A/N: I don't own World Trigger
Mimics
Chapter 30: Vs. Mogami
Michael stood up from the desk, moving around it, eyeing the door to the lab warily. Yuri had sent him a warning about Replica coming here, but he wasn't sure of how concerned he should be. Considering Rindo sent the warning and that Replica was a Trion Soldier, Michael wasn't going to take it lightly.
Stepping up to the bed that Yuma was sleeping on, Michael rested a hand on the edge of the bed while keeping his eyes locked on the door. It seemed that Replica was connected to Yuma. For that fact alone, Michael needed to be cautious of what this Trion Soldier could do. If it was connected to Yuma, it would be dangerous.
Rindo and Shinoda were meant to be the final defense to keep Yuma safe, but with them currently occupied with Yugo and Replica making his way here, it seemed final defense would fall on Michael. It had been a long time, so he might be a bit rusty, but there wasn't another choice. Michael was not going to abandon Yuma, so for the first time in years, it was time to fight.
Michael pulled out his Trigger, but before he could activate it, there was a cracking sound that sounded like it was echoing in the silent lab, like a sign of death. Looking over his shoulder at Yuma, Michael didn't feel as surprised as he probably should have at seeing the crack that was on the bottom half of Yuma's face had moved up his face to travel through his right eye. He wasn't surprised, but he was getting more concerned. Yuma should be recovering his Trion while he was in sleep mode so his body shouldn't be breaking any more.
What could have caused the cracks to have gotten worse?
Michael wasn't given the chance to wonder on it as the sound of metal crunching had him whipping his head back around to see a blade in the middle of the door. A blade that looked a lot like a Marmod's blade. It seemed the Marmod got it stuck in the door as it seemed to not be able to get it back out to attack the door again.
"Trigger on." Michael said, activating his Trigger that switched his body to his Trion body, giving him access to the Kogetsu blade he had at his side. It had been a long time since he fought, but having been a fighter for years before he transferred to being an Engineer, he was sure he still remembered how to fight. It's only been a couple years since he stepped away from field work after all.
Drawing his sword, in one swift movement, Michael had cut off the blade that was stuck in the door. Since the door was already destroyed, Michael just slammed his foot into it to knock it down on the Marmod that was on the other side. The Marmod slashed the door in half with the blade it had left, but Michael didn't give it a chance to do more than that. With only one blade left, it had plenty of openings for Michael to exploit.
Michael twisted his blade in the air to flip the sharp side as he swung backwards to slice the second blade off. With the blades out of the wall and the Marmod not having the space to move around in the hallway, Michael impaled his sword through its eye. Ripping his sword free, Michael stepped onto the dead Marmod's back to get into the hallway and turned to look down the hallway where the Trion Soldiers were with two Rabits in front.
He had never faced a Rabit before, only heard about how dangerous they were in the Aftokrator invasion. He had read the memo on Yuma's Black Trigger, and thus, he was aware that the black Rabits used Yuma's seals. Being alone and not having fought in years, it wasn't likely that Michael would be able to defeat them on his own, but he wasn't going to run from the fight. Yuma was relying on him to keep them back.
The first Rabit charged down the hall, reeling its fist back with a blue seal applied to the back of it. Michael waited until the last second to jump backwards, knowing that his Shield would not survive that attack. By moving at the last moment, the Rabit couldn't change the direction of its attack so it slammed its Boost attack in the dead Marmod, shattering the Trion Soldier into pieces. With it falling to pieces, it gave Michael space to move forward.
A Senku ripped through the air as he swung his blade. The Shield the Rabit produced was able to block it though. A Senku blade was strong enough to break a Shield so the fact that the Shield was able to block it meant that the Shield was much stronger than Border's Shields. With their Shields and armor on top of the other seals they had access to, they weren't going to be easy to defeat.
*Mimics*
"Got an idea of how to defeat someone who can heal?" Tachikawa asked.
"I would say drain his Trion, like they did with the Aftokrator captain, but," Jin trailed off. By all logic, Mimics shouldn't have the ability to heal or recover Trion after battles. They were still Trion Soldiers so everything they had should be limited. However, not only did it seem like their Trion reserves never ended, now they were adding a healing ability on top of it. He really wished that Yuma was awake so he could pick his brain on what could possibly going on.
Though, if Jin took the moment to step back and think it over, he could come up with some good theories as to what was going on. He just needed to look at everything that was going on this week from the Mimics appearing up to the moment where Yuma passed out and Kinuta and Michael called it a sleep mode as Yuma was trying to recover his Trion which was dangerously low. It was being blamed on his Black Trigger being drained of Trion which caused his body to crack and the same could be said about Fujin.
If the Trion from the Black Trigger was being drained, where was the Trion going? They were blaming the destruction on the Mimics, so the only conclusion was that they were stealing the Trion by just existing. Was the Trion they were siphoning from the Black Triggers healing Mogami and Yugo from their injuries?
If that was the case, then attacking them would only speed up the process of the Black Triggers being fully destroyed. The purpose of wanting to kill the Mimics as fast as possible was to prevent the Black Triggers' destruction and to save Yuma's life.
It was only a theory though, and the only way to confirm it, would be to defeat the Mimics.
They really needed to get more information on the Mimics to be able to properly discern the best course of action. Unfortunately, that was something that required time which Border didn't have–that Yuma didn't have. If need be, Jin would sacrifice Fujin. If he could beat Mogami before Shinoda and Rindo defeated Yugo, they could see if Fujin got destroyed or not and let that determine if it was safe to kill Yugo.
