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[If there was one thing Takatora was sure he should have learned by now, it would be how to keep his life in perfect running order. He had been the head of Yggdrasill's Research and Development branch from the moment he'd left high school and even before that, his father had kept him on a tight and strict schedule, never a second unaccounted for or left out of place. Unfortunately, with all of Takatora's scheduling and trying to squeeze an extra hour into every day, he still felt as though he never had time for anything, let alone everything. Even his weekends left little time for himself, though Takatora was also painfully aware of his obsession with triple-checking everything under his command and bringing such weight onto himself. He couldn't allow for errors.

His morning routine started a bit later on the weekends, if only because Takatora knew he had to catch up on sleep at some point to make up for running himself ragged. Getting sick was something he couldn't risk. The usual morning routine went by quickly: dragging himself out of bed (he'd never become a morning person, as much as he wanted to), showering, getting dressed, checking for any news or alerts while he had been sleeping. Thankfully, nothing important had happened during the night. Takatora always lived with the fear of something awful happening while he was asleep that he would be unprepared for, but every morning brought the same temporary relief. For now.

Takatora headed out of his room after an hour or so, still checking his phone as he made his way down the hall and towards the stairs. Ryouma already wanted to talk to him about something, which was mildly surprising as Ryouma rarely (never) got out of bed so early, which meant he'd been up all night again. Stepping past one of the maids, Takatora spoke a return greeting to her as he continued on, paying more attention to typing out messages than his surroundings.]

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No, I just have confidence in you.

[He's definitely more tired than he thought. Or was that a genuine thought? He's not even sure anymore.]

[When Takatora finally disappears into his room and shuts the door, it takes awhile before he finds the strength to come back out. Before changing, he calls a nearby delivery location and places the same order he tends to get for himself on the nights he's not feeling well, as well as an order for Mitsuzane -- and a bit extra, on the chance his younger brother has to stay home the next day and doesn't want to ask someone to make him something. (If anyone knows how boring the food in the house gets after awhile, it's Takatora.)

The process of changing out of his suit makes the weight settle on his shoulders even more. His chest hurts, his stomach aches, and it makes him wonder how he's ever going to manage to keep food down if his nerves are so shot.

He changes from his suit into a t-shirt and loose sleep pants, because with the knowledge of how long this conversation might take, he wants to be comfortable and not thinking about how much longer he'll need to sit around waiting to change. It also means he doesn't have to change again before dragging himself into bed. He tosses a hoodie on as well, zipping it halfway. It's an outfit where he would normally die if anyone saw him wearing it, but tonight is an exception.

By the time he's finished, nearly thirty minutes have passed and Takatora walks out of his room just in time to hear the knock at the door. Now, he stands outside of Mitsuzane's room balancing the food in one hand and lightly knocking on the door with the other.

... really, this felt like an exceptionally usual night for how 'normal' brothers might act, other than the conversation about to take place.]

[Micchy makes sure his room is put together before he changes, hiding the belt and Lockseed in a bag inside of another bag. He can't risk it getting damaged or Takatora stumbling into it. He's careful when changing, making sure that he doesn't pull too far to the left considering his bruises. They're healing, but they still sting.]

[He changes into a blue t-shirt and some comfortable sleep pants, and spends a few minutes sitting and thinking before Takatora knocks on the door. It's not quite meditating, but he does have to file away all of the information of the day and it works better if he can just do it before he forgets anything.]

[Micchy puts a small smile on his face when Takatora does knock, pulling open the door and holding it for him before closing it after him. He's not stupid, he knows that sound can carry, and if the reason he wants to talk in here is that someone is listening, better to put as many barriers between them as he can.]

I'm sorry about having to do this. I hope you don't mind.

[Takatora walks further into the room, setting the food down on the table and carefully, methodically unpacking it. Anything extra he keeps in the bag, tying it up and setting it on the nearest flat surface to keep it out of the way. He takes the two bowls meant for Mitsuzane and sets them closer to his brother's side of the table before taking a seat, working on opening his own.]

I ordered you vegetable curry. It's not very spicy, but enough that it might help clear what you have left of your cold.

That's fine. I don't mind at all. Thank you.

[He's more curious than anything else, really, but he can wait. He eats slowly and carefully, not wanting to appear either too anxious or too eager.]

[Mitsuzane doesn't have to worry about being the first one to bring up the topic or seeming too anxious, because despite how much he doesn't want to talk about it, part of Takatora wants to get it over with. He unpacks his food (curry as well, and amazingly spicy if the scent is any indication, along with a pork cutlet) and eats as carefully and properly as always, despite his generally relaxed state. There are some habits he simply can't shake.]

Where did you want to start?

[The smell of the curry makes him smile again. He'd learned long ago not to try to steal any of his brother's food. The burning just wasn't worth it.]

