A/N: I don't own World Trigger

Mimics

Chapter 23: Sleep

If there was one thing he was absolutely certain of, it was that he, Rindo Yotaro of Tamakoma Branch, age five, was really good at keeping secrets. He knew that he and his sister were Neighbors and royalty from a nation that was destroyed five years ago. He knew about every member of Border that was a Neighbor. He knew about Raijinmaru being a Crown Trigger.

And he never spilled those secrets to anyone who wasn't supposed to know.

Which is why it felt like a betrayal when he got thrown to his sister last night and told to have a sleepover with her. As much as he loved his sister, they never had sleepovers like that. Yotaro was not as blind or deaf as the Tamakoma members believed. He knew they wanted him out of the way so they could talk privately in the barracks.

They were keeping something from Yotaro and that was something he would not stand for. He was just as much a member of Tamakoma as everyone else and was a great secret keeper. Why should he be left out?

"What are you doing wandering around alone, munchkin?"

Yotaro peaked his head out from the table he and Raijinmaru were under. "My favorite 'Yo' brother!" He greeted with a wave. "I'm working as a spy."

Yoneya raised a brow before he grabbed Yotaro by the back of his shirt and pulled him out from under the table. "Don't crawl under the tables. People are trying to enjoy their lunches peacefully."

"We're not really doing anything right now." Shun pointed out, leaning in his chin in his upturned palm as he stared at Yoneya dropping Yotaro onto his shoulders. "We should head to the solo rank booths. It would be more productive than this."

"As fun as that sounds, I think the munchkin needs dropped off with his babysitters." Yoneya replied. "He really shouldn't be left to wander around alone."

"If you're looking for a fight, I'll gladly take the chance to kill you." Kageura called over to Shun from his booth.

Shun grimaced. He should have talked softer to Yoneya so Kageura's table couldn't hear him. "You know, I should help Yoneyan get Yotaro back to Tamakoma."

Murakami turned around in his seat, resting his arm on top of the booth as he looked at Shun with a smirk. "That's not a two-person job."

"Nooo," Yotaro tugged at Yoneya's cheek. "I need to find out what they're hiding."

Yoneya pried Yotaro's hand off of his cheek. "Who is hiding what now? It certainly isn't us so I don't know why you were trying to spy on us."

"Tamakoma!" Yotaro cried.

"You part of Tamakoma." Murakami replied confused.

The aggravation dropped out of Yotaro as he planted his face in Yoneya's hair. "And they're hiding something from me. I got booted out of the barracks last night so they could all talk."

That seemed to get the agents' full attention as they all seemed to perk up. Before, they were just entertaining Yotaro's game of being a spy, but now it seemed like he was truly trying to figure out something important.

"Tamakoma seems to be keeping a lot of stuff private lately." Shun said. He supposed that he could add Yuma's Neighbor status into that. There was no way his branch didn't know about that. That was the only secret that Shun had been let in on, but he was sure there was more going on in Tamakoma. While they were a part of Border, they were still allowed their secrets as a separate branch. There was no need to share all information if it didn't affect anything.

However, considering they decided to have a meeting after that attack in the city last night and sending Yotaro away for the night, Shun had a feeling it was probably important. He was curious what it was about, but if they needed to know, he was sure Tamakoma would inform them eventually. Trying to snoop around and steal the information would just make them mad.

"Perhaps it's best to not get in the way." Murakami suggested, clearly thinking along the same lines as Shun. "We have a lot going on right now. It's best not to complicate matters for them."

"I'm not! I am a member of Tamakoma too. I deserve to know!" Yotaro argued. "Things have been weird for days. Yuma has been talking as if he doesn't plan to come back to Tamakoma when this is all over! He needs help!"

Shun's eyes widened momentarily before he was relaxing his expression. There was that conversation with Kuga Yugo the other night about Yuma dying this week and Yuma clearly knew something about that since he wasn't surprised and didn't even look worried when Shun told him. It seemed there was more being hidden under Yuma's Neighbor status.

"When did he say that?" Shun demanded, surprising not only Yotaro at the assertiveness, but the other agents as well. "Was it yesterday?"

Yotaro's brows furrowed as he tried to think over when he heard Yuma say that. "It was after Tamakoma got attacked."

Which was before Shun had even met Yugo.

"Are you absolutely certain he was implying he wouldn't be coming back to Tamakoma?" Shun asked.

Shun's questions seemed to spark a new light in Yotaro's eyes as he saw a partner in Shun for his spying. "Yes! He kept skirting around the answer."

"Are you really going to entertain his spy game?" Kageura asked.

Shun pushed himself to his feet. "I am now. I have to talk to Yuma-senpai about something."

"Oh?" Yoneya said intrigued, climbing out of the booth, being careful not to knock Yotaro off of his shoulders. "Did you figure something out?"

"Possibly, but I need Yuma-senpai or Jin-san to confirm for me so I guess I really am going with you to see Tamakoma." Shun replied.

"Or you're making an excuse to avoid a fight with me." Kageura shouted at their retreating forms.

Murakami snorted at Kageura's annoyance. When Shun loses a lot of point, he tends to avoid having fights with agents who he know he will lose to so he won't suffer that much, and from what Murakami knew was that Shun lost a lot of points to Yuma this week already. Kageura would have better luck getting a match from Shun in a few days. Though it was strange he was vying for a match from Shun anyway. He didn't think those two ever hung out.

