Chapter Text
Shinya stared at the bulletin board, his eyes trying — but failing — to avoid the poster left there as a courtesy to his family. A poster of his older brother: a photo that was cropped and five simple words in “bold.” The ‘ have you seen him’ had faded along with the rest of the image; UV rays had not been kind in the past five years. There was debate of taking it down, letting it live inside of a trash can… But that debate only echoed in Shinya’s head. Sometimes, when passing by, he would contemplate removing it from the board, because it was no longer news . His brother wasn’t dead — least not in the legal sense — but he might as well have been. There were only so many places they hadn’t searched.
A weight pressed onto Shinya, causing him to stumble forward. With a grumble, Shinya spoke, removing the arm that was wrapped around his shoulder. “What do you want, Hyousuke?”
Ryuzaki Hyousuke laughed. “Oh nothing,” he said in a sing-song voice. He didn’t dare to use more physical language, instead standing tall next to Shinya. “Me and the others were debating if we should go to karaoke — wanna go?” And yet he practically fell onto Shinya, using the junior as a crutch. The way that any strong wind would topple him onto the other, like a domino effect.
“I’m… Not interested.”
“Oh come on . This bulletin board always makes you uninterested.” He twirled a lock of his shoulder length hair. “Would it kill you to give it a rest?”
For a brief moment, Shinya glared at Hyousuke, but those harsh eyes failed to hold an edge for long enough. It softened and drifted back to the poster. It considered it’s friends words, knowing that he was probably right…
But some sentimental part of him didn’t want to let go.
“I’m going home,” he said.
As he walked away, towards the the cubbyholes that held his outside shoes and scarf, he half expected Hyousuke to call out after him. To the point that Shinya shot a glance back towards his senior. And in his hand was the missing poster, seconds away from being crumpled and thrown out.
Shinya smiled.
The brisk November air warned Shinya to stay on his path.
Occasionally he would wander into parks, hoping that if he sat long enough in the places he and his brother frequented as children, he would return. But the November winds told him to just go home, it wasn’t worth it this time. So he did so, stopping only to answer a text that he assumed was from his mother.
It wasn’t.
Hyousuke: What’s your address again?
Shinya: why
Hyousuke: Don’t be so cold!!
Shinya: don’t you have karaoke
By pure happenstance, Shinya rested by the gate of the one park that was on his way.
Hyousuke: I can do both no problem!
With a sigh, Shinya texted his address to Hyousuke and continued his walk.
Oh well , he thought to himself, wasn’t like I was doing much at home.
The door to his house was unlocked.
Locking it as he entered, Shinya called out that he was home, assuming his mom came home from a shift and simply forgot. But she wasn’t downstairs at all. So he called out again, calling her name, hoping the fact the door was unlocked didn’t mean trouble.
There was no response.
Shinya furrowed his brow. Heading towards the stairs, he called out again, this time being greeted by a door swinging opening. Did his mom just forget? She had to be fine, right? “You uh, left the door unlocked.”
In hindsight, Shinya shouldn’t have been so calm about the door being unlocked. Because it almost always meant trouble. Sure, who would’ve broken into his house and stayed? That was unreasonable — but in the case it was a recent breaking and entering… That was the scary part.
But it wasn’t a burglar, and honestly? A part of Shinya wished it was.
“Sorry about that, must’ve slipped my mind.”
Gripping the ledge and looking directly down at Shinya was someone that looked exactly like his brother five years ago. His brow was furrowed as he stared at Shinya, and all he could do was say his name.
“Takuya.”
“That’s me!” he said, far too chipper for the mood Shinya found himself in. A mood that was indescribable, impossible to sort out. Takuya stared at him, at a height Shinya would easily surpass if they were standing side by side. Wearing the same exact outfit that he did when he disappeared all those years ago, looking like it refused to age with the boy Shinya could only describe as immortal.
Which, for a second, caused Shinya to feel faint, nearly wobbling off the stairs as Takuya grabbed his wrist, trying not to let him fall. Coming to his senses, Shinya slapped it away, getting one good look at the situation to memorize it, before thundering down the stairs, running until he reached the landing.
And the situation — all three of them — followed him.
