Okay so we all know that there was a time when we (aka mimato girlies) were being delulu about how Loid Forger is just a Yamato variant, case in point 2.
But today I sat down to think about just how this AU could actually play out, especially in terms of Yamato and Takeru's relationship. Why did I do this? Because I am procrastinating other things ☝🏼
The real problem here is the age gap between the two brothers, and after considering many different scenarios, this is the one plausible route that I can visualise clearly.
Yamato lives in Westalis with his mother and father, with the former being a local school teacher and the latter working for the printing press that publishes the nation's newspapers. Yamato thinks their family is completely normal, but when he is 11 and the first bomb drops in Westalis, his father and mother disappear overnight without a trace, leaving Yamato to fend for himself. He is confused but still can't accept that his parents would leave him behind like this, so he keeps running from town to town, lying about his age, doing odd jobs until he is old and experienced enough to fake his entry into the military at 16 years old (actual requirement being 18 years).
Hiroaki always loved to solve riddles with him through the old newspapers he would bring home from work, eventually teaching him how to build and solve cryptic codes - knowledge which Yamato uses to progress in ranks and divisions while at the military. He has only one goal- to become important enough that he has access to data which would help him trace what happened to his parents. When he is recruited by Wise, he finally shares his true goal with his superior Himekawa, who, as a reward for all his hard work till now, allows him to access old files and data, and what Yamato discovers is that his father, Hiroaki, was actually an Ostanian spy. He is shocked by the revelation, but Himekawa encourages him to dig deeper, promising him that she will not let this link be leaked to others. Luckily, Yamato is unable to find any proof that Natsuko's background is linked to Ostania, which leads him to conclude that his mother never lied about who she was. That relief only lasts a second when he realises that means his father either killed his mother or abducted her, neither of which is unforgivable by him.
With Himekawa's help, Yamato is assigned a mission which allows him to infiltrate Ostania, and while doing side spy-related jobs, he also begins to trace his mother's whereabouts, though almost 12 years have passed since he last saw her alive.
His investigation leads him to uncover some of the underground workings of the Ostanian government, which earns him promotions and a higher status in Wise. Finally, he is able to piece together the information that about 8 years ago, a patient matching his mother's description was admitted into a mental health facility. This woman had repeatedly claimed that she was kidnapped from Westalis and had to go back to look for her son. Her husband, however, claimed that the trauma of her failed childbirth experience had caused her to believe that she had already given birth to a son many years ago.
Yamato disguises himself as a psychologist to begin working at this hospital, in hopes of finding his mother and saving her. But a few months into this job, he finds out that his mother passed away soon after she was admitted. Based on the information available in her file, he tracks down the husband, only to find that that man is not his father but a low-ranking Ostania government official.
The fact that Yamato already finds it hard to believe that his father would treat his mother as cruelly as the information in her file mentioned leads him to grasp onto the hope that the reason Hiroaki had fled with just Natsuko from Westalis was that he probably wanted to protect her and Yamato both. He wants to entertain the possibility that the organisation his father must have worked for must not know that Yamato was born to them, so that's why they abandoned him and ran away, and were most likely caught by Ostania before they could make a safe escape.
Himekawa does not want to give Hiroaki the benefit of the doubt, but still entertains Yamato's theory and does some digging up of her own.
She finds out about an orphanage that secretly takes in children born to Ostanian government and military officials, and floats another theory to Yamato.
Could it be that the failed second pregnancy mentioned in the mental health institution's report on his mother was not actually a failed one, and his sibling or God forbid, his half-sibling, had been sent to this orphanage as part of the cover-up?
Yamato finds this laughable but decides to follow up on the lead anyway. He heads to the orphanage and asks around to see kids that would be somewhere around 8-10 years of age, and when Takeru walks in, Yamato knows instantly that that's his younger brother.
What Yamato doesn't know is that this orphanage doubles as a front for the military's underground human experiment centre, and Takeru has been their subject for as long as he can remember. What Yamato also doesn't know is that Takeru can read minds, and is now aware that Yamato is his long-lost older brother.
All Yamato can do at that point is greet him and ask after his health, because he has no strong case to make for an adoption, and any abnormal activity from his end could put Wise's operation at risk.
Takeru does not exactly understand the rushed and muddled thoughts in his brother's head, but he catches the gist that if either of them were to slip up and indicate that they're related, it could end badly for both of them.
As Takeru has lived a torturous life at the orphanage and the experiment lab, seeing the sliver of hope of having a family member who is alive and is here to see him, he decides to act in a way that would save both of them. He does not let Yamato know that he has figured out the truth and converses normally with him.
Back at the Wise HQ, Yamato begs Himekawa to help him rescue his brother from that Orphanage. After some time, she is able to come up with an operation that would require Yamato to have Takeru under his care permanently.
Wise's current target is the up and coming youth politician, Taichi, who the public is captivated by and Ostanian officials are wary of. He is in the running to become the next head of state within a year, but Wise is unable to determine whether Taichi is an extremist like all other Ostanian officials and wishes to wage war on Westalis like his predecessor, or is a pacifist and will work to finally restore peace between the two regions. His younger sister is just starting middle school at the prestigious Eden Academy, and that Himekawa realises, is their point of entry.
They build an alternate identity for Yamato, where he is the guardian of the child of his elder sibling, who, together with his wife, died in a car crash years ago. Takeru, who Yamato estimated to be about 9 years old, does not meet the cut-off age for middle school, but based on the tests that Yamato slips to him during his regular visits to the orphanage, both Himekawa and he are confident that Takeru can easily pass off as a 11 year old.
Eden Academy wishes for the guardians or parents of their children to maintain a respectable standing in society, and even if the children pass their entrance tests with high scores, if they feel that the family's background is not acceptable, they can reject the applicant. While Yamato looking out for his late sibling's child makes for an overall good sob story to win the teacher's hearts with, Himekawa still thinks that they might get questioned about the lack of a mother figure in Takeru's life, so it might be best for Yamato to state that he has a fiancée or a wife who helps him raise Takeru.
It's too short notice for Yamato to stage a natural meeting with a woman and then ask her to be his fiancée, so Himekawa and Yamato turn to the only option available to them.
They put out an ad in the paper for seeking a loving companion for a grieving man- lodgings, and all other necessities to be taken care of.
And that's it for today, tune in later to find out how Mimi, Koushiro, Hikari, Sora, Jou and Daigo fit into this AU!
PS: Takeru, unlike Anya, will be more perceptive with his powers and will actually secretly help both Yamato {and his fiancee} with their jobs. He will still have his adorable baby boy moments, but he'll use his mind-reading powers well!
