A/N: I don't own World Trigger
Mimics
Chapter 29: Gates
Sword swinging through the air, the Mimic's arm met the sharp edge before dropping uselessly to the ground. Taking a step back, Rindo brought his Kogetsu up to block a claw that was just inches from his face. The clawed hand curled around his blade to grip it tightly and tried to pull it away from him. Rindo kept a tight grip on his Kogetsu as his eyes shifted to the side to look at the window.
Through the reflection of the window, Rindo could see Shinoda and Yugo exchanging blows behind him. Taking one hand off his Kogetsu, Rindo put it behind his back where he formed his Viper and broke it into tiny cubes so he could send it flying through the air. Half of his bullets twisted around Rindo and traveled towards the Mimics, turning in the air to get around their Shields to pierce them through their bodies, not enough to kill them, but enough to hinder them. The other half of his bullets followed the trajectory he had set from watching the reflection of Shinoda and Yugo in the window. They twisted around Shinoda's form to get to Yugo who was jumping away from Shinoda and the bullets, allowing the Bolt seal that had been under his foot to fire upon the bullets, creating a smoke screen from the explosion.
A move very familiar to Rindo.
Yugo came flying out of the smoke, leaving Shinoda behind in the smoke screen. Rindo turned to the side to block the sword coming for his heart just as Shinoda's swing came raining down on Yugo from behind, having followed his old mentor out of the smoke screen. Yugo flipped his second sword over his shoulder to block Shinoda's sword.
"It seems you two did learn something after all." Yugo said. He broke off to the side, letting their locked blades free as he shifted out from between them.
Shinoda caught sight of movement behind Rindo so instead of following Yugo, his Kogetsu was flying through the air and the Senku slashes turned in the air to wrap around Rindo as they targeted the Mimics to slice them in half before they could attack Rindo. There were enough transformed Mimics running around. They didn't need any more forming from Rindo and Shinoda's memories of their lost friends.
As the Mimics dropped dead to the ground, Yugo found himself smiling. The teamwork and trust between these two, it was nothing like when they were teenagers. It was with a calm confidence that the two acted without exchanging any words and how neither flinched when the other's attack soared pass them. It was a sharp contrast to when they were teenagers and they tried to fight together without talking. Back then, they had no coordination or trust in how the other would move.
Now they moved with the experience of those who knew real combat. They didn't just focus on one enemy. It wasn't even only the enemy that they had their focus on. They were reading the whole room, watching their comrades in the midst of the chaos, and if one was distracted with someone, the other would watch their back.
It seemed they finally learned the lesson.
It would put an added challenge on Yugo to get through them.
Instead of feeling any type of pressure though, the idea of breaking through these two gave Yugo a sense of thrill.
This was going to be fun.
*Mimics*
Kitora jumped away from the Marmod she just killed when a Gate opened right above her. This was getting ridiculous. Every time they managed to clear their area of the Trion Soldiers, a new Gate would open to drop more to keep them busy. It was lucky the squads were spread all around this area of the Restricted Zone so they could deal with all the Trion Soldiers that kept appearing, but it was also becoming a hindrance. Having Trion Soldiers constantly appear like this meant that no one could go back up Jin, Tachikawa squad, and Kazama squad against Mogami or get back to HQ to deal with Yugo invading the base.
She was sure each group could handle the enemy that they were presented with, but she was also thinking about how both Mogami and Yugo had access to Black Triggers. That added another level of danger to this which was the reason she wanted to be able to back up the ones fighting the transformed Mimics. This wasn't the time for arrogance by wanting to fight them alone.
That was the whole reason that Tamakoma came to all the agents and requested their help with this mission. They had recognized that going after Mogami and Yugo alone would be a highly stupid move, which was something that was proven true yesterday. None of them had gone looking for Kuga Yugo yesterday. He had simply attacked in the city to get to Yuma and Border was forced to react. They may have managed to kill the Trion Soldiers, but in the grand scheme of things, Border failed in that attack yesterday since not only did Yugo escape, but a mimic managed to transform into Mogami.
After that failure in the city yesterday and the fact that Yuma had been injured, Tamakoma wasn't about to take the risk of trying to handle the Mimics alone. This was not the time for pride to get in the way and fight alone. It wasn't only a risk to Yuma, but to Border as well.
Arashiyama stepped up next to Kitora, holding his assault rifle at his side as he stared up at the Gate above them as black Banders and Marmods fell out of it to block Arashiyama squad's path. Even in the darkness, Arashiyama could make out the Tamakoma emblem on the black Trion Soldiers.
"That emblem means these are from Kuga Yugo." Kitora said, calling forth her Scorpion. "The Gate Trigger he is using is from the Black Trigger, but even Black Triggers have a balance to them. If Kuga-san is currently attacking HQ, he should not be able to open Gates this far from HQ to attack us with."
"True, it doesn't make sense." Arashiyama agreed. "Something to think about later when we don't have enemies standing in our way and trying to kill us."
A bright light shot through the sky towards the Bander. To the agents' surprise, instead of hitting its eye and killing the Trion Soldier, the Bander's teeth snapped shut to fend off the bullet. A second shot came right after the first, but it just bounced off the Bander's armor.
"That's just not fair!" Satori complained in their ears. "My double snipe should have killed that thing."
Kitora rested her hand on her gun at her side, eyeing the unique color of the Trion Soldiers in front of them. "If these are anything like the Rabits that Kuga-kun's Black Trigger creates, their armor is not easy to penetrate. You'll need more than Egret, Satori-senpai."
"I don't have Ibis equipped." Satori replied.
"Then we'll use Meteor." Tokieda said, glancing over towards Arashiyama.
