Mimics

by Fallen Crest

Trion soldiers with the ability to transform into deceased loved ones have made their way to Japan. Border will have to face their worse enemy yet...the ones who created Border: Mogami Soichi and Kuga Yugo. In the face of Mogami and Yugo, can Jin and Yuma find the strength to destroy the ones they already loss once before?

48. Chapter 48: Fair Doesn't Exist

A/N: I don't own World Trigger

Mimics

Chapter 48: Fair Doesn't Exist

"What a workaholic."

"Who is?"

Mogami slammed his hands on the desk, looking at Yugo incredulously. "Seriously?"

Yugo leaned back in his chair, scowling back at his friend with an expression that was asking, "Did Mogami really think he wanted to be working this hard?"

Surely, Mogami knew that Yugo would want to spend time training and coming up with new ideas for his and Mogami's next fight. The current score was 47-46 in Mogami's favor. Yugo wasn't going to let that sit, but as he was the Commander-in-Chief, he was a bit busier than Mogami so he wasn't able to train as much as he would like, especially right now when they were in negotiation with a new country that they wanted to make allies with.

"There's no need to work yourself to death. You're going to teach the kids bad habits." Mogami said when he got no verbal response from his friend.

"Takumi-kun and Masafumi-kun are at school during the day and when they get here in the evening, I'll be training them. They won't see me working this hard." Yugo replied, waving at the papers on his desk which would be put away when the kids arrived in a few hours. Not that it would have matter if he did leave them on the desk since Rindo and Shinoda didn't typically come into his office.

"You can't just show a good example when they are present. You should always present it even when it can't be seen or acknowledged." Mogami retorted.

Yugo just sighed. "Do you really think I'm workaholic? I'm only working so hard right now because of our negotiations."

Mogami pulled back slightly from the desk as he eyed the tired expression on Yugo's face. That was certainly true. Yugo didn't normally overwork himself, but he was trying so hard right now to prove himself as a capable leader by having these negotiations work out. "Even when you're not overworking yourself, everything you do is focused on Border anymore."

"Can you really say you're any different?" Yugo retorted.

Mogami made a noise of protest. It was true that he did a lot with Border. It was a major focus for all of them as there was so much to do since Border was so new, but even so. He leaned across the desk and poked Yugo in the head. "I've at least had girlfriends and tried to build a life for myself outside of Border. You really need to try dating. Don't you want to start a family?"

"And all your relationships have failed because you couldn't split your time between your girlfriends and your commitment to Border properly." Yugo pointed out.

Mogami groaned at the reminder of his most recent relationship that failed. He was trying his best to keep a life going outside of Border, but since they were trying to start up Border and had so few people, they were all having to put in a lot of time to the organization. They couldn't leave Yugo alone to do everything when they were in the process of making allies with the Neighbors, studying Neighbor technology and building their own technology, and keeping up with their own training. "I'm at least trying to find a healthy work/life balance. All work and no play is not healthy for anyone and Masafumi-kun and Takumi-kun need those examples in their life. They don't need to see Kido's workaholic tendencies and copy that."

"I really doubt Takumi-kun is going to ever be a workaholic." Yugo said, thinking back to the other day when Rindo snuck out of training to go take a nap which resulted in Shinoda going one on one with Yugo. After getting decimated in that fight, Shinoda had run off to find Rindo which somehow resulted in them falling into the river. Yugo still wasn't sure how that happened since they hadn't been down by the river.

"It's not just about work. It's about having a personal life and having a family to make you happy."

"You don't need to be married to be happy, Soichi." Yugo pointed out. "For some people, getting married and having kids isn't the end goal."

"So what? You don't ever want to be a husband or dad?"

"Can you really see me as a father to anyone?"

"Yes." Mogami replied instantly. "You do really good with Takumi-kun and Masafumi-kun while keeping all of us in check. I think you could be a wonderful father."

"And what about you? Do you want to be a dad?" Yugo asked, lips twitching into a smirk. "You hate being the bad guy and having to tell anyone off. Could you really scold a child who is looking up at you with tears in their eyes?"

Mogami looked at Yugo with a look of betrayal. He pushed Kido into being the one to tell people off most of the time cause he was better at it, but Mogami could do it if he really had to. He just didn't want to because he had Kido who had the scary face. "Of course I want a little mini me running around. He'll use his cuteness to manipulate you." He teased.

"If anyone is going to be manipulated by a cute child, it's going to be you." Yugo said dryly. "I'm not so weak-minded."

Mogami shouldn't have expected anything less from Yugo. The man who was so focused on Border and the Neighborhood would of course find a woman to fall in love with in the Neighborhood and want to have a child with her. It was more than what Mogami had accomplished when he couldn't find the right woman for him. In return though, he had cute tiny agents who he got to mentor. Well, he mentored Jin personally, but he got to train with Konami and Shin sometimes as well. They got so much of his attention and became his new focus beyond trying to start a family of his own.

And it seemed Yugo took over Mogami's goal of wanting to start a family. He found himself a wife and had a son. The man who said he couldn't see himself as a father was one and Mogami was wishing he could have seen it happen. His friend who was so convinced he wouldn't falter in the face of a cute child. He was able to catch glimpses of the father in Yugo the last couple of days. It wasn't much because the Mimic programming was getting in the way, but what he did see was a very loving father if the punch Mogami got earlier was anything to go by.

Papa bear Yugo.

Mogami snickered at the thought. It was a shame that he never got to see Yugo and Yuma together without them being forced into being enemies. It would either be adorable or funny.

