A/N: I don't own World Trigger
Mimics
Chapter 45: Rank Party Part 2
"What the hell is this?" Suwa exclaimed as he stepped into the solo rank booth room. It wasn't strange to see the room full of agents, though it was usually a lot of C-Ranks mixed in with a few official agents. It was strange to see it only filled with official agents mingling and food all around as the agents ate and laughed. "We were out there fighting our damnedest against the Mimics and they were in here having a party without us?"
"Well, Kazama-san did basically order us off the Mimics and we ignored him." Arafune said. He smirked over at Suwa. "We can at least join in now, and I see Jin-san over there. You could inform him of the starmaker."
Suwa rubbed the back of his head. "I suppose." That was something he needed to inform Jin of, but Suwa wasn't sure it was a topic he wanted to breach among all the laughs and peacefulness that was currently filling the air. Though, on the other hand, it wasn't something he should just keep to himself. Jin needed to know as soon as possible so he could factor it into his plans.
"Hey, Arafune! Where have you been?" Murakami shouted over at his friend, who took that as more than enough invitation to make his way over to his group.
Arafune caught sight of Yuma's missing eye when he turned his face towards him, which resulted in a slight widening of his eyes from shock, but he wiped the surprise off his face as he approached the group with Suwa. "Working, unlike the rest of you lazy bums. Since when do we have parties in here?"
"Since tonight." Shun said cheerfully. "You're just in time. We're going to jump into having rank matches soon."
"Konami-senpai and Torimaru-senpai are going to jump in to. It will be great to watch you all get schooled by them." Yuma added with an evil smirk. He had come here to watch Shun and the others have rank wars, but it had somehow turned into a talk of doing team matches instead. Well, he supposed if Shun's team ended up matched against Yoneya or one of the others, he could still see the fights Shun had promised him.
Suwa slammed a hand down on Yuma's head as he shook it around violently. "Shut it, punk."
"Nope. Watching you all get slaughtered is all the enjoyment I can get right now." Yuma replied, shaking his head violently to get Suwa's hand off of it. He made a half-hearted effort to straighten his hair out before he shifted his attention back to his food.
Shun chuckled nervously. He wasn't quite sure he wanted to fight Tamakoma-1's agents, but at least there was an agreement made that points weren't going to get exchanged tonight. At least all of his points were safe for now. "Are you going to fight, Suwa-san? Gunners don't often jump into the rank booths."
"Since we'll be doing some team matches too, I think he'll be fine." Zoe jumped in.
"To make it more interesting, we should mix it up so agents from the same teams aren't fighting together." Yoneya suggested. He was all in this for making this as fun as possible and maybe just a bit chaotic.
"As if doing that in the away mission exam wasn't enough. You want to do it again?" Kageura asked though it did make sense since it was a huge mix of agents in here without their full squads.
"I wasn't in part one of the exam." Yoneya said. He turned to Shun even as he was already pulling out his phone and typing away on it. "We should call Izumi down here and have him join us and we can go against the other squads."
Shun perked up at that. Fighting with Izumi and Yoneya was always fun to do. He didn't get to do it often though. The last time he got to fight with both of them was during Aftokrator's invasion. It really had been too long and if he had them on his side, it would make fighting Kageura and Murakami easier.
"Just put all the A-Rankers on the same team and crush everyone else? Is that how it is?" Kakizaki asked.
"You can have Ikoma-san if it's a problem." Yoneya suggested.
Kakizaki would prefer not to. He had seen how Ikoma fought, but he was not prepared to fight with someone like that in a match. It was something that should be obvious to everyone, but it was extremely hard to fight alongside someone they had never trained with. It was easy to watch logs to learn how they fought, but it was another thing to work with them as a partner in the field. There would be no coordination there. The truly skilled agents could make it work in an emergency setting, but Kakizaki was not like that. If it wasn't his team that he had plenty of time to coordinate with, he would second guess himself constantly.
"You should just draw lots to form the teams." Yuma suggested. "That way no one can complain when they lose."
"You guys are making this so complicated." Kageura complained. "I just came here to kill Midorikawa."
Shun eyed the other Scorpion user warily. Maybe team battles were the better idea. Technically, if he got a team and fight against Kageura's team, he would still be doing as Yuma requested and fighting Kageura.
"Considering all the food you brought for Kuga, that is clearly a lie." Murakami teased, earning an elbow in the side that caused his grip on his glass to slip which resulted in him splashing his water onto Yuma. "Kage! Sorry, Kuga."
Yuma pulled on his hoodie, looking down at the wet strain soaking through the fabric.
"Payback for spilling tea on Shiori-san earlier." Shun immediately teased in an attempt to calm the situation down as it looked like Kageura was getting ready to fight Murakami. Why did Yuma and Murakami have to constantly tease him? It was setting Shun on edge each time Kageura looked ready to lose control of his temper.
"You were the one at fault there." Yuma retorted.
"You're the one who ducked!"
"I tend to dodge when someone throws things at me! It's an instinct honed into me after years of fighting!" Yuma retorted as he ripped his hoodie over his head. He rolled it into a ball and flung it at Shun, hitting him in the face. "An instinct you clearly lack."
Shun grabbed the hoodie and flung it to the corner of the couch, getting ready to fling his argument back at Yuma, but froze when he saw Yuma's arm. The cracks on his face and hand had been obvious as Yuma wasn't attempting to hide them anymore. There was no good way to hide them without staying locked in a room until this was over which wasn't what his friend wanted to do. Even though they only saw the cracks on his face and hand, it was obvious the cracks were likely all over his body, but Shun didn't realize how bad it truly was underneath his clothes. With the amount of cracks going up Yuma's arm, how was his arm even hanging onto his body anymore? It looked like the slightest movement of his arm would be all it took for it to just fall off.
"How is that still attached to you?" Kakizaki asked shocked.
Yuma followed everyone's eyes to look at his arm. Ah, right. He had been living with this for days, but for everyone else, they hadn't seen how bad his arm was since he had it hidden under his hoodie all week. "It's fine as long as none of you hit my arm."
That seemed to unnerve Zoe as he shifted to try to move away from Yuma since he was the one sitting next to his damaged arm. "You should have said something sooner!"
Yuma rolled his eyes. "And then you guys would treat me like I'm glass."
"Have you looked in a mirror recently, Kuga?" Arafune retorted. "You're basically as fragile as glass right now."
Yuma looked up at Arafune who was still standing over their group as he had yet to go grab some food for himself. "Try to treat me like a delicate princess and I'll kick you through a wall." He threatened.
"He'll do it too!" Ikoma complained loudly. "I don't care how injured he looks. He is a devil!"
