A/N: I don't own World Trigger
Mimics
Chapter 47: Rank Party Part 4
It seemed that Konami was going to steal his fight with Yuma from him. He had been intending to fight Yuma for a while for him to get the feel for these swords, but it turned out that Konami wanted the opportunity herself. He wasn't going to stick around in the arena when Konami just challenged Yuma to his Black Trigger seals. It was for that reason he had quickly exited the virtual combat space and sat on the bleachers to watch.
"I'm not going to go easy on you just because you're out of practice from not getting to train for days." Konami said.
"I would never ask you to." Yuma replied, scooping his sword up from the ground from when he dropped it earlier after Jin cut his head off. "It's not fun if you're not trying your hardest."
Konami smirked at her student. She wasn't sure if she could call him competitive, but he surely did love fighting. Konami was competitive as a fighter and hated to lose, but Yuma didn't get like that. He didn't get upset when he lost because even when he did lose, he was still having fun. It was possible he just hid his competitive nature underneath his calm exterior though. Either way, it was exciting to fight him. Considering he was going to be using his Black Trigger seals this time around, it was going to be a much harder fight too.
Yuma fell into his ready stance as a way of telling Konami he was ready whenever she was.
The two agents stared at each other, eyeing each other up. Neither one of them liked to wait around as they were both extremely aggressive fighters. At the beginning of a fight, both of them just wanted to be the first one to move. It was for that reason that Yuma and Konami kicked off that ground at the same time.
While Konami was using both of her Sogetsu, Yuma was still choosing to only use one of his swords. For that reason, he had to work twice as hard to block every one of Konami's attacks. Having a lot of experience fighting Konami, it didn't matter that it had been a week since he last fought her. He was still able to block each and every one of her attacks. Konami was a fast, aggressive Attacker. When Yuma fought her using Scorpion, he was able to match her speedy attacks. With this new sword, while he could keep up with her, it wasn't as fast as he was used to.
Konami said to go all out since she wouldn't be holding back, so that was what Yuma would do to make up for his slower speed and the lack of Optional Triggers on his side. A seal began to form by his free hand. "Bolt, Double!"
His mentor took note of the attack by pulling back on her attack against Yuma and jumping backwards to the other side of the arena. Konami's Meteor formed by her side and broke into her bullets which she immediately unleashed. It would be a lot better than using her Shield which would likely shatter easily against Yuma's bullets. Using her Meteor, she could blast her bullets against Yuma's, causing them to explode midair and filling the room with smoke. She was going to use the smoke as a cover to close in on Yuma, but to her surprise, Yuma was already flying out of the smoke at a blazing speed and was attacking her to force her on the defensive.
Now that Yuma had forced Konami back, he was refusing to let up on his attacks. The attacks slammed into Konami's Sogetsu with a powerful strength behind them. Yuma was always a strong fighter, but his Scorpion blades lacked the weight to hit as hard as his current swords were.
Jin stared down at the arena as Konami and Yuma continued to exchange blows, smiling as his attention split between the fight and watching as the windows of possible futures popped up in front of his eyes. Yuma's future was still hazy to him, but since he could still everyone else's futures, he could build the pieces of Yuma's future to form a clear picture and it was looking like the fun wasn't going to end too soon.
If possible, Jin wished this fun could go on all night. Unfortunately, Jin knew that it wasn't going to. He should speak up about what was going to happen in a few hours to the others, but he was still looking into the new future that was forming. He also didn't want to bring Yuma's mood down just yet. They had only just managed to get some real smiles out of him. He would give Yuma the next hour or two to just have fun, but after this, it seemed there was going to be no rest to come.
Perhaps he should send a message to Rindo or Shinoda to warn them, but he didn't want to wake them just yet. They were going to need all the sleep they could get.
Yuma skidded back as he was forced to block Konami's retaliation. His hand twitched at his side to pull his second sword out, but he resisted the urge to take it out just yet. He wasn't quite ready to be wielding two of these swords yet. He had managed to shorten the blades a bit when he activated the Trigger to match his height, but it didn't lessen the weight of the sword. The more he battled, the more he got used to it. Once he got a handle on one sword, he could bring out his second sword.
That was what Konami wanted after all. She wanted Yuma to fight like Yugo did with the Black Trigger seals and two swords. From what Yuma remembered of his dad's fighting style, he didn't always use both of his swords, but according to his friends, he has been using two swords a lot lately.
Yuma swung his sword down to his side. "Do you want me to match Dad's style of fighting completely? Or just showcase two blades with my Black Trigger seals?"
"What's the difference?" Konami asked, straightening up from her stance for the moment.
"Dad is immovable. He stays in his spot and lets his enemy come to him and turns their strength against them. Doing it that way, he preserves his strength for when he can get the kill. I, on the other hand, am focused on agility and a style of flexibility." Yuma replied. His own fighting style didn't need to be explained since Konami had fought him enough times to know how Yuma moved. "It had been years since I trained with my dad, but I might be able to copy his style. I just won't be as strong as him doing it."
Konami looked over at Yuma. As strong as he was, he didn't quite hold the same air as Yugo did. He could match Yugo's style to give them an idea of what it was like to deal with him and give them practice. In this case, it was better than going in completely blind to what it would be like against someone using the Black Trigger without holding back. Yuma was quite skilled with his Black Trigger so he surely could handle doing this.
Personally, Konami wanted to fight Yuma with him using his own fighting style. That was how both of them would have the most fun since they could go all out on each other without any concerns. Right now that wasn't possible though. In the back of their minds, the worries of Mimics and Yuma's death were always going to be there. For now, they should focus on preparing for Yugo and Mogami as much as they could. When this was all over, then they could have as much fun fighting to their hearts' content.
