A/N: I don't own World Trigger

Mimics

Chapter 24: Hyuse's Plan

Chika crouched on the roof's ledge, eyeing the surrounding buildings for any signs of movements. Unfortunately, everything was silent except for the slight movements of Osamu and Hyuse on the ground below her. They had dragged Shiori into their mission to be their go between with HQ and quickly left for the Restricted Zone to find the Mimics.

That was an hour ago and it had been a fruitless search so far. It wouldn't be so disheartening that this was a waste of time so far if not for the fact that Yuma's life was hanging by a thread. With each minute that they didn't make any progress, it felt like Yuma's death was becoming more and more assured.

"Do you have any ideas of how to find them, Shiori-san?" Chika asked.

"Hmm," Shiori's voice hummed softly in Chika's ear. "From my understanding of the Mimics, they should appear on our radars but when Kuga and Mogami transformed, they received their Triggers which have bagworms equipped to them. Unless they remove the bagworms, I have no way of tracking them."

"Which is why Border is scouring the Restricted Zone for them." Hyuse said, feeling a bit frustrated at their lack of progress. This was turning into a complete waste of time. His partner was going to end up dying at this rate. "They have no way to track them but can't just do nothing and let them wander around freely with no resistance. We saw how horrible that idea is when Kuga attacked the city yesterday."

"And our base the day before." Osamu added, sighing softly. How many attacks were they going to have to suffer before they could stop this? This week had been difficult enough for Border, and it was far from over since it was no long Kuga Yugo alone they had to deal with. With Mogami added in, the situation had become more complicated. The past was fighting the present and if they didn't get a handle on this soon, it was going to win. That couldn't happen. If the past won, they were going to lose Yuma. "We can search the Restricted Zone as much as we like, but that doesn't mean they are hiding out in here and even if they are, the Restricted Zone is huge. It will be hard to find anyone in here."

Hyuse glanced at Osamu before going back to scanning the area of the Restricted Zone they were in, resting a hand on the hilt of his sword. "We came out here with a purpose. I'm not in the mood to go back empty handed."

To Osamu, the way he was speaking was making it sound like he had an idea forming. During the last couple of months, he's learned to not just trust Yuma and Hyuse for their strength, but for their tactical expertise in the field. The strategies they tended to come up with were quite unique. "If you have a plan, I'm willing to listen."

"You are all thinking about this one way. How do we find them?" Hyuse asked. "But why should we be the ones to find them?" The answer to the question was obvious, being that waiting for Mogami and Kuga to attack led to Border keep losing to them. Trying to hunt them down though was going to be difficult if they never wanted to take off the bagworms until they attacked. "There is always the option of luring them out with a trap."

"How will a trap help if we don't even know where they are at?" Chika asked intrigued. Their team had used plenty of traps before since they were quite helpful to them as a new, inexperienced team, but she couldn't see how helpful they would be when the enemy didn't feel inclined to come out right now.

"Because we will make them think we are closing in on them. It will work better when it is dark though." Hyuse replied, looking up towards the afternoon sky before turning to look at Chika crouched on the roof behind them. "And we will need a new Trigger."

Chika blinked in confusion.

*Mimics*

Jin leaned against the wall of the lab, arms crossed over his chest, as he stared down at Yuma's prone form on the bed, wires hooked up to him so Michael could keep monitoring Yuma's Trion levels. Next to the bed, Rindo, hunched over like the weight of the world was pulling him down, had taken the seat that Chika had vacated earlier.

He had been working all morning on figuring things out and getting his plans set in motion. Shinoda had been informed of the issues with Fujin. He had told Tachikawa squad he would need their help to take down the Mimics. And finally, he took a walk around HQ to see what else he could find out about the battle that he saw approaching soon and what else he could set up beforehand.

With two powerful transformed Mimics with access to Black Trigger abilities, it seemed they were ready to move into a big battle. He still couldn't figure out what the point of this attack from the nation that was sending the Mimics was. Mimics didn't kidnap people and had the goal of getting memories from Trion bodies to transform. It didn't seem like the goal of them was to kill until they transformed.

So, what was the point of them?

What was the nation that was doing this after? What did they gain from ordering Mimics to come here to transform and then just hang around attacking them?

It was one of the many things that had been plaguing Jin's mind the past few days. With trying to think of the answers to these questions and trying to see what he could of the battle he saw coming, he had overlooked Yuma's future. He knew his friend was dying which was part of the reason he was trying to set up for the approaching battle as much as possible, and because of that, he had missed the fact that Yuma would be falling into this sleep mode.

Staring at him now, Jin was having trouble seeing his future pass the next couple of days. It was disheartening for him to see how hazy it was all becoming. He could still see Yuma's future, but it was hazy and he couldn't get any concrete details from it which told him the chance of Yuma surviving through the next few days was very slim, but it wasn't zero. That meant that there was still a fighting chance.

Jin's head jerked up as he stared at Rindo, seeing the future shift before his eyes. With his back to him, Rindo didn't realize that Jin was now staring at him instead of Yuma. As the vision died down from his eyes, Jin pushed off the wall, smirking slightly. "Now that is interesting."

