A/N: Tuesday already? The weeks always seem to pass faster and faster. Anyway, I got another longer chapter here. I'm put a little bit of assassin POV in to make it interesting, I hope you guys don't think that was a bad call. Anyway, this chapter is mostly the assassin, then conversation between Jin and Rindo. I feel like the way Jin acts makes him seem a lot older than he actually is, and he probably talks to people like Rindo, Kido and Shinoda a lot. Anyway, sorry for any OOCness, errors and crappy writing. Enjoy the story :)

The assassin was just outside Tamakoma, watching, waiting, observing. It wasn't quite sure why it was doing this. There had been plenty of opportunities to take out the target, Yuma Kuga. However, the assassin waited. Why, that was a question with many different answers. At first, the plan had been to go to Japan, find Yuma Kuga, and kill him. Simple. He had been the one that was attacked in Calvaria, the one who was supposed to be dead. Yuma had survived though, and that left an ugly stain on a pristine record. The assassin had failed to dispose of a simple child, a rookie. Of course rookies weren't the type that the assassin had been after. That was just the type it had happened to come across. The assassin should have made sure he was dead four years ago, instead of leaving before the job was completely done. Or at the very least it could have taken care of the stupid kid already. It hadn't though, why?

The timing never seemed great. Whenever there was a time that Kuga was alone, the boy was on edge, alert. He'd be hard to sneak up on. Also, he wasn't alone for long. If Kuga was killed, his absense would be known quickly. That means the assassin would have an extremely small window to get out of Japan before being drowned in Border's rage.

Border. That was another problem. The assassin didn't know how strong the group was, and didn't feel like testing their strength. If Border attacked, the assassin wasn't sure it would win, just because of their sheer numbers. To lose to a bunch of puny teenagers would be a disgrace, another stain for the record. Maybe even death.

Then there was Kuga himself. The assassin hadn't yet seen the boy use his Black Trigger, not in years. There was no way to tell how strong Kuga was with the Black Trigger. He could be weak, or he could be incredibly strong.

It would be difficult to find a favorable time to attack the young Neighbor. The best thing to do would be to draw Kuga out, get the boy to attack first. That way, the assassin could make the conditions favorable for themself. Kuga wasn't stupid though. He knew when he was fighting a losing battle. However, his time in Japan had changed him. Kuga would keep fighting a losing battle in order to protect those he was close to. He had lost everything he'd had before, and it was just human nature to want to keep the same thing from happening again, not wanting to feel the same guilt as before. That is why the assassin waited. It had to know what it was up against before acting, and had to make sure the fight went the right way.

The assassin turned away from the window and disappeared. It'd heard of a young man who could see the future. The assassin's Black Trigger could affect the brain signals involved in Side Effects, but that wouldn't be enough. The Side Effect needed to be out of commission completely, or someone other than the assassin would definitely end up pulling the strings.

Jin returned to Tamakoma late. He felt that he was getting back later and later each night, and in reality he was. After his failed attempt at eavesdropping on his rival and the head of Border, Jin had wandered around HQ for hours. He mulled over everything his Side Effect told him, looking for connections between Yuma and anything. He was really grasping at straws. It was almost pathetic.

With the use of his Side Effect came more heachaches, but Jin didn't care. The bad feeling that had been building up in the bottom of his chest was growing exponentially, consuming him like a flame. Something was going to happen soon, but he didn't know what it was, or who it would happen to.

At his return to Tamakoma for the night, Jin found Rindo sitting by himself in the living area, staring at the TV. The news was on, and Rindo had his eyes glued to the screen as if he was playing 'Where's Waldo?' However, the man also looked like he was about to fall asleep at any second.

"Rindo-san?" Jin said, approaching his boss to give the man a light shake. Rindo blinked a few times, then looked up at his subordinate.

"Oh, Jin, you're here. Did you have a lot of business at HQ today? It's late to just be getting back," he said. Jin put on a smile and nodded, rubbing the back of his head.

"Yeah. Kido-san is keeping me busy. What has everyone else been doing? I noticed that the B-Rank Wars were delayed again," the Elite pointed out, turning the topic away from himself. Rindo sighed.

"They were. Mikumo-kun wasn't very happy, but he accepted it. He's training even more to get better. I just hope he doesn't overwork himself again," the man explained. Jin chuckled.

"That's Four-Eyes," he said. Rindo let out a light snort of laughter.

"Chika-chan and Yuma-kun didn't really mind the delay. Chika's been training, but she's clearly a bit distracted with all that's going on. Yuma's been training as well, but he's tense. To be honest, they wouldn't fight well if the Rank Wars hadn't been delayed again. The teams at HQ don't even know what we're dealing with over here. It looks like Kido's kept it pretty quiet," Rindo explained, his amusement fading. Jin nodded in agreement.

"It's for the better. If too many people are involved, things would get messy. There's also the fact that not everyone can handle information well. If all of Border knew, the entire public would know too. That's the last thing we'd want," the brunette added. Rindo sighed, then got to his feet.