Mizukami grabbed Ikoma's arm and started to push him away. "Enough about that. You can go off on Kuga in a few days when he is better."
"I'm not forgetting this, Kuga!" Ikoma shouted as Mizukami dragged him away, far away, from that group of agents so he could plop him down on a couch.
"Just eat your pizza." Mizukami said.
Arafune and Suwa watched the two members of Ikoma squad in confusion.
Suwa jerked a thumb towards the two. "What'd you do to him?"
Kitora turned around on the couch she was sitting on to look at the group sitting on the couches behind hers, being sure to keep her plate balanced carefully on her leg. With how loud they were all being, it really was truly impossible to ignore them. "Kuga-kun freaked out when Ikoma-san snuck up on his blind side so he kicked him across the room."
"I feel I was justified in that action." Yuma protested. "I've been attacked constantly this week so when someone comes up behind him and I can't see them, I'm going to react. He's lucky I didn't apply a Boost seal to my leg. I would have decimated his Trion body then."
"See? He's planning my demise over there!" Ikoma shouted.
Yuma twisted in his seat at the shout and locked eyes with Ikoma across the room. "I said you were lucky I didn't do that!" He shouted back. "If I wanted your demise, I would have been sure to have done just that!"
"Like children." Kazama muttered. It was like Ikoma was zeroing in on Yuma's voice to be able to hear him across the room. He was never going to let that kick go anytime soon.
"I understand his frustration. It's like how Kuga ambushed me the other day." Tachikawa declared.
Izumi who had just walked into the room almost walked right back out after hearing his captain speak. It had been days. Could he just let that go already? "Is this a party to complain about the Mimics?"
"It should be, but it's not." Yoneya said.
"It's more of a party to apparently complain about the Kuga family." Murakami said, amusement rolling off of him in waves.
"And Yuma-senpai is inciting a war against Ikoma squad." Shun added, pointing at Yuma who was still staring Ikoma down.
"Ikoma-san started it." Yuma retorted without taking his eyes off Ikoma.
"You threw the first punch, Kuga!" Ikoma shouted, already halfway back on his feet when Mizukami put a hand to his chest and shoved him back down to the couch.
Osamu sipped at his drink, raising a brow as he looked between Ikoma and Yuma. "Is Ikoma-san really that upset about that? He didn't get hurt at all from the kick so why won't he let it go?"
"If anything is truly bothering him about it, it's that Yuma never actually said sorry for it." Karasuma replied, dropping his plate on the table and leaning back on the couch. "But I doubt he is truly upset about it."
"Really?" Hyuse turned to look over his shoulder Ikoma who was still in his staring contest with Yuma. "He doesn't seem to be letting it go."
Konami scoffed, leaning her chin in her hand. "Yuma himself just said it. Don't treat him like a delicate princess. People are cautious of the damage Yuma has and are trying to avoid touching on the subject."
"But Ikoma-san went right up to the damage, got kicked, and has been having a 'war' with Yuma since then." Karasuma took over since Konami wasn't here for that part earlier. "Someone willing to 'fight' with Yuma like this is probably giving him a sense of normal and Ikoma-san is returning it like this. He's not actually going to touch or hurt Yuma. He probably will go after Yuma for a match when this is over and he's healed but until then, he and Yuma will have this little war. If it makes Yuma laugh, I say let it go." It was why Karasuma wasn't saying anything about the roughhousing the others were giving Yuma with the tiny shoves and knocking his head around. It didn't seem to be doing any damage to Yuma and it made Yuma smile. The familiar relationship with his friends was what he needed right now.
Osamu was going to say that Yuma wasn't laughing, but when he looked over at his friend, he bit his tongue. There was no laugh leaving his lips, but the amusement shining in his eyes was clear as day. Seeing that joy on his face, Osamu felt a sense of relief. It had felt like an eternity since he saw such clear and real amusement from Yuma.
"With the way this is going, I don't think you're going to have time to test anything to prepare for the Mimics." Kazama told Jin, who was just lounging against a wall as he watched all the agents interact.
Kazama had asked Jin earlier who was paying for all this food. He said Border would cover it and they were all questioning if they were allowed to do this in here. What all of them seemed to forget was that there were cameras all around this room. Shinoda and Rindo may be passed out right now, but Jin knew for a fact that Kido was still here and most likely in his office. He was always working so hard. Knowing how the commander was, he probably checked the cameras and saw the agents in here. Kido was a tough as hell commander but he didn't see his agents as mindless machines. He understood the stress and pressure weighing all of them down. He respected how hard they all worked. If he saw his agents letting loose and taking a moment for themselves, he wouldn't say anything as long as they didn't make mess and wrecked the place.
Jin looked pass Kazama to look at the agents milling about. Tonight was about a fun. It was a shame that it wasn't going to last long. "Unfortunate, but it's alright. I don't think I'll have time to have a match after all."
Kazama narrowed his eyes as he tried to get a reading on what Jin was saying. Life would be a lot easier on all of them if he just came out and said things more clearly. "The purpose, before you somehow made this a party, was to train. Are you really backing out now?"
"The future has shifted." Jin said, glancing at Suwa and Arafune. "I'm not sure what happened. I'm going to mingle with the agents and investigate."
"And here I thought your plan tonight was to relax and have fun."
"It was, and now, it isn't. Having a lot of agents here gives me a good source of futures and intel though." Jin replied, pushing off the wall. "While I do this, everyone else can have fun with their matches. You too. Go and kill some people in matches."
"Tachikawa will disappointed." Kazama said.
"Eh," Jin rubbed the back of his head. He would have to make it up to his rival later, but at least he had plenty of other agents here who could give him a fun fight. "I'm sure he'll understand with how important this is."
Yuma jumped over the back of a couch and landed next to Osamu, surprising his captain. He grinned at him as he made sure not to tip over his plate of pizza that he had managed to snag for himself.
"You just ate food that Kageura-san brought you and you want more?" Osamu asked surprised.
"I was without my Black Trigger for over twelve hours. Nothing I ate today gave my body any nutrients." Yuma explained as he eagerly took a bite of his pizza. "I need to pack up the nutrients for my body."
"Going without nutrients for twelve hours sucks, but it's not life threatening." Konami replied.
"For you guys, maybe." Yuma retorted sharply. "You have healthy bodies that aren't missing any limbs. My body, since it got to this state, has required extra nutrients for years. It's the only way to really sustain my body that can't heal."
"Dark. Somehow, you've been managing to turn every conversation this week dark." Karasuma said. That was hardly Yuma's fault. It was just a very challenging week for their friend. His past was coming to light and it was showing to all of them just how hard of a life he had led. It wasn't difficult to make any conversation with Yuma this week dark because of this.
