#heyyyy I haven't written anything in like six years (ha) but i have ai:ni brainrot so

[ham-samwich]

Date, in the days after the HB case.

Word count: 4441

The first thing Date does—the first thing any of them do—after the stadium is drive to the hospital. 

He’s aware that they’ve won. He had heard the scooters speeding up in the air, seen the explosion in his peripheral vision, and registered the cheering coming from the voices around him. 

Tearer is dead, and the Initiative was too.

Date doesn’t care.

All he can think about is the boy in his arms. He’s not a boy anymore, really—he’s 29 and experienced and bleeding out in front of him. 

Ryuki had taken a bullet for him. 

Six years ago, Date remembers the boy who couldn’t shoot—couldn’t take Date’s life to save himself or the others. And here he was, again sacrificing himself for Date’s own life.

A voice interrupts his thoughts. 

Hey, asshole! Don’t just sit there, he needs medical attention!

He recognizes the voice as Tama. Right, he thinks back at her, I’ll take him to the hospital. Ryuki needed it. His heart beats, slow and softly, and his eyelids fluttered. 

Riot police aren’t letting anyone past them. Ambulance can’t get through. It’ll be faster to just drive.

Date stands, carefully cradling Ryuki and lifting him bridal style. It’s quieter now. The others seem to have noticed him. Mizuki—his daughter, his little girl, not so little anymore—locks eyes with him. There is a silent communication, even without the use of Aiba or his eye socket or any other technology. It’s good to know they can still understand each other, even after all this time. 

⸺

Ota, Iris, Moma, Shoma, Gen, Kizuna, and Lien pile into that ridiculous armored vehicle they’ve got. Without a word, Kuranushi—Mizuki’s sister, her Bibi—takes Date’s car keys. She gets into his car and for once he finds himself uncaring of the condition he gets it back in. 

He carries Ryuki into the back of his limousine. Mizuki—his Mizuki—clambers in after. Tama drives. They’re silent on the drive to the hospital. 

The limo gets to the hospital first. They stop in front of the emergency room, and Date rattles off information to the paramedics as they lift him gently onto a stretcher. His blood type, the status of the wound, anything he thought might be helpful. He does his best to keep his cool as they take him into surgery. As soon as Ryuki was out of sight, Date turns to Mizuki. She’s bruised and dirty, and he’s pretty sure she’s taken a bullet or two. 

“You should get seen, too, Mizuki.”

Her eyes are fixed on the door that they had taken Ryuki through. She responds to him, with that sass he hadn’t known to miss, “I’ll be fine, old man. It’s not enough to kill me.”

“Still,” Date says, “you’re not immortal. Please, Mizuki. I—I couldn’t—”

She understands him then. She looks him in his eye, and Date is struck by Aiba’s presence in Mizuki’s left eye socket. He hadn’t been there, when she lost her eye. He hadn’t seen her after the explosion in the cathedral. Had it been then, that she had been injured? Or did she have it extracted when she joined ABIS? Either way, he felt the guilt rise in him. He hadn’t been there to help her, with the recovery or the adjustment or the grief—he didn’t think he could stand it if she was hurt again.

“Okay.” She turns away from him again, “I’ll talk to a doctor.” She takes his hand, holds him tight, and they walk up to another employee. She describes her injuries, and the doctor says she’ll probably need surgery, because there’s apparently still a bullet in her. She squeezes his hand, and then reaches up to her eye. She hands him Aiba. 

“I’ll be right back, old man. Don’t go anywhere.” She gives him that smirk that he knows so well and walks away with the doctor. 

As soon as he’s alone with Aiba in the waiting room, he collapses into a chair. He feels numb. He’s cold. There are tears in his eye and he feels six years of built-up grief flooding over him. 

Date. Aiba is still in his palm. She opens up her AI sight in his vision. He sees himself, and he’s covered in dirt and soot and Ryuki’s blood. There are no wounds or bruises or blemishes on the false face he wears. 

