Countdown to Yugo's anniversary from this chapter: 5 days
Mimics
Chapter 7
"When do we get defense duty at night? I want to see these Mimics."
Izumi looked over at his complaining Captain. His complaint wasn't really all that surprising. He wanted things that intrigued him, and a new Trion Soldier was the most interesting thing happening right now. Well, besides all the agents waiting to start training for the away mission.
"If you want to see one so bad, just jump onto defense duty without warning like Kuga and Kako did the past couple of nights." Izumi suggested.
"I should have gone out the night Kako joined the defense duty. It sounded like an insane night." Tachikawa rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "What about last night? Did any Mimics appear?"
"How would I know? I was sleeping last night." Izumi retorted.
"Something clearly happened last night." Yu piped up over their coms. "There's a bunch of broken windows in one of HQ's hallways."
Izumi looked off to the side, staring at the buildings of the Restricted Zone that he and Tachikawa were currently patrolling through. "Broken windows? Who was on defense duty last night?"
"Looks like it was Arashiyama squad."
"Was there another squad on duty? No way Arashiyama would let the base be destroyed. He hates property damage." Izumi replied.
"Hmm, Ikoma squad." Yu replied.
Tachikawa nodded. "I can see them breaking the base."
"Have you considered it was neither squad on defense duty and it was instead the base getting attacked by enemies?" Yu suggested.
"Why would Mimics, who are looking for Trion bodies, break into the base in the middle of the night?"
"The base sounds like a shining beacon to them if people have their Triggers activated in the base." Yu pointed out.
"Except no one is in the base that late at night." Izumi argued. "By the way, is Yuiga in the squad room right now?"
"No, why?"
Izumi rolled his eyes. "That idiot skipping out on defense duty."
Yu hummed thoughtfully. "Maybe he has a good reason for missing."
"Yeah, his dad giving more money to Border which gives him more leeway." Izumi muttered, glaring at the building he was walking past. Thinking of his missing teammate made him want to take down a building with his Meteor. "Should make him do another hundred matches with Four-Eyes."
"That would be punishment to Mikumo-kun too and he hasn't done anything." Yu pointed out.
"I'm sure he'd be happy with the experience."
"And it'd be amusing." Tachikawa added. Looking around at the empty street, he sighed. "More entertaining than this. Defense duty at night sounds a lot more exciting lately."
"You know," Yu started.
Whatever their operator was about to say, Izumi and Tachikawa missed it completely as there was the sound of metal clinking that distracted them. Before they could identify what the sound was, they both suddenly found themselves unable to move. Sprouting from the walls and ground surrounding them were chains that attached themselves to Izumi's and Tachikawa's limbs, neck and torso so tightly that all they could do was try to wiggle their fingers.
Tachikawa tried to pull his arm forward to grab his sword but that only caused the chains to tightened and pull his arm farther back. "What the hell is this?" He growled.
"What? What's wrong?" Yu asked, eyes frantically scanning over her computer. She had alerts popping up on her screen to tell her about Tachikawa's and Izumi's problems, but she wasn't understanding them. There wasn't any damage done to them.
"Chains?" Izumi's eyes scanned the buildings around them. They had to have come from somewhere. Though even if he found the person who trapped them, it's not like he could do much when he couldn't move.
"Kunichika, call for backup." Tachikawa ordered, surprising both Izumi and Yu.
"You think you'll really need it?" Yu asked even as she got to work on contacting the other team on defense duty.
Tachikawa tsked, eyes narrowed in annoyance as he shifted them downward. He couldn't move any part of his body, but he was going to keep trying. If he could pull his sword out, he could cut these pesky chains away...hopefully. "If we can't get out of these chains, we are just sitting ducks to be slaughtered."
"Ducks are far more adorable than you two so I wouldn't go around killing them."
Following the sound of that voice, Izumi looked at the roof of a building to Tachikawa's left. It was hard to see much of him because of the sun blinding him, but it was definitely a male standing there. He jumped down from the building, landing neatly in a crouch in front of his two captures.
"Good morning, Border agents. I was hoping you could help me with something."
"Do you normally ask for help by trapping people in chains?" Tachikawa retorted, taking in the man with narrowed eyes. He wore a black uniform with a light blue cloak over his shoulder that looked suspiciously like one of Border's Bagworms. Peeking out from the cloak, Tachikawa could make out the handle of a sword. Interesting, but what was really catching his attention were those eyes that were boring into him and Izumi. Those red eyes that looked so familiar. The only difference being that his were a lot more intense than the eyes Tachikawa was used to seeing, which said a lot about just how intense they were.
"Just who the hell are you?" Izumi demanded.
