The novelty of the D4-V4 2.0 waxed and waned, and especially in light of the flashing lightning bolts outside, Shiyake could not see the joy anymore than he could see through the darkness.

Damn it! He jolted as another crack of thunder rolled across the sky. It's all Ichihoshi's fault!

Her consciousness was part of what supported the D4-V4 2.0 along Hope's Pinnacle's 4D cellular network. That meant her natural fear of storms was now "programmed" into the minds of every other user of the D4-V4 2.0 as well. It made sense, of course, why Lumina would fear storms, but Shiyake still looked down on it.

I was supposed to be the one UNAFRAID of thunderstorms! He tried to boast to himself, thinking bravely of his past, his genesis. His parents were on the run, baby Aoi Miyake in the backseat. The family's love was strong enough to stand against all of society, but even they were powerless against the merciless, icy, winter wind. The car careened down the long, dark, winding, mountainous road. Sheer luck alone kept Aoi Miyake alive long enough for help to arrive. Not EMS, but Shiyake.

"N-no… NO!" A consciousness split the second the crash occurred. Even though Shiyake would take years to fully develop, it was he who remembered what happened in the hours following their parents' tragic deaths. It was blistering cold, the winter wind still howling above them, and he could hear the rumbling of thunder as it shook the very earth upon which they lay, or maybe it was only other cars passing by… The lightning, after all, could've been headlights or high beams…

No matter what it was, though, it was a trauma only Shiyake could bear, hence his name, "Fourth, House of Death". Aoi forgot, never spoke of it, or him, for years. She healed and grew while he remained and protected. He was a harsh, fierce, demanding brother at first, but he had to be, in order for Aoi to survive. She was too soft, too quick and eager to please, and it was dangerous. He had to put them first, because she never did!

And how funny, it took a Killing Game in which they both lived and died in order for them to finally make peace. That was even why he was back to going by "Shiyake" now. In the Killing School Transfer, it was ALTER-EGO, blatantly stolen from the name of the club he and Aoi used to work at with the rest of RONDO. Back then, he hadn't trusted any of Aoi's classmates. And for good reason! One of them nearly killed her, and took an eye to boot! But now it felt as though their roles were reversing. At first, Shiyake was willing to trust some of the others with his "real name", but to slowly acquire a fear of storm as well? It was going too far!

I wasn't ready to integrate… I am the Persecutor, Protector Altar!

A voice cut through his thoughts, but for the first time, it wasn't from within his head. "Shiyake…"

"Aoi?" He looked up to see her, his sister, as she used to be, standing there before him. She was putting the D4-V4 2.0's avatar customization features to good use. So was he. Even though he technically never had a body until the D4-V4 2.0, it was habit for him to masquerade as the version of him that he always pretended existed, even though it was only inside Aoi's head.

He was her inverse, a long-haired, feminine man to her short-haired masculine woman. Anything to balance her out and differentiate them as much as possible, so that he could be as different from her as possible. To be everything that she was not on the night their parents died… That was why he wore a crisp, clean, white button-up while she wore baggy, black sweaters. While she smiled, he scowled.

Poor Shiyake… She was grateful for him. He really was just like her big brother, after all, there for her when no one else was able to be. But now she was finally seeing how stuck in the past he truly was. Scared of storms or not, he was always itching for a fight, not because he was naturally violent, but because he was always on the alert for danger, anything that could harm him or her. It's over now, I promise…

"I ain't scared!" he muttered defensively, tightening his arms around himself.

I never said that you were. Aoi barely bit back a smile. "I… kinda was…" The silence that hung between them was deafening, and Shiyake finally forced himself to meet Aoi's eyes again. Yes, she had them both back in the D4-V4 2.0, and they weren't made of metal, lights, glass, and wire as the ones of her new, robotic body were. "I know they can't really affect me anymore, at least not the way they used to, but… the memories, you know?"

His eyes widened. Whether he knew it or not, she chose every word carefully, speaking what she was certain his inner worries were, because they were her own. Even though they no longer had to share a body, they were still head-mates. As much as they liked to explore the world independently, they usually did not stay apart for long. Despite Shiyake's worries, assimilation was not as close to reality as he thought. Aoi wanted connection with him, but as the way she always had imagined it to be: siblings. And siblings relied on each other.

At first, Shiyake wanted to deny Aoi, push her away, literally and metaphorically, but there was a special visitor that dark and stormy night.

"Oh, j-j-jeez, this r-r-reads like a b-b-bad hurt/comfort fanf-f-fic…" Toko Fukawa sighed as she materialized into the D4-V4 2.0 virtual-reality simulator. Despite not being a native to the program, all the survivors across all of Junko's Killing Games were in touch with one another now. "I've g-g-got a f-f-few IT tec-c-ch nerds workin' on it outs-s-side." She jerked a thumb over her shoulder even though the place where these "IT tech nerds" were working was beyond their current realm and dimension. They could all hear the storm outside in the VR world within, but they could not interact with anyone outside the D4-V4 2.0 unless or until they left it themselves, instigating some of Shiyake's anxieties.

