A/N: I don't own World Trigger
Mimics
Chapter 10: Kuga Yugo, The Mimic
"I don't see what's wrong with calling him Chibi!" Tachikawa protested. "He's fifteen and looks like a grade school kid."
"It does seem kind of degrading. He can't help that he is short." Azuma said.
Miwa wanted nothing to do but bury his face in his hands. He should have pretended he didn't see the e-mail from Arashiyama for this meeting. They were getting absolutely nowhere. Each time they started to focus on the point that Jin wanted to talk about, they just got sidetracked. This whole time, he thought the issue of Kuga's father appearing was a pressing matter, but clearly not.
"So? I don't think Chibi cares at all about his height." Tachikawa retorted.
"Have you already decided on that name?" Kako asked amused.
Fuyushima smiled. "What's wrong with it? From what I've seen of the logs, Kuga excels at using his height to his advantage in battle."
Kazama sighed as the conversation went on around him. He looked at Jin sitting across from him with the hope of getting Jin getting them back on track, but when he looked at him, Kazama saw the smile sliding off of Jin's face and his eyes narrowing. And...was that a flash of fear through his eyes. "Jin-"
Jin stood up abruptly, causing all conversation to come to an end. Hands planted firmly down on the table, Jin stood silently for a moment as he let his visions wash over him. The future was shifting.
And not in a good way.
"What's wrong?"
"Tamakoma is under attack." Jin said, surprise and horror coating his voice. How did he miss this? This wasn't in the futures he saw.
*Mimics*
"Hello, Yuma."
Yuma's mind was frozen. All he could do was stare at Yugo standing in front of him. He knew about how good Mimics were at their transformations. He went on about them constantly to the agents in the past few days so they could understand just what they were going up against.
Yet, despite that, staring into those eyes of his father, hearing that voice, hearing his name pass his father's lips once more was all it took for Yuma to freeze.
Yugo somehow got into their base and was attacking his operator.
And yet, Yuma's mind could barely process that fact while staring at his father.
"I don't know who the hell you are and I don't give a damn. You will release my friend right now." Konami growled from behind Yuma.
Yugo glanced at the girl still in his hand. Having found what he was after, he no longer had any need for her. Throwing her to the side, leaving the girl to scream in fear, he turned his attention to the two agents.
Even with his mind being a whirlwind of thoughts focused on his father, Yuma still processed the fact that his father was throwing his operator, eyes widening in horror. "Bound, double!"
The seal appeared under Yuma's foot. Using the speed of his seal, Yuma soared past Yugo and caught Shiori, wrapping one of his arms protectively around her head. Twisting their bodies in the air, Yuma slammed into the wall. With his speed coupled with the force that Shiori was thrown, they crashed through the wall completely, falling into the river below.
Konami stared at the hole now adorning their living room in horror. Gripping her axe more tightly in her grip, Konami took a calming breath as she shifted her eyes back to Yugo. She wasn't sure how Yuma had done that, but she wasn't going to question it right now. If Yuma was with Shiori, there wasn't a doubt in her mind that she would be safe. That meant she could focus on the enemy in front of her who dared to breach their home.
With her attention fully focused on the enemy in front of her, Konami took him in. Black uniform similar to Yuma's when he first starting to use Border's Trigger. Swords that looked like Kogetsu. The familiar red eyes staring her down with confidence.
"Oh," Konami said, smiling without any true happiness. "Kuga Yugo, I take it?"
"I'm flattered you know my name." Yugo replied, still having not drawn his swords, despite having Konami staring him down with a promise of pain in her eyes.
"Not only have you broken into our base, but you're the one who has been causing my Yuma so much suffering lately. That is something I cannot overlook."
Yugo's eyes narrowed, smile wiping away to a frown. "My business is with my son so I'm sorry to say I don't have time to play with you." He stretched his arm out to his side. "Gate." A blue seal appeared on top of his hand, and to Konami's horror, a Gate was opening in the middle of the living room.
Trion Soldiers fell out of the Gate forcing Konami to jump backwards to avoid them landing on her. Tamakoma's living room was not big enough to house Marmods.
"What's going on?"
"Yuri-san, please get out!" Konami blocked the Marmod's blade that was suddenly bearing down on her. She wanted to back up to get more space to get a moment to get her bearings as the Trion Soldiers came through the Gate, but she couldn't move with Yuri behind her. "Get Yotaro and get out of the building!"
It was a testament to her time with Border that Yuri didn't need any more than that or freaked out having Neighbors in front of her. She trusted in Konami to watch her back and to keep the enemy in the living room as she ran back upstairs to get Yotaro and Raijinmaru.
With Konami sufficiently distracted, Yugo made his way over to the hole that his son had fallen through.
"Hey!" Konami shouted angrily when she saw Yugo leaving. Slicing the blades off the Marmods attacking her, Konami took a single step backwards before launching herself through the opening she just made and sliced the first Marmod in half. "No one said you could leave!"
They were being pulled by the current. Yuma wanted to desperately use his Bound seal to get him and Shiori out of the water. Neither had been expecting this so they both had swallowed the water. If this continued, Yuma was worried Shiori would drown, but if he used the seal while Shiori was in her normal body, he would severely injure her from the force.