The man smiled, amusement radiating from every inch of him. "My name is Kuga Yugo. I think you know my son. Yuma? Short kid, has a reckless streak a mile line."
"Kuga's father?" Tachikawa asked surprised. He tried to pull his arms against the Chains, but found the resistance too strong to be able to move them at all. The Neighbor kid's father. Just what kind of Trigger was he using? "You do know your son is one of our comrades, right? Why are you attacking us?"
"Where is Yuma?"
"Don't ignore my question!"
Yugo smiled at the two. "Where is he?"
Tachikawa's brow twitched in annoyance.
The kind tone told Izumi one thing, but the chains keeping him trapped told him another story. "I'm not sure I want to tell you that. What do you want with Kuga?"
"That's between me and my son." Yugo shifted, allowing his cloak to fall back to reveal his two blades as he put his hand on one of the handles. "So, I'm going to ask you one more time. Where can I find him?"
"If we're being honest, he could be anywhere in the city right now. It's not like we keep track of him." Tachikawa replied coolly.
Izumi's eyes widened, but unfortunately, he couldn't turn to glare at his Captain. "Don't tell him that." He hissed quietly. "We don't need him going into the city. We don't know what his intentions are."
"We don't want him in the city, but we can't let him get to Kuga-kun without knowing his intentions either." Yu said in their ears. "Toma-kun is on his way to you, but it will take him time to get there. Do you want me to request more agents be sent out from HQ from Director Shinoda?"
"Y-" Tachikawa's reply was cut off by a sword impaling him through his heart. Cracks spread across his body, starting from where the sword was in his chest. His eyes drifted up from the sword to meet Yugo's cold eyes. "Cheap shot, Kuga."
Izumi watched his captain bail, the chains that were restraining him disappearing when Tachikawa was gone. Yugo lowered his sword, staring up at the sky as he watched Tachikawa fly off into the air.
Tachikawa slammed into the mattress in his squad's room, scowling up at the ceiling while Yu leaned pass her computers to stare at him. "That doesn't count as a loss."
"You fell into an ambush, got trapped, and got killed. Sounds like a fair win to me. You don't always win a fight by being stronger than your opponent. Being smarter helps a lot." Yu replied.
"Kunichika, don't take Kuga's side." Tachikawa said as he sat up, hands curling into fists at his sides. "What even kind of Trigger was that?"
Back in the field, Izumi decided that enough was enough. He didn't care if this was Yuma's father. He was hostile first. If Yugo turned out to be a good person later, he would apologize to Yugo and Yuma at a later date. For now, he had a city to defend against a possible threat.
Forming his Viper cube and breaking it into his bullets, Izumi launched the bullets at Yugo. It was unfortunate for him that just restraining Izumi's limbs wouldn't be enough to stop his bullets from being unleased. Though Tachikawa might give him an earful later about waiting until after he had been killed to attack Yugo. To be fair though, he was still unsure of whether Yugo was an enemy or not. Yuma seemed to be very devoted to Border after all so why wouldn't his father be as well?
Yugo just smirked at the bullets zipping all around him at different trajectories. "Shield. Triple." He said so calmly to activate a fixed Shield that surrounded him on all sides.
Izumi stared at the kanji in the middle of the Shield as his bullets slammed into it, doing nothing to damage the Shield at all. "Oi, oi, seriously unfair."
As the bullets died down, Yugo dropped his Shield, still smiling at Izumi as he walked towards him. "When you see Yuma, tell him I'm looking for him."
Izumi launched the Asteroid bullets he had in his other hand, but Yugo merely lifted his hand with a Shield active to block them before he was striking Izumi down.
Izumi slammed into the mattress in his squad's room, staring blankly up at the ceiling. "I hate Kuga's dad."
"You guys were supposed to hold out until Toma-kun was able to get to you." Yu said.
"Kuga didn't seem to agree."
"Maybe next time don't invite trouble by complaining about not getting to fight Mimics."
*Mimics*
"Ever since he came here, it's been one troubling thing after another." Tachikawa complained to Jin.
Yuma pouted as he followed behind the two agents. "It's not like I caused any of those attacks to happen."
"It was your presence here that caused a fight among the A-Rank agents and Jin-san back in December." Izumi pointed out.
"What fight?" Yuma asked confused, looking at Jin's back as the older agent just continued walking down the hall.
Tachikawa and Izumi looked over their shoulders to look at Yuma in surprise. Tachikawa whipped his head back towards Jin. "Seriously?"
Jin folded his arms behind his head, looking off to the side like he didn't care. "He didn't need to know."
"What fight?" Yuma repeated, looking towards his own Captain and was surprised to find that he didn't look confused like Yuma did. "Do you know, Osamu?"
