A/N: Cos of the AO3 issue that lasted almost the whole day, I was able to refine the general plot in my head a bit more. Well, there's that certain side effect... but that's alright. My Keiwa!muse was feeling slightly better which may change come next episode. But worry about that later.

And now how do I detangle this web—? XD

Win frowned at Ace. What did he mean that Keiwa had already known about everything? Does that mean—when they talked about Ace's two tails back then, Keiwa already figured it out from back then? But how? What had they missed back then? He didn't remember anyone saying anything useful during their last discussion...

Unless—!

.

Win glanced up towards Ace...

"Keiwa-kun didn't exactly forget about the details of the second flash of memories he recovered recently, did he?" Win asked as Ace shook his head.

"It's not just about the flashes of memories he received after Keiwa talked to you guys to ask about the memories that he had been missing." He sighed. "Keiwa... he managed to figure out the things that I—we—didn't want him to know."

"What?!" exclaimed Michinaga as Ace stared at each of them in the eye. He sighed again, almost tiredly this time.

"I didn't imagine that he would continue trying to piece together the information he received... and try to uncover the secret that had been hidden from him." Ace shook his head again. "He told me... that even after talking with you guys that time, he didn't remember anything. And I believed that. I was so foolish."

Ace gave Michinaga, Neon and Win a meaningful look. He even glanced towards Tsumuri. "Firstly, what did you tell Keiwa that time when you saw him after regaining your memories of the DesiGra? What actually did you tell him about the missing period that he didn't remember?"

"Did you guys tell him about the black Tanuki armour?"

"No! We didn't!" Neon immediately exclaimed in their defence. "All three of us had decided between ourselves that regardless of what we told Keiwa, we should never tell him about that black Tanuki." Neon sighed. "But the problem is..."

"We got caught," said Win as Ace stared at the man in confusion.

"—caught?" asked Ace, unsure of what they meant. "What did you mean—?"

Tsumuri sighed. "About that... Ace, that was partially my fault." Ace turned his head towards his sister as Tsumuri bowed to him apologetically. "I thought that Keiwa-sama would still try to find out about the past so... I restored their memories first. At least, that way... Neon-sama. Michinaga-sama... and Win-sama could prepare themselves before Keiwa-sama would try to ask them about the past."

"That was why I let Keiwa-sama take the Core IDs."

Michinaga shrugged. "That was good and all... but then Tycoon never came to find us."

Ace frowned at them. "Keiwa didn't—?"

"And just when we went to ask Tsumuri about it... Tycoon saw us together. So he found out that he didn't really need to restore our DesiGra-related memories... because we already retrieved them."

"So by hook or by crook, the three of us had to say something to him. Because he wouldn't accept us refusing his request."

"And he promised to try to be calm while hearing about it," said Neon as she, Michinaga and Win took turns to explain themselves. Win just shrugged.

"We told them how Jitt and Samas were trying to recover Tsumu-chan to turn her into the second Goddess, and how they dragged Kekera and Beroba into their schemes—"

Michinaga just scratched his head before adding, "—and we told him about Nadge-Sparrow's plan to infect more people to become part of his Parasite Jyamato legion so that he could harvest their memories as well as become the next Jyameity..."

Tsumuri bit her lips. "And since I need to somehow corroborate their story as well, I told Keiwa-sama that I ended up being kidnapped so that Jitt and Samas could turn me into the next Goddess."

Neon started flailing her arms around. "We didn't say anything about the things that he used to do after taking Tsumuri-san... just that, we told him about how we're trying to investigate the people who went missing because of Daichi, and later saw you cradling Keiwa's body."

xxx

Ace took a long breath after all four people in front of him other than Sara finished explaining everything to him. Win wrapped his arm around himself as he stared at Ace. "We told you our side, now you tell us yours. Tsumu-chan told us that you didn't want him to find out about the things that happened ever since Keiwa got that new buckle of his, and I can understand why—!"

"No, you don't—!" said Ace right away.

Michinaga growled at him. "What did you mean we don't understand? Back then you said that Jitt guy turned Tycoon into a puppet and used the guy to fight you. And that's why Tycoon sacrificed himself when he regain his will to help you save Tsumuri. So what's so hard to understand all about that?"

Ace shook his head rapidly. "It's not just that. Back then, Keiwa... had wanted to die. That's what I felt... when I took him in. I realized it back then even as I barely saved Big Sister from Jitt and Samas. Keiwa's words back then... he told me to not overreact. I thought he meant about the things I used to tell him in the past—how I've been reincarnated too many times that life and death no longer bothered me too much. So I shouldn't be too troubled at seeing him die. But actually—!"

"Keiwa was saying that because he had died once before... dying again for the second time shouldn't be such a big deal."

Everyone turned their attention towards the new speaker as Ace stared back at Sara. "So it was true, Keiwa did die once before! Was it... during that Heaven and Hell stage?" he asked plainly, even when he still couldn't quite believe it. Sara nodded.

Unbeknownst to the two, Michinaga bit his lips guiltily.

"So back then, I wasn't the only rider who died during that stage," Ace said softly. But then, he frowned. Wait... if Keiwa had died during that one Jyamato Grand Prix, how did he come back during the Desire Royale?

Sara answered that question almost as soon as Ace thought of it.

"I ended up joining the Desire Royale as a condition for Keiwa to be revived."

"Who made that off—?"

.

"We're getting side-tracked."

Ace turned around to look at Buffa warily. He wouldn't be surprised if the one who let Keiwa die at that time had been the reigning Jyameity at the time, who was crowned after he himself had been defeated; distracted by his rage over his mother's predicament. Buffa avoided Ace's eyes as he addressed the others. "The original question was about why Tycoon was in his current state, what was it that he actually knows that ties up to why yesterday's fiasco happened and how his getting into a coma was tied to Mister Fox here gaining his tails and powers and becoming human again. Why don't we get back to discussing that?"