*Mimics*

It didn't seem like a bad idea at the time.

He had agreed with Kinuta about it being dangerous to use his Black Trigger. His ring, unlike Fujin, didn't have any cracks in it, but his body which was powered by the Black Trigger was taking all the damage in return. With that being the case, it felt like a good idea to not activate his Black Trigger since there was no telling what could happen if he did that.

With that in mind, he went to Tamakoma to pick up the old Trigger from his father since he wouldn't be getting a new Border Trigger anytime soon. While the situation he was in was unprecedented, he didn't think he would be in such a bad place that he couldn't even get a Trigger to activate.

If he couldn't even activate a Trigger, that was a huge sign that things were way worse than he thought. It was a telltale sign that he was dangerously low on Trion. His Black Trigger supplied the Trion to keep his body operational, but it seemed the damage being done to his body was affecting all of his Trion. Yuma was no expert on what was going on since the situation he was in was unique and he was still learning new things about how his body would be affected by different things. He could, however, make an educational guess though.

Perhaps his own supply of Trion was trying to make up for the Trion that was being lost from the Black Trigger. It couldn't heal his body, but it could try to keep his body going, but it required so much Trion that he didn't have enough left over to use Trigger. If that was the case, it would be dangerous to use any Trion at all. If all of the Trion available in his Black Trigger and his own Trion were working to keep him alive, he couldn't afford to waste any, which wouldn't be hard to do if he couldn't get a Trigger to activate. He would have to resist trying to use any more of his Black Trigger seals though.

Yuma scooped up his father's old Trigger and pulled his hood back up over his head. He shoved himself to his feet in the same motion, but almost immediately fell back over as his vision blurred. If it wasn't for the ledge next to him that he used to brace himself on, he would have fallen back to his knees.

This was a feeling he hasn't felt in a long time. Since his father gave him this Trion body, Yuma didn't feel much of anything. He didn't get tired. He didn't feel weak. He didn't get lightheaded. All he had was a feeling of hunger and some pressure he felt that was reminiscent of pain. In the almost five years of living in a Trion body, he had never been in a spot bad enough that he would be in a position like this so he never thought it was possible.

Trion bodies weren't invincible. Yuma did understand that so in the back of his mind, he knew that it was possible for the systems of a Trion body to be overridden. Aftokrator proved that with their Rabits that were able to override the pain systems of the Trion bodies and painfully shock the agents.

It's just been so long since Yuma felt like this. He had forgotten how it felt and how weak it made he feel. Keeping a hand to his head as he made his way off the roof, Yuma used his other hand to brace himself on the wall to try to keep himself upright. That Trigger had been such a horrible idea. For the first time in years, he wanted to, felt like he needed to actually, lie down and wait for this feeling to pass. Perhaps if he rested he could recover from that stupid move.

All he wanted was to see if the Trigger would still work. He never bothered to try to activate it after his father died so he wanted to confirm that it was still operational. It was just meant to be a backup for him until they could get all these problems with the Mimics and the Black Triggers being damaged fixed.

*Mimics*

"What did you go to Tamakoma for anyway?" Konami asked, staring down at Osamu sitting on the bed with crossed arms.

Osamu shrugged. "Kuga needed to pick something up."

Konami scowled at him. "You could have told me. I would have liked to come."

Jin sighed, rubbing his temples. "No one is supposed to be at Tamakoma right now. In case you forgot, Kuga-san knows about the base, and not just him, but Mogami-san too. Neither one of them knows of Border HQ. They both only remember Tamkoma as being Border's main HQ."

"It didn't look like anyone had been there since Kuga-san attacked." Osamu pointed out. Besides, he didn't think Yugo or Mogami were stupid. Tamakoma may be the Border base they remembered, but the current Border HQ was pretty hard to miss. Not to mention that it was surrounded by a destroyed part of the city known as the Restricted Zone. Whether or not they cared to approach the current HQ was another matter though.

"That doesn't mean they can't show up." Reiji replied. "I'm surprised you managed to get there and back without getting attacked."

"A feat worthy of an award considering the past few days." Karasuma added.

"Perhaps Kuga-san is busy being distracted by the appearance of Mogami-san." Jin suggested. Compared to the last few days, today had been a relatively silent and peaceful day. It was certainly a change of pace that was needed to help them gain their bearings. "They're probably trying to figure things out which is more important than attacking Border and Yuma."

"Speaking of," Konami looked around the barracks. "Where is Yuma anyway? He didn't stay in the city, did he?"

"He's in the base." Osamu replied, glancing over at Hyuse. "I think he went up to the roof?"

Hyuse shrugged. "I don't keep tracked of him. As long as he's in the base and not off doing something stupid again, who cares? He's still alive."

Jin rubbed the back of his head, sighing tiredly. "I hate to do it, but Kido-san made the decision that no agents should activate their Triggers in the city unless there is a sudden attack. However, considering the situation with Mimics and it being likely that Kuga-san and Mogami-san won't be going for civilians, this should keep our problems confined to the Restricted Zone."

"Which means Kuga has to stay in the Restricted Zone." Osamu finished, grimacing slightly. The Restricted Zone had nothing for Yuma to do in so it basically meant that he had to stay HQ. It would keep Yugo from attacking the city again if he was really after Yuma, but at the same time, it kind of felt like locking Yuma in a prison by forcing him to stay here. None of this sat right with Osamu.

"Yes. I hate to have him confined here, but it really is the best so please, don't take him to Tamakoma again." Jin replied.