Date, Aiba says again. He looks at her, fully, and he is hit with the weight of his grief again. He had missed her, god above he had missed her, and she was here and he hadn’t said anything to her outside of the adrenaline rush of the case and the battle. He slips off his eyepatch, which was falling apart anyway and would soon be replaced, and lifts Aiba up, closer to his face. He doesn’t place her in his eye socket. They had worked together at the stadium, but he knows. It’s been six years. Had she moved on? He knew that she had worked with the other Mizuki, in those weeks before his disappearance, but they had been united in those final moments in the cathedral. Now, she had spent, presumably, six years working with the new Special Agent Date. He knew that he was sometimes, well, often, difficult to be with. And Mizuki…Mizuki was better than him, in every way, as much as he would never say that to her face. Aiba would almost certainly prefer Mizuki…right?

He hears a little click and a whirr from Aiba, and he recognizes her self-cleaning function. She wriggles into his eye socket and settles there. I’m home, she says, and he wants to cry like he did at the harbor when she appeared before him.

Welcome home, he says, and he settles in his seat, comforted by her presence. 

⸺

The other Mizuki arrives a few minutes later. She is accompanied by Boss and Pewter. Date and Aiba relay the information from the doctors about Mizuki and Ryuki. Boss accompanies the older Mizuki to the doctors—apparently she has a heart condition, and while she isn’t injured Boss wants her to do a full check up. Pewter sits next to him in the plastic chairs of the waiting room. He gives Date a brief update on Amame, but doesn’t expect a response and doesn’t say anything else, for which Date is grateful. 

The rest of their entourage shows up some time later, though how much later Date isn’t sure. Shoma and Gen have gone home, but they’ve picked up Hitomi on the way. Mizuki is out of surgery, and she is awake in her hospital room, smiling as Iris and her faithful backup dancers—Ota and Moma, who have as much grace as maturity—attempt a dance routine in their limited space. Hitomi holds Date’s hand, and he feels like he did six years ago. That they’ve got a little family, strange as it is. The doctors say Mizuki should be good to go home tonight. 

Ryuki, on the other hand, is still in surgery. It’s a complicated one, Boss tells him, between the bullet and the TC-PERGE. He’ll be in the hospital for a while. 

Mizuki is discharged just as the sun begins to set. Go home, Boss instructs, I’ll take care of Ryuki. He trusts her.

The group follows Date and Mizuki out. She stops them, as they reach the parking lot. “Actually, guys…I appreciate the support, but I think I’d like a quiet night at home. Is that okay?”

They accept her wishes, bidding a cheerful farewell and promises to visit and drop off food and gifts and the like. They disperse into the setting sun, and Date watches them go until it is only himself, Mizuki, and the other Mizuki. The other Mizuki looks at her younger sister with love, and Date recognizes that face. It’s the one he wears himself—the desire to protect her, to stay with her. Date will defer to Mizuki here. 

But Mizuki surprises him. “Thanks, Bibi. You live with Boss, right? Do you want a ride back?” An offer of kindness, but the message is clear: Bibi is not coming home with them.

Kuranushi looks a little surprised, too, but she quickly covers it. “I’m okay. You three get home safe, okay?” 

Mizuki smiles. “Yeah, you too, Bibi.” She takes Date’s hand, then, and Date only has time to wave at Kuranushi before Mizuki is dragging him back to his car.

“You’re driving, old man. It’s your car.” Date fumbles for a second, before pulling out his car keys—Kuranushi had returned them, when had she done that?—and unlocks the car. Mizuki jumps into his passenger seat, and he grips the steering wheel.

A sudden terror takes over him. He doesn’t know where Mizuki lives. No way she had kept their old apartment, she would have gotten something better and more suited to just her. There wasn’t space for him, in her new life. She had had six years on her own. 