Shifting Shiori to one arm, Yuma extended his hand, aiming upwards. 'Chain, Triple!' He thought as his seal activated. The Chain shot forward, latching onto Tamakoma's walls. Retracting the Chain, Yuma pulled him and Shiori out of the water. Looking at his operator, Yuma frowned as her eyes were shut, but focused on swinging them up to the bridge. Landing, he dropped her as lightly as he could, falling to his knees behind her as he started coughing to expel the water he swallowed.
"Shi-" Yuma was cut off as he started coughing up more water. Looking over at the girl he dropped, Yuma's heart dropped when he saw her lying still on the ground.
Forgetting his own misery of trying to hack up water, he instead turned to her. Pulling her into a sitting position and leaning her front on him, Yuma whacked her back, hoping that he didn't put too much force into it to hurt her even more than she already was. The whack seemed to do its job as Shiori started coughing. Letting her rest on him as she expelled the water from her lungs, Yuma looked towards Tamakoma Branch. He could hear the sounds of blades crossing inside there.
But whoever Konami was fighting, it clearly wasn't Yugo.
Yugo, who was currently standing on the bridge that led to Tamakoma, drew his sword from its sheath.
"Shiori-chan," Yuma whispered in his operator's ears. "I know you're hurting, but I need you to get out of here."
Shiori gripped Yuma's arm in response, still coughing.
Looking at Shiori, then back at Yugo who was now walking towards him, Yuma scooped his operator into his arms. While it surprised Shiori, Yuma didn't have time to talk to her. Instead, he was jumping backwards to put distance him and Yugo. It was taking him farther away from the base, which meant his comrades that had his back were further away, but he couldn't leave Shiori on this battlefield. Unfortunately, there really wasn't anywhere that she would be safe while she was with Yuma.
Yuma couldn't even go anywhere. Leaving the area of the base would lead them into the city and that would put civilians in danger.
Hyuse wasn't even fully in the room yet when he unleashed his Viper. The bullets zipped around the room, going around Konami to slam into the Marmod that was behind the one she was fighting, effectively destroying it.
"And here I thought your bases at had better defenses than this." Hyuse said. All he had wanted was to enjoy his shower, getting that sticky milkshake out of his hair. Instead, he was now staring into a room of Marmods, half of them corpses that was taking up any walking space.
"Shut up! And stop firing bullets in here! You'll destroy the base!" Konami shouted before she was slicing her Marmod in half.
Hyuse raised a brow, taking in the hole in the wall and the corpses lying around. He highly doubted his bullets could do any more damage than what was already down to the base. "What is going on?"
"Yuma's father is attacking us!" Konami jumped, twisting her body through the blades of the last Marmod. Now behind it, she sliced it in half easily. "They're outside. Let's go!"
Having his father approach him like this had Yuma shaking. He was actually shaking in the face of his father. The intensity radiating off of him, the gleam of his sword, the sun bearing down on him.
Yugo had never been an enemy to Yuma so he never had a reason to fear his father.
But now, now Yuma could see why their enemies trembled in the wake of his father.
Or perhaps Yuma was trembling because it was his father attacking him.
The father that gave everything to save Yuma's life once, now wanted to kill him.
"Yuma-kun!"
Yuri. Yuri was here.
Yuma wanted to acknowledge her, but he didn't dare take his eyes off of Yugo.
"Yuma-kun," Shiori said, voice hoarse. It sounded painful for her to talk, but she went on. "Yuri-san has a jeep."
"Can you get to it alone?" Yuma asked softly, still staring at the man that at one time would have done anything to protect his son.
"It was my throat injured, not my legs." Shiori replied, pulling at Yuma's cheek as punishment for doubting her.
"I'll guard your retreat." Yuma said, ignoring the way Shiori was pulling his cheek. The normalcy of her personality and actions did nothing to calm the worry that was pulling at him. That wasn't necessarily bad since he couldn't let himself be distracted here, but it was somewhat reassuring that Shiori was strong enough to behave like this and wasn't trembling in fear from what happened. It meant she could stand and get out while Yuma handled this. Perhaps it would hit her later when the adrenaline wore off, but that was a problem for later.
Releasing his hold on his friend, Yuma stood to face his father on the bridge. Tamakoma behind Yugo, the truck carrying his friends behind Yuma.
As Shiori stood, wobbling a bit as she did, Yuma walked in front of her. "Trigger on."
His black armor warped around his body.
"Do you really want to fight, Yuma?" Yugo asked, pausing in his walk towards his son.
"You're the one who attacked us." Yuma replied, but didn't make a move to attack yet. Yuma was an aggressive fighter. He wasn't one to play on defensive too long unless he truly had to, but his father wasn't a person Yuma could just attack. Yugo was always a powerful Trigger user, but now that he had Black Trigger abilities mixed into his arsenal, Yuma didn't know what to expect. Considering that Yugo didn't have the Black Trigger seals when he was alive, he couldn't be that good at using them. It took Yuma years of training to get where he was at using his Black Trigger, and even then, it was hard to use, especially without Replica by his side.
Yugo smirked. "Bound, Double."
The seal launched Yugo straight at Yuma, whose eyes widen in shock.
"Shield!" Yuma threw his hand up. "Double!"
The reenforced Shield blocked Yuma's side of the bridge, not only stopping Yugo from getting through, but also blocking the strike from his sword that he had swung while launching at Yuma.
With the barrier between them, Yuma stared up at his father, who was applying the force of his sword down on the shield. Yuma's Shield could block a Marmod's blades. There was no way Yugo could break through it, at least not easily. At the very least, it would take more than his sword.
"All I wanted was to find you, Yuma." Yugo said, smiling down at his son.
