A/N: I don't own World Trigger

Mimics

Chapter 39: A Breather

"You're back already?"

Shun ignored the annoyed glare Miwa shot his way as he looked over at Yoneya. He eyed their uniforms which told him they were still in their Trion bodies though they were a lot more damaged than when he last saw them. Still, they survived which was impressive. It wasn't often that anyone returned to HQ without bailing out after a confrontation with Yugo. "Did you beat him?" He asked hesitantly, glancing over at Miwa's back as the captain collapsed onto the couch in his squad's operation room. Since he wasn't out with his team, there was no one to greet him upon his return to HQ in his squad's room so Shun had come to Miwa's squad room to check on the situation. His question felt stupid, considering the annoyance radiating from Miwa, but he had to at least check.

"Do you really think we could beat Kuga that fast?" Miwa snapped.

"We never even accomplished beating his son in the past." Yoneya added. "We have even less hope against the father." He gave a helpless shrug. "No, both sides ended up withdrawing from the battle."

"Did you at least give Yuma-senpai his ring back?" Shun directed his question towards Miwa, who stiffened at the question. He wasn't blind. He had noticed the ring missing from Yugo's severed arm earlier when he caught it so he was guessing that Miwa squad had snatched it at some point.

Miwa looked out of the corner of his eye to glare at the two idiots standing by the door still. "I have no reason to be the one to do that."

"I mean, you are the one who got it back." Shun pointed out. "Shouldn't the one who retrieved it be the one who gives it back?"

"Oh, totally, but Shuji can't bring himself to go near Kuga." Yoneya said with a smirk. "He's too shy to give it back to him."

A pillow came flying through the air to slam into Yoneya's face before dropping innocently to the ground to reveal Yoneya's grin. It really was too easy to rile up his captain at times. He knew it wasn't shyness that kept Miwa from wanting to give Yuma his ring back. It was more likely just because of his pride. There was probably nothing that could make Miwa like Neighbors ever. He had been burned too badly by them during the first invasion. Despite that, he went out of his way to find them and help against Yugo earlier, even though all of them realized the futility of that battle. None of them truly thought they could defeat Yugo and Mogami, but that didn't mean they shouldn't try. Not trying would mean giving up and none of them wanted to do that when it was Yuma's life on the line.

Yoneya couldn't begin to understand what drove Miwa to come to the train station and decide to help them, but he knew it from watching Miwa fight. They've been fighting together for a couple years now so Yoneya knew Miwa's fighting style quite well and knew how to read it. His captain had been aiming for the ring when he arrived to the fight. He could pass it off as arriving at the train station to help the reckless agents who didn't call for backup, but Yoneya knew by Miwa's actions that it was for Yuma. It made Yoneya curious to know what drove Miwa to that point but asking that would only lead to his head being cut off.

"I bet Yuma-senpai would really appreciate it though." Shun said.

Miwa grunted. "Mikumo has the Black Trigger. He can give it back."

"Yeah, but he can't thank you if you're hiding in here." Shun said.

That was exactly the point. Miwa didn't want any gratitude from the Neighbor. He didn't go after Yugo to get any thanks from Yuma. He had just been pissed off. The whole idea of Mimics had angered him from the moment Yuma had told him about them. He loved his sister more than anything. She had always been there for Miwa when they were kids so it had been a slap to his face when the Mimic stole her memories. It had felt like he had been getting mocked with a version of her that wanted to kill him. He at least had bail out if she did manage to catch him off guard if Yuma hadn't appeared to kill her before she could do anything. It wasn't the same for Yuma. His father being around was killing him and the Mimic Yugo had to know that, but he wasn't trying to fight against the Trion Soldier programming at all. He was just letting himself be used by the Neighbors for their own devices.

"I'm sure Tamakoma will also be really appreciative." Yoneya added. "Should I tell them how fond you are of cookies? I bet they would make you a whole bunch. Shiori is quite good at baking. I'm sure she'll want to give you all the gratitude for getting the Black Trigger back."

Kodera perked up at the mention of Shiori, glancing towards Yoneya. "I wouldn't mind trying some of her cookies."

"Do you deserve any cookies? Miwa-senpai is the one who got the Black Trigger back." Shun said.

"I at least survived the battle." Kodera retorted.

"You were so far away that Kuga-san couldn't reach you with any of his attacks so I'm not sure that should count!" Shun argued.

Miwa closed his eyes, just trying to will the headache that was starting to form away. Why did these idiots have to converge in his squad room and bother him with this? Was it too much to ask for some silence? He had gone out to the train station to assist his allies and finish the problem with the Mimics. The only thing that he accomplished was assisting his allies and recovering a Black Trigger. Letting Yugo and Mogami get away did not feel satisfying at all.

"Distance doesn't matter. We were still in the same battle." Narasaka said.

Shun made a sound of disbelief at the utter betrayal from his fellow agents. It was not easy to survive Kuga Yugo when he was bearing down on anyone.

"You already lost to him once. You would think you would learn how to survive him this time around." Kodera added.

Shun smacked a hand against the back of the couch, ignoring the annoyed grunt that came from Miwa, who was trying to tune out the noisy teammates. "He's a Kuga! You've seen Yuma-senpai! Both of them are menaces! I don't think I should have to justify my loss to him!"

Yoneya folded his arms behind his head, grinning at the younger agent. "You're the one being defensive about it."