Perhaps it would anger the higher ups if he let Fujin get destroyed, but Jin valued the life of his friend more than an object.
Even if that object that he was as fond of was Fujin. If Fujin got destroyed in this, it would be very hard to deal with as it was his mentor's memento, but at the same time, if it meant saving a friend's life, Jin knew that Mogami wouldn't be mad. His Mogami would never stand back and accept the death of anyone he cared about, not like this fake in front of him. He would understand what Jin was doing.
Jin came out here to defeat the Mimics to end this attack. It was never his plan to put Fujin on the line, but if that was what it had to come down to so he could make sure Yuma would be fine at the end, that was what he would force himself to do because it didn't matter what Yuma had asked of him. Yuma was dead set on Yugo needing to be killed before he could hit Border or the city anymore than he already did, but if killing Yugo would kill Yuma because of his connection to the Black Trigger, then Jin would stop the fight. They would find another way to stop Kuga Yugo.
They would not sacrifice anyone's lives to win this fight.
Jin was not the type to just abandon his friends like that.
"Injure him enough that his healing can't keep up." Tachikawa suggested.
"Besides one scratch, we haven't managed any significant damage to him." Jin replied. "So, we can't take it easy. We need instant kill shots. The head or the heart would be our best bet."
"Except he has them so closely guarded." Tachikawa said.
Jin smirked. "You do love a challenge."
Tachikawa smirked in agreement. "You going to give me my sword back to help me achieve this goal?"
"Nope." Jin said simply before he was charging forward once more, getting his attack parried by Mogami again. Despite that, Jin called his Scorpion out to his free hand to add pressure to Mogami by forcing him to have to deflect both his blades. He wanted to focus on the style of swordplay that Mogami taught him, but using a Kogetsu that wasn't part of his Trigger set was interfering with his fighting style, but just using Scorpion against Mogami would be hard to do since his blade wouldn't be able to hold up against Mogami's Kogetsu. Mogami hit too hard so using only his Scorpion to block would only result in his swords getting destroyed.
"So, what? You get two swords, but I don't?" Tachikawa complained as he broke pass Jin, slamming his Kogetsu into Mogami's. Mogami parried him off before twisting his sword to block Jin's strike next while trying to jump backwards to put distance between them, but neither Jin nor Tachikawa were letting up on their attacks. Jin was the wielder of Fujin once and Tachikawa had fought against Jin using Fujin, so they both knew that the wind blades would be useless at close range. It wasn't easy to use them when the opponents gave no time or space for the sword to be swung to send the wind blades through the ground.
If they gave Mogami any space, he would take advantage of it to use the wind blades to push Tachikawa and Jin away. Considering the only ranged attacks that the pair had was Tachikawa's Senku, which wasn't working, they couldn't afford to let Mogami get distance. Izumi was supposed to be here bombarding Mogami with his bullets, but he was currently busy taking care of the Rabits to keep them from backing up Mogami.
Mogami dodged Jin's sword, taking another step back. Tachikawa passed in front of Jin to get to Mogami, but before he could get back in his range, Escudos were suddenly popping up from the roof to surround Jin and Tachikawa on all sides. Not expecting the Escudos, Tachikawa slammed right into the one right in front of him that cut him off from Mogami.
"Bastard." Tachikawa snarled, pushing off of the Escudo he just slammed his face into. Kuga Yugo had been annoying enough to deal with. It seemed that both of the founders of Japan had to be annoyingly tricky in battle. He turned, seeing that they were completely surrounded by Escudos before looking at Jin. "How does he have Escudo?"
"It was part of his Trigger set in the past." Jin replied, glancing at the top of the Escudos. He was going to suggest going over the top of them to get to Mogami, but before he could, to his surprise, Escudos began to pop up to form a roof over their heads to fully enclose them inside.
"Kunichika/Usami!" Tachikawa and Jin shouted at the same time.
"Visual support."
Jin blinked as Usami adjusted the support to his eyes so he could see in the complete darkness that had suddenly surrounded the two agents. With his vision back, Jin stared at Tachikawa who looked ready to cut down the Escudos. "Wait." Jin said, pushing Tachikawa's sword down before he could use his Senku. "Mogami-san has to know this wouldn't hold us. He could be waiting to strike us down the moment you cut down the shields."
"And the longer we stay in here, the more time he has to set up his plan to attack us or he could be using this moment to head to HQ. He said he wanted Fujin." Tachikawa argued. "We don't actually matter to him."
That was true. There was no reason for Mogami to stick around and go through the trouble of killing them. Killing them would save him a lot of trouble since they wouldn't be able to chase after him if he did decide to leave to head to HQ, but it wasn't actual necessary to his plan. Letting him near HQ would only cause problems for Shinoda and Rindo who were no doubt having a hard enough time against Yugo so Jin was determined to not let him get anywhere near HQ. That meant that he couldn't let himself and Tachikawa get killed here.
"Just predict the future, Mr. Fortune Teller." Tachikawa said.
"I can't see Mogami-san's future." Jin muttered.
"Then read my future." Tachikawa moved away from Jin to stand in the center of their prison, getting ready to unleash his Senku.
Jin turned around, staring at Tachikawa, but making no move to get into his space. He would prefer not to get cut down by his Senku right now. He shifted through the visions he was seeing and making notes of which ones got them killed to avoid those ones. It didn't matter what future path he settled on, there were wind blades lying in wait for them. They would just have to move fast enough to dodge and block them. "Cut down the ones on the left and be prepared to deflect the wind blades with your Shield."