"You fool...why were you defeated? Hand on a second. I'll save you soon." Yugo said, smiling at his son.
Why?
Why did he have the same smile on his face as he did back then?
Shiori scrambled into the passenger's seat through the door that Yuri had thrown open for her. Slamming the door shut, Shiori looked back over at the bridge to see Yuma and Yugo with only Yuma's fixed Shield separating them.
"Who is that?" Yuri asked as she slammed her foot on the gas to get them away from the base.
"If I was to make a guess," Shiori said softly, throat too damaged to speak much louder. "Kuga Yugo."
Yuri eyed the younger operator out of the corner of her eye, but didn't ask any more questions due to her injury. There would be time to get answers later. For now, her job was to get them out of the danger zone.
"Why is someone related to Yuma attacking our base?" Yotaro asked.
Yuri glanced in the rearview mirror to look at Yotaro in the backseat. "We're leave this to the agents to deal with, Yotaro. We need to focus on getting to Suzunari Branch."
*Mimics*
"How exactly did you miss an attack on Tamakoma?" Tachikawa asked, staring at Jin's back as he followed the other agent.
"There was never an attack on the Branch." Jin retorted as he flew through the air, landing on the next building and running across the roof.
"Maybe you just missed it." Kazama said from where he was running alongside Jin. After's Jin declaration of his branch being under attack, he had run out of the conference room, leaving the Captains to just follow after him. With the suddenness of the declaration, they didn't even have time to get their teams or alert their operators that they needed them.
"Fuyushima-san is alerting Director Shinoda of the problem." Arashiyama said, lowering his hand from his ear. The older captain made the decision to not follow them since being a Trapper wouldn't help them in this situation. It was a lot more helpful for him to remain back and get everything sorted with the higher ups about the situation. "Do we need backup, Jin?"
Jin stared in the distance, towards his home that he was running towards. He could see the flashes of battle even from here, despite how far the base was still from them. If he didn't know any better, he would just assume those flashes were from a battle taking place in the Restricted Zone.
"No, we should be enough." Jin replied. They had to be enough. Top notch A-Rank Captains would surely be enough for this battle. That was, if they even made it to Tamakoma before the battle was over.
Kako glanced briefly over her should at Jin before she was focusing in front of her again as she jumped to the next building. She didn't think she had ever seen Jin this stressed. "Do you know who is attacking?"
"No, but if I had to guess, I'd say Kuga Yugo. He was looking for Yuma this morning, and back when he was a member of Border, Tamakoma was Border's HQ. If Mimics truly have all the memories of who they transform into, that's likely how he found the base." Jin explained.
This could not get any worse.
Yuma was at the base, but Jin trusted the younger agent to take care of himself.
It was the others he was worried about.
Shiori, Yuri, Yotaro, and Raijinmaru, Border's Crown Trigger.
It was putting all of them in severe danger.
*Mimics*
Back at the Branch, Yuma heard the jeep leaving which gave him a small wave of relief. With them out of the area, Yuma could focus on Yugo, who Yuma knew wouldn't be following them. He was here for Yuma, not anyone else in the Branch. It was frustrating that they were even put in danger in the first place from Yugo's search for Yuma.
"What is it that you want, Dad?" Yuma asked. Yugo was clearly after Yuma for something, which he assumed was to kill him, but when he spoke, he had a lightness to his tone that didn't match his actions at all. It was strange. Mimics were designed to help cope with grief by letting people see their lost loved ones one last time. They were never designed to be weapons. Seeing a Mimic of his father attacking him, but with a light, almost carefree tone to his voice, and that smile, it was like the Mimic was contradicting itself.
Instead of replying, Yugo dragged his sword down the Shield as he ducked, revealing Bolt seals behind him. The bullets slammed into his Shield, cracking it.
Jumping out of range of the attack, Yuma landed farther back on the bridge, missing the smirk that crossed Yugo's face.
The moment Yuma's foot hit the ground, he was surprised to find Chains wrapping around his limbs and neck from the ground and side of the bridge, restraining all of his movements.
He now understood Tachikawa's annoyance with these.
Did Yugo predict a fight on the bridge and lay these seals out that far in advance?
Unable to move his limbs, Yuma could only look up as his fixed Shield was destroyed by Bolt. Behind Yugo, Yuma saw Hyuse and Konami barging out the front door of the base.
Without taking his eyes off his son, and clearly having heard the noise, Yugo threw his hand behind him with the blue seal appearing on the back of his hand again. "Gate. You guys are nuisances."
The black Gate appeared over the bridge dropping down three Rabits.
Yugo always had more Trion than Yuma ever did, but even then, he shouldn't be able to call Trion Soldiers so recklessly like this. It cost a lot of Trion to open the Gates and call Trion Soldiers. Just one Trion Soldier required a lot of Trion to bring it here.
"How is he able to call Rabits?" Hyuse asked even as he threw up Escudos to defend him and Konami. "Only Aftokrator has access to those Trion Soldiers."
"He shouldn't even be able to open Gates." Konami snipped before running out from the cover of Escudo to the nearest Rabit. Before she could even get close, the Rabit was opening its mouth and using the Bolt seal. Using her last step, Konami forced herself into a jump backwards, throwing up a Shield in front of her to defend from the hail of bullets.
As she landed back behind Escudo, Hyuse looked over at her from the one he was still hiding behind with a raised brow. "That went well, didn't it?"
