A/N: I don't own World Trigger

Mimics

Chapter 14: The Calm

"Heard your base got attacked yesterday."

Chika looked up from her Egret. She wanted to work on being able to read the radar better and take her shots focused on what the radar was telling her and not just what she saw through her scope. Yuma wasn't always going to be around to give her the target that she couldn't see and tell her to shoot there. She needed to be able to do it on her own.

"Oooh, yes, I heard about that too." Izuho leaned over Ema's shoulder to look down at Chika. "Like, there were a bunch of Trion Soldiers around your base."

"Yeah," Chika shifted her rifle around as she stared at the targets in front of her. Ema had gotten his operator to imbue Trion into the targets and then added objects to the field so she could practice finding and shooting her targets with the radar. "Yuma-kun's father got into our base and Trion Soldiers got involved in the attack. It's a good thing I left HQ when I did yesterday. I got there just in time to back them up."

"Are you okay?" Izuho asked.

"Oh, I'm perfectly fine." Chika laid down her rifle so she could stand up and turn to face her friends fully. "I can't say the same about our base though. It looks like it might take a while to fix the building and bridge."

"Is Kuga still running around?" Ema asked.

Chika nodded.

Ema's brows furrowed. "You didn't shoot him? This could have all been finished yesterday."

Chika looked down, twisting her hands together. "The situation wasn't ideal for me to take that kind of shot. Besides, it's Yuma-kun's father. I know it's a Mimic of him, but the idea of it being his father had me hesitating to take action against him."

That kind and generous heart was one of the things that Ema admired about Chika. Even so, perhaps that kindness was just too much sometimes.

"Would Ochibi-senpai be mad at you if you did kill his dad?" Izuho asked curiously.

"Hmm, I think Yuma-kun wants to go after the Mimic on his own. He blames himself for the attack on our base yesterday." Chika said softly. "Kuga-san was there for him after all."

"It's not his fault our enemy is using a cruel method to attack us this time." Ema muttered. "This could have happened to anyone."

"I told him that, but with Shiori-san getting hurt, it made his guilt over the situation worse."

Izuho blinked a few times. "Your operator was injured? Is she okay?"

Chika smiled at her friend. "Her injuries weren't severe. She should be getting released from the infirmary soon, but she still needs to take it easy."

"Then no worries. It sounds like you all made it out of the attack relatively fine." Izuho said cheerfully. "All that's left is to deal with Kuga Yugo. How hard can that be?"

A grimace passed over Chika's face.

"I heard that the squads that have gone up against him are getting slaughtered. No one has managed to get a single hit on him." Ema said.

"Wah?!" Izuho whipped her head towards Ema, mouth dropped open in shock. "He hasn't been hit once yet?"

"And he keeps disappearing after or even in the middle of battles. It's a strange tactic to take and tells us nothing about what he is after." Ema grumbled. "At this point, even if the nation that is sending the Mimics here move out of attacking range, we'll still be stuck dealing with Kuga Yugo. It doesn't look like he will be leaving until he accomplishes his goal."

"Is it his goal? Or the goal of the nation that sent the Mimic here?" Chika asked softly. A part of her hoped dearly that whatever Kuga Yugo was planning was because of the orders from the nation the Mimic came from. It would probably make facing Yugo as an enemy a bit easier on Yuma.

"That's a question for him." Ema said.

"Then we should find him and beat his head in!" Izuho declared passionately.

Chika chuckled, an uneasy feeling in it. "Perhaps wait until you make B-Rank before talking about charging into the field."

Izuho groaned. "Was there really a need to bring that up? I can't believe you made it all the way up to B-Rank #2 in one season while I'm still stuck at C-Rank."

"At least you have Nasu squad waiting for you when you do move up. You'll do great with them!" Chika said, putting as much cheer into her voice as possible. It was hard to do when half of her mind was focused on Kuga Yugo and Yuma and Shiori who was hurt in the infirmary. There was so much coursing through her mind currently that it made it difficult to enjoy the time with her friends.

"With the way you're progressing, you should make it into B-Rank by the middle of next Rank War season, at the end of the season at the latest." Ema added.

"If that's the case, I'm going to miss next season no matter what. I can't wait to participate in the Rank Wars. They looked like a lot of fun."

Ema eyed the other girl, frowning. "It's for the best. You'll make it to B-Rank soon enough, but Nasu Squad is currently in the top group of B-Rank. If you join B-Rank halfway through the season and join their squad like is planned, you'll have a hard time with them since they'll be facing stronger squads. Best to wait until the season is over and you have time to train with them as a team."