There were two of them behind Takuya; both were holding some kind of plushie in their hands, making Shinya feel sick to his stomach (they went shopping ? When Takuya had been gone for years ?). The one holding the green, worm-like one had dark hair blue in a layered bob, his eyes telling Shinya all he needed to know — he pitied the situation. A pity Shinya didn’t need.
Meanwhile, the other one, darker in skin tone and with spiky brown hair, carried a dinosaur looking plush and had his eyes narrowed as he reached forward, placing a singular, gloved hand on Takuya’s shoulder.
But Takuya mumbled something to him and inched closer to Shinya, making the height difference that wasn’t there before even more apparent. All while Shinya’s eyes darted around the room, trying to find something — anything — that would save him from the fact his brother, who had been missing for five and a half years , came back like time didn’t exist.
And that savior was his phone.
Hyousuke: What kind of cake do you like? ^^
Shinya: leave the cake - get here now
Taking a deep breath, Shinya stared at his open phone, refusing to close it. Because closing it meant facing Takuya and his little random posse. The one he collected instead of staying with his family and allowing Shinya to have a normal life with normal problems with normal relationships with the people around him.
Instead, he got people pitying him; people avoiding him because he was just a basketcase of problems. The only remotely good thing that came out from the whole mess was Hyousuke and even then, Shinya was sure he could befriend him on his own.
He didn’t need a pity party.
“Shinya… how old are you?”
From the corner of his eye, Shinya could see Takuya narrowing his eyes, furrowing his brow as he pieced together information that should’ve been apparent from just one look of the situation. Takuya was his older brother . And yet he looked thirteen . Meanwhile Shinya was sixteen through and through, how the hell was he supposed to explain that to anyone?
“No seriously… What happened? What’s going on?”
“You tell me,” Shinya said as the bell rang. The one thing that caused him to shut his phone close and take one last look at his brother. The immortal one. The one who lost all right to be his older brother.
As Shinya opened and slammed the door shut behind him, he exhaled. Hyousuke, who had a worried look painted on his face, held up a box presumably filled with slices of cake, giving a nervous smile.
“I know you told me to leave it, but —”
“Park. Now.”
The two of them sat on the swings at the local park Shinya used to frequent. The metal was cold, cold enough to shift Shinya’s thoughts from the shitty situation he was in to the swings themselves. But as the seat warmed up — a task that wasn’t so hard to do — his thoughts floated back to his brother. The way he wanted nothing to do with him.
The way he still wanted nothing to do with him.
“So…” Hyousuke said, trying to break the silence.
Silently, Shinya answered. “He’s home.”
“Who?”
Shooting a glare at Hyousuke, Shinya shrunk, knowing this needed an explanation he had to give.
“He’s home.” he said again, because maybe if he kept it vague, it would all be a hallucination. A dream that became reality because he willed it into being too hard. But if he denied it, it would go away.
“Once again, who ?”
Hyousuke wasn’t the brightest person in Shinya’s life — far from it. Which made this situation far worse. But for some reason… it felt okay, because it was Hyousuke and no one else.
“My brother,” Shinya said quietly.
“So why the long face? Shouldn’t you be happy?”
Kicking the dirt beneath him, Shinya’s mind tried running calculations on how to explain it. That Takuya looked the same? That despite five years passing his older brother looked like his younger brother ? No one would believe him.
But maybe Hyousuke would.
“He’s… exactly the same. He looks no different…”
“Shinya that’s impossible.” “Are you sure you aren’t hallucinating?” “Didn’t you say you had a really hard biology test? Maybe you studied too hard and its effecting your brain.” Were all things Shinya could see any reasonable person saying to his dilemma.
“Let me see him.”
Hyousuke, on the other hand, didn’t fall into that category.
“You… sure?” Shinya said, turning his head to look at Hyousuke, utterly baffled. “You believe me?”
He felt himself propel slightly forward as Hyousuke slapped his back. “Why wouldn’t I?”
Shinya shrugged in response, waiting for the swing to steady and hopped off. As he picked up the cake the pair left in between them, Hyousuke got up. His hand found itself on top of Shinya’s for a brief moment when they traded ownership of the cake. But in Shinya’s mind, he wished it could last for longer. He wished that it was simply a happenstance that lasted far longer than however long accidents lasted.