"Shut up." Konami growled, leaning her back against the Escudo, ignoring the hail of bullets raining down on the shield. Hopefully it would hold up for a while. "I'm pretty sure that attack just now was a Seal that belongs to Yuma's Black Trigger. Now that I'm thinking of it, Osamu said Replica opened a Gate to get a Rabit during Aftokrator's invasion and it was able to use Yuma's Black Trigger abilities."
"Then this isn't shocking. This is Yuma's ability that his father has stolen." Hyuse replied as he leaned his back against his Escudo, hand resting on the hilt of his Kogetsu so he was ready to pull it out quickly if he needed to. The bullets had died down, but he could still hear the Rabits on the other side of his shields. He doubted they would just stand there for much longer while he and Konami talked. They couldn't keep hiding behind Escudo.
"I'll take the first two. You get the third." Konami decided, seemingly coming to the same conclusion as him. They needed to act quickly.
Hyuse glared at her. "How about I take two and you take the one?"
"No. I'll take the first two and you get through the third and get to Yuma from there. I'll deal with the Rabits." Konami replied, glancing over at the Neighbor. "I've been training with Yuma for months, but always as opponents. You trained with him as a partner so you know how each other fights. Help Yuma fight his father."
Hyuse stared back at Konami, erasing his scowl from his face. He may not be a big fan of the Attacker, but he did like Yuma. He couldn't very much let his partner get killed here. They had an expedition to go on soon after all. These past few months will have been a complete waste of time if his partner ends up dead before the mission.
Nodding his head at his consent, Hyuse drew Kogetsu from his side. Seeing that he was ready, Konami pushed off of Escudo. Readying her Meteor, Konami ran around Escudo and unleashed her attack, dividing it up between the two Rabits. It would lower the power of the attack by sending it at two enemies, but it would get their attention. To her surprise, despite the suddenness of her attack, both of the Rabits were able to throw up Shields to defend against her onslaught.
"Seriously? Shields?" Konami complained.
Running around Escudo, Hyuse, ignoring Konami's complaints, slammed a foot on the ground, activating his Escudo right under it to launch himself through the air to get over the two Rabits that were now distracted with Konami. The third Rabit looked up at him. The Bolt seal appeared in its open mouth. Activating his Shield, Hyuse let that take the brunt of the attack though a few bullets got past and scraped his limbs as he soared over the Rabit. Landing behind the Rabit, Hyuse activated his Viper, sword at his side ready to swing.
When the Rabit turned to face Hyuse, arm swinging at him with a Boost seal active, Hyuse swung his sword up to block the attack. The force behind the punch had more power than he was expecting which sent Hyuse skidding backwards. He managed to stay on his feet though and unleashed his Viper which soared through the air, twisting in many different angles even as the Rabit tried to follow them. It threw up a Shield to defend, but half of Hyuse's bullets simply went around it and slammed into the Rabit.
Unfortunately, while the bullets did some damage, it wasn't enough to be anywhere near killing the thing. Just like the real Rabits from Aftokrator, the armor on these things was very hard. It was something to be proud of when Aftokrator was using them in invasions. Now that it was an enemy to him, it was just annoying.
"Your friends are quite determined." Yugo said, staring at his son, who wasn't even bothering to struggle in the Chains restraining him.
"I don't understand the purpose of this attack." Yuma said. "Who sent you here?"
Yugo looked at Yuma in confusion. "What do you mean, Yuma? I came here of my own choice."
"A nation had to have sent you here." Yuma snapped annoyed. "Who is sending the Mimics here?"
"There are no Mimics here, Yuma. Mimics only exist on Tropoi, you know that." Yugo replied, walking forward towards his immobile son.
There was no recognition in Yugo that he was a Mimic. That made sense. Mimics became the very people they transformed into. In Tropoi, they never recalled being Mimics because that would take away the point of seeing a lost loved one for the last goodbye. Those ones came with the intent of saying goodbye.
They never attacked their loved ones this way.
Yuma was sure that Yugo recognized Border in some way. It's probably why he was able to find Tamakoma Branch. This was the HQ he remembered when he was here.
Still, even though he recognized his once beloved Organization, even though he recognized Japan, even though he recognized Yuma, he was still attacking. Someone had severely corrupted the Mimics if they were able to get them to attack loved ones and former allies this way.
*Mimics*
There were sounds of explosions.
It's not like that was anything new to Chika. Border had been around publicly for years now so all the civilians had gotten used to the sounds of fighting coming from the Restricted Zone over the years. Becoming a Border agent got Chika even more used to the sound and feeling the rumble under her as explosions went off or she fired her Ibis.
It was honestly normal to her by this point.
Except, she was far from the Restricted Zone currently and closer to Tamakoma Branch.
This was not normal.
Looking into the distance, she could see the flashes of explosions going off.
It was the direction of her branch.
Chika didn't need any more information beyond that as she whipped out her Trigger. "Trigger on!"
Transferring over to her Trion bodies, Chika made her way onto the nearest roof and took off for the direction of her branch. Being on the roof now, she could see more clearly the flashes of bullets flying through the air.
As she got closer to her branch, she began to make out figures on the bridge. Chika felt her heart jump to her throat. While the flashes she saw were in this direction, she was hoping that it wasn't going to be at Tamakoma and was just in the area. That would be easier to deal with then asking the question of why their branch was under attack.
