A/N: I don't own World Trigger
Mimics
Chapter 12: Friend
"Gate activity warning! Gate activity warning!"
That siren was annoying.
And totally unnecessary.
It was pretty hard to miss the Gate opening above them.
Even as the agents were dodging the attacks from the man they had spotted, it was hard for them to miss the Gate opening and dropping Mimics to the ground.
"That's on you, Hayato." Saeki said as he ducked behind a building to avoid the bullets that were being fired at him. "Where's the backup, Saki?"
"Azuma squad is on their way but it will take them time to get there." Kusakabe replied.
Hayato looked at the Mimics through his scope. He had stayed hidden this whole time without taking a shot against this man. He wasn't willing to reveal his position against a man he wasn't sure he could hit. The man who stood on a building and staring down at them to reveal himself to them to begin a fight was someone who was confident in himself. Confident enough that he didn't think a sniper could kill him standing out in the open like that. It made Hayato itch to pull the trigger to prove him wrong, but it was also a risk that wasn't worth taking. If he missed, it would only reveal that there was a sniper in the area.
At the same time though, if he took a shot on the Mimics that were appearing, it would also reveal that there was a sniper in the area. Even so, he couldn't sit here doing nothing. Otherwise, the Mimics would go after his team. His team would have to be able to keep the man busy enough that he won't have time to worry about Hayato killing the Mimics.
Shun lunged out from behind the wall, a Grasshopper appearing behind his foot to launch himself faster at the man. His Scorpion swung forward, slamming into the man's sword as he blocked the attack. Pressing down on the sword, Shun stared into the man's face with a frown. Those red eyes stared right back at him.
Familiar red eyes.
"Yuma-senpai?" Shun whispered in shock.
A second sword came swinging into his face that Shun just barely dodged. He dropped a Grasshopper in front him, planting his free hand on it to launch himself backwards and away from the man. As he hit the ground, skidding farther back from the force he threw himself, Kazuma was letting loose an Asteroid on the man. A Shield came up in front of him to defend from the bullets though.
Shun stood up, glancing at Saeki. "I think this is Yuma-senpai's dad."
"Why do you say that?" Saeki asked, coming to stand next to Shun, but his eyes never left their enemy.
"His eyes. They're just like Yuma-senpai's. Same shade of red, same type of intensity radiating from them." Shun explained. "And we know Kuga Yugo is in the city."
"You really couldn't have talked to Kuga-kun about his Black Trigger, could you?" Kusakabe asked.
"Ah!" Shun groaned. "I tried to. I couldn't find him! Well, the best way to get better at something is to fight it."
"Rather than fight, let's kill him." Saeki said before pulling Kogetsu to his side. "Senku Kogetsu."
As Saeki swung his sword forward, a slash extended from his blade, going for Yugo. Instead of looking concerned, Yugo merely took a step back while lifting his sword to block the slash. At the same time, he twisted his body as he brought up his second sword to block Shun who had tried to get behind him, thinking Yugo would be too distracted with Saeki. Yugo twisted his sword around Shun's, knocking the Scorpion loose from Shun's hand. With the weapon out of the way, Yugo was free to slam his foot into Shun's stomach, sending the young agent flying backwards to slam into the building.
Shun landed in the rubble, staring up at the ceiling above him. "I shouldn't be too surprised that didn't work, considering he is the one who most likely trained Yuma-senpai."
Hayato looked at the Mimics through his scope, getting ready to shoot when the Mimic turned its face up to look directly at him. Was that Mimic staring at him? Something to think about at a later time. Hayato pulled the trigger, and as usual, his aim was true as he took the Mimic's head off. One down, who knew how many more to go. Shifting his rifle to the next Mimic, he found that one looking at towards him too. That one at least made sense. He did give his position away by taking that first shot.
As he was looking at the Mimic, it jumped into the air and landed on the side of a building, slamming its claw like hands into it to keep itself from falling off as it scaled up it to reach Hayato. It was a bad angle for Hayato to take a shot at it, but he might be able to disrupt it enough. Before he could get into position, Kazuma's Hound slammed into the Mimic, knocking the corpse into the building.
"Thanks, Kazuma."
"I'll take care of Mimics coming for you. Focus on the far away ones. We'll leave Kuga to Shun and Ryuji." Kazuma said over the coms. "That okay with you, Ryuji?"