Aiba and Mizuki must both sense his trepidation. Aiba opens up a GPS navigation in his vision, and he recognizes the destination. Mizuki hadn’t moved out. She had stayed in their apartment. She must have cleaned out his stuff, he thinks, his old bed and his computer and his audio set—

“What are you thinking, old man? You better not be thinking about anything dumb. We still live in the same place, so get out of that brain of yours and drive.”

Date’s brain kicks into gear. He gets his feet on the pedals and starts driving, following Aiba’s helpful navigation. He fixates on something she said. We still live in the same place, she said. We, she said, and Date got the sense she didn’t mean herself and Aiba. He still had a place in her life. 

Mizuki falls asleep on the drive home. Aiba takes this chance to speak up. 

“She missed you, Date.”

“I—I missed her, too. Even if I didn’t know it. Those years when I didn’t have my memory…I knew something was missing. I stayed in a little room in Atami. Every time I came home, I…I was expecting someone to respond, if I said ‘I’m home.’ And I was lonely, too. I was always…talking to someone who wasn’t there.”

He can’t see Aiba, since she doesn’t have a good place to project herself, but he senses her sad smile. “You didn’t start driving, because you weren’t certain that you knew where home was, correct?” She doesn’t need to wait for his response. “Mizuki has hardly changed the apartment since you’ve been gone. Almost all of your stuff is untouched, apart from your hard drive and your adult literature. She erased your so-called ‘husbandry’ videos and threw out your magazines. Other than that…the apartment is mostly the same. She never stopped believing that you would come home.”

And Date feels like crying again. Mizuki had waited for him, in those six years that he had been a useless failure of a father, wandering Atami without his memories. 

“You are an inextricable part of Mizuki’s life. And of my existence too, Kaname Date. Even though I’ve spent these six years with Mizuki, you were my first partner. I will never forget that.” 

There’s nothing else to be said. They finish the drive in silence.

———

Mizuki wakes up when he parks the car. She holds his hand again as they walk up the stairs. She never really held his hand, even when she was eight, and this must be the third time today. He mentions this to her.

“Yeah, well, just—” She stutters, and puffs her cheeks out in a pout. “Shut up, old man.”

There is a natural human inclination for touch, Aiba says, and Mizuki turns her face away, but not fast enough for Date to miss the redness on her face from embarrassment. 

They reach their front door, and Mizuki pulls away. She opens the door, and he’s a step behind entering when she whips around. There’s some uncertainty on her face. 

“I know we did this at Brahman already…but I want to do it right.” Date is confused for a second, then he nods and steps back. She closes the door on him. He waits. Counts to six. One for every year he missed, he says to himself. 

He knocks. Mizuki opens the door, welcomes him in. “Welcome home, Date.” 

“I’m home, Mizuki.”

———

Mizuki takes a shower first. It’s a testament to just how resilient she is, that she had surgery earlier that day and she’s still moving around like nothing happened. He knows it’s to do with Horadori Institute’s experiments, but he likes to think that it’s because Mizuki is just that strong. He’s always believed in her strength.

Date sits on the couch where he had slept. He can see his speakers, untouched as Aiba had promised, and Adorabbit rests on top of his desk. The corkboard above his desk has changed. It’s not the Cyclops case, or even the HB case. Well, it’s got bits of the HB case, but not the parts he expects. It’s pictures and blueprints of the cathedral, information on thermite bombs and the architect’s report that deemed the cathedral unsafe. There’re pictures of himself, both with and without his silicone mask, and blurry security camera shots of people who slightly resembled him. A missing persons report, Ryuki’s case summary, and a crude drawing of Tearer that had clearly been stabbed through many times. 

I told you, Aiba says, she never stopped hoping. She couldn’t always be looking, between school, ABIS, and Lemniscate, but she always kept an ear out. 

