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?

61. Chapter 61: Warrior

A/N: I do not own World Trigger

Mimics

Chapter 61: Warrior

Yuma shoved his hands in his hoodie pockets even though there was no chill in the air. It was simply a form of comfort at this point to curl into the warmth as he, once again, had found himself on the roof, staring ahead at the horizon.

Soon.

Very soon.

He was going to see his father face to face for the first time since Yugo left him for dead in the lab. It was just going to be the two of them.

"Having seconds thoughts, Agent Kuga?"

Yuma closed his eyes briefly at the voice that hit his ears. Only briefly though as he smoothed his features to a neutral expression and turned to face the Commander. "Kido-san." He greeted politely before turning back around to go back to staring at the horizon. "I'm not second guessing. I'm just anxious to get started."

"Anxious to see your father, you mean." Kido corrected. It got silence in return from Yuma so Kido found that to be a very telling sign that his assumption was correct. "I know you're not a naïve child, Agent Kuga. Whatever you're hoping to get from Kuga isn't going to heal the pain you're feeling.

Yuma examined Kido out of the corner of his eyes, watching as the commander brushed a finger over his scar. It was a habit of his, but Yuma didn't know anything about Kido to know what it meant. Yuma was certain it involved something tragic since speaking of the past involved Kido touching his scar. It was similar to Yuma's habit of brushing a finger over his ring when he thought of his father. "I'm not looking for forgiveness. I want to wipe that look off his face."

"Kuga's face?" Kido questioned.

"Not the actual appearance." Yuma said. "I meant his expression. That ugly look of greed and desire doesn't belong there. My father loved Border. I may not have known of his connection to Border before I came here, but I did see how much he believed in it. To see that trust and belief turn to betrayal and selfishness, it makes me want to storm into Meraki. Not only did they kill my mom and steal her life's work, but they have also stolen my dad's freedom and turned him into a slave."

"Revenge?" Kido mused, looking at the small agent before. Even though he was looking at him from the side, it was enough to see the calm expression that always seemed to be present on his face. "I didn't see you as the type to go after it."

"Because I'm not running around announcing my hatred and anger about how life is unfair like Miwa does?" Yuma retorted. "I believe in returning the same amount of pain to those who have wronged me. Osamu doesn't though so I've reigned it in for him and so I don't cause problems. I would like to keep my status as a Border agent for the time being after all."

A humorless smirk crossed Kido's face. "I guess there are areas where you differ from Kuga."

"We differ in a lot of areas." Yuma said without humor. Maybe if Yuma had been a bit more like Yugo and less like an impertinent, reckless kid, Yugo would not have died five years ago.

Kido stared at Yuma for a moment longer before he shifted his attention to stare at the horizon that Yuma seemed so fascinated by. "I would disagree." He replied, surprising Yuma. "You knew him as a father first and as a distinguished fighter and commander second. I knew him first as an idealistic, naïve fool with grand dreams and insane, reckless ways to make those dreams a reality." His old friend had so many crazy ideas and theories when they first found out about Neighbors and he dragged Mogami down that path. Kido followed them in the hopes of reigning them in. "Kids come into this world and see the adults as people who have got the whole world figured out. What you could never see is how much they had to struggle and fight to get where they are at." He turned his back on the horizon to begin to head inside. "You put Kuga on a pedestal a long time ago. It's time to knock that pedestal over and realize that he is like the rest of us. Just a flawed human."

And with that, the door to the roof shut as Kido headed back inside, leaving Yuma alone with his thoughts once more.

Yuma blinked blankly as he continued to stare at the horizon. A pedestal? That was hardly the case. He was very aware of the fact that his dad wasn't always right. It was one of the things Yugo had ingrained in Yuma's head as a child so he would learn to think for himself. It was why Yuma didn't falter if something his dad said turned out to not be true. He listened to his father, but he always observed a situation for himself afterwards and determined his own course. It worked sometimes and other times...

Yuma looked down at his hand.

Other times, it completely changed the course of his and his father's life. He ignored the order and his life shifted forever because of that. That day, watching his father give his life to save Yuma, was ingrained in his mind. He was bleeding out, in so much pain, and so close to death, but despite that, he couldn't figure out that smile Yugo gave him at the end. The smile of a man willing to give up everything for someone else when the consequences weren't his to pay.

Perhaps Kido was right.

Maybe, without realizing it, Yuma had put Yugo on a pedestal after that day.

*Mimics*

"I'm not even getting a proper rematch against him." Tachikawa grumbled.

"This isn't about you. It never has been." Kazama replied.

"You fought him last night. Wasn't that enough?" Izumi grumbled. He had really been hoping Tachikawa's desire for revenge against Yugo for his death by ambush the other day would die down after their rematch.

"That didn't count!" Tachikawa retorted.

"Of course it didn't." Izumi mumbled under his breath.

"He surrendered in the middle of the fight. Nothing about it was satisfactory. And now I'll never get the chance to face him again!"

"I fail to see the problem." Kazama replied dryly. "You do realize he is our enemy so him being defeated, doesn't matter by who, is a win for Border."

"I get that, but I want a challenge."

Kazama resisted the sudden urge to roll his eyes at his friend. "Then challenge the son to a fight when this is over."

A strange glint entered Tachikawa's eyes at the suggestion. "Think I can get him to use his Black Trigger?"