"Hmm?" Rindo sat up, turning to look at Jin. "Did you see something?"

Looking towards the door to the lab, Jin nodded. "I see an interesting course of action for tonight. I have something to go take care of." He glanced back at Rindo. "We're going to be busy tonight. Can you and Shinoda-san watch over Yuma for me?"

Rindo's brows furrowed in confusion. He hardly thought it was necessary for both him and Shinoda to be in here, but if Jin was asking it of him, then he must think it was important. If Jin was asking this before something major was about to happen, then even Rindo and Shinoda would listen to his orders. Jin was not going to be playing around when the life of a friend was on the line and his old mentor was running loose with the intent to harm Border.

*Mimics*

"Explain it to me." Konami crossed her arms, staring at Hyuse. Osamu and his squad had returned to HQ with the request of Chika and Hyuse getting access to an optional Trigger. It was something that could easily be done by Shiori, Yuri, or Michael, but Konami was itching to join the team on their mission. It hurt so much to see Yuma lying unconscious earlier. She wanted to go visit him, but at the same time, she wanted to go knock some heads in. If killing the Mimics would help, then she would be of more use with Osamu and his squad.

"The only time we've been able to find the Mimics is when they've come to us. They are too good at hiding. It would be a waste of time trying to just find them by exploring the Restricted Zone." Hyuse replied, leaning back on Shiori's desk, planting his hands on the edge for leverage. "So, we're going to use the trick Azuma squad used in our match against them."

"Their trick?" Osamu repeated, brows furrowed in thought. "You mean their plan of using the beacons to hide?"

Konami raised a brow. "The point of that tactic is to hide from radar and overwhelm the enemy by distracting them as they try to figure out which are the fakes and which is their real target. How does that help us find the Mimics?"

"Does Border lack the thought process for creative strategy?" Hyuse retorted, making Konami angry enough to glare at him. "I imagine if these Mimics are using old Border Triggers, they should also have a radar on them. If we can overwhelm them with enough beacons to make them think they're surrounded, they'll make a move. It works better at night when it will be harder for them to see that no one is there."

Osamu seemed to catch on to the trick a lot faster than Konami and Chika. "The radars have a limited radius, but if we move from area to area setting the beacons off, we might be able to get them thinking they are surrounded and they'll either want to get out of the area of the enemy they think is there or they'll come out of hiding to fight us."

"There's no guarantee that it will work. If they know about the beacons, they'll realize no one is there." Hyuse said.

Shiori stood up from her desk and walked around it to lean against it next to Hyuse. "The dummy beacon Trigger was created not that long ago. It's technically still a prototype, so it's not something Kuga-san or Mogami-san could possibly know about. The beacons can mimic your Trion signature or with my help, I can mimic an ally's Trion signature as well, however, these beacons can only last a few minutes before they run out of Trion and deactivate."

"And what if Chika and I are the ones using them? Could we supply them with enough Trion to keep them active longer?" Hyuse asked. "Long enough to push the Mimics into thinking someone is there? If they disappear too early, it won't be able to fool the Mimics."

"Perhaps for a few minutes longer." Shiori said. With how new the dummy beacons were, she wasn't a true expert yet on how they worked in the field. "And considering how much Trion you two have, you can activate a lot more than Azuma-san could." Considering how many Azuma did activate, Hyuse and Chika's amount of dummy beacons would be scarily impressive.

"I'm not sure activating that ridiculous amount would be a good idea. If there are too many beacons appearing on the radar, Kuga-san and Mogami-san might see it as a trap and not move how we expect." Osamu replied.

"You also have the issue that when using beacons, you mimic your Trion signature. That will reveal the trick to Kuga and Mogami." Konami added.

"Not necessarily." Shiori replied. "It works like that in Rank wars because we know who we are fighting and we can see the signature as copies. Kuga-san and Mogami-san don't have access to our records so they will just see unknown Trigger signatures on their radars so it should work."

Konami nodded in understanding. It also helped that Mogami and Yugo didn't have an operator to back them up. They would have to rely on themselves and what they had stored in their Triggers. "It's not a bad plan, but it would take a long time to do every area of the Restricted Zone, and remember, there is a chance they aren't in the Restricted Zone."

Osamu nodded, looking off to the side as he thought. If they couldn't find the Mimics, then the best idea would be to draw them out to them. There were actually two ways to do that. One was by Hyuse's plan, and the second was to use what Kuga seemed to care about most, which was his son. While the second would likely work, it truly wasn't an option. Osamu would never use his friend as bait, especially when he was in such a bad position currently.

"If time is an issue, then perhaps we should have Chika and Hyuse both use the beacons and activate a lot. Our radars only reach so far so if we make a lot and spread them out, their radars shouldn't pick up all of them." Osamu suggested.

"That may draw them out, but it doesn't help if we're not in the area where they are when they move." Konami pointed out.

"We don't need to be." Osamu said, glancing over at Shiori. "Jin-san said to call for reinforcements if we found the Mimics. How about if we just go out with multiple squads with this plan? We have Chika and Hyuse spread the beacons out and have the squads each take their own sections of the area of the Restricted Zone we're in. If we do big sections like this, it will save us time. We don't have to do this alone."

