A/N: I don't own World Trigger
Mimics
Chapter 16: The Storm
"Do you even have a plan?"
"My plan was to make Shun pass out and abandon him."
"Hey!" Shun glared at Yuma, or tried to. With each passing minute, he was getting more and more tired so it was hard to keep his eyes open. He was more likely squinting his eyes angrily at his friend. "Stop saying that."
"Go home and nap then." Yuma retorted.
Kageura rolled his eyes at the two. He was beginning to question why he followed these two out of the restaurant. Could he be blamed though? He honestly expected more from Yuma who was supposed to be an experience, wise fight. Instead, he just seemed like an idiot right now. "I meant, your plan for finding your father. That's what you're doing, right?"
Yuma rolled his eyes towards the sky, watching the clouds drifting slowly by.
When there was no reply, Kageura scowled and resisted the urge to smack his friend in the head. "Do you honestly not have a plan? What do you think you're going to achieve by running around the city like this?"
"I never visited Japan with my dad before he died so I don't have a clue as to where he would go to rest." Yuma replied, folding his arms behind his head with a sigh. "With how eager he was to attack us so much already, I didn't think it would be this hard to find him."
For a moment, Kageura just stared blankly over at Yuma. He had never been to Japan with his father before? That didn't make much sense to him. Kuga Yugo had been a member of Border at one point so how was it that Yuma never spent time with him in Japan? Maybe it was just that Yugo left Border and moved to another country before Yuma was born and then died before he could bring Yuma to Japan. Whatever it was, it wasn't important to the conversation. "Even he needs time to recover after all those fights. He probably found some place to hide out at. You would have better luck just waiting for him to appear."
"Except when he does appear, people don't bother to alert me until it's too late." Yuma shot a glare towards Shun.
"It was the middle of the night and you weren't on defense duty, Yuma-senpai!" Shun retorted, huffing to himself in frustration. "You need to sleep like the rest of us. You've been so reckless this week with your running around trying to deal with the Mimics and your father all on your own."
Kageura snorted. "You know it's serious when Midorikawa is snapping. So," He dropped his hand on top of Yuma's head and shook it violently. "Stop doing stupid shit."
"I haven't even done anything." Yuma pouted, while Kageura and Shun looked at him in disbelief. "Today. I haven't done anything today."
"Better." Shun said, eyes narrowed at Yuma. "But there's still plenty of time in the day for you to do something stupid." He glanced over at Kageura, pointing at Yuma. "There was a time when I wouldn't expect him to be the stupid, reckless one."
"I don't see anything I'm doing as stupid or reckless." Yuma mumbled. "There is a problem and I want to solve it as quickly as possible."
"His father is looking for him to kill him and Yuma-senpai thinks the best idea to do is run straight to him." Shun continued, completely ignoring everything that just came from Yuma. He needed an older, wiser agent on his side right now to tell Yuma off.
"That is stupid." Kageura agreed, turning his attention back to Yuma. "You don't run towards people who want to kill you, especially alone."
Yuma rolled his eyes. Why did everyone think he was trying to run towards his death? The life he was living was one his father, his real father, gave everything for him to have. He wasn't about to let it go to waste by letting himself get killed, but he also couldn't just sit around while his father was wandering in the city and attacking his comrades.
Of course, it was going to be dangerous to go after his father, but it's not like anything Border agents did was safe. They were fighting a war against the Neighbors. That wasn't a safe job so the agents were always in danger, even if they have the bail out function. Though, currently, Yuma was lacking the bail out function since he did lose his Border Trigger. He was going to have to rely on his Black Trigger to fight, which hopefully wouldn't cause Kido to be angry and reprimand him for it.
He had to do it.
All he had to do was find his dad and use his Black Trigger to kill him.
It shouldn't be that hard to do.
His dad just needed to die...again.
"Weren't you just asking me how I plan to find my dad?" Yuma asked.
"That was before Midorikawa said your father was actively out to kill you. What is that about? I thought the purpose of the Mimics was an attack on Border, so why is he after you personally?" Kageura asked.
"Couldn't say." Yuma replied, looking off to the side at the playground that they were walking pass. His eyes fell onto a father pushing his son on the swings. The sight brought Yuma to a stop as he stared at the smiling duo. His friends made it a few more steps before realizing he had stopped and turned to look at him. "When we fought at Tamakoma, we only managed to exchange a few words. I need the chance to have a proper conversation with him to try to get a better understanding."
Kageura followed Yuma's eyes to the family playing in the park "A better understanding?" He scoffed, dragging his eyes from the playground to Yuma. "Seems to me like you just want to talk to your dad."