Osamu waved off Jin's concerns. "If anything, you have to be concerned about his other friends who he likes to go out to eat with. They don't know about his Trion body." Though, he had a feeling that Yuma wouldn't want to go out to eat with them anywhere. If they saw the cracks on him now, it would only bring up questions. Honestly, they were going to have to explain it to the agents at some point. That wasn't something they could hide forever.

Konami scoffed. "It's not exactly easy for him to hide the cracks on his body and the agents aren't stupid. Trying to hide all of this from them will only add another complication to an already difficult situation."

"That may be true, but we should at least try to keep as much of the situation quiet as we can." Karasuma replied. "For Yuma. I think he realizes the difficulties of this, and it would be easier to be open with the agents right now, but I think it is hard for him to come to terms with this. When this all started for him, he was eleven and had to face this alone. There was no one to hold his hand back then. At only eleven, he was forced to confront the cruelty of the world alone, so I don't think it easy for him to open up about this and ask for help."

"It would be easiness on him if we ease him into the idea of accepting all the help that is being offered." Reiji said.

Konami gripped her forearms tightly. It was so aggravating. The events of Aristera were so hard on her, so many of her good friends were lost back then. All of the survivors of Border from that tragedy had suffered, not only injuries, but the pain in their heart from losing their friends and from failing to save Aristera.

They were never alone though.

All of them went through Aristera together and they all acted as each other's strength and form of comfort when they got back. It took a long time for them to recover from that loss, but slowly they did and if anyone had a bad day where the grief suddenly came back out of nowhere, one of the other members would be there to help them through it.

Yuma had Replica with him, and Konami liked the Trion Soldier, but he wouldn't be good at comforting a grieving child. He could give advice and information, but he couldn't provide the warmth of a hug that anyone would need after the sudden death of a loved one.

It made her wanted to hunt down Yuma and give him a big hug. Yuma never gave out any type of physical contact, but whenever he received it, he never shied away. Perhaps Yuma did crave a friendly touch that he never got after his father passed. It was a comfort that Konami could give him.

Something she would give him the next time she saw him so he would remember that he wasn't alone. Even with Replica gone, he had plenty of people here willing to help.

*Mimics*

Yotaro hummed cheerfully while riding Raijinmaru in front of Yoneya and Shun. Personally, for the situation, Shun saw no reason to be so happy, especially if his theory was correct. Since it was a five-year-old though, Shun let it be. Yotaro did not realize just how bad the situation was. He perhaps had an inkling of an idea, but didn't truly understand the dangers. If he did, perhaps he wouldn't be so eager to run head first into all of this.

"Are you going to share your theory?" Yoneya asked.

"Hmm," Shun hummed. "It's not like you were ever going to share that Yuma-senpai is a Neighbor."

Yoneya quirked a brow, but otherwise didn't react. He had a feeling that Yuma and Shun had talked. It was nice of Shun to confirm for him without him having to ask. "No need to hold a grudge. I can't just share classified information with you because we're friends." He eyed his friend closely. "You do understand, right? Kuga trusted you enough to tell you, but it is a classified secret. You can't tell your team, or anyone. He's an agent so we can't do anything about it, but if some people find out, it could cause an uproar. Border can't afford a civil war, especially right now."

Shun puffed out his cheeks in annoyance. "I know how to keep a secret."

"You blabbed to me real fast."

"Because I knew that you knew. Your squad got into a fight before Yuma-senpai joined Border? Things make a lot more sense now." Shun replied, and at least now, Yoneya and Yuma wouldn't have to tiptoe around him with information and feed him lies to hide things. "But, who all knows? Knowing that will make things easier for me."

"Tamakoma, obviously, my squad, Tachikawa squad, Fuyushima squad, Kazama squad, Arashiyama squad, Kido-san, Shinoda-san, Kinuta-san, Netsuki-san, Karasawa-san, Sawamura-san. Oh, and recently, Azuma-san and Kako-san found out."

With each name that Yoneya ticked off, Shun felt a bit of his soul leave him. "Do you know how many people that is? How it remained a secret is more of a mystery than anything else!"

"It's easy to keep a secret when we don't talk about it." Yoneya replied.

"Oh yeah? Then why do Azuma-san and Kako-san now both know?" Shun retorted.

"Because they're both smart."

Shun's eyes narrowed, trying to read the amused look on Yoneya's face. "And I'm not?"

"Did you figure it out on your own?" Yoneya asked with a wide grin.

There was no retort as Shun marched forward to join Yotaro in humming his too cheerful song, making Yoneya laugh. That's what he thought.

*Mimics*

If this feeling was what he had been missing for the last five years without having a real body, Yuma did not miss it at all. There was stuff he missed out on by not having his real body, like having the ability to sleep so he could have some time to escape the thoughts in his head.

This feeling of being lightheaded with the floor being blurry under his feet was not one of the things he missed. It was so hard to stay standing up right when the floor kept shifting under his feet.

He wasn't ever sure where he was at currently. It was hard enough to navigate Border HQ on a good day for him. Being dizzy, all of the halls looked even more similar. He just needed a moment to get his bearings and get that annoying, cheerful humming in his ears to stop.

Yuma collapsed against the wall, letting it take all his weight as he slid down it to just sit on the floor.

Just a minute to try to ease some of the dizziness off and then he would be right back to trying to figure out the maze that was Border HQ's hallways.