"Firstly, he would get in trouble for using it just to give you a fight." Kazama scolded. "And secondly, if he's anything like Jin, he wouldn't go all out since he doesn't want us to know his full capabilities with it."

"Maybe if he told us more about his Black Trigger beforehand, we wouldn't have been soundly defeated by his father all week." Izumi said, which caused a strange look to cross Tachikawa's face that had his brows furrowing, but he didn't call his captain out on it.

Izumi got that Tamakoma had their secrets. A branch that wanted cooperation with Neighbors and had a habit of harboring fugitive Neighbors was going to have plenty of secrets, but despite that, they were still all members of Border. In times of attacks like this, they needed to be open and trusting with their allies. Not knowing all the different abilities Yuma's Black Trigger had was hindering them.

"He had no reason to." Kazama replied. "Kuga isn't foolish enough to just go sprouting his secrets around. If it wasn't for the fact that he was at death's door all week, he would have taken the information about his real body being sealed in the Black Trigger to the grave. Apparently, almost all of Tamakoma didn't even know about it until this week."

Izumi folded his arms behind his head, smirking. "And now most of the official agents and the higher ups know. He just gave up on keeping it private."

"It's hard to keep something like that quiet when he's trapped in the base." Tachikawa said. Had Tamakoma been able to stay at their base, they likely would have managed to keep Yuma's past and current predicament a secret from the rest of Border. "At least we now know what Jin was talking about that night."

"What night was that?" Izumi asked confused, though it was possible he and Jin talked some night about Yuma and he simply wasn't there for the conversation.

"The night we fought him in the Restricted Zone. He said something about the Black Trigger being very important to Chibi and then immediately after the fight, he went and surrendered Fujin to headquarters." Tachikawa explained. "His actions make so much more sense when it's known that Chibi needs his ring to stay alive."

"Huh, and you remember that because? It was months ago." Izumi retorted. He remembered fighting Jin and Arashiyama squad very clearly, but the conversation was all a blur in his mind. Kazama and Tachikawa had done most of the talking with Jin back then so Izumi felt he was justified in not remembering the conversation. Remembering the conversation didn't seem important since their talks fell through and they resorted to trying to kill each other.

"I didn't remember it until we started to see Chibi's body breaking apart." Tachikawa admitted. "Back then, I just thought Jin stepped into our path to fight us in Chibi's stead because he wanted to keep Chibi from fighting Border agents since it would make it easier for him to join if he wasn't getting into it with Border agents."

"That was likely a part of Jin's reasoning." Kazama said. "He's the type to have multiple reasons for the stunts he pulls." And typically, Jin might only share one, maybe two, of his reasons for them while keeping the rest a secret. He's already proven multiple times that he has no intentions of sharing everything that he knows. Jin was much too fond of working behind the scenes.

"I'm guessing he approved this half-baked plan we're going out on today?" Izumi asked.

Kazama nodded. "He defeated Mogami last night and it seems Tamakoma is in a rush to get this done today. Likely because though his body is currently healed, Kuga's life is still dangling by a thread with his father here."

"I get that we can't waste any more time because of that," Izumi replied, shaking his head. "But Mikumo's team is usually a lot more strategic and cunning than this."

"Mikumo is letting Kuga take the reigns here. They used cunning strategies during the rank wars because that was the only way they could rise through the ranks with Mikumo and Amatori being unfamiliar with combat. When it comes down to it though, if it concerns fighting, Mikumo allows Kuga to focus on what he needs to do." Kazama explained. "That's what he is doing here. He is stepping back to give Kuga the fight, but setting up reassurances in case something goes wrong."

"Instead of sneaky tactics, we get raw power and skill." Izumi smirked. While Mikumo's sneaky tactics were fun to watch, a proper fight between skilled opponents was just as much fun to watch, and it was always fun and interesting to see Yuma fight. He had the skill and creative techniques to keep things from getting dull. "It should make for a good show at the very least."

Kazama frowned at the carefree tone from Izumi. It was a very Izumi-like tone, but Kazama didn't think that it fit in this particular situation. This wasn't just some random fight against an unknown enemy. It was a highly personal matter for Yuma which meant, despite what Yuma said, this wasn't going to be easy for him.

It was something Kazama didn't truly understand until Shin was standing in front of him the other night. He only saw his brother for an hour as they fought and it left Kazama angry and confused and being hit by the grief he felt when Shin first died. Yugo had been around for days, just tormenting his son in more ways than one. The emotional turmoil that Yuma was facing was something that Kazama could only come to understand after seeing a Mimic steal his brother's face and voice. For that reason, Kazama was certain there were going to be no smiles from Yuma today.

Izumi, noticing Kazama's frown at his response, just gave an easy smile. He was hardly making light of Yuma's situation. It's not like he would ever tease Yuma about what happened this week. There was already too much tension running inside of Border that it was suffocating. He wanted to try to make the air just a little bit lighter.

*Mimics*

"Are you going to let Jin take Fujin out with him?"

Shinoda looked away from staring out the window to look back at Rindo who was lounging on his couch with a cigarette. "This isn't Jin's fight."

Rindo turned his head towards his friend, raising a brow. "True, but shouldn't we equip our agents with the power they'll need if this goes wrong?" He rolled his cigarette between his fingers as his mind traveled back to the other night when they met Yugo inside the base. "Even with the two of us fighting him, we couldn't stop him. He got right past us and stole the Black Triggers. We destroyed a portion of the base for no reason."