Annoyance flashed quickly across Yuma's face before it smoothed out to an indifferent mask. "He spoke just like Dad...with a carefree, light attitude. It didn't match the battle we were in at all, but Shun also points out that he does speak of wanting to kill me. His words and actions don't match up. Maybe it is just because at the end of the day, he was created from a Trion Soldier."
That wording at Kageura's eyes narrowing. That was making it sound like Yuma actually believed Kuga Yugo was really back alive. "He is a Trion Soldier." He stressed. "Despite appearances, he is still a Mimic."
Yuma ripped his eyes from the playground, shaking his head. "I know." He did know that Kuga Yugo was just a Mimic. It wasn't a reminder that he needed. It was just a slip of the tongue that it came out the way it did. The Yugo running around was a fake that needed killed. All Yuma had to do was fight him. It shouldn't be that hard for him. It was a fake.
It was a fake.
It was a fake.
Shun glanced from Kageura to Yuma, frowning at the latter with worry creasing his brows. He didn't want to believe it, but it was looking like Yuma was starting to see the Mimic as his father, which was worrying, considering that this version of his father was after him to kill him. Maybe that was just the way to show that Yuma was struggling a lot with his father's death. Shun had never lost anyone in his life so he couldn't relate to the grief that Yuma was going through from his father's death.
A blaring alarm ended the conversation as everyone in the area stopped what they were doing as all eyes turned towards the sky. While the civilians watched in horror at the Gate opening above the playground, the Border agents were already on the move as they pulled out their Triggers.
Well, Kageura and Shun did.
"Trigger on!"
While they activated their Triggers, Yuma kept his eyes locked on the Gate as black Rabits fell from it, making his heart jump at the sight of them. This timing was far too convenient. He had been walking all over the city today, trying to figure out where his dad would be at, only for him to come to Yuma. How did Yugo even find him?
"I've never seen black Rabits before." Shun said, Scorpion blade appearing in his hand.
"Are you going to help or just stand there, Kuga?" Kageura demanded, even as he was already jumping over the wall into the playground.
Yuma's hand twitched. If his Rabits were here, Kuga Yugo would be here. This was what he had been looking for all day, the chance to end this by fighting his dad, and yet, Yuma was frozen in place.
"This probably isn't the best time to say this, but I lost my Trigger the other day." Yuma felt himself say. He could see an annoyed look cross Kageura's face, but he didn't get to reply as he was lunging pass the fleeing civilians and throwing his Mantis blade forward, but got blocked by a Shield.
Shun used his Grasshopper to launch into the air above the Rabits, but didn't get the chance to attack before bullets were flying towards him, leaving him forced to use another Grasshopper pad to propel himself to the side to dodge. He landed on the wall that surrounded the park, a Shield already up in front of him. He wasn't even crouched there for a second before there was a tugging on his jacket and he was toppling backwards over the wall. Yuma didn't give him a chance to recover as he was pulling into hiding behind the wall.
The bullets from the Rabit slammed into the wall, sending broken pieces of brick flying through the air, but even as the stray pieces hit him, Yuma didn't seem concerned as he leaned over to hiss in Shun's ears, "Unless you use a focus Shield, your Shield won't survive a hit from Bolt."
The name of the attack drew more of Shun's attention as he focused his eyes on Yuma. "Have you seen a black Rabit before?"
"Yes," Yuma answered simply, offering no more explanation on the matter.
With no more bullets coming their way, Shun and Yuma peaked over the wall to see Kageura dodging a fist that had a blue seal attached to it. With the attack missing him, the Rabit's fist hit the ground with enough force to smash it, forming a pretty deep crater.
Shun whistled, impressed by the strength.
"Are you two idiots just going to sit there?" Kageura snapped, without bothering to look towards the two. If he took his eyes off the Rabits for a second, he knew he would be killed in that instant. "Kuga, activate your Black Trigger!"
"Kido-san says I'm not allowed to use it in the city." The excuse fell from Yuma's lips easily as Shun took it as his turn to pull Yuma as he launched them into the air with his Grasshopper to avoid the Rabit that was smashing what was left of the wall they had been hiding behind.
When Yuma had left Border HQ today, he had been planning on fighting if he found his father. He swore that he had every intention of that, but now that the Rabits were here, indicating his father was in the area, the idea of actually getting into a fight with his father left Yuma frozen. The last time he had faced off against his dead, he only managed one attack because he couldn't bring himself to attack that man. If he activated his Black Trigger now, it would likely be the same scenario.
Yuma could claim as much as he wanted to that he would handle the Mimic of his father, but when it came down to the moment of truth, he couldn't bring himself to want to fight.
It was probably the most frustrating thing ever for him.
There had never been a time where he couldn't bring himself to fight.
"You cannot be serious right now!" Kageura shouted up towards them before he was jumping backwards with a Shield thrown up in front of him to let that take the force of the punch from the Rabit. Despite making it a focused Shield after seeing the last punch create a crater, the Shield still cracked from the force behind the punch.