“Ryuki…Ryuki didn’t say anything? Ryuki would have thought I was dead, what with…” 

He did not. His official report says that he found my body, apparently thrown from a pile of rubble, and the ceiling began to collapse before he could find you. Date considers that. Knowing Ryuki, he would have blamed himself, so why would he lie in the case report? And Tama never said anything, either, though Date supposed that Tama was much more loyal to Ryuki than she was to ABIS, and he couldn’t fault her for that.

Aiba is hesitating. She projects her image onto Mizuki’s weightlifting equipment, sitting on the bench as Date turns to her from his spot by the desk. He furrows a brow at her, and she speaks up again.

“I don’t have memories of that case. They were lost when my body was damaged, because ABIS communications prevented me from making back-ups. So I do not remember my time with the other Mizuki, and I do not remember your last moments.”

Date, as much as he hates himself for it, is comforted that Aiba doesn’t remember her time with Kuranushi. He and Aiba had fought over some petty thing, and she had left. That hurt more than he wanted to admit. He got the sense that Aiba had more to say, so he nodded at her to continue. 

“Ryuki said that you threw me from a crash site. Is that true?” And again, Date has to question why Ryuki would lie about that. He can’t fully process the emotions in Aiba’s voice. Is she hurt at being thrown, or relieved that he would try to save her? He decides on the truth.

“No. It’s not true. Aiba, I—as much as possible I wanted you to stay with me. But I—I was trapped. I couldn’t move, and there was damage to your body already. When Ryuki found me, I knew by then that I wasn’t getting out. He told me the others were safe, and that he was gonna help me, but I couldn’t think of anything else then. I gave him your body, and I asked him to keep it safe.”

He couldn’t tell if that was what Aiba wanted to hear, but she still looks at him with such affection that it hurts. “Is that when the ceiling collapsed?”

He hesitates, but he knows that Aiba knows already. “First I had to ask him…if he was the one who Tearer met at the abandoned factory. He…admitted it. Then the ceiling started to shake, and I told him to run. A big chunk of rock came down right above me, and I heard him scream. That’s all I remember.”

Aiba processes his story. She doesn’t say anything as Mizuki comes out of the bathroom, wearing Adorabbit pajamas that he’s surprised and secretly glad she still has. Well, they’re not the same set she had when she was twelve, she must be bigger now, but it’s still a familiar sight. Date catches her eye—her singular eye, and he’ll need the full story later—and she gives him that fond smirk. “Go shower, you old pervert, you stink.” She plops down on her bed and fiddles with her smartphone. Date lifts a hand to his eye, and Aiba drops into his palm, before taking her helicopter hamster form to settle on the bed next to Mizuki. Date moves into the bathroom.

He takes his time pulling off his gloves, unbuttoning his coat. He tugs down the collar of his turtleneck and his fingers brush where his silicone mask ends. He hesitates, but he slowly peels off the mask. Underneath he is met with his own face, the face of Falco, of Yagyu. The face he had worn for six years in his absence from his family. 

When he had first regained this face, he couldn’t quite adjust. He thought it might just take some time—it was his face, after all, the one he was born with and the one he had spent three decades in. But it wasn’t him. Not the one he knew. In this face he had killed dozens, been an assassin, had failed Hitomi and Iris, had seen Mizuki shot, had lost Aiba—this face was the failure. So he had a custom mask made, with the excuse to Boss that everyone knew him when his face was Saito’s. She had accepted his explanation, and he carried on with the false face because he couldn’t bear to see his own. 

He wore that failure face when he had no memories. He had woken up in some warehouse, and a ghostly man with half a face had greeted him. Date had been afraid, but when it became clear that he had no memories the half-faced man stopped caring. The half-faced man, who Date later found out was Uru Somezuki, had him tossed in the back of a van and abandoned by some highway in Shizuoka. 

He had taken off the mask then. He had no use for it, but he kept it safe and in good condition. He didn’t know why, but he got the sense that he might need it. Or want it. Why had he been wearing a mask, when he was taken by the half faced man? But he couldn’t shake the feeling that he couldn’t let go of the mask. 

