A/N: I don't own World Trigger

Mimics

Chapter 4: Fear

Yuma shoved his cereal in his mouth, staring back at Jin, who was standing across the breakfast counter, staring at him. "I didn't leave Tamakoma last night so why are you staring at me like that? I feel like I'm being judged."

Jin planted his hands on the counter, staring Yuma down. "Osamu isn't panicking currently and is in fact sleeping in. You didn't tell him, did you?"

"That I'm going to die in a few days? Why would I put that on his mind? He worries too much already." Yuma shoved another spoonful of cereal into his mouth.

"He's your Captain. You can't keep this from him."

"It's 'I shouldn't keep this from him,' but I can do whatever I want." Yuma stressed. "I'm the one with less than a week left on his life. I feel that gives me free reign to do whatever I want and I'd rather not spend that time with my team panicking and freaking out. That won't solve anything."

Raising a brow, Jin leaned down on his arms. "Didn't we just talk about this last night? About how there is nothing I can't plan out to work towards preventing the worst possible outcome? You're not dying on my watch."

Yuma pushed his bowl to the side and mirrored Jin's position. "I know you're going to try hard, Jin-san, but I don't want you to take it too hard if you aren't able to prevent it. I know you feel extremely guilty when you have to put people in harm's way to get the best possible future." It wasn't hard to tell from the look in Jin's eyes when he offered to help Yuma find his Mini Replica. He knew Replica would be lost and Osamu and Chika would be in danger, but let it happen anyway because the invasion's outcome would have been worse off without all those players in play. Yuma never begrudged him for it because he saw the regret Jin had for it. "If I die within the next few days, I won't blame you for not being able to prevent it. I know you will have tried everything to save me. I don't want you stressing out about this all week."

"You're truly amazing, Yuma." Jin replied softly. "I told you that you would die by the end of the week, but you're still so calm."

"I've been dying for almost five years now. I'm not about to panic about it now." Yuma explained, expression softening at his friend. "Besides, I'm not alone, right? You said it yourself, you didn't see my death before and I know you're going to help me in whatever way possible to try to prevent it."

Smiling, Jin reached across the counter to ruffle Yuma's hair. Before he could say anything though, the door opened, ending the conversation that they didn't want anyone else to hear. They both looked over to see Chika coming in.

"Morning, Chika." Yuma said happily.

Chika smiled at them. "Good morning, Yuma-kun, Jin-san." She paused to look around the room to find it empty except for them. "No Hyuse-kun or Osamu-kun?"

"Osamu's still sleeping. He was up late last night and I think Hyuse is down in the training rooms." Yuma replied. Hyuse was trying hard to increase his skill with Border's Trigger. Whenever they spared, Yuma still managed to come out on top and it seemed, Hyuse just could not accept that. That was fine with Yuma. It made their fights a lot more interesting.

"Do you want anything to eat Chika-chan?" Jin asked.

"I ate before I came over." Chika replied as she came over to the counter and sat down next to Yuma. "What were you guys talking about?"

Yuma pulled his cereal back to him to continue eating. "The Mimics."

"Mimics," Chika said softly, twisting her hands over each other.

Yuma eyed the movement from the corner of his eyes. "Something wrong?" He asked before shoveling his food in his mouth.

"It's just..." Chika paused, eyes drifting down to the counter. She was finally feeling so confident and getting stronger each day as a sniper. Getting over her fear of shooting people was tough, but she manage to overcome her own mental block. It felt amazing to be able to protect her team like that, but now it felt like she was taking a step back in all her progress. "Everything I worked towards was getting on an Away mission to try to find my brother and friend. I understood that they might not be alive, but there is always that chance that I can find them. But, what if I get attacked by a Mimic and I come face to face with my brother or friend? Everything I've worked for will have been for nothing."

"I see. I never considered that people would have that fear. A lot of people went missing in the first invasion, right? You don't know if they're dead or not so if you came face to face with them, you wouldn't know what to think." Yuma replied. "It could get confusing."

"People might believe someone who went missing suddenly came back." Jin agreed. "I see what you meant, Yuma, about the emotional manipulation that the Mimics use."

Yuma nodded, turning back to Chika. "You knew it was always a possibility that they might be dead, Chika, but you never let that worry stop you before. You kept training hard to get to this point. Don't let those what-ifs stop you from going for what you want. They'll only be a distraction."

Chika gripped her hands into each other tightly. "I know. I'm just scared to see them step in front of me. I've been able to get this far by letting myself dream of the day I find them. The Mimics can force me to face a truth I don't want to hear."

"You can't hide from the truth, Chika. If we go to on the Away mission and found out they are dead, we have to accept it for what it is. There is no bringing back the dead. But even if that is what we find over there, until we see it, there is nothing wrong with holding onto that hope." Yuma replied. "Hope doesn't win battles, but it can be the strength you use to stand up. When you have something to fight for, that determination to see it through can really make someone shine." Yuma smiled, looking from Chika to Jin. "I saw it in Kumagai in our Rank War when she fought Murakami-senpai. She was clearly outmatched, but she never let that stop her. Her and Akane. Their spirit wasn't enough to let them surpass Murakami-senpai's skill, but it gave them the strength to not back down when things got tough. When you have nothing to gain from winning a fight, it's easy to back down and give up. When you have something to fight for, something to protect, it makes you want to try harder to win. You've displayed that stubbornness so many times already, Chika."

