A/N: I don't own World Trigger

Mimics

Chapter 44: Rank Party Part 1

Osamu fell face first onto the couch that Karasuma was sitting at, still lazily enjoying his drink. He stared down at his mentee, feeling a bit amused. It felt like, despite how long Osamu was in Border, and considering Trion bodies didn't get tired, Osamu was still always going to feel the need to just collapse after an extensive workout.

"Thanks for putting him through the paces." Karasuma told Kitora, who blushed at the gratitude. He had only expected Kitora to put up with Osamu for a few matches. The fact that she dragged him into twenty matches was quite surprising.

"Well, it's not like I have anything else to do right now." Kitora replied.

Osamu turned his head on the couch to watch the two as they talked. He knew Kitora had a crush on Karasuma. It was so obvious from the way she blushed whenever he was around, but he had thought it was just her. During the away exam, Oki and Suwa had explained to him that Karasuma had a lot of fans at HQ and it wasn't just Kitora and Katori. Now that he knew about it, it was so hard to miss it.

"Are we just going to ignore the fact that Mikumo-senpai got one win off of you, Kitora-chan?" Shun popped over from the couch behind theirs, leaning his arms on the back of the couch with a grin towards his friends.

"He just got lucky!" Kitora snapped at Shun.

Shun smirked. He got lucky on their sixth match which was why Shun was betting Kitora took the match count to twenty, to prove that it was nothing but a fluke. Shun highly doubted it was a fluke. It was just in that one moment that Osamu was able to catch Kitora off guard with one of his sneaky tricks, but she caught on right afterwards and never let herself fall for it again.

"What are you doing here, Midorikawa?" Osamu asked, pushing himself up to a sitting position.

"I'm waiting for Yuma-senpai and the others. I told him to meet me at seven." Shun pulled his phone out to check the time to see it was six forty-seven. It was nearing the time and none of them had showed up yet. He was expecting at least Kageura to be here already since he hated people being late for anything.

Osamu braced his arm on the back on the couch as he shifted to turn to look more fully at Shun with a frown. "Kuga? You know he can't fight right now." He said with concern. Yuma wouldn't try anything stupid, would he?

"No, no." Shun waved off any concerns that Osamu might be forming. "We're just hanging out. I said I would let Murakami-senpai and Kageura-san destroy me in rank wars so he can laugh and tell me how much of a failure I am."

"Kuga doesn't really laugh when people lose." Osamu said. "He might make some sharp, mocking comments about you being weak, but he doesn't laugh when someone loses, especially when they try their hardest."

Shun raised a brow, staring at the Tamakoma-2 with a curious look. The captain was weak, and yet, Yuma still respected him quite a bit and always followed his orders. If Osamu was saying that, it had to be true. Still...Shun grinned. "Sounds like you have experience with Yuma-senpai calling you weak."

Osamu adjusted his glasses, hiding an amused smile behind his arm as he did. The comments were harsh when they first met, but Osamu saw it as Yuma's way of trying to warn him off from doing something stupid that could get him killed. "Kuga was a lot harsher when he first came to Japan. He's mellowed out quite a bit in the past few months."

"Oh yeah, he said something about how you would get mad if he broke any more legs!" Shun suddenly remembered, making Osamu groan at the reminder while Kitora just looked at Osamu with a mix of curiosity and concern.

"Please, I don't need to remember the stress of those first two days I knew him." Osamu moaned.

"He broke someone's legs?" Kitora repeated shocked.

"And a classmate's foot and gave three other people concussions. Can we please let it go?" Osamu pleaded while Karasuma just shook his head at the reminder of what Yuma told them earlier. It seemed Osamu was trying to do his best to forget those incidents happened.

Kitora didn't reply only because she was trying to process what Osamu and Shun just said. Back when she first met Yuma, she could agree that he was a lot harsher with his words and wasn't scared to hold anything back, but she didn't peg him as the type to be that violent.

Karasuma nodded. "Yes, Yuma said something about that earlier today."

Osamu buried his face in his hands. Yuma and him had agreed to keep quiet about what happened back in December, but it seemed that Yuma was just letting everything slip this week. Was this just him getting comfortable around everyone so he could admit everything more easily? Or was he simply letting it come out now because he thought it didn't matter if he was going to die in a couple days?

"He doesn't injure civilians anymore, does he?" Kitora demanded.

Osamu waved a hand weakly at her. "No, no. I got him to stop doing that after the broken leg and three concussions. I should have never left him alone in that alley."

"There's no reason to stress about it. This was months ago, back in December." Karasuma said.

Shun shook his head. December. It was always December when all the crazy stuff that Yuma mentioned had happened. It certainly sounded like a very interesting month. It was a shame he had missed everything that had happened back then. "Anyway-"

"Oh! There you are, Midorikawa!"

Too late. Shun looked over to see Yoneya and Kodera approaching. He knew Osamu was good with strategy, as was Kitora, so he had wanted to see if it was possible for either of them to have an idea of what could throw Yoneya off enough to give him the win tonight. Though, really, this was probably fair. He really should try to think of his own strategies for his solo matches. It was something he could do later and then challenge Yoneya again another time.

"Did you show up to mock my loss again?" Shun directed towards Kodera.

Kodera pushed his glasses up with a smirk. "I am here to tease whoever loses. It's a tossup of whether it could be you or Yoneya-senpai."

"I thought you were fighting Murakami-senpai and Kageura-senpai." Osamu said.

"I'm fighting everyone. My points are going to cry tonight. Yuma-senpai better appreciate this." Shun whined.

Yoneya raised a brow. "Kuga? Is he coming?"

"I thought he could use some cheering up and since the C-Ranks are all gone for the night, he can come in here again." Shun explained.

Yoneya looked around the solo rank booths room to see that it did look a lot emptier than it usually did. Without all the C-Ranks in here, it really did look a lot more spacious, though there were still plenty of Attackers milling about like Ikoma, Tsuji, and look, Kazama just came in with his team.

"Geez, we have no mission tonight. I'm surprised this many agents decided to hang around HQ. You would think they would want to go home and relax for once this week." Yoneya said.

"The same could be said for you." Murakami said, appearing behind Yoneya and Kodera, spooking them as neither had heard his approach.

"Damn it, are you a ninja?" Yoneya complained, grabbing his heart as he waited for it to slow down from the shock.