"What are you thinking about?" Yugo asked, eyeing his friend strangely as he didn't see anything that was funny.

"Nothing, nothing." Mogami said, still chortling. He refocused his attention on the towering base. He crouched on the ledge of the roof his eyes scanned every inch of Border HQ. When he ran pass here last night to meet up with Yugo, he didn't take the time to get a good look at the base. Since they weren't in the midst of combat right now, he could take the time to admire the giant base. "They've really done well for themselves. Even if a good portion of the city is just destroyed."

"That was a result of a large-scale invasion a few years ago. Border made the parts of the city that were destroyed in it their Restricted Zone where the Border agents can deal with any attacks from the Neighborhood." Yugo explained.

"Oh yeah? You're well informed for someone that has been gone for years."

"I didn't spend all my time before you arrived attacking Border agents and just sitting around in my free time." Yugo replied. "I was out gathering intel. Mikado City is a lot different than what I remembered."

"That is what happens when you leave for twenty years. The world doesn't stop. Progress will continue on."

Yugo didn't need to hear that. He expected everything to continue on even after he left the city and Border. Border growing and getting strong, even if he wasn't here to help them, was all he ever wanted for their organization. "Border is not like how it used to be. That invasion a few years ago revealed Neighbors to the public and caused a lot of fear and hatred towards them. A lot of the new members of Border no doubt hate Neighbors."

"That's not too surprising. We knew the danger that the Neighborhood presented to us which was why we chose to keep Border a secret in the first place. Revealing Neighbors to the public back then when we didn't have the strength or proper technology to defend the city if Neighbors attacked would only cause unnecessary fear in everyone that they were going to be killed or captured." Mogami replied. "I guess with a large-scale invasion, Border had to be revealed. Kido wouldn't make the decision to go public lightly."

Yugo hummed softly, turning his back on Border's HQ to lean against the ledge and look up at the night sky, admiring the stars. "It's a shame that Border had to revealed that way. It put such a negative light on Neighbors." He couldn't fault the citizens of Mikado city being scared of Neighbors and hate them. With over one thousand people having gotten killed in that attack and four hundred still missing, very likely captured and taken to the Neighborhood, it was only a natural feeling. If someone had taken his son from him, he would feel just as much anger as they did.

"I'm sure the incident in Aristera didn't help matters at the time either. Those events were too close to each other." Mogami added as he pushed himself to a standing position.

Seeing Mogami move out of the corner of his eye, Yugo turned his head slightly to look at HQ over his shoulder. "You said his side effect is to see the near future?"

"Yes, it is a bit more complicated than that, but for the most part, unless certain conditions are at play, he has to be staring at the person to see their near future." Mogami explained as he stretched his arms above his head and twisted his back around to loosen up his muscles. "So, if I went after Yuma right now, if Jin was with him at all today and chose to use his side effect to check his future, he would see me coming and would put obstacles in my way."

Yugo hummed thoughtfully. "How do you plan to get to Yuma then?"

"A sneak attack isn't going to work here." Mogami replied, glancing over at Yugo. "And with the Gates forced shut, we can't use your Trion Soldiers to distract the agents. For now, I'll stay by your side and help you try to find a way to allow the Gates to be opened again. We need to sneak in and avoid being seen by anyone. If Jin saw a future of one of his allies running into us when we sneak in, he will be waiting for us tonight. If we manage to sneak in and don't run into anyone while looking for what is causing the Gates to remain shut, they won't be anyone stepping into our path. However, the future is very difficult to manipulate when you can't see it like Jin does. So, very likely, Jin already knows and sneaking around like this is just going to be a waste of time, but we need to at least try not to be seen."

Yugo raised a brow as he listened to that explanation. That sounded so convoluted. He could understand the kid having a side effect that allowed him to see the future and he used that to his advantage. The complicated part came from trying to work around his side effect and talking about how to manipulate the future. This was basically trying to manipulate the future Jin would see by being careful in the present. It truly did sound impossible, so it was basically time to get ready for a fight.

"Heh," Yugo pulled the zipper down on his jacket and yanked the torn Border jacket off so he was just wearing his skin tight black t-shirt. At this point, his jacket had gotten wrecked too much in battle for him to want to care about wearing the rags anymore. Besides, promoting Border on his jacket when he was actively going against them had been leaving a bad taste in his mouth. "I am quite impressed at the way Border has grown into such a challenging organization. Back when we started Border, I always hoped to have it grow into a strong organization, but I was never prepared for just how much they would advance or that they would have their own battleground in the middle of the city to use so openly."

"If your goal wasn't to steal a Black Trigger that would effectively kill your son, you would be enjoying this so much, wouldn't you?" Mogami asked.

"If I had the chance when I was still alive to come here and see this, I would have loved to have the chance to challenge them just to see how much they have accomplished." Yugo agreed, planting a foot on the ledge as he stared at HQ. "As it is, I'm not playing around here."

"So?"

"When I had Replica study the layout of HQ the other day, I got the location of the main rooms for the Engineering department. It would be my assumption that is where we would find the technology that is keeping the Gates from opening." Yugo explained, pulling out Yuma's Trigger and tossing it a few times. "Since it's a new base compared to our old base, our current Triggers won't open the doors which is why I have Yuma's Trigger."

"Better than breaking a window and drawing attention." Mogami said, moving his attention to the night sky. While it was evening, he wouldn't say it was too late in the night. Considering that, it was likely there were still a good number of personnel still inside HQ. "If we can find out what is keeping the Gates forced shut and stop that before they realize we are they, we can move to the next phase." Though, Mogami was having serious doubts about this being that easy.

