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?

71. Chapter 71: To Play A Lot

A/N: I don't own World Trigger

Mimics

Chapter 71: To Play A Lot

Shinoda relaxed against the wall of the elevator with a tablet in his hand while his other hand held a cup of coffee. It was nice to finally feel himself relaxing after all the stress of the last week. Meraki was fully out of range, he managed to get a full night of sleep last night, and he finally managed to get his coffee with no interruptions from his agents about a new mess occurring.

For as relaxed as he was, Shinoda found himself frowning as he looked through the file that Kinuta had sent him. Lucky for them, despite Chika's powerful shot the other day, she hadn't managed to completely decimate every Inchoate that Yugo summoned the other day. This allowed Kinuta to study the Inchoate and compare them to the Mimics he had been studying throughout the week.

When studying the Mimics and Inchoate, they could only go on what they learned through their research of them along with the limited information that Yuma was able to give about them. According to what Yuma told them, Inchoate were an incomplete form of Aionia since his mother stopped the project at Inchoate. Meraki stole the research from her and went on to finish the project. That much he understood. Looking at the files comparing the Inchoate and Mimics, he saw a major difference in their programming. Inchoate truly were not meant to fight. There was no combat program even ingrained in them. In fact, an Inchoate had the consideration to not approach someone who didn't want them to transform. They only touch and transform into someone when the other party was willing and wanting to see someone they lost.

Had they simply left the Inchoate alone, they would have backed off when they realized no one wanted them to transform into someone.

It was quite a considerate design choice by Eleni.

A design choice that Meraki ruined when they stole the Trion Soldier and reprogrammed it for their own use.

The elevator dinging as he reached his stop had him pushing off the wall to straighten himself out before the doors opened. As he stepped out of the elevator, he held himself upright as the proper as the Defense Commander he was. There was no stress and Rindo wasn't around to cause him to drop the respectable commander act.

Shinoda shared a few nods of respect to the agents he passed, but that was it as he made his way to Kido's office.

"Kido-san," Shinoda said by way of greeting as he entered.

"Shinoda-kun," Kido leaned back in his chair as he took in the Defense commander. "Everything is going well with the cleanup?"

"All the Trion Soldiers, as well as the Inchoate, have been recovered including," Shinoda paused for just a second. "The body of Kuga Eleni and what was leftover from Yugo-san's...death." Of course, all that was left of the Mimic of Kuga Yugo was dust, but their cleanup crew was very thorough. "Kinuta-san has been spending his free time doing as much research on the Inchoate and Mimics as he can."

Shinoda set the tablet down with the information on Kido's desk.

Kido glanced at the screen, taking in the intensive notes that Kinuta had written. Staring at the information on the Trion Soldiers that just attacked them made it hard to avoid the information he learned last week. "I assume he is also looking into Agent Kuga's situation as well."

"He has given Yuma-kun an examination." Shinoda replied. "All things considered, Yuma-kun is in perfect condition."

Kido nodded. "And Agent Kuga? How is he? Mentally? Will he be able to join in with the training sessions for the away mission?"

Shinoda took a step back from the desk while staring out the window behind Kido with a thoughtful expression. "Rindo said he has been hanging out around Tamakoma. He hasn't left their base since he went back or trained. However, it has only been a couple days since Yugo-san's death. Or, second death."

Kido raised a brow. He saw so much of Yugo in Yuma that he didn't expect to see Yuma falter this badly. The image of his friend was always an imposing, confident figure. It wasn't that Yugo never dealt with negative emotions. It was simply that he did a good job of managing his emotions. That was Yugo though. His son was very similar to him in many regards, but everyone dealt with grief in a different way. It was one of those things that simply couldn't be compared.

"Rindo is confident that he will be fine though and ready to start training with the away mission team soon enough." Shinoda added.

"Good to hear." Kido pulled the tablet closer to him so he could study the files that Kinuta had created. "One more thing."