Finding a roof to use as her sniper's nest, Chika called out her Ibis and laid down on the roof. Looking through her scope gave her a better look at what was going on. Konami and Hyuse were fighting three Rabits and Yuma was restrained by Chains and talking to a man. That man was probably the cause of this attack.
Chika felt a pit in her stomach as she looked at the man. The memo of Yuma's father appearing in the city came back to her. Of all the current information they had so far, Yuma's father was the only person who could be attacking them right now. Shifting her scope from the Rabits to Yuma's father, Chika's finger stilled.
She couldn't fire.
If she fired her Ibis now, she would destroy their base.
If she fired her Ibis now, she would hit her comrades.
Is she fired her Ibis now, she could probably hit Yugo among everyone else.
Yugo was the reason for Yuma's stress this week.
Yugo was who created Yuma's own fear of the Mimics that Chika never even noticed.
Yugo was the enemy attacking her friends, her second home, now.
Yugo was Yuma's father.
Chika couldn't fire.
She could possibly take everyone on the bridge out, but the base was in the way and she didn't know if it was fully empty of everyone.
And if somehow her shot missed or got blocked by the enemy, she might only hit her comrades and force them to bail out.
Their bail out location was Tamakoma Branch.
Yuma didn't have a Bail out function with his Black Trigger.
Chika couldn't fire her Ibis.
Ibis was switched for a Black Lightning. Chika shifted from lying on the roof to kneeling down as she took aim.
A bullet zipped past Yugo's head, slamming into the Rabit that Hyuse was fighting. It was followed by another, then another, then another, alternating between all three of the Rabits, surprising all the agents and Yugo, who was looking over at the Rabits getting weighed down by Lead Bullets.
"Lead bullets?" Konami said shocked, looking up towards the sky. "At that distance."
"It could only be Chika." Hyuse said, smirking. That was certainly good timing.
With Yugo distracted by the sudden attack, Yuma made his move. "Boost, Quinti!" Applying the Seal to his body, Yuma used the strength it gave him to destroy the Chains restraining him.
The sound of the Chains snapping brought Yugo's attention back to Yuma. He smiled at his son. "About time you decided to act, Yuma. I thought you were just going to stand there and take it." He readied his sword at his side, but jumped backwards, instead of forward to avoid the Lead Bullet that hit the ground where he was previously standing.
Yugo looked up where the shots were coming from, an annoyed frown overtaking his face. "Gate." The blue seal appeared on Yugo's hand once more.
Yuma watched the Gate open, allowing an Ilgar to come through.
Hyuse stabbed his Rabit that was pinned to the ground by weights through the eye as he watched the Ilgar emerge. "If he is opening the Gates from a Black Trigger and calling all these Trion Soldiers, it has to be costing him. How much Trion can he possibly have?"
"A question for Yuma later." Konami stepped over her dead Rabits. It wasn't how she had planned the fight to go, but Chika's sudden appearance had a helped a lot.
*Mimics*
"Oi, is that an Ilgar?" Tachikawa asked, seeing a giant whale appear over the city.
"You said the city and civilians wouldn't be in danger from the Mimics!" Miwa snapped at Jin as the group came to a halt to stare at the bomber Trion Soldier that was starting to circle the area.
"They're not the targets of the Mimics, but Kuga Yugo is acting out of all my predictions." Jin replied, frowning. He never met Kuga Yugo so he couldn't see his future, and even if he had met him, there was no guarantee Jin could see the future of a Mimic. It was very likely he wouldn't be able to predict the future if a transformed Mimic was the one causing the chaos. There was only so much he could see when certain people were hidden from his foresight.
"I don't have a Grasshopper on me to get me high enough to attack it." Tachikawa replied.
"We just need to injure it enough to force it into self-destruct mode. The rest we leave to Chika-chan." Jin said, smiling as he put a hand to his ear. "Chika-chan, you're in the area, right?"
*Mimics*
Chika ran across the roof, jumping to the next one. She would like the chance to attack the Ilgar, but with the bombs it was dropping, she wasn't given the chance to get into position to shoot it down.
It was lucky for them that the fighting at Tamakoma had already scared away the civilians in the area so the Ilgar bombing shouldn't hurt anyone. That was assuming the Ilgar stayed in the area surrounding their Branch.
"Chika-chan, you're in the area, right?"
"Huh? Jin-san?" Chika asked surprised. She hadn't seen him anywhere when she was scoping the area out.
"We're going to destroy the Ilgar. When we do, it's going to enter self-destruct mode. I need you to blow it away when that happens, okay?" Jin asked.
Chika nodded, a pointless action when no one was in front of her. "Understood, Jin-san."
*Mimics*
It was aggravating. Using his Black Trigger, Yuma could take the Ilgar out easily, but his father wasn't giving him the chance to get there. Instead, Yuma was stuck throwing up Shields to block Yugo's sword. The Shields were making it hard for him to even counter. He had hand-to-hand combat attacks and ranged attacks, but those wouldn't do anything for him if he couldn't get through Yugo's sword without getting hit. Bolt would work if he could just get some distance from Yugo to get his Seal activated.
Konami came flying down from the sky with her axe, distracting Yugo into throwing up a Shield to block her strike.
Taking that moment of distraction, Yuma jumped away from his father, throwing his hand up as he did. "Bolt. Quadra!"
Escudo came up in front of Konami to defend her and Hyuse from Yuma's attack. Even as he was hiding behind Escudo, Hyuse was activating his Viper and sending it flying around the shields to mix with Yuma's Bolt.
