A/N: I don't own World Trigger
Mimics
Chapter 6: Kuga Yugo, The Father
Launching himself through the air, a grin formed on Yuma's face as the wind whipped around him before he landed on a branch that he then jumped from again. As he was soaring through the air, a shadow moved in the corner of his eyes. Before he could even turn to look, a pair of strong arms were wrapping around his torso to pull him back and hold him to the other's chest.
A surprised gasp escaped him but before he could pull out his daggers, a deep voice murmured in his ears, "What kind of mischief did you get up to this time?"
The familiar voice had Yuma going limp, allowing Yugo to hold up all his weight as he pouted. "Why do you always think I'm up to something?"
"Because you have a penchant for finding trouble." Yugo replied as he jumped through the forest, carrying his young son.
"Yeah, it finds me. I don't go looking for it." Yuma whined. At his father's disbelieving snort, Yuma scowled. "It's true! I just got bored while you were talking to that old man. I was just exploring."
Yugo sighed, jumping down from the trees to land in the clearing below and deposited his son on the ground. "Instead of running off to explore all the time, you could instead try to make friends."
"Why?" Yuma asked confused, blinking up at his father with a frown. "In a couple weeks, we'll be leaving this nation and I'll never see them again. There's no point in trying to play nice."
"Just because you haven't seen them in a long time, it doesn't diminish that time you spent together." Yugo looked up at the canopy of trees above them, smiling fondly. "All the friends I made over the years are still with me, no matter the distance between us. We may not see each other for a long time, but there is no denying the bond we share. If they need my help, I'll be there for them as they'll be there to help me if I ever need it. You should never look down on making those connections when you can, Yuma. Being alone all the time isn't going to be fun. These friends you make will be the allies you rely on when things get difficult."
*Mimics*
"Would they be that daring?" Tokieda asked.
It wasn't even a second later when the Mimic was slamming into the window.
"They're that daring." Yuma said, staring at the Mimic that was peering in through the window.
The Mimic swung its arm backwards, stretching it out before swinging it forward to slam into the windows, smashing them to pieces. As shards of glass rained down on Yuma and Tokieda, causing them to jump away from the broken window, the Mimic pulled itself in while the alarms in the base began to blare in their ears at the invasion. It crawled through on all four of its limbs, twisting its head around from Tokieda to Yuma as if debating its target.
Mimics went for Trion bodies. They needed Trion bodies to get memories to transform, so it was a shock to Tokieda when a mere second after breaking into the base, the Mimic launched itself at Yuma. Yuma currently didn't have his Trigger activated so there was no reason for a Mimic to go for him.
Seeing the Mimic coming for him, Yuma instinctively raised his hand to activate his Shield.
"Speaking of possibilities, you didn't tell us Shields don't have any effect against their attacks." Miwa said.
That's right. He couldn't use his Shield to defend. Dropping his hand, Yuma instead jumped farther away from the Mimic. His feet hadn't even landed back on the ground when he heard shattering behind him.
Seeing a second Mimic break in behind Yuma, Tokieda brought his assault rifle out to unleash Asteroid upon the first one. His bullets managed to pierce its back before its head twisted all around its body to look at him. With the way it was crawling on all fours and twisting its head, it was ever creepier. The Mimic flipped its arm backwards before doing a handstand and extending its feet at him.
Tokieda was going to take that as a warning that if any part of the Mimic touched him, his memories were its for the taking. Shifting his gun to his side, Tokieda called out his Scorpion even as he moved farther away.
The moment the Mimic was twisting its head around to see who shot it, Yuma was already turning around while shoving his hand in his pocket. Unfortunately, it seemed neither he nor Tokieda had acted quite fast enough.
Mimics moved a lot faster than he remembered.
As he turned, Yuma found himself staring up at a Mimic bearing down on him with its hand already clamping down on Yuma's wrist. Yuma's eyes drifted down to the hand clamping down on his wrist. He felt his fingers wrap around his Trigger in his pocket, but the grip on his wrist was distracting him.
Bad. That was bad.
"Greetings, Yuma. I am Replica."
Yuma blinked, taking in the Trion Soldier that was floating in front of him. He tilted his head in consideration before casting his eyes towards his father. "Is this what you've been working on?"
