A/N: I don't own World Trigger

Mimics

Chapter 20: Contradiction

"Why do we have to walk everywhere?"

A smile tugged at Yugo's lips when he felt the small hands latch onto his leg. "How else would you suggest we get around, Yuma?" He looked down into his young son's big eyes so full of the wonder of life still. Being only seven years old, Yuma still didn't know just how cruel and harsh the world could be. It wouldn't take long for him to learn. The Neighbor's world was a tough environment to live in, but Yugo would try to get Yuma to stay innocent as long as possible.

"Hmmm," Yuma seemed to doing his best to come up with an answer, so Yugo left him to it as he continued to walk while dragging his son, who was still attached to his leg. "We could ride the animals!"

"And make them do all the work?" Yugo looked down at Yuma, feeling amused as he saw that he was doing all the work for Yuma, who didn't look too eager to begin walking on his own again.

"Well, they probably have stronger legs."

Yugo snorted. "I always enjoyed taking trains around."

Yuma blinked in confusion. "Trains?"

"Hmm," Yugo hummed to himself. Vehicles like trains and cars weren't really a thing in the Neighbor's world, at least he's never been to a country that had them. It was a difficult thing to explain to a child who would have no idea what vehicles were. "In Japan, we have these tracks that run all over the country, and on these tracks are the trains which are multiple connected cars that are being pulled by a locomotive car which houses the power of the train."

Confusion continued to shine in Yuma's eyes, which didn't surprise Yugo at all. Without having ever seen vehicles, there was no easy way to explain it to Yuma.

"What's a car?"

"It's a vehicle with wheels on it that is powered by an engine that the people in my world use to travel." Yugo replied, smiling as he leaned down to pluck his son off his leg and pulled him into his arms. "You would love it since you could sit down in it as we traveled."

"So, it's like our ship?" Yuma asked.

"That's a good comparison."

Yuma wrapped his arms around Yugo's neck, tilting his head back to look into his father's face. "Are they fun to ride?"

Yugo's eyes sparkled in amusement. "I think they are quite fun. Maybe a bit crowded during certain times of day, but it is certainly a lot faster than walking everywhere."

"We should get trains here then." Yuma said.

A light laugh escaped Yugo. "It's not that easy, Yuma."

*Mimics*

"Is there something special about this train station?" Mogami asked, pushing a piece of rubble around with his foot as he stared around the abandoned railway station.

Yugo brushed his hand over the post as he looked at the rundown station. From his understanding, this station was part of an area of Mikado City that was called the Restricted Zone. It was an area blocked off by Border who tried to contain their fights with the Neighbors in this area to keep the civilians out of harm's way.

The moment he had arrived in Mikado City, things have been so strange to him from the Restricted Zone to the giant Border base in the center of the Restricted Zone to the number of agents that were running around. It looked like in the time he was away from Japan, a lot had happened to get Border to grow into such a large and powerful organization.

It was hard to grasp all these new changes while trying to make sense of the thoughts whirling through his mind that were leaving him with nothing but confusion during his first few days back in Japan.

"I used to tell Yuma a lot of stories about Japan." Yugo crouched down and looked over the ledge at the rusted tracks below him. "One of the things that fascinated him the most were the trains. It was one of the things he wanted to see the most if he ever came here."

"I'm surprised you even had a son. With your obsession with Border, training, and learning everything about the Neighborhood, I thought a woman would never catch your eye." Mogami teased.

Yugo sent a smirk over his shoulder at his friend. "And I see you went and found yourself a pupil."

"More like he accosted me in the streets." Mogami said, though amusement was rolling off of him in waves. "I saw it in his eyes that day that if I just walked away, I would have been stalked and harassed by that boy endlessly."

Yugo laughed lightly for a few seconds before the amusement he felt was washed away. It had been so long since he last saw his friend, but it was still distressing to hear from that boy that Mogami had died. Mogami was supposed to protect Yuma for him if he died, but he wasn't here when Yuma came. At least it seemed like Kido and the others were still around.

With his old friends here, Yuma would be safe with Border.

Yuma was alive and safe.