"Shield, Quadra!" Yugo created a Full Guard Shield that surrounded him on all sides to defend from both attacks. While the bullets put cracks in his Shield, they weren't able to pierce it enough to let any bullets through to hit him.
"Tsk." Yuma said. For someone new at having access to Black Trigger abilities, Yugo was too adept at using it.
"He's not opening any more Gates." Konami said. "That has to mean he's almost out of Trion from all the Gates he's been opening."
"Can't be that low, if his Shield is blocking us that well." Hyuse said annoyed as he stayed hidden behind his Escudo, gripping the hilt of his sword tightly his hand. He wished he knew more about how Kuga Yugo fought or even more about Yuma's Black Trigger abilities. He was lacking sufficiently in information that would be helpful in knowing how to approach this fight.
*Mimics*
"Counting on you, Arashiyama, Kako-san." Jin said.
Positioned on two different roofs, Kako and Arashiyama eyed the Ilgar circling the cities, dropping bombs as it went.
"Amatori-chan better be ready." Kako said as her Hound bullets activated. "We have no time to spare." She looked over the roof where Arashiyama was. He nodded back to her.
Kako released Hound upon the Ilgar. Her bullets were followed by Arashiyama unleashing his Meteor upon the Illgar. The bomb hit the Ilgar causing an explosion that had it convulsing in pain, bringing it lower in the sky. That seemed to do the trick as Arashiyama saw the protrusions on its back appear, signifying that it was entering self-destruct mode. This was the hard part, but with Chika here, he didn't think there would be much to worry about.
A moment later, he was proven correct as a powerful blast rained through the sky, slamming into the Ilgar before it could get any closer to the ground.
Pushing back the hair whipping around her face, Kako watched in amazement as the shot engulfed the whole Ilgar. The blast lit up the whole sky, blinding everyone in the vicinity.
When it finally died down, there was nothing left of the Trion Soldier.
"She is a monster, that one is." Tachikawa muttered.
*Mimics*
A blast behind him had the sky lighting up so much that it made it hard for Yuma to see what was happening. Throwing up a Shield while moving away from where his father was last standing was all he could do when he couldn't see properly.
When the light died down and he was able to see again, Yuma was surprised to see that Yugo was no longer between him and Konami and Hyuse. Was he seriously able to move while being blinded?
"It seems," Yuma froze at the voice that was speaking directly into his ear. His eyes shifted to the side to see his father standing there, his sword now angle up Yuma's front with the point resting towards his throat. "That we are out of time, Yuma. Your comrades have arrived."
Konami and Hyuse ducked around Escudo.
"Kuga!" Konami snarled when she saw Yugo had his sword on Yuma's throat as he spoke softly to his son. She took a step forward to get to her mentee, when to her surprise, a seal activated under her foot. "Crap."
Konami jumped backwards, activating her Shield to deflect the bullets, but instead of bouncing off, the bullets came through, turning into weights that pulled her down.
The moment she had activated the trap, Hyuse had ducked right behind his Escudo again so that he missed getting hit. His Escudo took the Lead bullets for him as he instead glanced down at the downed Konami.
"Unfortunate." Hyuse said.
Konami glared up at Hyuse, but ignored him to shout at her mentee instead. "Damn it, Yuma! What doesn't your Black Trigger have?!" To make it worse, the Lead Bullets keeping her trapped on the ground were from a Black Trigger, meaning the power and weight of them was significantly worse than the ones from Border's Trigger. She couldn't move at all.
"See you soon, son." Yugo said before releasing his son, shoving him forward while he jumped onto the wall of the bridge.
"Kuga!" Tachikawa shouted as he made his way to the bridge.
Yugo sent a smirk to the way of the approaching agents as he let himself fall backwards, bagworm activating as he went down into the river below.
While he fell, disappearing from their radars and any chance of find in him, Yuma turned to Tachikawa in confusion. "What?"
Tachikawa just pointed a finger at him in annoyance as he looked over the bridge, scowling in annoyance when there was no sight of the enemy. They wouldn't have a chance of finding him even if they jumped in after him. "Not you, Chibi."
"C-chibi?" Yuma repeated even more confused than before.
"He ambushes and kills me the first time, then runs the second time!" Tachikawa said, slamming a fist down on the wall as he ignored Yuma's confusion. "Damn you, Kuga."
"What did I do?" Yuma mumbled to himself.
"Ah," Jin said as he looked at the wrecked bridge leading to Tamakoma Branch. It was full of lead bullets, bullets holes, pieces of the bridge falling into the river below, Escudos everywhere, and had Rabits strewn about. At least the building looked like it was in pretty good shape. "Is everyone okay?"
"Yuri-san took the others out of here. Shiori might be a bit hurt, but everyone is alive." Konami said, turning her Trigger off so she could rise to her feet. It was quite demeaning to be trapped on the ground with Lead Bullets.
"The living room is also full of Marmods and holes in the wall." Hyuse added, turning his Trigger off as it seemed Kuga Yugo would not be returning.
"Ah, if only we got here faster." Kako said.
Yuma looked down the bridge to see Chika and Azuma approaching them. "Hey, Chika! Thanks for the cover fire!"
Chika rubbed the back of her head, smiling shyly at Yuma. "Sorry, I couldn't do more than use Lead Bullet. I didn't want to risk blowing you guys away with Ibis."
"It was more than enough to help." Hyuse told her before turning to Yuma. "What was he doing here anyway?"
