A/N: I don't own World Trigger
Mimics
Chapter 40: Suwa's Strategy
The fight was playing out in front of Jin's eyes on his laptop, but he wasn't really seeing it anymore. He had watched his and Tachikawa's battle against Mogami so many times at this point that he had it memorized by now. His mind was truly focused on the conversation with the others earlier. He couldn't get Yuma's face out of his mind. He was getting worse by the moment, couldn't activate a Trigger, but the future of him facing his dad with a Trigger activated still existed. That future shouldn't be possible with the condition that Yuma was in.
Perhaps having his ring back would help him recover?
But he had it before and it wasn't protecting Yuma's body from breaking nor was it healing the injuries done to his body. Something had to change at some point if Yuma and Yugo were going to have a face off.
A face off that ended with a sword pointed at Yuma's throat. If it was going to end like that, should Jin be wanting that future to happen?
Jin blinked as the laptop he was staring at was snapped shut and dragged away from him. He looked at Tachikawa in surprise as he tossed the laptop to one of the other beds and dropped down on the bed across from Jin while staring intently at him. "You look horrible."
Jin rolled his eyes. He leaned back, taking comfort in the soft pillows as he rubbed his eyes. "Did you need something? I didn't realize HQ's agents felt they had the right to just barge into the barracks that Tamakoma had claimed for their private use." Though, considering how Tachikawa had no qualms about barging into their Branch the other day, this really didn't surprise him.
"Rewatching that fight over and over again isn't going to be enough to help you beat him next time." Tachikawa said. He wasn't against studying logs of fights as gathering intel was essential to prepare for their battles, but there was a difference between studying and obsessively watching.
"Watching that fight over and over again isn't going to secure you a win if you're not making a strategy of what to do next time you fight him."
Jin glanced over his shoulder to find Kazama leaning against one of the beds, enjoying a coffee. "Did you two come here to just hound me?"
"Usually when shit hits the fan, you're running around to see everyone's future so you can manipulate the future to your liking." Kazama replied, swishing his cup around to watch the liquid spin in his cup. "Instead of doing any of that, you've been in here, obsessively watching that footage as if it is going to change the more you watch it." He snatched a second coffee off the nearby table and shoved it in Jin's face. "And Tachikawa is right. You look like crap. Drink this and perk up. What will the other agents think when they see the so-call 'power elite' looking so ragged?"
Jin snatched the piping hot cup off his face and rubbed at his skin where the heat had burned into it. "Excuse you, I can pull off even the ragged look. It adds a lot to my attractive nature. I won't be able to keep the girls off of me."
"What girls? Don't they generally try to avoid you?" Kazama retorted.
"Ha, ha." Jin guzzled down half of his coffee in one gulp, deciding to turn his back on Kazama. He did not need this harassment right now.
"Did you not take even an hour to nap after the mission? You really do look horrible." Kazama asked, dropping the teasing with his friend to get back to the heart of the matter.
"Not as horrible as Yuma does." Jin said bitterly. "I can deal with being a bit tired. I need to spend all my time thinking things through. If we don't get rid of the Mimics soon, he's going to die."
Tachikawa scoffed, throwing an arm over the bedframe as he lounged back. "What good is anyone to anyone else when they are so tired they are oblivious to their surroundings? You really think you can fight anyone in this state and win?"
Jin stared at Tachikawa, a frown pulling at his lips. He could hear the implication quite clearly in that question. "How long were you guys in here watching me?"
"About ten minutes. We even called your name a couple times." Kazama replied, sipping at his coffee. "Your mentor would be ashamed at your complete lack of a guard."
Jin went to retort that he wasn't going to get attacked in his own base, but immediately thought better at using that as a defense to his lack of attention to his surroundings. Their base had already been attacked multiple times in the last few months. Yugo even broke into the base last night which would be the immediate argument from Kazama. It was a good thing their base was so far in the Restricted Zone that the civilians couldn't see it. They would probably freak out if they saw the explosions coming from the base when Yugo attacked it last night. Border could not afford to have the public lose confidence in them. It would hinder them a lot if they didn't have that support from the civilians.
"You really just came here to harass me?" Jin asked instead. It wasn't a good form of deflection, but after everything this week that was building up his stress and the failed mission from last night which led to him getting no sleep, Jin just could not think of a better way to turn the direction of the conversation.