As his father, that knowledge should thrill Yugo, especially since the last time he saw his son, he was missing limbs and bleeding out so fast from his injuries. There had been no time for Yugo to think. All he saw was his son barely hanging onto life and he had to move quickly to avoid watching his only son die.

Making the decision to create a Black Trigger to save Yuma was the last thing he remembered doing.

Well, now it was the last thing he remembered. The day he woke up in Japan, nothing had made any sense to him. He couldn't remember anything of what happened or where his son had gone. One moment he was in Calvaria, the next in a rundown part of Mikado City. It had been very disorientating to say the least.

Until the memories of his last moment alive began to return to him.

From there, the pieces began to form the full picture.

When he finally found Yuma at the old Border base, there had been such a huge relief coursing through him to see that he was alive and his last-ditch effort had actually succeeded. When he went to save Yuma's life, there was no guarantee that his plan would work to save him. For all he knew, he would have died right alongside Yuma and he would never know. To Yugo, though, that was a better deal than just standing around doing nothing while the life left his son.

And yet, despite all the effort he had put into save Yuma back then, when he arrived in Mikado City and saw that Yuma wasn't with him, it wasn't a drive to find his son and make sure he was okay that had him moving. Instead, he was driven by the urge to find his son and see him dead. That feeling of seeing that Yuma was killed...it made no sense to Yugo. He knew that he loved his son more than anything else in the world.

Because it didn't make sense, the moment the Border agents arrived during his attack on Tamakoma, Yugo stole the chance to run. He had the upper hand, he had Yuma at his mercy, but why? Why was his mind screaming to kill him while his heart was screaming to stall his hand? He said goodbye to his son, even though he didn't want to.

He wanted time with his son to try to figure out what was going on.

Unfortunately, his attack on Yuma's base drove the agents from it and he was hiding inside of Border's main HQ. Rather than fight all the agents, Yugo made the decision to fight the agents he found in the city. If he went around killing Yuma's friends, his son would surely come to him. If his friends were being hurt, Yuma wouldn't just stand by and do nothing.

Even as he made the plans to force Yuma to want to find him, Yugo could feel his strength increasing with each battle he fought. He had assumed his increase in strength had come from the sudden ability of being able to use a Black Trigger that he didn't own. Yugo was no idiot. He knew the Black Trigger abilities he had been utilizing were the ones in the Black Trigger he left behind for his son.

Yugo could feel it throbbing through his blood when he was near Yuma. The Black Trigger that Yuma carried on his person was resonating with his person. His skin was itching to grab the Black Trigger from Yuma, and it was hard to resist the urge to steal it, but he had to. That Black Trigger was created to keep Yuma alive. Yugo couldn't just take it from him.

Nothing about his feelings towards his son were making sense to him.

At least, they weren't making sense the first day he was here.

Then, Yuma started to mention Mimics and the Mimics began to back him up when he fought the Border agents. In his heart, Yugo knew that he was a Mimic. There was nothing else it could be if he remembered he created a Black Trigger for Yuma and now suddenly he was here. The only explanation that Yugo knew of would be a Mimic.

But it wasn't the Mimics that Yuma was thinking.

The Mimics of Tropoi weren't capable of this.

The Trion Soldier from Tropoi didn't know hostility and didn't survive for more than a few hours. Yugo was here for days and the desire to see his son die was still pulsating through him. Nothing of what he felt matched what Yugo knew about the Trion Soldiers created in Tropoi. When those Trion Soldiers Transformed, they weren't supposed to have any different feelings from when they were alive. So, why was Yugo feeling like this? He was so sure he loved his son more than anything which is why he gave his life for Yuma to live without a second thought.

No...why was he even asking?

It was a long time ago, but Yugo clearly remembered what happened.

"That boy, the one who is your pupil, do you want to see him dead?" Yugo asked. He was sure he knew of the reason why he was feeling like this, but he needed more confirmation. Mimics were what these Trion Soldiers were called, but they weren't the proper Trion Soldier that he knew from Tropoi.

"Jin?" Mogami asked confused. "He is less of a concern to me than the Black Trigger he holds. When we were facing off against him, I could feel it calling to me." His hand curled open and shut a few times as he imagined holding that Black Trigger he saw in Jin's hands.