"Once our Meteors break through the armor, Ken's shots can get through." Arashiyama agreed.
While they discussed their plan, Kitora was watching the Marmods and Banders. The one that Satori had shot at was opening its mouth to show its glowing eye. "Arashiyama-senpai," Kitora warned.
The three agents on the street all jumped back, throwing up their Shields as their moved. Instead of getting a regular laser from the Bander, an orange seal appeared in front of the Bander's glowing eye. Seeing that seal, Arashiyama and Kitora immediately understood what was going on. Kitora grabbed Tokieda's arm and shoved them to the side to get them down the nearby alley to hide behind the buildings while Arashiyama ducked down behind a building on the other side of the road as the bullets began to rain down on the street.
"Seen that before?" Tokieda asked over the hail of the bullets.
Kitora crouched down behind the building, holding an arm up to protect her face from the powerful wind that the bullets slamming into the road and buildings was causing. "From a Rabit, but it seems any black Trion Soldier from Kuga-kun's Trigger will have access to his seals." They had gotten regular Trion Soldiers earlier, but now it was suddenly changing to all black Trion Soldiers coming through the Gates. It would make the battle harder now that they would have to deal with the special seals they would have at their disposal.
"That complicates matters." Tokieda said.
"While the seals are powerful, the Trion Soldiers don't use them in complicated manners, not like how Kuga-kun would. We can get through them." Kitora replied as the bullets died down, giving Arashiyama and Tokieda the chance to jump out from behind the walls to fire their Meteors onto the hoard of Trion Soldiers.
Even the Shields that the Trion Soldiers had thrown up weren't strong enough to withstand the full barrage of Arashiyama and Tokieda's Meteors. Once the Shields had been smashed and the Meteor bullets left managed to damage the armor, Satori who had been waiting for the perfect moment to snipe through the chaos to kill his targets.
*Mimics*
Michael leaned back in his desk chair, resting his arm on his desk as he watched monitors that showed Yuma's Trion levels. They had been steadily rising throughout the day while he was forced into his sleep state, but he had yet to wake up. Over on the bed, the young agent looked every bit his eleven year old that his body was. He was a fifteen year and had the look of the heavy experiences he went through in his face when he was awake, but while sleeping, he looked like an innocent child.
It was very unfitting of the Yuma they all knew.
With the rising levels of Trion that was slowly spreading throughout his body, Yuma should wake up soon. While that was something that they all wanted, Michael was not sure it was a good idea for Yuma to wake up tonight. They were in the middle of an attack, and if Yuma knew what was going on, it would be hard to get the young agent to sit out. It was one thing for him to say he would stop getting involved with his father, but it was another thing entirely when Trion Soldiers were attacking the city.
It would be a difficult thing to get Yuma to stand back when the Trion Soldiers were attacking. He would feel it was his responsibility to be out there helping his allies.
It was understandable to want to help since the attack they were currently under was concerning, but Border had grown so strong in the past few years and had proven that strength multiple times since the first large scale invasion. Michael had absolute trust in the young agents out there fighting.
Since he had the trust in the agents to protect the city and get through this attack, for now, Michael was keeping his concern on Yuma. He had heard the news of Kuga Yugo invading the base. It was the reason Shinoda and Rindo left him alone with Yuma in the lab. They wouldn't leave Yuma undefended like this if there was another reason. By going out to meet Yugo, they could stop him in his tracks far away from the lab. Being that Yuma would be his target and he was currently unable to defend himself, they would want to make sure Yugo got nowhere near this room.
In the first place, Yugo shouldn't even be able to find the lab that they had Yuma in. He had never been in this base, never had even seen the building, so he should have no idea of how to navigate it or know what room Yuma was in. Michael could probably move Yuma to a room farther away to put more distance between them and the fight that would take place between Yugo and his former students, but that left a bigger risk of Yuma being found. It was better to stay in place.
Michael's eyes fell from Yuma to the damaged Fujin sitting on the desk next to his monitor. Perhaps it wasn't a good idea to have both damaged Black Triggers in the same room, but none of them had expected Yugo to manage to get into the base. The base was pretty secure and hard to get into. Their enemies needed unique Triggers that would get them into the base, like when Enedra used his Trigger to alter the form of his body to get into HQ through vents and Galopoula used their Triggers to form a door through their walls. There wasn't much they could do against unknown Triggers since those unique Triggers gave them different ways to break into the base.
What they could do when this was over was reinforce the windows of HQ. This all started because the Mimics managed to break their windows to get inside which gave them the chance to get a hold of Yuma. Bringing Kuga Yugo into this world was the start of this horrible mess. Had that never happened, dealing with the Mimics would have been less problematic.
There was no time to think about what ifs though.
Michael had trust in Shinoda and Rindo. When he came to meet them, he was impressed by the strength he saw in the two. Back then, it was surprising to see any strong Triggers users from this world. Considering this world didn't know about Trion or Triggers, he didn't expect much from Border back then, but he wasn't upset to see that he was wrong to underestimate them.
The strength and determination of Border was something to be strongly admired. They would never falter in the face of their enemy until they were dead. Shinoda and Rindo were not going to lose easily to Kuga Yugo. He would trust in his friends' strength to win that fight.
*Mimics*
"Yuri," Rindo said as he moved slowly down the hallway, never taking his eyes off of Yugo. "Alert Michael that Replica is approaching."
"I can do that, but I don't know what a Replica is?" Yuri replied confused. It was a name that she had heard thrown around before from Tamakoma-2, but she never questioned what it was about. It had sounded like someone from Yuma's past that he had lost so she didn't want to bring up any painful memories.