"Oooh?" Shiori smirked, nodding in agreement, glasses sparkling in the light of the room. She pushed them up, feeling quite eager to move now that they were getting a plan worked out. It was better than sitting around, doing nothing while Yuma was unconscious. "I'm sure Tamakoma-1 will want in on this."

"Hell yeah we will." Konami declared, not bothering to ask her team if they wanted to take part since they weren't in the operation's room at the time. If it would help Yuma, there was no way either of them would say no anyway. And if by some weird chance that they said, Konami would bash their skulls in. No one was around to sit around while her precious student could possibly die by the end of the week.

"Then, we'll leave Hyuse's and Chika's Triggers with Usami-senpai to get the dummy beacon installed. While she does that, we need to get some squads to help us out tonight with this." Osamu decided.

"Know of any squads that would want involved in this?" Hyuse asked.

"Ask any squad and they'll agree easily." Konami replied, crossing her arms over her chest. "The Shinoda faction will say yes just because it's a plan in the works to end this attack which will save the city. The Kido faction squads will say yes because they hate Neighbors and will want to take part in killing them. So, you're not short on help."

"As long as we keep that annoyance out of it." Hyuse muttered.

Konami raised a slender brow. "Annoyance?"

"My side effect tells me a fun plan is in the works for tonight!" Jin said loudly as he entered the operation's room his branch was using as part of their temporary base of operations. It was much better than having to spend all their time in the barracks.

Hyuse just closed his eyes in defeat. He wasn't even surprised, just annoyed that he had to show up. It seemed to be his motif to show up when he wasn't wanted.

"If you need squads," Jin jerked a thumb over his shoulder, grinning. "I got them."

*Mimics*

Osamu looked around the room they were in. It was the same room they were in just a couple weeks ago to get assigned their teams for the away mission exam. Considering just how much went into that exam and how hectic this week had been, that day felt like it was such a long time ago. The excitement of that time of starting the test for the away mission wasn't here right now. Instead, it was replaced by a serious, tense air hovering over Osamu. He did not take a threat to anyone in his team lightly.

Taking stock of the room and seeing it jam packed with agents again, Osamu was realizing just how fast Jin worked. To have gathered this many agents so fast, he must have saw them developing their plan with his side effect. That, and Osamu had seen before just how good Jin was at networking. He wasn't one to waste time when a plan was in front of them that could actually help.

"So, do they actually know why they are here or did you just order them all to come here?" Konami asked.

"They all probably think it's one of his schemes." Karasuma said amused.

"They wouldn't be wrong." Konami muttered.

"Hey now," Jin protested. "It's Osamu and Hyuse's plan. Let's not diminish the work they put into this idea by saying it's mine." He clapped a hand on Osamu's shoulder. "Since it is your idea, we're going to lead this meeting together."

Osamu raised a brow, but shrugged in agreement. "Is it alright to do this without telling Director Shinoda? This is a lot more agents that I was counting on for help."

"It'll be fine." Jin said as he walked down the steps to head to the front of the room. "He trusts my judgement on these kinds of things."

"I'm not so sure." Osamu muttered softly.

Karasuma stepped up next to Osamu's side. "It'll be fine. We're working on stopping the Mimics. Shinoda-san won't get upset that we are taking the initiative to try a plan to end this before it gets any farther. He doesn't expect us to be able to do this with just Tamakoma agents, so I'm sure he would be fine with us taking all these agents to help."

Osamu nodded, walking down the stairs after Jin. He stepped onto the stage at the bottom, stopping by the desk on it where Shiori was setting up her laptop. "Are you still feeling okay, Usami-senpai? I know you got released from the infirmary last night, but that doesn't mean we should have dragged you into working so soon after. You deserve some rest."

Shiori looked up from her laptop, smiling softly at Osamu. Lifting her head like that revealed the bruises on her neck which made Osamu grimace a bit. He hated seeing the injuries on his friends. Just by not being at Tamakoma, it felt like he failed in helping them. This was likely how they felt when he was the one who got hurt months ago.

"I'm fine, Osamu-kun. I'm not about to sit around doing nothing when we're being attacked, especially when Yuma-kun is in danger. If I don't do anything to try to help stop this attack and he dies, I'll feel horrible." Shiori replied, hands curling into fists over her keyboard. "Because maybe if I am here, something could change. I may not be a field operative, but I'm not useless."

"I know you're not." Osamu said, appreciation touching his tone. "It was with your expertise as an operator that we got this far. Every member of our team plays a part. We don't work without one of us, which means Kuga can't die. We do everything in our power to beat his father to save him."

Shiori nodded. "We're all worried about Yuma-kun, but remember, don't let your worries about him distract you in the field. Getting killed in battle because your mind is on Yuma-kun will be a waste. Don't let those worries be the reason you get pulled out of the battle."

As concerned as he was about his partner, Osamu was doing his best to not think about the fact that he was lying in one of Kinuta's labs, unconscious. It felt wrong that he was in a lab and not in an infirmary, but the infirmary could do nothing for him. Not that Kinuta could do anything for Yuma either, but he and Michael could at least keep an eye on Yuma's Trion levels for them with the hope that they would see an improvement in it. That was something for those two to keep an eye on. Osamu needed to focus on the current attack with the hope that solving this would help his partner. This was what he could do.