"Let's not waste any more time." Without much else to say, Yugo jumped off the roof, his bagworm flapping around him as he headed to the ground, leaving his jacket to go flying in away in the wind.

*Mimics*

"I bet I could cut him down."

"Why not give it a try then?" Mizukami suggested, pointing down at the arena. "You can get your revenge against Kuga for kicking you now."

"Exactly!" Ikoma shouted. "I can cut him in half."

"I doubt you will succeed, but good luck."

"You're coming with."

Mizukami raised a brow. He had no desire for revenge against Yuma and this wasn't a rank match so there wasn't a purpose to a match, but if it was what his captain was asking of him, he would enter the arena. "Tachikawa-san beat us here so he'll probably go nag Kuga for a match first." He paused and looked over at the A-Ranks. "That is, if Jin-san and Tachikawa-san don't enter one of the other arenas and start trying to massacre each other."

Ikoma glanced over at the group. It wasn't often that Jin came to the solo rank booths. It was becoming more often that he would make an appearance now that he had dropped down to A-Rank, but it wasn't easy to get a match against him. Usually when he came, he was getting dragged there by Tachikawa for a match that would take forever and then Kazama would appear to get a match in. Shun would occasionally manage to get a match in somehow. Lucky brat.

Fighting Jin was always fun because of how strong he was. For the longest time, no one got to fight him since he was S-Rank which was why everyone who enjoyed a good challenge was vying for a chance to have a match with him. As much as Ikoma wanted to fight him, he would choose a match against Yuma right now. He wasn't too sure of what was going on with Yuma lately, but it seemed pretty serious and everyone he was close to was hounding him for a match tonight now that the chance has been giving to them. For that reason, he would try to have a match with Yuma tonight. Besides, they said he was using his Black Trigger abilities on top of his normal Trigger. That sounded like it would be a really fun time.

Teruya glanced at the team members of Ikoma squad before looking back at the arena to see Shun putting more distance between him and Yuma. She personally had no desire to fight Yuma right now. The only reason she would was so she could get practice against a Black Trigger, but she wouldn't interfere with those who wanted the joy of a good match against their friend. "It's good they are having fun and Kuga-kun is happy, but how many matches can Kuga-kun go before he gets exhausted? This must be mentally taxing for him."

"Kuga is used to fighting a lot of matches without break. Kage told me he, Kuga, and Murakami did a fifty round free for all match before." Kakizaki replied, though even as he said it, he was still thinking about how ridiculous that was. How those three managed to fight fifty rounds in one go was astounding. He would bet they took a break halfway through, but the fact that they wanted to go fifty rounds against each other at all was crazy.

Trion bodies didn't feel exhaustion so taking breaks was to rest the brain because fighting for long periods of time took a toll mentally. Thinking too much for long stretches of time was draining, especially for how Yuma was currently fighting. "Kuga-kun isn't fighting like he normally does. He can fight longer with his normal style since he is used to it and can move and react instinctively but copying his father's style like this means he needs to think more. He's not used to fighting like this so he is more conscious of each of his moves so that requires a lot more thinking. If he has to fight like this constantly, it will exhaust him and he'll begin to make mistakes or forget what he is doing and try to shift to his fighting style." Teruya said.

"Makes for an easier fight if you go last then." Ikoma said without turning around to face Kakizaki squad behind them as he wanted to keep his eyes on the fight happening. If he managed to snag a match with Yuma, he was going to burn all of his moves into his head before he stepped into the arena. Even if he didn't get the fight he wanted, if he could see Yugo's style, even if it was just a copy of his style, if he ever had to fight Yugo, he would be ready.

"Except that won't be a fun fight if he's making mistakes." Mizukami pointed out.

"A win is a win. It doesn't matter how it comes." Ikoma said. "Because when we face the Mimics of Kuga and Mogami, we just have to kill them once to end this. It doesn't matter how we win just as long as we do."

*Mimics*

Shun was no longer approaching him as he was being wary of any move that Yuma made, but keeping his distance was not going to be beneficial to Shun. He had no ranged attacks so unless he took the risk to approach again, Yuma could win this with his bullets. "Bolt, Quadra!" He said, forming the orange seal by his side. The stronger the seal, the stronger the bullets, the more bullets he used, and a wider range of attack. It would make it harder to dodge and even a focused Shield would struggle to survive the onslaught.

Shun slid down to the ground to get lower as he produced his Shield. By crouching, he could make his Shield smaller which would allow him to make it a thicker, focus Shield to survive the Bolt bullets coming his way.

It would be his guess that at this point Yuma had forgotten about Murakami and Kageura. With both of them weighed down with Lead Bullets, it's not like they could do much of anything. The only reason they weren't announced as dead by the computer was because they were technically alive even if they couldn't do anything. They really were just lying around waiting for their deaths at the hands of Yuma.

But they weren't dead. Yuma pinned them down with Lead Bullets but then left them there so he could focus his attention back on Shun. That would be his mistake. Kageura wasn't going to stop just because he was pinned. The shrimp wasn't allowed to just forget that he and Murakami were here.

With Yuma unleashing a Bolt seal on Shun, Kageura saw this as his chance. His arm could still move which meant he could still attack.