"I'm going to bed. It's late, and the paperwork has really been stacking up lately," he said, patting Jin on the shoulder.

"You do look like you need a few extra hours, Rindo-san," Jin commented. Rindo nodded, pulling his hand off Jin's shoulder before turning to the stairs. Before he reached them, he stopped.

"Make sure you get some sleep too, Jin. Mikumo-kun was asking me if you are ill. He said you looked a bit worn out, and he's right," the man pointed out. He then went up the stairs to his room without another word. Jin sighed, and followed a few minutes later. He didn't even bother to change into more comfortable clothes, simply pulling off his boots before crawling into bed. The Elite agents eyes went to the window, locking on the moon for some reason.

"Four-Eyes, huh…" he muttered softly. Thinking of the younger teen made the bad feeling in Jin's chest grow, though he was asleep before he could figure it out.

The next morning when Jin woke, he went through his normal routine. He put on fresh clothes, brushed his teeth, combed his hair and went downstairs. He then headed to the kitchen for some leftovers from the previous night. Konami was supposed to cook breakfast, since there wasn't a ton of leftovers, but she had defense duty early in the morning with Kyosuke and Reiji.

When Jin looked in the fridge, his eyes landed on the curry. It's not that he didn't like curry, but for some reason it just didn't seem appetizing. The Elite agent shut the fridge with a sigh, though his sigh was cut short when a wave of pain stronger than the one the previous day washed over his brain. Jin leaned against the fridge, clenching his teeth and sqeezing his eyes shut against the pain. Yotaro was still sleeping, Shiori was working in the combat room with Tamakoma-1 and Rindo was in his office doing Director work. The last thing Jin wanted was to alarm everyone by making too much noise.

Images forced their way through Jin's head as a mysterious voice whispered the future directly to his mind. It was all over quickly, but it probabaly would have been better if the images had just continue. It would have been much better than the tense sinking feeling in his gut as he put everything together.

Ignoring the remnants of his headache, which still throbbed in the back of his skull, Jin made his way quickly to his boss' office. Maybe his Side Effect was wrong. It had been messing up lately. Then again, it could be right, and he couldnt be chancey in a situation like this one.

Jin didn't even bother to knock when he entered Rindo's office. The man at the desk looked up in surprise, not expecting someone to just barge in. Though when he saw Jin's grim face, his surprise disappeared, replaced by his professional blank expression.

"What is it this time?" Rindo asked, catching on to the fact that Jin had seen something bad with his Side Effect without much of a hint. Jin himself narrowed his eyes.

"Four-Eyes. It's going after him," he said. Rindo's eyebrows went up in shock. He would have never expected that Osamu would be a target for any other-dimensional being. Even so, the man grabbed his phone and dialed his subordinate's number. After four rings, it went to voice mail. The two in the office shared a look, before Rindo dialed a different number.

"Reiji? It's Rindo. I need you to check on Mikumo-kun…He should be by his house," Rindo said before pausing to look up at Jin, who nodded. "Yeah, just see what's taking him so long, he left his scarf here and I want to make sure he gets it before I forget about it…Thanks," the Tamakoma Director lied before hanging up, not wanting to alarm the agent. If something was wrong, Reiji was good enough to immediately jump into action. The office was silent as the two in it waited for a response.

In another part of town near Tamakoma, but a bit far from Border HQ where Tamakoma-1 was stationed, Osamu Mikumo walked out of his house. He checked his phone but saw no messages. Maybe Chika and Yuma hadn't gotten to Tamakoma yet, either. Osamu had woken up late, so he told his teammates to head over without him, saying he'd catch up later.

Yuma... Osamu had spent another night thinking about his friend. With each minute he thought about how Yuma and this assassin's actions were connected, the more he doubted the words the young white haired Neighbor had said to him. If Yuma had lied, Osamu didn't think he'd be mad, especially after what Jin had said.

"If that thing is really after Kuga, I'll protect him. He's protected me enough, everyone has. Now I need to carry my own weight," Osamu muttered with determination, looking down at the phone he still held in his hand. The background was a picture Shiori had taken of Tamakoma-2 shortly after their first B-Rank. Osamu had started walking slower as he pondered his thoughts, so he decided to pick up the pace. However, an odd feeling made him stop. The hair on the back of Osamu's neck stood up as he heard a sound similar to a growl, but also different, much different. It was a sound he couldn't explain. The only way he could think to describe it was mysterious.

Slowly, Osamu turned toward a darker alley-way type area between two houses. Purple flames came into view, followed by a black silhouette body with a few red lines on it, similar to Yuma in his Black Trigger suit. Osamu's eyes widened and his body froze as his mind made a connection to a memory from not long ago. The teen didn't register the sound of his phone falling from his grip, clattering to the ground just before it started to ring. He didn't hear anything except the mysterious, haunting sound coming from the being in front of him.

As the figure lunged forward, Osamu couldn't even make a sound