"I'll show you defensive! You and me in a ten round match tonight!" Shun declared before he was marching out of their squad's operation center. He and Yoneya were about equal when it came to their rank wars. It varied constantly on who would win overall. One day it might be Shun. The next day it would be Yoneya. Perhaps he should ask Yuma for some tips. With both of them using Scorpion and Grasshopper, he could have some good ideas that he could use.

Yoneya blinked at the door that Shun had just exited through. Well, he would never refuse the chance to fight someone, but what did he do? Kodera and Narasaka were the ones teasing him, not him!

*Mimics*

Osamu stared up at the screen as he watched Hyuse and Tsuji going at it. Now that Hyuse had optional Triggers available to him and it was a one-on-one fight, Tsuji was having an even harder time keeping up with the Neighbor. It wasn't too surprising. Hyuse was quite adept at tearing through his enemies when he didn't have everyone teaming up against him.

Karasuma sat on the armrest of the couch and held out one of the drinks he got from the vending machine to Osamu. "What are you thinking about?"

Osamu murmured a soft thanks as he took the drink. He really wasn't thirsty, but since his mentor went out of his way to get him his favorite drink, he was going to drink it. To tell the truth, he wasn't in the mood for a lot of things recently. This week had been nothing but stressful to the point that he really wasn't sleeping at night anymore. He got a few hours if he was lucky. He just couldn't shut his brain off enough to sleep. There were too many concerns and worries running through his mind. He had known Yuma's life was on a time limit, but he wasn't supposed to go out like this. This wasn't where Yuma was supposed to die, but no matter what they did, what they tried to do, nothing was succeeding. He was running out of ideas as to what to do.

After all his rushing to get to the top of the B-Ranks and all that hard work to get on the away mission, it felt like it was going to be all pointless. Part of what he did was for Chika to get on the mission, but there was truly no rush to get Chika on an away mission, especially if she and him weren't ready. The main reason for his rush was to get Yuma to Aftokrator and find Replica because it was what he owed Yuma. He sacrificed his partner's Trion Soldier to make it so they survived Aftokrator's invasion. Yuma said he didn't blame him for what had happened. Yuma might think he has no guilt to feel, but Osamu didn't feel the same. There was guilt residing in him and it would never go away until he managed to see Yuma and Replica reunited.

"It's alright to be worried but be sure to not let it distract you." Karasuma told Osamu, though his eyes were locked on the screen to watch the fight playing out.

"I know." Osamu said. "It's just, every time I think we can make progress to help Kuga, we take five steps backwards."

Karasuma hummed thoughtfully as he snapped his can open. Osamu wasn't exactly wrong. They've had so many battles with Yugo, but instead of improving the situation, each fight just made Yuma weaker and weaker. If they continued like this, every attack against Yugo would just be a hit against Yuma. All of them had made a promise to protect their allies so the fact that they were failing Yuma was just a slap in the face to all of them. "It happens sometimes. Isn't that how our time in Shizuka City went? It was a lot of back and forth against Giev, but in the end, we eventually won."

Won without any losses on their side, but it had been close. They had been so close to losing Lilith and then they almost died in that final explosion if it hadn't been Chika's idea to use everyone's shields.

That had been a very challenging week. Osamu hadn't expected any more long, dangerous challenges like that until they went to the Neighbor's world. He really should have known better. It felt like, lately, that the Neighbors were going a lot harder on attacking them in the past few months.

"I didn't trust Xeno or Lilith in the beginning, but I knew about Kuga's body and that he couldn't sleep. I was able to rest peacefully at night because I knew that he would be keeping an eye on things." Osamu explained. "It's not like that this time. I'm so used to relying on Kuga to be strong and to keep us safe. I hated having to rely on him so much so I pushed myself too fast to get stronger so I could relieve him of that burden." His grip tightened on his can. "But nothing has changed. He needs us right now, but we're still failing him."

Karasuma stared at his mentee out of the corner of his eyes. That was something he would probably never get Osamu to let go of–his need to carry everything and putting too much pressure on himself. "I don't think Yuma is the type to blame you, us, if we fail here. He knows how hard we are trying."

"He may not," Osamu trailed off, shaking his head to get rid of the thought. "Since I learned about his body, I knew there was nothing I could do to help him. I don't have that power or knowledge to change his situation. The situation we are in now is getting worst because of his body, but this isn't the reason he should be dying. His time hasn't run out yet. The Mimic of his father is just hurting him so I was certain that we could do something to help him."

Karasuma had already guessed it after hearing Yuma's story, but that had to be the mistake that Yuma made as a child that Osamu had mentioned the other day. He went out when he was ordered not to and met an assassin that changed the course of life forever. It was a story that Osamu and Jin had already known about for months but kept it a secret for Yuma. Despite knowing the dark secret, Osamu and Jin didn't let it stop them. They kept moving forward with the burden of the knowledge while just making sure that Yuma had fun. It may not show it in their expression, but if Karasuma knew Jin as well as he thought he did, he knew the power elite was probably trying to find a solution to Yuma's problem. It wouldn't be easy to do, probably close to impossible, but Jin wasn't the type to stand down without trying anything.

"Geez, you look so pathetic right now."

Osamu and Karasuma twisted around on the couch to see Kitora standing by them with a scowl directed at Osamu.

"You didn't even see my face?" Osamu said confused.