"I came here to knock you out, but Kazama-san forbid me from hitting someone so out of it. He was afraid I would cause you brain damage when we need you to scheme the next couple of days for us." Tachikawa replied with a small shrug. "Though with how tired you are, your brain already isn't working properly so I doubt I would have made things any worse." His smirk eased away to something more serious as he looked at Jin more closely. "You went out of your way months ago to protect Kuga, and if he dies here, all that struggle and giving up Fujin would have been for nothing."
Jin's eyes zeroed in on Tachikawa, jaw locking up in his anger. "I disagree. Yuma's strength was essential to the Aftokrator invasion. We needed his help there. That fight I put up to protect him was just as much about getting us the strength to survive that invasion as it was that I wanted to give Yuma this chance to be a Border agent so that he could learn to be happy again. I told you before, Yuma had a hard life growing up. When I fought you guys, I knew his life was hanging by a thread, but even if I knew back then he only had a month or two left to live, I still would have done it. Because Yuma isn't just a powerful weapon like Calvaria used him. He's a child suffering with so much guilt. If I could just give him two months of being happy before he died, I would do give up Fujin a hundred times." His eyes sharpened into a glare at Tachikawa. "I never desired power, even when I went so hard to get Fujin years ago, it wasn't because I wanted a Black Trigger by my side like all the other agents who fought in that battle royale did. I wanted to protect my mentor's memento, but now that I've gotten to know all these agents better, I can see how strong and respectful they are. None of them are going to abuse Mogami-san's Black Trigger. It hurt a lot to give it up, but I'm in Border to protect and make friends with the Neighbors. I'm not going to turn my back on a Neighbor child who was suffering just because I wanted to keep the power of a Black Trigger at my side."
Tachikawa held his hands up in surrender at Jin's angry tirade. This was not something he was going to argue with Jin on. "You put in all that effort to save him, and I'm certain that is part of your reason for all of this." He motioned to the laptop next to him that Jin kept going back to watching constantly today. It wasn't just because of Yuma being hurt that Jin was doing this. Of that, Tachikawa was sure. It was just as much personal to Jin as it was to Yuma after all. "But if you make a mistake because you're exhausted, all that effort would have been for nothing. Besides you're never going to come up with a good strategy against Mogami if you can't think straight."
"Are you going to try to use Kogetsu against him again?" Kazama asked.
Jin tilted his head back to lay it on the pillows behind him as he rubbed his eyes. His eyes were throbbing from how tired he felt. They were just screaming at him to let them shut, but if he did that, he would surely pass out. The coffee that Kazama gave him was helping very little. "No. I only did that to try to remind him of the past. I'm never going to beat him with a Kogetsu blade."
"They are already aware of the past. It is what created them in the first place." Kazama said, frowning at the back of Jin's head.
"It's more like I wanted to bring out those emotions from the past, though it didn't work like I hoped." Jin replied. "Actually, Osamu and the others said there seemed to be more hesitancy in Mogami-san and Kuga-san when they confronted them earlier. That was most likely from the effect of having the physical Black Triggers on them."
"Then perhaps you should try a Kogetsu again. If having Fujin is helping Mogami come to his sense, maybe you'll now be able to beat some sense into him by reminding him of the past." Tachikawa suggested.
It was possible that it would be more effective this time, but firstly, Jin hadn't seen Mogami or Yugo to know just how hesitant they were. He wasn't able to judge anything for himself. And secondly, Jin didn't even want to try to connect with Mimic Mogami last night. He only tried since he needed to try all options available to him, but he certainly didn't want to do that again.
Kazama stared at Jin, who seemed to be staring intently at the ceiling. That, or he fell asleep with his eyes open. Having met his brother last night, Kazama had felt his own rage and frustration at seeing his brother's form, voice, skills stolen. He hadn't wanted to reconnect with Shin until the very last moment of their battle. Jin had to be feeling a similar sense of frustration against his mentor, or maybe it was worse for him since his mentor refused to leave, unlike Shin who gave up the fight at the end. Did his brother just want to stop fighting at the end in the face of Kazama's rage? Or could the Mimic just no longer hold the transformation because it didn't have Black Trigger Trion powering it?