"Not a clue. He didn't answer my questions." Yuma replied as he deactivated his Trigger.
Jin put a hand to his ear as he looked over to the side, nodding his head along to whatever he was hearing.
"So why didn't you fight harder?" Hyuse asked Yuma.
Yuma pursed his lips. "Don't know what you mean." He replied innocently.
"You only bothered to attack once." Hyuse accused, narrowing his eyes at his partner. He fought against Yuma and trained alongside him enough times to have a pretty good understanding of his fighting style and what he just saw was not it. "You stayed on defense the rest of the time."
"It's hard to get pass his defense." Yuma protested.
Miwa stared at Yuma and Hyuse arguing before he looked over the bridge. It was amazing the only Trion Soldier to escape the bridge leading to Tamakoma was Ilgar. Though that might have been the worst Trion Soldier to let escape. Looking back at Yuma, he found the Neighbor glancing over towards the river where his father disappeared into.
Didn't fight hard, did he?
That was hardly surprising.
It wasn't easy to fight seriously against a face of a loved one.
Having met his sister the other night, Miwa, to his annoyance, did understand the Neighbor's plight. In the face of his sister that night, he had frozen. It wasn't until long after it happened and the anger was pulsating through him that Miwa thought he could have killed the Mimic who transformed into her. But hours later after it happened wouldn't be useful in the field. That being said, letting his anger at it lead him wouldn't help Miwa. He could let his anger control him to kill a Mimic of his sister, but that memory of striking her down would stay with him forever. Yuma was right about no one needing that memory.
"Alright, Yuri has gotten a hold of Boss and told him they are safely at Suzunari Branch. Shinoda-san is sending a crew out here to clean up this mess." Jin said, motioning to the mess on the bridge. "Other than that, we need to head to HQ and get this sorted out."
"Are you sure there will be no more trouble today?" Kazama asked.
"There shouldn't be." Jin replied, though for once, he was feeling unsure of his other. He finally saw a transformed Mimic, and to his frustration, Yuma was right. He couldn't see the future of it. That was going to make his job so much harder.
"Speaking of." Konami glared at Jin. "You couldn't give us any warning that Kuga was going to show up and attack us?"
"Sorry about that, Konami. I didn't see this attack coming." Jin apologized.
"Huh? Didn't see?" Konami demanded, planting her hands on her hips as she looked at Jin with narrowed eyes. "What is the point of your side effect if you couldn't even see this?"
"Calm down, Konami." Azuma said soothingly. "We can't expect Jin to be able to foresee and plan for everything."
Kazama looked over the Trion Soldiers that littered the ground. "I thought the nation attacking us would only send Mimics." He looked over towards the destruction caused by the Ilgar. It wasn't too bad, considering what Ilgars were capable of. "Kuga said before that not all nations have the resources to send Ilgars here. Do you think we can learn who is doing this now?"
"Nope," Konami griped, shifting her glare over her shoulders at the dead Rabits. "Because the person who called these Trion Soldiers was Kuga."
"He's a Mimic. He shouldn't have the ability to open Gates." Miwa said, dragging his eyes off the river below them to frown at Konami.
"This is what I wanted to explain to you guys in that meeting we were trying to have. Yuma has a seal in his Black Trigger that allows him to open Gates and call Trion Soldiers. Apparently, he can call any kind he wishes, and now Kuga-san has that ability." Jin explained.
The agents, who didn't know about this Seal Yuma had, turned to look at him in disbelief.
"You've been able to do that this whole time?" Miwa demanded.
Yuma gave a small shrug of his shoulders, staring out at the river, not bothering to correct Jin in the fact that he could only call Trion Soldiers that had been analyzed and stored to his Black Trigger. "I don't rely on Trion Soldiers to fight my battles for me. Besides, opening Gates and bringing out Trion Soldiers takes up a lot of Trion. I don't even understand how Dad was able to bring out so many."
Jin glanced at Yuma, frowning. That was troublesome. Yuma had been fervently denying that the Mimic was his father. It made him mad when people called the Mimic Yuma's father whereas Yuma was always saying angrily that it was nothing but a Trion Soldier. Seeing the Mimic for the first time as his father was already confusing Yuma. It was no wonder he didn't attack more aggressively.
"Dad always had more Trion than me, but this is ridiculous." Yuma muttered.
"What's more ridiculous that that," Konami grabbed Yuma's face, pulling both of his cheeks. "What the hell is with the Lead Bullets he has, Yuma?!"
"I copied Lead Bullet from Miwa months ago." Yuma replied.
"And you didn't think to maybe warn me?" Konami demanded.
"I didn't think he would lay it on the ground as a trap." Yuma protested.
"Why did he leave though?" Hyuse asked as Konami released Yuma.
Yuma rubbed his now pink cheeks. "He saw our backup coming and I guess he used too much Trion to continue the battle. I feel like he came here for something."
"He was looking for you." Konami pointed out.
"I know that," Yuma said annoyed. "But there was a purpose to it, and I don't know what that is."
"We're not going to figure anything out by just standing here." Konami said, glancing at Tamakoma. "And our Branch is no good right now. So, to HQ?"
*Mimics*
"I'm sorry that I wasn't there."
Yuma waved his Captain's apology off, taking the offered beverage that Osamu had brought for him, Chika, and Hyuse. "None of us saw it coming."
"How is Shiori-san?" Chika asked worriedly.
"Just a few bruises. There was no serious damage." Osamu said.