"That's because we made the promise to go the Neighborhood together. I don't want to be the reason we get held back." Chika replied. "It was my selfish wish that put on this goal so I tell myself I need to be stronger. I want to be stronger, but it seems I can't get rid of this fear."

Eyeing his teammate who was still frowning down at the table, Yuma nudged his shoulder with hers to get her attention. "Why would you want to? You can't rid yourself of emotions. Fear might freeze you in place if you let it overwhelm you, but it is also needed in the field so you don't forget to heed caution, Without caution, people would recklessly dive into situations they can't handle. You need to plan things out and think clearly."

"Fear is good?" Chika said softly to herself. Was it? When Aftokrator invaded and she had a Rabit barreling at her, all she could do was freeze. She was terrified out of her mind that she would be killed that day. She couldn't even move or think. That day when she picked up Ibis to save Izuho, it wasn't because she had conquered her fear. She saw Izuho about to be taken and the fear turned into her determination to save a friend. It was her first time finding that strength to fight. The fear was still there while she was active in the battle, but with Osamu and Izuho standing with her, she was able to get her knees to stop shaking and stand tall.

The fear was there when they had to save Osamu from Giev in the caves. The fear was there when she got separated from Yuma in the caves. She couldn't see either of her teammates, but that didn't stop her from moving forward. Her heart was pounding in her chest with the fear of them both being dead, but she still walked forward.

The fear was still there when she looked through her scope in the Rank battles and saw targets that could give her points if she just pulled the Trigger. If she pulled the Trigger, she could help Osamu and Yuma have less opponents. The fear of being blamed wasn't easy for her to get over, but if it meant protecting her team, she would take the shot. It was a relief off her shoulders when Inukai, instead of getting mad at her for killing his teammate, gave her a compliment. She was scared to shoot and get blamed, but she was more afraid of losing her friends because she didn't shoot.

She had those fears.

No, Chika still had them.

She may have conquered her fear of shooting people, but she would never lose the fear of losing her friends.

The fear was there but she was able to use that fear of losing her friends and made it her strength to pick up her rifle.

"Look, I know this is coming from your worries about the Mimics, but try to keep your mind focused. In battle, if you let that worry cloud your mind, you're more likely to make a mistake because of the distraction. Focus on your job and you'll be fine. You won't have to go out on duty alone. You have allies to help you." Yuma said.

Chika nodded. "Right. Focus, I'm good at that." She stared down at her hand, opening and closing it a few times.

"So I've heard from Reiji-san." Yuma said amused.

"The practice helps. It gets my mind off of things and lets me focus on my shots so I think I'm going to go get some in." Chika said, standing up from her seat. The more she practiced, the more focused she would get and the better her shots would be. If hitting the enemy saved her friends, she would do it.

"Have fun." Jin called after her as Chika left the room. "Not going to tell her either?"

"Is that a serious question?" Yuma leaned his cheek on his hand. "She has her own worries and fears about coming face to face with Mimics. I don't need to add my problems on top of hers."

"When are you going to start trusting your team?" Jin asked.

"I trust them just fine. If I didn't, it would have been hard to get to B-Rank #2."

"Which is an impressive thing to accomplish for a brand new team." Jin agreed. "But if you really trusted them all, you wouldn't be keeping this from them. I'm sure you trust them as fighters in the field. Osamu and Chika-chan have really done a great job for being so new to fighting, but you're still keeping stuff from them."

"Chika blames herself for her brother and friend's disappearance. My situation is in no way her fault, but I don't want to add to her fears. She'll lose her focus." Yuma explained.

"Chika-chan is a lot stronger than you're giving her credit for. She can handle the news."

Yuma eyed Jin, frowning deeply. "Does your side effect tell you that? Must be faulty since I have no intention of letting her find out."

"The futures I see are never wrong. They can just be manipulated to be changed." Jin replied.

"Then it's getting changed. I don't want anyone to know the truth about my body that doesn't already know and I don't want anyone to know you've predicted my death by the end of the week." Yuma replied. "You don't need to tell people what you saw to work on changing it, right? So this should be fine."

"Keeping it on the downlow won't change anything so it will be fine. It's just difficult to plan what course of action to take since this isn't a single day's battle I have to manipulate. By asking people to do something for me on a particular day to warp the future I saw, I'm changing the week's events by putting them in different places than they were in the original future I saw. Every action we take can cause a shift in the path that we end up on."

"You explained this during Aftokrator's invasion."

"That was one day's worth of actions I had to take account for, Yuma. I'm trying to say, it's not as easy when multiple days are involved."

"And how does telling more people change the difficulty of that? The answer, it doesn't so there's no point in telling anyone." Yuma pushed away from the counter, standing up. "I'm heading to HQ. Need to apologize to Shun for yesterday. I shouldn't have taken my frustration out on him."