[But even so, the questions have to start somewhere. He knows that Takatora knows much more than he's saying, and he has to know about the Beat Riders. He might as well come clean about that during this discussion anyway. He straightens up a bit and looks directly at Takatora, with a casual but serious expression very much like his brother's.]

... Let's start with the most pressing question. What is Yggdrasill doing with the information it's collecting from the armored riders?

[... oh.

It's fortunate Takatora hadn't been chewing at that moment, or he likely would have choked on his food. Instead, the suddenness of his question causes his spoon to drop before he reluctantly picks it back up, clearly caught off guard by the strength of that question.

At the very least, Takatora already knows about Mitsuzane's role in everything, or part of it. He knew Mitsuzane was an armored rider and had fought before, was part of Team Gaim, and close enough to Kouta Kazuraba that it made Takatora uncomfortable, but past that, sometimes he didn't know exactly how much Mitsuzane knew.]

Tell me how much you know about the armored riders and where you gained the information, then I'll answer your question.

[He closes his eyes for a moment and chuckles, before deciding that the blunt approach, as long as he's already on this path, might as well continue. He tilts his head slightly and presses his thumb to his chin as he thinks.]

I know that they're connected to the Inves that people have been summoning and that have gone out of control. I know that Yggdrasill is collecting information on them. I know that you have one of those belts that allows people to transform - that's what you and Sengoku were working on when you were injured, I'm guessing. And if that's the case, then you've known about this threat for a number of years, haven't you, nii-san?

[He folds his hands in front of him as he continues.]

I also know that the rips in space are called cracks, that the forest is called Helheim, and that the Lockseeds are from there. And finally, I know that you are that white armored Rider, so you might as well tell me what you know, because I was raised to be intelligent. And an intelligent person in a negotiation never reveals where their information has come from unless it's needed. After all, if you won't tell me, I have to find someone who will.

[Once Mitsuzane finished speaking, Takatora simply sat in place, having set his spoon down and settled for grasping the side of the table. He had listened raptly to everything his younger brother had to say, feeling the twisting uncomfortable dread in his stomach at the immense guilt weighing him down. ... how had Mitsuzane ever gotten so involved? If he had known things were half as bad, he would have intercepted, but now it was clearly too late to worry about something like that.

Takatora closed his eyes, bringing one hand up to cover his mouth as he took a few deep breaths. This... This was worse than he ever could have imagined. It felt as though Mitsuzane knew every secret he'd tried so hard to keep under wraps. So much information could have been known from rumors, but even as far as Mitsuzane knowing the weight of his own involvement and his position as Zangetsu... While Takatora was disgusted with himself, he was, at the same time, immensely impressed with Mitsuzane's ability to uncover the truth. He had vastly underestimated his younger brother, to a crippling degree.

Maybe that was part of why Mitsuzane hated him so much.

The final, awful part, were the last words Mitsuzane had spoken. Takatora knew the next person on Mitsuzane's list to approach would likely be Ryouma and he had every intent of keeping them away from each other as long as possible.

The completely emotionally drained expression on his face was still there when Takatora moved his hand away and looked back over to Mitsuzane, though he had to lower his gaze to the floor immediately after. He couldn't even look at him, now.]

I would rather you get your information from me, but I understand if you don't trust me to be honest with you.

I understand that you didn't want me involved. I can understand that all too well. But I have people to protect, too. You know I'm with Team Gaim, don't you? You've known for a long time. I thought I was hiding it from you, but it's obvious, isn't it?

They're... people who care about me. They don't know me as Mitsuzane Kureshima. To them, I'm just Micchy. People who should be 'below my station', but it doesn't matter to me. Staying hidden away from other people, just because we have money and they don't. They understand my dreams, rather than what's been laid out for me.

[... He's gone too far, but considering how much he's said he can't help himself from just finishing it.]

... It's not that I don't care about you or our parents, or what you've done for me. I don't want to seem ungrateful. This just... I want to protect people who matter to me. And I do, because sometimes no one else will. So please, tell me what's going on. I want to help, but I can't help if I don't know why things are happening.

Don't make me choose who to help. Because I care about you, but I'm not a child anymore. I have to... I have to be able to make my own path. I want to trust you, but you're the only person at Yggdrasill who I trust won't lie to me. So please don't try to betray at least that amount of trust that I have for you.

[That was it, then. The confession of being part of Team Gaim, the indirect confession of being Armored Rider Ryugen meant that any information Takatora thought he had to hold against his brother was now useless. There was nothing he knew about Mitsuzane that the other hadn't laid in front of him, which now meant that Mitsuzane was the one completely in control, who had an unnamed source Takatora didn't know about. To hear about his connections with his friends at another time, Takatora might have been grateful for his brother creating bonds with others, even if they were types Takatora normally frowned upon, because at least his brother seemed to be happy.