Whereas Yuma's back was to Kageura and Murakami, Shun was facing them since he was keeping his attention on Yuma. Even though he was being assaulted by Bolt which was trying to rip through his Shield, Shun was still aware of the whole arena so when he saw Kageura's Mantis tearing through the air, he saw it as his chance to act. Keeping what was left of his Shield up which wasn't much as the bullets began to get through and hit him, Shun activated his Grasshopper to propel himself far to the side to get out of the area of attack from Bolt. Once he was free of the bullets, Shun deactivated his Shield and used his Grasshopper to throw himself towards Yuma with his Scorpion activating.

Yuma's eyes followed Shun and just as he was raising his sword to block Shun's strike, he felt himself stagger. His attention shifted briefly downwards in surprise as his left foot fell off. Yuma's second blade swung upwards to slam into his and Shun's locked swords, shattering Shun's Scorpion. With the blade out of the way, he grabbed Shun's wrist and twisted around to use the last of Shun's initial momentum to throw him into Kageura's next Mantis.

Shun gasped as the Scorpion blade tear through his chest and he fell to the ground with Trion spilling out of the hole in his chest.

"Midorikawa down."

It wasn't that Yuma forgot his friends were behind him or that they had midrange attacks. When he pinned Yoneya and Miwa down with Lead Bullets down months ago, they hadn't been able to move at all. He knew they had ranged attacks, but they weren't able to use them. His Lead Bullet was a lot heavier than Border's, so there was basically nothing they could do when it dragged them down.

Looking over at Kageura and Murakami, Yuma found the issue. He hadn't looked too closely when he trapped them with Lead Bullet since he had to turn his attention back to Shun, but Kageura's arm was still free which meant he could still attack. As much as Yuma could try to copy Yugo's fighting style, he wasn't a Mimic. He couldn't locate Trion bodies behind him or know when a Trion based attack was coming. If this was a pure copy of Kuga Yugo without adding in the effects of a Mimic's programming, Yugo wouldn't be able to sense Trion either. The Mimic programming added another level of strength to Yugo.

"Bolt." Yuma ordered, forming another seal to launch a string a bullets at Kageura and Murakami to end this fight. To their credit, neither put up a Shield as they saw the fruitless effort in a battle where neither could stand anymore. They accepted the bullets that slammed into them.

"Kageura down. Murakami down."

"How annoying." Kageura threw himself back onto his feet as his body reformed.

Shun just stayed laying sprawled on the floor, staring up at the ceiling as his wounds healed. Even against a pseudo-Kuga Yugo, he still ended up getting killed. Fighting Yuma with his actual fighting style was a lot more fun than this. He wasn't against fighting strong opponents, but fighting Yuma like this was just a reminder that Yugo was still out there and they had to beat his style which was a lot stronger than Yuma's if they were going to save their friend's life.

"Does this make up for that failure of a rank match with Kuga from the other day?" Murakami asked.

"Shut up." Kageura snarled, though he didn't look at Murakami as his attention was locked on Yuma. Even with the fight over, Yuma's expression hasn't changed. He was still completely closed off as he kept the cold look on his face. Kageura understood that Yuma was trying to copy Yugo and he would say that Yuma was doing that quite well. Kageura only saw Kuga Yugo in the logs of the other agents' fights with him and when he first saw those fights, he had thought Yuma shared very little in looks, but he was seeing it for the first time. They shared the same eyes, but that was it for appearances. It was in this moment he could see how similar they truly were. The aura of confidence, standing tall to radiate that confidence and facial expressions did it all. For the first time, he could see Kuga Yugo in Yuma.

And Kageura absolutely hated it.

This wasn't his friend. Yuma was a cheerful idiot who liked to have fun and tease others. Kageura understood that Yuma wasn't always happy. It was obvious to everyone that no one could be happy and cheerful all the time. This week was proving how true that was by showing them the pain hidden underneath Yuma's happy mask. Kageura would not turn his back on his friend for daring to show his own weakness. He was only human so he was allowed to hurt like this.

Standing there, acting like his father, Kageura was getting pissed just seeing it. There was no doubt there was love between Yuma and his father, but that love didn't exist with Yuma and Mimic Yugo. Perhaps Yuma's real father didn't behave like this villain who was trying to kill his son, but the real Kuga Yugo wasn't Kageura's concern as he was dead. The thing irritating Kageura was that Yuma had paid so much attention to this fake Yugo that he was able to mimic his attitude and fighting style perfectly. He was letting this fake get in his head and overtake his real father's memory.

The one thing he would say though was it seemed that Yuma was getting his head back on straight or at least he was getting more focused. He didn't sense anything from Yuma during that fight. Normally a fight with Yuma where his side effect wasn't going off constantly was a great thrill for him as he could just enjoy the fight without stabbing pain. Not this time. Not when Yuma wasn't fighting like himself but like his father. It was getting him thinking though. Was Kuga Yugo the same way? Would it be impossible for Kageura to perceive his emotions just like with his son? He wasn't sure how Yuma or Azuma were able to hide their intentions from him, but he could see it being likely that the man who trained Yuma could hide his intent as well.

"Need a way to block the Lead Bullets." Murakami mumbled to himself. He didn't have access to any bullet triggers to destroy the Lead Bullets before they could hit him like Konami did earlier. In an empty virtual combat room, he didn't have buildings to hide behind like he would have if he fought Yugo in the city.

"You can think on that somewhere else. It's my turn."

"Our turn." Kazama corrected.

Murakami and Kageura looked over their shoulders to see Tachikawa entering the arena with Kazama just a step behind him.

"The top two Attackers want a turn?" Murakami asked amused.