Osamu pushed his glasses up, coughing slightly. Yuma never asked about why Jin didn't have Fujin anymore so Osamu never had to tell him. It just never got brought up before since Osamu didn't feel the need to put that guilt on Yuma. He knew Fujin was Jin's mentor and if he knew that Jin gave it up for Yuma to get in Border, he would feel horrible. But now that he was asking, it wasn't possible to lie to him.
"Border wasn't keen on Tamakoma having two Black Triggers so Jin-san got into a fight with some A-Rank agents who were coming to steal yours. He fought them off then traded Fujin into HQ to get you enlisted." Osamu explained.
Yuma frowned, humming to himself. "So that's why." He would never ask Jin to do that for him. There was more than one reason why he could never part with his Black Trigger, and one of those reasons was because it was the last thing he had of his father. It was the same for Jin with his mentor's Black Trigger.
"It was my choice, Yuma. I'd rather have you safely enlisted in Border than selfishly hold onto Fujin." Jin looked over his shoulder at his friend with a smile. "And Mogami-san would have agreed with my decision. The less fighting within Border, the happier he would be."
That didn't lessen the guilt Yuma was feeling. In fact, it made it worse. Mogami sounded like a great person. He was probably a very good mentor to Jin, and because of him coming here, he forced Jin's hand. He initially planned to go back to the Neighbor's world when he found Border couldn't help him because it would only cause problems if he stayed in this world. But then Osamu asked for his help and he joined Border. It was naïve of him to think it had ended there.
It seems he did cause more problems, but Jin handled it all behind his back.
Rindo dropped his hand on Yuma's hair, causing the younger boy to look over his shoulder at him. He smiled down at the boy. "We all make our own choices, don't we? He wanted to protect you and help your team that much. Instead of feeling bad for that, you should show him your gratitude. You would have missed out on a lot of fun here at Border if he didn't do this."
There was no denying that. Yuma truly loved his time in Border and that Osamu and Jin worked so hard to get him to join. But it's not like he came to this world to cause trouble. He didn't want to cause any trouble, but he ended up causing trouble simply because he refused to let himself be pushed around.
"I didn't consider this morning fun at all." Tachikawa muttered. "This current trouble is also your fault."
"This could have happened to anyone." Osamu protested.
"Most people don't have a powerful Trigger user for a father." Izumi replied. He looked back over at Yuma. "I never heard anything about your father being dead."
"Not something I feel necessary to discuss." Yuma muttered.
"Well, now that we have him for an enemy, it is necessary." Tachikawa said.
An enemy. He didn't like hearing that word associated with his father. Yugo was always such a skilled fighter and a wonderful father to Yuma. He could never imagine his father as someone who was bad.
And that's because his father wasn't.
"That thing is not Dad. It's a Mimic." Yuma snapped. "Dad would never be an enemy to Border."
"Right, right. You're right." Izumi said placidly, holding his hands in surrender. "I'm sure your father was a good person when he was alive. Nothing like the guy who decided to greet us by setting a trap for us."
Well, Yuma wasn't about to say it, but his father did use traps sometimes, particularly when they were in a nation at war. Traps were a part of the strategies that Yugo taught him. Seeing as Tachikawa and Izumi were sour about the ambush they walked into earlier, he wasn't keen to talk about the strategies lesson Yugo gave him.
"Who is he?"
The annoyed tone had the agents looking over their shoulders at a frustrated Toma standing there.
"Shouldn't you be on duty?" Izumi asked.
"I came to back you up, and instead got killed." Toma explained. He eyed the clothes that Tachikawa and Izumi were in. "I see that I'm not alone in getting killed."
"It's Kuga's fault." Tachikawa said, pointing down at the white-haired agent. "It's a Mimic of his father running around."
"Really?" Toma asked, frustration draining away to interest. "Kuga's father?"
"How'd he even get you? You're a sniper. You would shoot him before he realized you were there." Osamu said confused.
"He somehow knew I was there and was able to Shield himself from my shot." Toma said.
"You've seen it before." Jin told Osamu. "When Yuma fought Miwa squad, he managed to dodge a kill shot from Narasaka."
Osamu frowned as he recalled that fight. Yuma did dodge the headshot while in the air which was impressive by itself. Though now that he was thinking about it, why didn't he used a Shield back then? "He still lost an arm."
"But he wasn't knocked out of the fight."
"Or when he Shielded himself from Azuma's snipe." Izumi added.
Yuma nodded, crossing his arms over his chest. "Still lost a leg to the second shot. Wasn't expecting Azuma-san to be using Lightning."
"Which brings up my point." Toma replied. "It's damn impressive that you and your father have the skill to react so fast to snipes and defend against them. The only other person able to defend against my snipes is Jin-san and he's using his side effect to do it. Is it something your father taught you?"