"I don't have to." Kitora scoffed. "Your body language says it all." She stepped around the couch to face the two Tamakoma agents properly, and by that, she meant towering over Osamu with a scowl. Even after all this time and his training, he was still weak-minded in some areas. "What happened?"

"Yuma's in a worst state now." Karasuma replied, feeling a bit amused at Kitora and Osamu. He knew Osamu respected Kitora a lot, but Kitora was always ready to lecture him for hours. "We're running out of time."

"I see." Kitora's expression softened very slightly at that. Anyone would be down when their friend was so close to dying, but still, that was no reason for such a defeated look on Osamu's face. "And what? You're giving up?"

"Not at all." Osamu retorted sharply. He was used to Kitora's sharp tongue, but he could not believe she would think for a second that he would quit when someone needed him. What would make her think that he would ever quit? "But what can we do when attacking Kuga-san hurt Kuga?"

Kitora raised a brow at that. So, something apparently happened today that she wasn't aware of. Even so, no matter what happened, as long as no one was dead yet, the fight wasn't over. Yuma had been getting hurt all week from the moment his father appeared as a Mimic. It was just getting more difficult to get anything accomplished when Yuma's condition was getting worse. "You certainly don't moan about it. You think things through and try to find another solution."

"You think I haven't been wracking my brain?" Osamu asked. "Kuga's condition is unprecedented so we have no idea what will happen with each action we take. We found Kuga-san today and while we managed to get his Black Trigger back thanks to Miwa-senpai, Kuga lost an eye in the process."

Kitora pulled back in surprise, glancing over at Karasuma in confusion. "He lost an eye?"

"Yuma is trapped in a Trion body so it wasn't his real eye." Karasuma assured her. "But the Trion body he is living in is taking a lot of damage and if it gets destroyed, he will die. That's what Osamu means when fighting Kuga-san is dangerous right now."

Right, his Trion body. Kitora had already guessed that was the secret that Yuma was hiding after she saw him take damage from being thrown out of HQ's window and then saw those cracks heal. She just let it go as she didn't want to invade his privacy on the matter, but if Tamakoma was talking freely about it, they must realize that it couldn't be kept a secret anymore. "I see." Kitora said. "Having an ally tied to the enemy in such a way does complicate matters. It will make us hesitate, but Kuga-san doesn't have such hesitation."

Osamu stared down at his can, frowning. "Doesn't he, though?" He questioned. "He took it easy on us today and with Kuga's own hesitation and the fact that he confronted his father multiple times already, why didn't Kuga-san take the Black Trigger from him sooner?"

"I misspoke." Kitora said. "Mimics are complicated creatures. We don't know what their true end goal is, but it seems part of it, for Mogami-san and Kuga-san at least, is to retrieve the Black Triggers they created, but what is it beyond that? We can theorize all we like, but it won't give us a clear answer. The only ones with that answer are the ones who sent them here or if the transformed Mimics know, they could possibly tell us. It is true that Kuga-san didn't take the chance to steal the ring when he has had multiple chances. For all the Trion Soldier programming controlling them, Kuga-san and Mogami-san are likely trying to resist, but aren't doing a good job of it. They are managing to find the smallest forms of rebellion though."

"Like the day at Tamakoma. Kuga-san had his sword at Yuma's throat, but didn't take the chance to kill him." Karasuma said.

"Or when he took Kuga that day in the city. He could have taken the ring easily in that moment." Osamu added. "He's trying to resist, but I suppose there is only so much he can do, but even knowing that, it doesn't help us with Kuga's situation."

"Attacking Kuga-san doesn't seem to be accomplishing anything except hurting Kuga-kun, but not doing that will leave him free to do what he likes." Kitora concluded.

"If you have any suggestions, I'm open to ideas." Osamu said.

Kitora shook her head. They didn't know enough about Mimics or about Yuma's condition, but when those two were tied together, they were at even more of a loss. "We can only keep brainstorming and trying things, though that is not a time efficient tactic. In the meantime, though, you need to get the expression off your face. Being all depressed at it is not going to help anything. It will only affect your thought process."

With a sigh, Osamu snapped his drink open and took a big gulp of the cool drink. Kitora was right about him needing to keep his head in the game. He wasn't going to be able to let go of his concern for his friend, but he would try to not let that concern get in the way of his decision making. Obviously, he would still need to factor Yuma's case into the situation since he was not willing to sacrifice Yuma just to defeat Yugo.

"If you're not busy, do you want to have a match?" Kitora turned her attention to Karasuma, eyes eager at the prospect of getting to spend some one-on-one time with her old mentor.

Karasuma held up a hand to her in apology. "I can't enter rank battles of any type with my Trigger."

"You can't just use your Kogetsu?" Osamu asked confused.

"No, since my Geist is connected with my Trigger, the whole Trigger is considered specialized." Karasuma explained.

Osamu nodded in understanding. He knew it was for Tamakoma-1's special Triggers that they weren't allowed in rank wars, but Konami's was the only one that was special from the moment she activated it. Reiji and Karasuma had to switch to their special Triggers from their normal Border Triggers. Still, he could see that it making sense. Their Triggers were so specialized that they should only be used in special situations. "I see." His eyes shifted back to the screen to see Hyuse finishing his fight with his win. "Kuga can use his Black Trigger even when he has his Border Trigger equipped. I've only seen him do it with a training Trigger though. I suppose it would get confusing if he started mixing his Black Trigger abilities on top of his Border Trigger and he already struggled in the beginning to switch his Triggers around so he didn't need his seals added on top of that."