"Fight like your father." Konami decided.
"Alright, give me a minute." Yuma straightened up, closing his eyes as he went through his memories of the times when he trained with Yugo and the few times he saw Yugo fighting this week. He wouldn't be able to copy Yugo's fighting style perfectly, but he would be able to put up one hell of a fight, especially with the virtual combat room which gave him unlimited Trion.
*Mimics*
Osamu collapsed onto the couch, leaning his head on the back of the couch as he released an exhausted sigh. Hyuse and Ikoma on the same team was a nightmare duo, though Osamu would still attest to Hyuse and Yuma being a worse vanguard pair to fight. That didn't make Ikoma and Hyuse any less difficult to fight. It felt like there was no logic to how Ikoma fought. There was some type of thought to his moves, but he seemed to move more on instinct with no real plan. He supposed that wasn't too odd. Not all the squads went all out on their strategies like Osamu did. Osamu needed his strategies and plans to manipulate the battlefield to Tamakoma-2's advantage so they could win their matches. Squads like Ninomiya squad or Kageura squad didn't necessarily need to do that to win.
"Where did Kuga disappear to?" Osamu asked, tugging at his collar. "I thought he was quite excited to be here tonight so I didn't expect him to just vanish while we were all in our matches."
"Jin and Kuga went to the virtual combat rooms to fight." Kakizaki said.
Osamu raised a brow. "Fight? Kuga?"
"The virtual combat rooms give you unlimited Trion so it stands to reason that Yuma would be able to use a Trigger in there." Arashiyama explained.
Shun, who had up to this point relaxing on the couch with his head resting on the arm rest, snapped straight up so fast that Osamu was surprised he didn't break his neck. "Yuma-senpai can fight in those rooms?"
"That is what they were check–" Kakizaki started to answer, but trailed off when it was clear Shun wasn't listening by his suddenly jumping to his feet and started to make his way to the doorway. "Okay, bye!"
"I'm going to fight Yuma-senpai!" Shun shouted over his shoulder.
"What Trigger would he be using? His Border Trigger is in the hands of his father right now." Murakami said thoughtfully. "His Black Trigger maybe? I should take the chance to face off against him then. Facing his Black Trigger would be very helpful."
"You can just say you want to fight Kuga." Kageura retorted because wasn't that true for anyone that enjoyed fighting Yuma? With the state Yuma was in and his death being predicted by Jin this week, it was likely this would be their last chance to even have a chance to fight Yuma. "We can have team matches whenever. How often will we get the chance to fight his Black Trigger?"
It was clear by their expression that it wasn't about wanting to see Yuma's Black Trigger in action, but none of them wanting to say it out loud that this might be the last time they get to fight Yuma. Everyone was thinking it, but no one wanted to be the one say it. "So, go bother Jin-san to get him out of the way and give you a chance for a match." Osamu said. He didn't stick around tonight to have team rank matches, even if it was good experience to learn to work with others and get practice. Yuma getting the chance to fight his friends again, even if they used it as an excuse to see his Black Trigger in action, would make them all happy. They should take advantage of something like this, especially if it was the last time it would happen.
"Probably Konami-senpai too. She already left earlier to find them and has probably already shoved Jin-san out." Karasuma said. "And it seems Midorikawa is going to steal the next match since he is ahead of you guys in running there."
Obishima watched as Kageura, Murakami and a few of the other agents took that as an initiative to head to the virtual combat room. It wasn't too surprising they were eager to fight Yuma as she herself greatly admired Yuma and his combat style with how impressive it was, but they did all hear 'Black Trigger,' right? They were going to fight Yuma one-on-one when he was wielding his Black Trigger. That just seemed insane to her. Yuma was a tough enough opponent just using his normal Trigger. "Do they have a chance of beating Kuga-senpai if he uses his Black Trigger?"
"Kuga has a very powerful Black Trigger but he is not able to use it to its full potential on his own. He requires a partner to bring out the full power of it but there is no one here who could offer the help he needs. Considering that handicap, they should be fine." Osamu replied.
"Really? Kuga Yugo seems like he is doing amazing on his own using the Black Trigger." Suwa grumbled as he recalled his battle with him earlier.
"I suppose so, but from what I've seen of the logs of his fight, he is spending a lot of them either laying out the seals as traps before the battle even begins or he is laying them down as the battle progresses. That takes a lot of time and preparation to make those plans while fighting your enemy at the same time so it isn't easy." Osamu replied.
Suwa thought back to his fight with Yugo a bit more. "Now that I think of it, he never targeted me or Katori with any traps when we fight a few hours ago."
Osamu glanced at Suwa in confusion as he didn't know he ever got into with Yugo. "Did you attack him or did he attack you?"
"We attacked him." Arafune replied. "But he knew we were coming."
"That would be why then."
Arafune stared at the retreating back of his friends as they went to fight Yuma. It was true they attacked Yugo and Mogami earlier, but it wasn't like they attacked them immediately upon finding them. They waited around for a while as they spied on them. Yugo chose to stand there, silently daring Arafune to try to snipe him when he could have been preparing for a fight by laying down seals as traps. Was Kuga Yugo so confident that he felt the need to not prepare to face their challenge?
"We lost Midorikawa from our team." Arafune told Osamu.
"You could always go join him as his partner for a match against Kuga." Osamu suggested. "Even if Kuga isn't using his Black Trigger at full potential, he is still very strong with it. A single agent isn't going to beat him."
He supposed he could do that. Arafune had yet to see Kuga Yugo in action since he had to fight Mogami earlier. For that reason, going to see Yuma fight with his Black Trigger would be a good learning moment. It would be a helpful lesson if he ever had to come across Kuga Yugo.