Yuma looked down into his drink, running his thumb over the rim of the cup. That was his fault. His father had come looking for him and it put everyone in the Branch in danger. This was exactly why he didn't want to spend time at Tamakoma.
Chika sighed in relief, heartbeat slowly down at the relieving news. Next to her, she saw Yuma's hands tightening on his glass. She gingerly reached out and gently rested her hand on Yuma's, trying to smile reassuringly at him, but Yuma didn't even try to return the smile. There was no point in trying to act happy around his time with the situation they were in.
Osamu sat on the couch across from the two with Hyuse. "And you, Kuga? How are you?"
"I'm not the one who got injured." Yuma replied.
"But it was your father." Hyuse pointed out. "It's not easy going against someone you love. He attacked your friends, but he's still your father. It has to be hard."
"What's hard about it? He hurt Shiori-chan and attacked our home." Yuma protested immediately, but there was truly no passion to his argument. Hyuse wasn't wrong. Yuma was angry at what happened, but still couldn't fight his father seriously. What was Yuma supposed to do now? His father would come after him again. What for, Yuma had no idea, but just by being around, he was putting his friends in danger. Yuma was of no use to them if he couldn't bring himself to hit his father with some real attacks.
"And yet you still held back in fighting him." Hyuse retorted.
Osamu looked at Hyuse before shifting his eyes back to Yuma. It wouldn't be the first time that Yuma held back in fighting someone. He did it against Miwa squad months ago, but the difference was that Miwa squad had only been attacking him. This time, Yuma's father had attacked their base and hurt their operator. That normally was something that Yuma wouldn't let go, though it wasn't surprising that Yuma was conflicted right now. Not that Yuma would ever speak these kind of doubts out loud.
"Sounds like you all had a hard day."
The agents looked up to see Rindo, Jin, and Tamakoma-1 approaching them.
"More annoying than anything." Hyuse complained.
"Well, I can't say I have any good news. Until we've managed to deal with Kuga-san, Tamakoma Branch has been deemed too dangerous for us to go back too." Rindo explained. "Osamu, would it be alright if you went back to stay at home with your parents while we deal with this?"
Osamu nodded. "That's fine, but what about Hyuse and Kuga? They don't have homes in the city."
"There's a barrack in HQ that they can sleep in. People don't really use it. It's for emergencies like this." Jin replied. "It won't be comfortable, which is why Osamu and Chika-chan can head to their homes."
"What about my horns?" Hyuse asked.
"Well, like we said, the barracks are rarely used so it shouldn't be a problem." Rindo said. "No one outside of our branch should bother going in there. I'm sure the agents will respect our privacy."
Hyuse nodded.
"Also, Yuma," Rindo turned his attention to the young agent. "Kinuta-san said it would take time to get you a new Trigger."
Yuma looked up.
"He wants you to know just how expensive it is to make Triggers and to not lose them so carelessly. He can't just hand you a new one constantly. The C-Ranks that are becoming B-Ranks need updated to their combat Triggers so they are taking priority over you."
"What kind of reasoning is that?" Konami complained. "Yuma is way more useful in the field than some newly minted B-Rank agents. How is he supposed to help us if he can't fight?"
"It's fine. I'll just use my Black Trigger for now." Yuma replied.
"You need permission from HQ to use that." Reiji pointed out.
"Didn't get permission today." Yuma looked back at Rindo. "Is Kido-san mad about that?"
"Of all things that are angering him today, Yuma, that isn't even on his radar." Rindo replied.
Yuma scratched his cheek. He had a feeling that even if he wasn't upset about Yuma using the Black Trigger, he was upset at Yuma for the other things, like causing his father to appear in the first place.
*Mimics*
When the rest of his squad went with Yuri to check in on Shiori, Yuma found himself slipping away from them to head towards the roof. He would prefer to distract himself with some Rank Battles, but that was currently impossible with his lack of Border Trigger.
Sitting on the ledge, Yuma pulled his knee up to his chest, resting his chin on it as he stared off into the distance. The sun was beginning to set which meant the Mimics would soon be returning. What's worse is that even though there was already a Mimic of Kuga Yugo somewhere in the city recovering his Trion so he could come after Yuma again, that didn't mean the Mimics would stop targeting Yuma. Not that Yuma would mention it to the others, but other Mimics could transform into the same person.
They did not need more than one Kuga Yugo running around the city so Yuma would have to be extra careful. He couldn't mess up with this again.
Having just one version of his father confronting Yuma was hard enough. It was so chaotic that they didn't even get to talk properly.
No.
What was Yuma thinking?
He shouldn't talk to Yugo. Talking to Yugo would only make it harder for him to take his father out.
Yugo did not hold back when he attacked them earlier. He came at them with everything he had, and Yuma? Yuma just couldn't find the strength to attack Yugo seriously back. That smile he wore on his face was the one he wore when giving his life for Yuma.
It was cruel to show Yuma that smile again.
Especially when he was attacking Yuma in the process.
What Yuma needed to do was get his head back in working order. He couldn't hesitate to attack next time Yugo appeared in front of him.
The silence engulfing Yuma was interrupted by a loud cracking sound. Following the sound, Yuma's eyes drifted down to his hand. Starting around his Black Trigger, cracks were spreading along Yuma's hand. Yuma turned his hand over to see the cracks spreading all across the palm of his hand and leading up his arm that he couldn't see because of his jacket's sleeves.
Cracks that appeared out of nowhere.
Cracks that weren't healing shut.