"With pleasure." Tachikawa said. The sooner he got out of here, the sooner he could impale Mogami on his sword. Yugo with his cheating ambushes and Mogami with his frustrating tactics. Throwing an Escudo in his face like that. His tactics reminded him of Jin. If he looked at Mogami's tactics as an extension of Jin's, he should be able to read through them and win this fight.
As Tachikawa unleashed his Senku slashes, Jin stepped behind Tachikawa and threw up his Shield in front of the attacker. The moment his Senku slashes cut through the Escudos, multiple green slashes zipped through the cracks before the Escudos even finished falling apart. To double up on the Shields, Tachikawa mixed his own within Jin's Shields. Seeing as Mogami couldn't see inside the Escudo prison he made nor did he have a side effect that allowed him to see the future, he couldn't pull any tricky maneuvers with his wind blades. With his side effect, Jin was able to predict the wind blades that tried to fool him by twisting around them and put up a Shield to protect their backs.
The wind blades managed to shatter all their Shields that got hit, but died down afterwards leaving Tachikawa and Jin free to escape their prison. Stepping onto the destroyed Escudos for a bit more height, Jin jumped to the top of the Escudo prison, eyes roaming the rooftop as he tried to spot where Mogami was. He was still in the area; he had to be if he was attacking with those wind blades, so why couldn't Jin locate him?
"For someone who you said was dangerous and you needed help against, he sure isn't trying that hard to kill us." Tachikawa said.
Mogami was swinging plenty of attacks at them, but he also wasn't advancing on them. He kept backing up. Jin could say his goal was to get distance to use his wind blades, but as much as Mogami was the type to want to find a peaceful solution to a conflict, he never backed down from a fight. He preferred peaceful resolution, but knew they could not always be achieved, and thus, was just as capable as defeating everyone in his path to get what he wanted. When it came down to it, he didn't back away from fights and could be quite the aggressive fighter.
The way Mogami was fighting right now, it felt familiar to Jin, and not just because Mogami had trained him so he had plenty of mock fights to look back on. Those mock fights were fueled by Jin aggressively attacking Mogami, while his mentor simply parried or dodge all his attacks as he danced around the training room, leaving openings for Jin to find and try to attack. He was simply leading Jin around with no real intent of killing him.
It was a dance Jin did so many times with Mogami, and it was, in fact, a dance that Jin had mastered from Mogami's position. He had led the A-Rank squads around the Restricted Zone with no serious attacks as he was trying to drain their Trion all those months ago or when he fought Hyuse during the Aftokrator invasion. There had been no intent on Jin's part to kill Hyuse in that fight since it would have been incredibly hard to do on his own and Jin knew he didn't need to win the fight. He simply needed to stall Hyuse back then.
Having been involved in this dance so many times as the recipient and as the master of the dance, Jin could see Mogami moving through it again. If he knew that he was a Mimic, then he knew Border wouldn't leave him alone. They would remain here to defeat him, but for some reason, Mogami didn't seem too concerned with defeating them in return. If he wanted to get a hold of Fujin so badly...
Jin's head snapped towards Border HQ. Mogami thought Jin would have Fujin on him because of last night, but didn't seem to have too much disappointment when he didn't see it. From what he knew of Yugo, he had been dead set on getting to his son constantly. It had been his goal and he would relentlessly kill everyone that stood in his way. Mogami should be the same way, storming towards his goal, but instead, here he was just playing with the agents so far away from HQ which housed his goal. Though, he had no way of knowing that Fujin was in HQ.
He did, however, very likely know that Yugo was there. Yugo and Mogami had been together before this attack. They had separated though with Mogami staying out here and Yugo heading to HQ. With all the agents out here, they could have headed to HQ together. They would have been a stronger front together, but chose to separate.
There were a couple reasons that Jin could think of why they did this. Mogami and Yugo had no way of knowing what they were looking for was for sure in HQ, so it made sense to separate and look in different locations. The problem with that, though, was that Mogami wasn't looking for anything and seemed to be in no rush to leave this area. He seemed content fighting them, which led to Jin's second reason for Mogami's plan out here.
He was stalling them while Yugo went for what they wanted, the Black Triggers.
If they both went to HQ, Jin would have rushed back there a lot sooner. There were enough agents out here to take care of the Trion Soldiers that were getting in their path, but one of the transformed Mimics being out here would make Jin stay to fight.
Even if Mogami was stalling was the right conclusion, just knowing the truth now didn't mean anything. There was no time to be getting to HQ now, and besides, Jin couldn't leave Mogami to do what he wanted. He may not be able to see him right now, but he knew Mogami was still in the area, waiting for the chance to attack.
*Mimics*
Kazama's Scorpion shattered from the impact with Shin's Kogetsu. Before the Kogetsu could cut his head off, his second Scorpion came up to stop the rest of Shin's swing. His blade cracked, but didn't break fully, allowing him to push back on the Kogetsu blade and stare into his older brother's eyes. The familiar kind look was still shining in those eyes, but his action of attacking his brother told Kazama just how much of a fake Shin was. His real brother would never fight him like this.
Breaking away from Shin, Kazama jumped back a few steps. His brother was a member of Border before it went public and he died long before Kazama ever joined so he never saw Shin fight. He had no idea of how strong Shin was, but he was limited in his power, unlike Mogami and Yugo. Shin did not create a Black Trigger upon his death, so he didn't have access to any powerful weapons.