Right, they had never taken the time to explain to Yuri and Michael about Yuma or Replica. They had simply been told Yuma was a Neighbor child that was the son of a former Border member. They never needed more than that to accept Yuma into Tamakoma. "He's an autonomous Trion Soldier with the ability to use Yuma's Black Trigger seals. Shinoda and I can't get to them."
Yuri raised a brow. She supposed she shouldn't be surprised that Replica was a Trion Soldier. It would explain the strange name that he had. If a Trion Soldier with a name was by Yuma's side since before he came to Border, it had to be important to him. It had to be connected to his past and his father if Yugo was able to summon Replica to help him. "I'm on it. Good luck, Uncle."
Rindo was going to need all the luck he could get on his side. Skill and experience would only get him and Shinoda so far when Yugo had just as much, no, more, experience than them and had the added power of the Black Trigger to assist him.
Shinoda shifted along the hallway, moving opposite of Rindo as they blocked the path that would lead to the lab that Yuma was resting in. He stepped behind Rindo as they passed each other, neither of their eyes leaving Yugo. "He's stronger than what I remember. Is it because of the power of the Black Trigger?"
"I'm sure that is part of the reason." Rindo thought back to Shinoda. "But we haven't seen Kuga-san in close to two decades. This is the Kuga-san that Yuma remembers. He brought forth a much stronger version of our mentor."
"Makes you wonder what would have happened if the Mimic got hold of our memories of Yugo-san. Would that version we remember even know who Yuma-kun is?"
"Perhaps not something we should think about."
"True, we need to kill him before Yuma-kun dies."
"Your move." Yugo said.
It was quite nice of him to stand back and wait for Shinoda and Rindo to get ready for their next attack. Normally, it wouldn't be a good idea to let the enemy plot their next move since it would be best to kill the enemy before they could plan how to win. If an enemy was standing back and waiting, they were either very confident or they were simply stalling.
Yugo wasn't the type to be confident like that. He took every fight he was in seriously. At the same time, there was no reason for him to stall here since he was the one who wanted to advance forward. It could be by sending Replica forward in his place, the Trion Soldier could do what he wanted and so Yugo did choose to stall Shinoda and Rindo here until Replica completed his mission.
Shinoda stepped out from behind Rindo, swinging his Kogetsu fast and multiple times to unleash his Senku. Yugo jumped back as the slashes approached him. Using both of his swords, he blocked each slash that managed to reach him as he continued to step back to get out of Shinoda's range for Senku.
Moving farther from Rindo and Shinoda took him out of range which meant there was a safety net for Rindo to activate his Meteor. He could unleash it safely onto Yugo without putting him or Shinoda in harm's way.
*Mimics*
"What are those reckless punks doing?" Kinuta demanded, eyes locked on the video feed on one of the monitors that was showing the fight between Shinoda and Rindo against Yugo. He could not believe Rindo would release his Meteor inside the hallway like that. Were the broken windows not enough? He had to add a giant hole in the wall. That was just asking for more Trion Soldiers to break into the base.
Why were Tamakoma agents and Shinoda like this? He couldn't even work on getting any part of the base that was damaged fixed until they defeated Yugo. This was just asking for trouble.
Shiori took her eyes briefly off her screens to glance at the video feed of the fight taking place inside of HQ. Yuma's father. She couldn't see him right now as the Meteor from Rindo was raining down on his side of the hallway, but that was alright. After her meeting with him at Tamakoma, Shiori had no desire to meet him again. She was sure Yuma's father was a wonderful person when he wasn't a transformed Trion Soldier hellbent on killing his son and attacking Border and stealing Black Triggers.
All Shiori wanted was to end this nightmare. She understood Yuma's love for his father. She had the same love for her own parents, but she also knows, and she knew Yuma understood this, that Yugo needed to die. He couldn't stay here. This would be difficult for Yuma, but it was for the best this happened before he woke up. He didn't need to see Yugo die a second time.
*Mimics*
Shinoda and Rindo both hopped backwards a few steps, eyes scanning the destroyed hallway from the giant hole in the wall that led outside to the cracked floor with tiles from the ceiling dropping down, but there was no Yugo in sight. Neither believed for a second he had been defeated by that Meteor though.
"Did you have to go overboard with that?" Shinoda griped.
"Like you've never broken a wall in your life." Rindo retorted.
"Certainly never did it while I was fighting, just when I was trying to move quickly." Shinoda retorted.
Rindo snorted. "What does that say about Kido-san's car?"
"A car and a wall are two different things. Stop bringing up the past!" Shinoda snapped.
"Maybe if you forget how I shot you in the back that one time!" Rindo retorted.
Without warning, both Rindo and Shinoda twisted around at the same time, throwing up their Kogetsus so each could block one of Yugo's swords. Rindo's eyes caught sight of the door that was opened behind Yugo.
So, that was it. He ducked into a room to dodge Meteor and likely blew a hole in one of the walls to get out through another room so he could get behind them. It was just like Yugo to use his surroundings like that. Though it seemed that Yugo hadn't been able to dodge quite fast enough if the damage Rindo was seeing on his leg was any indication. He didn't get hit hard enough to lose his leg, but any damage done to his body would slow him down.
*Mimics*
The Rabits he faced during Aftokrator's invasion had been difficult enough to deal with, but after sleeping on it, Murakami was certain he could take on the Rabits-or the types he faced during the invasion. He could not say the same for the black Rabits standing in their path. He knew from Kage that they held the powers of Yuma's Black Trigger.