Shun threw himself into a sitting position, but kept his attention forward as he looked at Yuma. He heard Tachikawa and Kazama behind him, but didn't care to acknowledge them as Yuma grimaced a bit, but tried to hide it quickly. That was strange to him. Yuma enjoyed every challenge that came his way, even when he lost the challenge, he still had fun.

Yuma caught Shun's eyes before he was turning his back on his friend and walking farther away from him.

"Hey! Chibi!" Tachikawa shouted. "This fight has not started so you better not be pulling that trick like you did with Ko and the others and planting any seals beforehand."

Shun's head snapped around to look at Tachikawa in surprise before he was whirling back around to face Yuma. He had just assumed Yuma was planting seals on the ground while fighting them. To Shun, it had looked confusing to do that while constantly blocking their attacks and forming a seal at the same time. It had to be distracting to do, but he didn't expect Yuma to be laying them out before they had even been ready to fight. "Hey! That's cheating, Yuma-senpai!"

"Cheating?" Yuma repeated, swinging his sword down by his side as he glanced over his shoulder. "Three against one and you call me taking the chance to prepare for the match beforehand unfair? That kind of mindset is why you keep losing to Dad. He isn't going to play fair, so, neither am I." He twisted around so fast, revealing a Bolt seal in his hand that he was launching bullets from.

The five Border agents in the arena were quickly dodging out of the way while throwing Shields up to help minimize any possible damage they could take.

"Wait, wait!" Shun shouted as he threw himself farther away from Yuma with a Grasshopper. "Murakami-senpai, Kageura-san, and I aren't taking part in this match!"

Yuma hated this. This was not how he wanted his first time fighting Tachikawa and Kazama to go. He actually wanted a fair one vs one match against each of them while using his Border Trigger. A fair fight too. Each time the agents fought his dad, it was never fair. He either laid out traps beforehand since the fight had been planned by him or overpowered them by using the Black Trigger. Considering that, Yuma wasn't going to give anyone who challenged him a chance to prepare. He would lay traps before the fight began. He would ambush them with surprise attacks. They would learn how Yugo fought.

It was how they fought in the Neighborhood.

The battles weren't always fair.

Tachikawa could complain all he wanted about not getting to cross blades with Yugo, but Yugo defeating him with a surprise attack was not cheating. This was not like the rank wars. There were no rules when fighting Yugo and Mogami. Yuma had no doubt some of the agents understood this. Everything was allowed when fighting for their lives, but for some of them, they still needed it beaten into their heads.

Just like Yugo, Yuma wasn't going to play fair because fair didn't exist.

*Mimics*

"Was that Kuga-kun's way of declaring he would fight them five against one?" Kako asked surprised.

"I doubt Yuma is insane enough to take on five top Attackers alone." Konami replied, though she looked uncertain. She never expected Yuma to just attack without warning. She knew it was something he would do in a real battle, but even though he was serious when he trained and fought in rank wars, he was all for a fair fight and to have fun. The expression on Yuma's face was telling her he was having anything but fun though. This was about teaching the agents about Yugo's style of fighting. She didn't want this to go on anymore. She just wanted to see Yuma having some pure, fun swordfights with no Black Trigger involved. "Especially using a style of fighting that he isn't used to."

"If he purely used his Black Trigger and had Replica by his side to assist him, taking on five top Attackers would be a good fight." Karasuma said. "On his own, however, this will be very difficult for him."

"He just needs to use Lead Bullets to pin them down. None of them have bullet Triggers to destroy them so they are sitting ducks if Kuga-kun chooses Lead Bullet." Kako pointed out.

Yuma was always relaxed. Nothing ever seemed to get to him as he believed that he could handle anything that came his way. That was how Osamu always saw his partner. The immovable Kuga Yuma. He was always immovable, but this week was showing the pain that he liked to hide away so as to not burden anyone else with his personal problems. Despite that suffering, Yuma was still finding ways to show off his strength to tell them to not underestimate him. Just because he was hurt, he wasn't going to give up.

That was the reason that right now, Osamu could see the violent nature of Yuma coming back out. Osamu did his best to teach Yuma that he couldn't be violent in every situation he found himself in. It's not that he was violent by nature, but the circumstances he grew up in taught him to do whatever was necessary to protect his own life. They were able to curve their violent urges to help him fit into the more peaceful setting of Japan, but they were still lying underneath the surface. Osamu figured that was why Yuma was able to flip his switch to act as a pseudo-Mimic Kuga Yugo so easily.

As strong as Yuma was, even with his Black Trigger abilities being allowed, Osamu didn't believe this was a fight Yuma could win. At the same time though, he did see Yuma take on Miwa squad four against one and managed to survive that fight while holding back. This was a fight where Yuma was going to go all out, but Tachikawa and Kazama on top of the other three was a harder fight than Miwa squad.

Perhaps if it was five against two, it would be more of a fair fight. There wasn't just Kuga Yugo that they had to deal with. Though, Osamu didn't think he ever saw Yugo and Mogami fighting together. Even at the train station earlier, they chose their own pair of agents to fight and focused on them. Still, them fighting together was a possibility so if Yuma and Jin could mimic Mogami and Yugo and fight together, the fight would be more even.

Though...

Osamu glanced at where Jin was sitting. His eyes were locked on the new fight taking place in the arena, but by the frown he was wearing, it looked to Osamu that he was worried about something. It wasn't strange to see Jin worried about something. It reminded Osamu of the night they talked on the roof of Tamakoma and he saw the regret on Jin's face about putting Osamu and Chika in danger during the Aftokrator invasion.