"He struggled with it?" Kitora said, thinking back to the rank matches. Yuma had looked like he was at complete ease with his Triggers. Though..."I suppose he does seem faster at switching between his sword, Grasshopper, and Shield now. There seemed to be some delay when he was switching around in the beginning of the season."

Having trained with Yuma and watched his fights with Konami in the past, Karasuma wasn't surprised at that. Border's Triggers were a lot different than what Yuma was used to. What did surprise him was the mention of his Black Trigger. "He can combine his Triggers to use them at the same time?"

Osamu nodded. "I didn't think anything of it when I saw him do it at our school, but it was something I began to think about after I learned about his body. I think it has to do with the fact that he is always in a Trion body. The Black Trigger is always available to him because of his constant being in a Trion body so he can overlap them."

"That can easily be an unfair advantage to him in rank wars." Kitora said with a frown.

"Kuga won't use it then. We would be disqualified so fast." Osamu replied.

Karasuma stared at the two younger agents. They were clearly at different levels, but both of them were great with strategy. The difference was that Osamu was great at team strategies since he needed his team to succeed in fights whereas Kitora was great as team and solo. "If you want a rank war, you can fight Osamu." He suggested.

Osamu looked horrified at the suggestion while Kitora got an annoyed tick as she looked at Osamu. The two just stared at each other, both knowing how a rank war between them would turn out. Osamu did go through so many matches already of her just slicing him down. While Osamu had improved since that day, he didn't expect to match Kitora in battle yet.

"Every bit of training will help you." Karasuma told Osamu. Since they were stuck at HQ and busy dealing with the Mimics all week, he and Osamu hadn't gotten their usual training in. He knew Osamu was worried, but he couldn't let that distract him from continuing on with other things, and since they couldn't go after Yugo and Mogami right now, they should do something productive at least.

Kitora sighed. She would gain nothing but points from doing this, but she could at least do what Karasuma requested of her. "Fine. Let's go, Mikumo-kun. Maybe you'll learn something."

*Mimics*

"This is a rare occurrence. We never see you in the range anymore." Azuma greeted.

Reiji stood back as he watched Chika set up at a booth next to Ema and Izuho. Despite the stress she was no doubt under, she was still able to smile at her friends which was a relief to see. "We all need something to distract us right now. Focusing on training is a good way to clear the mind of everything. To just focus on the target in front of you." While he couldn't join in on the sniper's exercise that were taking place, he could at least take a booth and just work on his own shooting. He shot was already really good, but practice was a necessity to keep up his good shot. If he got lazy, his ability as a sniper would suffer.

"Is Kuga doing okay?" Azuma asked since Reiji had already breached the topic.

"He's still alive."

Azuma raised a brow. That was not a good answer. Being alive was good, but it was not an answer that boded well in the other areas. "I see." He turned to look at the snipers as they all began to get ready for training to begin. "I hear Kuga is good at blocking a sniper's shot. Do you think you could get through his defenses?"

Reiji stared at Azuma for a moment as he rolled Azuma's sentence over in his mind. Yuma was good at blocking snipers, but though they did just mention him, Reiji had a feeling Azuma was asking about the father. "Doubtful. The Shield he is using is really strong since it's being produced from a Black Trigger. It would be hard to shatter it." Reiji replied.

Azuma's eyes shifted to Chika. "I'm sure Amatori's cannon can get through it." She did have Trion levels that matched that of a Black Trigger. If anyone was going to have the best chance at breaking the shield, it would be her. That was if Yugo didn't make a very powerful shield. If he was right in his understanding how the Black Trigger worked, the higher the multiplier that was applied to a seal, the stronger it was. If he did that, it was possible even Chika's shot wouldn't be able to get through.

"I'm sure there is a way. Nothing is unbeatable." Reiji replied. "Though with a more powerful shot like that coming towards him, Kuga-san would likely sense it and put up a more powerful shield." Besides that, it was likely a very good thing that Chika didn't try to take that shot earlier. If she did manage to succeed with a shot like that, it was possible it could have done some serious damage to Yuma, possibly kill him. If that were to happen, it would have destroyed Chika completely. She wanted to protect her friends so hurting them, even unintentionally, would wreck her mental state.

"I'm surprised you came to practice today." Ema told Chika, who was looking down at her Egret as she got ready.

"I hadn't planned to, but things didn't pan out with the Mimics earlier so Rindo-san suggested we took the time to relax." Chika replied. She turned her attention at the target boards, biting her bottom lip. It didn't feel right to be hanging around HQ while Yuma's life was in danger, but currently there was nothing they could do against the Mimics, especially when they both disappeared. They wouldn't be able to find them again right now even if they had a plan of what to do.

It didn't feel right just hanging around at HQ so coming to training was just something to keep herself busy. Just sitting around, doing nothing, was not how she was going to spend her time. It would only lead her mind to getting full of thoughts and worries that would only distract her and make it hard to concentrate when it was time to head back into the field, whenever that would be. She was sure Rindo and Jin were working on ideas of what to do about the thread that was tying Yuma and Yugo's lives together. They needed a way to cut that thread so they could deal with Yugo. They just needed to be patient.