Murakami was really regretting never getting a chance to fight against Yuma using his Black Trigger. Had he not been injured and unconscious, it was something that he would have asked for before the mission tonight. As it was though, he read the briefing on the abilities of Yuma's Black Trigger extensively and memorized the symbols that had been drawn next to each seal name.
Which was why when he saw the orange seal with a smaller blue one attached to it, Murakami knew exactly what was coming.
Murakami didn't hesitate as he shoved his captain to the side to get them behind a car for cover as the lead bullets slammed into the car. Kuruma leaned his back against the car, rifle raised at the ready for the Rabit.
"Got any tips about the Rabits, Kage?" Murakami asked.
"Their armor is stupidly thick." Kage's voice crackled in their ears. "Must be extra defense from being made by Kuga's Black Trigger."
"That's not a helpful tip." Taichi said. "It's not even a tip."
"Shut up." Kageura snapped. "I'm saying we won't get anywhere without destroying that armor first. Zoe!"
"Is it my turn?"
Murakami and Kuruma shared a look before both were ducking lower behind the car and throwing focused Shields above them for extra defense from Zoe's sloppy Meteor that was soaring through the sky. They could almost look like shooting stars if not for the fact that they were moving too fast and exploding upon contact with the roads and buildings, creating a smokescreen from the destruction.
"It would work better if you actually hit them!" Kageura shouted over the bombs smashing into everything except the enemy.
Even through the smokescreen covering the whole area, Murakami could still make out the two bright streaks of lights flying through the air that came from opposite ends of the street to fly through the dust cloud. Taichi and Ema had to be relying on radar to take advantage of the Rabits not being able to see to know what to Shield from or from where.
Despite not being able to see through the dust, Murakami heard their shots hit if the sound of shattering armor was anything to go by. Kageura didn't waste the moment given to him as his Mantis was striking the injured Rabit and finishing it off. Snipers with radar and Kageura with his side effect seemed like an unfair advantage, but Murakami had no sympathy for the Trion Soldiers.
"Having fun?" Murakami called over to him.
Kageura snarled at him as he scratched at his neck in irritation. "No." They had killed all the Trion Soldiers around them, but his stupid side effect was still attacking him. There was nothing around and he knew none of his allies were activating it. It didn't feel like their usual emotions.
A Gate suddenly sprang alive above the agents, drawing the eyes of all the agents. Kageura jumped back to avoid being flattened by the black Marmods that dropped from it, taking note of the Tamakoma symbol on its back.
"Heh, another one of Kuga's."
"I don't think this is the time to be amused. Their armor is pretty annoying." Kuruma said. It took longer to kill the Trion Soldiers when they had to take the time to destroy the armor. It was also frustrating to know that even when they killed these ones, another Gate was just going to open and give them more enemies. It felt like it was never going to end.
*Mimics*
"Soya," Shin said, smiling at his little brother. He felt like he had left for Aristera so abruptly. It had been such an urgent mission so he didn't have time to explain or spend any time with his brother before he was hopping on the ship to go through the Gate.
It was strange. Shin didn't even remember coming back from the mission, but here he was, in a destroyed part of the city with his little brother standing in front of him, dressed like an agent and a strange sword forming in his hand. There was no doubt in his mind that the sword his little brother was holding was made of Trion. It seemed things had changed since he's been gone.
One thing that didn't change...
"Did you grow at all while I was away?" Shin teased.
Kazama's brow twitched in annoyance. The calm attitude, the teasing, the soft expression, it was all his brother that he had seen in five years. His brother who died in the Neighborhood. His brother whose body was lost in Aristera. His brother who had an empty coffin funeral.
Perhaps at one point in his life, Kazama did want revenge against the Neighbors, in the same way that Miwa longed to avenge his sister's death. Those feelings had long since healed though as the years past and he visited the Neighborhood to see that life there was very much like here: people just trying to survive and live their lives. It wasn't right to blame them all for what happened to his brother, and so from there, he was able to move on.
Until now.
He did not want to see his brother again, not like this. Not as someone to be used as a weapon against him.
There was something to be said about it being cruel to force people to fight their deceased loved ones and making them kill them. It wasn't easy for anyone to do that. Yuma and Jin proved that with the struggles they had endured the past couple of days.
Facing his brother after so many years gave Kazama a sense of longing for his brother to be back, but that longing was overshadowed by the anger he was feeling towards this Mimic giving him his brother's face. Learning of his brother's death had been so hard for him to face, but those feelings of pain from Shin's death was not going to stall Kazama's hand. He understood why Yuma hesitated. This was hard to face, and Kazama was sure there was more to the story of what went on with his father that Kazama didn't know about that added to his difficulty of going after Yugo.
Everyone would face this scenario differently, and what Kazama wanted to do was slice this Mimic in half for daring to bring those memories of his brother back to the forefront of his mind.
Kazama had never seen his brother fight before. He didn't even learn that his brother was working for an organization that traveled to the Neighborhood and was training agents until after Shin had died. With that being the case, he had no idea of what to expect from Shin in a contest of swords.
"Don't want to talk?" Shin asked, taking a step forward. While his sword was down at his side and wasn't in a position to attack, Kazama didn't trust it. He had seen plenty of agents who looked completely lax, but could change into an attacking position in less than a second.
Kazama replied to Shin trying to move closer to him by activating his Chameleon. The step that Shin just took forward towards his brother was immediately retracted as he braced his sword in front of him.
Taking another step back, Shin turned quickly, throwing his sword up to block the Scorpion blade that suddenly appeared there along with his brother who had to drop Chameleon to attack. Despite the anger shining in his brother's eyes, Shin remained calm, eyeing his brother in amusement. "Never thought I would see the day where you showed me such anger. What did I do, Soya?"