Kazama had to look at what he did know about his fighting style. Shin was currently wielding a single Kogetsu blade, but he was trained by Rindo. Rindo was an All-rounder so it was possible that he taught Shin to use bullet Triggers. He never bothered to talk to Rindo too much about what type of fighter his brother was because by time he learned what Border actually was and joined, his brother was dead. There was no reason to bring up what kind of fighter his brother was in the past. It wasn't something Kazama had wanted to talk about back then as the pain of his brother's death had been too fresh.
There should have never been a reason for him to need know how Shin fought. This should have never been a possibility.
Shin smiled. "I'm glad you finally joined Border, Soya. I don't have to keep secrets from you anymore."
"You're dead." Kazama said bluntly, causing his brother's smile to falter. "No, that's wrong. You're a fake. My brother died years ago."
"That's cold, Soya. I'm standing right here." Shin replied, swinging his sword up to rest it on his shoulder.
"You're the one who attacked me." Kazama pointed out.
"How could I not?" Shin asked lightly. "You're finally in Border. We can have a match now."
"Outside of rank battles, agents are not allowed to fight each other." Kazama bit out. If his brother wanted to play this game, he could play the game right on back. "So, stand down, Shin-niisan."
Shin had no idea of what his brother was talking about with rank battles, but it was likely something he had missed in his time away. Even if his brother didn't grow much taller since he last saw him, he could tell that he was older. Some time had passed so it was likely things had changed in Border. He was intrigued enough to want to learn what had changed, but that wasn't his purpose here. His mission was to kill.
And the first Border agent in front of him was his brother.
Kazama's watched with narrowed eyes as his brother brought his sword down from his shoulder. "Not backing down?" He asked, not waiting for an answer as he activated his Chameleon. He didn't really expect Shin to back down. None of the Mimics stepped back from fights that the real version of them wouldn't have started in the first place.
Shin didn't understand how he knew, but he knew the attack was coming from his right side. He stepped back, swinging his Kogetsu up to block the Scorpion blade as Kazama reappeared next to him. Kazama threw a kick at his brother which Shin blocked with his forearm. Kazama used his arm as leverage to propel himself away from Shin, landing in a crouch some distance away.
He kept trying it, but his attacks with Chameleon were not working on any of the Mimics. They shouldn't be able to see him to know where he was going to attack from until it was too late. It was possible to counter Chameleon, but not when it was the first time someone saw it, but tonight it was being predicted so easily by all his enemies. Since it wasn't working at all, it was time to stop using that style of fighting and do this just straightforward.
"It looks like Border has got some interesting Triggers since I've been gone." Shin said.
Kazama called a new Scorpion blade into his free hand since he didn't plan to use Chameleon again as it was a waste of Trion when it wasn't working. Shin sounded interested in Border's new Triggers, but no matter how intrigued he was, he wouldn't be able to gain access to them and use them against Kazama. He had no idea of how Mogami and Yugo were able to access their Black Triggers while not having them physically on them, but he would wager a guess that it had to do with them being their creations upon death. If he looked at it from that reasoning, Shin shouldn't be able to get access to any Triggers that weren't in his Trigger set when he died.
Shin's Shield came to life next to him to defend from the Asteroid bullets that suddenly came flying at him. "And a lot of new agents as well, it seems." He commented as he looked up towards the nearby building to look at Utagawa and Kikuchihara there. He raised a brow when he saw that there were wearing the same uniform as Kazama. Back when he was in Border, everyone had their own design for their uniform in their Trion bodies. It seemed things were a lot more different in Border.
"He looks like Kazama-san." Kikuchihara said.
"Did you get attacked by a Mimic?" Utagawa asked. Even though they never talked about it as Kazama preferred to never bring it up, they all knew he had lost his brother years ago to the Neighbors. He kept the pain of his loss silent by never bringing it up.
"This is my brother, Shin. He was trained by Rindo-san in the past, so don't let your guard down." Kazama warned his teammates. If they were showing up here, they must have finished taking care of the other Mimics in the area. He had planned for them to move back to assisting Jin and Tachikawa squad with Mogami when they finished over here, but it seemed that wasn't going to be possible.
Shin had been a Border member in the Old Border days which meant he had known Jin and Mogami before. As he was currently a Mimic, if Kazama led Shin back to the others to assist them, he would join forces with Mogami. Having those two work together would only make this fight harder so Kazama squad needed to stay over here to take care of Shin.
"He won't be that tough against the three of us with a Normal Trigger." Kikuchihara said.
"Get serious. Rindo-san was no slouch of a fighter. Any student of his won't be either." Utagawa scolded.
"Don't try to use Chameleon. It's not working on any of them." Kazama added.
"Roger."
*Mimics*
Jin had provided walls of Escudos around him to keep the Rabits and him secluded as it was his job to kill the Rabits so they couldn't support Mogami. Izumi understood what his assignment was, but Jin could have at least provided him with some extra Escudos in the area he was fighting in so he could have some cover. It was a pain to have to keep using his Shield to defend from the Rabits' attacks. He couldn't attack at full strength if he had to be on the defensive.
All he needed was two seconds and he could blow these Rabits to pieces. Dodging to the side to move out of the way of the first Rabit, Izumi activated two Asteroids and was mixing the two as he was behind the Rabit. Being behind it, gave him the few seconds he needed to merge them into Gimlet. Gimlet broke into his bullets so he could let them fly through the air towards both of the Rabits, being strong enough to pierce through their armor. His attack was able to blow pieces of the armor away and cause damage, but wasn't enough to kill either of them.