"Enough about this." Kazama decided. They had been stressing about Mimics all week. Having met his brother last night, Kazama understood better the stress and frustration that Jin and Yuma were dealing with. The only difference was the rage that Kazama felt at seeing his brother used like that. Perhaps it was because unlike Yuma and Jin, Kazama didn't see his brother die. They couldn't even bring his body back. His last memory of his brother was seeing him leave the house to go on his mission. "We're not going to solve anything this way. You should try to sleep some and then we can work out some ideas later."
"I have some things I want to try out." Jin sat up straight and looked over at Tachikawa. "We should have a rank match to test things."
"I don't want to fight you when you're half dead on your feet." Tachikawa replied immediately. It wasn't in his nature to turn down any fight as he simply enjoyed a good fight. However, in this moment, he could see how boring and useless it would be to fight his rival.
Jin rolled his eyes. It seemed his friends were not going to stop harassing him about his exhausted state. To be fair, he wasn't feeling up to standing up and heading into a solo booth to have a fight with anyone right now. "Fine, later than. I'll take a nap and meet you in the rank booths tonight."
"I'll be curious if anything you came up with while sleep deprived even makes any sense." Kazama downed the last of his coffee so he could throw his cup in the trash can before he was heading out of the room. "We'll keep an eye on things with regards to the Mimics while you nap."
"On that note, make sure no one goes after them right now." Jin said.
"Are we not in a hurry to save your kouhai from dying?" Tachikawa asked, recalling his conversation with Yuma earlier. He really did not look good. He seemed to have plenty of energy, but by the state of his body, it didn't seem that he had a lot of time left for them to be taking it easy.
"Shuji managed to his ring back for him, but before they could bring it back to HQ, Yuma's injuries got worse. I'm hoping that having his Black Trigger back on him will help stabilize his body, but I don't think it will be instant. I just want to give him some time before we go after them again." Jin explained.
"I'll alert the operators so they'll let their teams know that anyone out in the Restricted Zone shouldn't confront Kuga in a fight." Kazama promised. "But if they can locate them, it would help if they kept an eye on them."
"Except Mimics can sense Trion bodies near them so no one can successfully spy on them." Tachikawa pointed out. Yuma already explained this to them, after essentially calling them idiots for not realizing it sooner, so he wasn't going to forget again. He had to remember that sneak attacks were going to be completely useless for the next time he met one of the transformed Mimics. He already lost twice to the Mimics. He was not going to lose a third time. Third time was the charm after all.
"At worst if their spying gets caught, they will just bail out to here. It will be better for us to know where they are for when we do make our last stand." Kazama said.
Last stand, was it? Tomorrow was the day that Jin had been dreading. Yuma could have died any day had Yugo gone all out against his son, but it was truly the end of this week that had Jin really concerned. With Fujin in Mogami's hand, Yuma's condition getting worse, and currently no way to beat Mogami and Yugo in sight, things really could not get any worse. He knew they were running out of time, but calling a last stand felt like a lot of pressure as it was telling them that they couldn't fail again.
There was a time when Jin told Yuma that his team could handle the news that he was dying and they wouldn't let it hinder their attempts to stop the Mimics. Jin still believed that to be true, but if he were to tell them the time limit and how it was coming close to running out, that would cause a level of panic that they did not need. Jin was feeling enough stress himself just knowing. Knowing about a time limit was what would cause more worries and distraction. With a friend's life coming close to ending, the mind would find it difficult to focus if there was very little time left to beat the ones causing the problem.
The agents learned to deal with the pressure of time in the rank wars. There was a time limit on every match. New agents would panic as the time came close to ending and that would lead to more mistakes in the last few minutes of a match. Along with learning to fight and learning tactics and strategy to win the match, the agents learned how to do with the stress that came with a countdown on them. It was always in a controlled setting of rank wars though.
Now, the time limit pressuring them was real. When it ran out, that was it. There would not be another chance to try again later on if they failed here.
For that reason, Yugo was the one that Jin wanted to make sure they defeated first since it was him being here that was causing Yuma's body to give out. Currently though, the risk to Yuma was too great until they were sure his body could hold out against Yugo dying, so perhaps it was best to go after Mogami first. Mogami was less of an issue since he wasn't hurting anyone and leading them to their death, but that was also why he was the safer option to go after first. If they took him out, it would at least mean that Mogami and Yugo couldn't team up against Border anymore.
They were a very dangerous tag team to have against them.