Murakami gave him an unimpressed look. "No, you're just oblivious when not in the field."

"Rude. I'll have you know that I am very observant to my surroundings." Yoneya retorted.

Shun folded his arms behind his head, smirking at his friend. "If that were true, you wouldn't have jumped six feet in the air just now."

Yoneya's brow twitched before he suddenly had Shun in a headlock. "And who is the one who months ago didn't interpret Mikumo's line of Kuga fighting a Black Trigger as meaning he had a Black Trigger to fight against the other Black Trigger. You really thought he was fighting a Black Trigger with a training Trigger."

"How is that my fault? Who would think a brand new trainee to Border would have a Black Trigger?" Shun shouted, grabbing at Yoneya's arms as he tried to break free of the hold to no avail.

Murakami left the two to their roughhousing as he walked forward and nodded at the others. "I didn't realize you would all be here too."

"This wasn't a planned rendezvous." Kitora replied, sighing a bit at the noise Shun and Yoneya were making. Honestly, the amount of roughhousing that these boys had a habit of getting up to. Still, they weren't hurting anyone and it seemed to be habit for the agents to fool around so she wasn't going to snap at them. "We just all ended up here."

"Kuga will probably be late." Osamu warned.

Murakami smiled. "I know. He tends to be late when meeting up with Kage and I."

"I told him to not be late!" Shun shouted, even though he was still fighting with Yoneya.

Osamu gave the roughhousing pair a deadpanned look. "That means nothing to Kuga. Even though it's been months, he still has a habit of getting lost in here."

"Is that why he's always late?" Murakami mused. He knew all the hallways looked pretty similar, but as long as he followed the same path every time, he should have no issue finding the solo rank wars. "I never pegged him as the type to get lost easily."

"It's honestly only in HQ that it ever happens." Osamu explained.

*Mimics*

Yuma stood in the middle of the intersection, looking from one hallway to the next. He really should have accepted Jin's offer to head to the rank wars together, but Jin was still getting ready and Yuma had promised Shun that he wouldn't be late so he chose to go on ahead on his own. It should have been so simple to get there.

How did he keep getting lost in this place?

He had been a Border agents for months now. He spent so much time in the solo rank booths with his friends because it was so much fun to go at it with them. He should have the path memorized by now! Sure, he was starting from a different location this time to get to the solo rank booths, but all he had to do was find a familiar hallway and start from there to get to them.

Unfortunately, all the hallways still looked exactly the same. Seriously, who would design every single hall on every floor to look exactly the same? That was asking for people to get lost so honestly, one could say this wasn't his fault.

"Geez, you look rough, Kuga."

"Kakizaki-senpai!" Yuma greeted cheerfully, whipping around to find Kakizaki and his teammates coming down the hall.

Kakizaki shook his head, quite fond of the young attacker. Even looking like this, he was able to throw a grin at him. That was another level of strength that Kakizaki could probably never achieve.

"Save me again!" Yuma cried, latching on Kakizaki's arm, grinning mischievously up at him when he saw his shocked look. Teruya and Tomoe looked surprised, but were able to get over it faster and hid their laughter behind their hands as Kakizaki just stared down at the young attacker.

Kakizaki looked at the cracks and missing eye on Yuma. He had heard word around the base that Yuma was in a horrible state but this was not what he had been expecting when he finally got the chance to see Yuma. "I'm not sure I can?"

"What? But you always know how to get to the solo rank booths!" Yuma cried.

"Ah," Kakizaki said. Of course that was what Yuma wanted. Why would he assume he wanted help with his body clearly falling apart? "And you want to go there why?" Normally, Yuma would be gung-ho about going there for a fight, but he didn't look like he was prepared to fight anyone.

"I have to meet Shun. And I was supposed to meet him at seven and I have like ten minutes to get there before I'm late. If I'm late, Kage-senpai is going to give me hell. You saw how mad he was the last time I was late when I was with you!" Yuma explained.

Kakizaki grimaced at the reminder of that meeting. Kako and Kageura were trying to give him a heart attack with how they were attacking Yuma for his attention that day. It was a miracle that the directors let that type of roughhousing go so no one would get in trouble for it.

Teruya checked her phone, raising a brow. "Actually, you have six minutes." She said, showing the phone to Yuma, aiming it more towards the one eye he had left.

"Didn't you also ditch Kage that time?" Kakizaki mused as he was still focused on recalling the day he met Yuma.

"Yes, and he made me pay for it the next time we had a solo rank war." Yuma replied, tugging on Kakizaki's arm. "Enough reminiscing. This is an emergency. Oh." Yuma suddenly dropped Kakizaki's arm as he stepped back from his friend. "Wait, Osamu would get mad at me for my lack of manners." He suddenly bowed deeply to Kakizaki, freaking the captain out even more while his teammates just started laughing again in the background. They loved their captain dearly, but seeing him freak out in confusion was too much. "Please, save me, Kakizaki-senpai. You're my only hope!"

"Please stop." Kakizaki said weakly.

"And please don't tell Jin-san about me getting lost again. He will never let me live it down." Yuma added, lifting his head slightly to show the amusement in his eye as he stared up at the captain.

Kakizaki honestly couldn't tell if Yuma was being genuine or if he was just messing with him at this point. Either way, this was still such a ridiculous response from Yuma who didn't normally bow like this. "Please." He grabbed Yuma's shoulders and forced him back up. "Stop. I'll take you there, just relax."

"Four minutes to go." Teruya counted down.

"I'm going to be late, aren't I?" Yuma moaned, already giving up on everything. Kageura was going to go off on him again. Well, Yuma could give as good as he got.

"We might make it. We're not that far away." Kakizaki spun Yuma around and started pushing him down the hall. When he heard more steps behind him, he looked over his shoulder to see his teammates following them. "We were done for the night. You two can go home."

"And miss this? No way." Tomoe said with a grin. Having worked with Yuma in the past for the exam, Tomoe had learned quite a bit about Yuma, but he hadn't gotten the chance to see him goofing off. He knew from word around HQ that Yuma was always ready to fool around and have fun, but when it came to the exam, he spent most of the time being serious as he was serious about getting selected for the away squad.

Yuma twisted his head around to look at the Kakizaki's teammates. Since Kakizaki was pushing him down the hall, he could trust him to lead him the right way while looking over at the other agents. "You guys surely have to be tired after last night's mission. You don't want to go home and rest?"