Yuma let his eyes close, welcoming the darkness before he knew no more.

Rounding the corner, Shun slowed his steps in confusion when he found someone sitting on the floor, ending the song they had been humming. Raijinmaru didn't bother to stop and just continued forward until reaching the boy on the floor.

Yoneya stepped around the corner, raising a brow but continued on pass Shun to reach the sleeping boy. He leaned down to see under the hood of the tilted down head. Seeing some tufts of white hair sticking out from under it, Yoneya huffed and stood back up straight. "Hey," He nudged Yuma's foot, but got no reaction. "Oh, no, you are not doing this to me. First, you getting kidnapped by your dad in front of me and now this? Nope, no, not happening. Wake up."

Shun stepped up next to the others, tilting his head in confusion. "That's a strange place to take a nap."

When there was no response from Yuma, Yoneya kneeled down and shoved his shoulder roughly, but still got no reaction. Before, he was a bit amused at finding him napping in the hallway, but that amusement was giving way to concern when Yuma gave him no response, not even a twitch, to any of his attempts to wake him up.

Shun was beginning to have the same worries as Yoneya. In the first place, people didn't just sit and take naps in the hallways. He crouched down by Yuma and leaned down to try to look up into his downturned face. Almost immediately, he wheeled back in shock and glanced at Yoneya, eyes flickering briefly to Yotaro in worry before back to Yoneya. "Do faces just break like that?" He asked softly so Yotaro wouldn't hear him.

"Like what?" Yoneya copied Shun's previous motion and got a better look at Yuma's face. He blinked in confusion, wondering if his hood was casting shadows on his face. He nudged Raijinmaru and Yotaro out of the way so they were behind him so his body could shield Yuma. Tilting Yuma's head back, Yoneya brushed the hood back a bit, showing off the cracks spidering up his neck and starting to touch the bottom half of his face.

Yoneya yanked the hood back over Yuma's face, catching Shun's shocked, freaked out eyes.

"What's going on?" Yotaro demanded, trying to peak over Yoneya's shoulder. "Why is Yuma sleeping out here?"

Yoneya shoved a hand in Yotaro's face, pushing him back so he would settled back down on Raijinmaru. Okay, he had an overly curious child who was being kept in the dark by Tamakoma about something. He had Shun, who looked pretty freaked out and probably a step or two away from having a panic attack and he had an unconscious Neighbor with cracks on his body.

What the hell was he supposed to do with this?

"Infirmary?" Shun asked.

"I don't think they can do anything about..." Yoneya waved his hand weakly over Yuma. "Whatever this is. So, the best thing to do is to find Tamakoma and see if they know what is going on."

Shun nodded in agreement and pushed himself back to his feet. "Let's go, Yotaro! Off to find Jin-san it is." He said, forcing his panic back so he could put some cheer into his voice to make it so Yotaro didn't think anything was wrong.

As Shun worked on leading the curious child away, Yoneya worked to pull Yuma onto his back. It really was strange. He always saw how short Yuma was and they liked to tease Yuma for his height, but he felt really too light for a fifteen-year-old. Considering he's seen how much Yuma liked to eat, it was amazing he was still so tiny.

Perhaps there were more important things to be thinking about than why Yuma was so small and way too light for his age, but considering he had no idea of what was going and Yuma could provide him with no answers, trying to think it over would only give him a headache.

"I think Yuma-senpai was just really tired. He's been pretty stressed the last few days and it finally pulled him down into a deep sleep."

Yoneya could hear Shun ahead of him, probably trying to assure Yotaro that Yuma was fine and just sleeping too deeply to be woken up. Despite Yotaro insisting earlier that he was trying to figure out what Tamakoma was hiding from him, Yoneya agreed with Tamakoma's decision to leave the kid in the dark. He didn't know what was going on with Yuma, but it didn't look good so he didn't want to take chances with Yotaro realizing anything was wrong if it wasn't what Tamakoma wanted.

As he rounded the corner, he found Shun and Yotaro waiting for him with Shun holding the elevator doors open for him with one hand and holding his phone with the other as he typed out a message.

"I'm going to let Mikumo-senpai know we're on our way to their barracks. I hoping at least one person will be in there." Shun explained without looking up from his phone.

"Rindo-san or Jin-san would be nice." Yoneya said, shifting his arms to push Yuma farther up his back to keep him from sliding off.

Yotaro frowned at the two agents. "Why do you need them? You can just put Yuma to bed if all he is doing is sleeping." He said suspiciously.

Shun caught Yoneya's eyes, giving a weak shrug.

"We just need to make sure they know that Kuga isn't feeling well. I don't just want to dump Kuga in his bed without warning them." Yoneya replied, the lie falling easily from him.

"I guess." Yotaro muttered.

Leaning back against the wall, Shun looked at the panel next to the doors to watch as the numbers went up. He had warned Yuma of his father's threat to his life, but Yuma didn't seem to care at all and now he was passed out in the hallway with cracks on his body. It seemed that despite opening up to Shun yesterday, Yuma was still keeping secrets. That was, if Shun's theory about Yuma knowing that he was in trouble this week was true.

There was no reason for Yuma to tell him all his secrets. It was more than enough that he trusted Shun enough to tell him his Neighbor secret, but if Yuma was in trouble, he wanted to be able to help his friend.

Feeling his phone vibrate in his hand, Shun took his eyes off the panel to see a message from Mikumo coming through.

