A/N: Juggling too many plotlines can be troublesome at times. Sorry if this seemed a bit rushed...
"Don't forget, Miichi! It's Keiwa, Sakurai Keiwa! Don't call him Tycoon!"
"Hey!"
Michinaga immediately jumped as he turned around abruptly to see Tohru giggling at him madly.
"What's up with you now, Micchi? You looked so high-strung like that time we had to sing in a choir in front of so many people at school during our fifth grade! Who's got your stomach in a twist?"
Michinaga just blinked at his friend dumbly before slapping Tohru hard.
"Shut up! No one's making me act like this!"
Tohru just rolled his eyes at him. "Sure... if you say so." And something must have crossed Tohru's mind as his friend spoke again.
"So who's that guy?"
"Huh? What?"
Tohru shrugged. "You know, that guy from the bus stop with the pet carrier. New friend of yours?"
Michinaga immediately shook his head at Tohru. "That Ty—I mean, Keiwa? No? He's just this weirdo I randomly met a while ago—"
Tohru just nodded his head before pursing his lips. "Aaah! I see. Just a random guy, huh? Must be quite a memorable weirdo for you to be able to remember their names—"
"—No! Keiwa just—that guy... it's complicated," said Michinaga weakly as he felt his face blushing badly.
Tohru continued to cackle loudly before slapping Michinaga's back with amusement.
"Chill out... not like I'm disallowing you to find your own new group of friends..."
"That's not really it... Tohru!"
"Yes... yes, tsundere boy..."
"Shut up!"
xxx
Keiwa stared at three Core IDs in his palms. In the end, he ended up hesitating whether or not he wanted to use them to get his answers. Ace's feelings aside, he had to consider whether or not his quest for answers was worth restoring the memories of his three friends. If he could still call them friends anymore.
Seeing Neon again after regaining his memories of the DesiGra felt weird. Because a part of him felt pulled to want to go back to how they used to be before. But should he try ro restore Neon's memories, he would end up making Neon remember the truth about herself. He shouldn't do that to her... especially since Neon seems happy in this life. Not to mention the things her father was involved in.
Setting aside Neon, there's also Michinaga. How should he confront the guy again? Back when he didn't have all of his memories, he didn't have a hard time trying to talk to Michinaga. But now that he regained some of those memories of the past...
He remembered the feeling of hitting Michinaga's face with his fist. He remembered being so angry at Michinaga's nonchalant attitude after he told him that he had killed his sister. Implying that he knew that the Phase Two he was taking down was his sister from the beginning.
Now that he thought about it, Michinaga never defended himself against what he did back then. That guy just let him hit him. Even though it must have shocked him as well, finding out that the Jyamato he was cutting down was Sara—!
How was he supposed to face Michinaga again now?
Keiwa sighed.
That means the only person left for him to talk to would be Hareruya Win.
xxx
Somehow she couldn't help feeling slightly restless.
Since Keiwa hadn't tried contacting her since the last time she saw him at his workplace. Considering that she was done with the small segment that the company invited her to do, Neon had no more reason to come to Keiwa's workplace to see him. She understood that, but after the heads up they received from Tsumuri a few days ago about Keiwa... she had constantly become anxious about meeting Keiwa in a context where he would try getting some information from her by restoring her memories of the DesiGra. She had been practising hard on the kind of answer she should give... because she wanted it to be perfect.
The three of them had argued back and forth over what should they tell Keiwa when he contacted them; whether to hide the truth or lie or just outright approach Keiwa about it. But then all that would be pointless if Keiwa didn't come to see them!
.
The three of them ended up meeting each other at the Inari shrine. Because that was the best place for them to discuss things... and they might as well discuss with each other what to do.
"Has Keiwa come by to find you guys lately?" asked Neon as soon as she saw Michinaga and Win waiting for her. Win just shrugged at her as Miichi just shook his head.
"And I was driving myself crazy trying to remind myself not to say any stupid things! I kept telling myself to call that guy by his real name next time to the point even the people around me think I'm losing my mind!" exclaimed the Buffalo rider in exasperation.