"I did hear that your attack last night didn't go well." Izuho said. "I could see the Restricted Zone from my house. It looked pretty chaotic with all the Gates I managed to see opening."

"I'm amazed you were able to see anything in the dark while being that far away." Ema replied.

Izuho pointed at her eyes. "I have amazing eyesight. And I didn't see much. Just the Gates opening."

"According to you at least." Ema said, getting Izuho to puff her cheeks up in frustration. "We were having a large operation that involved a lot of Trion Soldiers appearing. After the attack by Kuga and the Mimics in the city the other day, it will only cause a panic if more people saw our operation last night."

"I only really acknowledged it because I knew what you were all doing last night." Izuho said. "So, I don't think you have to worry about any civilians questioning anything. They might just think it was a normal Neighbor attack."

"After the Mimics attacking the city the other day, they might be suspicious but Karasawa-san and Netsuki-san are quite good at dealing the public. They'll be able to cover this up." Chika replied. To tell the truth, Chika wasn't at all concerned about what the public was thinking about what was going on. The only thing important to her was Yuma. To help him and make sure he survived this difficult week. Nothing else mattered to her right now.

"True. It's not something we need to concern ourselves with. We just need to focus on taking the enemy out." Ema said.

*Mimics*

"Did you need something, Midorikawa-kun?"

Shun's eyes scanned the almost empty squad room before settling on Shiori, who was sitting behind her desk, but looking up towards him as he stood in the doorway. "Yuma-senpai said he would meet me here."

"Ah, then come on in. Yuma-kun isn't here, but if he said that, I'm sure he's on his way back." Shiori motioned towards the couch so that Shun would take a seat. "Did something happen against Kuga-san earlier which is why you're looking for him?"

Shun glanced at her in surprise.

Shiori raised a brow in return, hands planted on her hips. "You run out with our Captain and don't expect me to get notified that he activated his Trigger when I was helping Chika-chan and Hyuse-kun?"

Shun rubbed the back of his, giving her a sheepish smile. "It's not like we had made plans to. We were just talking and then decided on a whim to go check out a hunch we had."

"That's not the problem. You should have alerted us when you were going out. Kuga-san and Mogami-san aren't the type of people you can just run into a fight with." Shiori scolded before turning back to her desk to pick up a streaming cup of tea to take a sip as she rubbed her aching throat.

That drew Shun's attention to the faded bruising on Shiori's throat. She seemed as full of life as ever so he had forgotten that Yugo had attacked her the other day. After that attack on her branch, it would make sense that she would be more wary of the Mimics. "Does your throat still hurt?"

Shiori hummed in reply as she took another sip of her drink. "Yosuke brought me some green tea to try to help with the pain. I should thank him, but seeing as he was with you when you stole our captain..."

"It all turned out fine so there is no harm." Shun assured her quickly. Well, as fine as an interaction with Yugo and Mogami could turn out. They may not have killed the Mimics, but they at least got Yuma his ring back. It was a shame they couldn't get a hold of Fujin as well, but it was progress. In fact, Shun would consider it great progress because both of the Black Triggers had been lost last night and they already got one of them back!

"Yo, Shun!"

"Yuma-Oh my god! What happened to your eye?!" Shun shouted, flying off the couch in his horror when he looked towards the doorway where Yuma was coming in. He had brushed his hood down once he stepped into his squad's room as the door shut behind him.

Shiori had to put her mug down before she dropped it and made a mess that she would have to clean up. Even with her hands shaking, she approached her teammate and held up one of her shaking hands to his face. She was definitely missing something. Perhaps she should have joined Osamu and the others on going to Tamakoma-1's squad room when they came back from their fight with Yugo and Mogami.

Yuma took a hold of Shiori's hand and lowered it away from his face. He gave it a reassuring squeeze before he made his way over to the couches and collapsed into one of the seats. "Don't worry about the eye thing."

"How can I not?!" Shun motioned helplessly towards Yuma's face. "You have a gaping, black void on your face where you eye should be."

Yuma hummed softly to himself. "Wouldn't be the first time. Anyway," He twisted on the seat, bringing one of his legs up to the couch for a more comfortable position as he looked at Shun. He really didn't want to think about how his body was getting into a worst state with each passing day. He had talked with the others about this long enough already so he was completely done with focusing on it. "What was it that you needed?"

Shun could see a conversation change when it happened. He wasn't blind, but he would respect what Yuma wanted and let it happen. His friend was likely stressed enough as it was without Shun pushing the matter. With a sigh, he collapsed back into the couch, but was unsure of where to look. He wanted to look at Yuma since he was talking to him, but he knew if he did that, all of his attention would be locked on his missing eye. It wasn't something that was easy to avoid looking at, but he couldn't just stare at the wall the whole time they were talking.

Yuma stared at Shun, taking in his unnerved expression before sighing. He got off the couch and moved to the coffee table and sat on it with his legs criss-crossed under him so he could stare his friend straight in the face. "You're overthinking it."

Shiori glanced over at the two boys on the couch. Yuma had come here to talk to Shun which is why he went to focus on him. She was glad for that as it gave her a few minutes to compose herself. She had heard from Osamu that they were withdrawing because Jin told them to because something was wrong with Yuma, but this had not been what she was expecting. Though, honestly, it probably should have been on her mind. They already knew Yuma's body was getting weaker. At some point, something was going to have to break. At least it was only an eye he lost and not a limb that fell off. It was horrifying to look at either way.