"So, what you're saying is that I can't be like Chikako and just do a baptism by fire?" Izuho retorted.

"Tamakoma-2 went the insane route." Ema muttered. "No one else is crazy enough to do that. They only succeeded because of Kuga and then later adding Hyuse to their team. Amatori-san and Mikumo wouldn't have gotten to where they are now without them."

Chika smiled. "True. Yuma-kun put in so much effort to protect our squad and pull us through the ranks while Osamu-kun and I struggled to learn how to fight. He was very patient and understanding with us the whole time. We couldn't ask for a better Ace."

Ema turned his full attention to Chika. "Speaking of that, Kage-san was going off yesterday about the memo we got regarding Kuga's father and how he was a former Border member. Did Kuga get trained by his father before joining Border? It would explain why he was so skilled coming into the Rank Wars."

"I don't know much about Yuma-kun's father since he only spoke to me once about him, but to my understanding, it was Kuga-san who trained him."

"Someone had to have. You don't just join the Rank Wars and suddenly be able to take out all these highly skilled Aces without previous training." Ema said, frowning as he looked off to the side with a thoughtful look. "I think the real fault lies with all of us for never really questioning why a new agent was wiping the floor with agents who have been here longer."

Smiling softly, Chika turned back to her rifle and worked on getting herself into position again. "Yuma-kun loves fighting, but he doesn't brag about his skills because he knows there are people who are better than him." She looked down at her hand as she brought up her radar to see the targets that were in the arena in front of her.

"Even if he does get beaten, Ochibi-senpai's fights are amazing." Izuho said. "He fights in such unexpected ways. It's fun to see what crazy tactic he's going to pull out each time he's in the arena."

"You enjoy it. I'm sure he enjoys the fights too, but he spends hours upon hours planning out his strategies to fight the aces of each team." Chika explained. "He'll be on the roof half the night just planning out the fights and how to use his Triggers to his advantage."

Ema raised a brow. "That sounds like a lot more effort than my captain used to put in. In fact, the first time I saw him watching the Rank War logs in a long time was because he wanted to see Kuga's fights after he met him."

"With Kageura-san's side effect, how much does he even need to prepare? It sounds pretty difficult to hit him." Izuho replied.

"He didn't try all that hard before, but he's started to try to put more effort in." Ema replied. It's not like he was much different. Kage put in almost no effort before while Ema put a little more effort to prepare for Rank Wars. They had gotten overconfident with having their position of B-Rank #2 locked in for a long time. Like the other squads, they got blindsided by Tamakoma-2 and in the end, loss their #2 spot to them. Ema couldn't bring himself to be upset about that. Watching Chika work so hard and even helping her these past couple of months, Ema could say that the squad deserved it. Their skill, strategies, and teamwork was truly incredible. "I imagine Kage-san will be putting more effort in next season. He'll be gunning for Kuga and Hyuse even harder."

"To get revenge or because he thinks it's fun?" Izuho asked.

"It could be both." Chika suggested. "Yuma-kun went into the fight against Kageura squad and Azuma squad with the idea of revenge for our previous match against them, but I know he was also having fun. He was excited about the chance to get to fight alongside Hyuse-kun finally."

"I can see why. Their combinations were amazing." Izuho said.

Ema wouldn't know. He didn't see Yuma and Hyuse fighting together since he was busy with his own things in that battle and then in Tamakoma-2's final fight, Hyuse was taken out before Yuma could get to him so he never saw them fighting together. Though, it didn't surprise him that they would fight well together. Both of them were highly skilled so they would be able to form great combos.

Izuho grimaced, scratching at her cheek. "I am getting used to being a sniper, but I don't think I'll be able to work with a team like you guys do. The coordination you guys have with your partners is extraordinary."

"That's just practice." Ema replied. "When you join Nasu squad, you'll spend a lot of time with them learning how to coordinate together. You will make mistakes as you learn timing when to shoot to assist your partners."

Chika nodded her head in agreement. "We've spent whole days in our training room just learning how to fight together. It took me a long time to be able to get the timing right to shoot past Yuma-kun's head without hitting him. There were times where I read his movement wrong and almost took him out." She grimaced at the thought. She wanted to protect and support her teammates. That was her role so misjudging her read on how Yuma was moving had terrified her. The only reason she never accidentally killed him was because Yuma's reaction time was amazing and he was dodging or throwing up a Shield to save himself.