"Existed." Kazama snarled, forming a second Scorpion blade which he used to swing at Shin's face, but Shin leaned back to barely dodge the swinging sword.
Shin broke away from Kazama, taking a few steps away from him. "That hurts."
Even in the face of Kazama's anger, Shin couldn't drop that teasing attitude of his. It certainly matched his attitude of never looking before he leaped. He didn't think he knew his brother knew how to be serious, but maybe that was because it was something Shin never showed his younger brother. "You're not meant to exist." Kazama growled, charging forward to meet his brother, slamming his sword into Shin's Kogetsu. "This isn't a trick I will fall for."
*Mimics*
The Senku slashes slammed against each other in the sky, canceling each other out. Before Tachikawa could try again, Mogami was in his space with his sword swinging towards Tachikawa's face. Tachikawa took a step back, bringing his sword up just in time to protect his neck. He really wished that Jin would give him his other Kogetsu back.
Breaking free of Mogami, Tachikawa moved backwards with Mogami following him as they exchanged blows. The moment his feet hit the edge of the roof, Tachikawa was jumping backwards, twisting in the air to see the roof he was aiming for with a Shield forming behind him in case Mogami tried to attack his back. It was never a good idea for anyone to turn their back on the enemy.
Instead of following him, Mogami was forced to turn to face the bullets that were curving up the sides of the building. Before the bullets could take Mogami out, a Gate was opening in the sky above the group to drop black Rabits on either side of Mogami who were throwing up Shields to defend from Izumi's Tomahawk. With the Shields blocking the bullets, Mogami was swinging his sword again, sending four slashes traveling through the roof.
Jin dropped down in the alley that Izumi was hiding in, surprising the shooter at his sudden appearance since he was supposed to be going after Mogami with Tachikawa. Jin shoved Izumi back before bringing out Scorpion in his left hand while holding Tachikawa's stolen Kogetsu in his right hand.
Four slashes appeared from the ground that Jin was rapidly blocking. His Scorpion blade took one slash and began to crack so when he went to block the second strike, the blade shattered to pieces, but Jin was able to twist the Kogetsu blade along the third slash he was blocking to bring it to the second slash to finish blocking it until the slash dissipated. By this point, Izumi had already long figured out what Jin was doing and he had his Shield up that protected him from the fourth slash.
"Your mentor is quite good at finding me." Izumi said annoyed as Jin lowered his stolen Kogetsu. "I even moved positions after last time he hit me."
That was actually quite the frustrating thing. Mogami shouldn't even be able to locate Izumi when he was sticking to the streets. He got thrown off by it the first time, but not a second time. He came down here this time because his future predictions would do nothing to help apparently.
"He's able to move beyond my predictions." Jin muttered. "It makes no sense."
"Oi! Jin!"
Jin winced at Tachikawa's voice yelling in his ear. He rubbed his ear in annoyance.
"You never said anything about your damn mentor being able to open Gates as well."
Izumi and Jin caught each other's eyes, shock in the former and confusion in the latter. Jin jumped onto the nearby dumpster and used it to help him parkour his way back up to the roof with Izumi following. Considering attacking from where Mogami couldn't see him wasn't working, it made sense to just go to the roof at this point.
"Ah, great. Rabits." Izumi complained when he made it to the roof. The ones in the Aftokrator invasion were bad enough.
"Can you handle them?" Jin asked.
"Depends, how much stronger are there then the unique ones we faced during Aftokrator's invasion?" Izumi asked even as he was already activating two Asteroid cubes and merging them together.
"Heh," Jin smirked. "Just as, if not more so, stronger. Their armor may also be thicker." There really wasn't even a may about it. From what he saw with Yuma using the Black Trigger, he got a suit of armor as part of his defense. So, it made sense that the Trion Soldiers created by Yuma's Black Trigger would gain not only the offensive capabilities it had, but also the defense it had.
"I always did love a challenge."
The moment Izumi was unleashing Gimlet, Jin was on the move. The Gimlet bullets rained down on the Rabits, but their Shields were able to defend them too well. While his attack managed to deal damage to the Shields, the bullets weren't able to break through. It was actually quite annoying, but Izumi could see the symbol shining in the middle of the Shields to signify that it was made using Yuma's Black Trigger abilities.
As Jin ran around the roof to get around the Rabits since Mogami was behind them, he was activating his Escudo. The solid shield popped up in an arc around the building to separate Mogami from the Trion Soldiers and keeping the Rabits enclosed in an area where they would focus solely on Izumi. It would make things easier for Tachikawa and Jin to focus on Mogami if they didn't have to worry about being shot in the back.
"Geez, thanks, Jin-san." Izumi said. The area behind him was free of Escudo so he could escape if he had to, though seeing as he was missing one of his feet, he wouldn't be able to move fast enough. That left him with the only course of action left which was to kill the Rabits. He had to get them destroyed anyway so they would be out of Jin and Tachikawa's way as they focused on Mogami.
Leaving Izumi behind, Jin and Mogami jumped through the air, swords clashing against each other as they moved to the next roof. Just as they hit the next roof, an Escudo was flying up from the ground, blocking the Senku slashes that Tachikawa had unleashed.
"Damn it, Jin! I had him." Tachikawa snapped.
Jin gave Tachikawa an annoyed look. "Clearly, you didn't have him." He snapped as he moved back to get distance from the Escudo that was blocking Mogami from view. "Where do you think I learned how to use Escudo?"
"Fine," Tachikawa said, pulling his sword to his side. "I'll just have to slice through his Escudos then."