"Yes?"

"Has that pizza party been paid off?" Kido asked without looking up from the documents he was reading.

Shinoda really shouldn't have been surprised that Kido was very much aware of the party and that Tamakoma–note Jin–sent the bill to Border HQ. It seemed very little actually got pass Kido. He just didn't bring it up most of the time unless it was important, or in this case, it was possible he was simply mocking Shinoda.

"It's been paid off." Shinoda said with a grimace. Jin truly owed him a lot for that. That was not a Border expense that Shinoda could justify so he and Rindo ended up splitting the bill between them. Had the last few days not been so stressful and the agents hadn't been pulling so much overtime, he never would have done that. He let them have it as a treat, but he was hardly going to let Jin forget this.

*Mimics*

There was noise all around her. It was the noise of rifles firing nonstop at the targets. It was a sound she thought she would never get used to, but under Reiji's guidance, the noise had become white noise to her that she could block out and focus on her own target that was already riddled with bullet holes.

She noticed the timer counting down as only ten seconds were left so she took the time to line up one more shot that slammed through the bullseye just as the buzzer sounded to end the training round. Her Egret deactivated as she pushed herself back to her feet and she turned to see her ranking come up on the screen. She wasn't too concerned about her own rank so she leaned to the side to try to look pass Izuho to see her rank.

"Thirty-ninth?" Chika said out loud, drawing her friend's attention to her. "You keep getting better, Izuho-chan! You'll reach B-Rank in no time at all at this rate!"

"You better be ready, Chikako!" Izuho spun around to face her friend, grinning. "Next B-Rank season, I'll be gunning for you and Yuzuru."

Ema looked up from his score to give Izuho a bland stare. "Why do you keep trying to target us?"

"Because I know you'll be gunning for me as you go for the weaker members first since they are easier targets. If I'm going to be targeted anyway, then I might as well return fire." Izuho replied.

Chika smiled a bit nervously as she was reminded of her first match against the top teams. They were so harshly targeted that it resulted in Yuma having to fight three teams alone so he only managed to get one point. Hopefully it would be easier for Izuho when she entered the Rank Wars. She had no fear of shooting people so she was already doing better than Chika was when she entered them.

"By the way, Chika, why did you come to training today?" Izuho asked.

Chika blinked. "What do you mean? I can't afford to miss training right now." Not when the away mission was right around the corner and she needed to get in as much training as possible.

"She's referring to the fact that your teammate is in a horrible mental state. You don't want to be there to help him through this tough time?" Ema asked.

"Oh," Chika shook his head. "Actually, Osamu-kun told me it would be best to back off from crowding Yuma-kun. Yuma-kun doesn't want the pity."

Izuho rose a brow. "Why would we pity him?"

Chika cleared her throat uncomfortably. While she had informed her friend that the issue with the Mimics had been solved, she didn't tell her what happened specifically between Yugo and Yuma. It just wasn't something she could say, and now knowing how Yuma didn't want pity and felt he was going to get it after they all saw his real body, she didn't want to mention it.

Izuho seemed to read the expression on Chika's face because she bopped her friend on the head. "If it's causing you that much distress, just forget it. I don't need to know something that's not my business." She didn't need to know, but she did feel a new wave of concern for the Ochibi-senpai if Chika was looking this upset and Ema was looking away, frowning to himself. However, she was not going to push the issue. There wasn't anything she could do to help anyway.

"He doesn't want pity?" Ema questioned, already pulling his phone out. "Quick question, how is he feeling?"

Chika turned to her other friend, fixing up her hair from Izuho messing it up. "He seems fine. Though, he hasn't been training and is just relaxing at Tamakoma. He is trying to smile a bit, but I think he is still anxious."

Ema nodded and typed out a message and hit sent.

"Who are you texting right now when Chikako is talking about a serious topic?" Izuho scolded.

"My captain. If he doesn't want pity, he won't get it."