"I didn't even consider that I would have to learn to read my team's movements. I only thought about watching the enemy." Izuho muttered, scratching the back of her head with a sigh. The longer she was in Border, the more she realized just how complicated being a fighter was going to be. She had vastly underestimated a lot of this.

"If you don't know how your team moves, you can't properly assist them." Ema said with a small shrug of his shoulders. "But that is something to worry about when you reach B-Rank."

*Mimics*

"You should go home and take a nap."

Shun raised a brow, looking unimpressed at his friend. Yuma wanted to find his father, which was still a stupid idea to Shun, and yet they were just walking through the city. Currently, Shun was dragging his feet behind Yuma. The longer they hung out, the more exhausted he felt. If only his Trion body hadn't gotten destroyed last night.

"I'm not going to let you hunt down a dangerous version of your father by yourself. Did you forget what happened at your base yesterday?" Shun retorted.

"Those Trion Soldiers only appeared because Dad wanted to distracted the other agents there and focus on me. If I'm alone, there won't be any Trion Soldiers appearing." Yuma argued.

"And how sure are you of that?" Shun retorted. He looked off to the side before suddenly grabbing Yuma's arm and pulling him back to make him stop. Yuma gave him a curious look but Shun didn't pay attention to it as he went over to the vending machine nearby to get himself some caffeine.

Sighing, Yuma crossed his arms and leaned against the wall while Shun got his drink. "Seems pretty obvious to me. You said he said that I would come to him and he wants me dead. To me, that means this will be personal between me and Dad, no Trion Soldiers involved."

Shun pulled his drink out of the vending machine, popping the can open. "Except you're not going at it alone." He took a long sip of his drink, relishing in the caffeine hitting him. "I feel like I need to make you promise me that you won't go after your dad by yourself at all. I never thought I would see you being so reckless."

Yuma tilted his head back, knocking it against the wall as he looked towards the bright blue sky. "I don't even have any idea of where he could be. I'm just wandering aimlessly right now. I was hoping to get this over with today."

Shun looked at his friend out of the corner of his eyes, frowning in confusion. "Is there a reason you feel the need to hurry?"

The fingers on his hand curled into themselves. There were many reasons that Yuma wanted to hurry. His dad couldn't be allowed to continue to run around and attacking Border agents. Jin's prediction of his death was putting a time limit on him. Then there were the cracks that were starting to spread on his body. He wasn't sure what was causing his body to break, but it was concerning. With the way the cracks were spreading, he imagined that he wouldn't be able to hide it for very long.

"Can't really leave Dad alone to run around, continuing to kill you guys on defense duty. It becomes a problem if he keeps taking out everyone who is supposed to defend the city."

"True," Shun agreed. It was strange when Yugo disappeared last night without killing all the agents in the area. The way he would pop up, kill some of them, and then leave made no sense. There was nothing to explain what his attacks were meant to signify. "Are you sure you don't know where he would be? The way he keeps appearing to kill us and then disappears is going to make it hard to stop him."

"All we need is to be able to stop him in one of his attacks."

Shun didn't even think Yuma noticed his wording there. It wasn't that they needed to stop Kuga Yugo. They needed to kill him to end all of this, along with all the Mimics that were appearing at night. At the very least, Yuma said 'we.' That gave him the hope that Yuma was getting to the point that he would accept their help in this.

Yuma looked down at his crossed arms, more specifically, where his ring was hidden under his gloves. "I never spent any time with my dad in Japan. I was born and raised in the Neighborhood. My dad died over there when I was eleven. It was a few years after his death when I came over here so I don't know any areas that he would have been drawn to."

Well, besides Tamakoma Branch. When Yugo lived in Japan, Tamakoma Branch was Border's HQ. It made Yuma wonder. Did Yugo go there looking for Yuma or was drawn to an old base the probably held many fond memories for him?

"He didn't tell you anything about Japan? He didn't have to take you here. He could have simply told you stories." Shun pointed out.

Yuma hummed to himself as he pushed off the wall and went over to the vending machine to buy his own drink. "I don't believe I'm a good judge. Dad told me a lot about Border growing up, but I never made the connection that he was a Border member until Rindo-san told me."

"I would insult you for not realizing that, but considering I don't know how the conversations between you two went, I'm going to let that go." Shun replied, earning a grin from Yuma in return as he pulled his drink out of the machine. "By the way, my captain has been nagging at me to ask you about your Black Trigger. We need to know its abilities, though after last night, I think I have a good idea of how it works."

