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?

56. Chapter 56: Regret and Guilt

A/N: I don't own World Trigger

Mimics

Chapter 56: Regret and Guilt

"An orphanage?"

Mogami looked down at his student in surprise before looking back at the building that Jin had led him to. He had been insistent with Jin about talking to his parents about Border. Jin was quite persistent in that joining Border was right for him and that he didn't need permission from anyone, but Mogami would feel more comfortable talking with his parents about it.

Jin rocked back and forth on his feet as he looked at the building that he had been tossed into when he didn't have any guardians left to care for him. "Uh-huh. I moved in here a few months ago."

This was going to make things more complicated. Border and Neighbors were still a secret. It was one thing to talk to Jin's parents about it, but another talking to the owners of an orphanage that were full of nosy kids. "Your parents are gone?"

"I never knew my dad." Jin admitted. "And a few months ago, this weird monster appeared and killed my mom. I thought it was going to kill me too." His voice got softer with each sentence that made Mogami have to strain to hear his words. "I saw it coming, but when I told Mom about it, she laughed it off and said I have a wild imagination. I couldn't do anything when they showed up. I was completely helpless and shocked that it was...real...and I thought, the future of me wielding a sword. Maybe...maybe it wasn't just my imagination building me up to be a hero. Maybe I can fight back."

Trion Soldiers. They attacked this world in secret and kidnapped people and there were plenty of unsolved crimes out there that were likely caused by Neighbors. If Jin had been attacked by a Trion Soldier that caused his mother's death, it would have to mean he had a decent amount of Trion, which was evident by the fact of his side effect that he kept mentioning.

It had only been a few days since he met Jin, but the bright grin he always gave Mogami and the nagging for a sword that he apparently needed had seemed like a child brimming with energy and excitement. Jin had made no mention of his family at all the past few days. Mogami hadn't really thought about it being weird as they had been trying to figure out what Jin meant by 'dreams and visions' and what to do with this strange kid asking for a sword. Now, though, it made sense. He didn't have any known family left so he simply didn't want to talk about it.

"Jin, why do you want to join Border?" Mogami asked.

"I couldn't do anything when those monsters showed up. I was completely helpless and I still feel so helpless. I keep seeing these..." Jin twisted his head around, staring ahead at something that Mogami couldn't see. "It's like, I see these windows all around me and I see people dying and everyone keeps saying I have a dark imagination when I try to warn them and I need to stop living in my head and actually see the people around me, but I do and they're going to die and they won't listen to me!"

Jin still wasn't looking at him as he went on his triad, eyes flickering all around as he saw something that was only for his eyes. Mogami dropped down to his knees to be at Jin's height and tangled his hand in Jin's hair, tugging at it slightly to get Jin to look back at him. "Breath, Jin. Just take a deep breath and let it out slowly. That's right. In, out. In, out." As Mogami coached Jin into slowing his breathing down to avoid him entering a panic attack, he found himself pitying this boy. It had to be very confusing and frustrating for him to see events that were going to happen, but having everyone not believe what he was saying. He truly had to feel like he was all alone in this world or that he was going crazy. He was only a child, but he kept seeing people dying and who else knew what he was seeing. To a child, seeing people dying constantly had to be the most traumatizing thing so that was all he could focus on.

"It's not your imagination running wild."

"I know it's not!" Jin retorted. "I see events in these windows all the time that haven't happened yet and then they do happen exactly as I see. How can I make correct predictions all the time if it's just my imagination?"

Mogami hummed thoughtfully. "It seems we have a lot more we do need to discuss. I suppose this is my fault. We should have been more open with you these past few days, but I think you have a side effect. A powerful one at that. It would seem enlisting you in Border would be the right choice as you're allowing your side effect to take over your life. I don't know the specifics of your side effect, but we should be able to help you learn to control it."

Jin stared blankly at Mogami. "What's a side effect?"

It took work, a lot of work, and a lot of paperwork, but Mogami and Kido did what they could to get Jin out of the orphanage so he could live at their headquarters back then. It would be a problem with the orphanage if they constantly took Jin for training or they saw him with a sword since they didn't want to alert the orphanage of what was going on. When Jin had officially moved into their headquarters, the first thing he had had said when he walked in the doors was 'I'm home.'

It had warmed Mogami's heart so much that in the months it took them to get permission for them to 'foster Jin' that he had already felt so comfortable in Border and felt that it was his home before it even became official.

The amount of young members that they had accumulated over the years had been surprising and it certainly made their tiny organization seem so much bigger than it actually was. They all brought so much life and energy into Border. The days were never boring with them. He bet that was also true of the current Border which was so much bigger and had so many more agents that all seemed to be so uniquely their own person. The days had to be so fun.

There was a distant, longing look in Mogami's eyes. It wasn't a look that Jin had ever recalled seeing his mentor have but that perhaps had to do with the fact that there was never anything missing from Mogami's life. Now, however, he had been dead for years and came back to everything being completely different. He missed the chance to see his organization grow and all these new comrades joining them.

Is this what Yuma had seen to make him push Jin into this? He saw the real Mogami who didn't want to hurt him. Yuma wasn't able to beat Mogami, even with his Black Trigger, but that was possibly because he wasn't at full strength, even if Mogami did heal him. Or maybe, it was likely, he saw that this wasn't his fight and wanted to leave it to Jin.

Jin would have the better chance of reaching his Mogami and pulling him out, though it seemed like he wasn't going to have to do much work in regards to that. By the look on Mogami's face, it seemed the real Mogami was close to the surface. Maybe he wasn't all there as Mogami and him were still fighting, but he did exist inside him.