That felt oddly threatening. Chika was beginning to feel like she just betrayed her teammate by throwing him to the meanest wolf in Border.

Eh...

It should be fine. Kageura and Yuma were friends after all...

*Mimics*

Yuma sat crossed legged on the couch, pillow clutched to his chest as he stared at the television. Balanced atop his knee was his phone which he was occasionally glancing at.

"Yu-Ma!"

Yuma let himself be yanked deeper into the couch as Konami came up behind him and hugged him from behind.

"You're becoming a couch potato!" Konami complained.

Yuma blinked and turned his head slightly to look at his mentor. "New term. What's it mean?"

"It's someone who sits around watching tv all day with little to no exercise." Konami replied. She dropped her head down to rest her chin on Yuma's shoulder.

That couldn't be comfortable. Konami was taller than him and he was sitting so she would have to be leaning down a lot to do that.

Konami didn't seem to care though as she looked at Yuma's phone which was opened to his text messages. He had quite a few messages from his friends and fellow agents. From what she could see, they were all read but none of them had been replied to. "Don't tell me you're ignoring your friends." She reached over Yuma and opened the message from Murakami.

Before she could read what it said, Yuma snatched his phone off his leg. "Isn't it rude to read someone else's messages?"

"Since when do you care?" Konami asked surprised.

Yuma broke free of Konami's hug and twisted around on the couch to face her properly as she straightened back up. "They're just asking me if I'm okay and that they are waiting for some rank wars. Yosuke-senpai seems quite convinced I owe him a match after everything that went down." He wasn't surprised about that. Yoneya was always eager for a fight. It was a relief to get such a normal message from him.

"And when are you going to?" Konami asked. "You can't hang out inside Tamakoma forever."

"–Not be able to see you. There may be hundreds of miles between us, but I'll always be looking your way. I'll be watching over you forever. I promise."

Yuma shrugged, turning slightly to go back to looking at the anime he was watching, focusing on the speech that was being said. Jin was quite insistent he watch a show about a found family. Yuma had thought he was joking when he said it the other day, but he had plopped Yuma down on the couch last night when everyone was going to bed and told him to learn something about found family instead of sitting on the roof, brooding the night away. He had at first failed to see how a show called 'Fairy Tail' was going to teach him anything, but as he watched the show and learned how all the characters had tragic pasts that ripped them from their families and found themselves a new home in the guild, he found himself relating quite heavily. He understood the fear, pain, the loneliness, and heartache that these characters were going through and how they found the strength to deal with their pain by having their friends by their sides.

Yuma ran a hand over his ring, being reminded of what Jin said the other day. He said this ring was the sign that his dad would always be with him.

"I didn't realize you watched Fairy Tail." Konami said as she finally looked at the tv. "I didn't think it would be something to interest you."

"Jin-san insisted." Yuma replied. "The combat doesn't make much sense to me. It seems very chaotic with no strategy." He pursed his lips. Fighting with emotion wasn't something he did. He tended to turn his emotions off in battle so he wouldn't be distracted. His confrontations with Yugo, however, were stock full of emotion so he couldn't say he had never done it before now.

"It's just a show. It's not meant to be realistic." Konami leaned down on the back of the couch, glancing between Yuma and the tv. "Can you really say you've never been chaotic in a fight before?"

"Eh," Yuma smiled guiltily. If he was going for power over strategy with his Black Trigger, it was a chaotic fight so perhaps he shouldn't judge. "Fair enough, Konami-senpai." He glanced at the tv again as the ending song played, eyes softening in longing as he closed his fist and held it against his heart. "Do you think Oyaji is always watching over me?"

Konami glanced over at Yuma in surprise. It was honestly such a cute question considering Yuma's personality and she had to withhold the urge to tease him over it since it was also a serious topic in regard to his mental health. "I'd like to think so. He may be dead, but he still holds a place in your heart. I believe you will always be in Kuga-san's heart as well." She leaned forward and placed a hand over Yuma's hand on his chest, squeezing it tightly. "His love was so strong that he managed to manifest it into a physical object as he died."