"The Black Trigger." Yugo mused.

"It needs destroyed." Mogami said, surprising Yugo.

"Destroying the Black Trigger you created." Yugo said, not towards Mogami as it was more of a statement to himself.

Though his statement was met with confusion from Mogami. Seeing that confusion shining in his friend's eyes had Yugo turning away from his friend and looking down at his hand. When he arrived here, the only thing running through his mind was needing to find Yuma. He couldn't even remember what had happened or that he had died in the beginning. As the days went by, his mind became clearer and the memories of his last moments with his son returned to him, but the need for Yuma to die never left him.

The point was that he lived in a haze of hunting Yuma down the first day before everything began to come back to him. If it took him time to begin to remember, surely the same could be said for Mogami. He probably didn't even remember that he died to create a Black Trigger right now.

"You think I created the sword?" Mogami asked as he joined his friend in crouching down by the ledge.

"That's what that boy said." Yugo replied.

Mogami shook his head. "It takes your life to create a Black Trigger. As you can see, I am very much alive."

Yugo eyed his friend out of the corner of his eyes. Unlike him, Mogami didn't know what Mimics were. The Mimics were something Yugo was introduced to after he had left Border so Mogami would have never heard of them so he wouldn't be able to connect the dots like Yugo did. If things went the same for Mogami as it did Yugo, he would eventually remember his death, but wouldn't be able to realize what it meant.

"Aren't you questioning why you have an urge to see the destruction of a Black Trigger? Or why you wanted to get away from your pupil?" Yugo asked.

"I hope you're not taking me for an idiot." Mogami replied, dropping down from the crouch to sit, swinging his legs over the ledge of the station's platform. "The last time I saw Jin, he was fourteen. He looks nowhere near as young as he did back then. Some time has clearly passed from the last thing I remembered, something that made Jin want to look at me like he did." He dropped a hand down to the hilt of his sword, gripping it tightly. "And now my blood is throbbing and screaming at me to see the destruction of his blade. Nothing is making sense to me which is why I needed to run. I need to think."

Yugo stood up and walked away from Mogami, stuffing his hand into his pocket to find the Trigger inside it, wrapping his hand around it tightly. "I can answer some of your questions," He pulled out the sleek green Trigger he picked up the other day and stared down at it. "But knowing the answers may not make it any easier for you."

"They do say ignorance is bliss." Mogami replied, leaning back on his hands to look up at the clouds drifting by in the sky. "But refusing to learn the truth is dangerous. Knowledge is one of the most powerful tools to have since you can't make any decisions about what to do when you don't know what is going on."

"True, but free choice isn't an option for us." Yugo said, turning his eyes towards the sky, taking in the stars flickering in the sky as the clouds moved by. "Not anymore at least."

Mogami glanced at Yugo, but couldn't tell what was going on with him as his back was still turned away from him. Since they had met up, something had clearly been bothering Yugo, not that Mogami was any better off. One moment he is in Asteria with his comrades to help their allies and next thing he knew he was opening his eyes to a much older Jin glaring at him. There was something in between those two memories that he was missing, and it seemed Yugo was convinced that it was Mogami creating a Black Trigger.

"It's likely you never heard of them, but there is a Trion Soldier called Inchoate." Yugo started. "They are a fairly new type of Trion Soldier, but they weren't created to be used as weapons like Marmods or Banders."

Mogami's eyes rolled over the stars, looking for the constellations that Yugo used to love looking at. If he imagined they were at HQ, it could feel just like the old days before Yugo left Border and all the members were hanging out on the roof, just relaxing and having a cookout.

Sadly, reminiscing the past would get him nowhere. His past was what made him into the person he was, but he couldn't live in the past. What he needed to be doing was looking at the present and seeing where it took him.

And right now, that was listening to Yugo explain about Inchoates.

"If Inchoates aren't used to attack, then what is the purpose of them? It takes a lot of resources to create Trion Soldiers. If they aren't helpful in a country's military, they wouldn't bother to invest the time and resources into them." Mogami replied.