A part of Jin didn't want to believe in that because he saw his mentor try to kill the engineers just a few hours ago. His Mogami would never do that but this wasn't just his old mentor as there was a Mimic inside him too. As furious and frustrated as he felt earlier when he saw Mogami attacking defenseless engineers, Jin was going to attempt to look past that.

Jin was in this battle right now, by himself, because of Yuma's words. With his side effect, Jin was greatly trusted within Border. His input was valued and he was constantly looked to for information and if they were on the right path. It was a level of trust given to him, but Jin felt it was just as needed to trust his friends in return. That meant that Jin was going to trust in Yuma's assessment of the situation and look for the real Mogami that was fighting with his Mimic self.

The problem was that Jin wasn't the same kid that Mogami remembered. It's been over five years since Mogami had died and, in that time, Jin had grown up a lot and changed so much. He wasn't the same naïve rookie that Mogami had taken in. Jin wasn't sure if he could bring out his real mentor by just being him as the current him wouldn't match Mogami's memories.

"You saw Yuma's death, didn't you?"

The question surprised Jin, but he wiped it off his face just as quickly as it hit him that Mogami was the one starting the conversation.

Mogami looked beyond Jin to stare at Tamakoma. "You always had such a hard time as a child when you were seeing the futures around you that led to horrible outcomes. The desperation I've been seeing from you lately tells me you are struggling to stop the future from coming to past."

"Struggling?" Jin questioned. "Maybe, but I'm not the powerless kid I was when we first met, Mogami-san." He raised his arm, bringing Fujin up in front of him as a form of defense but also to make his point to his mentor.

When he was a child, no one would listen to him when he tried to warn people about the futures he saw. Originally, he said nothing about the futures since he just thought it was his imagination, but when those futures he saw began to play out in front of him constantly, he thought that maybe it wasn't just his imagination running wild but when he tried to warn people, he was brushed off as just a silly child who was watching too much tv and that was giving him ridiculous ideas. No one believed a child so Jin saw his own future as a Border member and sought them out. If he was able to get strong and gain allies in Border, people would start to listen to him when he warned them. He could prevent the horrible futures he saw from happening.

But, it didn't turn out like he thought. He failed in Aristera when he couldn't properly prepare and manipulate the future. It was his first time in a large battle like that and it turned into a huge disaster. It was at that point that he learned it wasn't as simple as seeing the future and warning his friends of what their futures held for them. He had to learn to be a schemer and actually put in a lot of effort and time to altering the course of the future.

It was extremely difficult to do but he had spent years mastering this art, but even that didn't make it easy to change the destinies of his allies. Despite that, Jin had learned to never give up just because it was complicated. His friends deserved more from him than him faltering because it was hard to beat back the enemies trying to hurt their future.

"I can see that." Mogami said, feeling a twinge of amusement mixed with pride at the site of his former student. He couldn't call him his student anymore. Jin had grown far beyond what Mogami could teach him. In fact, at this point, he would call Jin a very formidable enemy. "Not just you either." Mogami turned to the side to look back in the direction of Border's new base while keeping Jin in his peripheral. "Kido did a really good job with growing Border. Yugo was right to choose him as his replacement."

"Circumstances demanded we go public and grow." Jin said.

"I heard. Large scale invasions." Mogami said, frowning thoughtfully. What reason would any nation in the Neighborhood have for invading Japan so heavily? In the past, Border was so small and had pretty much no known presence in the Neighborhood. For that reason, there was no big threat from Japan to force large scale invasions. He supposed it was possible it was just a desperate nation in need of Trion glands and soldiers so they chose a big invasion to get what they needed quickly. Or, it was also possibly Border's fault by allying with a few of the Neighbor nations and thus making the enemy of those nations their enemies as well. Though, whatever the reason for the start of large-scale invasions against Mikado City, it wasn't Mogami's problem. He had already died. The cause for the invasions and fighting them off were not his problem. That was for Border to deal with, just as it was their duty to protect the city and their comrades from Yugo and Mogami right now.

Jin couldn't properly see Mogami's face with his turned mostly away from him, but he could hear it in his voice. Mogami wanted to be here, wanted to be alive, and be a part of this new Border. He wanted to see these new agents and make friends with them and test them in battle. As one of the founding members of Border, this was the type of expansion he wanted for Border but he wasn't able to be here to experience it. And now that he was here to see what became of Border, it was as an enemy. An enemy that appreciated what he saw of the new Border but couldn't enjoy it as he was too busy focusing on his own survival.

And yet...

Jin looked down at the cracks on Fujin. "You gave your strength to Yuma to save him." While Mogami did turn to give his full attention back to Jin, he did not respond to him to confirm that he did do that, but Jin didn't need a verbal response. He already knew that Yuma would be healed by Mogami hours before he saw Yuma standing in front of him, looking perfectly healthy. Or as healthy as a child trapped in a Trion body could look. "I wanted to be angry at you and hate you for stealing Mogami-san's face, voice, and all his skills. My mentor died a long time ago. Nothing can bring back the dead. You're not my real mentor, but I can accept that your emotions and memories are what Mogami-san had. The values he had are shared with you. You bought us time by restoring Yuma's body. That is more than enough for me to accept Yuma's understanding of the situation."

Mogami wanted to feel hurt by Jin's words, but a part of him agreed. He had died a long time ago. His body and what was left of his life turned into power for the Black Trigger that Jin was currently holding. As real as Mogami felt with the emotions and memories coursing through him, the feelings of needing to get back to Meraki told him how much of a fake he was. Mogami was fond of the Neighborhood and wanted to make friends with them, but he never shared the desire of moving there and offering all his loyalty to a nation over there. Yugo was always the one who wanted to explore the Neighborhood, but even he didn't give full loyalty to any one nation. He wanted to be a free agent that could travel at his leisure.