"Good afternoon, Border!" Jin greeted cheerfully. There was nothing to be happy about in the situation, but Jin needed the façade on. He couldn't let the worries he had be a distraction.

Shiori and Osamu looked up from their conversation as Jin started the meeting. Giving one more gentle smile to Osamu, Shiori took a sit at the desk while Osamu stayed standing next to it, but now facing the room full of agents.

"I'm sure you're all wondering why I asked you to meet here."

"Knew he didn't tell them anything." Konami muttered to Karasuma. They had chosen to stay standing at the top of the room with Chika and Hyuse instead of taking seats or joining the others on the stage.

"It is easier and faster to explain it to everyone all at once." Karasuma replied softly so as to not interrupt Jin.

"Just get to the point, Jin." Tachikawa said. "Do you have a plan for what to do about the Mimics?"

"Well, Osamu and Hyuse have a plan in the works to find Kuga-san and Mogami-san." Jin replied.

"Who is that?" Nasu asked confused. She had heard about Yuma's father roaming about, not that she had seen the Mimic of him yet.

"Alongside Kuga Yugo, Mogami Soichi was one of the founders of Border. He is also the creator of the Black Trigger, Fujin." Osamu explained, pushing his glasses up as he adjusted his posture to be straighter as everyone's eyes turned to him as he spoke. It seemed that Shinoda and Kyoko still hadn't managed to get the memo about Mogami sent out yet. "And he appeared last night and has joined up with Kuga-san."

Jin nodded. "Speaking of Fujin, just like Kuga-san can use Yuma's Black Trigger abilities, Mogami-san can use Fujin's wind blades."

Not to mention, the Mimics being able to use the Black Trigger abilities was leading to their destruction. If they waited too long, Border was going to lose two Black Triggers and an agent. There was no need to inform the agents about the possible destruction of the Black Triggers though. As long as Fujin stayed locked up in Kinuta's lab, no one could get to it and see the cracks on it. It wasn't information that the agents needed to know at the moment, though they might start questioning why no one was using Fujin to help in the battle against the transformed Mimics. A problem for the future.

"After what happened in the city yesterday, we can't afford to let Mogami-san and Kuga-san to wander around freely, but we have no chance of finding them when both of them are wearing bagworms." Jin glanced over at Shiori, who saluted back at him before she was displaying the map of the Restricted Zone on the huge screen behind them. "It's your plan, Captain Four-Eyes, so you take over."

"Actually, it was Hyuse's plan." Osamu corrected, but he stepped up anyway, not flinching away from all the eyes of the agents focusing on him now. "Since we don't have the time to locate the two transformed Mimics by just looking normally, especially since we are not even sure they are hiding out in the Restricted Zone, and we can't wait for them to attack us again, we're going to draw them out towards us."

"How are we meant to do that when we don't know where they are?" Yoneya asked. Though he was intrigued with where this was going, he couldn't help but noticed when he first saw Tamakoma enter the room that Yuma wasn't with them. If all the other agents were here and he wasn't, then that was telling him that Yuma hadn't woken up yet. He wasn't waking up and suddenly Tamakoma was making a huge move that involved gathering this many agents for one of their plans? He let it go earlier so Tamakoma could focus on Yuma, but if this went on, maybe he would join Yotaro's spy game and found out what they were hiding.

"We're going to use the prototype Trigger, dummy beacon." Osamu explained as Shiori added an example of showing the dummy beacons to be all over one section of the Restricted Zone. "We don't know where they are, so we're going to go section by section through the Restricted Zone and have Chika and Hyuse use the dummy beacons. We don't have the time to take this slowly, which is why we are asking for your help. We're spreading the dummy beacons over sections of the Restricted to fool Mogami-san and Kuga-san into thinking we have them surrounded. If they think they're surrounded, we're expecting them to make a move. We need agents spread around the section we're releasing the beacons in to keep watch for the Mimics moving."

Katori eyed her former teammate curiously. The Mimics have been an issue for days, but they had been dealing with the attacks as they came. Tamakoma hadn't been making any big moves beyond when their branch got attacked, but that wasn't on them. They had simply defended themselves. Then the attack yesterday happened and Tamakoma-1 had made a move to help in the city, and not that long ago, she had seen Tamakoma-2, minus Yuma, moving quickly out of HQ. And now they were back just a couple hours later and were gathering agents for a plan. There was clearly something more going on.

"Is there a reason for the sudden rush you guys seem to be exhibiting?" Katori asked, not at all shy or hesitant to just boldly ask Tamakoma what they were hiding.

The question was enough to catch Osamu off guard as he hesitated in answering and instead glanced over at Jin. If there was any doubt that Tamakoma was pushing to get the Mimics dealt with quickly all of a sudden, then it was gone with just that one look. Just knowing that they had a reason to rush didn't mean Tamakoma was going to freely tell everyone that reason easily though.

"Is Kuga-kun not joining in on the mission?" Kumegai asked, staring at the back of the room where the rest of Tamakoma's agents were, noticing the lack of Yuma. "I would think he would want involved since his father is among the Mimics we're going after."