Ryuji threw up a Shield to block the bullets that were flying towards his face. He glanced towards Shun who was lying in the rubble. "What do you think, Shun? Should be simple enough to take care of Kuga."
"You've never fought Yuma-senpai." Shun moaned.
"What does that have to do with this?" Ryuji asked as he was forced to block a sword strike from Kuga who was suddenly in his face.
Shun pulled himself up from the rubble, rubbing his head. "I think his dad is far stronger than him. You know I've never beaten Yuma-senpai in a ten-round match."
"Move, Shun!" Hayato ordered as he took another shot, blowing the head off of another Mimic.
As the Mimic fell dead to the ground, Shun stared at the body now lying at his feet. He glanced up to see the horde of Mimics descending onto him. Without even standing up, Shun dropped a Grasshopper pad which he dropped his foot onto and launched himself into the air. As he twisted his body in the air, he brought out a new Scorpion blade from his wrist to block the Mimic's arm that was following after him.
Well, he got the first one.
Multiple arms were coming towards his face from all the Mimics on the ground. Another Grasshopper pad appeared under his foot which he used to launch himself backwards towards Ryuji, though the arms twisted in the air to follow after him.
Kazuma looked down from the building he was standing on. Taking aim with his assault rifle, he began unleashing his Asteroid. The bullets soared through the air, slamming into the arms chasing after Shun. His bullets did the trick in slicing the arms off, leaving them to drop harmlessly to the ground. The arms that he wasn't able to hit were sliced off by Shun before he managed to land safely behind Ryuji.
"You're supposed to be helping me, not them." Ryuji grunted as his foot slid back from the pressure Yugo was applying on their locked blades.
"O-kay," Shun said as he once more launched himself off of Grasshopper to go flying at Yugo this time.
Seeing him coming, Yugo knocked Ryuji's blade upwards before taking a step back and holding his other hand towards Shun. "Anchor, Plus Bolt. Triple!" An orange Seal with a smaller blue Seal appeared in front of Yugo's hand before bullets were flying towards Shun.
Shun threw up a Shield while at the same time using his Grasshopper to throw himself to the side. With the amount of bullets being unleashed, he doubted his Shield could hold up. He wasn't quite fast enough though as the bullets went through his Shield and slammed into his left leg, dragging him out of the sky to hit the ground forcefully.
Pushing himself up to his knees, Shun looked down at his leg in surprise. "Lead Bullet? Why...How does he have Lead Bullet?"
Ryuji's blade swept through the air, blocking Yugo's sword before it could cut Shun's head off. While holding Yugo's sword back, Ryuji brought out his assault rifle with his other hand.
Seeing the gun appear in his partner's hand had Shun blinking. He wouldn't dare fire that at close range, would he? As he watched his team member begin to pull the trigger, Shun decided he would be that crazy and threw his Shield back up to defend himself as Ryuji unleashed his Asteroid.
Unlocking his blade from Ryuji's, Yugo jumped backwards as he threw a Shield up behind him to defend from Asteroid. While the Shield defended his back, his front was wide open, giving Kazuma the chance to unleash his Hound on the Mimic. With the bullets incoming, Yugo smiled before he was deflecting the bullets with his sword.
Every. Single. Bullet.
The trajectory of the bullets could be read with Hound since they just tracked the target, but to be able to deflect every single one?
"That's some grade A bullshit." Ryuji griped, tightening his grip on his sword. Not a single one of their bullets hit Yugo. "Your friend can't do that, can he?"
"No," Shun said, dropping his Shield. "Scorpion wouldn't hold up doing something like that. I told you. I think he is way stronger than Yuma-senpai!"
"There's strong, and then there's-" Ryuji stopped as shadowy arms suddenly shot past Yugo and towards him and Shun. Slicing through the one that was closest to him, he scowled. "Hayato! Kazuma!"
"Did you know Mimics have Shields?" Hayato asked as he ran from his hiding spot. "My shots aren't getting through anymore."
Scorpion blades came out of both of Shun's arms as he deflected the arms that were suddenly upon him. He would prefer to put distance between him and all of his enemies currently on the battlefield, but his weighed down leg was not helping. These Lead Bullets felt heavier than the ones he was used to getting hit with.
Bullets rained down from the sky to hit where Yugo was standing. While the bullets did their job of hitting the Mimic's shadowy arms, destroying them enough to drop to the ground which saved Ryuji and Shun, they did nothing to Yugo who had a fixed Shield encircling him completely.