"He said people might mistake me for a Neighbor if I use it in public." Yuma shouted back. It was a relief that the civilians moved quickly to get out of the area so no one could hear what the agents were shouting at each other.
Shun snorted softly. "They wouldn't be wrong." He mumbled quietly into Yuma's ears as another Grasshopper pad pushed them higher into the air.
If Shun wasn't holding his arm tightly to take him flying through the air with him, Yuma would have elbowed him in the side. "Put me down and go help Kage-senpai."
"Are you going to use your Black Trigger?" Shun asked.
Yuma pursed his lips, but didn't look at Shun as his eyes were locked on the four Rabits below them that Kageura was doing his best to dodge all of their attacks. Even if he had a Side Effect that alerted him to attacks, even he could get overwhelmed if there were too many opponents. Four Rabits using his Black Trigger abilities wasn't an easy fight. Shun and Kageura plus his Black Trigger would make it an easier fight.
That is, if Yugo didn't interfere.
It would be simple to activate his Black Trigger and explain to Kido about how much of an emergency it was. He would accept it easily, and besides, Yuma was never that worried about keeping his Black Trigger under wraps. If the situation was dire enough, he would use it without an ounce of hesitation for the rules. He would not let himself get killed because he couldn't get into contact with HQ to request permission.
It would be so easy to help Shun and Kageura with his battle.
But...
"Alright then, if you're so sure, I'll give you one day to get it sorted. After that, you need to tell Osamu what is really going on." Hyuse said.
He had to settle things with his dad before midnight.
*Mimics*
"I know you're trying to work out a plan, Jin, but is it really alright that we aren't doing anything right now?" Arashiyama asked.
Jin shrugged. "I know everyone wants to take care of Kuga-san quickly since the longer he is here, the more likely the situation will get worse, but there isn't anything we can do when we can't find him."
"He attacked the squads on defense duty last night, but they weren't able to beat him." Arashiyama said with a frown. "Perhaps instead of trying to deal with him on their own, they should have called in reinforcements from off duty agents."
"Having numbers would help in the fight. I doubt anyone could beat Kuga-san one on one now that he has access to Yuma's Black Trigger."
Arashiyama raised a brow at the admission. "Must be hard for you to accept the fact that against him, you have to fight like the rest of us." He teased.
Normally, Jin would use his Side Effect to predict attacks when he was fighting. It gave him an edge in battle, but at the same time, it could also be a weakness as he sometimes relied on it too much which would distract him from the actual fight. There were so many times in the past that he lost to Tachikawa because he was over thinking the whole fight, instead of focusing on what was happening in front of him.
That wasn't the case here.
"Hmm, it's true I can't see the future of the Mimics so if I fought Kuga-san, I would have a hard time. The most I can do right now is seeing ba-" Jin cut himself off, eyes narrowing for a moment before they widened, smile slipping from his face.
Across from him, Arashiyama was standing up straight as he turned his full attention to the window to see what caught Jin's eye. It wasn't anything in the city ruins that captured his attention though. He was looking beyond the Restricted Zone and into the city where the black Gate had opened.
With his visions dying down, Jin joined Arashiyama by the window, setting his coffee cup on the window seal before he could spill it everywhere from gripping it too hard. "Are you coming with me? My reckless junior is there."
"Even if he wasn't, we couldn't just stand here. That's in the city." Arashiyama replied as the two took off down the hall. "It's not the Mimics, is it?"
"It hasn't reached twilight just yet." Jin replied. "Besides, there's only two people in the city who can open Gates anywhere."
"And we know Yuma would never do it." Arashiyama finished. "So, he's with his father in the city? How bad is that?"
"I was hoping for an easy day."
"I'll alert my team. Is anyone from Tamakoma available?"
"If not, they're going to be soon." Jin said as he took his phone out and scrolled through his contact list without breaking stride.
*Mimics*
Shun jumped backwards as the Rabit's fist slammed into the ground, shattering it once more. While there was definitely a lot of power behind the attacks, especially when those blue seals were attached to it, they weren't that fast. At least with the physical attacks. The problem was that there were four Rabits and they were currently in the city. While the area had been evacuated, with the Rabits seemingly to care more about the agents then the civilians, it could cause problems if the Rabits got out of the playground.
Kageura lunged pass Shun to strike at the Rabit, but his sword barely made a scratch in the armor. Tsking to himself, Kageura slammed a foot into the ground and propelled himself backwards and landed back next to the Shun, staring up at the four Rabits. "I thought only Aftokrator had these monsters. Who sent these things here?"