*Mimics*
The first time he had met Yuma was in the middle of a rank war. He was just some white-haired kid that had shown up out of nowhere with the skill to defeat Shun with a training Trigger like it was no big deal. He did his research on Yuma and was cautious of him for their match, but that was about it. He had been pretty impressed at how skilled Yuma was for being a new member of Border, but now it made more sense with his father being a former Border member and having trained his son since he was young. It wasn't that Yuma was a prodigy. It was because he was so well-trained and had years of experience under him that he was able to show off in the ranks wars as he did.
Since he was mainly a sniper now, only pulling out his Kogetsu when he was trapped in close combat, he didn't see much of Yuma. He only ever appeared in the solo rank booths when he and Murakami were meeting up to have a match since he learned from fighting Yuma that he couldn't neglect his Kogetsu to focus on reaching master class as a sniper. Doing that caused his skills with Kogetsu to drop. He was skilled enough where it wouldn't normally be an issue, but Yuma had been an unexpectedly skilled opponent that required Arafune to be on top of his game, which he hadn't been at the time.
Each time he and Murakami had a rank match though, Arafune was getting his edge with Kogetsu back. With that and knowing what to expect from Yuma now, it wouldn't be like their last match. The problem was, 'if they had another match.' Arafune never sought Yuma out for a rank match since he had assumed that at some point he would get another go at the White Nightmare. That assumption was being tested now that Yuma's life was in danger.
Arafune wasn't willing to let an ally die. He would do what he could to help him and then he was going to demand a rematch as soon as possible. He had to remember that tomorrow was never promised to anyone. If there was something he wanted to do, he shouldn't wait for it to happen or keep putting it off. Everyone had to live their lives to the fullest in the moment. Even if the Border agents had bail out, that did not necessarily mean they would be safe from getting killed. They were doing a dangerous job and as the Aftokrator invasion and the incident in Shizuka City proved, having bail out didn't mean they were always going to be safe because of that function.
Against Mimics though, Arafune had yet to see any way the agents could be harmed from fighting them. It was true they could steal their memories of dead people, and while he was sure that those who had been attacked by them had been hurt by the mental anguish of seeing those memories of someone they loved manifest in front of them, it didn't do anything to hurt them physically. Well, except for Yuma. He had some horrible luck.
Arafune was not in the same situation as Yuma though. He wasn't already injured before coming into contact with Mimics and he had no memories of someone dead for the Mimic to steal. It was for that reason that Arafune felt no fear as he crouched on the ledge, looking through his scope at the building across from the one he was in.
He and Suwa had just been scoping out the Restricted Zone because they wanted to help Yuma. Suwa just liked Yuma while Arafune wanted a chance for a rematch later, plus he knew Murakami was quite fond of Yuma. The trio of Murakami, Kageura, and Yuma might look strange from the outside, but Murakami always spoked fondly of his two rivals. Seeing Murakami in high spirits with two ace Attackers who never got down heartened when losing to him was enough to make Arafune happy for his friend. He knew that Murakami struggled because he always succeeded in everything with his side effect and that made people leave him behind. Arafune had unintentionally did it to him when he was done being an Attacker. He hadn't even known that Murakami had that problem, but now he had Attacker friends who loved the challenge of facing him. Arafune didn't want to see his friend's joy fall away here.
It had been pure chance.
Nothing more when they saw Yugo and Mogami moving around.
Arafune knew they were in the building. He could see them through the window he had his scope pointed at. In fact, Yugo was standing right in his line of shot. It was a stupid move by anyone to stand openly in front of the window.
"You're not going to take the shot?" Suwa asked. "Would you normally hesitate on such a clear shot?"
"Against one of our comrades in the rank wars? No." Arafune's finger twitched over the trigger, but he pulled back before he could pull the trigger. "But this is Kuga's father. Even if I didn't already know how skilled he was, I would be cautious of him because he is a Kuga. It's the fact that he is standing so openly that has me stopping. That's a move a rookie would make. Kuga Yugo is no rookie. Is he daring me to shoot?"
"Do you really think he would do that?" Suwa asked.
"Kuga, our Kuga, I mean, drew your fire in his match with you so his captain could shoot you from behind. He purposefully left himself open when fighting Kumagai and Ko to draw Akane's shot. It's because I've seen him do it that I'm not pulling the trigger on this Kuga now. If he is waiting for me to shoot, it reveals where I'm hiding." Arafune glanced over at Suwa. "And then he is going come over here and we'll both die so if you don't want to bail out to HQ, we need to be careful about this. We're not equipped to beat both Kuga and Mogami."