And just like that, everyone's attention was ping-ponged back towards him again. Ace sighed.

Then again, everything was already in the past anyway... so there was no point to keep griping over old scores...

"Everything started from the point when Keiwa figured out that everything that happened until now was connected to him dying for the second time."

"Again, I'm saying that neither of us actually told him about how he ended up dead in your arms—!"

"Shut up, Buffa!"

"..."

.

Win eyed the two bickering young men as the punk rocker did some bit of thinking on his own. How about if they retrace their steps back up as to how Keiwa could've figured out the truth about what happened in the past without any one of them telling the guy any hints about the past? What could have been the biggest clue for Keiwa to connect all of the missing pieces of the puzzles that he didn't have?

He gasped.

"Keiwa-kun's heart surgery!"

"Huh?" exclaimed Michinaga as Ace turned to look at Win straight in the eye.

"That was it, wasn't it? The big hint that allowed Keiwa-kun to figure out the things that we didn't want him to know," Win spoke out again. "Keiwa-kun must have realized that what happened in the past must have something to do with his second death. And by using that hint, Keiwa must have deduced that Jitt and Samas's schemes... the Parasite Games... Tsumu-chan's kidnapping was all interconnected. Connected to him... and his second death. So even if Keiwa didn't end up recovering his missing memories when he started to use that Bujin Sword form, he still ended up finding out the truth!"

Ace nodded his head. "You guessed right. Because of that, Keiwa recalled a memory of something that even I didn't recall ever doing."

Win frowned at him. "The true reason why you're able to regain your tails and original powers?"

The fox rider nodded his head again.

"As well as the reason why I lost them in the first place."

.

Michinaga glanced at Win and back towards Ace. "So... what was it then?" he asked when the two of them stopped talking.

Ace made his six tails and fox ears reappear and solidify on his person again, as he grabbed a hold of one of the tails in question. He glanced back towards his 'friends'.

"Actually, I was the one who gave up these tails—these last few remnants of my powers—to Keiwa to keep him alive. Since I didn't quite revive him completely... his life had been very weak back then," explained Ace gloomily. "Which was also the reason, when these tails were returned to me... Keiwa started to lose his ability to remain awake for a very long time."

The tails and ears started to turn into wisps of supernatural energies again before vanishing from sight. Ace clutched his fist tightly.

"Because these small fragments of supernatural power had grown to become part of Keiwa's soul since then; when I got them back... I was literally draining out fragments of Keiwa's soul..."

xxx

Everyone became eerily quiet for a long time before Ace started talking again. Ace started wrapping his arm around his legs before burying his face against his knees.

"Nothing had happened to Keiwa until now because those memories had been sealed deep inside Keiwa's heart. But because he had been trying to get those memories back... the seal to those memories was eventually removed. And without realizing it, I was draining Keiwa's life force by being near him!"

Tears started to pool into Ace's eyes as he failed to prevent them from falling against his knees. His arms shook trying to contain the overflowing emotions that started to burst out all at once.

"I thought I could keep him safe by trying to maintain a certain distance between the two of us, but then my third tail come out afterwards even without me having physical contact with Keiwa. It scared me a lot when I realized that. So I tried to beg 'big' sister to take me far away from Keiwa, as far as she could possibly take me away to—!"

Ace continued to sob openly. "I even told him... that I didn't really love him that much! That Keiwa was so foolish to keep on being fooled and manipulated by me after so long! I told him that the next time I see him, I'd consume his soul until there's nothing left of him remaining!"

Ace kept on crying to the point that he became short of breath. It hurt her so much to watch him like that, that Sara started to wrap her arms around Ace's body as Ace continued to break down and bawled like a child.

"It's my fault that Keiwa had collapsed again—! Because I said all those things to him back then!"

"Shh..." Sara tried to soothe Ace as she started to massage Ace's back to help him to calm down. "That's not true... it's not your fault that Keiwa ended up like this—"

Ace shook his head.

"No—! Because Keiwa had grown to love me as much as Mother had loved me! Even though I didn't really deserve to be given so much love from anyone!"

"Because of me, like Mother... Keiwa will—!"

"Ace... sama...!" gasped Tsumuri softly.

xxx

Win finally let out a very loud sigh to break out the gloomy atmosphere around the room, before getting back up on his feet to rearrange the furniture back to normal. "So that's it... the complete explanation. This was really too big to take in all at once!"

He started to stretch his body to loosen up the tense muscles that started to form due to them sitting too long on the floor. Win glanced at his watch as his eyes lightened up.

"Ah! We still had a few hours left if we want to go to the hospital and visit Keiwa-kun. How about we all come and go see him?" Win scrunched up his face as he added. "But it's probably gonna be pointless if Keiwa's still unconscious. Even more, if he's still being kept in the ICU—"

Sara let out a shrug as the rest of them started to get up from the floor. "It's still fine, I guess. Since I still need to head there after this. Yesterday, Kiryu-sensei did say that he'd run more tests on Keiwa..." She sighed. "And I think, I'd appreciate the extra company."

She turned to speak to Ace. "How about it, Ace—?"

All of them turned around to find Ace no longer was with the rest of them. And seconds later they heard the sound of Keiwa's bedroom door slamming shut, with the sound of the door lock being clicked afterwards.

"That silly fox..." muttered Michinaga under his breath.

A/N2: *whistles* I ended up needing to cross-ref several fics many times to make sure that the plot aligns lol. Hopefully, it didn't end up too confusing.

I read this so many times the words started to look weird. Might as well just post it already