"Thought you'd be happy to get a chance to fight a Rabit. You missed the Aftokrator invasion." Shun said, though he didn't look at Kageura. The last time he faced Rabits, he was forced to bail out, though that was a combination of the Rabits and the animal shaped bullets. Still, that didn't diminish the danger of the Rabits. The humanoid Neighbor joining in on the battle with the Rabits back then just upped the difficulty in that fight. One thing he did learn from that battle was that it wasn't easy to break through a Rabit's armor so just striking it wasn't going to be very effective.
Despite that, the lack of a humanoid Neighbor getting in their path should have made this fight easier, but there were four Rabits here with special abilities that Shun had never seen before. From the reports of Aftokrator's invasion, there had been four types of Rabits and none of them had been black or had these type of powers. In fact, those Rabits only one had type of special ability attached to them.
These black Rabits had already shown the ability to shoot bullets and increase their strength with the blue seals. That was already two unique abilities that the other Rabits didn't have.
Kaguera and Shun ducked behind some trees as bullets flew through the air from two of the Rabits. Shun wanted to keep his eyes on the Rabits that weren't firing bullets, but found that hard to do with pieces of the tree flying through the air. The pieces of the tree couldn't hurt him, but it was instinct to shift away from something coming towards his eyes.
"I've been wondering something." Kageura said, looking out of the corner of his eye at the other side of the trees, in case the Rabits decided to come from there. It was hard to get close to the Rabits since when they did, it would immediately fire bullets at them. If they were close to the Rabits, they would use the blue seals to up their strength. Shields would have a hard time surviving those blows and Shun's and Kageura's Scorpions would shatter instantly if they tried to block with them. A sniper or gunner would be nice to have right about now.
"How do you have any time to wonder about anything?" Shun muttered.
"Did you not notice?" Kageura retorted. "The Tamakoma Branch emblem is on these Rabits' shoulders."
Shun glanced at Kageura quickly in disbelief before creating a focused Shield. "Those things came through a Gate. There's no way they can be involved with Tamakoma." He hissed before he was jumping out from behind the trees, using his Shield to block the bullets from the Rabits that turned to follow him. A Grasshopper pad appeared under his feet, launching him into the air, over the Rabits. Being the only one out in the open, the Rabits focused their attention on him, allowing Kageura to duck out from the trees on the other side.
Using his Grasshopper, Shun bounced around the playground, purposefully getting close to the Rabits and trying to strike them with his Scorpion. Unfortunately, the armor on the Rabits was too strong to piece through, but it was more of a distraction move than to be an attack that he thought would work. To even succeed in getting through that armor, it would either require something like Meteor to break through or they would have to go through the most obvious weak spot, the Rabit's eye.
Even knowing that was what he needed to do, it wouldn't be easy to get close to the Rabit to do it. With four of them here, if he focused on just one, it would leave his back open to the others to attack him and even if he did get close, he would most likely get Bolt shot point blank at him again.
Still, even if it wouldn't be easy to do, he and Kageura were the only ones here who could.
Ah, wait.
"Hey, where did Yuma-senpai go?" Shun asked. He would take the chance to look for where Yuma was, but he couldn't afford to take his eyes off the Rabits. He put him down as requested earlier, but he wasn't expecting his friend to just disappear after that.
A Mantis blade came zigzagging through the park from the cluster of trees and slammed into the eye of one of the Rabits that was looking up at Shun.
With Trion pouring from the eye, leaving the Rabit to drop dead to the ground, Shun bounced on another Grasshopper pad over it, finally taking note of the Tamakoma emblem on its shoulder.
Huh, Kageura was right about that.
Weird, but that was for later.
"Reinforcements are coming from HQ." Kageura informed as Shun landed next to him.
"Just three more to go. Maybe we can kill them before they get here." Shun suggested, glancing at Kageura out of the corner of his eyes. "Or get permission from HQ to use Yuma-senpai's Black Trigger."
"Kind of hard to do when that idiot has disappeared." Kageura snarled.
Shun glanced towards the spot where he dropped Yuma earlier to see it empty before he was stepping on another Grasshopper and launching himself through the air. This time, instead of grabbing all the attention of the Rabits, he only got one. It seemed that the one who managed to destroy one of the Rabits was getting the most attention now.
Well, it was Kageura. He would be fine.
As for Shun, he was jumping around with Grasshopper to stay in the air as he tried to close the distance with the Rabit without getting shot full of holes. He wasn't feeling too eager to bail out again after last night. He needed some form of accomplishment in his life.
Also, he needed to finish this fight and figure out where the hell Yuma went, which he couldn't do if he bailed out here. It wasn't like Yuma to just disappear when there were enemies.
Staring down at the Rabit, Shun stared in surprise at seeing an orange seal appearing over its mouth with a smaller blue seal attached to it.
"No way."