When it came to planning his schemes, Jin didn't show any concern on his face. He was the confident schemer who used all the agents as chess pieces to place them where he needed them to get the best future. That wasn't the case for this week. The future he was seeing was extremely personal and extremely difficult to manipulate as nothing they did seemed to help. Everything they tried ended in failure when they lost to Mogami and Yugo. Just defeating them once was all they needed to save Yuma and stop this attack, but it was beginning to feel like an impossible feat.

"Is something wrong?" Reiji asked, staring over at Jin.

"Something's coming." Jin said.

"That doesn't tell us much after the week we've had. Is it a new threat? More Mimics? Kuga-san and Mogami-san again?" Reiji asked.

Jin's eyes narrowed as he stared at the agents in the arena instead of looking over at the one talking to him. "I would say Trion Soldiers are the more likely cause, but the Gates shouldn't be able to be opened right now."

"That's what you're worried about?" Konami scoffed. "We can handle a few Trion Soldiers."

"But there shouldn't be any until after tomorrow." Jin insisted, pushing himself to his feet. "Either there is not enough Trion to keep the Gates forcibly closed as long as we thought or the Trion barrier is going to malfunction. And I don't believe for one minute that Kinuta-san would make a mistake in his estimation for how long he can keep the Gates shut."

"Kinuta-san should still be here. Are you going to go ask him about it?" Reiji asked.

"Sounds like a good idea." Jin said, finally pulling his attention from the fight taking place to look at Reiji. He could still see the future where they were getting into a fight tonight but it was shifting now. More paths were beginning to get unlocked. "You guys should come with me."

"Do you really need all of us just to go make sure the Trion barrier is still functioning properly?" Konami complained as she didn't want to leave her student's side.

"If you want us to come, you must be worried or think you will need our help?" Karasuma asked.

"The Trion barrier should not be getting broken through." Jin insisted, turning to look at Konami. "Our top Attackers are here. If something does go wrong, Yuma will be perfectly safe. Checking out the Trion barrier is important."

Konami stared at her pupil blocking Tachikawa's Senku before sighing as she rose to her feet. She didn't like seeing Yuma fight with such a scary expression, but she did want to see him fight Tachikawa and Kazama. This was his first time facing off against these two. As much as she would love to see his pupil crush them, following Jin was much more important. If he was worried about something, it took top priority.

"I'll be sure to keep an eye on things here." Kako promised.

"Don't think of trying to use this moment to steal my Yuma." Konami threatened to only get a sly grin in return from Kako as she left with her team and Jin. "Osamu, keep an eye on her! Keep Yuma out of her clutches!"

Osamu just turned his eyes to the ceiling as Tamakoma-1 and Jin left to investigate whatever had Jin concerned. He tried to keep himself out of the insanity of his branch as much as possible. He didn't deny that they had fun, but he did not need to know or get involved with the crazy shenanigans they all got up to. Yuma was the worse of them all though. Osamu wasn't sure if it was because he lacked common sense or he just enjoyed the chaos it all caused. It was probably a mix of both honestly. He was just an agent of chaos that Osamu had to be the one to reign in.

"Hyuse, take care of that." Osamu said.

"She said you, not me." Hyuse retorted. He would rather stay here and actually watch Yuma fight. He only saw Yuma with his Black Trigger very briefly during their invasion before he and Viza went to their own area to fight in.

"Go fight her in a different combat room or something."

"I can't supervise if I'm fighting." Kako pointed out.

"I am perfectly capable of making sure Kuga doesn't do anything stupid." Osamu replied. "Besides, we're going to be staying in here until everyone is ready to go home." Or, until Jin told them there was a problem. He was really hoping that whatever Jin was distracted with turned out to be nothing.

"Are you sure about that?" Kako asked amused. "I thought the plan was to have a party in the solo rank booth tonight, but we somehow all ended up in here instead."

Osamu adjusted his glasses. "Yeah, well, Kuga and Jin-san always move at their own pace and do their own thing while the rest of us are left trying to catch up to their insanity."

Yoneya was tempted to suggest someone fight him in one of the other arenas, but held his tongue. As much fun as it would be to fight someone, he wanted to keep himself free to get an attempt at Yuma when he was done with Tachikawa and the others. This might be the only time he will ever get to fight him with his Black Trigger.

"Why am I even still here at this point?" Kodera asked. "I can't fight anyone in one of these arenas."

"Because you love hanging out with us." Izumi replied.

"I don't love the betrayal from earlier." Yoneya whined.

"Was I just supposed to leave you alone when we were acting as enemies earlier just because we are normally teammates?" Kodera retorted.

As if he didn't get enough whining from his captain about Yugo cheating against them with his ambush the other day, now Izumi was going to have to listen to this pair. All he wanted at this point was to throw Tachikawa at Kuga Yugo and walk the other way. Just so his captain could have the fight he clearly wanted, whether he lost or not didn't matter to Tachikawa at that point it would have been a fair fight.

Futaba looked at the arguing boys with a frown. "Do they ever stop?"

"I think it's cute." Teruya said amused. "No matter how much they argue, they trust each other explicitly. It's because they can act like this but immediately flip it when things get serious that shows the trust and loyalty they share."

"Don't encourage them." Izumi shouted over his shoulder. "I'm the one who has to deal with all of their stupidity!"

"I put up with stupidity on a daily basis, bullet brain, so don't try to act like you're the wise, mature one in this group!" Yoneya retorted, shoving his friend's shoulder as he turned his attention to the shooter.