It was the reason that he felt a burning desire to hurt whoever stood in his way of getting the Black Triggers and his need to return to Meraki afterwards that proved without a doubt just how much of a fake Mogami was. He wanted to break through those orders and stay in Border, but even if he managed that, which he doubted he would ever be able to do, Mogami no longer had a place in this world.

It was return to Meraki or die.

Those were the only options left to him.

*Mimics*

"Sounds like I put my faith in the wrong people."

Those words stung more than they should have. Shinoda was very aware of the fact that Yugo and the Mimic were getting tangled up inside the same body. His real mentor would never say those words to him. While Mogami was the person that Yugo trusted the most out of everyone in Border, he knew that Yugo had trust in Shinoda and Rindo. It wasn't enough to be the ones that Yugo told Yuma to find when he came to Japan but to be fair, they were still rookies when Yugo left so it made sense they wouldn't be the names that Yuma was given.

"Sounds to me like you're lashing out." Rindo retorted. "I bet you always thought you would protect your son and do no harm to him, but now look at you. A slave to the enemy and one step away from killing your own child. Yuma's situation is not our fault, but we are doing everything we can to prevent it, but with barely any information about these new type of Mimics, we can only make guesses on what to do."

Yugo's eyes flickered away from his former students to look at the door to the room before he was focusing back on Rindo and Shinoda. There was nothing he could say to them about Yuma dying slowly. He wanted his son to live but that was second to the Mimic's order to preserve his own life above all else. There was no order to kill anyone here. It was simply get memories from anyone that had deep care for someone who created a Black Trigger and use those Black Triggers to return themselves to life. Once the Black Triggers had been fully drained of all Trion, power, and life force, it would mean that Yugo and Mogami could go on living forever as soldiers to Meraki. That was the mission. It was easy to hunt down Black Triggers since the level of power and Trion they gave off was at a much higher level than normal Triggers.

Once the Mimics had transformed, they could either wait for the amount of time they needed to drain the Black Triggers of all power for themselves or they could spend the process up by stealing the Black Triggers. Once in their possession, they could absorb the power that much faster.

It was always about the Black Triggers. That was all that mattered to the Mimics. They didn't need to kill anyone since it wasn't a part of the order. If someone got killed, then it was because they were in their way of their goal. It was unfortunate, but Yuma was in the way. They were sharing the power of the Black Trigger, but eventually, there would be very little left as Yugo continued to sap the power away. As soon as there wasn't enough for both Yugo and Yuma to use, Yuma's body would crumble to pieces and his real body would return to this world and that would be when he would die because Yugo could clearly recall the last time he saw his son before he created the Black Trigger. He was so close to death. If his real body were to return to this world, he would die within seconds, maybe minutes if he was lucky.

At that point, Yugo could take the Black Trigger and take the last of his power. His survival would be ensured.

But he wouldn't be happy.

Though, to be fair, Yugo hadn't been happy for days. Not since the realization that he was back in Japan as a Mimic and hurting his home and son. He had realized quite fast that he was a Mimic from Meraki after Yuma's question was thrown at him the other day and the realization that he was looking for his son to hurt him, not because he was a concerned father confused about how he was suddenly in Japan and Yuma was nowhere around.

"Yuma is happy and safe here." Shinoda added. "If he doesn't seem so to you, then it's because of your presence here. He can't be happy when his own father is actively trying to kill him and bringing up his traumatic memories from his time in Calvaria."

Yugo's eyes sharpened into a glare on Shinoda. He had not been actively trying to kill. That implied he was going out of his way to try to stab Yuma through with a sword. That had not been the case at all. He had been looking for Yuma, and while he had the knowledge that hunting for the Black Trigger could cause Yuma's death, it didn't stop him from going after him, though killing Yuma was never his intention. It was just going to be a result, an unfortunate result, of saving himself.

And why did everyone keep bringing up Calvaria? Just how bad of a time did his son have in Calvaria after his death?

"I want to see him."

"To steal his Black Trigger?" Shinoda asked sharply. This was his second time meeting Yugo this week and once again, all of Yugo's focus was on Yuma. That was hardly a surprise as not only did Yugo feel the need to get the Black Trigger from him, but the father part of Yugo was likely also in play here and he just wanted to see his son. The back and forth though along with Yuma's own trauma of what happened to Yugo years ago made Shinoda feel that it just wasn't a good idea to allow a meeting like that.

Instead of replying, Yugo looked away from his students to look at the door to the room again. He didn't know who was on the other side of that door, but he could sense that it was two people approaching with large amounts of Trion. With the amount of Trion he was sensing, it had to be a Black Trigger that was coming. He wasn't sure how many Black Triggers Border had, but he knew it was at least two. Fujin and his, but Fujin was with Mogami so unless he came back to headquarters, the only person with a Black Trigger that would want to come down here would be Yuma.

"He's my son. If I want to see him, I believe I have that right."

"That right was lost when you stole the Black Trigger from him last night and left him to die." Rindo retorted. It didn't matter if Miwa squad and Osamu's squad got it back for Yuma. The fact was that Yugo did it in the first place. Knowing that it wasn't Yugo's will that made him do it, Rindo couldn't blame Yugo too much. His free will had been stolen from him. Perhaps a part of Yugo really did want to see his son but there was also that part that would likely want to hurt him immediately on sight to get the ring back. It wasn't a risk worth taking.