Shiori turned her back on the boys as she set to work on making drinks and snacks for them to have. She focused on her breathing as she worked to get her hands to steady themselves as she worked. Yuma was suffering this week, and for once, he was showing that pain to them. The difficulty of dealing with Yugo was too much for Yuma to just hide all the pain away like he usually did so now they were getting see underneath his façade.

She turned her head slightly to look over at Yuma who had a firm look set on his face as he stared at Shun. Despite that pain and the guilt eating at him as his father haunted him and Border, Yuma still seemed so strong to her. His death was hanging very precariously over his head, and yet, there was no fear in his expression. It was more like resigned acceptance. That wasn't an expression she wanted to see on her normally confident, happy friend.

Shun swallowed as he stared at Yuma's face, trying his best to not stare too much at the dark void where his left eye was supposed to be. "I'm going after Yoneyan-senpai in a rank battle tonight. I want any tips you have on how to fight him."

"You've fought him before and you know what kind of Triggers he holds. You don't need any tips from me." Yuma pointed out.

"He and I are constantly back and forth on our rank wars. I might win one time, he might win next time, but we're always really close each time. It's usually only like one match difference to decide the winner." Shun complained. "I want to completely blow him out of the water this time!"

Yuma rubbed the back of his head. "I'm not sure I can give you anything to do that in a few hours. At this point, you're both very skilled and experienced." He stared at Shun's pouting face and found himself sighing. "Okay, let's have a lesson, Shun. Focus, okay?"

Shun looked eager to learn something so he was eagerly nodding his head, but before Yuma could start, Shiori was joining them, planting a tray on the table next to where Yuma was sitting.

Yuma looked down at plate on the tray with an amused expression. "Those weren't Konami-senpai's dorayaki, were they? I would hate to see her coming after you again." He teased his operator.

Shiori flicked Yuma's forehead in return, tsking at him. "Tamakoma-1 has their own squad room. This is ours so all snacks in here belong to us."

Yuma grinned. "Will Konami-senpai see it that way though? She loves her sweets and won't take kindly to you giving them away without offering any to her."

"Well, no one is going to tell her, right?" Shiori gave Yuma and then Shun a threatening look.

Shun just held his hands up in surrender. He hadn't even said anything. He was in no way involved with Yuma's nonsense.

As much as Yuma loved dorayaki, his hand went for a cup of the tea that Shiori brought them before he was turning his attention back to Shun. "Firstly, I'm not going to tell you how to beat Yosuke-senpai. In a solo fight, any strategy I could come up with is something that would work for me. Everyone has their own fighting style and though we use similar Triggers, we still have our own styles. I tend to use Scorpion in a lot of different ways while you focus on a standard sword and branching blades." Yuma paused to take a sip of his tea, taking a moment to relish in the delicious taste before he was continuing. "Do you know why I use branching blade, mantis, mole Claw, make use of Scorpion as a bandage, and others?"

"Because you like being known as a menace by everyone else in battle?" Shun suggested.

Shiori snorted, covering her mouth as her tea spilled from her mouth while Yuma gave Shun a dry look at the response. Shun's expression was showing complete seriousness at his reply so he wasn't trying to make a joke. Yuma didn't even know people called him a menace. He was just trying to win the fights to get his team up in the rankings. It was what everyone had been doing in the Rank Wars.

"No." Yuma huffed, doing his best to ignore Shiori sitting on the couch behind him. He could hear her chuckling, but he wasn't going to acknowledge that. "When I was kid, my dad taught me many things. We don't need to go into all of that, but one of his main lessons was that I shouldn't rely on others to save me. If I have a free ally nearby who can help? Then take that help that will be offered, but you can't just expect someone to be around every single time you get into trouble. You have to learn to fend for yourself and rely on your own strength. Figure out the situations you get yourself into on your own. Be creative to keep yourself safe and survive the battles, and that is what I do with Scorpion. It's why I chose Scorpion as my main Trigger. The flexibility, the adaptability, the way I can be creative with it."

"Tokieda-senpai always praises you for that creativity." Shun said, thinking back to the few times he talked to Tokieda and when he heard his commentary on Yuma's rank matches. While agents who used Scorpion would think of new ways to use it, Yuma was throwing out those skills they took months to think of and practice with early on the Rank War season, and by the end of the season, he was showing off tactics that no one had ever come close to creating.

"I knew if I wanted to get my team up the ranks and on the away mission, I couldn't just rely on the same tricks from the beginning of the season. Everyone was learning how I fought and what tactics I liked to use. It's hard to get through the ranks when your enemy is learning all your moves so they can predict you so they can stop you in your tracks." Yuma explained. "I do it to you all the time in our rank wars. You are getting stronger and faster each time we fought, but you don't come up with new tricks. If you could bring one new idea to a battle, it could be enough to catch your enemy off guard and secure you the win."

"I understand that much, but the things you come up with are really creative. I'm not sure I can match that." Shun replied.

"It's not like I develop these ideas instantly." Yuma lifted his broken hand. "A Trion body can't sleep. I have all night, every night to do nothing but sit on a roof and think of these things."

Shun opened his mouth to make a comment on that, but then clicked his mouth back shut. He was about to say something that would insinuate that Yuma was lucky to have that. That would probably be the worst thing to say to someone who was trapped in a Trion body that he didn't want while his real body was slowly dying.