Shun used Grasshopper to launch himself towards the playground, slamming down into the ground behind the jungle gym for cover, refusing to make the same mistake as last night. As the bullets slammed into the jungle gym, forming weights into the structure, Shun knocked his head back against the wall.
He was so stupid.
He got attacked by Bolt so many time last night from Kuga Yugo so he should have recognized the attack sooner.
From what he understood, during Aftokrator's invasion, the specialized Rabits were modified to have the Neighbor's Trigger abilities. It made sense for the black Rabits to have the same skill. They were using the abilities that Kuga Yugo used which were from the Black Trigger that Yuma used. Yuma said he's seen black Rabits before and they had Tamakoma's emblem on them.
Hence, Yuma knew immediately that Kuga Yugo was in the area.
Yuma had disappeared.
Yuma was looking for his father all day.
None of that explained how Yugo was able to get access to Rabits, but in the grand scheme of things, that was not important to Shun. What was important was that Yuma left him and Kageura distracted with Rabits to go after Kuga Yugo alone.
He wasn't sure of whether to be mad that Yuma abandoned them to this fight alone or if he should be mad at Yuma for going after his father, who wanted him dead, alone.
"Shun, Kageura, what have you got?"
Shun perked up at hearing Jin's voice coming through his communicator. "Four Rabits, one of them is dead. But I think they're from Kuga Yugo. The abilities they're using are just like the ones I faced from Kuga Yugo last night."
"Are they black?" Jin asked, but he already knew the answer. Aftokrator was too far out of reach to be sending Rabits here and unless more rads somehow got into the city, only Yuma and Yugo could have opened a Gate so far out of the Restricted Zone.
"Yes, and annoying as hell." Kageura griped, ignoring Shun's comment about Kuga Yugo. This was the first time he was hearing of it in this fight, but it also wasn't important to him where they came from. They just needed to die. "Also, that idiot junior of yours has vanished."
"You lost Yuma?" Jin snapped.
"It's not my job to keep track of him when I have Neighbors in the city." Kageura snapped back. "He lost his Border Trigger and refused to use his Black Trigger since Kido-san would get mad at him for using it outside the Restricted Zone so he wasn't of any help here anyway."
"Yuma doesn't care about that rule. He will activate his Black Trigger outside the Restricted Zone if there are enemies and there is no other choice." Konami said, thinking back to Shizuka City. It had been a surprise to seeing him using his Black Trigger when they finally found them that night, but Yuma insisted it was an emergency and it's not like Tamakoma was going to report him to HQ anyway.
"Huh?" Kageura snarled before he was forced to block a punch from one of the Rabits with his Scorpion. To his displeasure, his assumption earlier was right as his sword shattered. He had to jump back a few steps to get out of range of any more physical attacks coming his way. "Then why did he refuse to this time?"
"Because he knew this attack was his father's doing." Shun said, eyeing his surroundings warily as he stayed crouched behind the jungle gym. He wasn't ready to go dodge attacks and have this conversation at the same, like Kageura was doing. "He's been looking for him all day and saw the perfect opportunity while we were distracted to go after him."
Jin came to a stop on the roof, looking off in the distance towards where the fight was currently taking place. Arashiyama, Kitora, and Tamakoma-1 came to a stop a little ways in front of him, having not expected him to stop their hurried rush to the playground.
Reiji stared at Jin, who was staring off towards the setting sun. It was going to get dark soon which meant Mimics were going be able to come out soon. Taking this fight to the city meant if Mimics came out, they would be attracted out of the Restricted Zone because of all the agents that were currently active in the city. That couldn't be Kuga Yugo's plan though. According to Yuma, he didn't even recognize that he was a Mimic.
So, using agents to attract Mimics to the city wasn't his plan.
His goal then just had to be what it always was, Yuma. Yuma was in the city and Yugo was going for him.
The Rabits were used to distract Shun and Kageura while Yugo got to his son.
"Within the next week, I see you dying."
Jin frowned, hands clenching into fists at his side.
"There's only three Rabits left." Reiji said, turning his eyes towards where the playground was. "We'll go there. Jin, find Yuma."
Jin shot Reiji an appreciative look.
"Do you know where he will be?" Konami asked.
"I'm going to find him." Jin promised. "Make sure the Rabits don't get out of the park."
"Leave it to us." Karasuma replied before turning to Konami. "You should hit Yuma when this is all over. He's been way too reckless lately."
"Hit him? I'm going to lock him up in HQ when this is over!" Konami raged as she jumped to the next roof and took off towards the playground again, muttering promises of punishment to Yuma about his recklessness.
*Mimics*
Guilt gnawed at Yuma as he ran from the park, following after the familiar form of his father. Even after all these years, he could still recognize the back of his father with such ease. Guess that was what happened when he spent his whole childhood following after his father.