Neon just hit him on the arm. "It's because you never think things properly in your head before doing anything—"
"—And you just barge into things head first when any problems appear in front of you—"
Michinaga glowered at the two as Tsumuri hurried over towards them from the main shrine.
"Tsumuri-san!" exclaimed Neon as soon as she saw the former Game Navigator coming over. "Are you sure you gave Keiwa our Core IDs? Why didn't he come looking for us after that—?"
Tsumuri bowed at the trio apologetically as she straightened up to say something. But then she froze as another voice spoke out from the other side of the yard.
Neon, Win and Michinaga turned around as a very familiar voice chuckled softly.
"Ah..." Keiwa smiled. "I see what's happening now. No wonder Tsumuri-san had willingly given me the Core IDs the other day."
"I'm really sorry, Keiwa-sama!" exclaimed Tsumuri as she bowed again.
xxx
"How are you feeling... Keiwa?"
Keiwa just shrugged at Neon. "Don't worry about me. But just in case," he took out his phone before scrolling down his contact list. He showed his phone to Neon. "If anything happens to me suddenly, you can call this number. It's the contact number of the doctor who operated on me last time."
Win smiled at him. "You really prepared yourself pretty well, huh?", Win ran a hand over Keiwa's head as he ruffled Keiwa's hair a bit. "Glad to see you doing well..."
Keiwa shrugged. "I can't keep making trouble for everyone, can I?" he glanced up towards everyone. "I'm sorry. Because of me, you guys had to be dragged back into this problem."
Win just waved the concerns away. "Don't worry about it, getting my memory back doesn't really affect anything in my life. Besides, I get to see you guys again..."
Michinaga nodded. "Same here," he said as Neon also echoed the same thing. Keiwa frowned at her.
"Are you sure?" he asked her again. "I mean, there's the thing about your father... not to mention some other things regarding your personal life—!"
"It's alright," Neon shrugged. "It's better this way." She sighed before turning back towards Keiwa.
"That said, Keiwa... I wanted to apologise to you too." She took Keiwa's hands into her own before taking a long breath. "Back then, I should have gone to check on you after I heard about what happened to Sara-san from Ace."
She shook her head again. "No, not just that. I should have also dragged Ace along as well to check on you as soon as I heard about it. Because he sounded like he hadn't gone to see you despite how worried he was about you. Then perhaps what happened later—perhaps a lot of things could've happened differently."
Michinaga knelt in front of Keiwa as well. "I am sorry too. Back then I screwed up pretty badly too... and I really don't know what was it I'm supposed to do. And then you changed so suddenly—"
Neon suddenly slapped Michinaga as Keiwa noticed that. He shrugged. "Well, a lot of unexpected things did happen back then, right?" Keiwa took a very long breath as he willed himself to brace for everything. He glanced at everyone's face.
"So now can you guys tell me what happened in the past? I promise I'll try not to react too badly to it."
"Of course," said Win as the man sat beside Keiwa before pulling the younger man to hug him affectionately. "We'll also try to tell everything without making it sound too alarming. But pay in mind that even we ourselves didn't quite know a lot of things that happened in the past. Some of it, only you and Ace would be aware of it."
Keiwa nodded slowly. "I understand. I actually been trying to piece things together by myself a bit," he said softly as Keiwa idly run his hand over his chest. "I understand if I'm not able to find out everything all at once."
.
"Are you still all right, Keiwa-sama?" Tsumuri finally spoke out after being silent for so long. Keiwa just waved a hand at her.
"I'm fine. Just because I heard about the things that happened in the past, doesn't mean I'd immediately unlock those memori—!"
"Keiwa!"
"Keiwa-sama!
"Tycoon!"
All four people around him suddenly screamed out his name as Keiwa suddenly staggered forward without warning. Win and Miichi almost caught him at the same time when he practically tripped on himself, it's almost funny. Keiwa just shrugged at them.
"It's nothing. I just got a few flashes... and it's not even related to what you guys just told me."
"Flashes?" Win asked as Keiwa shrugged.
"Something related to Ace I don't really—!" Keiwa glanced up at Miichi as the poor guy looked the most worried about him. "Tycoon... huh? Been a while since I heard anyone call me with that."
It reminded him of another person who had stopped calling him that monicker and referred to him by his real name...