"Then I guess I'll just keep this." Yugo tossed Yuma's Trigger in his hand a few times as he turned his back on Rindo and Shinoda to head back to his bed. "When you feel like getting it back, let Yuma in here."

*Mimics*

Hearing footsteps coming down the hall, Kazama pushed off the wall he was leaning against. For being so late at night, somehow these prison cells were quite a popular destination. How many people were going to come down here to visit Yugo?

To his surprise, not that Kazama let it show on his face, it was Yuma and Chika walking down the hall. Kazama ignored Chika's presence to focus on Yuma. For someone who looked like he was about to die a few hours ago, Yuma looked perfectly healthy as he walked down the hall, eyes snapping from Tachikawa to Kazama in something akin to annoyance. The fact that he was healed was more surprising than seeing him returning to headquarters and immediately making his way to the prison cells.

That, in itself, was strange. Yuma shouldn't have known that his father was down here.

"Woah, Chibi," Tachikawa stepped in front of the door before Yuma could get any closer, holding up a hand in front of him. "Nice to see you got away from Mogami, but wasn't there an agreement that you wouldn't go near Kuga?"

Yuma stuttered back a step before he could run into Tachikawa's hand. "Could you move? I need to talk to my dad." Even as Yuma asked it, he knew what the answer was going to be. It was the reason he was annoyed to see them standing here when he turned the corner. There were quite a few agents that Yuma knew he could get pass with a few words, but neither Tachikawa nor Kazama were on that list. Since they were close friends with Jin and were top agents of Border, they certainly knew a lot more about what was going on than most of the other agents. They would not be swayed into stepping aside to allow Yuma access to his father.

"That is not a good idea, Kuga." Kazama said. "Your father has been demanding your presence down here, but I doubt it would be for anything good. It would most likely set him off and cause another fight if you were to appear before him."

Yuma couldn't argue with that. He seemed to be doing a great job of causing fights this week by just being around, and it wasn't just fights with Yugo and Mogami. There were all those arguments he had with Jin and the fact that he had been pouring his frustration out on his friends all week. It wasn't exactly fair of him to do that to them. Nothing that happened this week was their fault. They were all just concerned while Yuma was lashing out.

Lashing out wasn't going to get Yuma anywhere. It was just a defense mechanism that he didn't even realize he had been using. He wanted to protect himself and keep his friends out of his problems, but instead of stepping back, they just bulldozed their way into Yuma's problems and demanded he let them help.

"Yuma-kun." Chika said softly.

Yuma glanced at her, giving her a reassuring smile. There was nothing to be worried about. He wasn't going to start a fight or argument over this, but that didn't mean he was going to let it go either. "I realize that things haven't gone well with Dad this week."

"He's attacked you multiple times this week." Kazama replied dryly.

"True," Yuma agreed. "But they've been attacking us all week. He's going to keep coming at me for my Black Trigger. We keep failing to him because we've been fighting on his terms. He shows up when we least expect it or he comes to locations we don't expect."

"I understand what you're trying to say. We should take the fight to him." Kazama replied.

Tachikawa pointed his thumb over his shoulder at the door behind him. "You could argue Kuga 'coming to locations we don't expect' includes this prison cell. No one expected him to surrender the way he did. What if it's just another one of his plans to lure us, lure you, in? You already got kidnapped once tonight. Are you trying to set a record for how many times you can get kidnapped in a day?"

Yuma twitched at the term 'kidnapped.' He was captured, not kidnapped. He had half a mind to go back out there and kick Mogami in the shin. He was getting a horrible track record for this week. "Well, firstly, since it is now after midnight, it wouldn't count as getting captured two times in a day. And secondly, my father doesn't want me. He wants my ring. He proved that the other night when he left me for dead upstairs when he took my Black Trigger."

"And you want to waltz right in there and wave it in his face." Kazama replied.

"No." Yuma shook his head. "This isn't about the Black Trigger. When I was talking to Mogami earlier, I realized that I need to confront my father."

"Colluding with the enemy?" Tachikawa nodded his head as if it made complete sense. "Just what I would expect from a Tamakoma agent."

Did Tachikawa still have something against the Mimics? Yuma couldn't figure out if he hated Mogami and Yugo or if he simply wanted the chance at a fair, challenging fight with them. "I wouldn't call it colluding. Mogami was talking to me about how they don't want to fight either and hate themselves for what they are doing."

"And you believe him?"

Yuma gave Tachikawa a very dry, disbelieving look. "I know my side effect doesn't give me an edge in battle like everyone else's, but don't forget I do have it."

"Oh yeah, you did say something like that before."

Yuma just sighed.

"Does that make him more fun to fight or not?" Tachikawa looked over at Kazama for an answer. "Unlike Jin, Ko, and Kageura, he can't use his side effect to get one up on us."

"That is not the important issue here." Kazama retorted. "Could you please focus?"

Chika glanced at Yuma before she had to hide a smile behind her hand. She knew her friend was in a rush to get down here, but he hadn't planned on getting stopped like this. It wasn't often she got to see an expression on Yuma's face that said he was just done with everything going on around him. Well, she couldn't blame him too much for feeling like this. This whole week had been pretty crazy for him and despite having all the cracks on his body healed, his life was still in danger.

Kazama turned his attention back to Yuma. "Your issues with your father are your own, but it's not our decision to allow you access in here. You need to talk to Director Shinoda about that."

All it took was a scan of a Border Trigger to open that door to allow him access to the room. It was actually quite simple to do, but it kept looking like it was going to be one of the most difficult tasks for him to accomplish. "Alright, fine. Do you know where I can find Shinoda-san?"

"He and Rindo-san are talking to Kuga now." Kazama replied.