"Probably a good idea. You don't have to come back here, but you need to be out of the Restricted Zone before dark." Jin warned.

"You're giving me a curfew?" Yuma pouted.

"The Mimics are always going to track you, Yuma, but you're worse off if you're in the Restricted Zone."

"I'm worse off, but the civilians are worse off if I'm in the city or even here. They'll try to get out of it to get to me. I still think it's better if I at least stay inside HQ."

Jin stared down at Yuma, frowning. To Yuma, it felt like he was looking into the future again. "There's no good place to be, Yuma, but I would feel a lot better if you got out of the Restricted Zone altogether before dark."

It wouldn't change anything.

The only thing that could help was to wait out the time for the nation that was doing this to move out of range.

"Yuma. Please."

"I will, Jin-san. I'll be back tonight." Yuma promised.

*Mimics*

"Why did she have Fujin in the first place?" Kinuta demanded.

Netsuki rubbed the back of his neck. "Agent Kako wasn't even supposed to be on duty last night."

Rindo leaned forward, resting his arm on the table. "Jin requested her to help the squads on duty last night. He hasn't explained anything to me, but we can trust him. He's already working hard on adjusting our future's path."

"And why did he need Kako to do it, instead of doing it himself? He has a lot more experience with Fujin." Kido asked.

Without a doubt in his mind, Rindo knew Jin's reasoning for this course of action was his worry about Yuma attracting Mimics with his Trion body. He imagine Jin would rather be at Tamakoma with Yuma just in case soemthing went wrong. That wasn't something he could say without betraying Yuma's trust, and that wasn't something he was willing to do anytime soon. "Jin doesn't do anything without a reason. He's the only one who can really understand his reasoning. We just need to trust him."

Kido eyed Rindo, seeming to distrust his response. With him and Jin, it always felt like they were hiding something. "Whatever his reason, we cannot overlook Agent Kako taking Fujin without permission."

"We made the decision to train all agents who can activate Fujin so it can be used in emergencies. What is the point of making that call if we can't trust our agents enough to know what is considered an emergency and take it without needing to get permission from us every single time? It was the middle of the night and none of us were here to make the call." Shinoda argued. "Our agents are responsible enough that they wouldn't take Fujin out to play with and she returned it first thing in the morning once the Mimics had all disappeared."

"And what if they do take it out to play with when we don't punish agents who take it without permission?" Kinuta argued.

"If that happens, then we punish the agent that did that, but our agents aren't immature enough to steal Fujin without a good reason." Shinoda replied. "They'll highly trained and respectable agents. We should return the trust they give us."

"We don't tell them they have free reign to take Fujin without requesting to use it first, but if we look at each individual time it's gets taken and judge the situation afterwards, it shouldn't be an issue. If it gets taken advantage of, we can lay stricter rules in place." Rindo suggested.

Shinoda looked at Rindo, satisfied that his friend was working with him on this. Since Rindo was a Branch head and Shinoda was the General Manager of HQ, it was at teams hard to get them on the side. And when they did end up on the same side, it lead to them trading blows with Kido. Infighting was the last thing Border needed. "It's rare that an emergency situation would occur without us here anyway. With Jin's side effect, we can properly prepare so we would always be available if an invasion would occur. Something like last night was a special occasion."

"We'll see if such a ploy actually works." Kido said. "If Jin was requesting Kako's presence last night, it means he saw the magnitude of the attack that would occur. Why did he not ask for more agents to help?"

"That's why he went to Kako. He saw that having her there with Fujin would be more than enough help. He's concerned with the coming days and doesn't want to overwork all the agents all week while dealing with this." Rindo replied.

"As usual, Jin can never be straight forward." Kinuta complained. "Can't he just say what needs to be done?"

*Mimics*

"Ten round match and lunch on me?"

Shun turned at the voice to find Yuma standing there. "What?"

Yuma rubbed the back of his head, sheepishly. "I want to apologize for taking my frustration out on you yesterday. Another round of matches and we can head to a restaurant of your choice for lunch on me?"

"Oooh, that sounds awesome." Yoneya popped up behind Yuma.

Yuma eyed the other agent out of the corner of his eyes. "I owe you nothing."

"Oh, come on. You agreed to give me a fight months ago, but we've yet to have it." Yoneya whined.

'I see you dying within the week.' Jin's told Yuma.

Jin would do everything in his power to save Yuma. He truly believed in Jin, but that didn't necessarily mean he would succeed in his endeavor. The chance he would die this week was still in Jin's predictions. If he died this week, there were many things he couldn't do, like keep his promise to Osamu and Chika to get them to the Neighborhood. At the very least though, he could fulfill his other promises.

"Let's have a match right now then. I'll fight Shun afterwards then we can go get lunch." Yuma said, directing the last part at Shun.

"Am I still not invited to lunch?" Yoneya asked.

"You always find something to complain about." Yuma said.

"You can come." Shun said, glancing at Yuma with a grin. "It's your apology to me so what I say goes."

Yuma just shrugged in return. "Do I have to pay for him too?"