Yuma's brows furrowed as he frowned at Toma. "Being able to block bullets instantaneously like that isn't something you can be trained to do. It takes a lot of experience in the field. Something I didn't have when Dad was alive. Spending three years fighting in a war after he died tends to give you plenty of battle instincts to sense that killer instinct when someone is preparing to put bullet in your head. And unfortunately for all of us, Dad's instincts are a lot better than mine. You'll have a hard to be able to snipe him."
"If he's saying that I'm destined to always miss my target, I don't feel very inclined to go hunting this Mimic down." Toma said.
"Kuga-san is very skilled and dangerous, but no one is perfect. You should take it instead as a challenge to try to catch him off guard and hit him." Rindo suggested.
The sniper stared at the branch head with confusion. "Kuga-san? Why are we showing respect?"
"Kuga Yugo." Shinoda explained as he walked into the hall from a side hallway. He took in the group of Tamakoma agents, Rindo, the A-Rank squad, and Toma with interest. This was a strange group to be mixed together in HQ's hallway talking about Kuga Yugo. "Why are we talking about him?"
The A-Rank agents, minus Jin, pointed at Yuma.
Shinoda stared at Yuma, contemplating the younger agent. "I would have appreciated if you came by this morning, Yuma-kun, instead of letting Arashiyama squad take care of the report from what happened last night. He told me you never found your Trigger."
"Is Kinuta-san going to yell at me?" Yuma asked with a grimace. He was finally doing a good job of getting along with the Development Chief. This would probably set them back so much.
"Yes, yes, it's absolutely horrible that Kuga lost his Trigger, but that seems far less important than the threat of Kuga Yugo currently roaming the Restricted Zone." Tachikawa said.
"Or the city. He could honestly be anywhere right now." Izumi pointed out.
Moving his eyes from Tachikawa squad to Yuma to back to the squad, Shinoda frowned, eyes narrowing. "Did they just say Kuga Yugo is back? Arashiyama squad didn't mention that in the report. Yuma-kun?" He looked down at the young agent.
"I think they forgot by this morning that the Mimic got a hold of me last night since we were trying to find my Trigger. The Mimic never showed up as my dad in front of us at all last night. I was hoping it didn't succeed in getting those memories." Yuma admitted.
Shinoda was not going to get mad. They asked Yuma to try to avoid getting a Mimic of his father in the city, but it's not like it was something they could control. Trion Soldiers were dangerous and this was a situation, while hoping to avoid, they knew was a possibility. The problem was that Kuga Yugo had been around all night and it was never mentioned. "You couldn't tell us about him appearing this morning or even last night, Yuma-kun?"
Yuma pursed his lips. "I promised Osamu that if something happened again, I would tell him right away."
"You waited all night." Osamu pointed out.
"You were sleeping and I was trying to find my Trigger. I told you first thing this morning." Yuma replied. "And honestly, I was trying to locate him and my Trigger at the same time last night. It's like he vanished until this morning. I don't know why he waited all night to make his appearance."
Sighing, Shinoda motioned for the group to follow him. "Let's talk in my office about this. And while we're on our way, Kei, Toma, tell me why you aren't in the field. You're on defense duty right now, aren't you?"
"Two words." Tachikawa said. "Kuga Yugo."
That, honestly, was not a surprising answer to Shinoda. While Shinoda had deep respect for his mentor, for his strength, intelligence, and his kind heart, he was absolutely dreading the next few hours. Not only were they about to face the overwhelming force of Kuga Yugo, but it would seem, the curious nature of the agents would be coming out. Border's history wasn't a secret, but they typically kept the names of past members a secret. In actuality, Shinoda would wager that most of the members of Border didn't even realize that the organization had been around long enough for there to have been a Commander in Chief before Kido.
Leading the agents and Rindo into his office, Shinoda motioned for them to get comfortable as he sat behind his desk. While the older agents stayed standing, Yuma took a sit on one of the couches with Osamu sitting next to him while Rindo sat on the opposite couch, tossing his arm over of the back of it as he relaxed. Or, he tried to look like he was relaxed. Shinoda would guess that he was feeling the same type of dread that Shinoda was feeling.
"So, Director, do you know Kuga Yugo? You knew his first name without hearing the full conversation." Toma asked.
Shinoda glanced at his agent, fingers tensing where they rested on his desk. It was hard enough to hear months ago that Yugo was dead, and now they had to deal with a reappearance of him in the form of Mimic which made him an enemy.
"Border and Kuga Yugo share a long history." Rindo said for Shinoda. "Though he left the organization about two decades ago."