"I took a nap earlier so I feel fine." Teruya replied. "I can afford this small detour."

"I'm just curious." Tomoe said, hesitating for a moment when he caught sight of Yuma's missing eye. "Though, I don't feel right butting in and asking this."

"Oh," Yuma made a small 'o' with his mouth. "Don't worry about it. I can't really keep it a secret anymore. I'm in a Trion body, have been in this body since I was eleven. My real body is severely injured and sealed in my Black Trigger and because of that, with my dad siphoning all the Trion from my Black Trigger, my Trion body isn't getting enough to sustain itself and is starting to break. That's why I look like this."

A choked sound came from Tomoe which resulted in Teruya smacking him on the back to get him to remember to breath. "That is some story, Kuga-kun." Teruya said. "Are you okay?"

"As okay as I can be."

"So not very much?" Kakizaki said, earning him a grin from Yuma. "Your ability to persevere through anything is amazing."

Was he persevering? Yuma had a lot of stress and frustrations and worries all week about what was going on. Before he came to Japan, Yuma had no concern for when he would die. It was just a matter of doing whatever he wanted as he traveled while waiting for that time to run out. Coming to Japan had been one of the best decisions he ever made as it was here he learned to be happy and how to enjoy life again. It was because of his friends and everyone in Border that Yuma was getting all this stress and frustrations because he didn't want to lose everything that he had only just gotten.

His frustrations had been spilling out on all of his friends the past few days. He was scared to face his father and he was scared to lose his friends if he died this week. It was actually quite horrible of him to let his stress out on them so he wanted to make up for it. He would give them all smiles and have fun tonight. He wouldn't let his worries distract him...as much as he could. It would be something that would be in the back of his mind and everyone else's. It was hard to forget completely when the marks were all over Yuma and just being shoved in everyone's faces.

*Mimics*

"Yo!" Jin greeted, clapping both Yoneya and Shun on the shoulder. He applied enough pressure for them to get the idea to break apart and end the roughhousing with Shun excitedly shouting Jin's name at his arrival. "Yuma is on his way. He may be a minute or two late though."

"I told him to not be late!" Shun whined.

"Had he just waited for me, he would have been on time but he insisted he had to hurry here to avoid being late. And thus, he ended up getting lost." Jin explained, amusement rolling of him in waves. If only Yuma had trusted in him a bit more.

Yoneya snorted. "You knew he was going to get lost and let him go on his own anyway?"

Jin grinned. "This is how mistakes are learned from. Besides, he found the best tour guide possible to save him. He's fine."

"Is the mistake trusting you to not let him fail?" Karasuma asked.

"Kuga knows he has difficulty navigating this place. He should have known to take Jin-san up on his offer." Osamu said.

"Wow, not even trying to come to your partner's defense? So cold, Mikumo." Murakami said.

"Like I said, he should know better."

"Sounds like someone is being considered an idiot." Kageura said as he and Zoe arrived, weighed down with bags and containers of food. He put his stuff down on one of the tables before turning to face the group. "Who is it this time?"

"Who else but Kuga. He got lost again." Murakami replied.

Zoe deposited his bag on the table next to Kageura's. "Someone should really make him a map."

Yoneya eyed the bags curiously, trying to peak in them without touching them since he didn't want Kageura biting his head off. "An advanced, holographic one that show each floor of Border and has an icon that tells him his current position."

Osamu raised a brow. He knew he had just insulted Yuma's navigation skills, but he could also say that Yuma was better at getting around HQ, at least to the places he frequented a lot for the most part. It was only when he was trying to get somewhere from a different starting point than he was used to that he ended up getting lost. "I'm not sure something like that is possible."

"Sure it is if you get Kinuta-san to make it." Jin replied.

"I doubt he would want Kuga to have such an advanced map if he can't even hold onto his Trigger." Kageura said.

Shun snorted. "Imagine if it existed and Yuma-senpai lost it to Mogami-san and Kuga-san."

"Let's not. I still don't understand how Kuga managed to find Kuga when he broke in last night." Yoneya replied.

"Only Kuga-san can have the answer to that." Osamu said, though even as he said it, his mind was already starting to run through with some ideas to how. "We know he can use Rads and Replica. I suppose it's possible he could have used them to scope out the base before making his move."

"What the hell is a Replica?" Kageura muttered to Murakami, who just shrugged as he didn't know. He would just chalk it up to being one of those strange things surrounding the Kuga family.

"I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case." Jin told Osamu. "Or something similar to that. We're the ones who went on the offensive last night, but we got countered very easily. What I know of Mogami-san should match Kuga-san as well. They would not make a plan to infiltrate our base without any preparation."

That was true for everyone in Border. It was rare for them to jump into any mission with no preparation at all. It was part of what they were learning from the rank wars–how to prepare for their enemies and how to prepare for the terrain they were fighting on. It was very unlikely that Yugo or Mogami would engage in an attack or a counterattack without knowing what they would be up against.

"I bet that is the reason for why Kuga-san kept attacking our agents for no reason. He was studying us. How we fight. How we respond. What kind of Triggers we have. Our Border is a lot different to the one he knew years ago." Murakami said.

"Who cares why he does it? We just need to beat his ass!" Kageura snarled. He hadn't even met Kuga Yugo yet and the man was already pissing him off. If it was just about fighting an enemy that was attacking them, it wouldn't be a big deal. That was what they signed up for. It was the fact that the bastards attacking them were using personal moments to hurt the agents and were in the process of slowly killing their friend that was really pissing him off.

"If it was that easy, he'd be dead by now."

Kageura whipped around to see Yuma and Kakizaki squad arriving. His jaw twitched violently when he saw Yuma's face, but he bit his tongue to avoid making any comments. He already knew about Yuma's condition so there was no need to make a comment. It wasn't why they decided to meet up tonight.

Yuma left the conversation there as he glanced at the table where the bags were sitting, raising a brow. "Is that food?"

"Kage wanted to spoil you so he got food for you from his family's restaurant. I think he even got you something you haven't tried yet. He picked the best food on the menu." Murakami explained, earning a sharp elbow in his side from Kageura, but that didn't stop the smirk from forming. If Kageura was going to make it easy for him, he was going to take the chance to tease him.

"Shut up." Kageura snarled.