Maybe if he had used all of Gimlet on one of the Rabits, it could have been possible to kill one of them, but it wasn't a guarantee so he chose to damage both of them. It would slow them down which would make things easier for him.
Before he could plan his next move, Izumi was stiffening in surprise, eyes moving downwards to see a sword sticking out of his chest. He twisted his head around to see Mogami behind him, a merciless expression on his face. "What are you doing over here?" He asked surprised. Jin and Tachikawa were supposed to be taking care of Mogami. How could they have messed up so badly that Mogami appeared over here?
Mogami replied by ripping his sword out of Izumi's chest and stepping back to watch as Izumi's body cracked apart with Trion spilling from the hole in his chest.
"Damn you," Izumi muttered before he was bailing out.
Tachikawa twisted around to watch in surprise at the luminous trail moving through the sky that was heading towards HQ. That came from the direction where they left Izumi to fight the Rabits. There was no way his shooter would lose to Rabits. "Found your mentor."
Jin walked across the roof of their earlier Escudo prison as he watched the light fading from the sky as Izumi made it back to HQ. "He could have killed any one of us at any point, but held off until now. He's not playing around anymore."
"Did something change to make him start taking this seriously?" Tachikawa asked.
Jin didn't think anything in their situation had changed, at least not out here. It was possible that something in HQ had pushed Mogami into taking this fight seriously, but it's not like he had any way of knowing if that was the case. It didn't seem like Yugo and Mogami had any way of contacting each other. It could be that he was just ready to end this fight. At some point, Mogami was going to have to get serious and start killing them if he was going to stay out here. None of the Border agents were going to back down until the Mimics were dead so it wasn't a surprise that Mogami decided it was time to start killing them. He just wasn't expecting him to go for Izumi first.
With Jin distracted with looking towards the fort of Escudos he had made which was where Mogami was at, Tachikawa took the moment to snatch his second Kogetsu out of Jin's limp hold. "I'll kill him in one shot."
As he said that, Tachikawa used both of his Kogetsus to send multiple Senku slashes flying to the next roof over towards Jin's Escudo fort that Izumi had been fighting in. The first few Senkus cut down the Escudos before being followed by a few more that continued onwards pass the destroyed Escudos and towards where Mogami was standing. Before they could hit him, or even get near him, three wind blades were shooting out of the ground and slamming into the Senku slashes that were aiming for Mogami. He allowed the rest of the Senku slashes to continue on where they sliced the Rabits that Izumi damaged in half.
"Not only did you miss again, that was more than one attack." Jin said.
"I don't see you doing any better." Tachikawa retorted. He eyed Jin out of the corner of his eyes, subtly moving a few steps away so Jin wasn't in range to steal one of his swords again. "Are you even really trying?"
Jin called a Scorpion to each of his hands and crossed them in front of him to block the Senku slashes coming at them as he jumped backwards to get out of range while Tachikawa chose to stand still and just block the Senku aimed at him since his sword wasn't in risk of breaking if he took the full force of the blow. "Why wouldn't I be trying?" He asked, eyeing the cracks in his Scorpion. If he blocked one more attack, his blades would break.
"This is your mentor." Tachikawa couldn't say he understood how Jin felt towards Mogami, since he never met the men, but he knew Jin was young when he joined Border. He was young enough to form a close attachment to his mentor. When Tachikawa joined Border, he was a fair bit older than Jin so he didn't form the same attachment to Shinoda who was his mentor. That wasn't to say he didn't like Shinoda or hated his presence. He had quite a bit of fun learning under him and was always thrilled when Shinoda was willing and had the time to have a match with him, but it wasn't the same, not even close, to the familiar bond Jin shared with Mogami.
Tachikawa had no problem with sacrificing his allies in battle if it led to their victory in the end, but when he did it, they were in Trion bodies and were bailing out to HQ when he did it. He was doing no real harm to his allies, however, the same couldn't be said about Mogami or even Yugo inside of HQ. They were Trion Soldiers and had that programming in them, but Tachikawa was able to see the humanity that was present in the facial expressions and the words. It meant nothing to Tachikawa who knew nothing about Mogami, but it had to be nagging at Jin in the back of his mind.
"My mentor died five years ago." Jin walked along the Escudo roof, eyes locked onto the other roof where Mogami was. He could see that his sword was more wind blades floating around it so he must have reloaded again. "That thing shares his face and has his memories, but the man I grieved is long gone. This isn't him. You don't have to worry about me getting in the way of killing him."
"We kill him and he's gone forever. Can you go through that again?" Tachikawa asked.
"Mogami-san isn't truly back. I have no pain to go through again when we kill him." Jin assured his friend. The days of wishing for Mogami to be alive again were long in the past. Seeing this Mimic in front of him didn't make him want his mentor to be alive. It only served as a reminder of what he lost and had him thinking of how things could be different if Mogami never died back then.
This wasn't the time to be thinking of that though. Before Shinoda and Rindo killed Yugo, he would kill Mogami and hope that Fujin survived the destruction of the Mimic. A kill shot through the heart or head should kill him instantly and prevent any of that ridiculous healing that he was able to do by drawing on Fujin's Trion. That should save Fujin hopefully, and if that was the case, it was how they would need to kill Yugo as well to save Yuma.
"Kazama squad isn't coming back either." Jin added. "We're alone dealing with this now."