Two quick swings of his sword sent two more Senku slashes at the Escudos. The power behind these ones was enough to slice the Escudos in half. To both Jin and Tachikawa's surprise, there was no one behind the Escudo as it fell over.
Jin took a step back, eyes scanning all the roofs around them to try to see where Mogami had moved too.
"Guess I have time to mention it now." Tachikawa said, turning his back to Jin's so he could scan the buildings behind them. "The cut you gave Mogami on his face."
That cut was so tiny, it wasn't even worth mentioning. It wouldn't help in the long run in defeating him so Jin hadn't even given the cut too much thought.
"It's not there anymore."
"What are you talking about?" Jin asked. "Just because it's not pouring out Trion anymore..."
"I mean the cut isn't there. His skin is as flawless as it was when the fight began." Tachikawa snapped.
"It can't just be gone." Jin said, completely baffled. There were only two instances he knew of where Trion bodies healed. There was Hyrein's Trigger which collected nearby Trion to heal his body and Yuma's Trion body which had the unique feature of regeneration. Mogami had no special feature in a Trigger or his Trion body to able to heal. It just shouldn't be possible. "Nothing is making sense. He shouldn't be able to heal and he definitely can't open Gates." He glanced towards the Escudo walls he made to keep the Rabits near Izumi. They were black Trion Soldiers which said they were from Yugo. How was Yugo managing to call this many Trion Soldiers out here? His Trion shouldn't even survive calling this many allies to join his side in the battle.
*Mimics*
"Looks like the fun isn't over yet." Yoneya said as a Gate opened above the group. "What will it be this time?"
"Get serious, Yoneya-senpai." Kodera scolded.
Not hearing the voice from her coms, Chika looked up to see Kodera and Narasaka on the roofs above them. Their attention was on the Gate so that was where Chika moved her eyes to so she could see the Ilgar coming out.
"Another one?" Miwa asked.
"This one is black." Yoneya pointed out, resting his spear on his shoulder. "Which means–"
"It's from Yuma's Black Trigger." Hyuse said.
"Exactly. Damn, just how many Trion Soldiers does he have the information for?" Yoneya said.
"We should appreciate the fact we're only getting attacked by Trion Soldiers we already know how to deal with." Osamu said, turning to his sniper. "Chika!"
Chika nodded, and without a word made her way up to the roof. Positioned on the roof, her Ibis appeared in her hands. Looking through her scope at the circling Ilgar, Chika stared in surprise at the seals that were appearing instead of the normal bombs Ilgars had. "Move!" Chika shouted, turning off her Ibis so she could quickly get out of the area.
Chika's shout surprised the agents, but none of them wasted any precious seconds to question her about it. If she was saying to move instead of using Shields or taking the shot to prevent the attack, there had to be a reason for it and so they were all moving out of the path of the circling Ilgar as lead bullets rained down on the Restricted Zone.
Yoneya kicked a door of the nearby store down and ducked inside it with Miwa. He crouched down, leaning his back against the wall as he glanced over his shoulder out the big window to watch the lead bullets that were slamming into the buildings and road all around them.
"So, it seems the Rabits aren't the only ones who can use Kuga's Black Trigger seals." Yoneya said.
"Stupid Kuga and his copying ability." Miwa griped. "How are we meant to kill something we can't get close to?"
"Narasaka-senpai, Kodera-senpai, can you help Chika destroy that thing?" Osamu asked, coming through with the answer to Miwa's complaint.
"She can't do it alone? She did earlier." Narasaka replied.
"It was a normal Ilgar earlier. This one has armor amplified by Kuga's Black Trigger." Osamu replied, recalling back when he saw Yuma take Chano's Asteroid with absolutely no damage during Aftorkrator's invasion. He was sure Chika's Ibis shot could damage the Ilgar, but there was no guarantee she could succeed doing it in one shot again when against the armor produced from Yuma's Black Trigger. It wasn't easy to break through, and against this Ilgar, it wasn't a chance he wanted to take. They needed to take it out quickly.
"What do you need from us?" Kodera asked.
"You both have Ibis, right?" Osamu asked.
"Our shots won't be as powerful as Amatori's." Narasaka pointed out.
"They don't have to be. If you can just crack the Ilgar's armor, it will be enough for Chika to break through in one shot." Osamu replied, glancing over at Chika who was crouching on the roof as she got ready.
Chika planted her Ibis on the ledge, leaning pass the Escudo Hyuse had thrown up to protect the squad. They were far enough from the Ilgar to avoid its lead bullets raining down, but the defense was good cover in case the Ilgar changed its attack. She had seen the variety of seals Yuma's Black Trigger had. Those attacks were quite dangerous. It was best not to risk anything in this situation.
"Ready here." Narasaka said.
"When you ready, Amatori." Kodera added.
Having got the timing for the Ilgar down earlier, Chika had her Ibis lined up already, then looked at Osamu to give him her ready nod.
"On three then." Osamu decided. "Chika, delay your shot by a second to allow Narasaka-senpai and Kodera-senpai's shots to damage the armor."
"Right!"
"One...Two...Three!"
At his count, two shouts ripped through the sky from two different buildings on either side of the building that Tamakoma-2 was on. A second a later, a third much bigger one was following. As the shots approached the Ilgar, a green barrier appeared around it. Narasaka and Kodera's shots barreled through it and continued on to the Ilgar to successfully crack the armor. Chika's blast soon followed, slamming into the Ilgar at full force, shattering through the cracks in the armor that the other two snipers caused. Pieces of the Ilgar rained down over the area as Chika's blast ripped through the sky, dissipating after a few seconds, leaving what was left of the black Ilgar to fall through the sky and smash into the Restricted Zone.