Yugo gathered his child in his arms to raise him up to where Replica was floating. Yuma wrapped one of his arms around his father's neck for better support but looked over at Replica. "He's an autonomous Trion Soldier that will be your friend and guardian. He's going to watch out for you if I'm not around." Yugo explained.
"Replica?" Yuma repeated the name that the Trion Soldier told him. He regarded the Trion Soldier curiously. "He's looks a lot different from the other Trion Soldiers."
"I am a unique design created by Yugo to look after you, Yuma. My functions are determined by any given situation to keep you safe." Replica replied.
Yugo smiled. "Replica will protect you if I'm not there to do it myself."
Lounging on top of a hill, Yuma stared up at the stars in the sky. The stars that were the other nations in the Neighborhood. They looked so peaceful up in the sky, but Yuma had been to plenty of nations over the years and he knew of the constant wars raging in them. While it looked peaceful sitting here, he knew that it was just a lie.
The sound of leaves crunching had Yuma looking over his shoulder to see Yugo climbing the hill. "See anything interesting up there, Yuma?"
"Not really." Yuma looked back up at the night sky.
Yugo smiled. "We need more stars in the sky. Earth has so many more. There are billions of stars filling the sky."
"Billions, huh?" Yuma's eyes raked over the stars in the sky. He couldn't imagine that many stars being in the sky. Would there even be any darkness left in the sky with that many stars lighting it up?
Taking a seat next to his son, Yugo wrapped an arm around his shoulders and pulled him into his side. "In that vast sea of stars is another galaxy of stars and planets that the people of Earth are exploring. Only a handful of people know of the Neighborhood over there, and those people are my friends. They work in an organization called Border."
Yuma looked over at his father to see his fond smile as he spoke.
Yuma pushed himself up on his bed, staring at his father's back. The room was dark, but his father was illuminated by the screen he was looking at. "Is something wrong?"
At his voice, Yugo's head shot up as he twisted around to look at his son. A small smile graced his feature. "Yuma, it's late. You should be sleeping."
"I heard talking." Yuma inched across his bed to the edge of it before raising himself up on his knees to try to see over his dad's shoulder. "What is it?"
"A friend just sent me a request for help." Yugo replied, turning fully away from the screen so he could look at his son. "I can't ignore a friend asking for help so we'll be leaving tomorrow. We don't have any time to waste. But listen, Yuma," He grabbed his son's shoulders, forcing his son to meet his eyes. "What we're going into is going to be dangerous. I need you to take this seriously."
"When have I ever not taken a battle seriously?" Yuma replied.
Yugo raised a brow at his son before dropping his head onto his son's fluffy hair. His son that found trouble so easily. All he had to do was turn a corner and he would find trouble. "We'll talk more in the morning. It's time to sleep. We have a long trip ahead of us." He guided his son back to lying down and tossed the blankets over him.
"Replica," Yuma heard his father's voice as he laid back down, slowly drifting back to sleep. "Calculate the faster route to Calvaria."
Yugo turned back to his son, pointing at him even as the sirens rang loudly around them. "Listen. Don't you dare go outside the gate. Stay put."
Yuma pouted as his father ran off to fight. "I don't think we have enough Trigger users to take even one of us out of the battle."
"You should trust in your father, Yuma. Yugo does know what he is talking about." Replica cautioned even as Yuma climbed onto the ledge of the fortress to watch the battle raging below them.
"You fool..." Yugo approached his injured son to kneel down in front of him. "Why were you defeated?" He smiled at his son, even though he was unsure if Yuma was even aware enough to take notice his smile. "Hang on a second. I'll save you soon."
The longer that thing held on, the more Yuma felt his resolve weakening as the memories flooded through his mind.
Maybe...maybe it was alright to give up.
"Yuma..."
"Dad," Yuma muttered softly, eyes glazing over as he saw the vision of his father in front of him. Yugo smiled down at his son.
"Yuma..."
It would be so easy to just let go right now. His father could appear before him in an instant. After so many years of missing his father, the chance to see him again was right here in front of him, gathering all his memories of Kuga Yugo into one.
"Yuma..."
Was it really so wrong to want to see his father appear in front of him?
"We can deal with Mogami-san, but we cannot deal with the consequences of your father appearing. Listen, Yuma, it's not worth the risk." Jin warned.
Yuma stared at him, feeling completely lost. "I'm not about to let Dad appear, so whatever you're worried about, it's not going to happen."