They needed to answer these questions or more would just keep popping up the more they hesitated in giving answers.

"Kuga is..." Osamu locked eyes with Jin, unsure of what answers to give to these questions.

"Yuma is incapacitated right now." Jin took over for Osamu, easing an easy smile on his face that hid his stress as he stepped forward.

It wasn't exactly a lie, but definitely not the full truth.

Kako lifted her head slightly off her palm, eyeing Jin with a frown. His statement would normally make her think that Yuma was just sick and needed to take a break. Normally, but after Jin telling her and Arashiyama about Yuma's situation the other day, hearing anything about Yuma being incapacitated was concerning. Being that he was in a Trion body all the time, there was no reason for him to be incapacitated. It shouldn't even be possible.

She looked towards other side of the room, catching Arashiyama's eyes, seeing the same concerns shining on his face.

Shun sat up straighter in his seat, surprising his team at the abrupt movement, but he paid no them no attention. His eyes were focused on Jin. When they left Yuma with them, Jin said they would handle it. If Tamakoma was planning a move against the Mimics and Yuma was still in a bad way, it didn't seem like it had been handled at all.

The Mimics were a problem. Shun understood that. He wasn't against any plan that might end their attack, but why was this the focus of Tamakoma? He couldn't see how going after Kuga and Mogami would help Yuma. Maybe Yuma's father did something to hurt him? That could explain the cracks on his body...sort of. If he was being honest, the thoughts Shun was having after seeing Yuma were ridiculous as he tried to find a reason for Yuma's body to break like that.

Real bodies didn't just break. Bone could be broken. Cuts could split the skin open and let blood flow freely. Bruises caused a discoloration on the skin.

There was no type of injury that put a hollow crack in the body, so Shun needed to forget the real body for a moment. Instead, he needed to focus on what he knew.

Yuma was a Neighbor.

He grew up in the Neighbor's world.

What would that change for Yuma when compared to the childhoods kids had in this world?

Shun had no idea whatsoever. He had never been to that world so he didn't know how different it was. With that being the case, Shun had to take the Neighbor's world out of the equation as well. That left him with what he knew about Neighbors and their technology that Border gave him.

Neighbors.

Triggers.

Trion Soldiers.

Trion bodies.

All stuff that Yuma spent his childhood with. Did any of that explain his body having cracks in it?

The only thing that would make any sense through the knowledge Shun had was a Trion body. It was a ridiculous thought though. There was no reason for Yuma to stay in a Trion body, especially one that was breaking. Yet, Shun couldn't come up with another explanation.

After Yuma told him he was a Neighbor, Shun didn't think there would be any more big secrets. Yuma was allowed his secrets. He didn't have to tell Shun everything, but he thought the Neighbor secret would be his only big one. Clearly, he had been mistaken.

What was going on in Tamakoma?

*Mimics*

"Not going to try to hide it this time?"

Rindo didn't bother to look up from Yuma's prone form. Since he had sent the message to Shinoda for him to meet him in the lab, Rindo had been waiting to hear the doors open to announce his arrival. "It's hard to hide an unconscious agent."

Shinoda stepped up to the stand next to the chair his friend was sitting on. He clapped a hand on his friend's shoulder, but his attention was locked on Yuma. Shinoda never wanted to see any of his agents in this state, but this somehow felt worse. They could help Osamu when he was injured and Jin had assured everyone he would be fine. When his agents got turned into cubes, the Research and Development team had been able to save them.

Right now, no one was able to give the guarantee that Yuma would make it. To make matters worse, the agent injured was the son of his dear friend and mentor that they made a promise to protect. Neither he nor Rindo had been there when Mogami or Yugo died. There wasn't anything they had been able to do for them.

To make up for those past failings, they had promised to keep Yuma safe, and yet, despite Yuma being right in front of them, they weren't able to do anything. They were going to fail their old friends again at this rate.

"I'm surprised none of your agents are here." Shinoda said. It wasn't like Tamakoma to just leave their friend behind when he was in a bad state.

"It looks like they have a plan tonight." Rindo replied, looking at Shinoda out of the corner of his eyes. "And the reason I asked you here. Jin has requested that you and I stay with Yuma tonight."

Shinoda quirked a brow, curious about the request. When there was a big attack happening and his agents were in the field, Shinoda tended to stick to the war room so he could keep a view on the battlefield and easily relay orders to the agents. For that reason, Jin didn't tend to ask things of Rindo and Shinoda. When he was setting up the playing field, he always went to the active agents.

Rindo snorted at the confused look his friend was displaying. "If he's asking this, it must be important."

"I know." Shinoda replied, pulling out his phone. "I'll have Sawamura keep me appraised of the agents in the field from here. I just wish Jin would give more of an explanation."

"Jin is doing the best he can." Rindo replied. "He's had his own stress this week with seeing Yuma's death incoming and now Mogami-san is back. You know Jin had a hard time coming back when he first died."

Shinoda smirked, but there was no amusement to it. "You speak as if you didn't also have a hard time after losing our friends back then."