Shinoda's brow twitched in annoyance. "There is no 'we' there. You destroyed the base! Yugo-san suggesting a bullet Trigger to you has been nothing but traumatic for me."

Rindo snorted. "I fail to see how."

"Because I can't trust you to watch my back anymore! I have to live in fear of you shooting me!"

"One time, years ago!"

"Oh, no, you are not forgetting the fact that you shot me the other night!"

"Firstly, it was an explosion." Rindo stressed. "And secondly, I was aiming for Kuga-san. You were just in the way."

Shinoda's brow twitched violently. How did he and Rindo ever work effectively as a tag team years ago? It was simply amazing that in all those years, Rindo had only shot him two times. "You're supposed to aim around me or work in tangent with me."

"If you recall, I did." Rindo replied. "But Kuga-san blew the bullets up so essentially, it was his fault you bailed out."

"Is now a bad time?"

The amused voice broke through the conversation before Shinoda could retort and continue his argument with Rindo. The two directors turned towards the door that they didn't hear open to see Yuma leaning against the door frame with crossed arms and an amused glint in his eyes.

Rindo snapped out of his slouched position on the couch at the image of Yugo standing there. His head snapped to Shinoda than back to the door as he blinked the image away to see his young agent there, still in a pose that was so similar to Yugo years ago.

Shinoda blinked a few times as he shifted a bit to get the glare from the sun out of his eyes so he could focus on who was actually standing there. Their mentor was long dead and the Mimic of him was hiding out in the Restricted Zone somewhere. He wasn't in the base. It just Yuma who didn't recognize the shock that he just gave his directors. "Not at all, Yuma-kun. Was there something you needed? I thought you were getting ready to head out."

Yuma pushed off the door and walked into Shinoda's office. "Not much to prepare for."

"You'll want to get yourself mentally ready to face Kuga-san so you don't hesitate again." Rindo pointed out.

Yuma hummed thoughtfully, pausing at the coffee table in front of the couch Rindo was sitting on. His attention was drawn to the bill sitting on the table. He tilted his head in thought as he read it. "Is that considered a lot?"

Shinoda followed Yuma's gaze and found himself groaning as he collapsed into his desk chair. "I'm assuming you had nothing to do with that."

"It's for the pizza Jin-san got last night?"

"He footed the bill to Border without even asking." Shinoda complained. "I'm thinking of just throwing it at Rindo. Your branch caused this."

Rindo raised his hands in surrender. "You could, but we're both a part of Border so Border would be paying for it either way."

Yuma blinked in confusion. "Does pizza really cost that much that it would hurt Border to pay for it?"

"That's not the point, Yuma-kun." Shinoda said as he walked around his desk and picked up the bill, waving it slightly at Yuma. "We're already paying everyone overtime for all the extra work they've put in this week and now Jin expects me to pay for a pizza party too?"

"Huh," Yuma stared cross eyed at the bill being waved in his face before pulling out a wad of cash. "Would it make you feel better if I paid for it?"

Shinoda blinked in surprise at the money that Yuma was showing him before he pushed Yuma's hand down. "Keep your money, and perhaps, don't carry so much on you. You don't need that much money on you constantly."

Yuma waved the wad of money carelessly, staring at it in wonder. Everyone kept telling him that this was a lot of money, but he really wasn't understanding. Perhaps he really should take that lesson from Arafune about how the money worked in Japan. He tried with Osamu in the past but he ended up giving up but if Yuma was going to stay in Japan for a while, and it seemed like that was the plan, he really should try again. Yuma was of the belief that Arafune was a good teacher since he did teach Murakami, even though he did know part of that was because Murakami learned so fast because of his side effect. Arafune still had a part in it though. "Apparently I do since Border can't afford a pizza bill." He said as he shoved the money back in his pocket.

"We can afford it just fine. It's simply the principle of the matter." Shinoda clenched the bill tightly, wrinkling it up. "He chose the moment we were asleep so we couldn't protest it when he billed it to us."

"I expect nothing less from Jin." Rindo said amused and then raised his hands in surrender when Shinoda turned a glare onto him. "Technically, the bill is already paid. This is just Jin and Reiji asking for a refund. You don't have to grant it."

"What? So, I can be seen as the stiff?" Shinoda retorted, waving the paper in Rindo's face.

"You're already seen as the tough commander."

Yuma's eyes flickered from one director to the other, amusement returning full force to his face. He really should get Shinoda and Rindo together more often. They really were quite funny when they loosened up, though Rindo was always easy going. Perhaps him being like that helped Shinoda lighten up when they were alone. Shinoda would never dare let his agents see him like this. Yuma almost hated to ruin the mood, but he didn't have much time before he had to head out. "I actually came here because I wanted to ask you something."

Eager to forget this conversation for a moment, Shinoda tossed the bill back on the table and turned to give Yuma his full attention. "You can ask me anything."

"Did you ever put Dad on a pedestal?"

Shinoda blinked a few times, finding the question to be quite strange. "A pedestal? How do you mean?"

"I mean," Yuma hesitated. "Did you ever think he was infallible?"

"I see." Shinoda took a seat on the couch next to Rindo, examining Yuma closely. His expression was closed off, but his question seemed to genuinely come from a place of needing an answer. "The easy answer is yes. We were young teenagers when Yugo-san found us. We were quite impressionable back then."