"I'm about done with this guy. Does he predict everything?" Ryuji complained.
"Hey, uh, Kuga...eh, Kuga-san!" Shun shouted. Using Ryuji for support, Shun dragged himself to his feet. Even when he was fully up, he kept a hold of Ryuji so he wouldn't topple back to the ground. "Can I ask a question?"
Yugo eyed the shadows that the buildings were casting, but smiled at Shun. "What is it?"
"Oh, oh good, you sound willing to talk." Shun said.
"What are you doing, Shun?" Kusakabe asked. "Our job is to kill him."
"Which we've been failing spectacularly at." Kazuma said, eyeing the Mimics warily. With the reach those arms could achieve when they extended, he didn't feel that safe on the roof anymore. They managed to cut so many of their arms off with their bullets, but there were still plenty around that had arms. "Give Shun a chance."
"Why are you attacking us? We're Border agents. I heard you were one of the founders of Border so why do you want to attack us?" Shun asked, surprising his team. Shun would have to apologize to Chika at some point. He made the promise to not mention that Kuga Yugo was a Border founder just a few hours ago. Of course, that was before he saw himself getting attacked by the man. He knew he was just a Mimic of Yuma's father so he wasn't real but from his understanding, the transformed Mimics had all the memories and skills of the original. If that was the case, why would Kuga Yugo want to attack the organization that he helped create?
"Why?" Yugo repeated. "If I'm being honest, I don't really have anything against you guys, but I know attacking Border will anger my son and drive him to seek me out."
"So, we're just collateral damage in a family spat?" Hayato asked as he jumped to the next roof and hid by crouching down to take aim at the Mimics.
"I don't believe that." Shun retorted. "You love your son. That's the only way you can be here."
Yugo smirked, amusement sparkling in his eyes as he ignored the shots being taken behind him by the agents trying to kill the Mimics. "Tell me, you claim to be his friend, but has he ever told you about me?"
Shun looked taken aback at the question before shame filled him. It felt like Yugo was seeing right through him. Yuma hadn't told him anything about his life before Border, but Shun also never bothered to ask. His friend was just always so happy that it was hard to see that he might be troubled by something from before his time in Border.
Yugo dragged his second sword out of its sheath. "You should ask him about it sometime, if you're able to."
"What?" Shun asked confused.
Ryuji shifted, adjusting his grip on his sword. It would be hard to move fast enough with the way Shun was using him to stay standing. It made difficult to just defend like this, and that statement from Yugo felt ominous enough that he would need to defend.
"Yuma won't survive the week."
That statement had Shun's heart dropping to his stomach. He understood this person in front of him was a Mimic, but he couldn't understand why he would want to kill his son. A Mimic was meant to deceive people by perfectly imitating the person they transform into. So why did Yugo talk of Yuma dying like this? Was his son's death his true desire?
"I don't understand." Shun said. Shifting his Scorpion from coming out of his wrist into a blade he could hold in his hand, Shun sliced his leg off, ridding himself of the weight holding him back. It caused him to be unbalanced, but it was better than being completely immobile from the weight. "I will never understand your logic, but I won't let you kill Yuma-senpai!"
Yugo smiled. "You're already too late."
"What?"
Yugo suddenly shifted his weight back on his right leg and was blocking the two blades of Koarai and Okudera. He knocked both of the Attackers back before taking swings at both of them, which were blocked by Shields. Both Attackers landed on the ground, dropping their Shields.
"Sounds like nonsense." Okudera said.
Koarai nodded in agreement. "We saw Kuga in the halls before defense duty. He was perfectly fine. In fact, if anything is wrong here, it's you. You sound like a horrible father!"
"We may just be pawns to you in your squabble with your son, but if that's your attitude to him, I'm not feeling very inclined to let you two meet up." Okudera added. He didn't know Yuma well since he tended to only run into him in Rank Wars, but hearing the way this version of his father was speaking, was angering him. He had no idea of what Yuma's father was like when he was alive. He could have been like this Mimic in front of him or he could have been nicer than this. In any case, this wasn't how Yuma shoulder remember his father. He didn't need to know a father that wanted him dead.
"Azuma-san is going to help Uno-san and Satomi-san take out the Mimics." Koarai told Shun and Ryuji over their telepathy.
"Wish they would hurry up with that. We could really use some help over here." Shun replied.