It wasn't the first time Yuma heard something along those lines in reference to his dad's Black Trigger, and it likely wouldn't be the last. It was something he liked to hear right now. It was a current reassurance that he needed at the moment.

"I wonder if he would be disappointed in seeing me hiding inside Tamakoma." Yuma said. He was hiding just because he didn't want to see any looks of pity from anyone. He knew he couldn't stay inside Tamakoma forever. He was just working up the nerve to face those stares.

"Why would he?" Konami replied. "You're allowed to take time to cope with your feelings as long as it's not forever. You can't avoid going out forever, but you can take time to yourself." She glanced at Yuma's phone still in his hand to hide the messages from her. "Though, I'm thinking you are wanting to go out."

Yuma dropped his phone face down on the couch.

"I can't think of another reason for you to be staring at your messages. Trying to think of what to say to them?" Konami asked. "You didn't have any trouble speaking to them the past few days when they initially learned of your condition."

Yuma tilted his head in agreement. "True, however, a part of me thought I was going to die so I was dealing with it. Now, though? They saw my real body and truly just how dire it is. I don't know how much time I have left, but until my time runs out, I'll have to face their concerned stares all the time." He glanced towards Konami. "How many times has it passed your mind in the past couple of days? 'Am I going to see Yuma today? What if he dies while I'm sleeping?'"

Konami couldn't meet Yuma's eyes right now. They were so intense that it felt like he was seeing right through her soul and getting the answer he wanted without her having to say anything.

A sudden chime from Yuma's phone saved her from answering that question.

When Yuma went to glance at her phone, she took the chance to head back to the kitchen to get a drink.

Yuma blinked down at his phone a few times.

"Get off your damn ass and come fight me."

Even in text form, Kageura was so aggressive.

Karasuma raised a brow at his teammate as she poured herself a glass of water. He tossed his strawberry in his mouth and chewed slowly as he watched Konami guzzle down half her glass of water. "Running away?"

That got a jerk of anger from Konami. She slammed her glass back down on the counter and turned a furious expression to her partner. "I am not scared of him!"

"Never said you were." Karasuma picked up another strawberry. "You're scared of his questions."

Konami's brow twitched in annoyance for a moment before her shoulders slumped and she was relaxing against the counter. "Yuma's very aware of his situation and how we feel about it. He doesn't want the pity or concern, but how can I not give it? He's my student. I don't want him to die. I want to see him grow into a strong agent and I want to see his full team become A-Rank. Will that happen before he dies?" Her hands curled over each other tightly on the counter. "Yuma was right. The idea of his death haunts me. I don't understand how Osamu and Jin have been able to not let this knowledge affect them for the past few months."

"Hmm," Karasuma popped the strawberry in his mouth and stared into the living room where Yuma was still giving his phone a strange look. "It's a difficult situation that's for sure."

"That's really all you have to say?" Konami asked annoyed.

Karasuma held up his bowl of strawberries towards her. "Strawberry?"

Konami stared at her teammate in disbelief for a moment before she took one.

Karasuma set the bowl down on the counter between them. "There's no answer to this. You can't help what you feel. All you can do is try to not let it interfere with how you treat Yuma."

Konami tapped her finger against the counter, staring down at the strawberries next to her only because she didn't want to stare at Yuma. If she was staring, he would notice and he would get bothered again because he would think that she was worried about him, which wouldn't be wrong but he didn't need to know that. Karasuma was right. She shouldn't let her concern make her treat her student differently.

"Has it been haunting you?" Konami asked.

"Since Yuma told us his past." Karasuma admitted. "It was easier to deal with the concern then because it was a very present issue. Now that the fight is over, I think Yuma just wants things to go back to normal. However," He looked back towards the living room, meeting Yuma's eyes as he was now looking at them. "That normal has changed significantly."