The sounds of the battle raging at the park he was abandoning almost made Yuma hesitate in his steps.
Almost.
The whole day was spent trying to find his dad while humoring Shun. Now that his father was finally appearing in front him, he couldn't give up this chance to help Shun and Kageura fight the Rabits. If he could settle things with his father, then this wouldn't have to happen again.
Besides, he was sure Border had already been alerted to the problem and reinforcements were on their way to assist Shun and Kageura.
Yuma wasn't stupid. The fact that Kuga Yugo was leaving the park meant he knew Yuma was following him and he wanted alone time with him. That was the purpose of the Rabits, to get the agents he was to be distracted.
Perhaps Yugo wanted another fight where no one would disturb them.
"Are you mad?"
Yuma looked up in surprise at his father's voice. Yugo never once stopped his stride or even looked over at Yuma, which was proof that he knew Yuma was following him.
When he didn't answer, Yugo did stop and half turned to look at Yuma. "I asked you a question, Yuma. Are you mad?"
Yuma came to a stop as well. Usually, the distance between him and his father wasn't something he ever thought about, but right now, it was a major concern. If he got too close, he feared that he would get stabbed by his dad's sword. He hadn't forgotten about what happened at Tamakoma. "You mean about how you attacked my home and hurt my friend? Or about how you keep attacking my allies when they're on defense duty?"
A smirk crossed Yugo's face as he shifted his attention towards the fight happening down the road at the park. "I told your little friend back there that you would come to me. You were never good at keeping out of things."
He...wasn't exactly wrong.
There was never anything that Yuma thought he couldn't handle growing up. He was willing to throw himself into every situation because he thought he couldn't lose so he was willing to interfere in everything. It was for that reason that he ran into a Black Trigger assassin and got himself so injured that his father had to pay the consequences to fix his mistake.
Since that mistake, Yuma learned to always be more cautious in battle. He took the time to step back and analyze the situation before he would make the decision of whether it was his problem or not.
When he first came to Japan and met his Captain, Yuma hounded on Osamu to not get involved in things he couldn't handle because Yuma already lived through what happened when getting involved in things that were too tough for him to handle. He didn't want to see Osamu get hurt doing the same thing that Yuma did.
It never worked though.
Instead, Yuma was taught by Osamu that he couldn't run away from problems that were too big for him to handle anymore. It was why he stayed and fought Viza. Even if he couldn't win that fight, he couldn't run away. That battle wasn't just about him. If he ran, Viza would have been free to go after his friends and they most likely would have lost the battle.
It was time to look at the bigger picture.
It wasn't just about him.
They were other people who would be put in danger if Yuma didn't act.
And right now, everyone at Border was in danger from Kuga Yugo. Yugo proved that himself when he attacked Tamakoma and by constantly going after agents on defense duty. This would only end when Yugo ended up dead or he got what he wanted.
*Mimics*
Konami came flying down the sky with her Meteor already active and flying towards the Rabits ahead of her. Despite not knowing that she was coming, the Rabits were already forming Shields above them to defend against the bullets raining down on them.
"Nice of you to show up." Kageura ducked behind the jungle gym with Shun to avoid getting hit by any of Konami's stray bullets.
Shun eyed Tamakoma-1 and Arashiyama and Kitora who were landing in the park and ducking behind the trees and jungle gym. "Where's Jin-san?"
"He's gone to find Yuma." Karasuma replied. "With all of us here, we can take down the Rabits without him."
Shun nodded his head, but a guilty look passed over his face. "I'm sorry we let him out of our sight. I didn't realize this attack was caused by his father until too late."
"It's not your fault Kuga-kun is being reckless." Kitora replied over the coms. "He is making his own choices in this. Allow Jin-san to take care of it. We need to focus on the Rabits."
"Be careful with them. These Rabits use Yuma's Black Trigger abilities." Konami warned.
"That would have been nice to know earlier." Shun muttered. "They have Lead Bullet as well."
Karasuma glanced at the jungle gym where the Lead Bullets were sticking out of it. "You don't say?"
"We'll take the one on the right." Arashiyama said.
"I got the left one." Konami said.
"We'll take the middle one then." Reji said, motioning to him and Karasuma. "Midorikawa, Kageura, help where needed."
"If we can get close." Shun muttered. Grasshopper appeared before him and he was slamming a foot onto it to launch himself into the air and over the jungle gym, once again drawing the attention of the Rabits.
As Shun launched himself behind the Rabits, Kitora launched herself at the Rabit she and Arashiyama chose. Being out in the open drew the attention of their Rabit to her while the other two stayed focused on Shun who was bouncing around the playground with his Grasshoppers. Whenever he got close to the Rabits, he tried to swipe at them with his Scorpions but wasn't able to do any damage against their armor.