"Hey! You have us!" Koarai protested.
Shun just gave him a look. If they were able to break past Yugo's defense, then they should go for it. Shun, honestly, wasn't feeling all that optimistic.
*Mimics*
"He's a monster."
Mako looked up from her computer to look at the depressed Koarai. "I'm not sure what you were expecting. He is Kuga-kun's father."
"We went all that way to help Kusakabe squad too." Okudera groaned.
"Looks like the warning from Shinoda-san about the dangers of Kuga Yugo were nothing to scoff at." Azuma replied. He didn't get a chance to see what happened with Kuga Yugo as he spent all night helping Hayato and Kazuma deal with the Mimics to keep them off the Attackers so they could deal with Yugo. By the time they had finished, all their Attackers had bailed out and Kuga Yugo was gone. He seemingly wasn't concerned about forcing the snipers to bail out. It was strange and explained nothing of what he was hoping to achieve if he was willing to leave the snipers to kill the Mimics.
This was Yugo's third time in attacking them, but there seemed to be no reason for the attacks. He had to realize by now that Border had a bail out function so he wasn't able to actually kill any of them, and yet he kept attacking. Besides talking about Yuma dying before the week was over, there still wasn't much clue as to what the end goal of this attack was.
Before they could worry about that though, perhaps they should ask Jin what he saw in the future or warn Yuma that his father was coming for his life.
*Mimics*
Yuma didn't need to see his arm. He could feel it instead. The cracks that started on his hand were extending up his arm to his shoulder. This wasn't good. Were these cracks appearing on his body the first sign to the future Jin predicted? It was weird. Jin said he didn't seem him dying this week before the Mimics made their appearance. If his body was breaking like this, then had to have something to do with his real body sealed inside the Black Trigger, didn't it?
Even if that was the case, Yuma didn't have time to focus on that. There were more important things than his body starting to give out. Hyuse gave him a day to get things fixed. It wasn't something he was agreeing with, but Hyuse wasn't looking for an agreement to his promise.
No, it wasn't a promise.
It was more like a threat.
With first light hitting, that meant the Mimics would be gone, Yuma was sneaking out of the barracks as quietly as he could to avoid waking anyone up. Hyuse gave him the go ahead to take one day to fix this and he was going to take the whole day without having anyone hounding him.
Making his way down the hall, Yuma eyed the hallways that all looked the same. Why did they have to build the base with such similar looking hallways? It just made it complicated to get away. He thought he was finally getting used to the base, but then he found a new floor with the barracks on it. It was once again making him lost.
If he could just find the elevators, he could find the way out of here.
Standing at the intersection, Yuma looked left and then right as he debated on which where to turn.
"There you are!"
Yuma looked down the right hallway to see Shun approaching him. Shun's Operation room wasn't on this floor so if he was coming to Yuma, the elevator had to be in that direction. Walking past Shun, Yuma shoved his left hand in his pocket to hide the cracks on it and muttered a good morning but didn't stop to chat.
Shun came to a stop, blinking at the abruptness of Yuma's departure. Was the way he called out to Yuma not obvious enough that he needed to talk to him? Turning sharply on his heel, he followed Yuma down the hall.
Hearing the footsteps behind him, Yuma sighed. "I'm busy, Shun. We'll talk later."
"Later?" Shun repeated as he picked up his speed so he could walk next to his friend. "Later! I was looking for you all day yesterday and then you said we would talk in the morning and now you're avoiding me again?"
"I was never avoiding you, Shun."
"Not answering anyone's messages all day is a sure sign you're being avoidant." Shun retorted.
"I was busy." Yuma said simply. It wasn't exactly a lie. He was in the Restricted Zone for a lot of yesterday to find his father, which he failed at, and then he was fighting his father at Tamakoma. There wasn't much time to be chatting with anyone yesterday.
"And then you said we would talk in the morning! I just got off defense duty where I had a very long night because of your father." Shun replied. "We're talking now!"
That had Yuma coming to a stop as so he could turn to focus on Shun in surprise. "My father?"
"He attacked us with a horde of Mimics last night." Shun explained. "It wasn't exactly fun. Your father has no mercy."
Yuma stared at Shun for a moment longer before he was walking down the hall. "He's not invincible. I'll take care of it."
"Yuma won't survive the week."
"No!" Shun shouted, running in front of Yuma, forcing his friend to stop so he didn't run into him. "You can't go after him!"