"Within the next week, I see you dying."
"Just...if something happens, just alert us this time, okay?" Osamu asked. "Don't try to keep us in the dark."
There was a promise made.
Two promises he made.
Yuma jerked his body as his senses came back to him, eyes lighting up in fury as the memories were washed away. No. This was not the time. No matter how much he wished to see his father again, Kuga Yugo could not appear. He would not appear. That was the promise Yuma made to Jin.
Twisting his body, Yuma planted his right foot more firmly on the ground. "Boost. Double." He applied the seal to his left leg as he swung his leg up to hit the Mimic. His goal was to take the thing's head off with one attack before it could transform.
As his kick was reaching the Mimic's neck, his leg got blocked by a Shield, surprising the young Neighbor. 'It has a shield strong enough to block Boost?' Yuma managed to think before the Mimic twisted its body, pulling Yuma with him. Yuma felt his feet leave the ground as he was swung and forcefully thrown away from the Mimic. His body slammed into the window, glass shattering all around him and falling with him as he soared through the air. Before he could get the chance to recover, the Mimic followed him and slammed into him with enough force to send him crashing through the building below, smashing through the floors until he slammed into the ground creating a crater. Following after him was the rubble falling down and slamming into him, burying him.
*Mimics*
Blocking the arm that was coming for him, Tokieda jumped farther back. He kept trying to put distance between him and the Mimic, but with its ability to extend its limbs, he wasn't able to increase the distance. Having to defend once against Mimics would make getting out of defense hard. Switching to offense would leave him open for a second, and that one second was all it took to get hit. If this kept up, he would run out of hallway to retreat through.
What he needed was for Yuma and him to work together. That would give them an easier time in handling the Mimics. He glanced pass his Mimic to see if Yuma had activated his Trigger yet so he could call to him with telepathy, but to his horror he saw the Mimic slamming Yuma through the window with the Mimic flying after him.
His Trigger wasn't active.
"Duck!"
Without questioning it, Tokieda dropped down to his knees and switched out his Scorpion with his Shield which he threw up to protect himself as a volley of bullets ripped through the air behind the Mimic. The bullets that didn't hit the Mimic soared pass Tokieda with a few slamming into his Shield, causing cracks to appear in it. He shifted to the side and morphed an opening in his Shield to be able to take aim with his rifle. Unleashing his own Asteroid onto the Mimic, with bullets raining down on it from both sides, the Mimic was wilted down into nothing but pieces.
The moment the bullets had stopped, Tokieda dropped his Shield and ran pass the dead Mimic, eyes scanning the scenery out the window desperately.
"I can't believe they were daring enough to breach the base." Kitora said as she came around the corner now that Arashiyama and Tokieda were done throwing bullets around.
"There's a second one. It threw Yuma out the window." Tokieda said, ignoring what Kitora said. "He wasn't able to get his Trigger activated before he was thrown."
"What?" Arashiyama asked sharply, feet crunching over the shards of glass to join Tokieda at the destroyed windows. He felt his heart jump to his throat as he looked below trying to catch sight of the Mimic or Yuma. He had promised Jin that he would protect Yuma tonight. The job got passed over to Tokieda since he assumed Yuma would be safe inside the base and since it wasn't completely dark yet.
Kitora eyed her two teammates at the windows, frowning. Her eyes drifted over the windows to look at the buildings around the base. "Let's go. We're not going to find him by standing up here."
"If he's still alive." Arashiyama muttered. "If he didn't manage to activate his Trigger on the way down..."
None of them wanted to say it. Kitora couldn't even bring herself to say it. A fall from this height was a death sentence, but it was Yuma they were talking about. She's never seen him falter, but at the same time, no one could be perfect all the time. They were only human after all. Mistakes were part of being human, and sometimes those mistakes could cost people their lives.
Still...
"We don't count him out til we find him." Kitora said and without another word, she was jumping out of the window. She twisted around in the air and shot her wire at the building to help her descent to the ground.
*Mimics*
"Ooow," Yuma moaned as he shoved the rubble off of him, squinting in the darkness around him as he tried to see in the hole in the roof above him. He hoped shifting this rubble around wouldn't cause any more of the building to fall on top of him. Trying to see through the hole in the dark was next to impossible. It shouldn't be this difficult to see though. It was currently twilight and there were stars in the sky.