Yuma rolled his can around in his hand, frowning down at it. The topic of his Black Trigger seemed to be a hot one. He understood people were curious about where he got it from and what kind of powers it had as it would help them when fighting Kuga Yugo. He understood all that, but he wasn't eager to share the strengths and weaknesses of his Black Trigger. It could come back to haunt in the end. Though, that reason wasn't as important as the other one.

The one which had a part of him just wanting to deal with this on his own. He wanted to face off against Kuga Yugo without having to drag his friends into this.

Still, Shun, Jin, Osamu, Hyuse and even Ninomiya's squad were all right. He was being stupid in thinking he could deal with this alone.

That didn't mean he wouldn't try.

Hyuse gave him a day to figure this out and he was going to try. He just happened to have Shun following him around to give backup.

*Mimics*

"The only question I have regarding all of this is Chibi's Black Trigger being able to copy other Triggers."

Osamu stared at Tachikawa, still unsure of why he kept calling Yuma Chibi throughout this whole meeting. Tachikawa had never bothered with calling Yuma anything but his surname before. It was actually weird to hear him call him anything else, plus the nickname was clearly not one of affection. It almost sounded like there was a twinge of annoyance to it. If Osamu had to guess, Tachikawa was still feeling a bit bitter at the way Yugo ambushed and killed him. Tachikawa didn't seem the type to let a loss get to him, but perhaps it was because he didn't actually get the chance to fight Yugo. There was that glint in his eyes that was showing an interest to actually get to properly fight Kuga Yugo.

It was honestly frustrating Osamu to see it. He knew that all of Border's agents were serious about their jobs and didn't take these invasions lightly. What he didn't realize was just how many of them were fighting maniacs like Yuma was. It seemed hard for those fighting maniacs to rid themselves of the enjoyment they felt when they got into tough fights. Though to Osamu, it looked like Yuma had managed to drop the enjoyment he got from fighting at the moment. The threat of his father was too daunting for him to smile easily at this challenge.

"What question is that?" Jin asked.

"Does Kuga Yugo possess the ability to copy Triggers as well since he is using the Black Trigger's abilities?" Tachikawa asked.

Jin hummed, looking up towards the ceiling as he mulled over the question. "That's a difficult question to answer, especially since I don't know how Yuma does it. I know he can, but he's never explained to us how he copies them. You know, Four-eyes?"

Osamu pushed his glasses up. "The only time I saw him do it was when he fought Miwa squad and it wasn't even him stealing the Trigger for his own. Replica inputted the Trigger into the Black Trigger at the time."

"Who's Replica?" Azuma asked.

"He's Kuga's Trion Soldier partner." Miwa explained. At least with everyone in the room now knowing of Yuma's history as a Neighbor, they didn't have to be careful with their words anymore. Everything could come out in the open now.
Arashiyama raised a brow. "I didn't realize he had a partner."

"Replica hides in Kuga's Black Trigger when not needed." Osamu replied. "Or, used to. Replica aided us in Aftokrator's invasion by forcing Aftokrator's ship to perform an emergency launch, forcing the Neighbors to leave. Replica got trapped on the ship and taken to Aftokrator."

Miwa raised a brow. He had heard Osamu had a hand in forcing Aftokrator to withdraw, but it at least made a lot more sense now if that Trion Soldier was involved. It would also explain why the annoying flea that was helping him out had stopped working without warning. The Trion Soldier either died on the ship or because of the distance, the copies it left behind couldn't continue to function. Either way, it wasn't Miwa's problem.

"Hmm," Kako rested her chin on her fist, staring across the table at Osamu with curiosity. "Would that explain why he wants to go to Aftokrator? Everyone knows why Amatori-chan wants to go. I just thought that was the only reason."

Osamu nodded. "We're doing this for Chika, but Chika and I made a promise to help Kuga get Replica back. He only lost him in the first place because of his promise to help us."

If Osamu had let Yuma stick to his original plan of going back to the Neighbor's world when he couldn't accomplish what he wanted here, Yuma would have never lost his partner in the first place. Granted, had that happened, Osamu imagined Aftokrator's invasion would have turned out worst for them. Yuma's help was essential in that invasion. They needed him. Jin knew it before the invasion. Osamu realized the reasons after the invasion. Jin held guilt over what happened, what he had to put Osamu, Chika, and Replica through. Osamu felt just as much guilt since he threw Replica towards the ship, even if it was what Replica agreed to and Yuma put on the grin, saying it was fine and they would get him back.