"And you're not going to let me in there to ask them if I can talk to my father, are you?"

"No."

Yuma sighed. He had been in a rush to get to headquarters to find his father and he wanted to do it without being stopped by his friends who would just argue against him coming down here. He should have known there would be guards that would stop him. Him being weak and unable to fight for days was not a good show of strength that he could handle his father right now.

Kazama stared at Yuma's rejected expression and found himself sighing back. "I understand your need to settle things with your father. When I saw my brother the other night, it was heartbreaking, but I stayed in the fight because I felt the need to deal with it personally. It's good you've found the strength to want to face your father in the same way, but this isn't just your problem alone. He's attacked all of us at headquarters and in the city multiple times. That makes him a threat to all of us which means we all need to be on the same page going forward. Whatever conclusion you came to when with Mogami needs to be discussed with Shinoda-san and the others first. You can't just rush into this."

It was sound advice. It was so reasonable that Yuma couldn't even get mad at Kazama for saying it and blocking his way forward because it was exactly what Yuma would say to warn against someone doing something reckless and stupid. In fact, it was what he would have said and done at the very beginning of the week. It seemed the stress of the week had been getting to him if he was losing his strategic mind.

No, it wasn't that he stopped thinking strategically. He just wasn't thinking at all about how to handle the Mimics because he wanted to instead avoid it because he had been freaking out and completely stressed all week. As frustrating as it had been to stay inside of headquarters, Yuma accepted it if it meant avoiding Yugo.

It was basically just Yuma running away from his problems. Honestly, it was what he was good idea. As strong as Yuma was, he didn't engage in battles for no reason. He fought all the time when he was in Calvaria because he promised to help them with the war, but when he left Calvaria, he spent a year traveling the Neighborhood on his own before he made it Japan. He did not spend that year looking for fights. If someone came at him to hurt him, he would return the same amount of pain to them as it was what they deserved.

However, he also acknowledged the fact that there were plenty of strong people in the Neighborhood and that he was not always going to win. He never had a reason to go out of his way to fight those people and risk the life his father gave everything for him to have. More often than not, he would abandon a fight if he saw it as unwinnable or just leave a country altogether to get himself out of trouble. There was no reason to stick around in places where he was making enemies.

Running away was not cowardice. It was a form of self-preservation and it was something that Yuma always carried with him.

Until he met Osamu and Chika.

Until he met and joined Border.

This wasn't like Calvaria where he was fighting out of obligation because of the last promise his father made to Raymond. Making friends with Osamu and Chika was his choice. Joining Border was his choice.

He had something he wanted to protect now.

Something that made him want to risk it all to protect.

Something that made him want to stop running away.

There was a reason for him to stand his ground and keep the enemy away from his allies.

Yuma had to learn to think differently now that he had friends he wanted to protect. He wasn't just going to run away all the time anymore. Just as he protected Border by defeating Viza in Aftokrator's invasion, he would have to act again to stop his father. Not only to save his own life, but to protect Border from him and to protect Yugo from himself. However, he wasn't alone in dealing with this. If he was alone, he would have died a long time ago. His allies defended him while he took the time to hide and think.

Well, 'hide' was a simple way of putting it. It wasn't a good hiding spot as Yugo and Mogami knew exactly where he was. It was more of hunkering down and hoping the defenses of Border stalled the Mimics, which it didn't since Yugo and Mogami always seemed to be a few steps ahead of them.

The door behind Kazama and Tachikawa slid open, catching Yuma's eye. With Shinoda coming out followed by Rindo, Yuma couldn't see into the room to see his father as the door slid shut immediately after Rindo stepped out.

"Yuma-kun." Shinoda said surprised. "You're back."

Rindo, while surprised at the sudden appearance of his agent, hid it as he smiled. "Good to see you back in one piece." His eyes scanned over Yuma's face and body to double check that all the cracks were in fact gone. "That's impressive."

Yuma gingerly touched his previously injured face. "Yeah, Oji-san was feeling generous, but it's only a temporary fix."

"Oji-san?" Shinoda repeated, feeling even more confused. He got a few hours of sleep earlier before Mogami and Yugo attacked headquarters, but it clearly wasn't enough. His mind could not process what Yuma had just called Mogami. Yuma was back at headquarters, healed of his injuries even if only for a temporary moment of peace, and was down by the prison cells somehow knowing Yugo was down here. What had happened in those few hours that he was missing?

"I need access to the cells." Yuma said, ignoring Shinoda and Rindo's confused stares.

Any wondering about the name Yuma gave Mogami was erased from Shinoda's mind as he walked between Kazama and Tachikawa to get to Yuma. "You'll have to give me a very convincing argument as to why I should permit you access, Yuma-kun. Yugo-san has been asking for you, but I do not trust anything he says."

"Sounds like I'm the perfect person to talk to him. I can ascertain if he is being truthful or not." Yuma suggested.

"And give him easy access to your Black Trigger." Rindo pointed out, glancing at Chika to give her a small smile in greeting. He hadn't expected her to return tonight, but it seemed that Osamu did contact her and she felt the need to rush back.

Chika gave a small tilt of her head to her boss in greeting, but didn't speak up as Shinoda and Yuma were still talking.

"I'm not saying I would confront him alone. If you're there, we would have plenty of power on our side."

"Power isn't the issue." Shinoda replied. "You just said your healed state is only a temporary status which means if we fight Yugo-san, we would still be putting a strain on you." Especially if Yugo decided to throw caution out the window and start using the Black Trigger seals again. If Yugo attacked, there was little they could do except defend since any attack against him was like attacking Yuma. Shinoda had no idea of what Mogami did to fix Yuma's Trion body so he had no way of knowing if it would hold up to them injuring Yugo or Yugo using any of the Black Trigger abilities.