Yoneya pulled himself up to his knees to turn and rest his arms on the ledge of the window to watch the Ilgar falling from the sky. "Did that Ilgar try to use a shield to stop the blasts?" He asked amused. It reminded him of all the times he saw Yuma dodge or use a Shield to avoid sniper shots in the rank wars.
"This isn't funny. Black Trion Soldiers are going to be a pain to deal with." Miwa said, pushing himself to his feet. While Yoneya was focused on the falling Ilgar, Miwa's attention was drawn to the lead bullets sticking out of the buildings and the street. Anytime he saw that Black Trigger using lead bullet, he felt a wave of irritation because of the knowledge that he gave it to Yuma. He may have let the fact that Yuma had it go as he did use the Black Trigger to help Border, but seeing it being used by Yugo and the Trion Soldiers was really frustrating. Triggers from the Neighborhood truly were on another level.
"Osamu-kun!" Chika pulled back from her scope so she could look up towards the sky with both of her eyes.
Following her line of sights, Osamu stared at the newly formed Gate that had appeared. "Again?" This was happening way too much.
At least it wasn't it wasn't another Ilgar coming through, but seeing black Marmods dropping down had Hyuse frowning. He saw Yoneya and Miwa jumping out of the store they ducked into to confront the Marmods. They could deal with the Trion Soldiers while Hyuse stared at the closing Gate. "This isn't possible."
Osamu and Chika looked away from the sky to look at Hyuse in confusion.
Hyuse turned to look at their captain. "Surely, you've noticed something off about this. You've known about Yuma's Black Trigger the longest."
"I've known he had it, yes, but I don't know everything about it. Kuga isn't just going to tell everyone every single thing about his Black Trigger." Osamu replied. "It would lead to them being able to figure out his strengths and weaknesses. He won't give that knowledge to just anyone."
"Let's forget the Black Trigger he has for now. Any Trigger, no matter normal or Black, has limits to them. If Kuga is inside HQ right now, he is too far away to be opening Gates and summoning all these Trion Soldiers to fight us, because it's not just us getting these black Trion Soldiers, right, Shiori?" Hyuse asked.
"He's right. All the squads have been having Gates open on them and dropping black Trion Soldiers in their path." Shiori replied. "And Kuga-san is for sure in HQ. He's fighting Rindo-san and Shinoda-san currently. He doesn't have time or the range to be opening the Gates where you guys are at. I don't know how he's doing it."
"There's also the Trion it takes to open Gates. It's not slim, plus the Trion Soldiers on top of that. No one, even someone with their Trion amplified by a Black Trigger, can open this many Gates or summon this many Trion Soldiers alone." Hyuse added, watching as one of Miwa squad's sniper took a shot to blow one of the blades off of one of the Marmods to give Yoneya the opening he needed to get in to kill it.
"From the video feed of the fight in HQ, we only saw Kuga-san open one gate which was used to bring out Replica." Shiori said.
"Replica?" Osamu said surprised. He supposed it wasn't that surprising. Replica was a Trion Soldier that had been tied to Yuma's Black Trigger for years. If Yugo could bring forth all of these Trion Soldiers, it made sense he could create a copy of Replica which was originally created by Yugo to begin with. It was like any Trion Soldier Yuma ever faced was one he could call with his Gates. There was no doubt in Osamu's mind that Replica analyzed every Trion Soldier type that Yuma and he came across during their travels.
Every...
Trion...
Soldier...
"This small Trion Soldier is a reconnaissance drone called Rad. This one appears to be modified with a device that generates Gates. It seems these were installed in the Bamster's abdomen. As I analyzed its action program, I found that the Rads hid underground after separating from the Bamster. When nobody was around, they surfaced and dispersed around the town. They then gathered Trion little by little from passersby and opened the Gates." Replica explained.
Osamu twisted around, looking up at the sky at the dummy beacons that Chika and Hyuse hadn't deactivated yet as they got busy with the Trion Soldiers earlier. They had poured so much Trion into those dummy beacons that they were able to last far longer than the ones Azuma used in their Rank War. All the agents out here plus those dummy beacons which had Trion absorbed in them to act like agents on the radars, they were practically gifting the Rads with Trion.
"Usami-senpai, there's Rads in the Restricted Zone!" Osamu said urgently.
"What?"
"Back when we were dealing with the Rads back in December, Kuga was the one to first find them and Replica analyzed them, incorporating their data in his Black Trigger. The Rads are using our Trion to open the Gates and summon the Trion Soldiers." Osamu explained. "Alert all the squads. We need to destroy the Rads immediately." He turned sharply to Hyuse and Chika. "Deactivate the dummy beacons now. That should lessen the Trion they can steal somewhat."
As Chika and Hyuse worked on deactivating the dummy beacons, Osamu looked down where Miwa and Yoneya were dealing with the last Marmod. He hadn't even given a thought to Rads in this mission. They were Trion Soldiers that lacked any offensive capabilities so he didn't think they would be out here. He didn't even remember them since they only dealt with them once so long ago.
Osamu held his hand out in front of him as he turned his radar on to watch the dummy beacons disappearing from the radar. Considering the Trion Soldiers had just been dropping into their path, he hadn't bothered to look into his radar all night. All that was left on the radar was the agents and the unknown signals that were likely all of Yugo's Trion Soldiers. It seemed their signal was different from the normal Trion Soldiers they dealt with.
"It's going to be hard to deal with all the Rads when they keep opening Gates and dropping Trion Soldiers with Black Trigger abilities in our laps." Shiori said.