"Sorry."
"He apologizes for that, but not for kicking me."
Osamu whipped around to see Ikoma standing behind him and Yuma, sweat dripping down his face. Ikoma seemed to have finally escaped Mizukami. Even though Ikoma had appeared out of nowhere, Yuma hardly acknowledged him as he happily ate his pizza.
"I haven't heard an apology either. I'm a poor, traumatized kid who has lost an eye and is currently being hunted by his father and you snuck up on me from my blind spot." Yuma replied, still refusing to turn to face the other attacker.
Ikoma narrowed his eyes at the back of Yuma's head. He said that with such a casual tone so he couldn't tell if he was being serious or not about being traumatized. He didn't actually know what was going on with Yuma besides the fact that his father was here as a Mimic and he was trapped in a Trion body that was getting destroyed because of said Mimic. If his body got destroyed, he would die. That was the basic gist of it and all he really knew. He didn't feel the need to know any more than that.
"Were you going to do any rank wars?" Yuma asked his captain, choosing to ignore the captain behind him. If by some chance, Ikoma did actually want revenge, which Yuma highly doubted, he could trust Mizukami to reign Ikoma in.
"I think I'm good for tonight. Kitora and I went for twenty rounds earlier." Osamu replied.
"Well, that sounds like it was fun." Yuma looked over his shoulder, looking pass Ikoma, to see his friends as they worked on deciding how to make up the teams and partners for the matches. He had fought plenty of agents at the beginning of the week and had a lot of fun, but that was about the last bit of fun he had this week. The rest of his week had been full of stress. The fights he had been getting into with the Mimics were anything but fun. While he enjoyed fighting, he didn't consider real battles to be fun since the risk of dying was very real. Humanoid Neighbors were a danger he couldn't enjoy battling. He may put on a confident smile but it was because that was part of his poker face when he was in the midst of combat. The rank matches were where he truly enjoyed the fight and could have so much fun.
He really wished he could fight his rivals again.
Hyuse stared at Yuma for a moment before looking around the room. "Who are all the agents who use Grasshopper in here?"
"Why do you want to know that?" Osamu asked bewildered.
"I'm looking for the best users of it. I want to fight them and see their tricks with it. I'm sure that will help me get some ideas of how to beat Yuma in our next twenty round match." Hyuse replied.
"Grasshopper can't do any damage to you. Is that what you really want to focus on?" Osamu asked while Yuma glanced briefly at Hyuse, sending his partner a smirk as he recalled the last time they had a match. Hyuse was strong, but so was Yuma and between the two of them, Yuma was a much faster fighter.
"Obviously." Konami scoffed. "You take advantage of Yuma's agility and speed in matches. Just as it annoys your opponents that they can't catch him, it is a challenge for us to catch him."
"Can't be that much of a challenge since you always ultimately win your ten round matches." Karasuma pointed out, raising Konami's pride at the compliment. "But then again, Yuma does steal four wins from you when you fight so clearly he is catching you off guard."
Konami's mind flashed back to her last time fighting with Yuma when he used his Grasshopper as a form of defense when she went to attack him. Instead of dodging or using a Shield or blocking with his Scorpion, he had used a Grasshopper under her arm to bounce her attack away and effectively flung her in the air. Without a Grasshopper on her side, she didn't have the same type of control in the air as Yuma did. She had her Meteor, but Yuma had gotten used to her Meteor so he could easily shield her Meteor and kill her while she was still trying to right herself. It was annoying, but at the same time, she couldn't help but be so proud of her student.
Yuma smiled softly at the teasing from Karasuma. With how competitive Konami was, it made it quite fun to tease her. Even with all that teasing about how he made it a challenge for her to win, Yuma still desperately wanted to win a ten-round match against her. It was a challenge he had set for himself from the first time they trained together. It was something he wanted to succeed at, but as the week went on, it felt like it just wasn't going to happen.
His eyes shifted down towards his damaged arm. The last time he had revealed his arm to someone was when he was in Kinuta's lab. Other than that, he kept his hoodie on all the time to hide as much of the damage as he could. He knew his face looked bad and was probably the worst of all his wounds because of the missing eye, but taking the hoodie off resulted in him revealing the severity that wasn't just secluded to his face.
"Hey, Mikumo-senpai! We drew lots and you're on my team!" Shun shouted over at them.
Osamu raised a brow. "I wasn't going to partake?" He said bewildered.
"But we already split the teams." Shun whined, twisting on the couch he was on to sit on his knees so he could look at the Tamakoma group.
"That will work great for you." Yuma said. "Shun uses the same Triggers as me so you don't have to change your fighting style too much and he can see what it is like to work with wires."
"Oooh, there's an idea. You didn't use the wires at all when we fought Kuga-san earlier." Shun said.
"The wires would have hindered you guys. You're not trained to use them like Kuga uses them." Osamu replied. "With you all being close combat fighters, the wires would have just restricted your movements. If you really want to try them out, I suppose I could join you in at least one match."
"Awesome! Maybe I'll be a pro at it from the straight and outshine you, Yuma-senpai."
"Unlikely." Yuma retorted with an easy smile. He picked up on how to use Triggers quite easily because of his experience in the field, but even he needed time with the wires to be able to swing around them and attack like he did in the arena. It was because the wires were adding to the environment and weren't a Trigger he was learning to activate. It switched up how he moved and so he was a bit jerky when he first tried them in training.
"I don't see many snipers here." Obishima said, looking around the room as she tried to locate Kitora and Utagawa since that was who she had ended up with for a team. It was two A-Rankers which unnerved her a bit as she didn't feel prepared to join them for a match.
"Most of them went home. This was never meant to turn into a party." Murakami said.
"A shame. If there were snipers here, we could add more variety to these matches." Zoe said, turning to Kodera. "Whoever you team up with will have an advantage."
Kodera pushed his glasses up. "I got Tomoe and Arashiyama-san? Arashiyama-san isn't even here."
"I added his name and the rest of my team to the lot." Kitora explained. "I texted him earlier when this turned into a party because of Tamakoma. They were interested, but had some things to finish up before they could join us here."
"My question," Kageura planted both his feet on the ground as he leaned forward to point at the chart that they had made on the table. "What the hell is that team? Tachikawa-san, Kazama-san, and Ko on the same damn team?"
"That's what you're complaining about?" Kakizaki asked surprised. "We agreed to make it so no teams would be made up of the members of current squads and yet, look! Tamakoma-1 wasn't separated!"