"You've been to the Neighbor's world so you know how the wars rage on constantly over there." Yugo turned back to his friend as he sat down, leaning his back against the post with his legs stretched out in front of him towards Mogami. "There is so much death happening there. The people there are no strangers to loss, but that doesn't make it any easier. There are times when the corpses of those fallen in battle are so brutalized that it can be traumatizing for that to be the last way you see someone you love."

Looking down at the Trigger in his hand, Yugo squeezed it. The image of his son bleeding out would forever be burned into his mind. If his son had died and Yugo had lived, that last memory of Yuma would have been such a painful experience. Yugo was no stranger to battles or death, but he had never seen someone so beaten outside of their Trion bodies. Seeing that blood pooling around his unresponsive, injured son was the worst thing he had ever seen.

"The Inchoate were designed with the purpose of taking the memories of someone you love who has passed away, the good and bad moments you have shared with them with the purpose of allowing them to transform into that person. It allows you to spend a few hours with them where there is no battle and no injuries to distract you. A final moment to say goodbye forever." Yugo explained, smiling sadly. "Truly a bittersweet moment for the ones who are alive, but it is meant to be a better memory than seeing their bloody corpse as the last memory you have of them."

"They sound very farfetched, Yugo." Mogami said, keeping his eyes locked on the stars above them. The concept of Inchoate didn't sound horrible, not compared to some of the other stuff that Mogami had seen in the Neighbor's world, but Mogami just could not process how it was possible for a Trion Soldier to transform into someone. It sounded impossible, but if he considered the fact that people could convert all of their Trion and their life force into a Black Trigger, then honestly, anything could be possible. "What would make someone want to create something like that?"

"Grief is a very hard emotion to deal with for everyone. It is like a powerful current pulling you under the water and not giving you a chance to break the surface to breath. The Inchoate were created with the intention of giving people that chance to break through it, to find that closure they need." Yugo knocked his head back against the pillar, eyes sliding shut with a soft smile as he thought of the gentle, warm smile of the only person who ever got Yugo of thinking that he might be alright with settling down. "Inchoate were created in Tropoi a few years ago by my wife."

That got Mogami to look over at Yugo in surprise. A woman smart enough to design a Trion Soldier. That seemed like the type of girl that Yugo would be attracted to. He smiled softly at his friend, glad that he had managed to find love at some point in his life.

"Shortly after I met her, she had lost her mother who she had been very close to. The pain of the loss caused her to bury herself in her work to create the Inchoate. She wanted the chance to see her mother and get one last hug from her before she had to give up on her forever."

"Did she succeed?"

"In creating the Inchoate? Yes, but she didn't take the chance to use them to see her mother."

Mogami raised a brow. "She put in all that effort to create them but didn't use them for her own purposes?"

Yugo stared off into the distance. "Things changed as the years passed. To be honest, when she began the project, it was with the intention of Inchoate taking over the life of the person that was lost so they could be back in their loved one's life. That is why their official name when the concept was first designed was Aionia. My wife was desperate to have her mother back, but as the years went on and we got to know each other, her thoughts on the matter changed because together, we had formed a new dream that helped her heal from her grief."

Mogami eyed Yugo thoughtfully.

"Creating the Inchoate was her job though. She got the money and resources and spent years working on it so she couldn't back out because her opinion had changed. She finished her creation of them as was her job, but she changed the design so instead of the Inchoate staying forever, they could only last a few hours so it truly would be a way to say a last goodbye, and thus they became known as Inchoate by her coworkers since she refused to take the project any farther than that. It took her so long, but, despite the pushback from her commanders to take the Inchoate to the next level which would be Aionia, everlasting life, she closed the project. It was her decision to end the project at that point so she could focus on her new dream. Yuma. Our son filled her life with a new light and she could finally focus on him."

Time was what everyone needed to heal from grief. Grief wouldn't just go away overnight. Even using an Inchoate to say goodbye wouldn't ease the pain completely. In fact, it might make it harder to let go, but everyone dealt with grief differently so for some, the Inchoate might be helpful to them.

"How does your story of Inchoate relate to answering my questions?" Mogami asked, though he had a good idea of what the purpose of this story was. If Yugo was convinced Mogami created a Black Trigger upon death, but he was here now, the only thing that connected all of this was Mogami being an Inchoate.