Pushing himself up into a sitting position caused more shifting of the rubble with dust raining down on him, but Yuma ignored that as he looked down at his hands. His clothes were all ripped but that wasn't what caught Yuma's attention. His vision was distorted as he looked at his hands, but he could still make out the cracks spidering over his hands. Putting one hand gingerly up to his face, Yuma felt around to find cracks all over his face. At least that would explain his vision problems. He brushed his fingers down to his neck to feel the cracks there as well.
Even as he was looking at the cracks on his hands, they were slowly healing. It might take a couple minutes because of how broken his body was from being slammed out of a window and crashing through a building, but it would heal. Too bad he didn't have time to sit around. That Mimic touched him.
It saw his memories.
It could transform into his father.
Yuma could mourn about his screw up later.
This wasn't the time to be sitting around and waiting for his body to fully heal. He had messed up so badly thinking he would be safe in the building that he turned his Trigger off after his Rank Battles. This was on him to fix this.
Reaching into his pocket to grab his Trigger, Yuma froze, eyes widening. "No, no, no." He muttered as he frantically patted his pockets down as he tried to find his Trigger. His eyes slid shut his eyes in despair when he felt nothing in any of his pockets. "Crap," His Trigger must have gone flying when the Mimic threw him out of the base.
Scrambling out of the crater, Yuma found the nearest exit which happened to be a window, which he clambered out of and looked around. He walked around the building to approach the base, looking around the ground near the base for any sign of the Mimic or his Trigger.
But all he found was an empty road.
"Double crap." Yuma muttered, rubbing at his eyes. Trigger missing, Mimic with memories of Kuga Yugo gone. Could this get any worse?
Shifting his hand so the back of his hand could brush over the cracks in his face in annoyance, Yuma turned back to the building with a sigh. There was nothing he could do about a missing Mimic so the least he could do was try to find his Trigger.
Staring at the area around the base, Yuma felt despair rise in him. His Trigger could have flown off anywhere in the area as he was falling through the air. Hell, it could have fallen from his hand when he slammed through the building. He didn't even realize in the fall when his grip loosened on it to send it flying.
"Yuma!"
Looking up at his name, Yuma spotted Arashiyama squad making their way to him. He grimaced a bit, rubbing his fingers over the cracks on the palm of his hand. This wasn't the time for someone to appear before him, but he couldn't just run off after he saw them.
"Are you okay?" Arashiyama asked concerned as he landed on the ground. His brows furrowed as he looked more closely at Yuma to take in the cracks on his face and neck as they slowly healed.
"How can he be? He was just thrown out of a building!" Tokieda said, staring at Yuma with a frown. Cracks were slowly closing on his skin, but those that hadn't healed yet were just like black voids inside. Tokieda didn't know a lot about Humanoid Neighbors, but he had a feeling that this was not normal.
"Why is your face all cracked like that? You didn't activate your Trigger." Kitora added. Not only was he not in his uniform that appeared with his Trigger activation, but Haruka had also been on the lookout for his Trigger activating while they raced down here. She hadn't alerted them of any Trigger becoming active.
"There was a Mimic." Yuma explained, ignoring the question about his broken, healing face.
"We know," Arashiyama frowned at the younger agent before looking around the road they were standing on. "We took care of the one fighting Mitsuru. What about yours?"
"That's good." Yuma mumbled as he started walking down the street, scanning the ground, as he ignored Arashiyama's question about his Mimic. Perhaps the Mimic was more important than his missing Trigger, but it would be kind of hard to fight without it.
If his Trigger went flying while he was falling through the air, it shouldn't be buried under anything. It had to land somewhere on top of the ground. Even just this general area was pretty huge if he considered that it could have landed anywhere.
"What are you doing now?" Kitora asked, turning to watch Yuma slowly walking through the area.
"My Trigger went flying when the Mimic threw me." Yuma admitted.
"Why didn't you just activate it before the Mimic threw you?" Kitora demanded.
Yuma turned his head halfway around to look at her, frowning as he rubbed his wrist where the Mimic had grabbed hold earlier. It's not surprising she didn't understand. Those who had been touched by a Mimic would get it. The Mimic was taking memories of loved ones. Those memories which one didn't think of every day all come flooding to the front of the mind, and with those memories came the painful reminder that the person they were about was dead. It made one weak. It made them surrender that will to fight. It brought a hope, a desire, to see them again.