If he hadn't already lost Mitsuzane, Takatora was sure he was losing him now. That realization, coupled with the weight of information, seemed to trigger the switch within Takatora that forced him back into his usual businesslike manner. However, there were no longer strong, confident words when he spoke. Instead, he sounded detached and unemotional, finally managing to look at his brother.]

Are you finished?

[He lowers his head, feeling suddenly drained.]

... Yes, sir.

[There was nothing else to say. Nothing else to do, really.]

[With that, Takatora wastes no time in covering the questions already proposed to him, not even seeming to care about what he's revealing at this point. He shows no hesitancy as he had before.]

I've known about Helheim for ten years. Father was the one who told me and I was assigned to head the Research and Development branch to research the forest and figure out what to do about it. I balanced university with my duties in Yggdrasill. Ryouma was a friend from highschool and a companion in college whose genius I trusted and respected. I brought him into the company as head of my development team.

When creating the drivers, I couldn't bring myself to put anyone else at risk and volunteered for the trials. There was a miscalculation and I received my injury. You were correct on that assumption.

As for the information we're gathering, with the Inves Games and the drivers, most of that has been under Ryouma's authority. I left it up to his discretion how he chose to do his research.

[He manages to pause for a moment, but there's no emotion he shows while doing so to indicate why he has.]

Helheim's world is infecting ours. I lost my faith a long time ago that any actions I take will be capable of stopping it. The Inves Games and the drivers are part of the last phase of a project to ensure we will be in a position to handle the inevitable.

[Ryouma... he doesn't trust the man. The research is helpful, probably, but everything about him makes him want to recoil. He's not sure why - it's more of a gut reaction - but hearing that he has so much to do with this makes him uneasy.]

Infecting our world... with the vines and the fruits, you mean? Isn't there some way to close off the cracks to - no. You've clearly though of that.

[Of course they had. They were working on it for years. They didn't need a... someone his age to tell them what to do.]

And what sort of position are you planning on? There has to be something. Just containing it isn't working. Why is it bleeding in faster?

[They're all in danger. If he can help... he can protect the people he wants to protect. That has to be his priority more than anything else.]

Survival. Adaption. In the event of failure, that's our best hope. Any species who has ever tried to survive has been forced to adapt. We don't know why it's sped up so quickly. Perhaps there's a force on the other side stronger than we anticipated, something that's become aware of our attempts to counter it. It's difficult to tell.

... Let me help. I can go in there and fight, help you find things. I won't tell the others, but I'm more than capable of handling myself inside there.

I won't agree to it now. [Not while he's emotionally compromised.] We'll discuss the idea of you joining me at a later time. This conversation is about exchanging information, not formulating plans for the future.

[Still, he's not shooting the idea down outright.]

What else do you want to know?

[He nods, and tries to think. Some of it hadn't been a surprise, but... a little bit of it had been. The situation was really desperate, then.]

Just... just let me know if I can help. I don't want you to carry a burden like that on your own.

[Soft. Quiet. Everything felt somewhat fuzzy. He had to keep a clear head, but he couldn't think of anything else at the moment.]

... Nothing at the moment. Though I'm not going to stop fighting, and I'm not going to stop going out. Even if you try to make me stay here, I won't. Please understand that.

[There's no part of Takatora that believes Mitsuzane is being honest right now. Rather, he feels it's an attempt to try to win him over, in which case it's not working. And as soon as Mitsuzane says he has no more questions, Takatora begins packing his food back up and is already standing and putting his things into the bag he'd brought in by the time he responds. There's no rush. He's eerily calm.]

I'm not going to ask you to stop fighting. All I ask is you not be reckless. ... I also will not stop you from seeing your friends and spending time with them. If that's what makes you happy, then you should enjoy yourself while you still have time.

[He's lost. He's gained information, but he's lost. He's not sure what to do anymore. Takatora isn't impressed, and he's more protective than he thought he would be. Trying to win him over isn't going to work. He just has to wait, and prove himself.]

... I promise I won't be reckless. Just... as long as you aren't reckless, either. As much as I care about them, there are other people I could make friends with. I can't get another brother.

[That doesn't seem to impress Takatora either, who hasn't changed his expression in some time, calmly looking back at his brother.]

I won't require you to attend school tomorrow. I'll have one of the maids call in for you. Take the time to rest and sort your thoughts.

[There's barely any hesitation as he bows his head and then turns away, pulling open the door to walk out.]

Good night, Mitsuzane.

[He doesn't even wait for a response before the door is shut, making his way downstairs to put the food away.]

[He glances towards his closet, and turns to get ready to go to bed. He's not going to be able to sleep tonight, but he might as well try.]

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