In contrast, when Kitora approached her Rabit and she saw it reeling back its arm with a blue seal attached to it, even though she didn't know what the seal was as she didn't get informed of Yuma's Black Trigger abilities yet, she pulled her gun out and shot a wire towards the tree behind it. Once the wire was connected, she began to retract it as she crouched and let herself be pulled quickly towards the tree and away from the Rabit's punch which slammed into the ground.
The ground trembling beneath her had her glancing towards the crater that was now in the ground. Somehow, it wasn't surprising to her that the seal increased the Rabit's strength. The fact that its strength increased made more sense than having one firing high powered shots at her, like the one during the invasion.
Kicking off of the tree, Kitora shot her wire towards the Rabit's arm. With her wire attaching to its arm by wrapping around it a few times, she yanked its arm back before attaching the wire's other end to the ground. If the Rabit used another strength seal, the wire wouldn't hold it back, but it would buy them a second or two.
A Grasshopper appeared in front of her, and without questioning it, Kitora dropped her foot on it and let herself be launched into the air just as her Captain came out from his cover and unleashed his Meteor at the Rabit. The Meteor created a huge explosion at the Rabit. Shun and Kitora floated in the sky, bouncing with the Grasshoppers that Shun was throwing down for them to keep them above the explosion.
With the explosion dying down, Kitora eyed the Rabit that was still standing. At least the Shield that it managed to create didn't manage to protect it completely. Arashiyama's Meteor managed to shatter that Shield and blow half of its body off.
Shun glanced over at Kitora, lifting his hand up to show his Grasshopper was active. Kitora nodded, allowing Shun to sling multiple Grasshoppers in the air. He and Kitora crisscrossed over each other as they used the Grasshoppers to rapidly approach the Rabit. Despite being injured, the Rabit wasn't willing to just die as a Bolt seal appeared in its mouth.
"Dodge it!" Shun shouted, throwing more Grasshopper pads towards Kitora, giving her the chance to jump through the air and jump around the bullets flying through the air. Since the Rabit could only target one of them with that attack at a time and he was missing the left side of his body, Shun used Grasshopper to wrap around behind the Rabit, slamming his Scorpion into the eye, effectively ending its attack and killing it.
"So much easier with long ranged attacks." Shun cheered, shooting a grin towards Arashiyama, who smiled back at him as Kitora dropped down to the ground next to him.
Kitora stared down at the downed Rabit. It truly did help to have allies fighting alongside her. She only managed to destroy one Rabit in the invasion, but was forced to injure herself to just accomplish that one kill. Those injuries then hindered her when three more Rabits appeared in battle and she lost instantly to them. It was a failure she was ashamed of, but none of them had been able to predict so many specialized types of Rabits like that.
She had the skill to fight on her own, but after her failure with stopping the Ilgar alone and getting captured by Rabits, she found a new type of appreciation for having her comrades by her side to help her. She was never against teamwork, but it wasn't always possible which was why individual skill was just as important as knowing how to coordinate with her allies. All of those skills were important, and it truly showed why.
*Mimics*
Yuma twisted towards where he left his friends when he started to hear the big explosions going off. He and Yugo were pretty far from the park now, and yet, he could still see the blinding light from the explosion followed by the bullets flashing through the air. With those type of explosions, it had to mean agents with bullet Triggers had arrived as backup.
"Your friends sure are showy." Yugo said amused.
"What is it you want?" Yuma demanded. He did not follow after his father for small talk. Honestly, he didn't even know why they were talking. When he left Border HQ this morning to find his father, it was with the intention of ending this situation. Kuga Yugo couldn't be allowed to wander around, attacking Border anymore.
But, Hyuse was right to call Yuma out on his inability to fight Yugo seriously. Not just Hyuse though. Everyone was saying he wouldn't be able to do it.
And they were all right.
Yuma couldn't even bring himself to activate his Trigger right now. He froze when the Rabits appeared and he was freezing now in the face of his father.
And what reason was there to?
Besides summoning Rabits to distract the agents, Yugo hadn't shown Yuma an ounce of hostility and just looked so amused about everything. That smile Yugo was currently giving Yuma, it seemed to always be a part of Yuma's memories of his father.
When he would step into Yuma's fights to help him.
When he was warning him of danger and to stay out of it.
When he was giving his life for Yuma's.
There was never a moment where Yugo wouldn't smile at his son.
"Your friend didn't tell you?" Yugo asked.
"He said you wanted me dead." Yuma confirmed, dragging his eyes away from the battle raging in the distance so he could look back at his father. "If that's the case, you should have killed me at Tamakoma the other day."