"They're like the bosses of this whole thing. It would be unfair to put their special Triggers on any other teams when everyone else has the standard Border Triggers." Izumi replied. "With eleven squads though, it will mean we can have five matches at a time so one squad will have to sit out each time."
Yuma nudged Osamu's shoulder. "Looks like you need to participate in this whole thing, Osamu. If you drop out, it will make the squads uneven. It seems there was the perfect amount of people to make three men squads for everyone."
Osamu sighed, but accepted his fate. Fighting with Shun wouldn't be too bad as he did possess a similar style to Yuma and it seemed his second teammate was Arafune. An attacker with Grasshopper and a sniper. It felt quite similar to the early days of the B-Rank wars when it was just him, Yuma, and Chika. The only difference was that Arafune lacked the firepower that Chika did, but he did make up for it with being a better shot than her, though that was because he had more experience as a sniper than she did, and because he had a Kogetsu to back him up.
Hyuse stood up from the couch and made his way over to the other agents to get a look at the chart to see who his team was going to end up being. He would prefer a one-on-one fight with Tachikawa, but if he could get into a match with Tachikawa by doing team matches, he would take it. As long as he didn't have team members who would get in his way. "Tokieda and Ikoma?" The attacker with the longest whirlwind and the attacker who showed him the solo rank booths when he was a trainee. He didn't know anything about Mitsuru as a fighter, but he did know Ikoma's skill at least.
"You'll be good with them." Yuma said. "Tokieda-senpai is definitely someone you can rely on to have your back."
"Except I failed the other day when I was supposed to have your back." Tokieda said as he, Arashiyama, and Satori appeared finally.
Yuma waved it off. "Don't worry about it. I was at fault there. I didn't move fast enough."
"Strange coming from someone who is known for having one of the fastest reaction times." Kageura said without turning to face his friend. He didn't know what happened the night Yuma got attacked by a Mimic that took the memories of Yugo from him, but it really was strange that Yuma wasn't able to react fast enough to stop it.
Yuma stared at the back Kageura's head for a moment before turning back around to sit on his couch properly. "I'm not perfect. I overthought something which caused a moment of hesitation in me. The Mimic took advantage of that."
"And that's not like you." Kageura retorted. "You don't stop moving even when you are thinking in battle."
Yuma whipped his head around to glare at Kageura, jaw clenching angrily.
"You were acting strange even before your father appeared as a Mimic." Kageura continued.
"Are you trying to accuse me of letting this happen on purpose?" Yuma asked coldly. He snapped to his feet, and with anger radiating from every inch of him, Osamu was scared he was going to start kicking someone again. At least everyone was in a Trion body and couldn't get any broken bones, but it would definitely cause issues if he hit his comrades.
"Ku-" Osamu tried to catch Yuma's arm to stop him, but Yuma was already twisting away from him as if he predicted the movement and walked around the couches to reach his other friends with everyone watching his every step. A new tension had entered the air that none of them had expected when they all came here to just have fun for the first time in days.
Obishima and Tomoe quickly stepped out of his path as it seemed that Yuma was not going to stop and politely ask them to move. All of them had seen Yuma serious plenty of time but most of them had never seen him mad before. It was actually quite unnerving, especially when they knew how strong Yuma could be. If he got mad, with his strength, it would be terrifying to see.
Kageura swung his arm over the back of the couch as he leaned back to look at Yuma who was standing over him. He caused the sudden tension in the air, but he was not afraid of this shrimp's anger. This was something that needed cleared up. Yuma had been off for days with his grief over his father's death anniversary coming up and then after Yugo appeared, he abandoned Shun and Kageura by choosing to follow Yugo instead of using his Black Trigger to help with the Rabits. None of that seemed like the Kuga Yuma he had come to know. Kageura didn't want to believe that Yuma was reckless enough to falter at the Mimics on purpose, but to anyone else who knew how skilled Yuma was, it was strange.
Yuma knocked the team chart off the table so he could sit on the table, staring Kageura straight in his face. "Let's clear it up."
"Let's."
Konami looked across the room to where Jin was watching this unfold, but since he wasn't stepping in, it seemed he was willing to let this play out. She wasn't sure where Yuma was going with this, but she was sure there was some doubt in the agents' minds. They wouldn't blame Yuma for what happened, or maybe they wouldn't voice it since Yuma was in such a bad state already. Whether they thought he let Yugo appear on purpose or not, it hardly mattered as it didn't change anything. Yugo was already here and the one with the most risk in this scenario was Yuma.
"Ever since my dad died, I did want to give him the chance to have his life back. He only died because I was stupid and reckless and he felt it was his responsibility to save me, even if it meant giving up his life." Yuma replied, which was everything that pretty much all of them knew at this point. His life was tied to Yugo's after all. That was what was causing his damage. "He created this Trion body for me while creating a Black Trigger and that caused his Trion supply and mine to get tangled up resulting in me acquiring his side effect–the ability to detect lies."
Murakami's eyes widened briefly. "You have a side effect?" He asked surprised. Yuma had never mentioned it before, but it's not like any of them wanted to advertise their side effect. It was just something that eventually became known when people interacted with those with side effects. It was something that needed added in to explain why their skill and efficiency in battle was so high despite being so new to fighting. Though, detecting lies. That was not a side effect that would boost combat ability so Yuma's combat proficiency was all based on years of training and experience.
Kakizaki grimaced at the frustration coating Yuma's voice. Every time he spoke to Yuma, there was so much cheer and energy in his voice. This anger didn't sound right from him. It didn't match the calm and collected Yuma that they all knew. If he was losing his control like this, he really had to be getting pushed too much this week.
Yuma breathed out slowly, doing his best to reign in his frustration. He did not come here to get into an argument with any of his friends. He didn't want to take any more of his anger out on the friends who didn't deserve it. It was only natural they would have some doubts. He could clear this up easily. "When someone lies in front of me, the air distorts which allows me to distinguish the lie but there is also a visual aspect around it. I see black smoke waft around you as the lie runs its course. But it can be a double-edged sword."
Yoneya head snapped up. "That's right! Mikumo mentioned your side effect earlier. He said that even when you lie, it still activates because he was able to tell when Kuga lied to us. He didn't say how he could read that lie though."
"Seeing the black smoke from a lie turns my pupils black so if I lie, the smoke still appears and thus my pupils will become black." Yuma explained, but he only had eyes for Kageura. He was the one who breached this topic so he would get to see it. "So, understand this, Kage-senpai, as much as I miss my dad and will forever live with the guilt of what happened five years ago, I would never dare to let him appear as a Mimic like this. I am not that stupidly reckless."