"I don't want to believe it, but I remember dying for my son and now I'm here." Yugo looked down at his hand. There was a time when his body had turned to dust when he converted everything he had left to give life back to his son. "It has to be the same for you. You just transformed recently so your memories of what happened are probably a bit hazy so you can't remember your last moments."

Moving his eyes back to the stars, Mogami felt a frown pull at his lips. "If what you are saying is true and Inchoate aren't supposed to be used as weapons, why do I feel this urge to destroy the Black Trigger I created?"

"I don't know the answer to that." Yugo said, rubbing his eyes. "I feel a violent urge towards my son, but this isn't how the Inchoate were designed to be. They supposed to be an exact replica of appearances and feelings. What we're feeling now isn't correct. But..."

"But?" Mogami prompted.

"There was an incident that made me take Yuma and leave Tropoi behind forever." Yugo said. "One night while my wife was at the lab, Tropoi was attacked and her Inchoate design was stolen. She didn't survive the attack. Yuma knew his mother got killed, but that was all I ever told him about that night."

Mogami hummed, looking down at his hand, opening and closing it a few times. "So, you think the design was changed by the people who stole it?"

"I know it was." Yugo replied. "Meraki is the country that stole the design and twisted it into the Trion Soldier known as Mimic. I never even refer to them as Inchoate anymore since that doesn't exist anymore. All that remains are the Mimics." He turned his eyes towards the sky, gripping Yuma's Trigger tightly in his pocket. "I never did anything about it though. I couldn't go on a full assault against Meraki for their thievery and murder of my wife when I had Yuma to look after. My wife would have wanted me to focus on him instead of getting revenge for her." He scoffed softly, turning away from the sky. "Even if we realize it though, there is no free will. We can't stop ourselves from wanting to fulfill the programming that is designed into us as Mimics."

"To destroy the Black Triggers." Mogami said softly, though his eyes were locked onto Yugo.

"To kill Yuma."

"You've been here for days, and yet, you haven't killed him." Mogami pointed out. Surely, if Yugo was able to resist killing Yuma for this long, there was a way to stop this.

"Because I don't need to strike him down. He'll be dead soon enough."

Mogami eyed Yugo. "It's not what you want though."

"But it's the order."

"But why is it the order?"

"Why did someone steal the Mimics design and change it?" Yugo retorted before sighing. "I don't know those answers. I just know when I see my son, I want to see him dead, but at the same time, I want to protect him." Closing his eyes again, Yugo pulled his hand holding Yuma's Trigger to his chest, gripping it tightly. "But I'm not programmed to protect. Perhaps once upon a time, Mimics could have done something like that, but whoever stole the design and reworked it had other ideas in place it seems."

Dropping his eyes down to the Kogetsu blade at his waist, Mogami gripped the handle tightly in his hand. It was an usually cruel tactic done by whoever changed the design of the Mimics. To use the deceased loved ones to fight the battles for them. It wasn't just cruel on those who were living and had to fight the ones they already lost once. To bring back the deceased and take away their free will to force them into fights against the ones they love was just so harsh.

Mogami didn't want to be forced to fight and try to kill his old friends.

"Then what if we just don't go near Border?" Mogami suggested.

"If that was possible, I would, but the order to attack and destroy is too strong. I can't resist it forever." Yugo looked down at his shoulder where his clothes had been cut by Jin when one of his slashes pierced him. The cut had healed pretty quickly after the battle. It was the first time he had gotten hurt since he came back, so he didn't expect the wound to heal and he had to wonder how it happened. More than that, though, he was amused that the first person to land a hit on him was Mogami's pupil.

"Is that why you were fighting Jin and your son when I arrived?"

"I wanted to see Yuma, but it dissolved into a fight when the agents arrived." Yugo replied, chuckling at the end though there was no humor to it. "If it wasn't for them getting in the way, I probably would have hurt Yuma at some point. I am grateful to them."

These agents were trying to kill Yugo, and yet, he was glad for them. He would rather get killed by them again then to see his son die by his hand. If the programming overwhelmed him too much and he ended up killing his son, it would destroy Yugo. He didn't want to see everything he had done for Yuma to go to waste. As much as he wanted to be with his son and see all his friends again, he didn't belong in this world.