'Kuga isn't here if you're looking for him.'

Shun frowned at his phone, but didn't reply as he heard the elevator doors ding open. He looked up, thinking it was time to get off, but was surprised to come face to face with Suwa and Kazama standing there. "Elevator's taken." He blurted out without thinking.

Kazama raised an unimpressed brow as he took in the occupants of the elevator before his attention landed on the white hair peeking out from under the hood of the person on Yoneya's back. Without a word, he stepped into the elevator with Suwa following his lead, letting the doors shut behind him without bothering to hit the button for the floor he needed. "What is going on?"

"Um," Yoneya's eyes flickered to Yotaro, then back to Kazama, hoping he would get the message.

"Did you kill the albino shrimp?" Suwa asked, trying to see Yuma on Yoneya's back, but Yoneya shifted away so Yuma's head was farther away from Suwa. It got a suspicious look from Suwa, which Yoneya expected since there should be no reason to try to hide Yuma, but he didn't have time to care about that. Until he knew what was going on and if what was going on with Yuma needed shared with the agents, he was trying to do Yuma a favor by hiding it.

"No! He's just sleeping." Shun retorted hotly. He knew that Suwa was simply teasing them about this. He mostly like thought Yuma had just fallen asleep, but considering all the talk of death and killing that was surrounding Yuma this week, he didn't appreciate the joke. It really wasn't funny when it could be a very real possibility before the week was over.

Kazama gave the two A-Rank agents deadpanned looks. "Yes, because Kuga would just let himself be carried through HQ like that."

"You know, everything is fine. We're just heading to Tamakoma. No need for the third degree, Kazama-san." Yoneya replied a lot calmer than Shun.

"Which makes it sound like you're hiding something." Suwa pointed out.

Yoneya shrugged, jostling Yuma a bit, making his head fall off his shoulder. He didn't bother trying to adjust him again. He would only be carrying him for a few minutes. He couldn't get a stiff neck with his head dangling like that for only a few minutes. "We're an open book. Can't you see? We're not even trying to hide."

"I don't believe that for a second." Suwa grumbled, leaning against one of the walls to try to keep his space in the crowded elevator while eyeing Yoneya and Shun suspiciously.

"I really don't know what you want from then. I speak nothing but the truth." Yoneya replied innocently just as the doors dinged open again. "Oh, look at that, it's our floor. Let's go, Midorikawa!"

Suwa and Kazama stared at Yoneya and Shun's retreating forms with Yotaro following them until the elevator doors closed.

"Should we do something?" Suwa asked.

"No." Kazama said. "If they're going to Tamakoma, it's Jin's problem now. If he needs us, he'll let us know."

"True," Suwa said, folding his arms behind his head as he leaned back against the elevator wall. He chewed on his cigarette thoughtfully as Kazama chose the floor they were after. It might be best to leave things to Tamakoma, but that was Yuma on Yoneya's back. The stupidly strong rookie, who seemed to be ready for anything, had been acting off all week and now he was unconscious? It was so weird that it was worrying him.

*Mimics*

Kido tapped a finger on his desk, staring across it at Shinoda and Rindo who were sitting on the couches in his office. This current Neighbor attack was beginning to turn worse and worse. He could handle the idea of the Mimics. He could handle the idea of said Mimics turning into his old friends, but now both of those old friends had access to Black Triggers which was causing Border's own Black Triggers to break? The longer this went on, the more outrageous it was all becoming.

"Is Kinuta-san certain that we can't use the Black Triggers?" Kido asked.

"There's no guarantee that using them would cause more damage, but if the theory is right and the damage is being caused by the Mimics, Kinuta-san doesn't want to risk breaking them completely by using them." Shinoda replied.

"Our agents have proven they are capable of holding out against Black Triggers. However, to beat them in the end, they had to resort to Black Triggers or have the help of Shinoda-kun to be able to beat them." Kido leaned back in his chair, brushing a finger over his scar. "Without our Black Triggers, do you think we have a chance against Kuga and Mogami?"

Rindo leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "If the past few days are any indication, it doesn't seem likely."

"Black Triggers aren't unbeatable. We would need to get our A-Ranks together. At this point, I don't think any squad alone would be enough." Shinoda added.

Kido tilted his head back on his chair, frowning. That would hardly be surprising. Kuga and Mogami were always strong fighters. The added Black Triggers to their arsenal would make it too hard for a single squad to beat them. Even after all these years, Kuga and Mogami still knew how to throw a wrench into everything. It was very much like those two. "And Agent Kuga? How is he?"

"Without his Border Trigger and his Black Trigger taking damage, Yuma needs to be benched." Rindo replied. That was actually one of the easier things to deal with since Yuma himself made the decision to step back from the field. It was honestly a relief to Rindo that Yuma was able to read the situation and made the decision himself. It kept Rindo from having to force it onto Yuma, but it also showed the maturity and experience in Yuma. By making that choice of saying he'll step back and let the others handle his father, he was coming to term with relying on others to help.

"I understand that we can't send him into battle without a weapon, but did Kinuta-san figure anything out about his condition?" Kido asked. It had been a very long time since he last saw Kuga Yugo, but that man was still once a friend of his. Even if his son was a Neighbor, that boy was currently one of his agents so he felt need to make sure Yuma was alright.