Izumi arrived back at the group with a plate of pizza that he was happily munching on. "Sounds to me like instead of continuing our rank matches, we're moving the party to the training room to beat Kuga into the ground?"
"Attempt to beat Kuga into the ground." Yoneya said cheerfully. He was already eager to go join the others in the virtual combat room, but he wasn't going to run there like an excitable puppy like Shun did. He could show patience and wait for Izumi. "Since we're already on a team, we should stick to this partnership and fight Kuga."
"Are you after revenge against Kuga for your loss against him months ago?" Izumi asked.
"You lost to Kuga's dad in an ambush the other day. Do you not want revenge?" Yoneya retorted.
"No," Izumi took a bite of his pizza as he glanced over towards his captain who was starting to get that eager look in his eyes. "I know how to accept a loss. Besides, we lost to the father, not the son. I have nothing against our Kuga."
"You might not, but your captain has everything against that family right now." Yoneya said, amusement rolling off him in waves as he looked towards Tachikawa too. As much as Yuma loved fighting, Yoneya would say that Tachikawa was even more of a fighting maniac than him. It was amazing that he had never bothered to challenge Yuma to a fight before, but that likely had to do with the fact that Tachikawa and Yuma were never at the solo rank booths at the same time.
"Wasn't Tachikawa trained by Director Shinoda?" Hyuse asked his Captain. He seemed to recall having that talk with him the other day.
"Yes, why do you ask?" Osamu asked.
"I just thought it was funny that Director Shinoda is so fond of his mentor's son while his own mentee is having a not so silent war with the Kuga family." Hyuse said.
"What does Shinoda-san's mentor have to do with Tachikawa-san's war with Kuga?" Yoneya asked.
Hyuse looked at him as if he was an idiot.
"Kuga-san recruited and trained Rindo-san and Shinoda-san in the past. For everything he had done for them, they both feel like they owe him a lot so since he had died, they are repaying him by watching over and protecting Kuga." Osamu explained, almost sounding bored with the explanation. He did feel like they should have realized some of this at this point since they had said Yugo was friends with them before, but he supposed saying they were friends didn't equate to being a mentor.
Tachikawa's head snapped towards the group. "Him?!" He snarled.
Osamu gave Tachikawa a strange look. Well, he supposed his war with Yugo would make him upset to learn that Shinoda was close with Yugo by having a mentor/mentee relationship.
"That man is the one who trained my mentor?" Tachikawa demanded.
"And Rindo-san and Kuga." Osamu clarified.
Izumi suddenly got an evil smirk. "So, essentially, that man you have been mad at for days is your grand mentor. It seems only natural that he would be stronger than Shinoda-san and could defeat you." There was no doubt in Izumi's mind that he was playing with fire. This would set off his captain even more but now he could find something funny in it.
"We didn't even fight! He ambushed us." Tachikawa retorted.
"In the field, with Black Trigger seals used as a trap. It's a fair tactic." Osamu pointed out. Traps and sneaky maneuvers were a huge part of his team's strategies so he would never look down on those type of attacks in the field. It could easily be frustrating for someone to be taken out by an enemy that they didn't know they had until they stepped into the trap, but that was why they had to always be cautious and aware of their surroundings.
"He brings up a good point. You should have been more prepared for a surprise attack." Yoneya teased. "You should always be aware of your surroundings."
"The seals are hidden until the trap is activated. How can anyone be prepared for that?" Tachikawa retorted. It was just like dealing with Fujin's wind blades when they were set as a trap. Until the user willed it, no one could know where they were hidden.
"By being aware of their surroundings." Kitora said.
"Perhaps he could learn something from Kuga about that." Yuba said.
"Which one? The son or the father?" Hisato asked.
"Both, isn't it? They are both always ready for a surprise attack." Osamu replied as he recalled Yuma throwing up a Shield super fast when Miwa tried to shoot him the day they met. "I don't think either one of them knows how to drop their guard." Over the months that Osamu has come to know Yuma, he would say that Yuma was on edge most of the time and really only relaxed when he was inside Tamakoma. He knew how to have fun and enjoy his time, but was always wary and ready for someone to attack him. Osamu didn't know if that came from growing up in warzones or because he was a Neighbor inside an organization that had a hatred of Neighbors. If someone found out the truth about him, they could attack him at any time so perhaps Yuma took that as a meaning to not let himself drop his guard ever.
Tachikawa was feeling quite offended the longer this conversation went on. He was more of a direct type of fighter when in the field. Sneaky tactics were not something he thought about since he just liked to go directly for the enemy.
That said, he wasn't unaware of sneak attacks. Jin was a master of them and made a habit of using his tricks against Tachikawa. Tachikawa hadn't forgotten what had happened back in December when Jin stood in the path of the A-Ranks tasked with going after Yuma. Jin was a master of deceit and they were wary of his tricks back then, but they still lost to him. The difference between that moment and Kuga Yugo was that no one had known Yugo had appeared in the city. They weren't being careful since they hadn't seen him coming and that led to them falling to his ambush.
Tachikawa wanted the chance to actually fight Kuga Yugo properly. More than ever now that he heard he was the one who trained his own mentor. He needed his revenge and if he could surpass Yugo, it would be like surpassing his own mentor that he had yet to ever defeat in a match.
*Mimics*
When Yuma opened his eyes back up, Konami was surprised at the stern resolve that had settled over his face. It wasn't a strange look for him as Yuma often times had a cold expression on his face or a blank look or a calm, collected look. It depended on what type of battle he was in to determine how he would look.