He had lived his life and he had died fulfilling the most important role of his life- being a father. If he were to kill his son, it would defeat the purpose of everything he had done and erase who he was. However, the Mimic programming was ingrained too deeply into him for him to resist the burning sensation of the orders running through him.

Yugo didn't want to fight Border. He didn't want to hurt his son. He didn't want to attack his home.

But the programming didn't care what Yugo wanted.

He had been fighting so hard to resist causing too much damage, but he couldn't avoid Border forever. If he attacked the agents on duty, it helped lessen the pain of resisting as much as he did. He always had to retreat when he felt the strength to resist the pull of the programming that was telling him to go after his 'enemies.'

But, just how long could he fight against the programming?

What Yugo needed was for himself to be killed by Border. If that happened, the city would be safe. Border would be safe. And most importantly, Yuma would be safe and free from the suffering of seeing a Trion Soldier with his father's face.

Unfortunately, it wasn't so easy to get killed. The part of him that was the Trion Soldier was fighting him every step of the way and wouldn't let him drop his guard in battle. It forced him to give everything he had to win those battles. When he was in front of those agents, Yugo just couldn't think of anything but the fight.

The fight.

The need to find Yuma and see him die.

The destruction of the Black Trigger he left behind.

It was torturous to live like this.

*Mimics*

"What made you want to join Border?"

Mogami lowered his sword as he dropped out of the stance that he was practicing so he could look over at Jin, who had sat down for a break a while ago. "Why do you ask?"

Jin glanced away from those intense eyes to instead fiddle with the sleeve of his jacket. He was still fairly new to being a member of Border so while everything he was seeing was interesting, it was also strange. He was currently in a Trion body, but it didn't feel any different to his real body, and yet, he could lose limbs on this body and still be fine. So weird. "My Side Effect allows me to see anyone's future. I can tell where anyone is going in life, but I never know what they've been through to get that point." He gave a small shrug. "I guess I'm just curious about a person's past since I can't see it."

Mogami smiled. "Well, there's nothing wrong with wanting to know more about your friends, but just know this, if you ask and they aren't comfortable speaking about it, don't push them on it, okay? Life isn't easy, and can in fact, be quite cruel so not everyone has an easy time opening up about themselves."

Jin nodded his head to show his understanding.

"But, to answer your question," Mogami sheathed his sword and slid down the wall to seat next to Jin. "I actually formed Border with some friends of mine in the past. We happened to meet a Neighbor and became good friends with him. He told us all about the Neighbor's world, so naturally, we wanted to form connections with them. There's a lot we still don't understand about that world and it's hard for us since we're still so new at using their technology, but it's exciting, isn't it? I guess, besides wanting to make those connections, there is also a thrill to me about getting to learn so many amazing things about this new world."

"Have you ever been there?" Jin asked curiously.

"A few times." Mogami smiled softly. "Just like this world, there are so many different countries over there and each place has their own unique culture. It's amazing to witness. But, just like with the countries in this world, the countries over there aren't always at peace. There are a lot of wars over there so to survive, you need to have a lot of training before you go there."

Jin hummed softly as he looked upwards as he thought. "I wonder if I would like it over there."

"You can't know the answer to that until you've seen it. However," Mogami pushed himself to his feet and rested his hand on the hilt of his sword. "You won't be going near that world until you've actually managed to hit me at least one time in a fight."

"You're too fast." Jin whined.

"No," Mogami smirked, drawing his Kogetsu blade from the sheath. "You're just slow."

As he jumped to his feet, Jin's Kogetsu came swinging at Mogami, but was blocked and pushed above his head. With Mogami locking their swords above them, it gave Mogami the space to lean forward into Jin's face with a teasing smile. "Even your surprise attacks are slow. Am I perhaps failing as your mentor?"

There were times when Mogami had joked that he had failed Jin as a mentor. Well, there were partly a joke, but also a way to push Jin harder. He had known how much Jin respected him as a mentor so if he made questions about him failing in Jin's training, Jin would try even harder to improve and prove Mogami wrong.

It became his way of pushing Jin.