Yugo's smile widened at his son. "When did I ever say I wanted you dead, Yuma? I told your friend you wouldn't survive the week. I never said I would be the one to kill you." His eyes drifted down towards Yuma's gloved hand. "At least, not directly."
Yuma stared at his father in confusion. It was hard to understand that purpose of Mimics that were made into weapons. The act of attacking old allies but still seeming like the person when they were alive made it difficult to follow their train of thought. Yugo very clearly attacked Tamakoma Branch the other day with the intention of locating Yuma. What was the point of that, if not to kill Yuma?
"You've had to have realized by now." He said, stepping closer to his son, getting rid of any distance that had been between them, and grabbed Yuma's wrist to pull it up between them.
Instead of resisting and trying to pull his arm free, Yuma just followed the action, staring at his arm that was held up between them. Underneath his glove and sleeves were the cracks that were spidering along his body. They were hidden and Yuma hadn't told anyone about them, but Yugo was acting like he knew what Yuma was hiding under his layers. Well, unless he was vying for the ring that was hidden under the glove.
The father-son duo just stared at each other. Yuma didn't want to admit to anything so he was waiting to see if Yugo would say anything. The rule was never to admit anything without the other person saying something that clearly said they knew what was going on. If he spoke and Yugo really didn't know, then he was just informing him of something he didn't need to know.
But nothing was said.
Instead, a bullet was slamming into a Shield that had appeared to protect Yugo's head. Yuma turned his head in the direction that the bullet had come from, not that it did anything for him. Whoever the sniper was, they were very well hidden in the buildings and most likely already on the move after their shot had failed to hit Yugo.
"Should have guessed that wouldn't have worked. I heard Toma-san's attempted snipe failed the other day too."
Yuma looked in the other direction to see Miwa and Yoneya had appeared on the scene, leaving him blinking in surprise. If they were here, that sniper had to have been Narasaka or Kodera.
"Yo, Kuga, is this your father? You guys share the same eyes." Yoneya greeted cheerfully.
"Take this seriously. Kuga Yugo has already defeated multiple squads." Miwa scolded, keeping his eyes locked on the Mimic, a scowl in place, as he placed a hand on the hilt of his sword, but he didn't pull it out yet.
"What are you doing here?" Yuma asked surprised.
"Just happened to be in the area when the explosion started going off. Saw you walking away from them so we decided to follow you since it seems the enemies over there are already being taken care of." Yoneya explained, eyeing the hold Yugo had on Yuma's arm between them. It was quite concerning how Yuma wasn't even acknowledging it. He did remember that this was a Trion Soldier and not someone he should be acting familiar with, right?
Yugo looked at the agents in annoyance. Why did it seem like there were just Border agents all over the place? He just wanted the time to be able to talk privately with his son. "Sorry, but I'm not in the mood to entertain agents today." Yugo said as he raised his free hand, a blue seal appearing on the back of it. "Gate!"
Yuma watched the Gate open above them, releasing a horde of Marmods onto the city. This was exactly what he feared would happen if his father was left unchecked. Forgetting the fact that he shouldn't have the Trion available to open this many Gates and call forth so many Trion Soldiers so often, it was putting the city in danger.
Though, this was on Yuma. He came into the city to find his father, and his father wanted him alone, so he would do whatever he needed to get the agents to leave them alone. He should have never have let the argument with Shun wane at HQ. He should have snapped at him harder and left him alone there and gone out into the city by himself. At least then, Yugo wouldn't have felt the need to bring so many Trion Soldiers into the city just so he could talk to Yuma alone.
It would be so much easier if it was just Yugo alone they had to deal with.
Yuma went to twist his wrist free, but the pressure of Yugo's grip coupled with the twisting movement had Yuma feeling the cracks protesting on his arm and he froze in fear. Usually when his body broke, it healed instantly, but his regenerative ability has made the decision to go on vacation. What would happen if the cracks broke anymore on his arm? Would his arm fall off? If he lost his arm now, he wouldn't be getting it back if his healing didn't kick back in, but even worse than that, was his Black Trigger on his finger. If his arm fell now, Yugo would have his hand and the Black Trigger. Not that it mattered since Yugo could already use the Black Trigger abilities, but Yuma did need it if he didn't want to die faster than what Jin had predicted.
Yugo yanked Yuma closer to him before refocusing his attention on Miwa and Yoneya. Both agents were looking from him to the Marmods separating them. "If I'm free, we should fight sometime. I'm curious to see the strength of Border nowadays, but for now, I have business with my son. Bound, double!"
Yoneya watched in surprise as Yugo launched himself away from the area with Yuma. "Did...Did Kuga just get kidnapped by his father? Tamakoma is going to kill us!"
Miwa didn't reply as he was busy blocking the Marmod's blades that were trying to stab him through the head.