"We need to split our forces." Kyoko intervened. Since Kuga Yugo had already invaded HQ, which was likely what Jin had been concerned with, she was giving more of her attention to the mission in the Restricted Zone. She wasn't going to provide Shinoda with any more information about what was going on out there when he was busy with Yugo. "We'll leave the A-Ranks and most of the B-Ranks to deal with the Trion Soldiers. Suwa squad, Katori squad, Nasu squad, Oji squad, and Yuiga-kun from Tachikawa squad are to deal with the Rads. Until all the Rads have been dealt with, only take part in battle with the Trion Soldiers when there is not another choice."
"Roger."
"On it."
"We'll get it done."
"A shame to miss the battle, but we got it."
"Why do I have to do this?"
The confirmations poured in as the squads finished their battles before moving on with the directions from their operators as they tried to locate the Rads in the mess of Trion Soldiers that were filling their radars.
Kido turned his attention away from the map of the Restricted Zone on the big monitor to look at the fight in the hall where Shinoda and Rindo were fighting. Kuga Yugo. That man. The plan they had been working on tonight was something that was planned only a few hours ago, but he had already planned a way to counter them and made his way to break into HQ. It was just like him to react so quickly. He always seemed to have a knack for being five steps ahead of everyone else.
No doubt the purpose of these Rads was to keep the agents busy in the Restricted Zone so he didn't have to fight through all the agents to get to Yuma. His goal was his son or the Black Trigger his son held. Would Mogami's goal be Jin, who was the reason he appeared in this world, or would it be Fujin? If it was Fujin, he would have come to HQ to retrieve it, but he didn't necessarily know it had been left here because it was damaged. He would have seen it in Jin's hands when he appeared so he would be going to Jin to either see him or steal Fujin.
It would be hard to figure out what their goal was. Yugo and Mogami were not the type to give any information away until they made the decision to do so.
*Mimics*
Without unlocking his blade from Yugo's, Rindo activated his Asteroid to his side. There was no way to hide it so Yugo's eyes managed to catch sight of the glowing cube. Breaking free of Shinoda and Rindo's blades, Yugo jumped backwards so he could have time to throw up his Shield when Rindo's Asteroid unleashed on him. He watched as the bullets slammed into the Shield, cracking it in the places where they hit.
They weren't able to break his Shield on their own, but then Shinoda was swinging his sword and sending multiple Senku slashes flying through the air. The first one managed to fully break the Shield by being aimed at the cracks that the Asteroid had put in the Shield. Yugo jumped back again as he swung his swords forward to block each Senku one after the other. It was a good thing Mogami showed off this trick to him yesterday which gave him more practice against it.
"It didn't work earlier. Did you really think it would this time?" Rindo asked.
"Your bullets didn't work earlier. Did you think they would this time?" Shinoda retorted.
Rindo snorted. "Who is the one who damaged his leg?"
Shinoda raised a brow, looking at Rindo out of the corner of his eyes. "What damage?" He pulled his Kogetsu down low to his side, shifting all his focus onto Yugo once more. "Take a closer look at that leg you injured."
Doing as Shinoda suggested, Rindo narrowed his eyes. The clothes on his leg were still ripped, but the holes in his leg were no longer there. What in the world...? "Kuga-san never had the ability to heal, did he?"
"Not as far as I knew. Does Yuma-kun's Black Trigger...?"
Rindo shook his head. "No." He replied, forming a Viper bullet cube at his side. "Whatever this is, it seems we have to cause enough damage to him to prevent him from being able to heal."
Shinoda seemed to agree as he ran forward to meet Yugo head on. Their swords clashed against each other. As Shinoda only had one sword, he was forced to do double the work in blocking Yugo's strikes. When he wasn't able to block one of Yugo's swings, he activated his Shield to protect his side. It was a quick defense move that made it impossible to make it thick enough to resist the strike. The Shield lasted long enough for Shinoda to step to the side to get out of the range of the rest of the sword's swing.
Keeping his eyes locked onto every move Yugo made allowed Shinoda to see when his eyes shifted to the side to show his distraction. The Viper bullets from Rindo smashed through the window as they twisted in the air in their path to Yugo. Having already predicted them coming, despite Shinoda having tried to distract Yugo from what Rindo was doing, Yugo was already moving to counter them. Instead of using Bolt again to counter Rindo's bullets, Yugo was stepping back and in the same move twisting his arm around Shinoda's to yank him forward into the path of the bullets, knocking him off balance in the process.
Before the bullets could hit Shinoda though, Escudos were popping out of the ground around him and Yugo to defend from the bullets.
Rindo tsked in annoyance. He wasn't going to fall for Yugo's trick of using his opponents as shields against attacks again. He couldn't let Shinoda bail out here. This fight would require both of them if they were to win.
Once his bullets had finished smashing into the Escudos he created to protect Shinoda from his attack, meaning that Shinoda could not complain to him again about Rindo killing him with his bullets again, the Escudos were cut down by Shinoda and Yugo who wasted no time in going back to trying to kill each other again.
Yugo was the one who had trained him and Shinoda so it could make sense that he would be able to predict how they would move. Along with training, he drilled strategy into their heads and it was the foundation on which their experience and skills were built. He built their foundation, but it had been a couple decades since he last saw them, so just as Yugo had grown and got stronger, so have Shinoda and Rindo. For that reason, Rindo and Shinoda should be able to throw Yugo off with something that he hadn't seen before.
The problem with that idea though was that any new Triggers they created after Yugo left Border, he would have seen them already from his fights with the agents. They didn't have any new Triggers that they could use to surprise him with. Since Rindo and Shinoda stopped working together as they both got stronger and then transitioned into being directors, did they have anything new they could try against Yugo?