There was a tense silence in the air as Yuma finished speaking as everyone stared at the stare off that Yuma and Kageura were having. Even with only one eye, Yuma still had a very intense look. In fact, his glare seemed more unnerving now that he only had one eye.
"Tch," Kageura broke the staring contest first. "Even as injured as you are, you still know how to put up a confident, threatening aura. Your pupils didn't turn black, Kuga, but tell me a lie right now. I want to see them turn black."
That seemed fair. He could say his side effect was a double-edged sword, but it meant nothing if he didn't prove it. "Okay. I want to die."
The effect was immediate as the black swarmed into Yuma's pupil.
Osamu felt a huge surge of relief when he saw the black. He knew Yuma suffered from a lot of guilt and self-hatred over what happened years ago, so it was a weight off his shoulders to learn that his friend really did want to live.
"Well, look that. It does turn black." Kageura said. "And you kept this a secret for months? Why did you never tell us about your side effect?"
And like that, it felt like the tension just melted out of the air which was quite a relief to know that Yuma wasn't going to hit anyone in his rage.
Yuma shrugged. "It didn't feel like important information to share."
"That's fair." Murakami agreed. His side effect caused him his own grief so he never went around and publicly announced that he had one, but like with a lot things, he mentioned it to Arafune and it somehow spread among the Attackers. It started as a rumor but as Murakami improved so quickly and started to beat the more seasoned Attackers, it became more obvious how real his side effect was. It had caused him his own grief because he thought he would get outcast by his allies like he did with all the kids when he improved so much faster in everything he did. It was something that he had to always live with and come to terms with. It wasn't quite the same with Yuma. From the sounds of it, he didn't have a side effect before but ended up inheriting Kuga Yugo's upon his death. Knowing he only got the side effect because Yugo traded places with him, it had to be very difficult for Yuma to live with having it so it made sense that he didn't want to broadcast it.
"I didn't know Kuga-senpai could be so scary." Obishima muttered as she didn't want the agent she admired so much to hear her. She and Yuba had agreed that Yuma wasn't someone they wanted to fight for real, but that was just because he was such a strong fighter. She could now add scary to that reason. He was not the type of person that they would want to push to the brink.
"Heh, typically when someone gets mad, it causes a loss of control and they don't think properly in a fight so you can take advantage of that." Yuba said. "With Kuga though, I doubt it would affect his skills at all."
"So," Yoneya bent down to pick up the team chart off the floor. "Can you read any lie? No matter how big or small?" It would at least explain why he was able to tell that it wasn't just him and Miwa attacking him back in December. He didn't know who else was around in that fight, but he knew to be wary of other attacks.
"Lies, half-truths, and omission of details. The only time it doesn't work is when the person who is saying a lie actual believes what they are saying. They just don't realize it is a lie." Yuma explained.
"So, they are ways to work around it." Yoneya said. At least talking about his actual side effect was a lot easier than that tension that Kageura had briefly caused. Yoneya wanted to get them back to a more relaxed state. They were meant to be having fun after all.
Yuma looked over his shoulder at his friend. "No. You can try to force yourself to believe the lie, but in your mind, you will know it is a lie because you know the real information. You can't bypass it that easily."
"I see." Yoneya grinned. "The real reason you didn't admit publicly to having this side effect is because people will try to pull a bluff on you in combat and when people do that, you have a mental war with yourself to try to figure out their true intentions of what is really going on. You, however, don't have that problem. When we bluff you, you call us out immediately."
"And when you don't know I have the side effect, you think I'm calling your bluff or making one of my own." Yuma jerked his head towards Kodera, smirking. "Right?"
Kodera pushed his glasses up. "Narasaka-senpai did think you were bluffing when you called out Miwa-senpai's bluff."
"Is there history there?" Kakizaki asked, eyes shifting from Yuma to Miwa squad. The way they had been talking was really too specific, but he didn't think there was any time that Yuma had worked with Miwa squad in the field.
"Eh, Miwa squad and Kuga got into long before he joined Border and Miwa's still not over it." Izumi explained amused. Perhaps it shouldn't be amusing, but without the full context of why a Border squad and a 'civilian' Yuma were getting into it, plenty of hilarious scenarios could form in people's heads. Since none of them would give the real story of what had happened, and no one would think Border would allow a Neighbor to join and with Yuma having a full Japanese name, it gave them the chance to make up some ridiculous reasons why a Border squad would be getting into it with a former Border member's son.
"That sounds like an interesting story. I didn't think Miwa squad would be the type to just get into it with civilians." Suwa said.
Ah, crap.
Izumi might think it was funny, but Yuma would highly disagree. He scratched the back of his head, looking over towards Jin, who was finally pushing off the wall as he stared back at Yuma with wide eyes. Yuma's eyes turning black when a lie was heard was a visual cue for his side effect, but it was also something that most people missed since they wouldn't always be looking at Yuma as he read the lie or it happened so fast, people would just think it was a flash of light. That was before they knew of Yuma's side effect, but Yuma had just openly admitted to how it worked to clear the air.
The agents were going to be on the lookout for his eyes turning black now so Yuma couldn't give a story about his past with Miwa squad without everyone realizing it was a lie. If someone else told the story, Yuma's side effect would still flare up and if someone saw that, they would realize the lie being told and it would begin to be realized there was a cover up happening here. If they tried to change the subject abruptly here, people would get more curious and get suspicious. They could twist the story somehow, but Yuma just admitted to being able to see half-truth and omissions.
"Ah, that was my fault." Osamu said, pushing himself to his feet as he drew everyone's attention to him.
"Why do you always insist on taking the blame for everything?" Yuma complained as his side effect flared to life. That attack happened because he was a Neighbor. It had nothing to do with Osamu, but he could use this as a way to get out of this. Osamu's feelings about the situation along with parts of the truth and they could twist the story. There would be lies, but that was because of each person's belief about the situation. Everyone's feelings on something affected the truth or lie in the situation.
"Isn't it? I dragged you and Chika farther into the Restricted Zone because I thought it would be the most private place to talk." Osamu retorted. "I knew you guys weren't allowed in there since you weren't a part of Border at the time, but I completely disregarded that rule."
The rest of the Tamakoma agents watched warily as Yuma and Osamu put on their act. None of them knew where they were going with this so it was best that they didn't interfere and mess up their plan.
"Civilians sneaking into the Restricted Zone isn't a good enough reason for Miwa squad to attack Kuga." Teruya said with a frown, looking at the members of Miwa squad here with a disapproving look. If anything, it was just grounds for either removal from the Restricted Zone or memory erasure if Yuma and Chika had seen something.