Yuma looked at his friend, completely unimpressed. "And let him keep running around attacking Border agents? Or even the city? We can't leave him unchecked."
"I'm not saying we should. He needs tracked down and taken care of, but not by you!"
Eyes narrowing in annoyance, Yuma shoved past Shun. He didn't have time for this. He was sick of people telling him he couldn't handle his father. None of them knew what he had been through or what's he done. This was something he could handle. He could handle killing his father a second time. Kuga Yugo appeared because of him so it had to be his responsibility in dealing with it.
Before Yuma could get too far, Shun twisted around and grabbed Yuma's arm, pulling him back forcefully to stop his advancement towards the elevators. Yuma stumbled back a few steps in surprise before he was stopping to glare at Shun. The concern on Shun's face had Yuma's anger crumbling. As frustrated as he was, he wasn't in the mood to get into another argument with a friend. A friend that clearly wasn't going to let him leave to find his father.
"...Let's go to the train station." Yuma said, dropping the argument for now.
Shun looked at Yuma strangely, as if he had never seen him before. "What?"
*Mimics*
"Good morning, Usami!" Jin greeted cheerfully.
Shiori cracked her eyes open to look at her friend coming into the infirmary. "Morning."
"Eh, your voice still doesn't sound good." Jin took a seat in the chair at Shiori's bed. "I wanted to stop by to apologize."
"Apologize?" Shiori whispered, throat hurting from speaking. She pushed herself into a sitting position, blanket bunching up on her lap. "Did something happen?"
Jin motioned to her position in bed. "I should have seen this attack coming. You wouldn't be lying here if I had managed to see the attack on our base faster and gotten back in time."
Shiori shook her head, smiling softly at her friend. "Not your fault. It's not anyone's fault. We're all part of Border." She explained, gently massaging her throat as it was starting to hurt. "We knew the risks when we signed up."
Jin did his best to smile back her. Ever since he made the choice to use his Side Effect to protect his comrades and the city from attacks, whenever something does go wrong, this guilt always ate at him. He didn't think there would ever be a time where he didn't feel bad when something goes wrong when he should have been able to prevent it.
"We all know you're doing your best, Jin-san. We're all still alive and surviving because of you." Shiori said gently. "Besides, you can't be around for everything that goes wrong. Konami, Hyuse-kun, and Yuma-kun were at Tamakoma and they did an amazing job. Speaking of, have you seen Yuma-kun? He's the only one who hasn't come to visit me."
If Jin was feeling this guilt, he couldn't imagine what Yuma was feeling. Tamakoma was his home now and all the residents were his friends, and they were all put in danger by Yugo coming there for him. "It was a Mimic of his father, Usami. He's probably working up the courage to come face you to apologize. Kuga-san was there for him. Everyone else is just collateral. If this continues..."
It seemed that response was not what Shiori wanted to hear with the way she was scowling at Jin, like Yuma's feelings were his fault. "Yuma-kun can't the control the actions of a Mimic. Where is he? You tell him to come here so I can scold him properly." Shiori wanted to say more, but the way her throat was hurting made her stop, coughs spilling from her lips from the pain. She drank some water from her glass before leaning back on the bed, sighing. How could she hope to properly scold Jin and Yuma if she couldn't even speak?
"He's not here, Usami. I imagine he went out looking for his father again." Jin replied.
Once again, that just seemed to annoy Shiori. "By himself?" Her voice came out as more a whisper this time. She really shouldn't be talking this much right now.
Jin stood up, patting Shiori on the shoulder. "Rest up well so you can get released. Tamakoma is having a meeting tonight. Or tomorrow morning, depending on how things play out, but I'm hoping for tonight. Until then, I'm sorry to cut this short, but I have a lot to do."
*Mimics*
"Where did you even want to go?" Shun asked, looking around the train station.
"Go?" Yuma repeated confused as he adjusted the gloves on his hand that he managed to snag from his stuff. He hadn't wanted to put them on but when Shun ended up joining him, he decided it would be easier to just wear the gloves then try to remember to hide his hand all day. "I just want to ride a train."
"You want to ride a train just because?" Shun repeated slowly. "That's a waste of money!"
"Is it really that expensive?" Yuma pulled out his money, staring down at the bills. He could afford a huge meal for his friends, but not a train ticket? Strange.