"D-d-don't worry about it, d-d-dude," she muttered, then her nose crinkled with disgust as if she was berating herself for using the word "dude". But even though she did not know Aoi or Shiyake well, she'd heard through the grapevine of other Ultimates, there was someone else with D.I.D. Toko didn't fancy herself the posterchild of D.I.D. or the token/resident "professor" thereof, but Shiyake sounded like a relatively easy case.

He's still stuck in his ego, she thought with a grim, dry smile. It was a forgivable sin, one all were guilty of, but it was all the root and cause of every core fear. The storm was scary, undeniably, so why not remedy that fear?

Because Shiyake didn't even want to admit that said fear existed. And so long as he's got THAT fear…?

"L-l-l-listen, man, me and Genocider know enough to know that this is s-s-some pretty bas-s-sic st-stuff…" She gave a onehanded shrug, trying to look and sound disinterested. Shiyake quirked an eyebrow at her. The stutter didn't help. But Toko was like Shiyake in more ways than any of them realized. Aside from having D.I.D., Toko also wasn't very good with her emotions, often guarded out of fear, distrust, and hatred for a world that had done nothing but hurt, abandon, and betray her over and over and over again. At least until… Komaru… And Genocider… We worked together!

"That idiot," Toko shrugged indifferently, "h-h-helped me see that what w-w-worked in the past d-d-doesn't always w-w-work in the present or f-f-future." It was a very simplified way of saying, your trauma is valid, and I can see how it shaped you into who you are today, but this is not that time anymore, and you can adjust to a new foundation. It's not easy, of course, but you're safe now in a way you weren't back then.

So come on, idiot, Toko thought with a sly, dry smile at Shiyake. You don't have to be afraid anymore.

"It's c-c-common s-s-sense, assessing the a-a-a-allies you ha-have! Duh!" Perhaps reframing would help him see it in a new light… If he was truly the Ultimate Protector, then he knew everything about what it meant to be a good protector, including how to be protected in turn. He knew just how to look after Aoi, and another way to check himself and hone his skills as the Ultimate Protector was to allow the roles to reverse (at least sometimes). Though of course, Toko and Aoi both knew it would take a lot more than a few philosophical words to soften Shiyake's heart.

As if fate was eavesdropping, the rumbling outside finally ceased.

"Oh, g-g-good! Those idiots f-f-finally fi-fi-finished…" Toko muttered, then she glanced at Aoi. "Can I g-g-go now?"

"Sure, Toko, thank you," Aoi chuckled and shook her head with a smile. Toko gave her a look before no-clipping back the way she'd come.

Shiyake shot Aoi a disbelieving look. Did all of that really just happen? Aoi only shook her head again, still smiling serenely back at him.

I know Toko's an… interesting choice of motivational speaker, but I know she's worked with Hiiro before, so I know they both have a lot of knowledge about D.I.D. It was part of what drew Aoi to Hiiro the first time they ever met, even though Aoi would not be comfortable in telling the Ultimate Diviner about her alter until much, much later.

Like Shiyake, Aoi couldn't help but muse on how much the Killing School Transfer managed to take away from them, and yet also give, and always in ways they never would've expected. It was bittersweet thinking Aoi would never have a human body ever again, but she was able to interact with Shiyake in a way that never would've been possible in any other timeline. Of course, there was the literal level, they were able to stand side by side as they were now, but on the metaphorical…

Aoi chuckled to herself again. Shiyake was still closed off, she could see, but there was a distant look in his eyes. He was thinking, and that was a very good thing. Someday, they would get him to trust, because he deserved that too, and someday, the storms wouldn't scare him anymore, or at the very least, he would no longer be afraid to reach back out to his sister.

AN: For DreamTGE aois_mascot (Twitter), one of my most vocal D4DR fans (mostly for ALTER-EGO, I like your style, LOL).

To counter-balance the chapter with Aoi/Shiyake and Genocider that occurred in the past, here's a chapter with Aoi/Shiyake and Toko that occurs "in the future" (Can be seen as a sequel to D4DR while the other was a prequel).

Also in this canon, Aoi and Shiyake start off as sister and brother, then throughout D4DR, Aoi explores gender expression and begins to identify as genderfluid and use any pronoun, so I consider this a moment where Aoi identifies as a woman while Shiyake is currently identifying as a man, but of course it could change depending on their gender identities at any given moment.

Plus it helps differentiate them and that's an underlying theme of Shiyake and Aoi: trying to be as different from each other as possible—despite wanting to protect each other—out of that old guilt and fear from their mutual trauma as children.