Yuma didn't put any blame on him or Jin for what happened to Replica. It wasn't in him to blame others for something that happened, but he was very willing to live with the guilt of what happened as a result of his actions. Osamu knows Yuma is living with the guilt of his father's death hanging of his head. He hid that guilt under a carefree attitude, but it was beginning to shine through. His frustration and stress was building up with guilt pouring out of him. This time though, the guilt was because he was blaming himself for putting Border and the city in danger by having his father appear. He had a feeling Yuma disappeared for the day wasn't to get away from Border. It had to do with hunting down his father. That thought was making Osamu's stomach turn. He knew Yuma could take care of himself, but the enemy being his father would be tormenting his mind.

"Anyway," Osamu said, pushing the thoughts of his partner to side. That wasn't what he needed to focus on right now. "Kuga told me that Replica can analyze and add Triggers to his Black Trigger instantly so it can be done in battle, but without him, it takes Kuga time to do it so he can't do it in the midst of battle. If his father does have the capability to copy Triggers, he shouldn't be able to do it during a fight."

"That's good. From the sounds of it, he is a tough enough opponent with the abilities he has already. We don't need to give him anymore weapons." Arashiyama replied.

"What about Murakami?" Azuma suggested. "If we have him fight Kuga's Black Trigger, he can use his side effect to learn and be more prepared to fight Kuga?"

Jin hummed as he thought about that. "I'm not so sure. Yuma and Kuga-san are still different people."

"They have to fight similarly. Kuga is the one who trained his son." Tachikawa argued. "Isn't he?"

"Years ago." Jin replied. "You have to understand that Yuma fought in a war for three years with a Black Trigger. I imagine that changed his fighting style. He's probably even more different now that is using a Border Trigger."

Tachikawa raised a brow at the word 'war,' but didn't comment on it. If Yuma got involved in a war before coming to Border, it wouldn't be too surprising. In his trips to the Neighbor's World, there were always wars going on there. It would actually be more surprising if he didn't have any time spent in wars.

"Then we just ask anyone who gets into a fight with Kuga." Kako suggested, glancing over at Azuma. "I heard your squad and Kusakabe squad got into a fight with him last night. We learn from those fights to go at him with a better strategy."

Azuma nodded his head. "I was assisting in a fight against the Mimics so I didn't see the fight, but there should be data on the fights we can access."

*Mimics*

"I think you should buy me lunch if you're going to drag me all over the city. I had a very tiring time last night."

Yuma gave his friend an unimpressed look. "I'm not the one who told you to follow me. I was content with going out by myself."

Shun glared back at Yuma. "You did say to follow you."

"Only because you didn't want to get out of my path." Yuma retorted. "And besides, I bought you lunch the other day. Shouldn't it be your turn to buy food?"

"Eh? But you the senpai here! The senpai should always treat the kouhai!" Shun protested.

In response, Yuma narrowed his eyes at Shun as he tried to get a read on this situation. He was still unsure of how things worked in Japan.

Staring right on back at Yuma, Shun blinked a few times, mouth dropping open. "Oh, wait, no, Yuma-senpai, I'm just teasing. I'm sorry. I need to remember you're not used to Japan and all our customs yet. It's true senpais treat their kouhais sometimes, but it doesn't mean they do it all the time. How about we just pay for our food this time?"

Yuma looked down, rubbing at his stomach. It wasn't wrong to say he was hungry, but he wasn't a fan of the idea of taking time out of his day of trying to hunt his father down to get food. At the same time, he knew it wasn't a good idea to just go without food all day. "We're near Kage-senpai's family's restaurant. Let's go there."

And hopefully, Kage was at the base today and not hanging around his family's restaurant.

"Kageura-san's family runs a restaurant?" Shun asked surprised. He didn't hang out with Kageura ever so he felt justified in not knowing that little tidbit of information about the older agent.

"You've never been there?" Yuma asked.

"If I have been, then I didn't know it was his family's restaurant." Shun looked up at the sky as he thought about Kageura. "It's hard to imagine that scary guy's family owning a restaurant."

"Well, the food there is amazing so you'll love it."

"You like anything." Shun said. He looked at the people on the sidewalk as they walked. "Do you think your father will come into the city? Would people panic if they saw his swords?"

Yuma followed Shun's eyes to look at the squads, frowning to himself. "I wonder if he can turn his Trigger off. I don't know how much control Mimics have of the people they're transformed as."

"The Mimics don't just look how you last saw them?"

"No, my father's Trigger wasn't activated the last time I saw him alive, but now it is so I was wondering if the Mimic has the ability to turn the Trigger on and off. It's not really that important though."