"Twenty years?" Izumi asked shocked. "Border's been around for that long?"
"Longer than that, but back then, it was a secret organization and had a lot fewer people. Kuga Yugo was one of those people. In fact, he was one of the original founders of the organization." Shinoda explained, glancing over at Yuma who was leaning back in his seat with his head tilted back to look up at the ceiling.
"Wait, but Kuga's a Neighbor." Tachikawa said.
"Yeah, I am," Yuma agreed. "But my father was from Japan."
"Huh?" Izumi said.
"When Yugo-san left Border, it was to travel through the Neighborhood. It seems he met a nice girl over there that he fell in love with and they had child together." Shinoda said.
"Guess that explains why a Neighbor kid has a Japanese name." Izumi replied, frowning in confusion. "But if Kuga was a Border founder and you all apparently knew him, why did we get the order to go after Kuga months ago when he first came here?"
"That was more of a complicated matter. Kido-san was unnerved by Tamakoma having two Black Triggers, and there was also the added worry that Yuma-kun was just using the name. We needed proof that he really was Yugo-san's son." Shinoda explained. "We hadn't heard from Yugo-san since he left the organization. It was shocking enough to just hear the name Kuga after all these years."
"Even more shocking to hear it was his son that was here. It's hard to imagine Kuga-san as a father, but seeing Yuma now, I can tell he was a great father." Rindo added, staring at Yuma, who was still staring at the ceiling.
Yuma frowned, eyes sliding shut. His father was a great man and a very good dad, not that Yuma was able to compare his dad to anyone else. Yugo was the only person that treated Yuma like a son in his life. To everyone else, except Raymond, he was nothing but a soldier.
"Kuga was looking for you, Kuga." Tachikawa said.
"Hmm." Tachikawa already told him that at Tamakoma earlier.
"Why was he looking for Yuma-kun?" Shinoda asked.
"He didn't say. We didn't tell him where he could locate Yuma this morning so he decided to kill us." Izumi said, rubbing the back of his head. "We didn't even get a chance to defend."
"Not that the chains were going to give us the chance to defend." Tachikawa said, rubbing his chin. This loss was not acceptable. He needed to get back out there to hunt down Kuga Yugo and get his revenge. Well, revenge and he could just tell, Kuga Yugo was strong. He wanted an actual chance to fight him.
Chains.
Chains.
Chains?
Yuma's head shot off the back of the couch as he sat up straight. "Did you say chains?" He demanded.
Yuma's harsh, shocked tone surprised the agents. He did seem out of sorts all morning with their conversation being so focused around his father, but his sudden intensity left them gaping.
"Yeah, we got ambushed by chains shooting out of the walls and grounds to restrain us. Kuga never even gave us a chance to fight back." Izumi explained.
Yuma shook his head slowly, eyes wide. "That's...not possible. My father doesn't have a Trigger with chains. He only has two swords."
"Maybe he got a new Trigger because I'm pretty sure what took me out were bullets." Toma pointed out.
"Bullets?" Yuma repeated, despair rising inside him. "No, a Mimic of someone who was a Trigger user will use the Trigger they had the last time you saw them. They can't change their equipment. My father never used bullets or chains."
"But do you know who does?" Jin asked, hands gripping the couch behind Yuma and Osamu tightly. "Do you know what those Triggers sound like, Yuma?"
Yuma twisted his head to the side, eyes clenched tightly shut. "It's not possible."
"And yet, it is."
"Do you mind filling the rest of us in?" Shinoda asked.
Yuma dropped his face into his hands. His fingers curled into his hair, pulling at the strands. Is this what Jin saw that had him worried about Yugo appearing? His father was a tough enough opponent to begin with, but to add these Triggers on top of everything else.
"The only person I've seen use chains and bullets is Yuma with his Black Trigger which coincidentally was created by Kuga Yugo five years ago."
Osamu's brows furrowed at the number. Five years ago? When did that happen? The last he heard from his friend, his father died four years ago.
"He never had those abilities though. The Chain Trigger my Black Trigger uses was something I had originally when it was created and the bullet Trigger is called Bolt and it's a variation of Asteroid that I copied from Miwa a few months ago." Yuma explained. "He shouldn't have access to them. They're not his to use."
"Are we sure they're the same ones you have?" Izumi asked. "Can you show us those Triggers so we can compare?"
Yuma lifted his head out of his head to look over the Shinoda, tilting his head in question at him. "From the descriptions, I'm pretty sure he is using my Black Trigger abilities somehow, but I can show them just to verify they're the same if you think it would be a good idea."
"It sounds like a good idea. If nothing else, it can give us a chance to learn about the abilities a bit more if Yugo-san is using them." Shinoda agreed, pushing himself to his feet. "We'll use the training rooms for this."