A hollow chuckle came from Rindo. "I'm not denying my own grief, but at the time, we had Jin, Konami, Ruka, and Yotaro. They all suffered in Aristera, and so they needed us to be strong. The Commanders don't have the luxury of faltering."

"Perhaps in that sense, we failed Jin." Shinoda said. "He's not a Commander, and yet, he pushes his concerns and stress to the side for the greater good of Border. We ask too much of him."

"Is it though?" Rindo asked. "Jin and Konami aren't those bright-eyed, innocent kids they were when they came to us. Despite what they went through in Aristera, both of them chose to stick with Border, because for them, to step back and do nothing while an attack is happening would be a betrayal to those who died to get them to this point." Rindo rolled a cigarette around his fingers, but didn't light it since Kinuta would probably kill him from smoking in his lab. "We can't protect them forever. All we can do is make sure they're ready to face what life is going to throw at them."

Shinoda stared down at the cracks on Yuma's neck, tracing them up to his jaw. "Life is quite cruel. Kids shouldn't have to face it at such a young age." He dropped into the empty chair next to Rindo, leaning forward to rest his arms on his knees and interlocking his fingers. "When Yuma-kun told us his story last night, I was amazed at just how strong a kid he is. When I think back to when I was eleven, I don't think I could have stood back up after what he went through."

"You also didn't grow up with Kuga-san for a father." Rindo pointed out. "Yuma was raised to stand on his own two feet."

"Yugo-san and Mogami-san were relentless in making sure everyone could stand on their own." Shinoda agreed.

"And now they are both here hurting their organization."

"Mimics are fake version of the ones that we already lost once before. The real Mogami-san and Yugo-san would want us to kill them, right?"

Rindo found his attention drifting back to Yuma, more specifically the damage being done to his body. "If Kuga-san knew his presence would kill his son, he would kill himself without hesitation. Since that's not possible, we have to do it for him. Yuma's life was the most important thing to Kuga-san. To pay Kuga-san back for everything he's done for us, we protect his son at all costs."

It was an easy thing to say, but neither of them had seen the Mimics, but if Jin and Yuma were having any hesitance, it spoke volumes of how real the Mimics seemed. Jin and Yuma were not easily frazzled.

*Mimics*

"What the hell does incapacitated mean?" Kageura demanded, glaring down at the Tamakoma agents on the stage. That idiot of a shrimp had looked perfectly fine yesterday. Maybe he had a few reckless thoughts from the stress of what he was going through this week, but there was nothing to indicate that he was unwell. He had been so sure Yuma was fine when he returned to HQ yesterday. How could it go from that to this all of a sudden?

"It means he doesn't feel well." Reiji stepped down the stairs towards the front of the room. "And thus, he is taking a few days off from field work."

"Kuga wouldn't let himself be taken off by a cold at a time like this." Murakami said unconvinced, eyes narrowed as he sat up straight in his seat. Maybe the agents who didn't know Yuma as well as his friends would believe Tamakoma, but not him or Kage. He heard it in Yuma's voice the other day after their match. This would not be a fight he would just abandon without good reason. A cold was not a good reason for him to pull out of the field, not when it was something as personal as this.

Suwa would have to agree with Murakami on that one. A cold wouldn't take Yuma out of the fight, but being unconscious would. He saw Yoneya and Shun dragging the unconscious Yuma back to Tamakoma and now Tamakoma was acting without him. Kazama said Jin would come to them if he needed them.

Well, it seemed like Tamakoma needed help. Suwa didn't believe it was a coincidence that Tamakoma would make a plan against the Mimics on the same day Yuma went out of commission if the events weren't connected.

Reiji joined Jin and Osamu on the stage, catching Jin's eyes. There wasn't much more they could say. They all agreed to try to keep things about Yuma's condition quiet. They were never going to reveal the state of his real body, but they had to decide if they wanted to tell the agents that Yuma was unconscious and there was no telling when-if- he would wake up or make up a lie about why he wasn't here. Telling the agents the truth would only cause worry amongst his friends and more questions than Tamakoma wanted to answer.

Though, it didn't seem to matter what story they chose to go with. Yuma's friends were not going to buy any of it. They had wanted to avoid his friends wanting to visit him since they had no way to hide the cracks he had on his body, but it seemed they were not going to make it that easy. There was no easy lie they could give that would convince the agents why Yuma was taking a step out from such a personal matter.

"Your call, Jin." Reiji said.

Staring back at the faces of the agents that were accepting none of Tamakoma's bullshit, Jin was left wondering if Yuma even realized how many people he had befriended. He knew Yuma liked the people he met in Border, but he also knew Yuma had likely wanted to keep them at a distance because of his secrets, and he didn't mean the Neighbor secret. He only joined Border to help Osamu and Chika. It hadn't been his plan to like the agents who tried to kill him when he joined so when he realized he was starting to grow fond of Border like his father, Yuma lost the sense to keep his distance. The only thing Yuma had left was to force distance between them was a lack of trust by choosing to not disclose his secrets to them.

It was understandable why Yuma didn't want people to know he was dying. It wasn't something he could just tell people easily, but that distance he wanted didn't do much when the agents didn't know it existed. Perhaps Yuma thought his death would hurt his friends less if when it happened, they would be more focused on being mad at the fact that he never trusted them enough to tell them that he knew it was coming.