"True, the threat remains the same." Shun folded his arms behind his head, tilting his face towards the sky as he continued to follow Yuma. "It's just that, if he can walk through the city without catching anyone's eye, we'll never be able to find him. Do we really have to wait for him to attack us again?"

"Hmm."

Shun shifted his eyes to Yuma. "Are you sure you don't know where he would be? He said you would come to him."

"Like I already said, I don't know." Yuma replied. If anyone would know where Yugo was, it wouldn't be him. It would be better to ask Rindo, Shinoda, or even Kido. Yugo seemed to have all of his memories so the places he liked in Mikado City would be best known by the people who went to those places with him. "I figured if I put myself out in the open, he would eventually come to me if he wants to kill me that badly."

Shun bit down on his lip to avoid scolding his friend for trying to make himself a target. Well, he was already a target for Yugo, but he was blatantly putting himself in more danger just by wandering around in the open like this. "The city is pretty big. Just like you can't find him, he'll have a hard time locating you as well. He also didn't ask where you were last night, just that you would come to him."

"Weird. He annoyed Tachikawa-san enough about my whereabouts that they came and yelled at me for it." Yuma looked up towards the sky, humming to himself as he thought. "Perhaps he wanted to have a small fight as a way to greet me which is why we got into it at Tamakoma."

"I think it's more like he's planning something." Shun muttered. "We just can't figure out what it is he's after. I wonder how he found you at your base anyway."

"Tamakoma Branch was the original base of Border when it was first founded. It's the base Dad remembers. I don't know if he went there looking for me or if it was just to see his old base." Yuma explained, hiding a grimace by looking off to the side at the stores they were passing. Whether he had been at the base or not, Yuma had a feeling that the attack on Tamakoma would have still happened.

"What? Like he's reminiscing the past?" Shun asked, raising a brow in disbelief. "A transformed Mimic wants to revisit his past while trying to kill his son. Doesn't that sound pretty crazy?"

Yuma gave a small shrug. "Not sure what you want me to say. I don't know how transformed weaponized Mimics work." When he spoke to Yugo yesterday, he seemed to have no recollection of being a Mimic, so that left Yuma with the question of whether Yugo remembered the sacrifice he made for his son. His loving tone towards Yuma when spoke didn't match Shun's words of Yugo saying he would kill Yuma. Why would Yugo want to kill Yuma so badly? Yuma thought it would have been anger at him that made Yugo want to go after him so badly or maybe it was the Mimic's programming to kill the person who the memories were taken from to allow them to transform.

There were just too many unanswered questions.

"Weaponized?"

Yuma tilted his head towards Shun, pursing his lips. The agents of Border were only told about the threat of Mimics and not how they were once used for grief. There wasn't a need for the agents to know that as it wasn't important in the plan to hold out against the attack. "Mimics were once designed to deal with the grief of losing a loved one. The purpose of them was to transform into someone you lost so you could have one last moment with them. Someone took that design and made the Mimics into weapons to attack us so I don't know how different they are or what transformed weaponized Mimics are thinking."

If it was possible, Shun's eyebrows would have disappeared into his hair by now. He never imagined Trion Soldiers being used for anything but attacking people. That was, of course, a bias that probably all of Border shared. Having never been to the Neighbor's world, his only interaction with Trion Soldiers were the ones trying to kill him, so he felt vindicated in having that view. "O-kay," He said slowly. "If that was the purpose of them, then why not just have the Mimics take over the role of the loved ones so it'll be like they were never lost?"

"Because they're not real." Yuma snapped, regretting the harsh tone immediately when Shun flinched back. "Sorry, it's just, nothing can replace the real person that died. It's...hard to separate the Mimic and the person who died. I know they're fakes, and yet, I let myself get fooled by Dad yesterday."

Having met the Mimic of Kuga Yugo last night, Shun couldn't blame Yuma. He didn't know the real Kuga Yugo so he didn't know his personality to match it with the Mimic's transformed version, but just the appearance of it was enough to fool him. It was impossible to tell that Yugo was a Trion Soldier at all.

"Also," Yuma hesitated which drew Shun's eyes back to him, giving him a curious look. "Mimics typically can't hold their transformed forms for long. You might get twelve hours out of them if you're lucky."

Shun frowned. "But your dad is still wandering around."

"I did say typically. That was the original design of the Mimics since they weren't meant to replace what was lost, but give a sense of closure with one last conversation. These new Mimics that are designed to attack us, they're different."