"You shouldn't anyway." Kagami suddenly spoke up over their coms.
Arafune raised a brow, surprised at hearing his operator's voice coming through his coms. He and Suwa had just gone into the Restricted Zone on a whim to search after talking to Yuma. They hadn't even bothered to grab their teammates since they were still resting after last night's battle. There was no need to drag them into another hunt that wasn't guaranteed to bring any results so for that reason, they hadn't even informed their operators that they were going out.
"Kazama-san just sent out a message to everyone that we can't attack Kuga Yugo right now." Kagami explained.
Arafune stared at Yugo through his scope for one second longer before he lowered his Egret with a sigh. That took the decision making of whether to shoot or not out of Arafune's hands, but it was strange to be told to stand down when they had been trying to kill Yugo all week.
"Is there a reason for that?" Suwa demanded. He leaned against the wall of the classroom they were hiding in, but turned his head to stare out the window. The university was big enough that they could hide in one of the buildings while not being too close to the building the Mimics were hiding in.
"Kazama-san didn't put a reason in the memo. I can contact him to find out if you want?" Kagami suggested.
"Don't bother." Arafune replied, deactivating his Egret. "That's not an order Kazama-san would give out lightly or without reason. In fact, it likely came from Jin-san. Once again, Tamakoma is leaving the rest of us in the dark."
Suwa chewed on his cigarette as he thought. Unlike Arafune who had been getting a clear sight of Yugo with his Egret before, Suwa couldn't see the Mimics too clearly from the building they were in as they were too far away. He could see something that looked like a figure standing in one of the windows, just waiting. "To be fair to Tamakoma, they aren't hiding too much from us at this point. A lot of what was kept quiet was for Kuga's own privacy. We can't be upset about them wanting to respect that."
"I'm not upset about that." Arafune replied, especially since Yuma took the time to talk to him and Suwa about it himself. They may not hang out with him as much as some of the other agents, but they were still friends so it was nice that he felt at ease with them to talk about the assassin and his father with them. "Kuga can keep as much of his past quiet as he wants. That truly is none of our business, but when it comes to fighting his father, it's another story. We all need to be kept in the loop of what is going on with Kuga and Mogami."
"I promise to harass Kazama about this call later." Suwa promised. "But for now, we need to decide what to do. Stay here and spy on them or leave?"
"There was a warning from Kazama-san with his e-mail." Kagami said. "It had a reminder that Mimics can track Trion bodies, and that applies to transformed Mimics as well."
Suwa scoffed, pulling his cigarette from his mouth to play with it. "Shit, so he was waiting for us to make a move." He nodded over at Arafune. "Good call."
"The call doesn't matter. He already knew we were here and if he can track Trion bodies, he knows where we are hiding. Why aren't they moving then?" Arafune asked. "Kuga hasn't hesitated in attacking any of us since he appeared."
Suwa scratched the back of his head in frustration. "Don't expect me to understand how a Kuga's mind works. If he knows we're here, it wouldn't be safe to stick around."
"On the other hand, if we leave, they could move again, and it's difficult to track them down. Do we have time to hunt them down again if we lose them here?" Arafune asked. From the way Yuma looked earlier, Arafune would say they didn't have time. It had been hard enough to find them last night and today had been pure chance on their part. They wouldn't get lucky like this again.
"From the files we have on Kuga and Mogami, they are able to heal from injury and regenerate lost limbs at the cost of the Trion from the Black Triggers." Suwa said as he activated his shotgun. "So, even if I blow off his arm, my starmaker should still remain."
Arafune glanced over at Suwa. A starmaker plan? It would certainly be a better option than frantically running through the Restricted Zone to find the Mimics. "You're assuming you can get a hit on him." He pointed out. "The moment we get close to him, we're dead. With both Mogami and Kuga in there and the Black Triggers on their side, we'd never get a hit on either of them."
"If you want to try, but not kill Kuga Yugo, Katori squad is nearby. I can request reinforcements from them." Kagami suggested.
"Katori squad you say?" Suwa said intrigued. He rubbed his chin as he thought about it.