Yoneya held his hands up in defense. He had not meant for this conversation to turn into what happened between his squad and Yuma in the past. He just wanted to get back to a relaxed state and now they had to contend with this. He should have just kept his mouth shut. "Now hold on, how did we become the bad guys here?"
"Yeah, you can't blame them too much." Yuma said. "They were simply following up on an investigation with the belief that there was a humanoid Neighbor walking around and I ended up getting accused of being it by them."
Konami's mouth dropped open at the sheer audacity that just came from Yuma. He was smiling so innocently while the A-Ranks in the room were all busy trying to force the shock off of their faces and get back to a neutral expression. Luckily for all of them, the B-Ranks seemed more focused on Yuma and Osamu with this shocking revelation.
The only one not shocked by this outcome was Jin who just sighed but stepped back to let Yuma and Osamu handle whatever it was that they were doing. He doubted that they had any of this planned out, but they just trusted each other so much to go with the flow with what each was doing. If this was like the days when Yuma first came to Japan, Jin would feel the need to step in, but at this point Yuma was used to Japan and knew enough about the country and Osamu was more confident and much more prepared to protect Yuma. They didn't need a physical fight to do that and with the trust they shared, they could handle this on their own.
"And that's what makes it my fault, Kuga. They never would have suspected you of anything if you didn't use your Black Trigger to destroy that Bamster your first day in Japan. Your strange Trigger signature left them concerned about a Humanoid Neighbor being around." Osamu scolded. "You only did that to save me. I dragged you into that fight and got them on your trail."
They were using the events that actually transpired. By having it revealed already that Yuma's father was a member of Border in the past and he died to create a Black Trigger, they could pass this all off as Yuma returning to Japan from another country and Border didn't know of Yugo's passing or Black Trigger yet. Yuma's Black Trigger's signature wasn't in the system back in December so it would cause concern especially when a son of Kuga Yugo showed up out of nowhere with it. They were simply manipulating the past events to fit the false story without mentioning the lie they created to cover up Yuma's real past.
"One incident was enough to convince them you were a Neighbor?" Arafune asked surprised.
Yuma shrugged. "It wasn't just there. I took Osamu's Trigger at school to kill Marmods and then that same day used my Black Trigger to help Kitora defeat an Ilgar that was attacking the city. I kept getting involved so Miwa squad who was investigating everything that was going on with Osamu cause it was all strange led them to me. And then I started to speak about Jin-san to get them to back off and Miwa just got so mad and then he shot me! It just became a huge mess! So since they didn't want to listen to me, I chose to fight back. I wasn't just going to stand there and let them shoot at me with no consequences! It was lucky for me I had my dad's Black Trigger. Can you imagine if they just attacked me out of nowhere and I was completely defenseless?"
"Seems like your fault." Yoneya said, catching on to what Yuma and Osamu were doing. They were twisting the truth to make it fit the cover story with no actual lies. Everything they said had been true. There weren't even any omissions. "You only mentioned Jin-san to us. You told us nothing about your dad's connection or his being friends with the Directors."
Yuma shrugged. "Can't tell you what I don't know. Besides, my dad was none of your business. As for the Directors, I didn't know who any of them were. Dad only ever mentioned Border in general to me and about Mogami. He never mentioned Kido-san or Shinoda-san or Boss. It makes sense he had other friends here, but he was more concerned with me finding Mogami than anyone else."
"Isn't that weird though? Or even offensive to the Directors who seem to respect Kuga-san so much?" Konami asked.
Yuma hummed to himself as he thought that question over. "Maybe."
"Mogami-san and Kuga-san were best friends and rivals. They were the ones who created Border." Jin said, making his way over to the group, who turned to him in surprise. Very few among the group, even among the A-Ranks, knew that Yugo and Mogami were the creators of Border. "Kuga-san did leave the organization, but he probably believed that Mogami-san would never leave the organization while Shinoda-san and the others could have. Even when Kuga-san left, he still carried the heart, the ideals, of Border. It was evident by the fact that he carried Border Triggers even after he left. He kept the logo on his Trion body forever. He truly loved the organization he created so he believed, rightly so, that Mogami-san felt the same way. He knew Mogami-san would always be a member of Border which is why it was his name that he gave to Yuma. What he didn't prepare for was for Mogami-san to die before him."
"That's true." Yuma agreed. "I came to Japan to see Border based on what my dad said, but he also taught me to think for myself so when I arrived here, I didn't approach Border because all I knew was what Dad had told me. To be honest, I didn't know you guys and didn't trust the organization just because my dad did. I started acting when the Trion Soldiers began to appear, but I still hid from Border and that caused the problems with Miwa squad."
"I'll say. You met me before them and you didn't tell me anything about why you came to Japan until I took you to Tamakoma." Jin said. "Actually, no. Osamu told us why you came to Japan."
Yuma shrugged. "I was wary around all of you. Except Osamu because he was so weak and goodhearted. I had no reason to fear him."
"Geez, thanks, Kuga." Osamu muttered while Shun snorted behind his hand. "I spoke to Chika about the day you met Miwa squad. I seem to recall her saying you said that no matter how many agents came after you, you wouldn't lose to anyone in Border."
Why did Osamu have to bring up the most obtuse things? Couldn't he have forgotten that? Yuma was confident that fighting with Replica by his side and using his Black Trigger, he could defeat any Border agent that came after him. Though, he was still on the fence of how a fight between him and Replica against Jin would go. He held that confidence, but he also said it to ease any of the worries Chika may have had at the time after his battle with Miwa squad.
"It's not like you to say something so overconfident like that." Hyuse said, smirking as Yuma was stiffening his muscles up as he prevented himself from twitching while every agent was glaring at Yuma. He appreciated this type of revenge that Osamu chose, if he could call it revenge. Osamu didn't typically try to get back at anyone for anything.
Yuma raised his hands in surrender to the glares he was receiving. "The circumstances under which I said that were completely different to now. I was talking about using my Black Trigger back then to fight any more agents that would come after me. It's not like I could win against everyone using a normal Trigger." He wasn't even sure how long he could last now without Replica's assistance with his Black Trigger.
"Why would we come after you?" Obishima asked confused. From the sound of things, Miwa squad made a mistake of calling Yuma a Neighbor when they met so there wouldn't have been a reason for any more of them to attack him.
"Oh, that's because of us." Yoneya said, pointing at himself. "Kuga survived our onslaught, but chose to not kill us when we fought and then Jin-san interfered to stop the fight from going any farther after Kuga incapacitated us."
"But we still had to make a report to HQ." Kodera added. "And we can admit we were biased in the report so if Jin-san and Mikumo didn't come to HQ to clear the air with the higher ups, more agents would have gotten sent after Kuga."