But, now, it was looking like that Mogami was truly going to fail as a mentor. Yugo was perhaps the person that Mogami trusted the most out of everyone he knew, even though it had been years since they last seen each other. Their friendship/rivalry was always so strong that no matter the distance or time that has passed, Mogami knew that Yugo would always be on his side. If Yugo was saying that as Mimics, they had no free will, then Mogami would believe him on that. Honestly, he had felt it burning in his blood when he saw Jin standing there with a Black Trigger. Yugo was only just confirming what he was feeling.

Being a Mimic with no control of his actions when faced with the ones considered the 'enemy' was the only thing that could make any of this make any sense.

There was a battle raging on in the area. Mogami knew that the battle was still going, but he couldn't hear it anymore. He felt like he was swimming under water with how all the sound around him was muted.

At least the pain in his body was dimming.

In the back part of his mind, he realized that was bad.

Death was coming.

Mogami could see it from the way his vision was beginning to black out.

One moment he was staring at the sky and the next when he opened his eyes back up it was to see Jin leaning down over him, tears filling his eyes, though the boy refused to let them fall.

He watched Jin's mouth move, but couldn't hear what it was he said.

Despite the pain and his mind beginning to go numb, Mogami forced a smile on his face for his precious pupil. "You'll be alright." He gripped his Trigger tightly. Jin was here. He could take hold of it. It would help him survive this battle. "You're far stronger than you realize, Yuichi. You've made me so proud."

Mogami's body snapped forward, leaving him grasping at his head, heavy breaths escaping him. That day he died to help his allies. That day he laid on the ground, having been defeated in battle and left for dead, and all he could do was stare up at Jin. His young pupil who didn't deserve to see his mentor die.

The created Black Trigger with wind blades.

It was his.

*Mimics*

"Everything about them is a contradiction."

"Why do you say that?" Hyuse asked, not at all surprised anymore at the frustration that coated Yuma's face.

"If a Mimic's true purpose was to say a final goodbye to someone who died, then what of a Mimic who is designed to be a weapon? They still transform into the deceased and have those memories since they are meant to deceive you, but they still act like they love you." Yuma grumbled.

Osamu leaned forward, staring at Yuma. "Are you sure you're not just seeing things, Kuga? You, yourself, said that you were too close to this so maybe you aren't a good judge of how your father is."

Yuma glared at Osamu. "And who would be a good judge of deciding how my dad is acting as a Mimic compared to his self when he was alive? You certainly can't be."

Shiori moved from the bed she had been sitting on with Chika and Osamu to join Yuma on his bed. This movement finally got Yuma to glance at her, but he quickly looked back at his captain. Unfortunately for Yuma, Shiori was not going to accept his avoidance anymore. She grabbed Yuma's hands and pulled on them until Yuma was looking back at her. "We're not trying to fight you, Yuma. It sounded like you suffered a lot as a child when you lost your father. It's only natural you would want him back so you want to latch onto the Mimic of your father."

"I know what I'm feeling, and that's the problem." Yuma snapped, pulling his hands from Shiori's. "I know he's not the father I lost. My dad would have never attacked Tamakoma like he did. He would have never hurt you like that. This isn't him. I know that, and yet, I still long for him to be real."

For a moment, Shiori just stared at her friend that had avoided her since he saved her at Tamakoma Branch. The normally confident Yuma just looked so pained and stressed. It was something she had never once seen on him since she met him. Yuma always stood so tall and strong, like there was never anything that could get to him. At least, that was what he always portrayed to all of them. It actually reminded her a lot of Jin, who everyone looked to for answers when they were in the middle of a big attack, and Jin always had to be strong and confident as he worked his way through the paths he needed to set the agents on. They were all carrying way too much on their shoulders and if they continued like this, that pressure would drag them all the way down and pin them underneath it with no way to escape.

Taking Yuma by surprise, Shiori lunged forward to wrap her arms around him in a tight hug. "And I don't blame you for any of it. Even before I knew how your father had died, I didn't blame you. This isn't going to be easy for you, but it doesn't mean you have to go at this alone. Your friends can be your strength to get through this." She pulled back, grabbing Yuma's shoulders to shake them violently. "But I swear, if you try to avoid me for days on end again for something that wasn't your fault, I will hunt you down and throw you back into that river."