"Our working theory is that because his Trion body is tied to his Black Trigger, the damage being done to his Black Trigger is affecting his body, so if the Mimics continue damaging his Black Trigger, it's very likely Yuma-kun will die in a couple days." Shinoda said gravely, staring at Rindo on the couch across from him, meeting his distressed eyes with his own.

This situation they were finding themselves was turning into a horrible mess. As much as they all missed their old friends and would love to have them back in their lives, these Mimics weren't real. It hurt a lot, but nothing could bring their friends back from death, so what they needed to focus on was the present. If their presence was going to hurt Border, then Kuga and Mogami needed to be dealt with quickly, because if there was one thing Shinoda was absolutely certain of, even more so after hearing the story of how Yugo died from Yuma, then it was that Yugo would want them to kill him if it meant saving Yuma's life.

When Yuma came to them, bearing the news of his father's death, Shinoda had agreed with Rindo on the promise that they would protect him. They couldn't be there to help Yugo since he left a long time ago and they failed with Mogami when they couldn't hold out in Aristera, but they would not fail here.

They couldn't fail again.

"I see." Kido said. So far Kinuta's team that was researching the Mimics wasn't coming up with any new information that Yuma hadn't already been able to tell them. At most, the information about the Mimics being able to use the Black Triggers they created before death was all they found out, and that was from simply fighting them. They couldn't even figure out the reason why that was. Any information they could get on the Mimics would be helpful just so they could know what it was they were truly going up against.

However, they were severely lacking in time here. The Mimics had been here too long already. Not only did he have an agent's life on the line, but they couldn't take any more attacks in the city.

The real Mogami and Kuga would never allow harm to come to civilians, but these Mimics had no qualms about doing damage in the city. He could order the agents to not use their Triggers outside of the Restricted Zone to prevent the untransformed Mimics from leaving the Restricted Zone, but it would do nothing to stop the ones who were already transformed. They had no idea of what those two were planning or what they were after.

With time not being a luxury, they needed to get moving, but there was nothing they could do if they couldn't find Kuga and Mogami.

"Does Jin have anything that could help us?" Kido asked.

"I don't know what he's seen, but he seems to be moving. Or at least, trying to set things up." Rindo replied. "He said we had five days, but that was two days ago. I don't know what happens on the fifth day, but if we can, we need to get this solved before then."

"To do that, we need to be able to find Yugo-san and Mogami-san, but they are both still managing to hide from our radars." Shinoda said. "I can have the agents on defense duty scour the Restricted Zone for them, but if they're in the city, we're going to be out luck. We need to send out a warning about Mogami-san to the agents as well."

"Until a better option presents itself, that is what we will do. However, tell the agents if they do encounter them, alert HQ for reinforcements right away." Kido ordered. "Kuga has already proven trying to fight him without backup is a fool's errand."

"Understood."

*Mimics*

"I need you to not freak out." Shun said as a greeting when he barged into Tamakoma's barracks, though he immediately froze when he saw the horns on Hyuse's head. He gaped for a moment before shaking his head and letting it pass. Honestly, after Yuma's bombshell of being a Neighbor, he shouldn't even be surprised that Tamakoma would pull this, and considering Hyuse had been a member of Border for a few weeks now and hasn't done anything, it was a revelation that was low on his list of importance when Yuma was in a bad way.

"Well, when you greet us like that, it's asking us to freak out." Karasuma replied. "What's wrong?"

Shun peeked out the door to the hall to see Yoneya and Yotaro getting closer. He had run ahead to warn Tamakoma since Yotaro was with them and they were trying to keep this from him. "I'm saying that because Yotaro is with us and I assume you guys don't want him to know about anything that is going on right now."

"Depends on what it is." Reiji said, frowning.

Jin stepped up next to the bed that Osamu and Chika were sitting on, frowning as he stared at Shun, activating his side effect as he did. It wasn't entirely necessary to see into the future for the next few minutes, but he was glad he did.

It gave him the few seconds he needed to calm the sudden racing of his heart at what he saw. This wasn't the time to freak out or panic. They needed to be level headed.

Besides, Osamu and Chika handled the panicking part very well when Yoneya stepped into the room after Yotaro with an unconscious Yuma hanging over his back. While they had both flown to their feet, staring wide eyed at Yuma, looking close to hyperventilating, Hyuse just glared at his unconscious partner.

"Thirty minutes! We leave him alone for thirty minutes. How does he do this?" Hyuse demanded, disbelief radiating from him.

"Um, we don't really know what happened. We found him sleeping in the hallway." Shun said, inching away from the angry Hyuse.

"Right," Jin took Yuma off of Yoneya's shoulders and passed him off to Reiji to settle on the bed. "Thanks for bringing him by. We'll take care of it. On another note, can you drop Yotaro off with Ruka for me? We're going to be too busy to watch over him."

"What? I'm not leaving again!" Yotaro said angrily, clambering down from Raijinmaru. "You are all hiding something from me! I'm a Tamakoma member too!"

"Stop screaming, Yotaro." Reiji scolded, dropping Yuma carefully onto his bed. As he stepped back, Chika and Konami were immediately standing over him. Konami's hands hovered over Yuma, unsure of what she could do to help her unconscious student who looked so easily breakable with those cracks on him. "Yuma hasn't been feeling well lately and we need time to focus on him. We just want to make sure you're not alone as we're going to be busy dealing with this and the Mimics."

Yotaro looked over at the bed, seeing a little bit of Yuma's prone form between Chika and Konami. "It's because of the Mimics, isn't it? Yuma was fine until they showed up!"