Jin grinned. "That was a great meeting." He clapped Osamu on the shoulder. "I wish I could go back just to see the shock on Kido-san and the others' faces when they heard the name Kuga. I didn't think it was possible to shock them so much."
Yuma sighed. This wasn't a conversation he had wanted to have, like ever with the Border agents. They managed to get through it, somehow, but this was all Izumi and Kageura's fault for bringing the issues up in the first place. When he was fully recovered, he was going to bash Kageura's head in a match and see if he could do the same to Izumi. "Weren't you guys going to have rank matches?" Yuma asked. He didn't care if it was an obvious redirection to the conversation. He wanted to switch moods back to fun party mode before anyone could ask any question that could possibly break the story they had managed to concoct.
"Duh," Yoneya said eagerly to help Yuma get off the topic. He had the right idea. This was a dangerous topic for them to hang onto for too long. "We have the teams, but how do we decide who fights who?"
Tachikawa's eyes snapped opened and he snapped to his feet. "Finally. Are we going to fight?"
"Were you sleeping?" Izumi asked in disbelief.
"Yes. You guys were taking too long to decide on teams." Tachikawa complained.
Yuma stared at the black smoke wafting around Tachikawa. That was a strange thing to lie about. Who just pretended to be asleep? Then again, Yuma wasn't really one who should talk. He did have to lie in a bed and pretend to rest every night during part one of the away mission exam.
"Yuma-senpai, assign the fights!" Shun decided.
"I don't even know who is on what team?" Yuma glanced over at Yoneya who was still holding the chart.
Kako snatched the team chart out of Yoneya's hands and folded it shut. "That makes it even better. You can give no favoritism. There are eleven teams. Each squad got assigned a number. Just pick two numbers for each match and one will be left over to be free."
"Okay." Yuma said. Since he didn't know the teams right now, this was going to be completely random. "Eleven vs one, ten vs nine, eight vs two, seven vs four, and six vs three."
Satisfied, Kako opened the team chart and revealed it to Yuma. "Team five is free."
Yuma leaned forward to get a better look at the chart to read the teams and ended up snorting.
"Why, Kuga?" Osamu moaned when he was he was Team 1 and Team 11 was Tamakoma-1. Sure, he trained with Karasuma all the time, but his mentor never used his special Trigger against him and he only ever had to fight his mentor, not the whole team.
"I would say we would take it easy on you, but Konami-senpai doesn't go easy on anyone." Karasuma said.
"Yuma-senpai, how do you beat her?" Shun asked quickly.
Yuma stared at Shun for a moment before he looked over at Jin. "We should have brought some popcorn. I knew this was going to be a good show. I should have thought of this sooner."
"You're not going to help?!" Shun asked offended.
"I never agreed to tell any of you how to beat Tamakoma-1's Triggers." Yuma pointed out. "You just asked me too."
Konami jumped over the couches and grabbed her student in a hug. "Look at the branch loyalty! Take that, HQ! Yuma loves us more!"
"Sounds more like self-preservation. If he betrays your secrets, you beat him into the ground." Kageura said.
"I wouldn't do that!" Konami replied offended. "Right now, at least. I don't want him to lose his arm."
Yuma pushed himself free of his mentor. "If that's true, stop hugging me so tightly. You're putting too much weight on my arm."
Konami snapped away from her mentee quickly as Yuma rubbed his arm. He didn't look like he was in pain, but he did say before he didn't feel any pain in this body. At this point with this damage, there still wasn't pain, but he did feel the tension tied up in his body from all the cracks. "Sorry, Yuma."
"Don't worry about it." Yuma waved the apology off. "Just go have fun with your matches. It's been a long time since you got to fight anyone from HQ after all. You should enjoy this chance."
Hyuse found himself smirking as he read the team chart. It seemed that he lucked out as his team got to fight Tachikawa's team first. On Tachikawa's team was Kazama and Murakami. He had never seen Kazama fight, but he at least had some experience with Murakami from the B-Rank Wars. According to Yuma, his side effect was basically a move he saw once won't work a second time. If it wasn't for Yuma, it was likely he wouldn't have won against Murakami, or at least it would have been a lot harder.
"We should take a few minutes to plan for our match." Arafune told Osamu. "I don't want to just drop into a match with Tamakoma-1. Kuga might be taking an oath of silence, but since you're on this team for this, you don't get to do the same."
"I'll do what I can, but I never fought their special Triggers like he did." Osamu said as he followed Arafune to one of the booths so they could strategize in secret with Shun following eagerly after them.
It seemed all the squads liked this idea as they all went off to pick a booth to discuss their plan now that they knew who they would be fighting. Soon it was only Yuma, Jin, Suwa, Satori, and Yuba left. At the very least with an odd number of teams and Jin not partaking, Yuma wouldn't be left completely alone in the sitting area as he watched the matches.
Jin dropped down on the couch next to Yuma, who was staring up at the blank screen above them. There would be five matches going at once but he could only watch one on the tv. He hoped the match that appeared would be an interesting one.
"Even on the verge of death, you are still kicking ass." Suwa dropped down on the couch opposite of the Tamakoma agents as he got a smirk from Yuma. He was sure there was more going on in Yuma's head underneath his tough exterior he was giving everyone tonight, but Suwa wasn't going to pry. He had his team and Tamakoma to help him. For now, his part in this was dealing with the enemy. In that regard, he turned his attention to Jin. "Since you're free, Jin."
"You wanted to talk to me." Jin said.
Yuma watched Jin out of the corner of his eye. This would likely be the reason why Jin wasn't participating the battles when he had told Yuma that was why he was coming here earlier.
"Arafune and I had an encounter with Mogami and Kuga earlier." Suwa said, which got Yuma's attention back on him. "Got to let you know, Kuga, your father is a real pain in my ass."
"That seems to be a pretty common feeling going around HQ." Yuma replied. It wasn't like he could disagree with everyone's frustrations about Mogami and his dad. They would have been difficult to kill without having the Black Triggers added to their sets. While it was fair to say Yuma had the most stress on him, all the other agents had their own stress building from this situation. It would just be a different reason why each person was getting stress from the situation.
It was why, even though it did frustrate him, he couldn't really be too mad at Kageura for suggesting he let a Mimic grab hold of him on purpose. Kageura was right in that it was something they needed to clear the air on or else there would forever be that tiny seed of doubt in people's minds.
"We did get informed of the alert from Kazama asking no one to engage with the Mimics, but we had already found them at that point and considering the last couple of days, we knew how hard it would be to locate them if we lost them again." Suwa said. "It was tricky and we needed Katori squad's help, but I managed to plant my starmaker on Kuga."