"It's not like we were getting any help anyway." Tachikawa said before he was launching across the gap between the roofs to meet Mogami in combat.
Mogami returned his attack by throwing up more Escudos to block his path and moved backwards across the roof, swinging his sword. As Jin jumped across the roof, watching Mogami move, he saw a few of the wind blades disappear from his sword. His feet hit the ground just as Tachikawa decided it was easier to cut down the Escudos Mogami put in his path instead of going around them.
Jin edged around the roof cautiously. He saw Mogami send some wind blades out, but until he used them, he didn't know where they were hidden on the roof or when Mogami would use them to attack. He couldn't stay out on the edge and stay on the defensive the whole time though. This had been going on long enough.
Jin collapsed face down on the ground in utter despair, Kogetsu abandoned at his side as he moaned.
Mogami crouched down by his head, his own Kogetsu laid across his lap with his elbows resting on his knees so he could rest his chin in his upturned palms as he stared down at his student. "Do you know what happens when you use your side effect in the middle of a fight?"
"I predict how you're going to attack and counter you." Jin mumbled into the floor.
"You also get distracted." Mogami replied. "When using your side effect, you are still aware of what is going on around you, but you are seeing the future while seeing the present at the same time. You get too focused on reading the future that you don't react fast enough to what is currently going on. Perhaps, if you were fighting someone more at your skill level, the speed at which you were reacting while using your side effect might be enough. Against someone of my level, you have no hope of winning if you let yourself use your side effect that much. I've told you this so many times already. Focus on actually training and get the skills of an experienced fighter before anything else."
"What's the point of my side effect then if I can't use it?" Jin whined.
"I'm not saying you can't use it. I'm saying you need to focus on learning how to actually fight, how to move, how to block, how to dodge, how to read your opponent's movements, before integrating your side effect into your fighting style. If you can't do all the basics, you'll get killed easily when your opponent can counter faster than you are able to read the future to see each of their moves." Mogami said. "That's why you will never be able to beat me. You may be able to predict my first move and counter it, but I will react instantly to that and change my next attack before you even read it."
Jin pushed himself up so he could sit on his knees to meet Mogami's eyes. "I can see all the different paths the future can take. I can see the future that will happen if I don't change anything, but then I can see the different paths to the future I can take if I alter things."
Mogami poked Jin's forehead hard enough to push his head back some. "And that is the problem. You're spending too much time trying to plan things out for every little possibility that you forget how to keep yourself in the present. How many times am I going to have to explain it to you that you need to focus on the basics before trying to learn to use your side effect in battle?"
Jin pouted. "You don't need to keep saying it. I heard you the first time you gave me the lecture. But it's a part of me! It's not so easy to ignore it. I should use everything I have at my disposal, shouldn't I?"
"When in a difficult fight, you do want to use everything you have on you in the most efficient ways to win the fight, but a problem that a lot of new fighters find themselves in is when they have access to too many weapons. When you have too many tools at your disposal, you can easily get overwhelmed by them and end up not using what you have in the most efficient manner." Mogami explained, shifting his hand to ruffle Jin's hair, making the younger boy scowl at his mentor for messing it up. "That's why I only started you at with Kogetsu and a Shield. You need to master these tools first before trying to add new stuff to your fighting style."
There wasn't a single time that Jin had been able to efficiently use his side effect in a fight against Mogami. Mogami's experience and knowledge of Jin's side effect made it quite hard for Jin to ever be effective against him. Since Mogami was the one who put in a lot of time and effort with Jin to learn to master his side effect, he knew all the strengths and weaknesses to it.
Jin couldn't see Mogami's future, but he could see the future of his and Tachikawa's injuries. There were many paths that could lead to those injuries though. He tried to get Izumi out of the way earlier, but it seemed Mogami was still able to counter him which resulted in Izumi losing his foot. Jin could do what he could to warn Tachikawa of injuries, but there was nothing fool proof in this.
Foresight had never once worked against Mogami when he was a child. As a young adult with more experience and skill behind him, Jin didn't know if he could successfully use it in this fight and turn the tides in their favor. Though, if the beginning of the fight was any indication, Mogami was able to counter Jin's manipulations.
This was a fight that would require all of Jin's focus. At the same time though, Jin needed his Foresight to protect him and Tachikawa from the wind blades. The fact that Mogami already sent out some wind blades, but hasn't used them to attack either of them yet was telling Jin that Mogami was waiting for Jin to be distracted so he could use them.
Leaving wind blades lying in wait as a trap was a trick that Jin pulled with Fujin. The wind blades were good as a weapon to attack far away and very quickly, but also as a trap lying in wait to attack when opponents weren't ready for them. If the agents knew they were coming and from what direction, they could be countered easily. It depended on the situation and who the enemy was to determine how to use it.
Fujin could be used as a close combat weapon or a long-ranged weapon, but it required a skilled user to use since it lacked any defensive options. It was purely for offense which made it rigid to use. Jin got pass the disadvantage by using his Foresight to predict and dodge or block attacks. Mogami was getting through the disadvantage by being able to use his Normal Trigger on top of the wind blades he had access to. That provided him with Shields, Escudo, and his Senku which he could use in conjunction with the wind blades.
In a way, one could say that made Mogami more dangerous than Jin with it.
Jin stepped back as he took the force of Mogami's sword against his Scorpions. By crossing them in front of him to catch Mogami's sword, he managed to prevent his Scorpions from breaking by sharing the weight of the attack between the two blades. Keeping Mogami's sword locked there, Jin caught Tachikawa's eye over Mogami's shoulder.