When he saw the news about Jin Furue’s other half, and his memories came flooding back, he smashed the bathroom mirror, and itched until he put his mask back on.

He showers quickly, and slips into one of his old t-shirts and pajama bottoms. He comes back into the main room to find Mizuki dozing slightly, and Aiba sitting on her charging port, though still powered on and alert. 

Mizuki startles, and looks at him. She takes a moment to register his face, his real face, before she speaks, “Okay, I’m going to sleep now. Goodnight, Date, Aiba.”

“Goodnight, Mizuki.” He finds blankets and a pillow on his couch, and settles in. 

Goodnight, Mizuki, he hears from Aiba. Then, privately, Goodnight, Date. 

Goodnight, Aiba, he thinks back at her. And they’ve still got lots to do and lots to talk about, but for tonight, they’ll rest. 

———

Both of them sleep well past dawn. The next day or two is a blur. They drive to ABIS to give their official reports. Boss takes them out to lunch at Brahman, where Date and Mizuki can meet the other Mizuki more properly. She tells Date he can call her Quartz or Kuranushi or Mizuki or anything really—but Bibi is off-limits, his Mizuki only. He settles on Kuranushi, because she doesn’t really seem to like Quartz and “Mizuki” would be too confusing, but he resolves to get her a better nickname. 

They don’t visit Brahman or the Enda residence yet. Mizuki says that Gen and Shoma both need time, and Date understands that. They drop by Sekiba High to talk to Mizuki’s principal. She’s taking some time out of school, Date insists, and she won’t argue. She’ll graduate soon, and he swears he’ll be there for it. He won’t miss anything else in her life. 

That evening, Date makes them dinner. He tries to tell Mizuki that he’s gotten better at cooking, and she has too, but Mizuki insists and he makes the stew. They eat dinner at their little table (Aiba, in her hamster form, sits on the table, and projects a holographic image of her human form. She can’t eat, or even interact with anything physically, but Date and Mizuki give her a bowl full of stew anyway). They eat dinner and they feel like a family. 

The next day, they visit Matsushita Diner for lunch. They meet up with Iris, Kuranushi, and Kizuna. Iris talks about her new single and Kizuna helps her choreograph a new routine. Date feels old, like an intruder, but none of them seem to mind. He settles at the counter while the girls prance around the diner and Ota plays Iris’s song over the diner’s speakers. 

Right before they leave, Iris pulls him aside. Boss is planning another flash mob, like she did when he got Aiba back. It’ll happen as soon as Ryuki’s better, so come over to the Sagan place to start practicing, but don’t tell either Mizuki, because it’s their surprise.

Speaking of Ryuki…

Kuranushi offers to take Mizuki on a “sister bonding day” tomorrow. Mizuki accepts, but she counters that Iris and Kizuna should come too, because Iris is Mizuki’s sister via Hitomi and Date (which Date’s unsure about. They haven’t had the chance to talk, so he doesn’t know if Hitomi would even want him around. When he thinks about it, they’ve been apart more than they’ve been together. Still, he loves her) and Kizuna is obviously Kuranushi’s little sister. While Mizuki is out with the girls, Date resolves to visit Ryuki. 

Mizuki makes them dinner that night. She really has gotten better at cooking.

———

Aiba spends most of the days in Mizuki’s eye socket. Date misses her, but Mizuki and Aiba make a good pair.  It makes more sense, too, since he’s more used to navigating life with only one eye. He wishes Mizuki didn’t have to, but he’s glad for Aiba’s assistance. He wears his eyepatch or sometimes his glass eye.

He’s also grateful that it means he’ll have some privacy when he visits Ryuki. He drops Mizuki off at the mall—she hasn’t gotten her bike replaced yet—and he waves off the group before setting the GPS to Central Hospital.