"Naw, we can make him pay for himself." Shun replied.

Yoneya pouted. "So I get nothing?"

"You're getting a match with Yuma-senpai. Isn't that enough?" Shun asked.

"I'm even going to fight you first so if something interrupts us, Shun will be the only one missing out on a fight." Yuma added cheerfully.

"Even though this is supposed to be an apology to me." Shun pointed out.

"Yeah," Yuma grinned at his friend. "But we fight all the time. I've yet to give Yosuke-senpai a fight despite promising him one months ago."

Shun looked up towards the ceiling as he thought back. "Back when we first fought, you apologized to him for not being able to give him a fight because Jin-san dragged you away. You were C-Rank back then, but Yoneyan was eager to fight you anyway. Strange."

Yoneya waved his hand. "No, no, he promised me before that. We were just trying fulfil it then. I actually met Kuga a few weeks before he joined Border and we made the agreement to fight again at that time."

"Fight again?" Shun asked, latching onto that part of the statement. His eyes narrowed as he looked at his friends in time to see the subtle shifting they both made, like that part of the statement was a mistake. "Is there something you're not telling me?"

Yoneya glanced down at Yuma, giving him a shrug. That was his bad. Half of the A-Ranks knew about Yuma being a Neighbor and with how much Yuma and Shun trusted each other, it was hard to remember at times that Shun didn't know the truth.

"Jin-san was working personally to recruit me back in December. He was putting in a lot of effort to get me to say yes and during that time, I ran into Miwa squad. We didn't hit it off too great back then. Even now, Miwa still doesn't like me." Yuma explained. It was all technically true. Maybe it didn't happen in that order, but nothing he said was a lie.

Shun's brows furrowed in confusion. "You got into a fight with someone?" He asked Yoneya in surprise. "Someone who wasn't even an agent at the time? What if that caused Yuma-senpai to not want to join Border?!"

"We would have been screwed." Yoneya replied, folding his arms behind his head. "We needed Kuga's help during the invasion. Jin would have been mad if our fight with Kuga screwed up his plans."

"The invasion?" Shun repeated, eyes narrowed as he thought back to the day Aftokrator came here. "Oh! I remember now. It was chaotic at the time, but I remember Mikumo-senpai saying something about you fighting a Black Trigger during Aftrokrator's invasion. That's pretty impressive, Yuma-senpai. Taking on a Black Trigger with a training Trigger."

Yuma blinked in confusion for a moment before he was smiling. "Yep," He agreed easily. Training Trigger. Yeah, no, Yuma was not insane enough to fight a Black Trigger with a training Trigger but whatever got them out of Shun's line of questioning faster.

"Pretty impressive indeed." Yoneya said amused before he was ushering the younger two agents to move towards the training booths. "But let's stop wasting time. I was promised a fight. Let's get to it before something interrupts us again."

As Shun turned to lead the way, Yoneya softened the sound of his voice. "Are you ever going to tell him the truth?"

"Can I just tell people I have a Black Trigger?" Yuma asked quietly. "Kido-san won't get mad if I start spending that around?"

"Telling one person isn't spending it around." Yoneya pointed out. "But it is possible if it did get learned, people might get mad that you're keeping hold of a Black Trigger, but aren't using it to be S-Rank. There are plenty of agents who would love to be S-Rank and might feel you are keeping that from them by keeping hold a Black Trigger you aren't using."

"Doubt they could activate it with that attitude anyway." Yuma muttered. "What I want to do with it is my own business anyway."

"Fair enough. I don't really care. You came here with it so we really have no right to it." Yoneya replied.

Shun glanced over his shoulder towards his two friends who were whispering softly to one another. He was letting it go, but he knew those two were hiding something from him. It hurt that his friends felt it was necessary to keep secrets from him, but he wasn't about to betray their trust in him by demanding they give him actual answer to his questions.

*Mimics*

"Late night?"

Osamu looked up at Karasuma, still trying to wake himself up fully. "What?"

"It's not like you to sleep in this late. Were you up late last night?" Karasuma asked again.

"Yeah, I was talking to Kuga last night." Osamu replied before covering a yawn with his hand.

Karasuma raised a brow. "Yuma's sleep habits are even worse than yours."

Blinking, Osamu lowered his hand to the counter as he frowned at his mentor. Right, Karasuma didn't know about Yuma's body or the fact that he didn't sleep. Osamu needed to wake himself up properly before he started talking to people in the morning. "No one can outmatch Kuga's horrible sleeping habits. Anyway, are we training today?"

"That was the plan. We have to cut the training short today so we'll be available for tonight if things get bad." Karasuma explained.

"Did Jin-san say anything about all of us being needed?" Osamu asked.

"He hasn't told me anything, but we should still be prepared in case an alert goes out. Jin-san likes to scheme behind the scenes and won't necessarily tell us what needs done. He'll try to push us in the direction he wants to go or keep us in the dark completely. Since our enemy can currently only come out when it's dark outside, I want us to be available then." Karasuma explained.

Osamu nodded in agreement. "I see. That's alright." He twisted on the bar stool to take in the rest of the room. "Do you know where my team is at?"