The expression threw her off this time because standing there in the black uniform with those familiar blades and with the stern look with narrowed eyes made Yuma look so much like Yugo. She had only met Kuga Yugo once, but that was enough to sear the memory of him in her mind. Yuma didn't share much of his looks with his father beyond his eyes, but with the way he was holding himself right now, Konami could clearly see Kuga Yugo in him.
Seeing that expression on his face, Konami took it as meaning that Yuma was ready to face off against her so without waiting any longer, she threw herself at her mentee. Yuma took Konami's attack head on, only moving one foot behind him to brace himself as he took the full weight of her attack bearing down on his blade.
Yuma didn't have the same strength as his father or the height that he took advantage of when he fought like this, but he would do his best to adopt his style for now. With that in mind, he twisted his body around while keeping his blade locked with Konami's Sogetsu. When her second Sogetsu was swung at him, he grabbed her wrist to stop it from hitting him. He finished his twisting so he could use the momentum behind her attacks to throw her across the training room.
As she was righting herself in the air so she would land face first on the ground, Yuma raised his free hand. "Anchor. Plus Bolt, Triple!" He shouted.
Lead bullets wasn't impossible to dodge, but most people weren't shooting off hundreds of them in one attack. One or just a few were easy to dodge if one knew they were coming and was fast enough and smart enough to try to get out of the way. In the air with no way to change her position and with hundreds coming for her, Konami was basically a sitting duck as all the lead bullets slammed into her and dragged her harshly back to the ground.
Just like the lead bullets she got hit with at Tamakoma the other day, these ones were a lot heavier than the one Border utilized. When a shadow fall over her, Konami looked up to see Yuma standing there with a cold look on his face as he stabbed her through the heart.
"Trion relay system destroyed. Konami down."
Ripping his sword out of her chest, Yuma walked away as his mentor's wounds healed. He moved back to the center of the arena. Konami had asked him to mirror his father and he had chosen the cold version of Kuga Yugo that was tormenting the Border agents this week. This wasn't a mindset he enjoyed and not one he wanted to go in and out of so he wasn't going to drop the façade while they prepared for the next round.
Konami picked up her Sogetsus as she climbed back to her feet, staring at Yuma's back. In a virtual combat room that had no buildings or walls to use as shields, Lead Bullet, especially the one that Yuma had access to, was going to be her bane. She didn't have Escudo to put up walls to defend herself from it so she had to find a way to actually dodge the Lead Bullets.
"That's not a Black Trigger." Shun said.
Jin smiled as the first of the agents appeared in the room.
"In fact, that sword that Yuma-senpai has..."
"It's the same blade as Kuga-san." Jin finished, taking his eyes off of the new round that had just begun. "Yuma is copying Kuga-san's fighting style to give Konami a chance to experience it so if she has to fight Kuga-san later, she knows what to expect. I imagine everyone wants to give it a try." He turned halfway in his seat to see Murakami and Kageura coming in as well.
"You didn't see the future of the party shifting to this room?" Shun teased.
"Not until recently." Jin replied lightly. To be honest, he hadn't been focused on how the party was going to turn out. He was more concerned with what would happen in a few hours. The present time should have no issues so he hadn't been focusing too much on the future for the next hour.
"It looks like a normal Trigger to me." Kageura scoffed as he stepped down next to Shun on the stairs. A moment after he said that, Yuma activated a Bolt seal that filled the combat room with bullets forcing Konami away from him as she began to slice her Sogetsu through all the bullets Yuma was launching at her. There were too many for her to cut them all down though and they started to break through her defense, resulting in her getting hit and Trion spilling from her.
"That's Kuga's Bolt seal from his Black Trigger, isn't it?" Murakami asked, taking a seat on the bleachers next to Jin while keeping his eyes locked on the fight so he could learn everything he could.
"Since his Black Trigger is always active, Yuma can use his seals while wielding other Triggers." Jin explained. "That means he can fight the same way Kuga-san does."
"Then I for sure want the chance to fight Kuga and learn as much as I can." Murakami said. He had already come here with that plan in mind, but this just solidified his reasoning for wanting to do this. "Someone should tell Konami she can't hog Kuga all night."
Jin gave a small smile. If Yuma and Konami were left to their devices, they could go at it for hours, forgetting everything else that was going on around them. There were so many times they would forget how many matches they had been going for when someone would need to drag them out of the training room for dinner.
"You could just barge in then once this round ends." Kako suggested with a little amused grin. "And best do it before someone else beats you to it if you're that eager for a match."
"You won't be going in?" Jin asked as Kako took a seat next to him.
"I haven't decided yet." Kako said cheerfully. "I'll let the others who really want to fight him have their turn against him." She nodded her head at Yuma's rivals who had their undivided attention on the arena. "What about you?"
"Yuma and I had two matches earlier." Jin replied, though he did wish to have another match with Yuma some day. A match that was much more serious between them and not just Yuma trying to get a feel for a pair of swords he had little to no practice with. "I'll give the others their chance."
Yuma was always a tough opponent to fight. Even when he first joined Border and only had a training Trigger, Konami had been impressed. A training Trigger only had a main Trigger. There was no Shield on it and yet Yuma was always able to hold his own against her. Once he got a combat Trigger with his Shield and Grasshopper, their training sessions got even more interesting. The fact that he was always able to keep up with Konami using her special Trigger had amazed her and made her wonder where Jin had found him.
Their training sessions became less about Konami teaching him anything and more about just giving him the practice that he needed to get used to Border Triggers. Once he got used to them, it upped the stakes in their fights.