"Sounds fun. I'll help you throw him in the river." Hyuse said.

Yuma grabbed Shiori's wrists to get her to stop shaking him so he could shoot a look over at Hyuse. "No thanks. I think I've taken enough swims in that river."

"Then stop doing stupid things." Hyuse retorted.

"Shouldn't be too hard since Yuma-kun has agreed to stay away from his father from now on." Chika said, shooting a smile at Yuma, forcing her eyes to stay on his face and not drift to the cracks on his neck. "You're going to trust us to help you now?"

Yuma's grip on Shiori's wrists tightened for a moment before he was placing them gently in Shiori's lap as he turned to look at Chika. "I didn't run off because of lack of trust in you guys helping me. It's like Shiori said. I'm struggling with my feelings for my dad about whether I can talk to him and trust in him. He has been taking up all thought space in my head. I wasn't even thinking about you guys."

"Why would you want to trust him?" Hyuse asked confused. "He attacked you at Tamakoma."

"He hunted me down and attacked me that day, but when he attacked the city today, it was to get to me, but he didn't attack me. It was like he wanted to get rid of the agents to talk. That's why I say the Mimics are a contradiction. One day, it's an attack. The next day, he wants to talk." A sigh escaped Yuma as he looked towards the ground. "I didn't get to talk to him properly either time we met. I was so close to getting to talk today but Miwa squad got in the way and then Jin-san."

"Wow, got in the way?" Hyuse scoffed, crossing his arms as he looked down at Yuma. "They're jumping in to help you against a Mimic and you call it getting in the way."

"I want answers."

"It seems pretty clear to me what it is. Mimics sent by a country to attack us. You said that they are fakes, but clearly you were just trying to convince yourself of that being the truth." Konami retorted. "Still, having seen him at Tamakoma, I do understand why. If I didn't know he was a Mimic, I would have believed he was the real thing. It's an impressive design."

Yuma shook his head. "I want to know what Dad is after. His actions make no sense and don't match his words." Sighing, Yuma leaned his chin in his upturned palm. "Honestly, when he does speak, nothing he says makes much sense. He spoke a lot more clearly to me when I was a kid. Now, it just feels like riddles."

"Maybe it means nothing." Hyuse pointed out. "In the end, he is still just a Trion Soldier. He's probably just trying to confuse you."

"But the memories we share are real."

Shiori looked at Yuma sadly. When the Neighbors attacked this world, she didn't lose anyone in her family or any of her friends, so while she couldn't relate to the feeling of losing someone she loved forever, she could understand the memories of those moments shared with others. Those memories formed the connections between them. That's how it was with her and Kazama Squad. She worked hard with them to rise up to A-Rank and there was a lot of trust and understanding among them. It was those moments that they shared that built the bond between comrades. To have someone who shared those moments of friendship and trust turn on her to try to kill her, the betrayal would hurt so much. "I know it must hurt to see your father like this, but please, Yuma, don't get near him again. If you can't figure out what he is trying to say, then it might be best to not engage with him. You were lucky he didn't kill you yet."

"I'm not sure he wants to kill me." Yuma said, but he smiled at Shiori. "But I will stay away from him now on and leave it to Border to deal with."

Those were words that Osamu had heard before, back in December when the irregular gates first made their appearance. Yuma said to let Border handle them, and yet went out of his way to find the cause of them. Hopefully, though, this time he would keep the promise he made to step off of the frontlines. Seeing the damage done to his body, Osamu wanted nothing more than to order Yuma to stay out of the fights until they solved this. Considering that Yuma already broke a promise he made to him, Osamu wasn't sure he could trust Yuma's new promise to step out of the fight. However, if Osamu gave the order, there was no doubt in his mind that Yuma would obey it without question.

Just throwing his orders around and expecting them to be followed without question wasn't what Osamu wanted though. There was trust among him and Yuma. The promise Yuma gave him was only broken because of his confusion and frustration over the Mimic of his father. If his head was clearing up enough to talk to his friends in Tamakoma about what was really going on, then Osamu would try to trust in his word once more.