*Mimics*
Opening and closing his hand a few times, Yuma felt unnerved as he leaned against a wall in the training room, waiting for Shinoda to clear the room of the C-Rank agents and any official agents that happened to be in the room. It still wasn't common knowledge that Yuma was in possession of a Black Trigger and it seemed Shinoda wanted to keep this situation quiet for the time being as they tried to figure out just what they were dealing with in regards to Kuga Yugo.
That was fine with Yuma. He was confused and frustrated enough with everything that was going on as it was. Nothing about this was adding up. The original purpose of Mimics was to give someone the chance to see a lost loved one just one more time to say their goodbyes, for one last hug, a chance to see them not as a bloody corpse. Everything from someone's memory of who they were missing was copied perfectly by the Mimics. That was to make the interaction as real as possible.
All of that Yuma understood. He even understood why someone would take that idea and weaponize it. No, he did understand why. It was a great way to manipulate someone's emotions. Losing a loved one was hard enough to begin with, but being forced to strike that person down would be next to impossible for most people. Mimics looked so real, sounded so real, moved so real. They could fool someone perfectly into believing their loved ones were back.
It made it hard to strike them down.
Losing someone once was hard enough, but being the reason for their death was a memory no one needed.
'You idiot...why were you defeated? Hang on a second. I'll save you soon.'
Yuma closed his eyes, trying to will the image of his father kneeling in front of him with that smile away. He didn't want to see that. Not right now.
"Is he okay?" Tachikawa asked, jerking a thumb over his shoulder at Yuma. "I didn't think anything could rattle him."
Jin looked where he was pointing to look at Yuma. His kouhai who was leaning against a wall with eyes scrunched shut, hands clenched so tightly into fists resting on the wall behind him to keep him propped up. He hated seeing Yuma like this. It made him look like the eleven year old that his body was. While he had a young body, Yuma always held himself with such strength and confidence that no one would consider him to be so young. Now, the pain and memories were making him so drained. The Yuma who held his head high, hiding away all that pain, was gone, revealing to everyone around that he wasn't as immovable as he presented himself to be.
"I told you before, Tachikawa-san, Yuma had a hard life before coming here. And part of that hard life involved his father." Jin replied. "Kuga-san died about five years ago, but that hasn't lessened the pain at all for Yuma. What happened to Kuga-san is probably something Yuma will never forgive himself for. I think he's scared to stand in front of his father again."
Tachikawa stared at Jin with a frown. Whatever happened between Yuma and his father to cause this guilt that Jin spoke of was none of his business. He didn't need to know that history. "You never told us his father was the creator of his Black Trigger."
"Is that really important right now?" Jin asked.
"You gave up your mentor's Black Trigger so Kuga could keep his from his father."
Jin tilted his head towards the ceiling. "Hmm. I couldn't ask Yuma to give us his father's last gift to him, but that wasn't the reason I gave Fujin back to HQ. It was for Yuma though."
"What else could there be?" Tachikawa asked annoyed, but was ignored by Jin. If people didn't stop ignoring his questions today, he might just lose it.
With the last of the agents out of the room, Shinoda went to the computer to get the training room set up. As he was setting up the system, Rindo came into the room, rolling a cigarette between his fingers.
"You know, this isn't something we can keep quiet about. If Kuga-san is going to attack our agents while asking for his son, it's going to get out pretty fast. I don't want to tell anyone about Yuma's history, but we're going to need to tell the agents something. Kuga-san isn't someone they can fight blindly, especially if he has access to Yuma's Black Trigger abilities." Rindo said.
Shinoda paused in putting the settings in. "If Yugo-san is anything like he was when we last saw him...No, this Yugo-san we are dealing with is from Yuma-kun's last memory of him. I imagine he is a lot stronger than when we last saw him. If that's the case, I doubt any of our agents could truly handle him."
"Even he is only one person. If we set enough of our agents on him, we could overwhelm him and kill him." Rindo suggested as he sat down in one of the chairs. "Only, I can't ask this of Yuma. He watched his father die once. I won't put him through that again."
"Ready to go, Yuma-kun." Shinoda said over the intercom before he sat down next to Rindo. "I know you want to protect Yuma-kun from this, Rindo. I want to protect him too. When he first came to this world and we found out who his father was, I was honestly shocked to learn that Yugo-san had a child. It was hard to hear that Yugo-san had died, but I'm really happy that I got to meet his son. Yuma-kun is an amazing kid. His father raised him well. As much as I want to shield him from a Mimic of his father, we can't afford to bench him. Yuma-kun knows the most about his Black Trigger and about Yugo-san's fighting style. We're the only ones who could match Yuma-kun's knowledge on how Yugo-san fights. We need all the expertise and knowledge we have of Yugo-san to beat him. Preferably before all our agents on defense duty right now get killed."