"We saw Kuga-san as a great mentor, but also an imposing figure." Rindo added. "We were just very amazed by him, by how strong and smart he was. It just seemed like there was nothing that he couldn't do."

"That said, he did beat it into our heads early on that we should think for ourselves and look with open eyes at everyone around us. Once you look at them without that bias of thinking they can do no wrong, you notice things that they do that you wouldn't do." Shinoda said. "Of course, since Yugo-san also taught us that everyone has to make their own choices, even if we didn't agree with the decisions he made, we had to accept them."

"Like how Kido-san declared Neighbors to be the enemy?" Yuma questioned. "Neither of you seem to hate Neighbors, but you still followed him."

Rindo leaned back on the couch, throwing his arm over the back of it. "We may not agree with his stance, but we understand it. Things became immensely difficult in the last few years and we needed more power so this is the route he chose that he thought was the best way to get that power. If we left simply because we disagreed, we wouldn't be of any help to anyone. At least this way, we can still do something. That is what Kuga-san taught. We may not always agree, but we can at least listen and understand their side while still choosing our own paths. He knew he was fallible and he wanted us to acknowledge that, acknowledge that everyone could be like that. He didn't want us to just blindly follow adults because they were older and more experienced than us. He made sure we learned to stop and think for ourselves."

Yuma stared at his boss for a moment before sighing and turning to face the window. "I made a mistake somewhere."

"Is this about the assassin?" Rindo asked gently. They could talk to Yuma as much as they wanted about how he couldn't blame himself for his father's death, but they couldn't make Yuma believe it.

Yuma's lips quirked upwards a bit, though there was nothing humorous about the question. "Not this time. My father taught me all my life to look at the world with my own eyes and not to believe everything I heard, and that included things from him. Like he taught you, he wanted me to think for myself and make sure I had the right information before I acted. I never saw him as infallible. I saw him as someone hindering me from my reckless adventures by telling me to stay put when things got too dangerous for a child to be involved. I was just always so sure I could handle myself alone in any situation I got myself in that whenever Dad stepped in to help me, I got annoyed. I just wanted him to acknowledge the fact that I didn't need him to save me. He taught me not to rely on others to save me, and yet, he was always there to save me. It was very frustrating."

Rindo snorted. "That's true of any kid, Yuma. We've seen enough kids come into Border with the mindset of proving themselves as strong, even when they know nothing of fighting."

"But they have the safety of training rooms and bail out when in the field." Yuma said softly. "They feel they have nothing to fear because of that." That was only true up until Aftokrator invaded though. The Border agents learned fear that day when the Rabits began to capture them and they had to face a large-scale invasion with humanoid Neighbors involved. "But I grew up in the Neighborhood where we had no safety features. I should have been more scared than I was, but because Dad was always there for me, I never felt fear, just annoyance. It wasn't until that assassin appeared behind me and I was truly alone that I learned what it meant to be scared. And then, as I laid there dying, Dad appeared, and once again, saved me. He put everything on the line just so his disobedient son could live." Yuma tilted his head downwards slightly, staring at his hands, one that housed a Black Trigger on it and the other being from an arm that no longer existed on his real body. "I think, that day, something broke in me. I remember all the lessons my dad gave me about how to take care of myself, about how to live, about how to fight and used them to keep myself going. If I was unsure about something, I thought back to something Dad taught me. He made the ultimate sacrifice for me and for that, I put him on a pedestal without even realizing. I know he was only human and he made mistakes, but I raised him up after that day because I just couldn't understand how someone could give their life for someone else like that. I'm so selfish since I would never do that, but he did it without hesitation so I just thought..."

"That he was somehow at a level far above you?" Shinoda finished, and received a nod from Yuma. "There's nothing wrong with looking up to someone like that, Yuma-kun. You can put him on that pedestal, just as long as you realize that for as great as he was, he still made mistakes. However, just because he made mistakes, doesn't mean you have to take him off that pedestal. He was a great man with a lot of achievements under him. A few mistakes doesn't take away from all the good he has done."

"I want to remember all the good he has done, everything that he has done for me, but it's hard when I see him like this." Yuma nodded his head towards the window, just in a general direction to indicate where his father was. "And to see my friends hate him for all the trouble he has caused this week. They'll never understand why I respect him as much as I do because all they will know about him was that he seemed like a horrible father for trying to kill me all week."

"Perhaps his and Mogami-san's legacies are getting wrecked this week, but it shouldn't matter what anyone else thinks. You knew your real father and how much he loved you and why he was as respected as he was. That should be all that matters." Rindo replied. "However, if you want them to understand and see beyond the monster the Mimic has made Kuga-san out to be, then tell them about the real him. I know you like your privacy, Yuma. You never open up about your past unless you have to or are asked directly about it, but you should try it. Let them see pass this wall you have put up."

The wall Yuma put up was so he could protect information about himself from getting out. He never intended to stay in one place for a long time so he didn't want to give up anything about himself, especially to those who he never felt he could fully trust, which tended to be a long list of people. Just because he didn't open up to all his friends, didn't mean he never did it. He did open up to some of the Tamakoma members. "Hmm, Dad always seemed so unreachable to me. I felt like I could never quite catch up to him." He smiled grimly at the thought. "I guess seeing him as a Mimic and how much he is struggling to resist the programming, it's shown me just how human he truly is."

Rindo leaned forward a bit, observing his agent closely. "Then you also know that no matter how strong someone is, no one can do everything by themselves."