Arafune looked at the other captain, not at all surprised to see that he had a look on his face that was already plotting something with that information. Having worked with Katori during the away mission exam, Suwa no doubt had some good ways on how to use Katori's help to get them close to Kuga. "Yeah, connect them to us." Arafune said for Suwa since he was business planning his strategy.
"Do you need Osano present?" Kagami asked.
"No, I just want to plant the starmaker for now. We'll worry about activating it later when we need to find them." Suwa replied.
"Are we aiming for Kuga or Mogami? Or both?"
"Both?" Suwa scoffed, a sarcastic laugh in his voice. "Hitting just one of them will be hard enough."
"So, who do you think would be the easiest to target?" Arafune asked.
Suwa swung his shotgun up to rest on his shoulder as he snorted. "Easy doesn't exist with either of these bastards. Besides they are in that room together."
"If Katori squad is going to help us, we can force the two to separate." Arafune suggested.
"I need Katori with me." Suwa said. "You can take her teammates as backup. I know how to work with her, but not the rest of her team and this requires no mistake as I don't plan to bail out when I have to plant my tracker."
"You could at least include us in your strategy planning before trying to move us with no warning." Katori's complaint came through their coms. "What do you even want, Suwa-san?"
"We're going to divide and conquer against Kuga or Mogami. Honestly, whichever one decides to follow us." Suwa said. "I need Miura and Wakamura to help Arafune distract the other one."
"You really think we can beat them?" Miura asked concerned. Their squad had never encountered Kuga or Mogami, but he had heard enough stories from other agents about their run-ins with the Mimics and no one had anything good to say. Well, they did talk a lot about strength and skill and strategy that the Mimics had which could be considered compliments, but it was always said with a lot of resentment since none of them were able to beat them or even get a hit on them most of the time. If the A-Ranks were struggling this much and even Shinoda and Rindo couldn't win, what hope did their squad plus two captains from other squads have?
"We're not aiming to kill here." Suwa said. "Just listen."
*Mimics*
"I can't believe I have to team up with you again." Katori complained.
"If we succeed here, you can nag Tamakoma about them owing you." Suwa replied, mentally apologizing to Tamakoma about throwing them under the bus, but he did it in the exam and he would do it here. Considering they were doing this to help defeat Yugo later, which would likely help Yuma a lot, he didn't think Tamakoma could complain about Katori nagging them for something. If it meant Yuma didn't die, he was sure Tamakoma would pay the price.
Katori looked excited at the prospect of possibly getting another date with Karasuma, but it didn't last long before the excitement was washed away to be replaced with a scowl and she was whacking Suwa over the head. "Isn't Kuga seriously hurt because of his Mimic father? I'm not going to profit off of Tamakoma's stress and concern over a friend's life." She snapped at Suwa as she walked ahead, a hand on her gun as she planned how she was going to make her attack. As much as Osamu and his team annoyed her, she would not take advantage of Yuma's struggles for her own gains. It was fine in the away mission exam since that didn't involve anyone being hurt, but in this situation, she wasn't so callous to demand something just because she helped to save an ally's life.
Suwa rubbed his head, even though he felt no pain from Katori hitting him, while staring at the younger agent in surprise. He had thought for sure Katori would grab at the chance to get another date with Karasuma. He supposed, despite all her complaining, Katori did take her job seriously. It would seem that she had matured a bit from the previous rank war season and the away mission exam.
*Mimics*
"Do you have a plan on how to separate them?" Wakamura asked, staring over at Arafune who was standing blatantly on the roof with one foot braced on the ledge while he aimed his Egret towards the building. Since the Mimics could already track them and knew they were here, it would seem Arafune had no care about being hidden. He didn't even have his bagworm on which was normally something snipers never took unless it was absolutely necessary.
Arafune stared at Yugo through his scope. They had been here for an hour now and for thirty-four of those minutes, Yugo had stood in front of that window. He had to hand it to him. He was very patient, but it did make Arafune raise a brow. It truly was strange that neither he nor Mogami were attempting any hostile moves against them. "They already know we are here and that we split up, but they are still making no move."
"It is strange from the two who have been aggressive all week." Wakamura agreed.
"Stealth attacks aren't going to work so don't bother with bagworms or Chameleon." Arafune said. "This is going to be a pure straightforward fight that isn't about winning. We are aiming to just distract one of them to make things easier for Suwa-san and Katori."