It was Yuma's choice to keep it quiet and Jin respected that, but his friends also deserved an answer that wasn't about Yuma being sick and dropping the problem with Mimics which wasn't like him.

"Kuga has been injured by the Mimics and is currently unconscious in Kinuta-san's lab." Osamu said, surprising Jin and Reiji. He caught both of their eyes head on without flinching. "I'm his Captain. If Kuga gets mad about this, I'll take the fall for it." Being hurt by the Mimics would be the only reason Yuma wouldn't get involved in this battle. Even if he didn't want to fight his father, if he wasn't hurt, Osamu was sure Yuma would still go after Mogami or even just join to help protect Chika and Hyuse in the mission. None of that was possible though, and none of his friends would accept any lies from Tamakoma. Osamu wasn't much of a fan of lying anyway. He could keep secrets that he was let in on and no one asked him about them, but lying directly to someone about what was really going on here wasn't how he wanted to handle this. They didn't need to know Yuma was dying, just that he was currently injured.

"He's hurt?" Obishima said confused. How could he have gotten hurt? They fought in Trion bodies so unless extenuating circumstances were in play, they couldn't really get hurt.

"Ah, so Tamakoma is going after revenge." Ikoma said.

Well, revenge was one way they could explain their actions. It was definitely better than saying that Yuma was dying and they were desperately trying to save him.

"Call it what you want." Jin replied. "Now, who wants in on our plan?"

To no one's surprise, not a single agent in the room refused to take part in the plan. Even the agents who didn't like Yuma wanted to take part in the plan, but that would be because the need to defeat the Mimics and end this attack was more important than their feelings towards Yuma.

*Mimics*

Mogami found himself crouched on the roof of the train station, staring off into the distance towards the towering building. Things really felt really different in Mikado City than what he last recalled of the city. The building ruins that were in the middle of the city couple with the new giant base in the center of those ruins. That base was the new HQ of Border. It was amazing to see how Border had grown in the past few years. He wasn't sure how many years it had been, but from seeing Jin, he could tell that quite a bit of time had passed. For an organization that had been around, although secretly, for a couple decades and remained small to suddenly, in just a couple years, grow to be this big was impressive sight to behold.

A base that big told Mogami that there would be a lot of agents. He didn't know if their original base was still being used, but if it was, then that would give Mogami two possible options as to where the Black Trigger he needed to destroy would be located at. Since the Black Trigger he felt drawn to that he needed to destroy was in Jin's possession, if he found his prodigy, he should logically be able to find it. The problem was that it wasn't exactly easy to just find anyone in the city.

Footsteps behind him had Mogami looking over his shoulder to see Yugo approaching, though his attention was locked on the base in the distance. "What are you thinking about, Soichi?"

"How to find the Black Trigger to destroy it."

"Even if you find it, it won't be easy to destroy it."

"True," Mogami pushed himself to a standing position. "But if I could at least get it into my possession."

Yugo hummed in reply. "Yuma has the one I need. I wonder if he is at HQ."

"Won't it hurt him if you take it from him?" Mogami asked. That was what he had taken Yugo's words to mean earlier at least.

"And?" Yugo asked, raising a brow at his friend. "I need to take hold of it."

Why did they both want the Black Triggers they created so badly? When he first appeared in the city, he chose to run from Jin and Yuma out of confusion. He could have dealt with the confusion of why he was suddenly in Mikado City and Yugo and his son were there. He couldn't deal with the confusion of why he felt an unnatural anger at the sword Jin was holding and that he needed to destroy it. That was a normal feeling to have towards a weapon at all.

That was last night and now almost a whole day later, there was a burning sensation traversing through his veins that was telling him to move, to find that Black Trigger. It had been a slight itch when he first saw the sword and Jin, but now his blood felt like it was boiling the longer he stayed away.

It wasn't right.

Mogami shouldn't want to attack his old friends to get to a Black Trigger and steal it from them.

Attacking Border would never be what he wanted.

And yet, if they got in his way of getting the sword, he wouldn't hesitate.

He would kill anyone in his path.

*Mimics*

"If it can be helped, we shouldn't just choose a random location to start at." Kako argued, glancing towards Osamu. Tamakoma had moved down from the back of the room and joined together on the stage as they tried to work out their plan of attack. "Isn't there anywhere that you can think of that Kuga would hide at?"

Osamu raised a brow. "I know nothing about Kuga's father. He died long before I ever met Kuga."

"That's alright. Think about Kuga-kun. They're father and son so they have to share some similarities." Kako replied.

Osamu wasn't convinced. "You say that, but Kuga doesn't talk easily about his father. It's hard to make any comparisons when I know very little."

"The stars." Chika piped up, causing Osamu to look at her in confusion. "Yuma-kun told me before he spent his childhood traveling with his father. During their travels, they spent many nights outside watching the stars together. It's a habit he keeps up to this day. So maybe his father would go somewhere with a good view of the stars."

"Oh," Jin grinned. "That's a good idea. Mogami-san would watch the stars sometimes and talk of an old friend who liked the stars. He was probably referring to Kuga-san."