"I know for a fact you don't spend the whole night, every night on the roof, Yuma-kun." Shiori said, getting Yuma to glance over his shoulder at her. "I do keep an eye on the logs for the training rooms at Tamakoma. You've logged a lot of hours in the middle of the night. It wasn't every night so I just assumed you were going in there when you couldn't fall asleep."

"Yuma-senpai is a training maniac." Shun muttered. "Do you really train and think of strategies every night? You can do stuff besides thinking about fighting."

"And that mindset is why I'll be your superior until the day I die." Yuma retorted.

With Yuma sitting right in front of him, it would be so easy for Shun to just kick him for that comment, but he resisted that urge. Yuma was injured enough as it was without Shun adding to it. "You made a similar comment the other day." Shun said bitterly. "Can you not say things like that when it looks like you're about to die any moment now?"

Yuma looked off to the side, scratching at his cheek. It was never a line that was meant to be taken seriously. It was honestly something he just said as a joke. He hadn't been considering the time limit on his life when he said it because it wasn't a thought in his mind. "Anyway, my point was is that it takes a lot of thinking. You focus more on physical training than mental training."

"And you're just going to brush over the statement now." Shun muttered.

"You should spend some time looking at strategy and thinking about creativity. There is more to fighting than just the physical aspect. It just as much about mental fortitude." Yuma continued, completely ignoring Shun's comment. "If you have a weak mentality, you can lose focus or begin to doubt yourself easily and that will get you killed. Osamu has that problem. He works very hard on his strategies, but he doubts himself a lot about them."

"Chika-chan and Yuma-kun have absolute trust though so they will always support his strategies and handle them with perfection. It was good for Osamu-kun's confidence for them to give him such trust. He needed that boost. By the end of the rank wars, he was questioning his strategies less and less." Shiori added.

That didn't surprise Shun in the least. When he met Osamu months ago, he could tell how weak-minded and hesitant he was. It was amazing that he was able to make it to B-Rank at all with his complete lack of confidence. He definitely had spirit though. "I think my mental fortitude is fine."

"You certainly are confident in your skills." Yuma agreed. "You have a strong mind. It's just strategy you really need to work on. Unfortunately, there is nothing I can give you before you fight Yosuke-senpai tonight. I can give you some strategy lessons, but any new moves require a lot of thought and practice on your part. I don't think you have time to plan anything extensive."

Shun sighed, but it was pretty much what he had expected. He had watched Yuma's fights closely since he was always excited to see what new move his friend would bring out next. The few times he tried to replicate something Yuma did, it didn't work quite as well for him. Shun was a prodigy when it came to fighting, but he didn't have Yuma's ability for seeing a technique from someone and being able to replicate it after only seeing it once. "Okay, how about this. When this is all over and you manage to get a new Trigger, you have to teach me one of your techniques with Scorpion."

"Eh?" Yuma rubbed the back of his head. He guessed it wasn't too outlandish of an idea. Shun had gone out of his way, despite them being rivals, to teach him about Grasshopper. Helping Yuma with optional Triggers made Yuma an even tougher opponent for Shun in their rank matches, but both would agree it was a lot more fun this way.

"'Taking on a Black Trigger with a training Trigger.'" Shun said with a mocking tone. "You just let me think that!"

Yuma stared at his friend for a moment in confusion before realization hit him. They were talking about the Aftokrator invasion with Yoneya the other day. "Well, you were the one who said it. You should have realized something was off with that statement." He muttered.

"I did!" Shun retorted. "But you and Yoneyan-senpai had been lying to me that whole conversation. I'm not stupid! I notice you were both being weird, but you weren't telling me anything truthful so I didn't want to continue the conversation."

"Ah."

"Don't you just make that stupid face!" Shun snapped, but his frustration ebbed away when his eyes shifted to Yuma's missing eye again. He had let his anger at the lies go a while ago after he and Yuma talked at the shrine. He didn't want to bring up that anger again when Yuma was in such a dire state. It's not how he wanted his time with his friend to go. "I was just trying to say, you owe me as an apology to that. Letting me believe such nonsense."

"And Yuma-kun will pay you back tenfold for that." Shiori promised.

Yuma twisted around to shoot a look at Shiori for making the promise for him. It wasn't that he didn't agree. He did owe Shun for multiple things, but he would prefer if people didn't make promises for him. "Yeah, sure." Yuma said, turning back to Shun. "Once I get a new Trigger and I recover." Though, Yuma did make sure to not mention the 'if he recovered' part. He knew he already looked like a horrible mess. There was no need to say it again and cause Shun and Shiori more worry. "For now, just focus on your rank match with Yosuke-senpai. It's a strange time to be wanting to have a match though. We're plenty busy as it is." He twisted around on the table to look over at Shiori again. "I feel like I've been seeing the agents constantly. Have they even gone home?"

Shiori took a sip of her own before humming thoughtfully. "I'm sure they've gone home, Yuma-kun."

"I haven't been home since the night before last." Shun said as he reached forward to snatch one of the dorayaki off the plate. "We had that mission last night and then I just passed out in my squad's room for a few hours this morning before running out with Mikumo-senpai and Yoneyan-senpai to find Kuga-san. I think quite a few agents did that. I know my team all passed out with me, though I don't know where they went. I woke up before them and they were gone when I bailed out earlier."