"It's putting a strain on me to have him here." Yuma argued, and he didn't mean only in a physical sense. The mental trauma he was jumping through all week was making things just as difficult for him as the weakening of his body.

"Kazama-san is right though, Yuma-kun. It would be foolish to rush in there to talk to him without an idea of how to defeat him without killing you as well." Chika pointed out. "Did Mogami-san give you an idea?"

Yuma glanced over at his teammate, a frown pulling at his lips. No, he didn't know how to sever the tie between him and Yugo. Neither he nor Mogami had an answer to that issue. It wasn't even an issue anyone had thought would even come into existence in the first place. Being trapped in a Trion body wasn't normal after all. "This is only happening because of my unique situation. Hmm." Yuma crossed his arms over his chest as he looked down as he thought. "We've been talking about it wrong. We're talking about how Dad draining the power from my Black Trigger is killing me, but that's not quite right. It's destroying my Trion body. Once this body goes, my real body will come out and I will have a few seconds, maybe a couple minutes if I'm lucky, of life left in my body. My real body returning to this world is what would kill me. There needs to be a solution to that problem."

"Unfortunately, with the limited time we have, I don't think we can come up with a solution to save your life were your real body to return to this world." Rindo said.

"If you bothered to inform us of this problem when you found out months ago, we could have been working on a solution to get Yuma-kun his real body back a lot sooner and not be trapped in this situation." Shinoda retorted.

"It wasn't my choice to make to spread that information." Rindo argued. "I was respecting Yuma's privacy on the matter."

"It hardly matters now." Kazama interjected before Rindo and Shinoda could start a huge argument over the issue. "We can't change the decisions made in the past. Getting Kuga his real body back isn't a viable solution so we need to think of something else before confronting his father with a half-baked idea."

"Right, this isn't the place to be discussing it anyway." Rindo clapped Yuma on the shoulder and with a little push, got him to turn around. "Let's take this conversation to Shinoda's office."

"Saving it until morning would be better. It's quite late." Shinoda said as he followed after Rindo and Yuma, giving a motion to Chika to follow him. "I'll send replacements down in an hour for you two." He added over his shoulder to Tachikawa and Kazama.

As the group disappeared around the corner, Tachikawa blinked. "Tamakoma is such a whirlwind to deal with." Every Tamakoma member that came down here tonight seemed on edge and ready to fight Yugo.

"Like you're any different." Kazama muttered as he slapped his hand on the panel on the wall to get the door to slide back open so he and Tachikawa could go back to their staring contest with Yugo.

"A shame. Did Yuma leave?" Yugo asked from where he was leaning against the door of his cell. Instead of looking at the agents coming back inside, his eyes shifted up towards the ceiling.

Kazama didn't reply as he went back to leaning on the wall, glaring at Yugo. The best way to deal with someone with a side effect to read through lies was to not reply at all. He could just leave him guessing the whole time. If he started talking, it would open up a conversation where Yugo would be using every little thing he said to gather information. They were already at risk waiting for Yugo to move. They didn't need the added risk of him attacking while being informed of what was going on.

*Mimics*

Mogami swung his Kogetsu, sending out his wind blades to meet the ones that Jin had just sent his way. He ignored the explosion from them clashing and moved farther back to get away from the smokescreen it caused. Instead, most of his attention kept flickering to the building at the end of the bridge they were fighting on.

To him, it didn't feel like that long since he had been to Japan. He was in Aristera in one moment and the next he was opening his eyes on a roof in Mikado City. It felt like no time had passed at all for him so he shouldn't be feeling nostalgic for his home, and yet, here he was longing for his home and his friends. Perhaps this feeling came from seeing Jin, Konami, and Reiji. They were no longer the little kids he remembered. They had all grown up so much and he missed seeing it happen.

He missed seeing them grow as fighters.

He missed seeing Reiji and Jin graduate from school.

He missed so many birthdays.

He missed seeing Border grow so much that they needed a bigger base.

He missed seeing Rindo and Shinoda moving up to being directors.

He missed seeing the smiles of his friends.

All he had gotten from the Border agents this week was glares and frowns. Even his former student and the other kids he watched over gave him scowls and distrust. Of course, none of it was unfounded. Mogami hadn't been acting in a favorable light. It's only natural that Jin and the others would be angry with him.

Jin came flying out of the smokescreen, straight for his dear mentor, who even though he was distracted with looking at Tamakoma, was still able to bring up his Kogetsu to block Jin's attack before his head could be cut off.

"I'm kind of hurt, Jin." Mogami said, pushing his weight against his sword to match Jin's strength as they both fought to push the other back. "Yuma has obviously been struggling so much with having Yugo as an enemy, but you haven't once hesitated in coming after me. In all our battles, you've showed me nothing but anger."

"Yuma and I have different feelings on this matter." Jin bit out, trying to dig his foot in the ground behind him when it felt like Mogami was going to gain ground on him. "Which is a result of how you died versus how Kuga-san died. I regret what happened in Aristera. I should have been able to use my side effect better to give us an edge in that battle. My regret in how I handled that battle gave me the strength to grow and find my strength. I found a way to use my side effect to benefit everyone in Border. But Yuma suffers from guilt which is completely different from regret. He went against Kuga-san's orders and that resulted in his father having to lay down his life for him. That guilt has been eating away at him for years so it's only natural he would be scared to face his father with the idea that he would have to kill his father with his own hands. He already feels like he killed Kuga-san the first time so of course he would struggle with the idea of Kuga-san having to die again."