"Would the Mimics really choose a spot that has meaning to them like that to hide?" Tokieda asked.

Jin crossed his arms over his chest and tilted his head to the side as he thought. "Considering they're Trion Soldiers, you wouldn't think they would, but they've got all the memories of the people they've transformed into. If those memories can be there, those feelings should be as well. The pain, anger, nostalgia, love, sadness."

"If that was the case, then why is Kuga's father so hellbent on killing him?" Katori retorted. "He's even managed to put the shrimp in such a state that Tamakoma is ready for an all-out assault against them."

"I can't begin to understand all the mechanisms of the Mimics. From what I saw of them though, their feelings and their Mimic design are twisting around one another." Jin replied.

"Yuma called it a contradiction." Hyuse added. "The Mimics don't work as weapons because those memories and feelings get in the way of what they are supposed to do which is to kill us."

"If that's the case then we use those feelings to our advantage." Mizukami said, leaning his chin into the palm of his hand as he stared down at the stage. "The purpose of the Mimics transforming into our loved ones that died was to manipulate our emotions and make it hard for us to fight them. Let's just turn it back around on them."

That was an interesting idea. Considering how little they knew about the Mimics, Jin didn't know how well it would work, but they wouldn't learn anything if they didn't try out any of the ideas they had. If he could get Mogami to recognize him and pause in his attack for even one second, it would help them a lot. Perhaps he could then figure out where the Mimic ended and Mogami started.

"That works for Mogami-san since Jin was close to him, but Yuma was the one close to Kuga-san and he's currently out of commission." Konami pointed out.

"Kido-san, Rindo-san, and Shinoda-san were all close to Kuga's father in the past." Osamu replied. "But we can't ask them to join us in the field."

Tachikawa perked up at the name of his mentor being close to Yuma. It made sense if he thought about it now that he knew Yugo was a Border member in the past and he knew Shinoda had been with the organization for a long time. He wondered just how close they were all though. Then again, Shinoda did join forces with Rindo all those months ago to stop their teams from stealing Yuma's Black Trigger. Tachikawa snorted at the thought. The son of a former member and friend of Border would be the one to almost cause a civil war in Border by just walking into Japan.

"Considering he put his son in this state, how close could they really have been?" Yuiga muttered.

His statement seemed to light a fire under Tamakoma as they all turned heated glares towards Tachikawa squad. The amount of anger in their looks had Tachikawa and Izumi inching away from Yuiga as they wanted no part in any of this.

"You don't know a damn thing about what happened between them in the past so you don't get to say anything about their relationship." Konami snarled, the only thing keeping her from marching up there and slapping Yuiga silly was Karasuma holding her arm to keep her back. "If it wasn't for Kuga-san, Yuma wouldn't-"

"Konami-senpai." Karasuma snapped, stopping her tirade as he was sure Yuma didn't want people to know the history with his father.

Konami seemed to realize her mistake as a scowl twisted on her face, but she stopped saying any more. She just sent one more glare at Yuiga as a warning to never open his mouth again before she was turning away from him. It was true that they knew very little about Kuga Yugo. They only knew what Yuma was willing to give them. From what they heard from Yuma though, she couldn't believe that man didn't love his son. No one would trade their life for another for any reason other than love.

It was love that made Yugo save Yuma and it was Yuma's love for his father that manifested Kuga Yugo as a Mimic. Everything about their relationship was based on love, which is why knowing that the existence of the Mimic of Kuga Yugo was hurting Yuma was making Konami mad. It didn't match up with who Kuga Yugo was from Yuma's story. That version of Yugo was someone that Konami could never imagine would hurt his son.

She couldn't stand to let Yugo run around anymore. His being was not only hurt Yuma physically, but also mentally.

"Anyway," Jin coughed, trying to hopefully get back on track and wipe those curious looks off the agents' faces before they could begin to question what Konami had been about to say. "That's what we mean by calling the Mimics a contradiction. The love they show with the ones that brought them into this world is being twisted. The Kuga-san we all heard about from Yuma would never do the type of things he's been doing."

"So, find them quickly and destroy them. Is there anywhere in the Restricted Zone that has a good spot to view the stars?" Kako asked, trying to assist Jin in moving on from Tamakoma getting ready to murder one of their allies.

With her question bringing things back on track, Shiori brought up a view of the whole Restricted Zone for them to examine to try to figure out where would be a good place to start their plan.

As the suggestions flew from the agents about the best place to start, Osamu took a step back, ending up standing between Chika and Hyuse, who were listening silently to the options they were being provided with. Being unknown with the Restricted Zone, there wasn't much Hyuse could offer to the conversation so he instead chose to look at Osamu.

"Even with all these agents agreeing to help us, do you think we stand a chance against them?" Hyuse asked, mostly because he was curious how Osamu felt about this. The other day he spoke of the uncertainty of being able to handle this scenario, but with Mogami and Kuga both here, they didn't have another choice but to get it handled.

Osamu pushed his glasses up to readjust them as he stared at the agents who were throwing ideas out, all ready to go to war with the Mimics. "It doesn't matter how I feel. We don't have another choice but to win."