Just as Jin expected, Tachikawa didn't have an ounce of hesitation. He was already on the move before Jin had looked at him. Two Senku slashes were flying straight at them.
Tachikawa was exactly the type to kill his own allies or even let himself be killed if it got them the victory.
Even though his back was to Tachikawa so he shouldn't have known, Mogami was still able to activate an Escudo to cover his back from the attack. Both slashes cut through the Escudo before dissipating, but it didn't matter as Tachikawa was already unleashing more.
Mogami tsked in annoyance and ripped his Kogetsu free from Jin. Instead of moving away or turning to face off against Tachikawa in another Senku war, an Escudo popped up below him to launch him into the air. He twisted in the air to look down at both of his opponents.
The Senku slashes that Tachikawa had unleashed were an immediate threat that Jin had to focus on. He didn't care if he had been killed if he took Mogami with him, but he would not die if Mogami was dodging. While Jin was taking the time to dodge out of the way of Tachikawa's Senkus, he wasn't able to watch what Mogami was doing in the air.
Jin may have been distracted, but Tachikawa wasn't. He was looking up towards Mogami so he saw when he swung his sword three times. Soaring down from the sky were wind blades and mixed in with them were Senku. Being a master of Senku and having faced the wind blades multiple times, Tachikawa was able to distinguish them from each other. In retaliation, Tachikawa sent his own Senkus flying through the air to clash against the wind blades and Senku to stop them from reaching him and Jin. What he didn't see coming, though, were the wind blades coming from behind him to strike him.
Tachikawa stumbled forward in surprise, sword clanging to the ground when his arm was cut off off, Trion spilling out from it and a deep cut on his side from the second wind blade that had hit him. He glanced over to the side to see Jin crouched with Trion spilling from cuts on his legs. He fared better than Tachikawa at least, but having cuts on his legs would slow Jin down and that would hinder his fighting style which was based on speed with Scorpion.
Jin brushed the cut on his leg off in annoyance. He knew those wind blades were lying in wait. It was just like Mogami to take the moment when Jin was distracted with another attack to use them.
"Want to try it where I get close to him and distract him while you cut us in half?" Tachikawa asked, only partly sarcastic. He was losing Trion faster than Jin with his wounds so it would make sense for him to sacrifice himself this time.
"What's the point? He'll just dodge again." Jin said. Mogami did not have eyes in the back of his head. He was surely keeping an eye on his surroundings, but not a single one of their attacks from his blind spots has succeeded all night. It wasn't working so they just needed to try a new tactic already. "And leave us floundering to not get killed when it happens and then get attacked by Mogami-san while we're distracted."
"Head on isn't working, but attacking from behind isn't working. So, what's your next plan?" Tachikawa sheathed one of his swords before picking up the one he dropped.
"Is this really what you want?" Jin asked, choosing to ignore Tachikawa's question in favor of looking at Mogami who had landed neatly in a crouch nearby. "To kill us and steal Fujin from Border? Being the strongest had never been important to you." Power was less important to Mogami than cooperation and bringing things to a peaceful resolution. He was never weak. In fact, Mogami was quite strong, but he didn't use his strength to force his views on anyone. Strength was only important to him when he was trying to make a point.
"No matter how many times you say it, it won't change anything, Jin. I'm here for Fujin, nothing else." Mogami replied.
Jin shook his head, pushing himself to his feet. "I don't believe that for a second. You claim you're here for your Black Trigger, but Kuga-san has been here even longer than you with the same goal. He had plenty of opportunities to take his Black Trigger from Yuma, but never did. And I think it's because, that's not what you truly want." Nothing in Mogami's expression changed at his words, but Jin didn't expect to see anything. Yugo and Mogami were masters of hiding how they really felt. He didn't feel he was wrong in looking at it this way though. It would have been easy for Yugo to take the Black Trigger from Yuma who didn't have the strength to go against his father who was the embodiment of all his guilt and regret.
Yugo didn't though. He didn't attack his son in their second encounter and didn't try to steal his ring, and now Mogami was choosing to stay out here and take their fight slowly when he kept claiming to want Fujin which was in HQ. If they really wanted those Black Triggers that badly, they would be trying harder to get them. As evidenced by the Trion Soldiers that Yugo had called to give them backup, they had ways to come up with some creative ideas to try to get them, and yet, they chose to wait for the Border agents to make the first move before making an attempt on the base.
"And what is it that you think I want?" Mogami asked.
Jin gave a humorless chuckle. "My Mogami-san would want me to kill him. He would never want to see himself reduced to becoming an enemy of the organization he helped create."
It wasn't wrong.
Mogami never wanted to go against Border. The organization had clearly changed over the years he's been gone, but that was always going to happen once Border had begun to grow. He had nothing against Border and did wish he could see how much it had changed and grown, but it didn't matter what Mogami wished for. He was here for Fujin and that was all that was important. If the agents needed killed in the process of that, then so be it, but knowing the truth of what he was helped Mogami differentiate between himself and what the Mimic programming wanted. That was all it did though. Yugo was right in that knowing made no difference. He couldn't get against what the Trion Soldier programming was commanding of him.
He wouldn't be opposed to being killed.
If he died, then Border would be safe.
Unfortunately, the programming was burning him with the will to survive no matter what. Dying was not an option.