"I saw Yuma this morning briefly. How he can get up so early every day when he stays up so late, I just don't understand." Karasuma replied.

"Chika and Hyuse are both training downstairs." Konami said as she came into the room. "And Jin said Yuma ran off to HQ again. I was going to make him train with me all day to make up for his skipping yesterday but he ran off before I could grab him."

Seeing the annoyed expression on her face had Osamu smiling. It could be hard to keep up with Yuma. He always seemed to be running off to do something. "Then what are you going to do?"

"Hmm, maybe I'll go beat up Hyuse. He could use a training partner."

"I'm sure he'll find more enjoyment out of that then fighting Trion Soldiers." Karasuma agreed. "Just don't be as upset when you lose a match to him as you did when Yuma beat you."

"Excuse you?" Konami demanded. "I'm not going to lose to him! It will be ten to zero! Like I would ever lose to someone so full of himself!" She spun around and marched back out of the door she just came through, making her way loudly down to the training rooms.

"I'm not so sure that will go well." Osamu muttered. "They are both very competitive individuals."

"It will be good for both of them. They'll learn each other's fighting styles and how strong each are." Karasuma replied.

"I suppose, and any experience fighting will help Hyuse get more used to our Triggers." Osamu said. "There's no experience that's useless. All that matters is whether you can make use of it or not."

Karasuma's brows furrowed. "What?"

"It's something Kuga said to me before after our training camp in Shizuka City. It's something his dad told him before. I didn't really believe it at the time. We never did any substantial training while there because we were under attack and before that, we hadn't lost any Rank Battles, though I wasn't much help in those battles. With each time I bailed out or we loss a match, I was just telling myself that I needed to get stronger or I needed a new Trigger." Osamu admitted, looking down at his hands, clenching them into fists. On his own, he still wasn't much stronger than when he started on this road, but that was okay. He had his team behind him. He wasn't alone in any of this. "With time, I came to understand what he meant and looked at my failings from a new angle."

"Failing is part of the process." Karasuma leaned against the counter, staring back at his mentee. "You see all the official agents or even when you look at Yuma and Hyuse, it's hard to see, but they've all struggled and fallen many times. And when they fell, they just got back on their feet to try again. You take from your failures and learn what you did wrong so you can improve upon it."

Osamu shook his head. "Since I met Kuga, he's always seemed like an immovable figure, like nothing can ever get to him, but I know that's not true. When he was young, he made a huge mistake and it cost him greatly." He said, choosing his words carefully so not to reveal anything about Yuma's past.

Though he was intrigued by what Osamu was saying about Yuma, who kept a lot of his past to himself, Karasuma didn't ask for more information. If Yuma wanted them to know, he would have said something to them by now. Since he hasn't, he wouldn't betray his trust and privacy by trying to pry anything more from Osamu right now.

"I know his story, and I know that he is still dealing with what happened, but even though I know what he went through, I still always saw Kuga as immovable. It's hard to see Kuga as he is now to the one that made a mistake when he was a child. Perhaps because I wasn't there or maybe it's because I always see Kuga succeeding and getting stronger."

"Whatever happened to Yuma when he was a child, he clearly rose above it and became strong because of it. I'm not asking you to tell me what happened, but it sounds like he failed at something, right?" Karasuma asked, and at Osamu's nod, he continued. "You see him as an immovable force to be reckoned with because that's what he wants you to see. All the agents have had to fight and struggle to get where they are now. No one can be strong instantly. It takes a lot of training and understanding of yourself. You have to find the style of fighting that fits you. Though they all went through what you are going through now, none of them feel the need to share those struggles with others."

That made sense. If it wasn't for Tokieda telling him, Osamu would have never known that Kitora struggled a lot with low Trion when she first joined Border so she had difficulty in getting to the level she's at now. That was probably where Osamu made the connection to what Yuma telling him about experience and using his failures to learn. While she had a bad attitude at times, Osamu really respected her strength. It was hard to imagine her struggling once like he was.

Yuma, Hyuse, Kitora, Arashiyama, Izumi, Yoneya, Midorikawa...all the agents. They've fought so hard to get to where they are now.

"The more I fight, the more I fail, the more I learn. Maybe I'll never be as strong as the A-Rank agents, but that doesn't mean I'm going to stop." Osamu declared.

Karasuma smiled. "Now that's a good attitude to have. Those who lack determination will never get anywhere." He pushed off the counter and motioned for Osamu to follow. "Let's get to training."

*Mimics*

A blade extended out of Yuma's forearm to block Yoneya's Kogetsu blade that he was manipulating to change shape to get around his Shield. The blade that came out of his arm was curved which locked up Kogetsu's blade. His Shield dropped so he could call forth a second Scorpion.

Yoneya ripped his spear free and jumped away from Yuma before that second sword could hit him.

That spear was actually annoying, or maybe it was just because Yoneya was very skilled with his spear and switching to Gen'yo constantly. It was hard to defend against when it could get around his Shield. Still, it was getting a lot easier to contend with the more he fought against Yoneya. While Yoneya was a tough opponent, he was harder to fight when he had his snipers backing him up.