Those stakes were nothing like this battle was. With his Border Trigger, Yuma was primarily a close combat fighter since he refused to use bullet Triggers. He gave himself some range by morphing his Scorpion into a projectile, but that only helped him so much. Compared to that fighting style, his style with his Black Trigger on top of the normal Trigger was a lot more dangerous. If he didn't want her to get close, he wouldn't let her get close.
Konami had her Meteor if Yuma forced her to stay far away from him, but he knew how to block her Meteor by now. If she was forced to stay at a distance and her Meteor could be blocked, she would be a huge disadvantage here.
Out of the corner of his eyes, Yuma took note of the other agents arriving in the room, but didn't let that distract his line of thought. He was meant to be acting as a pseudo-Mimic-Kuga Yuga right now. That was what he needed to stay focused on.
Refocusing on Konami, Yuma saw her approaching again. Yuma turned his palm upwards in response. "Anchor. Plus Bolt, Quadra!" He said, choosing a stronger multiplier this time since Konami wasn't trapped falling in the air this time. He wanted more Lead Bullets over a wider range this time.
Seeing the Anchor seal once more, Konami snapped to a stop and jumped backwards, sheathing one of her Sogetsu blades. She held out her hand towards Yuma, forming her Meteor and breaking it into her bullets. "Meteor." The bullets unleashed and shot towards Yuma's Lead Bullets, blowing them into pieces before they could reach her.
Though, as powerful as her Meteor was, it still couldn't match the power of bullets from a Black Trigger. Her Meteor bullets depleted before Yuma's Lead Bullet did, but she had managed to decrease the amount of Lead Bullets flying towards her. With less to dodge, Konami was able to run around the bullets, trying to avoid as many as she could as she moved towards Yuma. Unfortunately, despite how many Lead Bullets she shot down and dodged, she couldn't avoid them all and got hit in her leg. She stumbled forward at the weight that dragged her down, but didn't let it stop her as she slammed her Sogetsu against Yuma's sword.
A Lead Bullet in her leg slowed down her movement speed, but not her attack speed when she was already on top of Yuma. Seeing her second Sogetsu swinging at him, Yuma yanked on his second blade and as he ripped it out of the sheath, he sliced through her arm, sending it flying through the air.
Konami retaliated by twisting her Sogetsu around Yuma's sword and slashing upwards towards his face. Yuma leaned back to avoid it, but still got sliced across the face. Yuma kicked at Konami, and with her already being off-kilter from the Lead Bullet in her leg, she stumbled back, giving Yuma the chance to complete a backwards handstand to move away from her. As he landed back on his feet, he saw Konami getting up in his face again, but before she could strike, the Chain seal he just planted on the floor activated, leaving her tangled in the chains.
Like before, as Yuma was not the type to waste time in a fight, there was no mercy from him now that he had her trapped. This time, his sword soared through the air to connect with her neck which he sliced off.
"Konami down."
Konami stayed lying on the floor as her body reformed, frustration pulling at her gut. "Is there a way to know when a seal has been placed as a trap?" She demanded, recalling her confrontation with Yugo at Tamakoma. She had stepped on one of his trap seals back then too. How could she run around freely when she had to be wary of every step she made?
"When I had Replica with me, he could plant the seals all over the battlefield for me while I focused on the enemy. Without him by my side, I can only lay the seals as traps where I can touch with my hands or feet." Yuma explained, looking beyond Konami as the doors to the arena opened to allow entrance to his friends. "So, you need to be aware of where I move around and assume there is a trap everywhere I touch. Other than that, you can't know until it gets activated."
"That shouldn't be too hard if you continue to try to not jump around the battlefield like you normally fight." Murakami said as they approached the two agents.
Konami sat up and looked over at Murakami, Kageura, and Shun entering. "Oh? You want a match?"
"We decided three against one would be fair if Yuma-senpai is going to use his Black Trigger." Shun replied.
"Hmm," Yuma tilted his head in consideration. "Do you need practice, Shun? Haven't you fought my dad like two times already?"
"And I got killed both times!" Shun retorted. "I'll take all the practice I can get against your seals!"
Yuma wanted to laugh, but that would mean dropping his pseudo-Mimic-Kuga Yuga façade and he wasn't ready to do that. He had to keep his focus. He may have already broken it by doing the backwards handstand since his father wasn't really the type to throw acrobatics moves into his fighting style. Well, he wasn't going to be a perfect copy. His goal was to get his friends to get the idea how his style worked so they wouldn't get killed. He normally didn't care if he got killed in training, even if he did want to win, but since Yugo has yet to be defeated by any of the agents, Yuma was here to fight his hardest and make it next to impossible for them to beat him. The Black Trigger they needed to fight wasn't easy to beat so they needed a lesson where he showed no mercy. That would be the best practice for them.
*Mimics*
"Upset?" Jin teased Konami as she dropped into the bleachers.
"I wanted to go until I killed him." Konami complained as Murakami, Kageura, and Shun got ready to go at Yuma.
"You can have a go later once everyone who wants to try a fight against him has had a chance." Kako pointed out. "Or you can get Kuga-kun to have this type of match with you when you guys can train again at Tamakoma."
"I'm not sure that would be a good idea." Jin mused. "If he allows himself to use his Black Trigger seals while using his Border Trigger during training, he might forget that he's not supposed to use it during Rank Wars and get himself disqualified."
"Do you really think he would make that kind of mistake?" Kako asked.
Jin shrugged. "Anything is possible, especially if he gets too comfortable doing this. I would hate to see my kouhai disqualified because of a mistake like that."
"You don't have to worry about that, Jin. I have decided that your precious protégé is now going to be my protégé."
Jin's head whipped around to look at Tachikawa coming down the stairs with Izumi who looked a mix of fed up with his captain and extremely amused. On the other hand, Yoneya was grinning widely and was apparently just looking for a good show. "Excuse you?" Jin snapped. "You have Murakami to be your protégé."