Yuma gave him a look of disbelief. "You guys need to take better care of yourselves."

"Hey!" Shun pointed a finger right in Yuma's face. "Don't forget. We went out there last night for your sake."

"Partly for me." Yuma knocked Shun's hand out of his face. "It was also because these Mimics are a problem that we need to deal with, sooner rather than later, which is why you wanting to have a rank match tonight is strange to me."

"How?" Shun demanded, waving in dorayaki around in the air in aggravation. "The other day you were having rank wars with everyone, despite at that time already knowing that Jin-san predicated your death this week! So how can you claim me wanting to take a moment to relax and readjust after all the stress this week strange?!"

Yuma leaned back on the table in shock and to avoid having Shun's flinging arms hit him in the face. "That was because I wanted to fight as many of you as I could one last time in case I don't survive this week, so it's not exactly the same as your reasoning. You and Yosuke-senpai will always have a–" Yuma ducked just in time to avoid the pillow that Shun tried to slam into his face. Shiori wasn't as lucky as Yuma as she didn't see it coming and thus spilled her tea she was trying to drink all over herself when the pillow whacked her in the face.

"Eh," Shun blinked blankly at Shiori as she set her glass down on the table and gave the two boys an annoyed look.

"Must you rough house in here?" Shiori demanded. A moment later her Trigger deactivated to rid her of her soaked uniform and left her in her civilian clothes.

"At least it wasn't Konami-senpai you spilled tea on. She would have killed you." Yuma told Shun.

"That was your fault."

"My fault? I'm not the one who threw the pillow!"

"But you dodged!"

"Yes, that is what you do when someone throws something at you!"

Seeing the two boys bicker made it hard for Shiori to stay annoyed at them for spilling her tea. It was relieving to see Yuma just acting so normal and bickering with his friends. The past few days had left him so solemn that seeing a normal argument was actually heartwarming to her. This was what she wanted to continue to see from Yuma. Just him having fun and goofing off with his friends.

"You need to stop talking about your death happening this week so easily." Shun retorted as he went to grab another a pillow, but Yuma kicked his leg forward to hit Shun's wrist to stop him. "Ow! I am not in a Trion body, Yuma-senpai!"

"No more pillow throwing! If you spill anything else on Shiori-chan, we won't get so lucky about her having an instant change of clothes again."

Shun huffed but gave up on trying to whack Yuma with any more pillows. He chose pillows to throw at him since he thought that was the safest option to prevent him from hurting Yuma. Once this was all over though and Yuma was back at full strength, he was going to drag Yuma into a fifty round rank match just so he could beat Yuma's head in for the stress and worry he caused him. Maybe he would drag Kageura and Murakami into it since he would need help to bash Yuma's head in. They could mess with the settings of the rank booths so they could all fight each other and they could team up on Yuma as revenge.

The expression on Shun's face was quite worrisome to Yuma. It looked like he was plotting something that would end up with someone getting hurt. Yuma had the feeling the someone that was going to get hurt would be him based on how the conversation with Shun had gone. "Shun?"

Shun took a bite of his dorayaki. "Hey, come with me to the rank booths tonight."

Yuma's brows rose as he worked out what Shun said over his chewing. "Come with you to the solo booths tonight?" He asked surprised, bringing a hand up to his eye. "I'm not sure–"

Shun shook his head, reaching forward for his own tea. "It'll be fine. Shinoda-san put out an order to have the C-Ranks get out of the Restricted Zone, and by extent, HQ before it gets late since the Mimics are causing quite a bit of trouble. Even though they have the Gates forced shut right, that order is still in effect. Since it will just be official agents around, you can show your face though." He eyed Yuma's broken face, having to resist making a comment about it. He really didn't want to think about how little time Yuma had left if his face was getting like this. "You might get some comments or surprised looks from any of the official agents around."

Yuma grimaced at the thought. He hadn't exactly been hiding his face all day, but it's not like he ran into too many of his friends today. Most of them still didn't know the truth of about his body. Since he was so close to death at this point and it was so obvious by his body, he would tell others about his body, but he didn't really want to explain it a million times. He already couldn't get thoughts of his past and his dad out of his head. He didn't want to have to explain it to everyone.

"Come on, it'll be fun. Don't we deserve a night of just fooling around and having fun?"

"I can't fight right now."

"And? You don't have to want to fight to hang out in the solo rank booths room. Look, I'll even invite Murakami-senpai. You can watch him demolish me in a rank war and laugh at me and tell me everything I did wrong!" Shun said while mentally crying at the amount of points he was going to lose tonight in his attempts to get Yuma to relax. This week had been so hectic already and once Kuga Yugo had appeared, it seemed that Yuma had been high strung, aggravated, and all around depressed for days. They all needed a day to just decompress. It was something they all needed, Tamakoma more than anyone.

Yuma's lips twitched into a small smile. "I think you should fight Kage-senpai. I hear you've been avoiding him."

There was a daring gleam in Yuma's eyes, but if it brought back the spark of amusement that was normally shining in Yuma's expression, he would do it.

"Fine," Shun gulped down his tea really fast and stood up. He started to approach the door to leave while shouting over his back. "Don't you dare be late. Seven o'clock, solo rank booths, Yuma-senpai. If I'm going to fight Kageura-san at your request, you better not ditch me!"

All he wanted was to fight Yoneya. Why did it have to come to this?

Shun's points were not going to survive tonight.