Though he would give this to Yoneya, he was fast.

If he wasn't focusing so intensely, Yuma would have missed the fact that Yoneya had moved, but he was watching so he did notice the slashes coming to him. There were five that he released with his Whirlwind. Yuma dropped a Grasshopper behind him and stepped on it to send himself flying backwards and into the air while throwing up a Shield to avoid the slashes.

Yuma threw multiple Grasshoppers in front of him and used them to propel himself towards Yoneya as the slashes dissipated. As he approached, Yoneya looked up towards him with a smirk, adjusting his spear to be ready to defend himself.

Falling from the sky towards Yoneya, Yuma activated Scorpion, but created two to use Mantis. His Mantis extended faster than his fall towards Yoneya. A Shield appeared in front of Yoneya to defend himself from the attack. As his mantis slammed into the Shield, Yuma dropped another Grasshopper which allowed him to propel himself into a flip to get behind Yoneya. He landed in a crouch behind Yoneya, but instead of rising and turning to him, he extended a blade from his back, piercing Yoneya through the chest.

Unfortunately, it seemed Yoneya predicted his moves as he had spun his spear in his hand and was stabbing Yuma. Stabbing behind him made his aim off so the spear only hit his arm. Though his arm fell off, Yoneya's body broke apart causing him to bail out and ending the match.

"7-3," Shun pouted, folding his arms behind his head. "Better than the first time I fought him."

"I thought for sure I could get a few more wins from him." Yoneya complained as he collapsed onto one of the couches with a sigh.

"You're strong, but Murakami-senpai is much stronger." Yuma said, leaning against the back of the couch with a grin.

"Which is why you never beat him in a ten round match." Yoneya teased.

Yuma pouted, pushing off the couch. "One day." He declared. At least, he hoped the day came where he could beat Murakami in a ten round match. To do that, he had to get through this week. Yuma tightened his grip on the back of the couch. There was still so much he suddenly wanted to do. This wasn't the week for him to die.

"Yuma-senpai?" Shun glanced at Yoneya to a share a look before they were looking back at the sudden seriousness on Yuma's face. "Are you okay?"

"Fine," Yuma said, breaking free from his sudden worries with a grin on his face. "Let's fight, Shun. Time to make up for yesterday!"

As Yuma ran off to his booth, Shun shared a look of concern with Yoneya again. "Is he still bothered by the Mimics?"

Yoneya shrugged. "Can't see what else would be bothering him. Whatever is worrying him, he's clearly trying to distract himself from it. Just go have fun and help get his mind off whatever is bothering him. That's what you can do as his friend right now."

Shun nodded in agreement and ran off to his booth.

*Mimics*

"See anything interesting?"

Jin looked over his shoulder at Arashiyama, smiling at the other agent. "Interesting? Not really. Worrying? Always."

"Worse than Aftokrator or what happened in Shizuka City?" Arashiyama asked.

Leaning against the wall, Jin looked up and down the hallway of Border's HQ. It would have been easier to come with Yuma together, but he had a feeling that Yuma wanted to run away from their conversation so he used the excuse of finding Shun to get away from him this morning. He allowed Yuma to get away with it since he knew that Yuma wanted to get away to avoid arguing about it anymore. Jin didn't want to fight with Yuma about his upcoming death and he knew Yuma didn't either. They couldn't let their frustrations, fears, or worries get in the way of them working together. To that end, sometimes it was best to go their own way and calm themselves down.

"The city doesn't seem to be in any danger and the citizens aren't going to be targeted so in that sense, you could say it's not as bad as when Aftokrator invaded." Jin replied. "But at the same time, this attack feels more personal since the agents will be the main targets for the Mimics. If we have to face our dead loved ones, it's going to be hard."

Arashiyama joined Jin in leaning against the wall, crossing his arms lightly over his chest. "No one in my team has lost anyone so we'll be fine, but what about you? Are you scared of seeing your mother or even Mogami-san again? I heard Miwa was furious because of a Mimic taking his sister's form."

"Hmm," Jin tilted his head back against the wall. "Am I scared? I haven't thought much about having my memories of someone stolen to have someone appear. Yuma has been reminding me constantly to not let Mogami-san appear, but other than that, I haven't thought about it. I've been more concerned with other things."

"You always do that. Jin, you're not in this alone. Don't try to do this all by yourself. You can ask us for help instead of trying to shoulder everything you see on your own." Arashiyama scolded.

Jin blinked in surprise for a moment before laughing, surprising Arashiyama at his response. "Sorry, I'm not taking what you're saying lightly. It's just we've been scolding Yuma the same way for the past couple of days."

"Yuma doesn't seem the type to try to do everything by himself. He seemed to respect the idea of working as a team a lot." Arashiyama replied.

"Unfortunately, Yuma's head isn't going to be entirely focused this week." Jin muttered before sighing and looking back at his friend. He had a feeling the Mimics on top of the anniversary of his father's death approaching was going to keep Yuma's mind distracted, which was something they could not afford right now. "I'm going to need all the help I can get this week if I want to prevent a horrible outcome."