"I can have more than one." Tachikawa looked down at the arena, smirking. "See? He's already switched to different blades. I'll get him some Kogetsu blades and train him to master them."
"Not likely. Yuma is already complaining that he misses his Scorpion." Jin retorted, glaring at his rival. Yuma's words as of late were reminding him quite a lot of Tachikawa. He didn't need to adopt Tachikawa's fighting style as well.
Konami twisted around in her seat to move her glare from Tachikawa to Jin. "What are you two idiots talking about? Yuma is my mentee. You two keep your grubby hands away from him."
"Oh my," Kako said amused, brushing her hair over her shoulder while she started to smirk. "What if we make him mine? My team would gladly have him."
"Don't even start, Kako-san. I don't care if we are friends, I will crush you if you even try." Konami threatened.
"Kuga is going to start a possible second civil war in Border and he doesn't even realize it." Yoneya said, a laugh coating his voice. As amusing as it was, and as fun as that fight in the Restricted Zone back in December was, he was not going to take part in this war. He would like some popcorn and to sit back and see how it played out this time.
Stepping into the room to see the A-Rank arguing, Osamu simply pushed his glasses up and looked away while thinking about the pros of just walking right back out the door and pretending that he saw nothing and just went on home. He truly could have dealt with not knowing about their insanity.
"Why do you even want to steal Yuma all of sudden?" Jin demanded. Tamakoma-2 were his cute kouhai team that their branch was raising and Tachikawa could have Murakami that he expected so much from. It was Tachikawa's protégé against Jin's protégé. Jin and Tachikawa were rivals just as Yuma and Murakami were rivals. Tachikawa was trying to ruin that dynamic with this.
"I have been informed that Shinoda-san was trained by Kuga when he joined Border. That means I have received the same lessons that Shinoda-san received from Kuga which Chibi also received. We are connected." Tachikawa said.
At this point, Jin was certain that Tachikawa was messing with him. His rival knew how protective he was of Tamakoma-2. They were his cute kouhai that belonged with Tamakoma. "And my mentor was Mogami-san who was best friends and rivals with Kuga-san. What's your point?"
"If Shinoda-san was trained by Kuga, that makes Kuga Tachikawa-san's grand mentor so how would that connect our Kuga and Tachikawa-san?" Izumi wondered. "Cousin mentees? Brother mentees?"
"How would I know? It's a confusing connection when you consider that Kuga is Kuga's son!" Yoneya retorted.
"I think we should adopt Tachikawa-san's name and just call Kuga Chibi. This is getting confusing." Izumi commented.
"Okay, so you and Chibi both got trained by a Border founder." Tachikawa said. "Then that can make you cousin mentees, but since Kuga laid the foundation for which Chibi and I got trained, our connection is stronger."
"The hell it is." Jin retorted, smiling so innocently at Tachikawa that it in fact felt more evil to the A-Ranks watching. "Because I've never tried to kill Yuma."
"That was months ago. Let it go."
"Technically, we never got a kill order either. It was more of a mission to retrieve a Black Trigger." Izumi pointed out. While he wasn't at the meeting when Kido-san gave the order for the mission, Tachikawa never said anything about killing Yuma when he briefed him on the mission. Of course, when they had confronted Jin who was in their path to stop them, Tachikawa did talk about bringing Yuma down back then but to Izumi, that felt more like Tachikawa pushing Jin into a corner as part of the challenge. That wasn't to say the situation back then couldn't have led to Yuma's death, but it wasn't their actual goal in that mission. The Black Trigger had been the top priority.
"I need to get Yuma his Scorpion back." Jin muttered to himself. "Before he really does turn into a mini Tachikawa-san."
"And what is so wrong with that?" Tachikawa retorted.
"Do you want me to make a list?!"
*Mimics*
"Yuma-senpai has a scary look on his face." Shun mumbled. "It reminds me a lot of his dad."
Murakami and Kageura sent curious looks towards Shun. Of the three of them, he was the only one to have met Kuga Yugo so far.
"He is copying Kuga's style of fighting right now." Murakami pointed out. "Maybe he is just trying to put himself in that mindset for the fight."
"Considering that, I don't think this is going to be fun." Shun said, calling his Scorpion to his hand. "Have you guys watched any of the logs of Kuga Yugo's fights?"
"Yes," Murakami said as he drew his Kogetsu from its sheath. He wasn't sure about Kageura, but Murakami had spent quite a bit of time watching the logs of any fight Yugo and Mogami had that Kon was able to pull up for him. Watching the fights was not the same as experiencing the fights in person so his side effect didn't work as well, but it did at least allow him to study their habits.
Yuma stared at his rivals, twirling one of his swords around. He had pulled both swords out in the final moment against Konami so he was going to keep both of them out now, especially when he had to face off against three skilled swordsmen. Konami was a difficult opponent but she only had two blades at most. With three swordsmen here, they had at least six blades now. Though, that was counting Murakami's Raygust but having fought Murakami so much, Yuma knew that he didn't often use the blade mode. He preferred to use it as a Shield for its high defense, but that didn't mean he never switched it to its blade.
If Yuma continued to try to copy Yugo's fighting style, he would have to use both swords just to survive six blades trying to impale him. Yugo's style of letting the enemies come to him and manipulate their movements to his favor wasn't a style easy to copy. Now that he was going to have three agents coming at him, Yuma was going to learn how Yugo felt using this style with the Black Trigger mixed in. Yugo made it look easy, but Yuma knew for certain that it wasn't.