"I hadn't heard anything about that."

Yuma shrugged before he was shoving a door open to the restaurant before standing to the side to let Shun follow him inside. "When I was telling the higher ups about the Mimics, I did mention it, but in the grand scheme of things, the time limit I was talking about it wasn't too important because if the Mimic transformed, you're already in deep trouble. Besides, that time limit clearly doesn't exist since Dad is still around."

"Huh, the extensive report we got on a new Trion Soldier that just appeared makes so much sense now." Shun replied while his eyes drifted around the restaurant as he shook his head. "Nope, never been here."

"You'll really enjoy it." Yuma paused as he glanced back over at Shun, taking in the features on his face which included the bags under his eyes. "And after we eat, you should head home for a nap."

"And leave you to run off on your own to hunt down and most likely get killed by your dad?" Shun grunted. "Not happening."

"You pass out on the street from exhaustion and I will leave you there." Yuma said.

Shun smirked at his friend. "You wouldn't do that."

"Who's getting killed by who?"

An inaudible groan escaped Yuma's lips at the voice. He didn't even bother to look off to the side where it had come from.

Even if he wasn't able to fully see Yuma's face, Shun saw enough to be able to grin viciously at his friend. "You knew this was his family's restaurant. You were taking a risk in deciding to come here."

"Huh?" Kageura dropped a hand to Yuma's head, shaking it around roughly. "Were you avoiding me, shrimp? After that memo went out yesterday and you disappeared all day, only to give me a two worded reply late last night, I shouldn't be surprised."

"I'm not avoiding anyone. I'm just busy."

"Not too busy to drop in here for lunch apparently."

"I was thinking Shun could pass out at the table after we eat and I could sneak away to get what I need done."

"Hey!" Shun nudged his shoulder against Yuma's. "So, you are trying to get rid of me. I thought we agreed you wouldn't do this alone."

"Someone dead on their feet from exhaustion isn't my first pick of backup."

Kageura shoved the two arguing agents into the nearest, empty booth. He sat them on one side so he could take the other side of the booth to himself. At least their arguing kept them from projecting any of their annoying emotions to him. "Shut up." He snapped, glaring at the other customers in the restaurant that were starting to look over at them. "We don't need anyone hearing any sensitive information."

As the two younger agents ceased their discussion and settled in to get comfortable, Kageura leaned back, rolling his eyes to ceiling. For everything that went down yesterday with Yuma being a hot topic at Border and his disappearance from HQ for whatever reason, he seemed relatively fine. Nothing wrong with that, but considering the worry his friends were showing yesterday about his disappearing from HQ, it was actually irritating Kageura to see him perfectly fine, not a wound in sight and looking as lively as ever.

"So, who's killing here?" Kageura asked.

"Yuma-senpai's dad is looking for him and talking about how he is going to die before the week is over." Shun, the traitor, explained immediately, resulting in Yuma shooting him another glare. He didn't even need to tell anyone about Jin's prediction of his death if his father was just going to spread the word about wanting to kill him.

To his credit, Kageura's facial expression didn't change. He was still scowling at the two. "Hardly surprising. He's a Trion Soldier. It's their programming to kill. Though, I suppose it is surprising he is zeroing in on the shrimp in particular."

Shun rested his arms on the table, leaning forward to look at the scary looking agent in front of him. "You haven't seen him yet, have you?"

"I haven't been on duty since before Kuga Yugo made his appearance."

"Then you don't understand without having met him!" Shun replied, throwing his hands into the air. "He was pretty friendly when I spoke to him, but his actual words had that threat to them when he was talking about Yuma-senpai dying!"

"It was the same when I spoke to him. The tone of his voice was..." Yuma hesitated as he rolled over the conversation he had with his dad in his head. "His tone of voice was very similar to how he spoke to me as a child. Even his movements matched Dad exactly, but with what he said, those words were ominous."

Kageura stared at Yuma across the table, frowning at the albino agent. Now that Shun and Yuma were no longer arguing and were focusing on him as part of this conversation, he was starting to get the pinpricks of emotions from the two. It was expected from Shun, but there was a small part of Kageura that was hoping that Yuma had gotten his head back on straight. Unfortunately, that didn't seem to be the case as there were emotions striking him from Yuma, but they were significantly weaker and less painful than the ones from the other day.

"Is having your father around really that much of an issue for you?" Kageura asked, surprising Yuma.

"Isn't that pretty obvious? No one that has gone up against him so far has survived."

"I don't think anyone has even been able to hit him yet." Shun added.