"So something bad is going to happen."

"I can't tell you what will happen. I've been made to promise to keep it to myself, but I can't stop it by myself." Jin admitted.

"You know you don't even have to ask, Jin. We'll all help you no matter what." Arashiyama promised. "Just tell us what we need to do to survive this attack."

Jin rubbed the back of his head. "Honestly, I'm still working on figuring it out. That's why I came here. I'm trying to get a read on what is going to happen to Border this week and if there's any other horrible outcomes we need to prevent."

"My squad is on defense duty tonight. Is there anything we need to look out for?" Arashiyama asked.

"There is something we need to prevent at all costs, but no matter how I try to work it out to prevent it, it still ends up happening. I can't see a way to stop it. I look into next week and I still see us dealing with the outcome of what is meant to happen this week. I promised that I would prevent the worst outcome from happening, but I can't see a way around it."

"If you talk to me, I can help."

Jin shook his head. "I promised I wouldn't reveal the worst outcome."

"You also promised to do what you can to prevent, but aren't able to find the path you need. Which promise is more important to you?" Arashiyama asked.

"I told him that there is nothing I can't prevent from happening, and yet, I'm stuck. I'm already struggling to keep this promise. I can't betray his trust by telling you what it is." Jin said, eyes drifting down to his side. Months ago he would see Fujin sitting on his waist, but now there was nothing there except an empty pouch. He told Yuma he could prevent anything from happening because that was what he believed. Since losing so many of his comrades five years ago, he made the promise to himself that he would do everything to manipulate the future to bring forth the best outcome. He hated seeing the future and seeing the death and destruction that would come, but after what happened five years ago, he made the decision to not run from his side effect ever again. And though it was hard, since Border went public, he managed to succeed in avoiding the worst outcomes. He had the allies he needed to accomplish that, but now, it felt like he was going to fail.

"Okay, don't tell me what you see. Instead, tell me what is it that I can do to help?" Arashiyama asked.

"There is something." Jin looked over at Arashiyama.

*Mimics*

"I thought it was meant to be an apology fight, but you're as merciless as always." Shun complained as Yuma happily shoved his lunch in his mouth.

"If I went easy on you, you would have just whined about that too." Yuma replied.

"I don't see why you're complaining. You're back to your average against Kuga. 7-3." Yoneya pointed out as he dropped more meat on the grill.

Shun slapped Yuma's hand away from the meat on his side of the grill. "This is an apology lunch to me and now you're trying to steal my portion of food?"

Yuma grinned back at him. "So you say, but you've been complaining about your loss this whole time and haven't eaten anything."

Locking eyes with Yuma, Shun took each piece of meat that he was claiming as his off the grill and put it on his plate. "I will bleed your wallet dry."

Considering how much money his father had left him and the money he had received from Border for all the Trion Soldiers he's defeated, the reward money he got for beating Viza, and the reward money for successfully dealing with the situation in Shizuka City, Yuma just smirked back at his friend. While money was still hard for him to understand, Osamu had informed him he had a lot of money. He doubted Shun could even win in this.

"What's with that look?" Shun demanded. "You think I can't?"

Yuma shoved more food in his mouth, chewing slowly as he continued to stare confidentially back at his friend.

"Albino shrimp!"

Gulping down his food, Yuma looked over his shoulder at the familiar nickname to see Suwa squad approaching them. "Hi." He said before grabbing his soda to take a drink.

"Perfect timing!" Shun jumped up from his seat, raising his hand happily at them. "Join us right now. Lunch is on Yuma-senpai!"

Yuma quickly swallowed his soda, putting his glass back down as he stared across the table. "What? I said I was only paying for you."

Shun just grinned mischievously at him. "If you're so sure I can't bleed your wallet dry, then what's wrong with adding a few more people to the bill?" He teased, but by the challenging glint in his eyes, he was daring Yuma to back down.

"Huh? What about me?" Yoneya asked, pointing at himself.

"Obviously you'll be added to the list. You're already sitting here."

"I don't get what's going on, but I'm in." Suwa plopped down in the seat next to Yuma and proceeded to roughly ruffle his hair up. "Got a bone to pick with you anyway, shrimp."

Once Suwa was finished messing up his hair, Yuma fixed his hair, but eyed Suwa out of the corner of his eye. He wasn't sure whether to focus on Suwa or Shun. Yuma felt no shame in losing so he had no problem turning down Shun's challenge of bleeding him dry, but he was generally amused by Shun's daring and besides, this was an apology. He would just let Shun win this one and just pay for everyone.

"So what did Yuma-senpai do to you?" Shun asked curiously.

"This punk," Suwa wrapped an arm around Yuma's neck and shook him. "Went out of his way to help the A-Ranks the other night when the Mimics first appeared, but when we got attacked by a horde of them last night, he couldn't be bothered to show up."

Face squished against Suwa's arm, Yuma still found the ability to give his friend a sheepish look. "I didn't know you had a horde hounding you last night. Besides, Jin-san wouldn't let me leave the base last night so even if I knew, you would have still had to suffer alone."