Typically, Yuma would wait for his opponents to be ready for the match to start. His friends clearly weren't ready as they were still talking, but Yuma was going to make this very similar to when Yugo attacked them constantly. He seemed to be attacking without warning with ambushes like when he fought Tachikawa squad or when he just waltzed into Tamakoma Branch and then Border HQ a couple days later. He attacked without warning.
While Murakami and the others were distracted, Yuma shifted his foot forward a little bit and formed a seal on the ground as his trap before dragging it back to its original position. Without drawing attention to himself, his Bolt seal formed above his fist.
Murakami noticed the seal first and instead of warning his friends, he moved in front of them just as the bullets flew free from Yuma's Bolt seal. The durability of Raygust was not to be undermined. It wasn't indestructible, but it was a powerful shield that couldn't be broken through easily. With a regular Bolt seal, Murakami had no trouble blocking Yuma's surprise attack. Yuma knew that Yugo used Hound and Viper as he had managed to steal those from the agents he had fought, but Yuma did not know if he had those at his disposal like Yugo did.
"When did we start?" Shun asked.
"Seems Kuga doesn't want to give us a chance." Kageura said, smirking in amusement. They should have made a decision of how to handle this before they came in here, but Kageura much preferred this style of just throwing themselves into the thick of it.
Shun eyed Kageura out of the corner of his eyes while trying to keep Yuma in his peripheral but he didn't seem to be moving in on them as he chose to stand in the middle of the arena. Considering the two times he had fought Yugo, Shun could see the copying of Yugo's style here so he wasn't fond of the idea of getting close to Yuma, but they weren't going to have another choice. The only ranged attacks they had were Murakami's Senku and Kageura's Mantis and Shun highly doubted either of those would be enough to kill Yuma. What they needed to do was overwhelm him. Even with his swords and all the Black Trigger seals by his side, he was still only one person against three top Attackers.
A Grasshopper pad appeared behind Shun's foot to launch him forward, straight for Yuma. His Scorpion met Yuma's blade before he used another Grasshopper to throw himself to his side to get around Yuma while also revealing Murakami behind him. A focused Shield popped up behind Yuma to stop Shun's attack while Yuma gave his attention to Murakami as he blocked each of Murakami's attacks. Even as he blocked each of Murakami's blows, Yuma's eyes were shifting around the arena as he kept track of Shun and waited for Kageura to make his move.
With how aggressive of a fighter Kageura was, he wouldn't stay back for long. Having done three way matches with Kageura and Murakami in the past, Yuma had learned a lot on how they fought together. The matches were three way but there were plenty of times when two of them would team up against the other one. Yuma had faced the wrath of Kageura and Murakami deciding to cooperate to kill him first enough times to know how they worked around each other and with all the times he fought Shun, he could easily factor in his fighting style.
And there it was.
It was low to the ground as Kageura was trying to keep him from seeing it, but Yuma had seen him do that before. Using one of his swords to block Murakami's Kogetsu, Yuma flipped his second sword in a downwards arc in a move very reminiscent of Murakami's move when he fought Yuma and Hyuse in round seven. This allowed him to block Kageura's Mantis that was coming for his feet and continued on behind him where Shun was already getting ready to block the sword. Yuma briefly let go of his sword to not only readjust his hold but to also get the opportunity to activate his seal as his goal was never to strike Shun. He didn't have the same flexibility like with Scorpion to attack properly behind him and he had no Senku to extend his blade like Murakami did with his Kogetsu when he did this move.
"Bound, Triple!" Yuma said.
The seal appeared before the unprepared Shun who wasn't able to stop his Scorpion from hitting it. The moment his sword hit it, the seal activated and Shun felt the full force of it slam into him which sent him flying backwards so fast and hard that he had no time to react as he was flying through the air. One second he had hit the seal and the next he was slamming into the blue wall of the arena. The force of the seal had been so strong that he felt the wall try to give in under his body, but lucky for them, the walls were made of reinforced Trion so they could withstand agents fighting inside.
The cracks that had formed when Shun hit it healed themselves as he rolled down the wall and hit the ground, laying on the ground, dazed for a moment. Shun had read the report they managed to get on Yuma's Black Trigger since he wanted a better understanding of its powers before he had to face off against Yugo again. He knew there was a Bound seal. When he read up on it, he thought it sounded similar to Grasshopper and took that as the reason why Yuma excelled at using Grasshopper so fast.
Now, Shun was seriously beginning to question everything he knew. What purpose could they be for anyone having such a powerful seal that just flung people around without giving them any control of their body? How did Yuma use that?
*Mimics*
Arashiyama winced sympathetically as Shun hit the ground and just laid there. He doubted that Bound could do any physical damage to Shun since it was a support seal and Trion bodies couldn't feel pain, but getting hit hard enough like that could cause them to stagger and need a moment to recover.
"Kuga-kun almost broke the wall with that move." Kitora said. "Had he used a stronger multiplier, do you think the wall would have broken?"
"I think that is a very likely possibility." Arashiyama replied. "The walls are reinforced, but they're not invincible. A Black Trigger could break through it if enough power was used." He glanced over at the arguing Jin and Tachikawa. "Jin, Yuma won't go that far, will he? It will cause problems with Kido-san and Shinoda-san if he breaks the room."
Jin broke his glaring contest with Tachikawa, deciding that his rival's teasing was simply not worth it anymore, to give Arashiyama his full attention. "I can make no promises on that. It depends on how far the agents who fight him can push him. Yuma isn't going to hold back here."
"If he breaks the room, he'll have to take responsibility for it. No one else should be taking the blame for that." Kitora replied.
"If he uses any multiplier above Quadra, we should be worried." Jin agreed so easily that the others looked at him warily. As usual with Jin, it felt like he knew more than they did.