"I definitely more mature than you and could beat you easily in a fight." Izumi retorted, shoving his friend back. With his Trion and powerful bullets, Yoneya wouldn't be able to get near him to kill him. If they fought in an area full of buildings, he could just blow them down to take away Yoneya's chance of a surprise attack. He would not lose to the spear idiot.

"Idiots." Futaba mumbled.

*Mimics*

"Trion Soldiers attacking is pretty normal so why is this causing you such concern?" Reiji asked as his team followed Jin down the hall. "Besides the fact that no Gates should be able to be opened right now."

"Since they grabbed the Black Triggers, I've begun to be able to see Kuga-san and Mogami-san in my visions, but since I haven't seen them in person since last night, I can't read their actions. I can only see when one of us is going to meet up with them." Jin explained. "I saw Shuji meeting up with the others at the train station earlier to fight them and..." He trailed off briefly as he thought of the vision of Yuma and his father. Perhaps it wasn't a good idea to mention that vision to Konami and the others. It would only cause them to worry about why Yuma would be meeting his father when he couldn't use a Trigger outside the virtual combat rooms.

"Have you had visions of them?" Karasuma asked.

"I've seen the agents fighting them, but I don't know if it is from tonight or tomorrow or the day after so that doesn't really help me. I do know this," Jin glanced over his shoulder at his friends. "HQ is not a safe location. There is no true safe spot. Well, maybe outside the Restricted Zone since it would be a lot harder for them to find Yuma then, but that leaves him open to Mimics."

"Are they coming for him?" Konami demanded.

"Of course they are. They'll want his ring back." Karasuma replied.

"Then we should be staying by his side." Konami retorted, shooting a glare at Jin for daring to drag her away from her precious student.

"We can't just focus on keeping Yuma safe. That isn't going to win us the day." Jin replied, looking forward once more, brows furrowed in concern. "I trust Tachikawa-san and Kazama-san to keep control in that room if something does happen."

"Do they know that?" Konami demanded. "We didn't even tell them we were leaving."

The windows to the future opened up in front of Jin again as he tried to see where the next few hours were going to take them. He chose to make this move to go check on the Trion barrier but he was still seeing a battle with the agents against Trion Soldiers. His visions were showing them scattered over HQ having the fight so was it taking place tonight? Or would their base get assaulted tomorrow? "Kazama-san will catch up and take charge if he needs to." Jin decided.

That seemed fair. As strong as Tachikawa was, Karasuma would not trust him to be the one to take command of the agents if a surprise attack took place. He was a good powerhouse to have on their side if things got hectic though. Tachikawa was better in one vs ones than he was in a chaotic battle where there were multiple agents in play. He could do it quite well when with agents he knew how to work well with like he proved during Galopoula's invasion when he fought with Murakami and Konami, but with all those B-Ranks, Kazama was definitely a better option to lead.

"It will be better if the Trion Soldiers don't appear at all." Reiji said. "Kinuta-san's Trion barrier wouldn't just break or run out this fast."

"Which is why there is a third option." Jin replied. "My guess is that Mogami-san or Kuga-san are prowling around."

"What?!" Konami snapped, speeding up her walk to get to Jin's side. "Why didn't you say that sooner? We should have warned the others before we left the room."

"Why cause any panic when we don't know for sure what we are walking into?" Karasuma argued. "The agents in there are all plenty capable of reacting instantly if an attack happens. It might actually be the best place for an attack since Yuma has his Trion back in the virtual combat space."

Jin's eyes narrowed as he listened to the two argue about whether this was a good idea or not. Was it in a virtual combat room that Yugo and Yuma fought in? No, he was certain that when he saw that vision they were surrounded by destroyed buildings so it had to be in the Restricted Zone. Or, he supposed it was possible they could enter the virtual space they used for rank wars to fight but there would be no consequences of they fought in there so it had to be the Restricted Zone.

"They truly speak far too carelessly." Mogami said as he exited the room he had hid in when he heard someone coming down the hall. The Border agents had already disappeared around the corner, but he could still hear Konami going off on Jin and Karasuma. Her protective streak was still so strong after all these years.

"And loudly." Yugo added, leaning against the wall inside the room. After all the attacks this week, and those agents still haven't got it in their heads that even their own bases weren't always going to be safe enough to talk so freely as they moved. "It seems your protégé is already expecting us."

"He's expecting something." Mogami agreed. When Jin was on the top of his game and in the middle of an attack, he was all hands on deck and wasn't going to rest until it was all over. When all the pieces were laid out in front of him, it was next to impossible to get any sneaky maneuvers in. "We need a way to counter it, but that's not very likely. From the sounds of it, they are going for the barrier that is blocking your Gates and at the other end of the base is a group of agents with Yuma." Yugo may have fought Jin before, but Mogami was the one who trained him and watched over Reiji and Konami as they grew and trained as agents in Border. It's been years since then so there was no doubt in Mogami's mind that they were a lot stronger than when he last saw them. "This isn't going to be easy no matter what we decide on. We could go against Jin's prediction and ignore the barrier and go straight for Yuma."

"But we don't know how many agents he is with." Yugo said. Depending on how many agents were at Yuma's side, that would be a reckless fight without Trion Soldiers to back them up.

"But, the agents that just passed us are all significantly strong and won't be easy to get pass to destroy the barrier either." Mogami countered, crossing his arms as he sighed and looked up and down the hallway to make sure they were still alone. "No matter how strong we are, with just the two of us, this many agents could be a problem, especially if Takumi-kun and Masafumi-kun are still around."