That was what the Mimics could do.
His will to fight was being diminished more and more the longer the Mimic had a grip on him. It wasn't easy to fight a Mimic off once it got its hold on someone.
While Yuma neglected to answer Kitora, Tokieda followed after him, looking on the other side of the road for his Trigger. "Even if we find it, it'll probably be broken. Still, we need to find it so no one who shouldn't have it, finds it."
Turning his attention back to his search, Yuma pursed his lips. "You think that Kinuta-san will be mad? He talks about how expensive they are enough times."
"It will be fine. It's more important that you're alright." Arashiyama replied, still staring at Yuma as the younger agent searched. Was he alright though? He seemed fine for someone who was just thrown through a building and plummeted hundreds of feet to the ground. Too fine actually. No one should be able to walk away from that, and yet, here Yuma was walking around with just his body cracked all over which was healing. It wasn't natural, even for a Neighbor. Just what was Tamakoma hiding? There was no way Jin didn't know about this.
"Why didn't you use your Black Trigger?" Kitora demanded, not letting this go. "Even if you lost your Border Trigger, you still had means to fight back."
"I doubt this would be considered an emergency. Kido-san would not let it slide this time." Yuma replied, feeling his frustration start to rise. It's not like he planned for any of this to happen. He was inside the base. He should have been fine there. He had just finished up his Rank battles for the day and was thinking of heading back to base like he promised Jin he would. He had deactivated his Trigger since there should have been no need for it. It didn't matter anyway. If he came across a Mimic, he was a target whether his Trigger was active or not, but he had been sure he could activate his Trigger fast enough if one showed up.
It was his fault.
He miscalculated.
The Mimics were faster than he gave them credit for.
"I think he would have." Arashiyama said gravely. "Yuma, for that Mimic to throw you, he had to touch you."
Yuma stubbornly kicked a piece of a rubble to the side, refusing to face Arashiyama squad. No Trigger. Could it have fallen onto one of the roofs around here?
"And now the Mimic is gone. If it's transformed into someone, I think Commander Kido would have preferred you used your Black Trigger to prevent this from happening." Arashiyama continued, but Yuma just kept walking down the street leaving Arashiyama and Kitora to follow after him and Tokieda.
Is this what had Jin worried? He had asked Arashiyama to protect Yuma, and Arashiyama promised he would, but perhaps he should have asked what to protect him from. Arashiyama assumed he meant from the Mimics, which if that was what it was, he had already failed. Yuma may be standing in front of them, wounds healing slowly, but a Mimic with memories from him was no joke. Just who did Yuma know from the Neighborhood that the Mimic could transform into?
And that was a question to fear. Yuma came here as a highly trained, experienced fighter. He didn't just have those skills. Someone ingrained them in him. Was that person still alive? If not, were they going to be the one to appear in Mikado City?
Something had Jin scared and it involved Yuma.
"Who is going to appear, Kuga-kun? We need to be ready for them." Kitora demanded.
A vibration distracted Yuma from what they were saying as he pulled out his phone, grimacing at the cracks in the screen. It was a miracle it was still working. As he looked at the caller ID, Yuma grimaced at Jin's name. The longer he stood here looking for his Trigger, the darker it got. He had promised to be out of the Restricted Zone before now, but he had a feeling that what Jin was hoping to prevent had already taken place.
Did Jin see the future shift? Was that why he was calling him? Or was he checking up on Yuma to make sure he was out of the Restricted Zone?
If that was the case, Yuma would be infuriated. Or, he would have been infuriated that Jin felt he needed to check up on Yuma keeping his promise if not for the fact that he had already messed up. All the frustration and anger he felt was directed at him.
He honestly had no intention of letting a Mimic take his father's memories to transform into him. It wasn't real. It wouldn't be his real father so it wasn't something he wanted to face.
Unfortunately, he had messed up and let a Mimic get too close to him while he was distracted. This was on him. It was his mess to clean up.
Yuma rejected the call from Jin and slid his phone back into his pocket. First, he needed his Trigger back.
"Arashiyama-san."
Arashiyama stared at Yuma still desperately searching through his Trigger as he put a hand to his ear. "Ayatsuji, the Mimics are no longer in the base, but please inform the personal inside the base to be careful. Also, can you tell us where the second Mimic went? We need to kill it quickly."