"None of that answers my question of how you plan to sep–" Wakamura was cut off when Arafune pulled the trigger, sending his shot straight for Yugo. It was a surprise to none when the bullet slammed through the window, shattering the glass, only to be stopped by Yugo's Shield. "That does not separate them! That only draws them to us!"
Arafune didn't reply as he took another shot at Yugo. He knew it was just going to keep getting blocked, but if Yugo and Mogami were content to wait for an hour while Arafune and Suwa hung around doing nothing, they weren't necessarily going to move after getting shot at once. Fighting in that classroom was not going to be ideal for them so he would have to draw them out by being annoying.
Instead of leaving the classroom, Yugo retaliated with a Bolt seal directed straight at the roof that the agents were on. Seeing as Arafune wasn't moving from his position in the face of the bullets coming to kill of them, Wakamura and Miura moved into position to throw up focused shields all around them to protect from the attack.
Arafune took note of the shields as he stopped himself from pulling the trigger again since he didn't want to break the shields that were defending them. Although, as he watched the bullets slam into the shields, he saw the cracks forming on the shield. Even though it was a focused shield made by two agents, it seemed the bullets from a Black Trigger did not care about that fact.
Dying right now was not an option.
If they died later fighting the Mimics, fine, but not this early into the fight. He promised Suwa to split up the Mimics and distract them so that was what he intended to do. Arafune's own focused shield appeared to add a second layer to their defense. That should keep them protected until Yugo's Bolt seal ran through all its bullets.
"And how is this going to separate them?" Wakamura stressed.
"I got their attention." Arafune replied, swapping out his Egret for his Kogetsu, pulling the blade free of its sheath. "And now we are going to shift to close combat."
*Mimics*
The bullets raining through the air towards the roof where their allies had positioned themselves were hard to miss. They were numerous and so bright, drawing all attention to the attack.
"Personally, I think I want to go after Mogami." Suwa said as he watched the bullets. He had studied up on the memos about Kuga Yugo and Mogami Soichi so he knew for certain that the current attack was from Yugo. If he could do that, and knowing from experience how Yugo's son fought, Suwa wasn't eager to try to mark Yugo with a starmaker. Mogami likely wouldn't be any better to fight, but he least didn't have any bullets. He just had Senku and wind blades...honestly, this just freaking sucked all around.
"Wouldn't Kuga be more optimal though?" Katori argued. "Mogami is an issue, but not as much as Kuga whose presence is hurting his son. If Mogami and Kuga happen to split up later, shouldn't we want to be able to find Kuga?"
"That's true, but we don't know how they will separate when we go to divide them. We just have to starmaker whichever one chases us." Suwa replied. "Just be ready."
Katori scoffed. "I'm always ready. If I bail out, I will demand compensation from you for dragging me into this." She said as her parting words before she was disappearing down the hall.
Suwa stared after her for a moment, wondering if she was joking or not with that comment. She just seemed to have an issue with him, but she seemed to have an issue with a lot of her comrades, though Suwa never held it against her. She generally did want to improve, but had trouble putting her all into her training and working with her comrades. Well, he did drag her team into this crazy attack. He would have to buy Katori squad lunch or send a gift their way later if Katori refused to demand payment from Tamakoma from this.
"Your team might be upset you didn't call for help." Kagami said.
Suwa leaned back against the wall as he didn't feel like turning around the corner and getting a face full of bullets from Yugo if he came out of the classroom he was in and saw Suwa. "It's not like they will be missing much, except all of us most likely getting killed. Everyone worked hard last night. We can't drag everyone into these foolhardy attacks."
"Because you think you will all be killed?"
"Yeah, we can't diminish our attack force by getting everyone killed. If Kuga or Mogami attack us, who will fight them if everyone gets defeated in these foolish attacks we plan?" Suwa explained. This wasn't even a battle to kill the Mimics. It was just his attempt at being able to track them later when it was time to end this at long last.
"Do you think your plan will work?"
"Very few people use Spider, so it's likely that neither of them have seen it." Suwa replied. At least, that was what Suwa was banking on. He was simply trying to catch them off guard. Just one second of a distraction so he could shoot one of them with his starmaker.
*Mimics*
Mogami dropped his feet from the desk to sit up straight at the sound of shattering glass. "I was beginning to think they would never make their move."