"If I can break through the Trion barrier, I can get the Trion Soldiers we need to back us up." Yugo said, staring into the darkness of the room they had hid in earlier. This was quite difficult as the layout of this base was quite extreme. Despite the information that Replica had managed to gather for him, this base was a lot more sophisticated than the old base they had when they first created Border. Yugo had seen a lot of advanced technology that used Triggers and Trion in the Neighborhood, but Border had gone their own route and created their own unique tech to use. Not knowing how any of it worked would only hinder Yugo. He could probably figure it out if he was given the time, but sneaking into a base that was crawling with agents and engineers did not mean he had any time to spare.

"Do you really want to waste the Trion you're going to need to fight Jin and the others on opening Gates?" Mogami asked.

Yugo glanced at his friend out of the corner of his eyes. "My Trion?" He mused, thinking back on the conversation they just heard from the agents and found himself smirking. "Why would I waste my Trion on that? I have got a few ideas but before I can use any of them, that barrier needs to go down. And then it's a matter of timing."

"Jin will be in the way. Anything we plan has a high chance of being blocked by him." Mogami warned.

"I can't believe you found yourself such a troublesome protégé." Yugo said.

The strength of Jin's side effect was always a positive to Mogami, even if he constantly lectured Jin on not overusing it. It did a lot to help Border's strength and to protect his friends. Even now, Jin was doing everything he could with the power of his side effect just to withstand Mogami and Yugo's attacks. Now though, it was more of an annoyance to Mogami than anything.

However...

Mogami knew Jin better than anyone. He could see the future which allowed him to scheme his way into the future paths he wanted, but he was also a protector. He could scheme. Mogami could manipulate.

"We can't prevent Jin from knowing we're coming, but we can force his hand." Mogami planted a hand on Fujin on his waist. There was going to be a choice that needed to be made. "I'll get the barrier destroyed. You be ready to open as many Gates as you can to distract the agents. Once they are out of the way, I can get to Yuma."

Yuma. Hearing Mogami say he was going after his son made Yugo stiffen up briefly before he forced his muscles to relax. That had been the plan. Yugo didn't want to fight his son again so Mogami would do it for him, but it's not like Yugo could avoid his son altogether. He was in the way just as much as Jin was.

"Then, let's make our move."

*Mimic*

"Yo!" Jin said loudly as he barged into the lab. "Wow, working late, Terashima-san?"

Terashima looked up from his computer to glance at the Tamakoma agents that just barged into the lab. This was a surprise. He saw Yuma and Osamu more than he did anyone else from Tamakoma, besides Reiji when they went out drinking with their other friends. "Do you need to be so loud all the time, Jin? Where do you get all the energy?"

Sometimes Jin's switch from serious to cheerful was so annoying to Konami. She had known her friend for a very long time so she knew that when he did this, it was just to make the other people feel at ease. Jin was generally a nice person and made friends with everyone easily, but there were times when his cheerful nature was just a front to ease anyone's worries about the seriousness of a situation.

"How many times do I have to tell you Tamakoma agents that I am not hosting parties in my labs?" Kinuta shouted from the other side of the lab, breaking away from his engineers to approach the squad. "I don't need a whole hoard of you in here."

"It's just us this time." Reiji replied, eyeing Jin who was suddenly staring at Kinuta with such a strange look on his face. It seemed to be an expression that was a mix of confusion and horror. "We wanted to make sure everything was alright in here."

"And why would anything be wrong?" Terashima asked.

Karasuma stared ahead at the center of the lab where the machine that was powering their Trion barrier sat. The barrier required a lot of Trion to keep Gates closed all over the city so it couldn't last long. It was a machine originally designed with the idea of keeping Gates closed forever, but in the process of it being built, it was recognized that it required a lot of Trion to operate. There seemed little reason to finish building it when that was realized, but Kinuta insisted that it could still be useful and as was proven multiple times, he had been right about that. "Jin-san said Trion Soldiers were going to attack but with the barrier still up, that shouldn't be possible. We wanted to see if it was still operational."

"I told you it would last for two days and it hasn't even been twenty-four hours yet." Kinuta replied, unimpressed with the doubt that Tamakoma was showing him.

Jin's head snapped to Terashima then to the engineers behind Kinuta, who was looking at Jin strangely now. There were always multiple futures that Jin could see as the future was never set in stone. He constantly saw so many different paths that could shift depending on everyone's actions. This wasn't a future he had seen earlier, but he also hadn't seen Kinuta all day so it was only now that he could see the future shifting.

"What's wrong with you?" Konami asked.

"The engineers–" Jin never got to finish his thought as the wall behind them was suddenly exploding. He lunged towards Kinuta, throwing his Trion body over Kinuta's flesh one to protect him from injury by knocking him back. It was a testament to the experience of Tamakoma-1 that even without the warning from Jin, the explosion was enough to throw them into action. Konami threw up a shield to defend her and Terashima who she was closest to while Karasuma and Reiji had jumped away from the falling rubble, moving themselves closer to the other engineers in the room.

As the walls crumbled down to the ground, mocking clapping met everyone's ears as the dust settled. Jin pushed himself up on his hands, barely acknowledging Kinuta below him as he looked over his shoulder to see Mogami standing in the hallway.

"Wonderful reaction time, my dear agents." Mogami greeted sweetly, eyes moving from the adorable Konami to the towering Reiji and then landing on his personal mentee, Jin. All the little kids he had watched over looked like such seasoned agents now. It truly was a shame he never got to see them rise to this level. "But," His smile slipped away as he slowly drew Fujin free from his pouch, activating his fifteen wind blades at the same time. "Can you do it again?"