When the two of them made it to Shinya’s house, Takuya was right there. He was fidgeting at the dining room table as he talked to the two strangers that formed Shinya’s worse nightmare. All of them looked up when the door swung open, conversation ending once they realized Shinya was back.
Once a sense of normalcy was back.
Shinya shrunk, hiding behind Hyousuke, who was infinitely better than his phone. And Hyousuke?
He pointed out the obvious.
“Whoa, he looks the same as he does in the photos,” Hyousuke said, his booming voice shaking everyone who wasn’t him to their core. For a second, Shinya made eye contact with Takuya, before hiding back behind the wall he had befriended.
In those split seconds that Shinya got a good look at Takuya, he smiled. One that said hey. The same smile that signified a change in their dynamic way back when.
Shinya didn’t want to think about way back when. He wanted an out.
“I… I guess I do? I’ll be honest,” Takuya said, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head, “I didn’t know I was gone for all that long. I thought it was only about half an hour?”
What.
Hyperventilating, Shinya grabbed onto the back of Hyousuke’s uniform, racking his brain for any plausible excuse to get out of this conversation. If this was a normal situation, Shinya would be calling both of his parents. If this was a normal situation the cops would be here right now. If this was a normal situation…
But it wasn’t that and his mind couldn’t think.
Hyousuke turned around, probably noticing the death grip Shinya had on his shirt, and patted him on the head. “You can hide in your room, I’ll handle this.”
Grateful for the excuse, Shinya ran upstairs, barely sparing Hyousuke anything more than a curt nod. He went up to his room, finding the room familiar and comforting. Because at the very least, it didn't pull the same shit Takuya did.
Lying on his bottom bunk (they never did upgrade from a bunkbed to a twin), Shinya felt a tear roll down his face. He wanted to slap himself, completely aware of why he was crying, but not entirely sure if he wanted that to be the reason. Because he didn’t want to cry. He wanted to be mad . He wanted to be woken up.
He wanted to…
His phone buzzed with a miscellaneous text. Some scam offer, which he threw in the trash. As he blocked the number he went through his contacts, wondering if he could find someone to talk to who would distract him. Instead… He came across the kanji for Kouji’s name, one of Takuya’s old friends.
Dialing the number out of habit, Shinya waited for the ringer to click with the sound of his voice. Around four years ago, Kouji allowed Shinya to call him whenever for the purpose of venting about Takuya’s disappearance. And while Shinya didn’t use it often, simply out of not wanting to bother the other with his neediness, he did it enough times for it to become a habit. But the line rang until it hit voicemail, causing Shinya to sigh and shut his phone close.
A minute later, the phone lit up with Kouji’s caller ID.
“Is it important?”
“Yes?” Shinya said, the statement causing him to question himself. Was it important? Was he just hallucinating and bringing others into it? Hyousuke said Takuya looked the same as he did in the photos, but… What if he meant that differently ? And only Shinya was seeing the thirteen year old sitting in the dining room?
“You’ve got five minutes — I’m on shift.”
“I think need more than that,” Shinya said, finding himself on the verge of tears as Kouji kept talking. I have a job, you could’ve called literally anyone else, why did it have to be me? That wasn’t the Kouji who gave Shinya his number when his brother went missing.
That wasn’t him at all.
“Why are you even calling if you —”
“It’s about Takuya.”
“You couldn’t have said that —”
“He’s here.” Shinya said, his voice choking on the syllables.
The line went silent for a minute, before the sound of movement overtook the silence. Muffled, Shinya heard him ask for a coworker to cover, before he presumably locked himself in a room (bathroom? Storage?) and responded.
“Since when?”
“I don’t know… I got home an hour ago and he was there.”
“Did you tell your parents?”
Shinya shook his head, before realizing Kouji couldn’t hear that. “No.”
There’s silence on the other end, before Shinya continued for the two of them.
“He’s… He’s not aware five years has passed. He looked shocked when I saw him and asked me how old I was… He looks the same too.” Kouji didn’t respond, and so Shinya kept going, because his mind flooded with thoughts and feelings he didn’t want to have “There’s two others in my house… I don’t know any of them! I don’t even know my own brother; he said he thought he was gone for thirty minutes, I don’t even know… How to process that.”