Yuma blinked, finding himself confused at the obvious statement. It was something that hardly needed to be said. Relying on allies in combat was one of the first things that Yugo taught Yuma. Yuma may not always fight alongside his comrades since it wasn't always possible, but he understood the lesson. "Of course I understand that."

Shinoda smiled. "So, that means you also understand there is no shame in needing saved." It was easy for Shinoda to say that, but he knew a lot of his young agents were quite prideful. They had trouble accepting help since they are so sure they could do everything by themselves. With the many invasions this year, they were learning a lot about working closely with their allies and accepting help more gracefully.

Yuma pursed his lips, eyes flickering from Rindo to Shinoda in confusion as he wondered where the directors were taking this conversation. If anyone needed to hear there was no shame in getting saved, it was Osamu, not Yuma. Osamu was always the one pushing himself too hard and trying to go beyond his level of combat. Yuma had gotten saved enough times in battle by his father and Replica that he just let it go. Accept the assist with a nod and continue the fight. It was that simple to Yuma nowadays. "I have made it no secret this week about how my dad saved my life years ago. I'm ashamed of my actions that put me in that position, but I never hid the fact that Dad saved me." While Yuma brushed off getting saved a lot when he was young, the last time Yugo saved him really opened his eyes. He said plenty of rude things when getting interrupted in combat, but those sharp comments against needing help never came from him again. Even if he was perfectly fine and truly didn't need any help, if an ally jumped in to assist him, Yuma wouldn't utter an ounce of protest.

Well, except for this week. He never had a matter being truly personal to him like this week with the Mimics haunting him at every corner. When it wasn't personal for him, it was so much easier to stay focused on the battle and get his job done. Since he never had to face a personal hardship while in the midst of combat, he didn't know how he would react and as this week proved, he did not react well or logically.

"It's about time the son returned the favor, isn't it?" Shinoda asked.

"For all those times he's saved you, you have to save him now." Rindo added.

"That's the plan." Yuma said.

"No, the plan is for you to survive this." Rindo corrected. "That is the way you can save your father. Make sure he fails in his plans to ensure his survival and survive in his place instead."

That would just essentially just be putting them back at the place they were originally in before this week began, just with some added emotional baggage to weigh him down as if Yuma didn't have enough already. "If Osamu has any say in it, that is going to be the end result of today's battle." Yuma settled on saying. "So, you know, Shinoda-san, we're stealing a good amount of your agents for backup if my fight with Dad goes wrong."

"That's fine. That means they are earning their overtime pay." Shinoda replied, though if he was being honest, his agents earned their overtime pay for the week a long time ago. Hopefully they did get this little war with Yugo finished today so the agents would actually go off duty, go home, and relax.

"I'm planning to not need their help at all, but Osamu wants to be careful and not let him escape this time." Yuma explained.

"Even if you plan for that, Kuga-san is slippery." Rindo warned. "He can make an explosive exit or he can slip away quietly like a ninja."

"There's also the concern of the fact that none of our agents have been able to stop him all week." Shinoda added. "We couldn't even stop him, so even if you have all these allies as backup, they may not be able to prevent him from escaping."

"I think Osamu's idea is to overpower him with numbers if he attempts to abandon my fight with him." Yuma replied, and even if that didn't work, Yuma was willing to pull out his ace. Plan A was to not activate his Black Trigger as that would put too much strain on his already fragile ring so he would use his father's old Trigger. However, if that failed, plan B that Yuma did not discuss with Osamu was about activating his Black Trigger and hoping for the best. He managed to use it last night without damaging it too much, though that likely was in part due to the fact that Yugo was sitting in a cell last night and not fighting so he wasn't draining as much Trion as before. If Yuma tried to use it today while his father was also using the Black Trigger, it wasn't going to end well which was why Yuma wasn't going into the fight with his Black Trigger from the start.

"And what do you think? Will that work?" Shinoda asked. Outnumbering a powerful opponent was a strategy they taught. No matter how strong someone was, if they had too many opponents to fight at once, they wouldn't be able to defend from every attack coming their way and they would waste their Trion a lot faster. However, it wasn't a full proof strategy. They were cases in which a single person could outlast an onslaught like that, but the conditions had to be just right.

"Normally, it would work." Yuma said. "Dad's a great strategist and an expert swordsman, but that would only get him so far against this many squads. This isn't a normal situation though. My Black Trigger is designed to take on a single opponent and overpower them, but it is also designed to make me a one-man army." Though, that was with varying results. If he was going for sheer power against Trion Soldiers, he was a terrifying one-man army. Against human opponents that could adapt to him, it would be much harder to do without Replica's assistance. It was doable to an extent, but with a lot more struggle on his part. "Even more so since I copied Miwa's Asteroid and Lead Bullet."

"And Kuga-san somehow got his hands on Viper and Hound." Rindo said.

Yuma filed that bit of information away. He had heard about that problem that Rindo and Shinoda faced when they fought Yugo, but had forgotten about it. It was a good reminder before he went into a fight with Yugo. "Yes, so he has a wide range of attack and power behind him, and he can use it in combination with his normal Triggers. It makes it hard to get close to him."

Rindo raised a brow, staring pointedly at Yuma.

"What?" Yuma asked confused.

"No reckless strategies like when you fought Viza." Rindo ordered.