Chika turned to look over at the group standing by the doorway, worry shining in her eyes. She pressed her hands firmly into the mattress by Yuma, curling her fingers tightly into the blanket under him. She hardly thought this was the time to be arguing about this. Just this morning they had been talking about how Yuma didn't sleep since he was in a Trion body and now, he was brought here unconscious? That was a sign of how bad things were getting. They didn't have time to be arguing. Yuma needed all their attention.

Jin stared down at Yotaro, trying to figure out how he could reply to this child. Yuma's future was hanging on the edge of falling into the bad or good path for him, and currently he was teetering so close to falling off into the bad path. He didn't want to put false hope into Yotaro. That would only make things so much harder for him if they did fail in saving Yuma. "Regardless of what is making Yuma sick, we can't afford any distractions, Yotaro. Let them take you to Ruka." He caught Yoneya's eyes as he said this to which the agent nodded in understanding.

"Understood! We will get this mission accomplished!" Yoneya agreed, forcing some false cheer into his voice before he was scooping Yotaro up and throwing him onto his shoulders again. "We're going on an adventure to find where Shinoda-chan is hiding."

Yoneya didn't give Yotaro any more time to argue with Jin or fight with him on why he should put him down as he marched out of the barracks with Raijinmaru trotting at his feet. Shun hesitated in following them as he stared pass Jin and through the Tamakoma agents to look at Yuma.

Jin saw where he was looking and took a step in front of the younger agent to force his eyes to meet his. "Shun, we'll take care of it."

"We saw his body." Shun said softly. "Those cracks..."

Jin grimaced. He was hoping to hide the condition of Yuma's body, but that was pretty much next to impossible when Yuma's body kept getting worse. Dropping his hands to Shun's shoulders, he gave a reassuring squeeze to them. "We're working on it, Shun. Leave Yuma to us."

There had never been a time where Shun doubted Jin's words. Whenever he promised something, it was sure to come to pass, but this was perhaps the first time where Shun found himself doubting Jin. It wasn't because he thought Jin wouldn't try to help Yuma. It was because there wasn't a promise in his words. Even with his side effect, he didn't know if Yuma would be okay after this.

Tamakoma clearly knew something because as worried as they looked, none of them seemed surprised that there were cracks on Yuma's body. That wasn't too surprising. This was Yuma's branch so Yuma would of course let them in on what was going on. Shun wanted to stand here and demand to know what was wrong, how it was possible for Yuma's body to break like that, but instead, he backed up a step towards the barracks door, eyes flickering from Jin to Yuma.

He may have come here with the intention of talking to Yuma or Jin about what Yugo said, but it didn't seem like the time now. Standing here and trying to demand answers would only waste time. Time which they may or may not have.

So, instead of arguing with Jin, Shun would do what he asked and get Yotaro to Ruka. From there, he could figure out what to do.

"Good luck." Shun replied by way of farewell before he was disappearing into the hallway and running off to catch up with Yoneya.

With him gone, Jin's shoulders sagged down, a sigh escaping him. "How bad is it?"

"The cracks have started to move up to his face." Konami replied, brushing a hand slowly through Yuma's hair. She wanted to scream at Yuma and demand to know how this had even happened. He was fine this morning. Well, as fine as he could be with his body breaking slowly over the last couple of days, but he was up and moving around without any problems. How did things change this quickly?

Jin rubbed his jaw, thinking things over. Kinuta and Michael did say that Yuma's Trion levels were dropping because of the damage being done to his Black Trigger. They said to be careful and let him leave the lab as there wasn't anything they could do to raise his Trion levels. If they suspected that a few hours after they let him out that he would just pass out, they wouldn't have let him leave. None of them had seen it getting this bad so fast.

"I'm going to take Yuma back to Kinuta-san and see if he can figure something out." Jin said.

"About why he is sleeping?" Osamu asked. "I thought Trion bodies couldn't sleep."

"Is he even still alive?" Karasuma dared to ask, getting glares from the other members of the branch for the question. He held his hands up in surrender. "I'm just saying. Osamu is right. Trion bodies don't need sleep. Since he hasn't slept since he got that body, I was just wondering how this was even possible."

"If he was dead, his Trion body would have disappeared, leaving his real body for us to find." Jin replied.

"Will Kinuta-san be able to do anything for Yuma?" Reiji asked.

"It's not looking good, but it can at least get us some answers hopefully." Jin replied, glancing at the downed Yuma for a second before he was pulling out his phone to send a message to Rindo. "Osamu, Hyuse, are you sure nothing happened on your trip to Tamakoma? Anything out of the ordinary?"

"Besides our base being wrecked, it was a really normal trip." Osamu said, though he did try to think of anything that felt off about the trip or Yuma. It was hard to figure out what was wrong with Yuma though when he wasn't in a good way already.

Jin hummed softly. This was getting real bad. Yuma's future was getting harder for Jin to read. If he couldn't get a read on his future, that meant only one thing and that was not something Jin was going to accept easily. He would not lose his friends again, not without a fight.

*Mimics*

"What part of busy do you people not get?" Kinuta growled, glaring at Tamakoma-2, Jin, and Rindo. "His Trion levels were being depleted earlier, but it certainly wasn't fast enough for it to come to this in just a couple hours." He waved an arm over Yuma who was now back on the bed he was on earlier this day, though unconscious this time.