He buys flowers from a shop on the way. He doesn’t know what else to bring, and he doesn’t want to show up empty handed. 

He knew that Ryuki didn’t really have living family, but it’s still depressing to see how quiet his room was, in comparison to Mizuki’s a few days ago. It’s mid-morning, but Ryuki is sound asleep. He sets the flowers on the windowsill, and a feminine voice greets him.

“Well, if it isn’t the missing man himself.”

“Hello, Tama,” He greets back. She is perched in her seaweed extract form on the headboard. She seems slightly miffed at him, but her tone softens as she updates him on Ryuki’s condition. 

“He’ll be okay,” She says, and there’s so much care in her voice that Date forgets she’s an AI, “They took the bullet out, and we avoided any major damage to his spine. He’ll need some physical therapy, probably…and regular therapy, too.” Date doesn’t know what to say to that. He has a question for Ryuki, but he doesn’t think he could really face Ryuki when asking, so he decides to ask Tama. 

“In Ryuki’s report...he never reported me dead. He had no reason to believe I was alive, and he lied about talking to me. Do...do you know why?”

Tama’s voice is firm again. (Ryuki hadn’t been kidding when he had mentioned how quickly she could change.) “I hope you’re not accusing him of anything.”

“I’m not,” Date quickly refutes, “I just want to know why.”

She feels like she’s frowning at him, even without a mouth to frown with, “He blamed himself. He couldn’t live with the idea that you were gone, and that it was his fault. He looked up to you so much that he...he wanted to believe that you were alive.

“It’s not his fault, by the way!” She exclaims suddenly, and Date is taken aback. 

“I know! I know, and I don’t blame him, for anything he did. Even when he followed Tearer’s plan, he did it to protect you. If there’s anything I can understand, it’s that.” Tama accepts his forgiveness, and she is quiet for a moment. She looks back at her partner, still undisturbed in his rest. She doesn’t meet his gaze when she speaks again. 

“He’s in love with you, you know.” And yes, Date knows, how could he not? He’s not so oblivious to miss the way that Ryuki looked at him, the way he shielded him without hesitation, the way that Ryuki hung on to his every word, even when it was the dumbest unfiltered nonsense coming out. 

“I know.”

“And?”

“I can’t. I don’t…I don’t love him the same way.” Tama fixes him with a glare, which is surprisingly intense given that she’s only an eyeball. “I care about him. He’s my junior, and my friend, but I don’t love him like that.”

He’s again surprised by the softness in Tama’s voice. “Well, I figured as much,” she says, and there’s no anger in her tone at all, “As long as you do care about him, that’s enough.”

“I do care about him,” Date repeats, “And I know you’ll take care of him. And anyway, I’m too old for him. He’ll find someone. Someone better for him, with more to give him. Someone who will really make him happy.”

“He will,” Tama smiles, “And he’ll never be alone. I swear it.”

They both take a minute. Ryuki is still asleep, at peace in the golden sunlight. Date won’t wake him, and neither will Tama. Date knows he’s in good hands, even if those hands are made of seaweed extract. He leaves Ryuki and Tama in the hospital room with a promise to visit again while Ryuki’s awake.

———

It’s just past noon when he arrives at the Sagan residence. Iris and Mizuki are still out, so he and Hitomi cook lunch. He leaves his mask on. He’s not quite ready to face himself. But he’s got his family. He’s got Ryuki who will be out of the hospital soon, he’s got Boss and Pewter who want him back to work, Hitomi and Iris who want him and Mizuki over for dinner constantly, and he’s got Kuranushi to get to know better. 

Most importantly, he’s got his daughter and his partner. Mizuki and Aiba, who will come home from their day at the mall and see his real face and that’s okay. They accept him, all his failures, and welcomed him home even after his absence. 

So maybe he’s a little more emotional when he says “Welcome home” that night, without his mask. Sue him, he’s got years to make up.