"It's alright." Daichi assured him. "Kako-san appeared last night in his place with Fujin to help us out. We had it handled."

"What'd you do to get grounded by Jin-san anyway?" Hisato asked curiously.

Yuma pushed himself free of Suwa's hold and looked at the other Attacker with a frown. Seeing the confusion on his face, Yoneya quickly leaned down to whisper in his ear, "Do they have nothing where you're from? Being grounded is a punishment typically given by a parent to stop their child from leaving the house or doing something they like because they broke the rules."

Yuma twisted to Yoneya to hiss quietly back. "My father never grounded me for anything."

"You seriously never broke any rules growing up?" Yoneya asked surprised, curious eyes taking in Yuma. "I guess that makes sense. I can't see you as one doing anything that would get you in trouble."

"I broke rules all the time. Dad just never punished me for it." Yuma explained softly. "His mindset was if I got in trouble for going against his orders, it was my problem to deal with."

"What are you two talking about?" Shun asked loudly.

Yuma and Yoneya ripped apart to look at the other occupants of the table just staring at them. Yoneya coughed lightly and leaned casually back in his seat while Yuma shoved some more food in his mouth.

"I didn't realize the question would bother you that much." Hisato said softly.

Yuma frantically shook his head, grabbing his soda to help get the food down. "No, that wasn't it. Yosuke-senpai and I were talking about something else." He sent a mock glare this friend. "He thinks it's funny that you called it a grounding. I didn't even consider that as what it would look like from an outsider's point of view."

"So you not only manage to upset Midorikawa that you need to buy him lunch as an apology, but you abandoned us last night," Suwa teased Yuma. "And made Jin want to 'ground' you. What did you do to anger everyone this week?"

Yuma leaned his chin on his hand, frowning at Suwa. "I haven't done anything."

Shun pointedly cleared his throat at his friend.

"We're making that up right now." Yuma told Shun before turning back to Suwa. "Jin-san is worried about the Mimics. He sees a bad future in the making."

That one statement was enough for the amusement to leave the group and for frowns to settle into place as everyone gave their full attention to Yuma.

"How bad is the future he sees?" Osano asked.

"Hmm," Yuma eyed the waiter who came back to set more meat and vegetables on the table for their growing number. Suwa and Daichi immediately went to work adding the food to the grill while the waiter moved on. Yuma waited until he was out of hearing range before explaining. "Jin-san said he didn't fully understand what he saw in the visions he saw so I don't really know what is going to happen."

"If he's worried about something, then he saw something that has him concerned." Yoneya pointed out.

Yuma shrugged, staring at the grill as he watched Daichi flip the meat and vegetables over. He wasn't feeling up to going into what Jin was really concerned over. There were parts of his visions he was confused about and that he didn't go into with Yuma which probably had more to do with what he didn't understand what he was seeing.

"Sounds like things are going to get a lot worse. And I thought last night was horrible." Suwa complained.

"Was it really that bad?" Shun asked.

"Final count for the Mimics that appeared last night was fifty-four." Osano replied.

"Fifty-four?!" Yoneya exclaimed, slamming his hands on the table as he leaned forward to look down the table at her. "We only had five appearing the other night. Whoever is doing this really upped their game. How can they have so many Mimics available to send that many?"

"And what is the point of attacking us like this? What are they trying to accomplish?" Shun asked. "Five the first night, but fifty-four the second night?"

That wasn't a question any of them could answer unfortunately.

"So you said Kako-san helped you last night?" Yuma asked, driving the conversation back to last night's attack.

Hisato nodded his head. "It was amazing! She appeared out of nowhere and just used Fujin to slash the Mimics to pieces!"

"What is with agents who aren't on duty just appearing out of nowhere in the Restricted Zone at night?" Yoneya asked, nudging Yuma's shoulder in amusement. Yuma just rolled his eyes back at him with a smirk.

"She said Jin asked her for a favor." Osano leaned her arm on the table to see pass her teammates to look at the others. "Apparently he saw Mimics trying to escape the Restricted Zone last night so he asked Kako to help us out last night."

"Leaving the Restricted Zone?" Yoneya asked, brows furrowed in confusion. "They only go after Trion bodies so why for both attacks so far were they trying to leave? What is out there that they are after?"

While the group pondered that question, Yuma stared at his hands curling into fists on the table. That's what Jin wanted to talk to Kako about before they left HQ yesterday. He knew that letting Yuma leave the Restricted Zone would lead Mimics to him so he was putting a plan in motion to prevent it from happening. It was Jin's way of trying to protect Yuma while at the same time preventing civilians from seeing the Mimics.

It worked last night, but what if another horde of Mimics appeared tonight and they couldn't prevent the Mimics from escaping the Restricted Zone this time? Yuma couldn't be the reason the city was put in danger. They had to keep the Mimics in the Restricted Zone at all costs.

Note: Yuba is so intense in the show. I knew he was intense in the manga, but finally seeing him in the show, it feels like they've upped his intensity, and I absolutely loved it. Only one episode with him so far and I could not stop watching his scenes.