Jin let the weight behind his sword go as he stepped really quickly away from Mogami, leaving him off balanced and surprised as he no longer had Jin's weight pushing him back. He stumbled forward for only a couple steps before letting himself fall towards the ground to duck under Jin's next slash. His hand caught the ground before he could face plant it. Using his hand as leverage, he pushed himself to the side to avoid getting stabbed by Jin before swinging his sword to send out a few wind blades to distract Jin to give himself a moment to adjust as Jin backed away.

Mogami pushed himself into a crouched position while dropping his Kogetsu so the tip of it was resting on the ground so he could rest his forehead on the handle. "Regret, huh?" He said as he rolled Jin's passionate speech over in his head. "Sounds like we're replaying the past in the present with roles reversed."

Jin regretted not doing more with his side effect in the past when they were in Aristera. He probably thought that he could have changed something, saved someone even.

Now, it was Mogami regretting his actions. Nothing he was doing was of his own free will. He was using all his knowledge of this world and his friends to manipulate his way into completing his orders to steal the Black Triggers and return to Meraki as a complete being. It wasn't what he wanted though and his heart was constantly screaming at him for everything he had done to his friends and organization.

At the other end, Yuma felt guilt over his father's death from years ago and now it was the opposite. Yugo's very existence was going to get Yuma killed. If Yugo drained his Black Trigger of all its power, he will survive and Yuma will be the one to die this time. The guilt of that would eat Yugo alive, but since his mission was to survive at all costs and return to Meraki, he would never be able to die and be free of that guilt, much how like Yuma could never rid himself of the guilt of Yugo's death.

"Which is it?" Jin asked. "Regretting your actions all week? Or regretting giving so much of your Trion and power to heal Yuma?" It was no small feat to heal Yuma's body. It was a Trion body created by a Black Trigger's power. While Mogami didn't need to create the body from scratch which would require a lot of power and Trion, he still had to use quite a bit just to heal the cracks and return Yuma's eye. What he did to help Yuma, his battle at headquarters, plus his fight with Yuma and then Karasuma had taken their toll on Mogami. He was lacking the power and Trion he needed to take Jin on. "You've run your resources dry."

"Not quite." Mogami pushed himself back into a standing position. "As long as Fujin exists, I can always get more Trion. Of course, I would be better off if I was in possession of it so I could regain all my power and Trion much faster."

Jin shook his head. "Even a Trion Soldier has limited resources. You might be able to draw power from your Black Trigger, but it takes time. If you were able to gain unlimited Trion and power, Kuga-san wouldn't have used Rads the other night to open all those Gates to distract the agents with Trion Soldiers. You guys have a limit and you're hitting yours." The problem was that Fujin was also reaching a limit. He had been focused on Mogami so he wasn't looking at the blade he was holding, but he could feel the cracks spreading on the hilt throughout the fight. They were expanding the more they fought. Using Fujin to fight while Mogami was trying to drain Trion from it to restore what he gave to Yuma was forcing it into doing double the work. It was the same reason as why Yuma's body had been breaking the past couple of days. The Black Trigger was being strained from trying to support two different things at the same time.

The more of his power and lifeforce he drained from Fujin, the more strength Mogami gained to resist his Mimic programming so he could pull back from the battles with Border. On the opposite end, when giving all that power away to Yuma, he lost that strength. He felt weaker after helping Yuma, not in terms of lacking power but in terms of lacking any will. He never wanted to fight anyone this week but had to because these agents kept getting in his way.

It felt like he had no energy left as he stood in front of Jin. He was tired of this. Tired of fighting his former friends but as long as Jin held Fujin, Mogami would keep going after him until it was back in his hands. He never should have let Yuma get near Fujin earlier.

He shouldn't have healed Yuma either.

Mogami was able to bypass his Trion Soldier programming that saw everyone that wasn't from Meraki as the enemy so he could help Yuma. He gave his strength to Yuma and so he had nothing left in him to resist his orders to get Fujin but at the same time, he was just lacking the energy to continue the fight. Jin was right in saying he couldn't draw the power from Fujin that fast. He needed to rely on the power he had as a Trion Soldier, but he used a lot of his energy and power in the multiple fights he had gotten into tonight.

Perhaps, that wasn't really a problem though.

Mogami may not have the strength to resist the Mimic programming anymore so he would be fighting to get Fujin back, but he was also lacking power right now. Being low on Trion meant that Jin had the advantage. It wasn't what the Mimic wanted, but it was exactly what Mogami wanted.

For Jin to have the upper hand over Mogami.

If Mogami couldn't put up a proper fight because he was lacking strength from helping Yuma, then that just meant he could finally die. He could finally end this mission of betraying his friends.

He wished he could have spent time with his friends without wanting to attack them or even gotten to know Yuma better, but if he wasn't going to be in control for long, it was better to die before he could add any more regrets to his already growing list of regrets.

*Mimics*

While Chika snuck quietly into the barracks that Tamakoma was using, Yuma avoided them. Chika had come all this way back to headquarters out of concern, but with Yuma being safe now, there was nothing else to do, she might as well go to sleep. Yuma wasn't really feeling up to being trapped in the barracks for the rest of the night when he couldn't sleep which was why he found himself sitting on a window seal, staring out at the night sky.

After the past few chaotic nights, he really wasn't feeling up to the risk of sitting on the roof. Though, considering Yugo was in a cell being guarded by agents in the basement and Mogami was fighting Jin out in the Restricted Zone, there really wasn't any danger to him on the roof.