"He didn't use Quadra just now?" Kako asked.
"Nope, that was only a Triple seal." Jin replied, rubbing the back of his neck as he sighed. "And it was still overkill to get Shun away from him. Bound is a powerful seal to make you move faster, but unless you have a lot of practice with it, you will have no control when getting flung with it. Just a regular Bound with no multiplier would have been enough to stall Shun."
"Have you used it before?" Izumi asked since the way Jin spoke, it sounded like it was from experience and not just studying Yuma's Black Trigger.
"He crashed into a wall so hard it crumbled into pieces." Karasuma said before Jin could say anything to avoid what happened. "If the situation wasn't so serious at the time, it would have been hilarious. In fact, now that it has long passed, I think we can all laugh at it now."
It was hard to laugh at it with just what Karasuma said, but imagining what it was like when it happened in his head was enough to get Tachikawa to laugh. Just thinking of the always in control, composed Jin just slamming into a wall was such a highlight. It clearly happened while he was in a Trion body so he would have to see if Kunichika could find the logs of that fight so Tachikawa could put Jin slamming into a wall on loop.
"Was that necessary?" Jin complained.
"You were engaging in an argument over who should have Yuma as a protégé." Karasuma scolded. "That isn't your guys' choice to make."
"Isn't it though?" Konami spoke up. "I chose him months ago as mine. Jin chose to not participate back then so he doesn't get one."
"All of Tamakoma-2 are my protégés." Jin argued. "I had your team mentor them, but I found them and picked them."
"Like they're stray dogs?" Kako asked amused. "What a shame. If only I had found Kuga-kun first."
"He wouldn't have been a Border agent back then." Suwa pointed out as he dropped into the bleachers next to her. "You would have never known that he would be skilled enough to be a member of your team."
"You would have never been able to get Yuma to join Border in the first place." Jin added, dropping back down into his seat.
"Because I can't peak into the future to see what I need to do to get him to say yes?" Kako retorted. After her first meeting with Yuma and trying to recruit him to her team, she saw how stubborn he was. Nothing she was able to offer was enough to drive him to switch teams. She needed to figure out what he desired.
"No, because I'm not the one who got him to say yes. He said no to me and Rindo-san." Jin nodded his head towards Osamu who was as usual, engaged in watching the fight taking place. Though not a strong fighter, Osamu made up for it by studying fights as closely as he could to learn. "That honor belongs to his captain."
Kako hummed to herself. "So, what you're saying is that I need to hound Mikumo-kun to learn how to motivate Kuga-kun."
"Like Osamu would ever give you the information needed to sway Yuma to your side." Konami retorted. "He won't let anyone take his ace from his team." Not to mention Konami wasn't going to let her cute mentee go anywhere.
*Mimics*
With Shun needing a moment to recover, that gave Yuma a chance to breath as he had Murakami still bearing down on him and Kageura deciding to close in. Yuma's eyes flickered upwards to see Kageura in the air behind Murakami. When Murakami's Kogetsu slammed into his sword, Yuma took a step back to adjust to the strength behind it, but to also drag Murakami towards him more. With Kageura in the air and in the process of activating his Mantis, the seal that was planted before the fight started, activated. A set of Chains shot out of the ground up towards Kageura and twisted around him. The only one of his limbs not tangled in the chains was his arm that was slinging his Mantis forward. Before it could reach Yuma, the chains he was tangled in started to drag him down to the ground, pulling his Mantis down with him. This was enough to distract Murakami who had to pull his Kogetsu away from Yuma to block the Mantis that was now aimed at him.
Yuma brought his leg up and slammed it into Murakami's stomach. Or, that had been his goal at least, but Murakami predicted him and positioned his Raygust to block Yuma, though that didn't stop Yuma as another blue seal appeared between his foot and the Raygust. "Bound, Triple!" The force of the seal sent Murakami flying back and slamming into the bound Kageura who was still falling. Together, they flew across the arena and slammed into the opposite wall, which cracked upon impact before reforming and dropping the dazed agents to the ground.
"Anchor. Plus Bolt, Quadra!" The Lead Bullets shot towards the dazed agents and slammed into them, leaving them trapped on the ground as Yuma twisted around and blocked Shun's Scorpion from chopping his head off. Their blades slammed into each other as Yuma continued to block all of Shun's attacks.
Shifting one of his feet back brought Shun closer to Yuma as he didn't want to let up on his attack. A part of Shun was wary though. He had fought Yugo enough times to know when he was being lured in. He would either have his momentum used against him or he was about to get hit by a seal again. Considering that, a Grasshopper appeared in front of Shun that he pressed his hand into so he could propel himself backwards and away from Yuma.
Yuma stared at Shun in consideration. He had finally learned the lesson. Two losses against Kuga Yugo had taught him something it seemed. It was significantly better than when he and Shun had their first rank match months ago and it took him until round nine to start realizing what was going on and to calm down.
Kageura dropped his head back down to the ground when he saw Shun and Yuma were still going at it. "Are we just going to give up?"
"If you have the strength to withstand these Lead Bullets and stand, go ahead and continue the fight." Murakami muttered. He looked down at his arm and tried to raise it but couldn't even raise it a centimeter off the ground. He still had a grip on his Kogetsu but that did him no good when he couldn't stand.
Kageura was a bit better off than Murakami since he had been mostly behind him when Yuma used the Lead Bullet so he got hit with less than Murakami. That said, with how heavy these Lead Bullets were, there was no way he could stand up again, but his arm was free. There wasn't much he could do with a single arm and no long ranged attacks, but he wasn't willing to throw in the towel just yet.
Yuma wasn't allowed to win this easily.