"Starmaker?" Yuma repeated confused. "What's that?"
"It's a special type of Trigger that a Gunner can use to place a tracker on a Trion body so even if bagworm is activated, you will still show up on radar." Jin explained.
"But if cut off, it's useless." Yuma pointed out, catching on quickly.
"True, but if you don't know who has starmaker or what it is, you won't know it's there until too late. Until I give the order, Osano won't activate starmaker until it's time for us to find him." Suwa explained. "For now, he's just marked. Besides, I'm got him on the shoulder. It will be hard for him to lose it when he doesn't know it's there."
Jin smirked. "It's more than what I was expecting."
"Huh?" Suwa raised a brow. "For someone who is supposed to know everything, you didn't see this coming?"
Jin held up his hands. "Don't get me wrong. It's great. You and Arafune did a wonderful job! It will definitely be better than having to hunt them down later."
"Don't forget Katori squad. We couldn't have accomplished this without their help." Suwa said.
"Right, right." Jin nodded.
Yuma eyed Jin again with a frown. Jin was the type of person who used his side effect to plan for every outcome and manipulate the situation to his side's favor. Whether it was from stress or because of his exhausted state, he wasn't succeeding in using it to the full effect this time. It was very likely that both were getting in the way of Jin's thought process. He didn't only have to contend with Yuma's problems that he swore to fix but also with Mogami haunting the corner of his mind. He was pushing his emotions about it to the side, but Jin was still human. He couldn't just turn off all his feelings about it.
He was as distracted as Yuma was, but he was still having his own issues he was trying to not deal with. To Jin, being clinical about this was the way he wanted to go, but Yuma wasn't so sure it could work out that easily for him. It clearly wasn't if he was letting himself getting this exhausted that he didn't consider a way to track the Mimics.
"You only got it on Dad?" Yuma asked, forcing his attention back to Suwa.
"Only?" Suwa scoffed. "You're lucky I managed to hit either of them with it! I did the bare minimum required."
"Wasn't that more than the bare minimum since no one told you to do it?" Satori asked. "You were actually told to ignore them for the time being."
"Excellent point, Satori!" Suwa declared. "I should be getting a lot of praise right now, Kuga. It's because of me that we'll be able to find your father and blast him to pieces!"
Jin hid a wince at the wording. He really hoped that Yuma wouldn't use this knowledge to go find Yugo on his own, but it's not like Yuma knew how to activate Suwa's starmaker. Then there was the blast him to pieces remark. Yuma had agreed that Yugo and Mogami needed defeated, but he wasn't sure the way Suwa phased it was the best. It seemed like too much of a reminder of how Yuma's own body got ripped to pieces.
Though while Jin had those worries, it seemed like Yuma didn't share the same concerns. He just gave Suwa a mocking prideful look. "Yes, you did absolutely wonderful, Suwa-sama."
"Sama?" Suwa smirked. "I like that. You may not refer to me as anything else, Kuga-chan!"
Yuma snorted. Was Suwa being funny or did he just know that was how Minamisawa referred to him? For Yuma who was still trying to get accustomed to the Japanese language, he had been confused by the honorific that Minamisawa gave him, but accepted it as Minamisawa's strange quirk when Chika and Shiori told him that it could just be used as a term of endearment or just to refer to a cute child. It was usually used for girls, but Minamisawa was just a ray of sunshine and used –chan a lot to match his energetic state.
"If anything, you're the one who should be calling me Yuma-sama, Suwa-san." Yuma teased.
"Never going to happen, brat." Suwa retorted instantly.
"We should have a match sometime and winner gets called with –sama for a month." Yuma suggested.
Suwa stared at Yuma in disbelief. What insane person would agree to that with him? He was not an easy person to fight so if Suwa went into a ten-round match against Yuma, he doubted he would win enough to win that bet.
"Want to have a match with me then?" Jin suggested since he knew Suwa wouldn't agree to Yuma's bet.
"Do you want called Jin-sama?" Yuma asked amused. "You know, instead of a match, if you can defeat the Mimics, you can have that title for a week."
"No way." Jin ruffled Yuma's hair. "That'd be weird. You should call me niisan for a week instead."
Satori glanced over at Suwa, raising a brow. "Isn't that weirder?"
Yuma batted Jin's hands off of his head. What was with people and messing up his hair? "Again with the brother thing." He took it as a strange statement to his dad, but there was no lie back then. He had meant to ask Jin about it, but the chance just never came up.
"Of course. My mentor and your dad created Border and they were best friends so we have to be the next generation of Border that carries on their legacy. We're tied together by the founders so that makes us brothers." Jin explained.
"Huh," Suwa said. "Makes sense to me. You." He pointed at Yuma. "Be nicer to your older brother. I hear you've been giving him trouble all week."
"Yeah, Yuma. Be nicer." Jin mocked and received an elbow in his side from Yuma in response. "Ow! That's not being nice, Yuma!"
"Oh, shush. You're in a Trion body. That didn't hurt you at all." Yuma scolded.
"I think since he's been unable to fight lately, Kuga has become a lot more violent to everyone." Suwa said.
"There's a lot of pent-up aggravation there." Yuba agreed.
Yuma grumbled to himself. "If I could get into a rank booth and work some of it out of my system, I would." Even with as injured as his body was, there was no pain or exhaustion pulling at Yuma. The lack of Trion available to him was what was preventing him from doing anything. Since he felt full of energy right now and he hasn't been able to do anything in days, Yuba and Suwa were right. He was getting restless on top of being unnerved as he anxiously waited to see what move Yugo and Mogami were going to make next.
That was the true reason he kicked Ikoma earlier. He came up on his blind spot earlier during a very stressful week for Yuma when he was waiting to be snuck up on by an enemy. It was Ikoma this time and perhaps next time it would be another friend. It didn't matter who it was, Yuma wouldn't know who it was until he kicked them and he would kick anyone who came up behind him right now. If it was a friend, he would deal with the consequences afterwards. He couldn't risk not reacting and having it be one of the Mimics behind him.
After talking to his father last night, Yuma had his eyes opened. There was a mix of Kuga Yugo and the Mimic inside of Kuga Yugo. One moment he was reminding Yuma so much of his father and the next he was acting like the Mimic that wanted him dead. Yuma had understood that contradiction from the moment he met his father in the city the other night, but it was the look on his face last night and Yugo stealing the one thing keeping his son alive was what Yuma needed.
That had set Yuma's resolve.
To keep from seeing such an ugly expression on Yugo's face ever again and soiling the legacy of Kuga Yugo, Yuma needed him to die.