"About that," Harkua said, eyes scanning rapidly over the map of the Restricted Zone in front of her. "I can't track it anymore. It disappeared from radar a few minutes ago. Are you sure it wasn't killed?"
Arashiyama watched Yuma and Tokieda scoping the area for Yuma's missing Trigger, a frown in place. Tokieda was sure Yuma got thrown from the building without activating his Trigger and the fact that they were desperately searching for it now told him that Tokieda's assessment was right. "I'm sure it's still alive."
"Hmm," Haruka hummed. "Do Mimics have the ability to hide from radar?"
"No, but a transformed Mimic with a Trigger might be able to." Kitora said, looking over at her captain. "If it's from Kuga-kun's memory, a transformed Mimic with a Trigger is very likely."
"Right. We're going to help Yuma try to locate his Trigger, but keep a lookout for any incoming attacks from the Mimic." Arashiyama replied.
*Mimics*
It wasn't unusual. Since Osamu got his room at Tamakoma, Yuma had made a habit of coming into his room unannounced. The strange part was that he came in first thing in the morning when Osamu was barely awake. Even stranger was that his clothes were all torn up.
Osamu closed his eyes, wishing nothing more than to simply go back to sleep and have this all be a dream. If only wishes came true. Reopening his eyes to face the reality of the situation, Osamu sighed as he found his friend had taken his bed as his seat. "Were you out all night, Kuga?"
"I was busy." Yuma said plainly.
At his tone, Osamu raised a brow as he took a seat at his desk. "What's wrong?"
"Arashiyama squad saw my face break and heal last night. I managed to side step their questions for now, but that's not something you just forget." Yuma said, crossing his legs under him.
"You can give them a simple explanation without telling them everything." Osamu suggested.
Yuma frowned. "I don't just want to blab to everyone that I'm dying."
"It will get found out eventually."
"And by then, I'll be dead." Yuma retorted before sighing as if the fight was simply leaving him as his shoulders sagged.
It was Osamu's turn to frown at his friend. He hated how accepting his friend was of his fate. There wasn't anything either of them could do about it, but Osamu hated discussing it, especially when Yuma would be so callous about it. The fact that Yuma wasn't going to be here anymore one day wasn't something he wanted to think about. "Kuga..."
"I got lucky with you and Jin-san." Yuma interrupted quickly. "You don't show me any pity or worry about it. I can't deal with the pity. I don't deserve it. It's my fault I'm like this."
Osamu stared at Yuma who was staring down at his ring with that look of guilt he rarely got to see since Yuma tried so hard to hide it. "You're wrong."
Yuma looked up in confusion.
"Jin-san, me, even Rindo-san. We're all worried and scared, Kuga. You're our friend, a valued comrade. We're scared to face the day when you'll die." Osamu admitted, turning in his chair to shift the papers around to find the picture of Old Border he managed to get back from Konami before she destroyed it. Most of the people in this picture were dead. He couldn't imagine how much the living members of Old Border were hurting to lose their comrades in battle. And one day, Kuga would be another lost comrade. "But we can't do anything to change it. Instead, we're focusing on what we can do, and right now, that is getting ready for the away mission."
"Speaking of focusing on what we can do, there's something else we need to take care of." Yuma added.
Osamu looked at his partner with a raised brow. "And that is?"
"The Mimics attacked last night. Unfortunately, I didn't get the chance to activate my Trigger, but since I'm always in a Trion body..." Yuma trailed off.
"Kuga..." Osamu said warily.
"He threw me through a window and then slammed me through a building so I lost track of him." Yuma added unhelpfully.
Osamu closed his eyes in despair, screaming internally. That would at least explain the destroyed clothes. "Please tell me there's not a Mimic transformed as your father running around." When Yuma didn't reply, Osamu opened his eyes to glare at him. "Kuga!"
"I have a thing about lying." Yuma said. He planted his hands on his ankles and leaned forward.
"Says the person who won't tell anyone the truth about his body." Osamu muttered to himself, not that Yuma was paying attention to what he was saying.
"I got trapped in some rubble so I didn't see him transform and by the time I got out, the Mimic was long gone. Maybe we'll be lucky and because of the uniqueness of my body, the Mimic wasn't able to take Dad's image." Yuma added.
Osamu gave him a deadpanned look, not buying Yuma's attempt at optimism to ease the panic that was starting to bubble up in him. "Why did you come back to base if he's out there?"