"Our top two A-Rank squads already got taken out. The other squads aren't going to have a chance if Kuga-san finds them." Rindo replied.
"I just hope he stays in the Restricted Zone." Shinoda said. "I don't want this fight taken into the city."
Opening his eyes, Yuma found himself seeing the training room with no sight of the ghost of his father haunting him this time. Taking a deep breath, Yuma stood up straight and made his way into the training room.
Hard to believe the last time he stood in this room, he was a brand new C-Rank trainee. It was only a few months ago, but it was simpler back then. He just made a promise to help Chika and Osamu reach A-Rank and get on an away mission. Back then, he still had Replica by his side, and the only thing tying him to Border was the promise he made to Osamu and Chika to help them. It was promise with no stakes to him, then he lost Replica to Aftokrator, which now made it a personal mission for him as well.
But before he could deal with that, the Mimics were the current threat.
"Trigger on."
The black armor wrapped itself around Yuma.
"Trigger on."
Yuma looked over his shoulder to see Jin had followed Yuma into the training room. With his Trigger active, he called out his Scorpion.
"What are you doing?" Yuma asked.
Jin smiled at Yuma as he pulled a second Scorpion out. He charged at Yuma, swiping his Scorpion up at him, but Yuma simply leaned back and blocked the sword with his Shield.
"We said nothing about fighting. I was just going to show the seals I have." Yuma said.
Jin pushed more of his weight onto his sword, not that it did anything to Yuma's Shield. "It's always good to practice, Yuma. If we need to face Kuga-san with your Black Trigger abilities, any experience against them is good to have."
Izumi leaned his arms on the ledge, looking into the training room. "That symbol on his Shield. It's the one I saw when Kuga used his Shield this morning."
Osamu nodded. "This is the Shield attached to Kuga's Black Trigger. It's pretty strong. I watched it take four hits from a Marmod once without getting a single crack in it."
Izumi whistled, impressed by that feat. Marmod blades were not easy to defend against even with the use of Shields. If the Shield wasn't reenforced with enough Trion, it would break easily.
"The durability of it makes sense since it's attached to a Black Trigger." Tachikawa replied, rubbing his chin as he thought. Jin, that sneaky bastard. He wandered in after Yuma and was getting a fight against the Black Trigger. He should have thought of that first.
Yuma stepped back, planting a Bound seal under his foot to launch himself farther away from Jin so that he could drop his Shield. His feet very briefly touched the forcefield wall surrounding them before he kicked himself off it and landed on the ground in a crouch, planting his hand on the surface before rising to his feet, eyes locked on Jin. Without Fujin, Jin didn't have any ranged attacks. In contrast, Yuma had ranged attacks and could fight close combat with his Black Trigger. Though fighting close combat with Jin, who had swords, was not something Yuma was keen on doing recklessly.
Jin launched himself at Yuma, who jumped back again, throwing his hand out in front of him. "Anchor. Plus Bolt. Triple."
From where his foot was just hitting the ground, Jin activated Escudo before stepping back as the Lead Bullets slammed into the shield and on the ground around him.
"Oh, he stole more than just Asteroid from us, did him?" Toma asked amused.
"He got them from Miwa-senpai when Miwa squad attacked him back in December." Osamu explained.
Izumi smirked. "Must be where Miwa learned that Kuga's Black Trigger had the ability to copy other Triggers."
Yuma lifted his hand to his chest level. This was a seal he normally didn't use because of how much Trion it consumed, but in a training room where Trion was unlimited, it wouldn't hurt anything. "Gate." A blue seal appeared on his arm as a black Gate opened above him. From the Gate, a black Rabit with Tamakoma's emblem dropped down in front of Yuma.
"Oi, oi, are you serious?" Toma asked. "He can open Gates?"
Izumi gaped at the fight going on inside the training arena. How was that even possible? He didn't have any of the equipment to just open a Gate! Was it really as simple as just having a Trigger with that ability?
Rindo leaned forward in his seat, looking down at the arena with interest. That was unexpected. Perhaps he should have asked Yuma to tell him about his Black Trigger when he let the boy join his Branch.
"He can call Trion Soldiers to fight alongside him?" Shinoda asked shocked, eyes locked on the black Rabit that was now standing in the arena.
"Perhaps we should have gathered intel on his Black Trigger before." Rindo said.
Shinoda shot his friend a glare. "You didn't investigate what his Black Trigger could do when you took him in?"
"I didn't think it was necessary. I knew Yuma wouldn't do anything to harm Border or the city."