Yuma smirked, eye lighting up with mischief. He would never turn away from a chance to tease when it was offered up so easily. "Aww, so Kage-senpai does have a heart somewhere in there."

Kageura's brow twitched before he was suddenly slamming a hand on Yuma's head and shoving his head down. "Shut up, both of you!"

"It makes me so happy to know you have such great friends, Kage." Zoe said, wiping away a tear.

Kageura's head whipped around to face his teammate. "You shut up too!" He snapped. Where was Ema when he needed him? He didn't have to deal with this from his sniper.

"Who would have thought the feared Kageura-san could possibly have a soft spot?" Karasuma said, making no attempt to hide his phone as he filmed it. "Konami-senpai would never believe me." Without video footage at least. She would love to see this, at first, and then she would go on a rant about Kageura trying to steal her precious student.

Kageura whipped around to glare at Karasuma. He scraped his nails along the back of his neck as he snarled at the All-Rounder. "Put that damn thing away."

"Now, now, calm down, Kage. It's sweet to do nice things for your friends." Zoe said placating, clapping his captain on the shoulder in an attempt to ground him and to pull him back from killing anyone if he tried to move. "Yuma-kun loves the food from your restaurant so him being happy should be all that matters."

"Embarrassing Kage-senpai is important too." Yuma said as he worked on fixing his messed up hair, taking a step away from Kageura when he tried to swipe at him.

"You sure like to live dangerously, Kuga-kun." Tomoe said. "Do you have no fear at all?"

Yuma grinned at his former teammate.

Kageura rounded on them next. "Zaki-san, why are you guys here?" He shot a look towards Murakami. "I thought it was just going to be a handful of us. Why are there so many damn people here? I didn't bring that much food." Not that he would have brought any more food even if he had known. He didn't owe these guys anything nor did he have the money to purchase enough food to feed these many agents.

"It's all just a coincidental meeting." Murakami replied. "And I believe Kakizaki-san was escorting Kuga here cause he can't navigate HQ to save his life."

"Eh, I hope I never have to run through here with it being a matter of life and death." Yuma muttered.

"You're truly pathetic, Kuga." Kageura said.

Yuma gave a small laugh and just shrugged in defeat. "I guess if it's really that important, I can just bust through a wall and head outside and try to find what floor I need from the windows."

"What is with Tamakoma and breaking HQ?" Kitora asked with a frown. First Chika blasting a hole in the wall as a trainee and then Rindo destroying the hall yesterday. If Tamakoma wanted to destroy a building, couldn't they do it to their own branch?

"Yo, Ko-san!" Yoneya greeted cheerfully. "Want to have a match with me after I beat Midorikawa into the ground?"

"Who says you're going to win?" Shun retorted.

"I thought I came here to beat Midorikawa into the ground?"

Yoneya raised a brow, turning on the younger agent. "How many agents did you invite here to beat you into the ground?"

Shun scowled at Yoneya. "I might lose to Murakami-senpai and Kageura-san, but I refuse to lose to you too."

"Well, look at this. It certainly looks lively in here."

"You're late." Kazama scolded as his team made their way over to the group of agents that just seemed to keep growing and growing. Since this was where Jin had stopped at, it just seemed appropriate to move over here since that was who he was meeting here.

Tachikawa waved Kazama off. "How am I late? Did we ever set a time for when we were going to meet?"

"I just imagined you would be here early because of your excitement for the chance to fight." Kazama replied. His eyes drifted to Yuma for a moment, feeling surprised for a moment at the fact that he was missing an eye that was there a few hours ago when he spoke to him, but left it at that. Yuma seemed far more invested in looking into the bags of food on the table so he was going to leave the half-dead kid to it.

Osamu was so confused as to what was happening. Hyuse, Karasuma, and he just came here a few hours ago to get some training in since there was nothing else they could do at the moment, and now, it seemed that it was turning into some type of party. A party with just agents appearing nonstop it would seem as he saw Kako and Futaba coming in now. This was too strange. He could understand the few sets of agents that showed up with plans to meet here and Kakizaki squad getting dragged here by Yuma, but the rest of them? It seemed like too much of a coincidence.

"Hey, Ku–" Osamu turned to face his partner and was surprised at Ikoma suddenly showing up behind Yuma. He had known Ikoma was in here, but hadn't he been on the other side of the room?

Ikoma leaned past Yuma to look at his face and went to poke the spot around his missing eye when Yuma suddenly jerked up and twisted around, bringing his leg up in a fast kick that slammed into Ikoma's gut and sent him flying across the room. While everyone else was staring at Ikoma's flying body, Kikuchihara found his eyes drawn to Yuma, a frown tugging at his lips.

Hyuse's eyes widened, and he quickly sidestepped the flying body before he was looking towards the group he had been walking towards. He had just finished his match with Sasamori. Why did he have to step out here and have some random body thrown at him?

Hyuse's eyes zeroed in on Yuma as he righted himself from his kick. "Damn it, Yuma! Don't go throwing your bodies at me!"

Yuma's mouth drop open when he saw everyone just shifting their stares to stare blankly at him. "Oh, oh." He scratched his head, leaning as much of his weight on his left leg as he could without it being obvious. Right, no attacking agents outside of rank matches. "That was...he was in my blind spot and I just reacted without thinking! Don't sneak up on me!"

"Don't worry about it, Kuga. It was his fault for trying to touch you." Mizukami said. He pulled his captain up off the ground and forced him into a bow. "Right? Don't go touching people's injuries."

"But why is his face broken?!" Ikoma shouted, fighting to get his friend off of him.

"I imagine he's in a Trion body of sorts." Mizukami said.

"Nice deduction." Yuma said dryly, thought at this point, it really should be plainly obvious. The type of cracks on his body only occurred on Trion bodies after all. "I really can't see from my left side so can you guys not appear on my left side? I might hit you the moment I sense you there and unless you're in a Trion body, you're not going to get away without injury if I hit you."

"Oh, my, it's always so interesting when I come in here." Kako said.

"This room always has so much violence in it." Futaba added, and she wasn't referring to the solo rank wars that happened in here. The boys were always roughhousing when she would come in here and saw them. There was never a time when she came here and didn't see the boys roughhousing. She was sure Shun and Yoneya were the worst of the lot.

Ikoma finally escaped from Mizukami and walked back over to the group. "Jin, give me a match!"

"You could ask a bit more politely." Mizukami scolded.

