about it like this…" she picked up her plate and ate some of her food. Kazuma just ate and listened. "… Basara used to yell at me when I got mopey… just to get me to say something other than I'm fine…"

"Sounds like he was worried about you…"

"He always does stuff like that… scowling and never just being direct, he's always finding another way around it so he doesn't have to say what he thinks…" she bit into some rolled egg, savoring the taste. "… Tsubasa on the other hand tells everything like it is with a smile…" she put her plate down and rubbed the forming tears from her eyes. Kazuma waited for her to calm down before he spoke.

"You always hide away when you get like this?" he asked, causing her to turn to him.

"… I suppose I do…"

"And you said Tsubasa was straightforward, but I'll assume he was nice to you… while Basara's the one who took the fight to you?

"… Yeah…"

"… Then try again…" he stated, keeping his gaze turned away in case he began to blush. "… not right now, but when you're feeling better… just try again."

"… I will… Kazuma-kun…" Ayumi smiled, picking up her plate again and finishing her food. "Thank you for the food…" she picked up her plate and cup. "… Could you show me around outside? I think taking a walk might clear my head from all this depression." Kazuma nodded, finishing his food and picking up his dishes. He lead Ayumi to the kitchen and put their dishes away before showing her around outside, Hayate bouncing over and greeting them with a wagging tail and a bark, Ayumi smiling at the dog and petting his head before following Kazuma. They walked past the morning glories and Ayumi stopped to stare. "These are beautiful…"

"… My great grandmother planted those." He replied, looking over his shoulder at the flowers, then to Ayumi who was staring at the flowers and looking nostalgic.

"… They remind me of home…" she said softly. "My grandmother loves morning glories…"

"… Guess old ladies love flowers, huh?"

"Yeah." She smiled. "Sorry, where to next?" she walked over to him, Hayate walking up next to them and watching as they walked.

After the pair finished walking around the house, Kazuma walked Ayumi back to her room before she got straight back to work. It seemed like she was feeling better, so he returned to his own room and got on his computer for his daily checks to make sure he was still at the top. He was waiting for someone to challenge him or for someone to beat his scores when he noticed a message come in. He opened it and stared at the message for a good minute.

"Hands off my sister, Rabbit." There was no signature, no nothing to tell him where it came from. But he had a feeling. Tsubasa was the nice one… blunt, but nice… so… it must have been Basara. But just to be sure, he forwarded the message to Ayumi with an add on of his own. "I just got this. Can you track it?" He waited for a moment, then heard Ayumi getting up and leaving her room, opening his door, computer in hand. "Sorry, need to borrow this." She plugged a wire into his USB port, opening up a connection between their computers. He watched as status windows and password screens flew by, the girl's eyes never leaving her computer screen. "… That's him." She said, looking up at Kazuma. "It's Basara…" she looked so happy.

"Well keep going." Kazuma stated. "You haven't found him yet, right?"

"Right." She nodded, getting right back to her search. Kazuma watched, seeing a bit of Kenji's unwaivering determination in the girl. And just like with Kenji, he felt like this girl was incredible. He stared as the typed, and soon she came across something that made her eyes go wide. "… Basara…" she took a breath to steady herself.

"What is it?" Kazuma asked, going around to her side and looking over her shoulder. There on screen was a picture. It looked like a family portrait of a younger Ayumi, Basara, and who he assumed was Tsubasa. "… when was that taken?"

"… the same year my parents disappeared." She said softly. "Basara… he told us to take this picture when he heard about the plane crash… it wasn't till the next day Tsubasa and I got wind of it…" she turned to Kazuma. "… even though he doesn't say things upfront… he's always trying to protect me… cause that's what Mama told him to do…" Kazuma stared at her and then back at the picture. There was some text in the corner of it.

"I'm still here." Kazuma muttered.

"He said that whenever I got really upset… whenever I cried about the important stuff, he wouldn't yell or tell me to stop being a baby… He'd stand outside my room and tell me he was still there… I didn't know what to think, I always told him to just go away… but…" she began to cry again. "But I knew he was just trying protect me…" Kazuma flinched away, not knowing what to say. But… he steeled his nerves, wrapping his arms around her shoulders, leaning his forehead against her shoulder.

"It's okay…" he said, letting her cry without looking at her. "Just pretend I'm not here, Ayumi… " At that, Ayumi began to cry more, sobbing softly. Kazuma was talking a lot like Basara… telling her to pretend like he wasn't there, like he knew she hated crying in front of other people. He didn't move, letting the girl finish crying before he let go.

"I'm sorry…"

"Don't be." He said, sitting so his back was against hers, pulling his computer off his desk and placing it down on the floor before him. "… I'll be here if you need to let it out."

"… I appreciate that…" she said, taking a deep breath again before she began to type again. "… I don't mean to break down so much… so I'm sorry for bothering you with it." She added, Kazuma just murmuring a positive response, making Ayumi smile. This boy was kind… and this boy was strong… She felt her heart race a little, and her cheeks color. She had not felt this warmth in many years… 'Thank you… Kazuma…'

Location Unknown: Research Lab – 3am

Basara's red eyes opened and he stared at the door that lead to his "room". He knew no one was around, it was late… or early, whichever way worked. He had sent his sister a message and he'd been reprimanded for it. But thanks to his sister's security precautions in place thanks to Tsubasa's protocols, they could not remove evidence of the message. He opened his diagnostics panel and checked his circuits, seeing some issues thanks to the jolts of electricity his holders had used on him. "Dumb asses." He mumbled, his voice deep and rather disdainful. "If they screwed up my OS, I'm gonna beat their heads in." he opened a picture from his files, the picture being of his family while it was still whole… before his parents, his creators disappeared. "… Mother… Father… Please, look after Ayumi…"

Japan: Ryugazaki House

Tsubasa was trying to continue his search, but something was blocking him out. He then found something in Ayumi's message from Basara that she had sent him before she went to bed. A code buried so deep in the image that he almost missed it… it was code… just one keyword with a number that didn't belong… it was basically a safe word, for keeping secrets from Ayumi in case something bad ever happened and she was not ready to hear it. But they did use it once… to keep a secret from their parents. They regretted it every day of their lives since they decided not to say it. "Chrysanthemum… 8709…" Tsubasa sighed. "These monsters… even after Mother's death, all they want to do is get a hold of her research…" he muttered. "No wonder Ayumi never wanted to be around them… they're no part of this family…" he began backtracking things and looking up records. "Basara… I promise… I promise I'll bring you home… so please, stay strong until then… for Ayumi's sake…" he let his blue eyes focus on the screen and began delving into everything he could find on his Mother's family… the Aihara.

((Next chapter up~ ; v ; Sorry for the long wait~

Reviews are appreciated, and I hope you all enjoy reading my story~

-Winter Cheshire))