Listening to the sound of the Rabit, Jin leaned against his Escudo to look past it to see the Rabit by Yuma's side. "Seriously, Yuma?"
Yuma shrugged. "You started this fight. Besides, you said practice is good, right?"
A blue seal appeared on the Rabit's arm as he reeled it back and slammed it forward into Escudo, effectively destroying the Shield, but missing Jin who had jumped away from the attack.
While the Rabit charged at Jin, who was still falling from the sky from his jump, Yuma stepped back, keeping an eye on what was happening. The Rabit opened its mouth, activating the Bolt seal which unleashed a barrage of bullets at the falling Jin. It seemed Jin was already ready for this as he had already thrown away one of his swords and was activating his Shield.
"Those look like the bullets that killed me this morning." Toma said.
"A Rabit created from Kuga's Gate seal can use the same abilities as his Black Trigger." Osamu explained. "Those bullets he is using is called Bolt. Sounds like confirmation that Kuga-san was using the Black Trigger seals to kill you guys."
"Nothing about what was explained to us about Mimics said they could just use someone else's Trigger abilities. Kuga, himself, said it was impossible." Izumi replied confused.
Osamu shook his head. "I don't know. Maybe something in their design got changed when the Mimics design got stolen from Tropoi."
Jin landed on the Rabit's shoulder, going to stab it in the eye with Scorpion, but his sword got blocked by a Shield. The Rabit twisted violently to throw Jin off of him, resulting in the agent flipping backwards through the air. His feet had barely hit the ground when he heard metal clanging and he was jumping away again as Chains slammed into the ground where he was just crouched at. While missing him entirely, the Chains didn't vanish and instead blocked his path, leaving his back trapped against a wall.
Staring into the arena where Jin had effectively trapped himself in a corner with Chains blocking his route and Yuma and his Rabit staring at him, Tachikawa found himself nodding his head. "Those are the Chains. When they got a hold of us, we weren't able to break free."
Yuma lifted his hand, pointing it at Jin. "Boost. Plus Bolt. Quinte!"
Jin dropped to his knees, planting his hand on the ground. "Escudo."
Multiple layers of Escudo popped up one by one in front of him as Yuma unleashed his attack. The bullets slammed into each Escudo shield one by one, knocking them down from the force of the attack.
"Escudo." Jin whispered, erecting multiple barriers along the side so he could escape the corner without getting hit. Jumping into the air, he soared over the Chains that were blocking his path, but had to immediately cross his Scorpion blades in front of him to block a punch from the Rabit that was waiting for him. The force of the blow sent him flying backwards.
"Anchor. Plus Bolt. Quadra!"
The Lead Bullets shot through the air towards Jin and Yuma's Rabit while they were in the air. With no ground nearby, Jin wasn't able to activate Escudo this time and wasn't able to escape the wide range that Yuma's attack had.
Multiple anchors hit Jin in his various limbs, dragging him down to slam into the ground. Staring up at the ceiling with a Rabit suffering from the same weights next to him, Jin sighed. "I now know what Shuji felt like all those months ago."
Yuma's Lead Bullets were definitely a lot heavier than the ones Border made.
Sending his Rabit back through his Gate and then deactivating his Trigger was how Yuma ended the fight. He stood over the downed Jin with a scowl on his face. "If you're going to challenge me to a fight, you could at least be serious about it."
"The point wasn't for either of us to win, Yuma. It was to show your seals off to the others to get confirmation that it was the Black Trigger abilities your father was using." Jin replied.
Yuma's brow twitched in annoyance. "For the last time, Mimics are not the people who they are appearing as. They are nothing but fakes used to manipulate people to kill them more easily. I'm not going to be fooled that easily."
"Yuma." Jin said warily.
"It's my fault he is here. This is my problem to deal with, so stop trying to protect me, Jin-san. I'll stop this Mimic." Yuma said before walking out of the training room.
Note: It was never explained in the show when Replica opened the Gate and created the Rabit if that was his ability or part of Yuma's Black Trigger abilities. Since the Rabit can use Yuma's seals, I think Yuma has a Gate seal.
Also, I have no idea who would win in a fight between Yuma and Jin, especially if they are on equal grounds (Black Trigger vs Black Trigger, normal Trigger vs normal Trigger). I think Yuma would have the edge if Jin was using a normal Trigger and Yuma was using his Black Trigger. That being said, their fight here wasn't serious. Jin was taking it easy so Yuma could showcase his Black Trigger seals to the agents. Jin called it a fight then took it easy, allowing Yuma to take the win, which annoyed him since he was curious to fight Jin for the first time. This is why Yuma didn't kill Jin when he had him pinned down with his Anchors. There was no satisfaction to it for him.