"Geez, you have been quite rude from the moment you walked over here." Kikuchihara said.

"Why are there so many damn people here?" Kageura complained. How did a small gathering turn into a giant group like this? He shot a glare towards Shun. It wasn't necessarily his fault but he was the one to demand he and Murakami come here tonight.

Hyuse appeared by Yuma's shoulder, looking at the bags of food that Yuma seemed quite interested in. "What are you even doing here?"

"I can't hang out?" Yuma asked.

Hyuse snorted. He could, but to Hyuse, he didn't see the point of hanging around if Yuma couldn't participate in any of the fights. "At least you're not off doing something stupid."

Yuma rolled his eye fondly. He glanced over at Osamu. "Were you going to ask something?"

Osamu nodded. "Chika. Do you know where she's at?"

"She said she was heading home as she needed to see her parents as it's been a couple days." Yuma explained. He tilted his head in consideration as he looked at all the agents present. "Hasn't it been a couple days for most of you since you've been home?"

"Ah, maybe, but we've been too busy to go home." Yoneya said.

"You guys are working too hard." Yuma mumbled.

"We're doing it for you. You could at least be a bit more grateful." Kageura snapped.

Yuma straightened up from his snooping in the food to meet Kageura's stare head on, accepting his statement as more of a challenge. "Alright." He stepped away from the group, confusing them as to what he wanted while Kakizaki began to get the idea and just sighed.

And yep, there was the deep bow.

"Thank you for trying so hard to save my life!"

Hyuse raised a brow. He truly did not understand Japanese customs. Yotaro taught him a lot, but it was all about Border stuff. He didn't help him understand Japanese customs at all. He couldn't even figure out how to properly use chopsticks. He understands the bowing even less. Why did they bow? When were the appropriate times to bow? It was all just too confusing.

"That's weird." Shun muttered, staring at Yuma weirdly. At least it wasn't as strange or shocking as his dogeza bow in Yuba's squad room the other day.

"Too weird." Yoneya said, feeling a bit creeped out.

"That's how you were supposed to apologize when you kicked me!" Ikoma shouted.

"You deserved that kick, Iko-san." Mizukami pointed out.

"Why are you on Tamakoma's side?" Ikoma demanded. "You should always side with your teammate!"

"How can I side against the child that looks like he's about to die any minute?" Mizukami asked.

"Easily!"

"Damn it, Kuga! Stop it! Stand up. Forget I said anything!" Kageura snapped, resisting the urge to grab his friend and strangle him. Why was he acting so weird?

Murakami hid a snicker behind his hand. Yuma wasn't a rude person, but he didn't exactly come off as the most polite person out there. He could be quite harsh with his words, but also quite enjoyed teasing people. For that reason when he did this type of bowing, it did feel a bit sarcastic at times.

Yuma rose up, meeting Kageura's eyes again. "You know, Yuba-san would at least be more appreciative my manners."

"He makes a good point." Yuba said, suddenly appearing behind the group with Obishima. "He was making an effort. It's disrespectful to not accept that."

Osamu looked around the room in absolute confusion. Why did more agents just keep appearing out of nowhere? He really should have gone home earlier when he had the chance, though he honestly didn't feel like going home to just get away from the chaos of the agents. Yuma had gotten so much worse the pass couple of days. Osamu was not ready to go home and be so far from HQ right now for that reason. He wanted to be around if things got worse or if there was another attack. He was sure no one in Tamakoma would care if he stayed in the barracks for now.

"I would be more appreciative if that wasn't so mocking!" Kageura snapped.

"Mocking? I was completely sincere." Yuma insisted

"It's the fact that you never bow that makes it so strange." Murakami pointed out.

Jin stood back with Tachikawa and Kazama, grinning widely as he enjoyed the chaos unfolding in front of him. Whenever all the agents got together, it was a whole new level of chaos then when it was just a few of them.

"I thought we were going to have some rank matches so you could test some ideas. What did you do?" Kazama demanded.

"Who? Me?" Jin asked innocently.

Kazama glared at the Tamakoma agent. "Who else? Did you invite a party of agents to join us? There is no other reason for this many agents to be showing up in here around the same time because Kuga is right. After the last few days, any free agent should want to head home to get some proper rest."

"I didn't force anyone to show up here tonight. I simply said they could stop by if they wanted." Jin replied. "Or they could go home if they want."

"This is not how the solo rank booths are meant to be used."

Jin shrugged, still grinning. "I simply extended an invitation to those who were free. The choice to come was entirely up to them."

"For a party?" Tachikawa asked, interested as he looked around. A party with this many attackers around in the solo rank booths meant so many people available for him to challenge. His eyes drifted to the table where Yuma was eyeing the bags on the table with curiosity with Hyuse looking at them in confusion. Food and agents for him to fight. This could be quite fun.

Kako eyed the bags of food on the table. "If I knew this was going to be a party, I would have made some friend rice." She said, resulting in a horrified look from Kakizaki at the idea of her fried rice.

"That isn't for you." Kage snapped. "I got food for Kuga, but then all you idiots began to show up."

"So what? The rest of us can't eat?" Kako asked. "I suppose I could go make some now."

All the agents who tasted her fried rice in the past paled at the suggestion. The only one who looked intrigued was Yuma who had become quite fond of rice thanks to Chika being the first one to introduce rice to him. He was eager to try more types of rice.

"We're trying to not kill people here." Kageura snapped.

"Don't worry about it, Kako-san." Jin suddenly jumped into the conversation. He held up three fingers. "Three..." He lowered a finger. "Two..." A second finger went down. "And...one!" Instead of dropping his last finger, he pointed at the doorway, drawing the agents' eyes to it.

"Why do I have to help you?!"

Yuma straightened up at the familiar voice. He caught Osamu's eye and grinned widely. Hearing the voice full of rage and the stomping feet reminded him very much of the day they met Tamakoma-1.

"You were the only one available."

And there was Reiji.

"If you want to blame someone, blame Jin. He's the one who got too much."

Jin really wished that Reiji hadn't said that. Konami really would attack him with her rage if she really was that irritated. If she was that mad though, Jin was certain he could soothe her rage. All he needed was Yuma. With how hurt he was right now, a small look from him to his mentor would be enough to get her to cool it. Konami was really a big softy at heart.