Ignoring Shun, Kageura shot Yuma a glare. That punk knew perfectly well what it was that Kageura was asking, but was acting like he didn't, which was an answer all on its own. That, coupled with the emotions striking Kageura, was showing just how much Yuma's head was not in the game. None of this was acceptable. If he wanted to get a good fight out of Yuma, he would have to get this problem solved.

"So, where is your dad?"

A scowl morphed over Yuma's face. "Why do you guys just think I'm going to know where he is hiding? If I knew that, I would have already gone to him."

"That has to be one of the stupidest ideas I've ever heard." Kageura sneered.

"Thank you!" Shun almost shouted, feeling vindicated while he sat his triumphant look towards Yuma.

Yuma rolled his eyes. "You all think that, but it's my dad. He trained me and fought alongside me. I know best how he fights so why shouldn't I be the one to go after him?"

"Knowing how he fights clearly didn't help you beat him yesterday." Kageura retorted.

That was fair. Just knowing how someone fought didn't mean he would win. It wasn't all that surprising. Kuga Yugo would never be an easy target to take down. Knowing how he fought was only adding a little bit of help to the situation. Though, considering that he now had access to Black Trigger abilities, that made it harder to know how Yugo would fight. From the fight Yuma had with Yugo, he was able to recognize that though they both had access to the same abilities from the Black Trigger, they utilized them differently.

"But it improves my chance of beating him." Yuma argued.

"Our. Our chance." Shun corrected, shooting a glare towards Yuma. "This isn't a Kuga Yuma problem. It's a Border problem. Besides, knowing how he fights and using that to your advantage isn't going to help anything if you can't find him."

Kageura raised a brow. "Know what will help?" He leveled his own glare at Yuma. "Actually talking to your friends and working with them on this, instead of trying to handle everything on your own. You know, sharing information."

"We can start a manhunt for him." Shun suggested. "And when we start to see people bailing out, we'll know where he is at."

Yuma snorted in amusement. "You're already expecting everyone to die. You'll never win with that attitude."

"That because his defense and offense is so impressive. When he had that shield up, nothing we threw at him could break it!" Shun whined.

"The Shield he has been using is the one attached to my Black Trigger so in general, it's a tougher Shield then the ones we got from Border. The durability of the Shield can be increased by multipliers and if it's fixed, it's unlikely you'll break through it."

"I bet Tamakoma's cannon could rip through it." Kageura pointed out.

"She definitely could. We would have to be in the Restricted Zone though to avoid damage to the city."

"Good point." Shun leaned back in his seat, looking up towards the ceiling as he thought about Chika's cannon blasts in the Rank Wars. "It's easy to have her shoot like that in a virtual city, but not very practical in the real city."

"As long as she aims well and doesn't use too much Trion, it would be fine." Kageura said.

Yuma hummed in agreement.

"So, what brought you guys in here today?"

"Food."

"Trying to get Shun to fall asleep by getting him to sit down."

Shun whacked his friend's arm halfheartedly. "That's not what we're doing. I don't care how tired I am from defense duty last night, I'm not letting you wander around the city looking for you dad alone. He's going to kill you the moment he sees you!"

Yuma resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He didn't want to add any attitude into this conversation that he was trying to keep serious. "He had his sword at my throat when he attacked Tamakoma, but didn't take the chance to kill me then. If he wanted me dead immediately, he would have done it then." He explained, not noticing the look of horror on Shun's face as he continued. "While I'm sure my death is what he wants, it's not an immediate death he is after. So, logically, I should be fine if I go to try to kill him."

"You let him put a sword to your throat?" Kageura demanded, surprising Shun and Yuma as they seemingly forgot about him sitting there.

"I didn't let him do anything. He's just fast." Yuma replied. "And we got blinded by Chika's blast destroying the Illgar that was there."

"Un-freaking-believable." Kageura muttered to himself, looking off to the side as he scratched at his neck. "You don't get caught off guard like that, Kuga. Whatever is distracting you, you need to get it worked out before you get killed by your dad."

Yuma's eyes shifted to the side so he could avoid looking at his friends. It was easy to say to stop being distracted, but it was actually a very hard thing to do, especially in this situation where his distraction was because of his dad. And, he didn't just mean the Mimic of his father wandering around. There were only four more days until the anniversary of his dad's death. The date was still locked in his head. With the date approaching and his father running around the city, was it any surprise that Kuga Yugo was occupying every single part of his mind?

There was nothing more important to Yuma right now than his father.