Shinya let out a breath, overpowering any little sound Kouji could’ve made on the phone. There’s no response, just silence once again, before a sigh.
“Call your parents, I’ll call the others. I’ll get back to you in a bit.” And he hung up.
Shinya reluctantly dialed his father’s number..
Kouji unlocked the door to the storage area and gathered his things.
“Hey, remember how my best friend went missing about six years ago and we couldn’t find him?” he said to his boss, who happened to be the other person on shift. He wasn’t really one for conversation — not after everything that happened to him — and so he ignored the way his boss looked at him with a look that said “that’s certainly a way to start a conversation” and kept going. “Yeah, he’s home now, can I have the rest of the night off?”
With a sigh, his boss responded. “You really need to work on your social skills.”
“Is that a yes?”
“Yes, and you can have tomorrow off too.”
Giving a curt bow to his boss, Kouji ran out of the door, mid dialing his brother. He hit the call button as soon as he was at the corner, leaning on the traffic light’s pole as he caught his breath.
It was the first time in ages he was actually excited for something.
“Shouldn’t you be working?”
Sucking in his breath, trying to hide the fact he was running from Kouichi (which was futile — he could tell easily), Kouji responded, “Takuya’s back.”
“ Oh .”
There’s a pause from Kouichi while Kouji debated telling him about how he looked the same as he did five years ago apparently, or how frantic Shinya sounded on the phone. It was debatable what was important now and what could’ve waited just a tiny bit. But all Kouji knew was that he wasn’t going to intrude on the Kanbara’s reunion with his theories that sounded like bullshit.
They had enough to deal with.
“Can you call Izumi and Tomoki for me? Invite them to the apartment, there’s something we need to talk about.”
“Can’t you do that?” There’s a sigh on the other side. It was infectious, as it caused Kouji to do so as well.
“I could, but I don’t have their numbers anymore, remember? I got busy.”
Exacerbated, Kouichi responded. “Fine.”
When Kouji got home, Kouichi had just gotten off the phone with Izumi.
“Well?”
“Izumi’s coming, Tomoki can’t — he’s on academic probation currently and his parents don’t want him going out — and I’m assuming we’re calling Junpei when Izumi comes?”
Currently, Junpei was in college for mechanical engineering at Tokyo University, causing him to live in shared housing away from Shinjuku. Mostly to focus more on his studies, but Kouichi pretty assumed it was to get away from them.
The rest of the group didn’t take Takuya’s disappearance as well, though it was debatable how big of an influence he had on Kouji’s life in particular. About a year after the disappearance, Kouji “separated” from his parents (for all legal purposes, Satomi was their guardian, but otherwise they lived alone), dragging Kouichi along with him.
And Kouichi really had no say in all of it. Which was okay but Kouji’s standards but was… Questionable by Kouichi’s.
“You can text him,” Kouji said as he took off his shoes and put them on the rack. “I don’t want to bother him if he’s studying for a final or whatever.”
“Those are in January, Kouji,” Kouichi said with a sigh.
“You know what I mean,” Kouji said.
Due to the aforementioned situation, on a technicality, Kouji dropped out of school. Not fully, since Kouichi pretty much forced his younger brother to at least finish his highschool education in some form, but definitely according to most people. He showed up when he felt like it and didn’t have work scheduled.
Which relied on the stars aligning.
Kouichi took his phone out of his pocket and sent a text to Junpei like instructed. Kouji moved over to their pitiful dining room, not bothering to hide in his “room” to change out of his uniform.
Kouichi: r u free?
“So how long did Izumi said it’ll take for her to get here?”
Kouichi shrugged as he read the incoming text from Junpei.
Junpei: yeah! whatcha need?
Kouichi: Takuya’s back
was gonna call u when Izumi got here
Flipping close his phone, Kouichi wasn’t expecting an immediate response. Only for it to vibrate the same way as he would get a call, shocking and causing him to juggle the poor old flip phone.
“Let me guess, Junpei?” Kouji said with a small laugh as Kouichi picked up.
“Takky’s back? And you texted me this info?”