Yuma opened his mouth to retort but snapped it shut before a single syllable escaped him. He didn't actually have any reckless strategies prepared for his fight with Yugo, but to be fair, he never planned reckless strategies. The reckless strategies always came in the moment when nothing else was working.

Shinoda chuckled softly at Yuma's affronted look, but the amusement only lasted a couple seconds before seriousness was overtaking him again. "We're going along with this because Jin thinks it is a good idea, Yuma-kun, but please do exercise caution. We have no idea of what will happen to you when you defeat your father."

When, not if, because Yuma needed to win this fight. That was all there was to it.

Jin was giving all his support to Yuma going after his father alone for the time being. Before, he was all for protecting Yuma, but now he was stepping by and letting Yuma through which meant he saw something in the future and just wasn't telling any of them about it. Perhaps he wanted to avoid causing problems for the future by not telling Yuma what was going to happen. The future wasn't set in stone so whatever Jin saw had a chance of not happening. He could see the future, but he couldn't make the future he wanted to happen. He could only set them up on a certain path to the future and hope that they managed to stay on that path that Yugo was no doubt going to try to push them off of.

"I'm not looking to die." Yuma said softly. "But we have no time left. Not only is my body reaching its limit, Meraki is also going out of range soon which means the Mimic is going to get desperate. We need to move now, act before he does because if Dad is the one to initiate the next fight, it's going to be a for sure strategy that will defeat us and get my Black Trigger."

"Even taking the fight to him won't be enough. He adapts very quickly." Rindo said.

"I know. I have a few ideas in mind of what to do, but with my seals at his disposal, I can't predict him." Yuma said. Not to mention, it had been years since he trained with his father. Back when he was eleven, he had been studying his father's fighting style very closely and watching for all his little ticks in fight that would tell Yuma what was coming from Yugo, but five years was a long time to go without seeing a fighting style. In those five years, he has been in so many fights and met so many tough opponents that his father's fighting style which he thought he would never see again was just a hazy memory. This was a fight which he couldn't fully prepare for like he did with the rank wars, but Yuma was no rookie. He could easily adapt mid battle to whatever Yugo threw at him.

*Mimics*

"Com check, Kuga." Osamu ordered.

Yuma put a hand to ear, smirking slightly. "Do you not have any trust in Shiori-chan?"

"That's a good point." Shiori growled through the coms. "I am perfectly capable of installing coms into a Trigger, Osamu-kun."

Osamu winced, pulling his head to the side even though there was no way for him to escape his coms and Shiori's angry tirade. "I know that, Usami-senpai, but the Trigger he is using is a really old design. I'm sure it is much different than what you are used to."

"It was only a bit different." Shiori said. "But it was still a Border Trigger. The new Triggers we have are just an improvement on the old design. It's not like I was working on a Neighbor's Trigger."

Chika smiled lightly at the argument taking place over their coms, but didn't take part in the conversation. She kept her place crouched on the roof with her eye resting on her scope as she observed Yuma standing alone on the road below them, dressed in a black uniform that accompanied the old Trigger he was using. It was strange to see her teammate dressed in black, instead of the usual blue their team sported.

"Perhaps it is best to focus?" Reiji suggested over Shiori lecturing Osamu about the Triggers. "Kuga-san has likely already sensed our presence in the area. He could be taking this time to lay an ambush. We already know the plan so we leave it in Yuma's hands now."

Without turning to face the roof that his team was stationed on, Yuma raised his hand to just above his shoulder and gave them a thumbs up, knowing that Chika was watching him through her scope.

"Yeah, so try not to screw up this time, Kuga." Kageura growled.

"Your support is simply astounding, Kage-senpai."

It was a relief to hear Yuma softly teasing and bickering with his teammates and friends. Osamu was worried that he would be very anxious and entirely too serious as he approached the fight with his father. There was nothing wrong with being serious as Yuma tended to be completely serious in any fight he found himself in. The only time a smile ever graced his face in a fight was when he was training, whether it was with their senpais at Tamakoma or in the solo rank wars at HQ. In the field or in team rank wars, there was no place for smiles from Yuma. The fact that he was keeping it light right now was a good sign to Osamu that Yuma wasn't freaking out with nerves as he approached what would hopefully be the last confrontation with Kuga Yugo.

"Yuma-kun, I boosted your normal Shields as much as I could when I installed your coms," Shiori said. "And I got a radar installed so you could see Kuga-san's location via Suwa-san's starmaker."

"Thank you, Shiori-chan." Yuma lifted his hand as he activated the new radar that Shiori gave him. He really should have given her this Trigger a while ago. She surely would have been able to do a lot more to update this Trigger for him if he had.

"The idea of the starmaker was so we could find him and ambush him, not so you could recklessly charge in alone." Suwa complained.

Yuma stared at the dot on his radar that was flashing purple to indicate the target marked with starmaker. There were plenty of red dots all around the area to signify the Border agents lying in wait but Yuma ignored them as none of them were his concern. "I'm not moving recklessly or alone. You guys are here to back me up if something goes wrong. Just, don't move from your positions. It's very likely Dad is going to use my seals and I might need to as well. If that's the case, this area isn't going to survive and be wary of any stray attacks. You don't want to bail out for a stupid reason."

"Is that wise?" Hyuse asked. "You fought last night and I thought you were having trouble recovering Trion because of Kuga draining you."