A moment later, Reiji and Konami walked through the doorway to come into the solo rank booths, ladened with pizzas and bottles of pop. Reiji was carrying the most, but Konami had a few of the pizza boxes herself so Reiji wouldn't drop anything by trying to carry it all and a bag hanging off of her arm.

"Pizzas?" Kazama stared at the amount of pizzas that Reiji and Konami came into the room with. He understood that Kageura brought food for Yuma and the rest of their group, but Jin clearly decided he wanted everyone to have food since he really was turning this into a party.

"I had him pick them up on the way back from dropping Chika-chan and Izuho-chan off at home." Jin explained while the agents that Jin invited to come here finally began to understand what he was going for and started to perk up in excitement. In all their time in Border, they had never got a chance to have all of them hang out and eat and have fun at HQ. They were all for having fun when they were off duty, but they never bothered to all get together for a party like this. "We can't sit around while Yuma and his friends stuff their faces and we get nothing."

"You bought pizza for everyone?" Tachikawa asked shocked.

"Oh, no. This is all on Border's dime." Jin said with a scheming grin. "Kageura would not bring enough food from his family's restaurant since he didn't know all these people would show up so I had HQ buy pizzas for us."

"Do they know that?" Kazama asked sharply.

"Shinoda-san will see the bill when he wakes up." Jin replied, grinning as he thought of the note he left in Tamakoma-2's squad room for Rindo and Shinoda earlier. He was sure he could get Shinoda to agree to pay the bill. This was to give as many agents who wanted a chance to relax and have fun that chance. Yuma was right when he saw they all needed time to relax. They didn't sleep enough this week since they were so busy with the Mimics. Seeing how fond Shinoda and Rindo were of their mentor's student, he could use Yuma against them. All he had to do was say he wanted Yuma to have a fun time. With Yuma's condition, they would cave quite easily, and besides, it wasn't quite a lie. He was determined that he was going to save Yuma from Kuga Yugo, but until that happened, he was going to make sure Yuma and all the other agents had fun tonight. They deserved the chance to relax, at least those that wanted to show up and weren't on defense duty.

Kazama turned his back on Jin. "I am not involved with this."

Tachikawa grinned, clapping Kazama on the shoulder, with a chuckle escaping him. "You're still here so you're involved."

Shun folded his arms behind his head, staring around all the agents that had shown up. "This has somehow turned into something bigger than I anticipated." He watched as Yuba and Kako moved around to grab some of the tables that were around the others couches to move them around to set up a spot for Reiji and Konami to set up the pizzas and drinks.

"Maybe so, but it at least sounds like it will be fun." Murakami said. He wasn't quite sure they were allowed to do this in here, but he wouldn't say no to having a party. It was too bad Tachi and Kuruma had decided to go home early tonight and were going to miss it, but they deserved a chance to relax and destress how they chose to.

Konami set her bag down on the table and began to pull out plates, napkin, and disposable cups for the agents to use. With the tables set up, she rounded on Jin. "If you're the one who wanted the food so badly, then you should have gone to pick it up, or at least help Reiji-san bring it all up here." She said angrily, marching in on Jin to strangle him.

No. No. Nope. Not happening. Jin snatched Yuma's arm just as he was about to start ripping bags of food open to find what Kageura brought for him as he was getting tired of waiting for Kageura to say they could eat. He twisted Yuma around to face Konami to use him as his human shield. "But it was for Yuma."

"Eh? But Kage-senpai brought me food." Yuma said though he did lean pass his approaching mentor to see the tables full of pizza behind her. "Though, I wouldn't mind some pizza as well."

Konami glared at Jin over Yuma's head. "You think you can use my injured student to keep me from smacking you?"

"The rules of no agents fighting each other outside of rank wars should stop you." Kitora said.

"Konami-senpai hits people all the time at Tamakoma Branch. We're used to it." Yuma told her. It was really amusing to him, but the roughhousing had been a surprise the first time he saw it. It was a type of atmosphere he wasn't used to since spending three years in a war meant there was no teasing or roughhousing. Though, a part of that likely had to do with the fact that Yuma was surrounded by adults. Joining Border was the first time he got to have combatants by his side that were around his age. It was likely because of that he got to deal with more fun spirits here than he ever got in the Neighborhood.

Osamu grimaced at that reminder. For some reason, he was the one most often subjected to her hitting him in the head or getting him in a chokehold. It wasn't even his fault most of them time. It was usually Karasuma or Yuma or Jin, though it felt like it was rare that Konami would choose Yuma to be the one subjected to her punches. He guessed that was the favoritism that Konami chose to give her mentee or because she beat him up enough times when they were training.

"It must be from her where you learned your violent tendencies of just hitting people for no reason!" Ikoma cried.

"Let it go, Iko-san. I doubt his kick even hurt you." Mizukami said.

"What kick?" Reiji asked.

"Yuma kicked Ikoma across the room earlier." Hyuse explained.

"Eh?" Konami said, a bit surprised. Her student was a great fighter and she knew from what he said earlier that he had injured civilians his first couple of days here, but ever since she knew him, she knew Yuma to not be the type to attack anyone outside of work or rank battles. Still..."That's my pupil!" She grabbed Yuma and gave him a surprise hug while Yuma's arms flailed in surprise.

"It's not something to be proud of!" Ikoma shouted. "I will get my revenge!"

"Huh?" Konami turned her head to glare at Ikoma. "Against my pupil who can't fight right now? You want to try?"

"What are you going to do about it? You can't fight us here." Mizukami said.

"You could always fiddle with the settings of the rank booths so there is no point exchange and Tamakoma-1 can enter the virtual space to battle it out with their special Triggers." Murakami suggested. Fiddling with the settings was something he and Kageura did quite often so they could have three way matches with Yuma occasionally. It was actually quite fun. "That way we could do matches with partners and have a chance to fight Tamakoma's special Triggers."

"Oooh, that sound awesome!" Shun said, eyes lighting up in excitement and maybe he could get away from a match with Kageura. He glanced at Yuma who suddenly had a grimace on his face, not that most of the agents would notice since his face was squished to the side as Konami was still hugging him. That was right. He wanted to do this for Yuma to have fun, but talking about the ways they could all have fun with the different setups and teams they could use in the solo rank booths would leave him out since he couldn't participate in the fights. It was something he was sure that Yuma would enjoy greatly so he would probably feel left out. "Hey, hey, Yuma-senpai, you fight Konami-san and Torimaru-san all the time, right? Give us some pointers against their Triggers!"