Shun gaped at the huge stack of bills in Yuma's hand. "What are you doing? If you're trying to purposefully get mugged, I'm abandoning you here, Yuma-senpai. Put it away!"
Yuma looked up. "Osamu says I shouldn't take my money out in public."
"And for good reason!" Shun shouted, shoving Yuma's hand into his chest, trying cover up the stack of money. "I'm serious. I was on defense duty all night. I don't have the energy to be dealing with people trying to rob you."
"Oh," Yuma said blankly, looking down at the money with a confused look. "Osamu says I'm not allowed to break people's legs anymore when they try to rob me."
Shun's brain was going to malfunction the longer this went on. He lost his Trion body last night so the lack of sleep was catching up to him. If Yuma continued the way he was, he was going to break Shun's brain. That is not what a sleep deprived Shun needed right now. "Why were you breaking legs in the first place?"
"Because he asked me too."
"What?" Shun asked blankly.
"He wanted money for the hospital for his broken leg but his leg wasn't broken so I broke it for him and gave him the money." Yuma explained cheerfully. "Osamu wasn't happy about it though."
Shun had to restrain himself from smacking his face. He could not understand how Yuma's thought process came into existence. Rather than continue this conversation where he could not follow, Shun just turned and marched into the train station. "Just put your money away. We'll go get on a train."
While waiting for the train, Shun eyed his friend out of the corner of his eye. He had found Yuma this morning because he wanted to talk to him. What he wanted to talk to about though was something that needed to be held in private. They didn't need any of the public overhearing them which meant no conversation was going to take place in the train station.
Shun's eyes drifted down to Yuma's hands resting on his lap. "So, what is with the gloves? It's not even cold today."
Yuma glanced at his hands before shrugging. "They're a choice."
"Uh, okay," Shun muttered. He looked away from his friend, glancing down to his feet, scraping his shoe across the ground. There was so much he wanted to ask, but he wasn't sure of where to start, especially in such a public setting.
"So," Yuma started, bringing Shun's attention back to him. "You saw my father last night?"
Shun nodded. "Yeah. He's a tough opponent. The Black Trigger abilities he's stolen from you make him an even tougher opponent."
Yuma tilted his head towards Shun in consideration.
That was the sign Shun needed to go on. "You father said something last night that has me worried."
"Really?" Yuma repeated, looking down the station to see the train approaching. "Is that ours?"
"Huh?" Shun glanced at the train. "Uh, sure."
Yuma eagerly jumped to his feet with Shun following more slowly in confusion. He truly didn't understand Yuma's eagerness to get on a train when he had no true destination in mind.
"That is amazing. I can't believe how long it is!" Yuma said excitedly, practically bouncing on his feet as he looked up and down the train that was pulling to a stop. Considering the amount of people in the station, it made sense why the train would be so long, yet he still didn't expect how big it was going to be.
Shun looked at Yuma strangely. The way his eyes were lighting up in excitement at seeing the train in front of them was just weird. It was just a just a train. His friend was acting like a child that has never seen a train in his life.
"So, about your father," Shun said, trying to get back on track to the conversation as he followed Yuma onto the train. He shoved through the crowds and joined Yuma by one of the windows, keeping his voice low as he continued to talk, though Yuma look more invested in looking out the window. "Last night he made this declaration that you would die this week."
At least that seemed to get Yuma's attention, even if the older agent didn't turn to look at Shun.
Yuma looked at Shun out of the corner of his eye, feeling a frown form on his face. His death had already been predicted by Jin. Jin, who had the ability to see the future, could explain why he saw his incoming death. A Mimic of his father declaring his death by the end of the week? There was no explaining that, unless the Mimic was really just that determined to kill him, which wouldn't be all that surprising to Yuma. It was an enemy version of his father.
"Doesn't that concern you at all?" Shun asked, leaning forward to try to look at Yuma's face, holding onto the pole to keep his balance on the moving train. "He's your father and he wants you dead."
"I'd rather have him come after me than attack my friends or home again." Yuma replied, tightening his grip on the pole he was holding. "Border doesn't need dragged into my problems."
"The Mimics are a Border problem." Shun argued. "And even if they weren't, you're our friend. We're not going to just stand by when someone is trying to kill you."
Yuma glanced at Shun for barely a second before looking back out the window at the scenery soaring past. "I can't believe how fast trains are. You must get to where you need to go so fast."