"It's fine." Yuma assured him. It was fine as long as he didn't overuse his Black Trigger seals. Mogami did a great job of restoring his Trion when he healed him. He may not be recovering Trion as well as he should be, but he should be able to last one more fight. Once Yugo was defeated, there would be nothing left to damage his Black Trigger. He just needed to survive Yugo dying and he would be able to recover.

He hoped, at least.

As Yuma made his way down the road, eyes swapping between the radar and the road in front of him to watch where he was going, he was entirely prepared for Yugo to start moving and come out to move him. Even if he didn't move to step into Yuma's path, Yuma still expected some movement from Yugo that might indicated he was laying a trap like Reiji suggested he could be doing.

To Yuma's surprise though, the icon on his radar didn't move at all. Yuma could understand Yugo making no moves when he allowed himself to be locked up in Border's cell, but he had escaped. He could be making plans. He could have planned an attack hours ago when he escaped while Border was still making plans for their move. He could be laying traps right now. Yugo could be doing so many things to prepare for a fight.

So, why wasn't he?

Why was he just letting Yuma approach so casually?

In a sense, it was much more unnerving this way. Yugo wasn't acting like the experienced warrior that Yuma knew him to be. Acting in the opposite of what was expected meant that Yuma didn't know what he was walking into.

Stepping up the stairs of the church, Yuma looked at his radar once more but seeing no movement still, he deactivated it and planted his hands on the doors and shoved them open while being ready to cast a Shield if he needed to.

For all his preparedness, nothing came.

Yuma stepped into the church, allowing the doors to close behind him which meant the only light in the church was the sun shining down on them from a hole in the roof. He stood at the end of the aisle, taking in the sight of his dad sitting on the steps at the altar with his head bowed and arms resting listlessly on his knees.

"You're not the one who was supposed to walk through that door." Yugo said without raising his head.

"Sorry to disappoint." Yuma replied casually. "Though, I seem to disappoint you a lot so you're probably used to it."

"When have you ever disappointed me, Yuma?"

"Too many to list so I'll just go for the biggest one. When I disobeyed your last order and walked right into the hands of the assassin, which ultimately forced you to give up your life for a disobedient son."

A humorless chuckle escaped Yugo as he lowered his head even more. "That? Yuma, I expected that disobedience. You were never good at staying out of a fight and when you didn't verbally reply to me that you would stay inside the walls, I just knew you would try something reckless. I had Replica keeping me updated on what you were doing during the battle."

That figured. Replica was designed to protect Yuma just as much as he was meant to be his friend. When Yugo was alive, despite being Yuma's partner, Replica would always prioritize Yugo's orders first, especially when it was in reference to Yuma's safety.

Yugo pushed himself to his feet, finally lifting his head to look at his son, a look of complete defeat in his eyes. He walked down the aisle to approach his son who had tensed up at his approach as if expecting an attack. "If anyone is to blame for what happened that day, it is me. I trained you for six years. I taught you how to survive and to make your own choices. I knew you had trouble listening to orders and I knew you learned not to verbally reply to me when you didn't want me to see through your lies." He came to a stop in front of his son who by now had reach over to grab the hilt of one of his swords, but he didn't yet pull it from its sheath. "You had no one fooled back then. I knew you would jump into the fray. I should have spent more time warning you of the danger. I shouldn't have run off to fight and leaving you alone on at the fort. No one was there to stop you. I was focused on training you to be a warrior that could survive the harsh world of the Neighborhood because I was dragging you through all those nations that were at war, but I should have been more focused on being your father."

Yugo suddenly lunged forward.

Yuma went to yank his sword out at the sudden movement, but he barely pulled it out an inch before a strong hand was covering his and pushing his sword back into the sheath while Yugo's other hand was cupping the back of his head and pulling Yuma forward into a hug. Yuma blinked in surprise when his head hit his dad's stomach while those nimble fingers tangled themselves soothingly in his hair.

"Neither of us are free of blame for what happened that day." Yugo said softly, staring ahead at the closed church doors. "I can't bring myself to be disappointed in you when I have just as much guilt weighing me down."

It didn't match.

It didn't match the tone and words that Yugo said to him at the beginning of the week. The Yugo he met at the beginning of the week was a lot harsher in his words and ready to pull Yuma down. He was ready to put all the blame on the reckless Yuma.

It was gone though.

There were no lies being said to Yuma.

Either time.

Yugo didn't lie at the beginning of the week and he wasn't lying now. What did that mean? When speaking something, the speaker had to believe it to avoid setting off Yuma's lie detector. That meant Yugo believed everything he said to Yuma. Yuma saw that as meaning the Mimic and Yugo were both speaking and they believed different things. The Mimic saw the memories of Kuga Yugo and was ready to blame Yuma and declare him reckless. Yugo was ready to accept equal blame and show his son love.

"I never wanted this."

Yugo's sword didn't manage to impale Yuma from behind like he planned. Instead, his sword's momentum was forcibly stopped from hitting Yuma's back by a well-placed Shield, even as the son kept staring at his dad's shirt he was pressed into. "I'm not the same child I was five years ago."

Yuma shoved Yugo away from him while twisting to the side at the same to avoid getting cut by the sword behind him as he pulled one of his swords out. Yugo may love him, but the Mimic part of him still wanted to kill him. Yuma came in here knowing that and he wasn't going to let his guard down because of a simple hug.

*Mimics*

"I don't like this."