"There are five agents now. Two of them have separated from the others." Yugo said, even as he defended from another shot before retaliating with his Bolt. His bullets shot towards the opposite roof where the sniper's shots had come from, but since there was no shining trail of light in the air, he supposed that he hadn't managed to kill anyone with that attack.
"A pincer attack or are they trying to separate us?" Mogami mused, glancing out the window. He and Yugo may be Border's founders, but that truly didn't matter right now. At their core, they were Trion Soldiers designed to work for Meraki. That made them enemies to their own organization. It was only natural that Border agents would keep coming after them. The problem for Mogami, though, was that he had no desire to fight them. Neither as Mogami nor as the Mimic. The Mimic in him was satisfied to have Fujin and Mogami was finding himself more at ease. There was no burning sensation telling him to kill the agents.
Be that as it may, they were attacking them. There was no desire for him to get Fujin back since he already had it, but there was still the order in him that was saying he could not let himself be killed. Dying was not an option so if these agents were going to attack, Mogami would have to protect his life.
"What good is a pincer attack when there are two of us?" Yugo asked, moving away from the window as he did not feel like continuing a shootout with the sniper. "We can cover each other so it's most likely just a plan to separate us." He stopped halfway across the classroom to glance over his shoulder at Mogami. "These agents have some impressive skill for their young age, but they would never win if we fought them together. With their skill, I'm sure they realize that so they thought splitting us up would work better in their favor."
"Play by their rules or take out each group of agents together?"
"Sounds like overkill." Yugo said, planting a hand on his sword as he stared at the door that led to the hallway. It would be overkill to have both of them go after each group to kill the agents. He didn't need help to take out these agents, but was it a good idea to split them up? As far as he could tell, there were only five agents in the area. Why would so few agents decide to try to attack them? He would hope that it wasn't arrogance on Border's part. With everything he and Mogami had shown to Border the past few days, they surely knew by now not to take them lightly. It could possibly be a trap. It was strange when the Border agents from the train station earlier chose not to try to follow Mogami and Yugo in their retreat.
It would be considered reckless to split up their strength to deal with each group separately, but moving in one group allowed the other group to move against them from behind. Well, separating would be reckless for anyone else. Yugo and Mogami were both strong enough to fight on their own, even if it was against multiple enemies at once.
"Don't think about retreating this time." Yugo said.
Mogami snatched Fujin off the desk as he stood up, staring at Yugo's back with narrowed eyes. It had only been a couple hours since they retreated from the battle at the train station, but it seemed that it was not going to be as easy to pull Yugo from this fight. Perhaps it had been easy earlier because Yugo had wanted to get away from the Black Trigger that the agents had managed to steal from him. He had been starting to lose control when they took it from him so he was eager to take Mogami's idea of retreat before he could start to try to seriously get back. If he got serious, he could have gotten it back, but a part of Yugo wanted Yuma to get it back.
Mogami could understand that. Just as Mogami never wanted to hurt Jin or Border, Yugo never wanted to hurt his son. It had to be some form of relief when the agents took the ring back from him, but that also meant any control he may have had when he had the Black Trigger wouldn't be there or maybe it just wouldn't be as strong. Without knowing much about the Mimics, Mogami couldn't tell what was going to happen to Yugo or him. He only knew that his mind was all over the place. Having Fujin on him helped to clear some of the haze in his mind, but he knew he wasn't completely in control and that was a frustrating feeling.
He knew what he wanted, but whereas before last night he had no control to get it, the control he was feeling now was limited. He wasn't sure if it was because of having Fujin helping him find his balance or because the Mimic in him was feeling a sense of achievement at having its goal, though it still needed to get back to Meraki with it.
The final command of returning to Meraki could not be accomplished though until they were able to open Gates again and they got the Black Trigger ring back from Border. As himself, Mogami had no desire to go get the ring back which was why he was fine with leaving it with the Border agents, but he also knew he and Yugo could never leave here until they got it back for him. This was what they were meant to do.
Even if Mogami's mind had begun to clear, he could not move away from his mission. He just didn't want to fight his former organization anymore. His loyalties may no longer lie with Border, but that didn't mean Mogami was going to go after them with the intent to kill them.
But, they were coming to him. These agents came here and took the first shot. They came here looking for a fight. Mogami may not want to fight, but he could at least greet the agents.