"Wouldn't that be cheating?" Yoneya asked.

"Cheating? We gather intel on our opponents all the time for rank matches and this is the only way available to us right now!" Shun retorted.

Konami scoffed, releasing her mentee. "It doesn't matter what Yuma tells you, you still won't beat us. He's never beaten me in a ten round match before."

"He came close to tying with you though." Karasuma said.

"Stuck at four wins out of ten." Yuma agreed. "Now there is a fifth wall barrier."

Kazama raised a brow. "You can get four wins against her using her special Trigger? That alone is impressive."

"That is what Torimaru-senpai says." Yuma agreed, though he was still pouting. He was so close to tying with her. Once he managed to tie with her, the next step would be winning a ten-round match.

Yuma had been a skilled fighter before he joined Border, but if he was spending his time fighting the strongest agents he could find like Konami, Kageura, and Murakami, it was no wonder he did such a good job of tearing through the aces of the teams in the B-Rank wars. Yoneya had always known he was super strong, but now he was even more impressed. He never got to fight Tamakoma's special Triggers himself, but he could tell from watching them during invasions, that they weren't easy to go up against.

"Kuga gets all the fun. He gets to fight your special Triggers all the time." Ikoma complained. "While we're not even allowed to at HQ."

"Did you ever fight Kizaki-san's special Trigger, Kuga-senpai?" Obishima asked curiously.

"I don't train with Reiji-san often but he did let me see his Full Arms a couple times during training." Yuma replied.

Osamu raised a brow. He knew that Yuma nagged each member of Tamakoma-1 for matches and got them since all of them were quite willing to give Yuma a fight, but he had no idea that even Karasuma and Reiji pulled out their special Triggers on him. He knew Konami did since that was all she had to use to fight him, but Karasuma and Reiji had regular Border Triggers attached to their special Triggers so he just assumed that was what they were using when they fought Yuma. Yuma never talked about his matches with them, except maybe to discuss the score he got against them.

"I used mine because Yuma pushed me into a corner and I needed it." Karasuma replied. "Still couldn't secure the win in that fight though." Yuma had been smart though. He did challenge Karasuma's Geist head on for fun, but he also figured out that he had a time limit when he used it so he also used that to his advantage. It was quite fun matching Yuma with it though.

"And you?" Yuba asked Reiji. "I didn't expect you to be the type to just pull out Full Arms for no reason."

"Yuma and I made a deal. If he could force our ten round match into a draw or win on his part, I would use them to fight him." Reiji explained. It had taken a few attempts for Yuma to get that draw, but he eventually got it. For that reason, Reiji would pull out Full Arms in some of their rounds to give himself the edge, but Yuma was getting better at dealing with it, even though he hadn't managed to beat Reiji yet when he used Full Arms. He was getting closer each time he tried though.

Jin looked from one member of Tamakoma-1 to the other then rounded on Yuma. "Hey, Yuma, what the hell? You've asked all of them for training, but not me?" He asked offended.

Yuma shrugged. "Did you want to fight?"

"You fought against his Black Trigger the other day." Tachikawa pointed out.

"That doesn't count! That was more of an exhibition match!" Jin argued. How could his cute kouhai go to everyone else in Tamakoma for a match except for him? He knew he was pretty busy with helping the higher ups, but it's not like he and Yuma never had free time at the same time. There were so many times Yuma and he weren't doing anything so they could have a match, like when he couldn't sleep at night and he joined Yuma on the roof. A match against Yuma during that time would have been so much fun.

"And?" Tachikawa retorted. "You got the match. If you aren't going to appreciate getting to fight a Black Trigger, then you should have let me fight him!"

Yuma ignored the two as he pointed at the food on the table as he looked at Kageura. Getting the message, Kageura began to dig through the bags for the food for him and his friends. The others could go eat their pizza while the A-Ranks argued among themselves. What a bunch of idiots.

"I can't believe you fought all of their special Triggers and never said anything about it." Murakami said.

"Was I supposed to brag about it?" Yuma asked, eagerly taking the food that Kageura handed him. It was pretty normal for Yuma to train with them so he truly thought nothing of it. He just enjoyed a challenge so he nagged Karasuma and Reiji for the training.

"Most people would be excited about it. I would be stroked to have that chance to fight them and let everyone know about it." Yoneya said, eyeing the Neighbor child. "Though, I suppose for you, it doesn't mean much."

Yuma looked up, catching Yoneya's eye with a warning flashing across his face. There was no need to put such a big hint out there. There were a lot of strong Trigger users that Yuma fought in the Neighborhood, yes, so there was a reason why he didn't feel fighting Tamakoma-1's special Trigger was anything unique. It didn't need said though. "Well, go fight Konami-senpai right now. I could use some great entertainment of watching you get beheaded over and over while I eat."

"That's kind of weird entertainment to want to have while having a meal." Obishima said, though maybe it wasn't too strange for Yuma. She didn't know him too well, but knowing how often he was in the solo rank wars, she would say he was a battle maniac so he likely enjoyed watching fights.

"Kuga's always been weird like that." Kikuchihara said.

Was he weird? Maybe by their standards, but it was at least better than being called a bug by Kageura again.

"Were we still going to have our match?" Yoneya asked Shun.

"It was the whole purpose of coming here?" Shun said, nodding his head in thanks to Kageura as he got handed his food. "Let me eat first."

"Do I get food?" Yoneya asked, pointing at himself.

"You get pizza. No one told me you were meeting us here to fight Midorikawa." Kageura snapped.

Yoneya pouted as he turned to Shun and shoved his head to the side. "I can't believe you left me out. I was the first person you invited to this meetup."

Shun locked eyes with Yoneya and shoved the first bit of his food in his mouth. "How was I supposed to know Kageura-san would bring us food? Just go to his restaurant some time if you want to try it so bad."

Karasuma watched the different groups of arguing friends in amusement. This was bound to happen with this many agents getting together to just hang out for a night. There were going to be a lot of mock arguments and the agents were just going to use them as an excuse to challenge each other to rank battles. "Are you staying around, Osamu?"

"I'll stick around, but I don't think I'll engage in any of the rank battles they seem eager to have." Osamu replied. He wasn't too fond of solo rank wars like Hyuse and Yuma were. He did them for training from time to time, but he never found fighting to be fun like his teammates. It was a means to an end. He didn't join Border to have fun with mock battles. He joined because he wanted to help and not just be so useless by sitting around and watching the agents protect the city while he ran away.