That was the third time Konami had said that in the last five minutes. Jin stayed leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, but he did look up from looking at his feet to find Konami glaring at him over her shoulder. Once she saw that she had his attention now, Konami turned back to looking down at the church that her student had disappeared into it.

"We can't hear what is going on in there. We can't see what is going on in there. What if Yuma is in trouble and we don't know?" Konami insisted. It had only been a few minutes and Konami didn't really believe that her student would lose that fast, but it was unnerving that Yuma disappeared from their sight and absolutely nothing had happened. She had been expecting an explosion of a battle a lot sooner than this.

"You should put more trust in him." Reiji scolded without shifting from his sniper's position. He could captain his team and be ready to defend Yuma if he needed to at the same time. If Yuma was going to come flying out of that church at any time, he wasn't going to miss it. "Yuma did say he wanted to talk to his dad first. Maybe he is successfully distracting him."

"I trust Yuma." Konami insisted. "It's the other Kuga I don't trust, not one bit." She wanted to. She wanted to trust and like Kuga Yugo so much, but the man unnerved her. He was mocking and manipulative. For all the respect and trust that Yuma had for his father, Konami thought it was safe to say that he wasn't normally like that. It was the Mimic's influence on him, but seeing as that was all she saw from him, Konami wasn't going to trust him. Even if the father part of him tried to shine through, to Konami, it was just a trick to get them to drop their guard. Well, it wasn't going to work on her, but she was scared about it working on Yuma. Her student felt so much guilt for the past. He surely wanted forgiveness from Yugo but surely he wouldn't go for it in this situation? The plan was for Yuma to distract Yugo, not the other way around.

Not being able to see what was going on between father and son was causing a ball of anxiety to twist in Konami's gut. Anything could be happening inside that church between Yugo and Yuma. She knew Yuma's strength and that it was nothing to scoff at. He had seemed so ready and determined when he made the decision to face his father alone, but would he really be fine once he stepped into Yugo's path?

"It's not like you to overthink like this." Karasuma said airily. "You're usually much more brash." It wasn't that his partner didn't think and consider her enemy in battle. It was simply that Konami charged in and made a chaotic scene more than she thought about strategy. She had a fighter's instincts honed from years of training and real combat experience so she didn't need any elaborate strategies to win a fight like their rookie team did.

"Standing here doing nothing gives me plenty of time to think." Konami snapped. Her hand brushed briefly over one of her weapon's handles, but that was it. There was no reason for her to pull her weapons out. She could only stay up here on the roof and wait. Wait for the fight to be over. Wait for Yuma to need their help. Wait for Yugo to try to escape which would force her to gladly move to intercept him.

Just wait.

Wait for whatever Yuma needed them for, which could be nothing or it could be to save him from getting killed.

She hated doing nothing, but when Tamakoma-2 asked for them to be here just to make sure Yugo didn't escape the area, she didn't hesitate to say yes. She hated not being able to help Yuma in the fight, but that didn't mean she was going to abandon their cute rookies.

"If I thought he was in danger, I would have moved by now, Konami." Jin said softly, attention moving briefly to the church before he titled his head back down. "It won't be much longer now."

"What won't be?" Karasuma asked, but received no answer in response.

*Mimics*

A faint smile filtered over Yugo's face. He had been aiming to stab Yuma through the back to end this quickly, even if it resulted in Yugo stabbing himself as well to do it. Yugo would have been able to heal relatively easily from the wound once he took the Black Trigger off of Yuma.

That had been the plan anyway.

But, for once, Yugo didn't predict Yuma.

Yugo was with his son from the moment of his birth. He raised him. He protected him. He trained him to protect himself. He turned his son into a warrior.

Having spent eleven years with his son, with a child who was still learning the ways of the world, Yugo could easily read his son. He knew all his little ticks. He knew what the glint in his eyes meant and what he was planning. He knew that when Yuma wouldn't respond to him it was because he wanted to lie but couldn't to Yugo so he chose silence instead because if he didn't verbally reply then he could technically say he didn't agree with Yugo's order and would follow them to the letter.

However, this child in front of him blocked his attack without knowing the exact location that Yugo was going to strike. Yuma had always excelled in his training sessions, but he was still a rookie. His situational awareness was lacking. He could focus on the enemy in front of him, but missed what was going on behind that enemy and tended to lack preparation for the next wave of enemies.

When did that change?

It had been five years since his death. Five years in which Yuma was alone. How much had his son grown as a fighter in those years?

"That child you're remembering has persevered through many difficulties since then and has grown up past the recklessness of a kid who wanted nothing more than a fight." Jin argued. In his hand, Fujin came to life once more with eleven new slashes. "But no matter how much stronger he has gotten in the past four years, he doesn't have to deal with this alone. I will end this nightmare for him. This is my job as his brother."

It was right in front of Yugo, but he just wasn't seeing it. Perhaps that was because he didn't want to see it, see how much Yuma had grown up beyond Yugo. Perhaps he couldn't see it, because besides the white hair, nothing about Yuma had changed since that day he saved him. Perhaps it was because Yuma wouldn't fight him. He put up a great defense, but Yuma just would not attack Yugo. He was so hesitant and scared to face Yugo, to face this past, that Yugo couldn't see the growth that the last five years had given him.

Now, though, staring down at his son, seeing those defiant, determined eyes turned up towards him, Yugo could see that all that hesitance from before was gone.

Yuma wasn't a child that needed to be protected.

The person staring at Yugo was a warrior ready to kill his enemy.