Rindo stepped up to the bed, staring down at his charge sadly. The moment he got the text from Jin, he just about bolted from Kido's office without bothering to explain. They knew that they were short on time, but he didn't think they had so little left.

"Are you going to tell me what happened?" Kinuta asked as Michael got to work on connecting Yuma to their Trion measuring device.

"We don't know. Midorikawa and Yoneya-senpai dropped him off to us like this." Osamu replied, resting his hands on the back of the chair that Chika was sitting on next to Yuma's bed. His knuckles started to turn white from how hard he was starting to grip the chair as he stared at his partner.

Kinuta hmphed to himself. "I don't see much that I can do. He's entered a sleep mode."

"A sleep mode?" Chika repeated.

"Yes, that's all I can figure it could be." Kinuta replied, motioning down at Yuma. "Trion bodies are as similar to real bodies as they can be. Trion bodies don't have the capability to sleep, but there is a safety system in them that is similar to sleep. Kuga's body forced itself into a sleep mode to try to recover some Trion. The Trion that was keeping his Trion body going and his own Trion reserves are stretched very thin right now and he couldn't keep going. I can't say for sure, but my hypothesis is that his sleep mode is working like a safety mode. His body couldn't sustain the ability to keep going so it forced him out."

"I can give him some of my Trion. That might wake him up." Chika suggested.

Osamu shook his head. "I'm not sure that would be a good idea, Chika. When I borrowed your Trion during Aftokrator's invasion, it made my Trion unstable. We shouldn't risk it with how Kuga is now."

Kinuta nodded in agreement. "The Black Trigger is what is supplying Kuga's body with the Trion for it to function. That Black Trigger is keeping his real body alive by sealing his wounds as best it can while creating a Trion body twenty-seven. Without enough Trion to sustain his body and keep the wounds on his real body sealed, which is slowing down his death, a choice had to be made so he went into sleep mode so the Black Trigger can focus on his real body."

Chika gently brushed her thumb over the back of Yuma's hand that she was holding, feeling every rough crack her thumb traveled over. "Does that mean he won't wake up?"

Michael smiled softly at her. "His body forced itself into sleep mode to try to recover his Trion. It won't be enough to fight, as his Black Trigger can't recover any Trion with the Mimics still around, but once he can get enough back, he will wake up. His Trion body is going to have to rely solely on what his real body can supply though."

"Even if he wakes up, we still don't have time." Hyuse pointed out. "Our only working theory is that this is caused by the Mimics so we need to kill them quickly."

"There's no guarantee that will work." Michael warned.

"No," Hyuse agreed. "But it's better than spending time standing around here doing nothing." He eyed Yuma's sleeping form. "Being that he is unconscious now, he can't get into any more trouble."

Osamu turned to catch Hyuse's eyes, nodding in agreement. "Chika, Hyuse and I going out to look for the Mimics." He pushed off the chair he was gripping and dug his hand into his pocket to wrap his hand around his Trigger.

"There's plenty of agents on duty right now trying to find them." Jin said, though his eyes were locked on Yuma.

"An extra pair of eyes doesn't hurt. Besides," Osamu looked at Yuma. It felt so strange to seeing him lying so still and being the one that had to be left behind. Normally, he would be right there on the frontlines with him. "There isn't anything we can do here for Kuga. I just feel like we're wasting time staring at him."

Jin pulled his eyes from Yuma to catch Osamu's eyes. While his posture radiated a calmness, his eyes spoke of worry and fear for his teammate. It was something Jin understood quite well. He was the Power Elite and always had to appear calm as he manipulated everything around him to get Border the wins they needed. Underneath the calm exterior he displayed, Jin had his own stress and worries about everything. He could scheme as much as he wanted, but that didn't mean it would always work out in their favor.

That was something Jin always knew, but he always put up this front that he could do anything. That the Power Elite did not fail. He put on that confidence so his comrades wouldn't lose their morale. If morale dropped, so did the agents' ability to concentrate and act in battle. If agents lost their calm, they were more likely to make mistakes.

It was a calmness that Osamu was steadily getting better at showing off. That wasn't to say he didn't have his worries or fears, but that he was getting better at controlling them when in the field. With each new experience he faced, he was growing more into a Captain.

And with being a captain, it meant making the decisions that were best for his team. It wasn't on Jin to dictate how Osamu chose to lead his team. If he wanted to have them spend their free time in the Restricted Zone trying to find the Mimics, that was their choice. It didn't matter that they weren't on duty, as Border agents, they could act whenever they deemed it was necessary.

"I see. Well, be careful. Kuga-san and Mogami-san are dangerous. If you see them, call for backup immediately." Jin replied.

Osamu nodded. "Of course. Chika-"

Chika pushed herself to her feet, smoothing out her skirt as she did. "I'm coming too."

While Osamu looked surprised at her declaration, Hyuse just caught Chika's eye and smirked. Chika smiled back at him. She would like to stay by Yuma's side. Kinuta and Michael seemed convinced that he would wake up if his Trion could recover properly. She didn't want him to wake up alone, but they had no idea of how long that would take and she didn't think she could sit here with the knowledge that Hyuse and Osamu were running into danger to find the Mimics. She was their teammate and their sniper so it was her job to provide them with backup.

Besides, if the cause of Yuma's condition was because of his father siphoning Trion from his Black Trigger, then Chika would not hesitate this time. She no longer cared that Kuga Yugo was Yuma's father. If it meant saving her friend, she would shoot without hesitation.