"Maybe a few hours to get somewhere, depending on far you are going, but we're not traveling a long distance. We need to get off at the next station." Shun replied, much to Yuma's disappointment.
"But this is fun."
"We can ride a train back later." Shun replied. "Not that we even have a destination in mind."
"Actually, I do have a place in mind."
*Mimics*
"A shrine?" Shun asked as they reached the top of the stairs.
"Mm-hmm," Yuma hummed. "The day I met Chika, she brought me here."
Shun looked around the shrine. It looked a bit rundown so that probably meant no one really came here. Despite being a bit rundown, it looked like a pretty peaceful, relaxing place. "Why did she bring you here?"
"Osamu told her to watch me while he dealt with Border things. Since no one comes here, it would be hard to find us up here." Yuma explained as he took a seat on the steps of the shrine.
Shun's brows furrowed as he stood in front of Yuma, refusing to sit down. If he sat now, he would just want to take a nap. "Why would you want to hide from people finding you?"
"The day I met Chika is the day Miwa squad and I got into a fight. I told you about that the other day, right?"
"Yeah, you guys got into it. Was it really a big enough deal that Mikumo-senpai needed to talk with Border about it?" Shun asked.
Yuma stared at Shun, locking eyes with his friend.
Staring right on back, Shun subconsciously straightened up, standing taller. He managed to snag this conversation with Yuma and he wasn't about to waste it. Chika said to ask him what he wanted to know directly so that is what he would do. "I thought we were great friends, Yuma-senpai, but these past few days have shown me just how horrible of a friend I've been. I truly didn't know anything about you. I didn't know you lost your father. I didn't know you had a Black Trigger. I should have realized something was off when Mikumo-senpai said you were fighting a Black Trigger during Aftokrator's invasion but it went completely over my head. And now the Mimics are stressing you out and I'm still just thinking about my problems."
"You're a great friend, Shun." Yuma replied. His Side Effect hadn't activated at all during Shun's little speech. He truly felt like an awful friend for knowing so little about Yuma's life before Border. It was actually something Yuma respected. No one asked about his family or life before Border. Perhaps it might mean they don't care about Yuma enough to ask, which is how Shun saw it, but to Yuma it was the opposite. It was a sign of respecting his privacy. If he wanted to offer something, he would. "I really appreciate our friendship."
"Do you? I've learned more about you these past few days from anything and everything except your mouth. I understand you value your privacy, and I don't want to butt into that," Shun paused, unsure of how he wanted to say what he felt needed said.
"I do," Yuma said, freeing Shun of trying to work on his wording. "In our first meeting, you lied to me, but since then, you haven't told me a single lie. I really appreciate that. It's hard for people to be truthful."
"How did you know I lied to you that day?" Shun asked. This wasn't want he wanted to talk to Yuma about, but it seemed the conversation kept getting diverted.
Yuma tapped the side of his head. "A Side Effect that allows me to detect me lies."
Shun blinked in surprise. "I didn't even know you had one."
"I don't advertise it, but I figured some people might realize it since I call people out on their lies." Yuma explained.
"I never did." Shun replied, rubbing at his eyes. That Side Effect would explain a few things over the last few months.
Yuma nodded, looking pass Shun towards the gate that led them here. Beyond that was the city which is where he actually wanted to be right now. He needed to find his father, but he didn't see that being easy. No matter how much he needed to kill his father, it would be hard to do it in the day that Hyuse gave him. It wouldn't be easy to find his father in the first place so he instead changed his plans and just dragged Shun up here since it seemed his friend wouldn't leave him alone until they had their talk.
"I never considered you a bad friend. I just didn't tell you anything because it's not easy to talk about things without revealing other things." Yuma shifted his eyes back to Shun's. "I have secrets. My Dad being a former Border member being one of them. My dad being the creator of my Black Trigger. The things I got involved in before joining Border. There's a lot more but I can't tell you without revealing my biggest secret to you. That secret ties everything about me together."
Shun tilted his head as he thought, looking down at the ground. How could one secret possible tie everything about his friend together? Maybe he just meant one big secret is what kept him from talking about the other stuff. He would never ask Yuma to tell him everything about himself. There was plenty of stuff that Shun hadn't told Yuma either.
Yuma stared ahead at his friend, smiling softly as he saw him refusing to ask for that one secret. A secret that was never meant to be shared.
"I'm a Neighbor."
Shun's head snapped up to stare at Yuma, mouth gaping.