*Mimics*
Utagawa stumbled back, grabbing his arm that had such a deep cut on it that it was practically dead at this point. It would be better to just cut it off the rest of the way to get it out of the way. He twisted to the side, bringing up his Scorpion just in time to block Shin's Kogetsu. Unfortunately, Shin's sword held a lot more weight and force behind its attack than Utagawa's Scorpion could handle. With his Scorpion shattered, there was nothing to stop the momentum of Shin's sword. Utagawa jerked his head back enough to avoid a kill shot, but the tip of the sword still managed to cut his neck.
Utagawa could have moved farther away, but if he was farther away, it would give Shin a better view of what he was doing. He didn't want Shin to notice his Asteroid forming around his practically dead left arm. Unleashing his Asteroid at close range gave Shin no time to truly be able to dodge. He was able to get a Shield up in time to protect his heart, but his limbs had no protection from the bullets slamming into him.
Shin skidded back, black Trion pouring free from the holes on his limbs that he just brushed away as if it was a mild annoyance.
"He doesn't seem as strong as Mogami." Kikuchihara thought.
"He doesn't have access to a Black Trigger. And his normal Trigger is from the old Border so it doesn't have as much variety as our current ones." Kazama replied. Even though Border had been around for quite a few years already, they were still relatively new to Neighbor technology. For that reason, the older Triggers of Border, while holding power, lacked versatility. If that was the only Trigger his brother had, he wouldn't be as hard as Mogami or Yugo. That was still no reason to take him lightly though. Anyone trained by one of the directors was not someone to look down on. "A lack of variety in his Triggers doesn't mean to look down on him. If you look at Jin or Tachikawa or even Shinoda-san, you can see how simple they keep their Trigger set. Sometimes simple is best."
Kikuchihara could believe that. Besides the Grasshopper that Tachikawa very rarely used, he didn't have any optional Triggers or any other attack Triggers. He kept things simple, but was the No.1 Attacker and refused to let go of that spot. From what he saw of Shinoda fighting in the Aftorkrator invasion, his Trigger set seemed to be very similar to Tachikawa. He couldn't say for sure though since that was the only time he ever saw Shinoda in action. They were nothing to scoff at, though Kikuchihara couldn't say the same about Shin. None of them knew how strong Shin was.
Since he had been killed, it could be easy to say that Shin wasn't strong if he couldn't make it out of a fight. That wasn't a good way to look at it though. Being killed in battle didn't make someone weak. It just meant that the enemy was stronger. He couldn't say those that got killed were weak since he had seen what Mogami and Yugo had been able to do. They had been causing so much chaos in the city and weren't easy to kill. That was enough to show the lesson that those who were killed were not to be looked down on as weak.
Shin's eyes drifted to his brother and his teammate that were standing off to the side. He was waiting for them to move. It was likely they were discussing a plan while Utagawa and he went at it. Having already taken damage from Utagawa, it would be hard to take on all three of them at the same time.
To be honest, Shin wasn't even sure why he was so determined to fight his brother and his team. He held no animosity towards his brother and was quite glad of the chance to be able to see him. He wasn't sure why his brother looked older or when he or his friends became agents because none of it matched up with what he remembered of Border, but that wasn't cause for his need to kill the agents in front of him. None of it made any sense to him and he didn't want to kill his brother. Why would he ever want that?
And yet, it was what he needed to do. The agents in front of him were the enemy and they needed to die.
At least they were in Trion bodies.
They could take some destruction.
*Mimics*
"You can't rely on others to save you. You have to use your own strength to get yourself out of trouble, but,"
Yuma stared at his father's back, listening to the words falling from his mouth as Yugo sat on the ledge of the cliff, staring in the distance at the setting sun. Yuma sat up, legs stretched out in front him as he lounged behind his father, listening to his soothing voice that always spoke so wisely to him, to give him the best advice to help him through life.
"That doesn't mean you have to fight alone though. If you have faith in someone to watch your back, then don't doubt it. The one person you can trust most in this world is yourself. It means, believe in yourself, and from there, trust in yourself to trust the right people."
Trust...
It was after his father's death that Yuma began to not trust so easily. With the advantage of his father's side effect on his side, Yuma was able to see the deceit that life was filled with and mixing that with the war he spent three years in, he could admit that he became cynical towards life. With all the lies being revealed to him, Yuma became the type to not trust anyone. He kept himself at a distance and was ready to fight anyone who he felt slighted him even in the tiniest bit.
Trust wasn't something he allowed back into his life until he met Osamu and found a whole new world in Japan. His captain who never once lied to him and who always fought for what he thought was right. It was something that went against everything Yuma knew in life and left him curious enough to want to continue on in his friendship with Osamu. From there, Yuma fell on a path which led him to meet so many people, and while he had come across plenty of lies from Border agents, there was still an honesty to their words and actions that Yuma felt himself leaning towards. Their actions felt a lot more sincere than anything he got from the higher ups in Calvaria.
And yet, it seemed that Yuma still struggled to accept these new friends who promised to have his back. That wasn't on anyone but him. It had been so long since Yuma had truly felt he could trust in people and so he had trouble relying on others to help him.
Had he just accepted the help all his friends wanted to give him long ago, perhaps he wouldn't be in such a desperate situation right now.
Red eyes cracked open, taking in the familiar boring ceiling of the lab that he felt he was spending too much time staring at lately. Seeing something black floating in the corner of his eyes, Yuma's eyes drifting to the side, blinking in a dazed, confused state.
"Greetings, Yuma."
Replica.