"I lost my Trigger when I got thrown through the building. Tried all night with Arashiyama squad helping me. No luck in finding it. Can't hunt down Mimic Dad without it."
Osamu closed his eyes in defeat before rising to his feet.
"Where are you going?" Yuma asked.
"Someone needs to tell the others we're going to die. Maybe Jin-san can find us a path out of this." Osamu replied.
"You're being overly dramatic. This isn't the end of the world. It just makes things a bit harder." Yuma said, trying to calm his friend down as they left the room. It was hard to do that when Yuma himself didn't truly believe the words. Going against his father, even a fake version of his father, was not going to be easy.
Marching into the dining room with Yuma on his heels, Osamu found Jin at the table eating his breakfast slowly. Seeing the bags under his eyes, Osamu felt bad for having to bother him so early in the morning, but the threat of Yuma's father was not something that could wait.
"Jin-san."
Jin lifted his head from his meal to look at Osamu, but his eyes immediately zeroed in on the fluffy white hair behind Osamu. Forgetting his breakfast, Jin found himself embracing Yuma, surprising both Osamu and Yuma. The hug was short lived though as Jin pulled back to grab Yuma's shoulders, shaking him a bit. "Are you really that upset with me, Yuma? Not answering any of my calls, not coming home last night. I was up half the night. If it wasn't for Arashiyama calling me to tell me you were fine..."
That, Yuma did know. He rejected so many of Jin's calls last night. It only made sense that Arashiyama would take the initiative to tell Jin he was fine. After all, it was Jin who gave him a baby sitter in the form of Arashiyama squad. "Surprised you tried at all. I figured you'd want to be awake twenty-four seven to scheme your way to a better future." Yuma said coolly, surprising Osamu.
Jin frowned at Yuma. "You really going to be mad at me for wanting to protect you?"
"Yes," Yuma said through gritted teeth, pushing Jin's hands off his shoulders.
"Kuga," Osamu turned to his partner who went over to the breakfast counter to sit down, showing his back to Jin and Osamu. He didn't understand this frustration that Yuma was showing. Yuma valued the idea of teamwork and needing allies. Not to mention the amount of work he put in to protect his team. So why when the tables were turned and Jin wanted to protect him, did he get mad about it?
Jin breathed out all his frustration. He and Yuma couldn't be both getting mad and saying things they didn't mean to each other.
"Jin-san," Osamu said, hoping to get away from the awkwardness that had formed over the group. "About last night..."
"The future has taken a horrible turn." Jin said without taking his eyes off Yuma's back.
Yuma shifted uncomfortably on the barstool before settling by resting his chin in his palm. Did Jin know that before Yuma and Osamu came downstairs or was he looking into the future right now as they spoke?
Footsteps pounding down the hall had all three of the room's occupants glancing at the door.
"Is Konami-senpai mad about something again?" Osamu asked. She was usually the only one stomping through the base like when upset about something.
"First thing in the morning?" Yuma asked with a frown.
"What the hell!" Tachikawa shouted as he slammed the door open, marching into the room with Izumi following more calmly after him.
Jin, Osamu, and Yuma just stared blankly at him.
"Uh, what are you doing in our base?" Osamu asked confused.
Tachikawa glanced at him but didn't reply as his eyes shifted to Yuma. "You!" He demanded, pointing at the other agent.
"What?" Yuma muttered.
"We're supposed to be on defense duty right now." Izumi motioned to him and Tachikawa.
"And? I'm not preventing you from doing your job. I was in here minding my own business." Yuma replied.
Tachikawa slammed his hands down on the counter, leaning down to stare into Yuma's eyes. "We were on duty, but we got killed so we can't go back out til our Trion bodies recover."
"You got killed?" Jin asked shocked.
Bad.
That was bad. If Tachikawa and Izumi both bailed out and they were coming to Yuma to complain about it, there was only one possible person who could have done it.
Osamu went back to silently screaming in his head, even as he continued to listen to the conversation. If Tachikawa squad lost, what hope did the rest of them have?
"By someone claiming to be Kuga Yugo, and he also happens to be looking for his son." Izumi gave a pointed look to Yuma, who simply closed his eyes in defeat.
"Kuga Yugo?" Jin repeated slowly, turning back to Yuma. "Really? The one thing I asked you to not let happen."