Yuma sighed, dropping his head to rest his forehead on the cool window. If he had known he was going to get stopped from seeing his father, he would have stayed out in the Restricted Zone to help Jin out with Mogami. Knowing that Jin was out there fighting was making him uneasy, even more so as he knew Jin didn't have bail out right now since he was using Fujin.

"I thought you would be with Kuga-san."

"Hmm," Yuma hummed as he acknowledged Karasuma approaching him. "Shinoda-san and the others disagreed with me seeing him tonight. I hadn't expected them to be down there, but even if they weren't Kazama-senpai was going to stop me anyway. Guess I'll deal with it in the morning. Maybe when Jin-san comes back, he can help me convince them."

"Convince them of what? Do you have a plan?" Karasuma sat on the window seal next to Yuma, leaning his back against the windowpane.

Yuma hummed to himself. "No, not really. I haven't even told them Jin-san activated Fujin. Kinuta-san and Kido-san will freak out if they learn that. If Jin-san's not careful, he could destroy it tonight."

"Do they even know Jin-san is fighting right now?" Karasuma wondered.

Yuma lifted his head off the window as he thought that question over. He hadn't mentioned it to Shinoda or Rindo since his mind had been focused on them blocking him from getting to Yugo. It's not like he was trying to hide the fact that Mogami and Jin were out there still. How Yuma got away from Mogami and made it back to headquarters just didn't come up since Yugo had been the focus of their conversation. "Ah, maybe not. I think they went to get some rest. You should do the same. It's been a long night for all."

It was actually surprising for Yuma when he walked Chika to the barracks earlier. He peeked into the room and was surprised to see Osamu and Hyuse already asleep. Well, Hyuse being asleep wasn't too surprising. Hyuse understood the concept of taking care of himself and not letting his stress get to him to the point where it prevented him from keeping himself fit for combat. On the other hand, Osamu got himself worked up easily and that caused him trouble sleeping when he was stressed out. With one of his teammates missing, Yuma thought Osamu wouldn't sleep easily and would actually be pacing around all night as he overthought the whole situation.

Karasuma glanced at Yuma for a moment before turning his head more to look out the window to stare in the same direction that Yuma was looking. It was the direction of Tamakoma, but being this far in the Restricted Zone, they couldn't see anything beyond the destroyed buildings though they both knew a fight was happening over there. It was easy enough to sleep normally while knowing agents were on defense duty. It was another thing entirely when a friend was out there fighting a powerful enemy alone.

"I want to be mad at him." Karasuma said, drawing Yuma's curious look to him. "He let Mogami-san take you, but seeing you now with no injuries on you, I can understand why he did it. I guess I was just frustrated that he made a decision to let Mogami-san kidnap you without alerting any of us."

"Ah," Yuma looked back out the window. "I know he did that. Mogami told me it was Jin-san who made the Escudos to block my team from saving me. I don't blame him for it." That got a surprised look from Karasuma so Yuma shot a smile at him. "Jin-san gets stressed a lot because of carrying the visions on his shoulders. He has to make tough decisions all the time." He paused as he looked up at the ceiling as he thought that over. "We all do at times. And maybe those decisions won't always be accepted by everyone around us, but we all have to make our own choices." His smile twitched into a smirk. "But it was sweet of you to want to get angry on my behalf."

"Anyone would feel angry if they thought a friend had betrayed a friend." Karasuma replied. "We all trust Jin-san unconditionally, and for good reason, but there are times when his actions don't make sense. We let it go because we know Jin-san and that he is acting in our best interest, but it can get frustrating when he doesn't clue us in." At this, he shot a pointed look at Yuma.

Yuma had the sense to at least appear embarrassed with Karasuma calling him out like that. "I guess I was doing the same thing to you guys at the beginning of the week. I guess with my dad I just felt I didn't have the right to involve Border in it. My history with him happened five years ago in the Neighborhood."

"It started then, but when he appeared in Japan and started attacking us, it became everyone's problem. And even if that didn't happen, you're our friend. We're not going to leave you to struggle alone."

"Because you guys are selfless." Yuma teased, though it was something that he was coming to understand. Yuma was generally a selfish person after his dad died and only got involved in something when it benefited him. The concept of doing something for someone else just because it was the right thing didn't even exist to him until he met Osamu, and even then, he only understood it because Osamu was just so generally honest about it and had no ulterior motive. Usually when Yuma saw someone going out of their way to help someone else, it was because they wanted something out of it.

Osamu showed Yuma that wasn't true in every case and now he was seeing it play out in front of him as none of his friends had an ulterior motive for wanting to help him, at least no serious ones. They seemed to be more joking around with what they wanted from Yuma when this was over when they talked about having fights afterwards or going out to eat. They were just normal things that they did before the Mimics began to attack them.

That's all they wanted, to go back to the normal, trivial things they did together.

Yuma could understand that. He didn't think it would be that easy as he had a lot to think through after this business with the Mimics was over with, but he did crave for the simple, easy days of just training and hanging out with all of his friends.

He wanted to live through the confrontation with his father. For the child who had dreaded facing every day after Yugo died, the idea of dying now was scary to him.

It never used to bother him to know that he would die earlier than everyone else, but now the idea was leaving him with blood pumping loudly in his ears and a heart thundering against his chest. The last time Yuma ever felt fear was when he met the assassin that changed his life forever. Since he no longer feared death as he had very little reason to want to continue to live, he never had to be scared about anything ever again.

Until now.

He had something to live for now.

Maybe he didn't have the right to want that after getting his father killed, but his friends disagreed. They said he was allowed to want it and it had been nothing but honesty coming from their mouths. They wanted him to live as much as Yuma was realizing that he wanted it.

And so, he was going to fight for it.