“Yeah? Sorry, we were going to call but we’re waiting on Izumi.”
“We?” And to that, Kouichi put the phone on speaker and rested it on the dining room table that Kouji sat at.
“Hey Junpei,” Kouji said, his voice sounding distant.
“Kouji! It’s been awhile! How are you?”
Letting the two get to their catch up conversation, Kouichi retreated into his room, flopping on his bed and trying to rest before the conversation he dreaded having.
It wasn’t that he un happy that Takuya came back… But it was just, complicated.
The buzzer rang and Kouichi emerged from his room, watching as Kouji opened the door to Izumi, still dressed in her school uniform. She took a seat at the only other available chair at the twin’s pathetic dining room table, curling up into a ball as she waved to Kouji.
The arrival of Izumi meant they could all finally talk about whatever it was that Kouji knew that the rest of them were in the dark about. Taking a stand closer to the table, only in order to make it easier on Junpei to be able to hear everything, Kouichi sighed and quietly spoke. “So… You ready to talk, Kouji?”
“Shinya called me —”
“So you didn’t talk to him,” Izumi interrupted with a sigh.
Kouichi noticed Kouji’s eyebrow twitch, the way it does so when someone asked something so obvious to Kouji (that was never shared outside of his mind) and he just wanted them to stop talking. Izumi never picked up on it, aside from noting that Kouji’s temperament had reverted back to when they had first met (which Kouichi had no baseline for, so he took her at her word), but it was one of those things that cause Kouichi to want to have a long talk with his brother about. A talk he could never have, as he grew scared of potential backlash. So instead, he buried himself in the beige turtleneck he wore.
“As I was saying , Shinya called me and told me Takuya didn’t age?”
Silence befell the group for a second, one that Kouichi was sure everyone but Kouji felt, as Kouji was the one who immediately broke the silence. “I think he went to the Digital World.”
“But you… Didn’t talk to him,” Izumi said quietly.
“I could believe that,” Junpei said directly after Izumi. “We couldn’t find him anywhere.”
Kouichi sighed, zoning out of the conversation that consumed the group. He knew Izumi better than the other two at this point — not due to being particularly close to her, but due to the fact he was simply the only one in her grade that showed up frequently enough. Everyone knew she blamed herself for Takuya’s disappearance, as unfortunate as it was — it happened on her birthday, after all. However no one knew the extent of it — how deep the blame ran, how far it carried her into barely functioning some days. How their classmates would stare at her and make fun of her, both too her face and to Kouichi in “private,” the significantly more popular one of the two. How girls would fawn over Kouichi and how Izumi would glare at him, because nearly everyone else left. He was the only one left, and people threatened to take him away.
Which always made him think: how devastated would the others be if instead of Takuya… It was him who went missing?
“Whatever, Izumi,” Kouji started. His tone was harsh, like someone asked him one too many questions and now he was tired. “We won’t see him until he contacts us.”
“Kouji don’t you think you’re being a bit harsh?” Junpei said, earning a slight nod from Izumi. “Sure, give him some time to get situated with his family, but… I don’t think we should wait on him, yknow?”
Sensing a needless argument, Kouichi rubbed his temples and made up a lie. “I think we should stop here, I’m starting to get a headache.”
“Oh okay,” Junpei started, interrupted by his own shock. “Oh shoot — it’s eleven! I promised someone I would help them study fifteen minutes ago!”
Saying his goodbyes, he hung up the phone, allowing Kouji to flip it close and stare down Izumi.
“I’m going to see him… I don’t believe any of this.”
“Then you do you.”
She got up slowly, saying nothing to Kouji and leaving with nothing more than a “see you tomorrow” to Kouichi. Who wanted to walk her out, but chose not to, in order to keep up the illusion of his headache.
One that his brother wholeheartedly believed. “I don’t.. Think we have anything for headaches? I could run back to work and pick something up?” he said as he stood up and grabbed onto Kouichi as a mother would to her sick child.
“I don’t need anything.”
Kouji nodded, letting go of his brother as he did so, but standing the same distance apart. “You should sleep then.”
“I know.”
But he didn’t want to sleep. He didn’t know what he wanted to do…
All he knew was that he did, in fact, want to talk to Takuya.