If he was going to stick around, he might as well enjoy himself as best he could. To begin with, he should get himself some pizza. It had been a long time since he had eaten. Between his stress and constantly running around the past few days, he hadn't given much thought to eating or sleeping. As he got up to get some food, Hyuse was suddenly by his side to follow him.

"What is pizza?" Hyuse muttered softly to Osamu as they made their way over to the table with food and drinks.

"Hmm, it's this." Osamu pointed at the boxes on the table. "It's a pizza dough with tomato sauce on it. You can get toppings on it too like sausages, pepperoni, green peppers, etc."

Hyuse looked at the table with a dubious expression.

"It's quite delicious. Kuga is a fan so I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up over here at some point." Osamu assured him, though he was sure Hyuse would try it anyway without bringing up the fact that his fellow Neighbor thought the food was good. Hyuse never shied away from new foods.

Hyuse wasn't going to say no to the free meal, so he grabbed a plate and looked at the different toppings on each pizza. Osamu explained the different type of toppings a pizza could have, but that didn't really help him understand what he was looking at. Honestly, anything would work at this point since he was hungry. Even as he started to fill his plate, he looked at Osamu with a frown. "The Mimics are still around. There is nothing to be celebrating right now."

"Oh, relax. Letting loose and having fun once in a while isn't bad." Konami said, appearing behind the two. "Besides, the party isn't just about having fun. Well, actually it is but not for the purpose to have fun and just goof off, especially when we're in the middle of an attack like this. It should be obvious."

Osamu nodded, turning his eyes to Yuma who was still teasing Yoneya. "It's for Kuga to have a night of fun when it's possible that it could very well be his last."

Hyuse narrowed his eyes, feeling disbelief coming over him. "The purpose of everything we are doing is to save him. This, a party right now, feels like giving up."

"Far from it." Konami snapped. "But we want him, all of us actually, to have fun. We all deserve it and if by some horrible chance, we can't stop Kuga Yugo, Yuma at least has this last night of fun to remember."

"It's not just that." Karasuma added as he grabbed himself a plate for his pizza. The three turned their attention to him, but Karasuma didn't look at them as he decided on what pizza he wanted. "This night of just having fun is also a reminder to everyone what it is they are fighting for. Of course we are fighting to protect the city. Some are fighting to kill Neighbors who they believe are the enemy. Some fight because they think it is fun. But more than that, we all fight because we have people to protect. Family, friends, loved ones. The chance to have fun and enjoy life like we will tonight. A reason to want to win won't necessarily bring you out as the victor against someone stronger than you but it will remind you why you keep getting back up and trying. It can be easy to lose sight of what you are fighting for when you are so busy focusing on the enemy."

"So, basically, you are using tonight to take a moment to readjust." Hyuse said.

"Exactly." Konami said.

"Hmm, if you forget that easily what you are fighting for, that is just sad." Hyuse replied, glancing over at Yuma. How could anyone forget what they were fighting for? It was always for the ones they were loyal to. Despite everything he was doing to help Border, Hyuse hadn't forgotten. He was only here to get back to Aftokrator to save his master from Hyrein. To that end, he would help Border with everything he could except for betraying his homeland. To accomplish that, the Mimics had to die and they needed to save Yuma. They needed his help and possibly his Black Trigger to survive the trip to Aftokrator.

"It's not about forgetting. No one has forgotten what their goal is here." Reiji said as he joined them. "When we say to remind ourselves, it is to remember the joy of life and how we can enjoy our time with each other. We can get so busy with life and work that we forget to take a minute to stop and smell the roses."

"Roses?" Hyuse said confused. "What do flowers have to do with anything?"

"It's a saying." Osamu replied. "It means to slow down and appreciate life. We tend to get so busy with everything that we forget to look at what is good in life." He glanced over at Yuma laughing with his friends. "I told you before how Kuga blamed himself for his father's death. After his death, he chose to spend three years fighting a war in Calvaria that had nothing to do with him. He admitted to me before that coming to Japan was the first time he has had fun in years. Kuga-san died and though Kuga was alive, he wasn't living his life. He was just fighting his way through every day with no true meaning to why he was alive, why he was struggling so hard to keep living."

Hyuse had heard the story of Calvaria. He had heard how Yuma had blamed himself for Yugo's death. What he hadn't know or could believe was that the always cheerful Yuma who seemed to always be having fun with everything he did felt like living was a chore. It didn't match with what Yuma always showed, but after this week of hell, he could see the cheerful exterior he always displayed was the façade. Underneath, he was truly suffering from a lot of guilt and depression from the past.

"That's not to say he's been showing us fake happiness and enjoyment the past few months. I truly believe being here has helped him a lot, but I also believe he deserves all the chance to relax and enjoy the moment." Osamu said. "Which is why I'm not disagreeing with Jin-san and the others about having a 'party' of sorts right now. We all need a chance to slow down and see the joy of living by enjoying the moment."

"Hmm," Hyuse looked over towards the agents. "I want to fight Tachikawa again. Think I can get that chance?"

That seemed like enough confirmation that Hyuse understood what they were saying, or at the very least would accept why they believed a party right now was alright.

"Tachikawa-san will fight anyone. He just enjoys a good fight." Karasuma replied. "With your showing in the rank wars, I'm sure he would be quite eager to give you a match."

"Oh, I didn't think you would be the type to want to fight for fun. You seem more like you focus on training just to get better." Konami said.

"I believe that is his competitiveness coming out. Kuga finds their matches fun while Hyuse just wants to beat him into the ground." Osamu replied.

"I only have the agents from HQ to pick off right now since we can't train back at Tamakoma and Yuma can't give anyone a fight." Hyuse said.

Osamu was really wishing that people would stop mentioning the fact that Yuma couldn't fight right now. From the moment he met his friend, Yuma had been a fighter. He faced every moment with a confident smile. Yuma not being able to fight right now and with the stress of the past beating down on him, it didn't feel right. Nothing about this felt right and he hated seeing his friend not being able to fight. The always ready to throwdown Kuga Yuma now needed to be protected was just wrong.

"It's going to be a night of nonstop fighting for all who want the chance." Karasuma said. "It's going to be interesting."