Well, it seems that though Jin knew the future was taking a bad turn, he didn't quite realize just yet what had happened last night.
"You harped on me to not get hit by the Mimics so Mogami-san didn't appear, and yet, you couldn't follow the same advice." Jin said.
"It's not exactly easy for me to hide from them." Yuma hissed back at him.
"More like impossible." Osamu corrected, making his friend shoot him an annoyed look.
"From the sounds of it, this Kuga Yugo is a transformed Mimic." Izumi said, looking at each Tamakoma agent.
"I may have screwed up last night." Yuma admitted.
"Did something happen last night?" Jin asked. He really should have hounded Arashiyama for more details when he called, but he got assured that they were handling it. Clearly, it did not get handled before morning like Arashiyama was probably hoping.
Osamu nodded. "That's what I came down here to tell you. Kuga got attacked by the Mimics last night."
Yuma raised a finger. "To clarify, they broke into the base at twilight last night. I didn't even know they could be out at twilight."
"Would that explain the broken windows in one of the hallways?" Izumi asked.
Yuma nodded.
"Okay, so they broke into the base and you let one get a hold of you?" Jin demanded. "Yuma, your father being here is the worst thing that could happen."
"It's that bad?" Izumi asked surprised.
"It's something I wanted to prevent at all costs. It complicates everything." Jin replied, rubbing his eyes. Arashiyama only sent him a quick message last night to let him know that Yuma was fine. He didn't mention a Mimic getting a hold of him. "It's worse than if Mogami-san appeared."
"Imagine if they were both here."
"Let's not. That can still happen." Jin muttered, collapsing back into his chair. "Why didn't you say anything sooner, Yuma?"
"I was in the Restricted Zone all night with Arashiyama squad. I was hoping to get this all settled last night, but we never saw him." Yuma replied.
"I thought you were there all night looking for your Trigger." Osamu said, making Yuma hiss at him to be quiet.
"Your Trigger?" Jin asked slowly.
Yuma dropped his face into his hands. "I may have lost it in the Restricted Zone last night. I couldn't find it anywhere. Besides trying to find the Mimic, I also spent all night looking for my Trigger. Never saw the Mimic. Never saw my Trigger. It's like both of them just vanished into thin air."
"Well, this just gets better and better."
"So let me see if I got this straight. You got attacked by Mimics, one got hold of your father's memories and disappeared. You lost your Trigger and spent all night looking for it. And you didn't bother to report to HQ that a Mimic of your father, who apparently is stressing Jin out just by hearing his name, is wandering about?" Tachikawa asked. "Leaving my squad to get slaughtered by him this morning?"
"Basically." Yuma muttered. "Arashiyama-san said he would make the report to HQ about what happened and that I should go home since there's nothing to be done if we can't find him."
Izumi nodded. "I see, I see. Then I have a question."
"Hmm?"
"Mimics can only take memories from Trion bodies, but you just admitted to not being in your Trion body. There's no way you could have lost your Trigger if it was active. So how did the Mimic manage to transform into your father?" Izumi asked. "Were you wrong? Can Mimics actually take memories from normal civilians? That would explain why we had two instances where Mimics wanted out of the Restricted Zone."
Yuma's shoulders stiffened as he lifted his face out of his hands to look at the A-Rank squad standing across from him. Right, it wasn't exactly possible for him to lose his Trigger and get his memories taken by a Mimic at the same time. Well, it was for him, but since only a few people knew the truth of his body, they would assume something was off by hearing that story.
"It's complicated." Jin replied. "But Mimics can only take from Trion bodies. We weren't wrong about that."
"Perhaps it's time to make a trip to HQ. We need to get this worked out."
The agents turned to find Rindo leaning against the doorframe, rubbing his eyes. This was not what he wanted to wake up too. Why could quiet, peaceful days never exist anymore?
"I imagine Arashiyama squad will have made a report of the incident last night. They need to explain some broken windows after all, but it seems they won't know about Kuga-san being around."
"They know a transformed Mimic is around. I'm sorry, Boss. I really wasn't trying to get Dad to appear." Yuma said.
"I'm not mad, Yuma. We were trying to prevent it, but we all knew the risk of it happening was there. Now, we need to figure out how to contest him." Rindo paused before leaving the room to look at Yuma again. "And perhaps you should change into something less ripped up, Yuma."