Yuma sighed and tossed his phone on the coffee table. He relaxed back into the couch and turned his face towards the ceiling. "How do I get people to think I'm not going to die the moment they take their eyes off me? I've been like this for five years now."

"What makes you think they think that?" Karasuma asked, getting a surprise look from Yuma. He nodded his head towards the phone on the coffee table. "For as much as you haven't replied to them, not a single one of them has broken down the door in concern that you might be dead since you've gone radio silent."

Yuma's brows furrowed in confusion. "What?"

"Radio silent. It's a period of time in which you don't communicate with someone." Karasuma explained. "Essentially what you are doing by ignoring everyone who is not a part of Tamakoma."

"Can I just not want to be around a lot of people right now?" Yuma asked.

"You're allowed your solitude to recover from what happened, but at some point, you need to ask yourself if you are staying in here to recover or if you are simply running away from facing your friends." Karasuma replied.

Yuma turned away from the older agents and looked back at his phone that he laid facedown on the coffee table so he could stop staring at the messages that he hadn't been responding to.

"Are you not ready to face your friends or are you punishing yourself for what you forced Kuga-san to do?" Karasuma asked.

They liked to ask the tough questions. Well, it wasn't that they liked that, but they felt the need to bring it up to make Yuma think about why he was doing what he was.

Yuma didn't need to think on it too hard though. He was aware of why he was ignoring his friend's messages. It felt like if he replied he would be opening himself up for conversations with everyone and they would think he was ready to meet up again. It wasn't that he was opposed to hanging out with them and having fun. He just didn't want to deal with any conversations about his father or his body so it was easier to simply avoid them.

Maybe if he waited to return until it was time to train for the away mission, they would be too busy with training to talk about it and with that distraction, everyone would forget.

*Mimics*

Kageura was glaring down at his phone with so much venom that Murakami was actually worried he would melt a hole in it. It really felt like they could never have a peaceful lunch anymore as something was always bothering him. Murakami took a sip of his drink, staring at his friend to see if he would look up or calm down.

Kageura replied to the staring by scratching his neck. "Would you stop?"

"Would you stop glaring at your phone?" Murakami countered.

In response, Kageura tossed his phone onto the table and turned his full attention to Murakami. "We're going to Tamakoma."

Murakami raised a brow. That sounded like he wasn't going to get a choice. He was being forced into whatever this suddenly was. "I think if he wanted to talk to us, he would reply to his texts."

"Yuzuru said Kuga's little sniper said he doesn't want any pity. Well, if he doesn't want pity, then he can stop fucking hiding at his base!"

"So, your solution is to barge into Tamakoma?" Murakami asked, trying to get clarification on where his friend's mind was currently at.

"No, my plan was to stop asking him and to tell him come to HQ and he once again ignored me." Kageura aggressively tapped his phone on the table. "So, now I am going with Plan B."

Murakami sighed. "I'm afraid to ask, but what is Plan B?"

Kageura gave a shark-like grin in response that just got Murakami sighing again.

"Kage, no. Tamakoma's building just got fixed. You can't go breaking it again."

"I'm not going to break anything." Kageura pushed himself out of the booth and snatched his phone off the table. "Whether you come or not, I'm heading there."

Murakami sighed and grabbed his tray to dispose of it, giving Kageura a pointed look as he nodded to his own tray. For as much of a hurry as Kageura seemed to be in, they were not going to leave a mess here.

Kageura grunted and grabbed his tray.

Letting Kageura lead the way, Murakami held his tray with one hand so he could fish his phone out of his pocket with his other. The very least he could do was warn someone they were coming. Though, if Jin was around, he likely already saw them coming so he didn't need a warning.

*Mimics*

Two days. In just two days, they were scheduled to start training for the away mission. Technically, they were supposed to start today, but Shinoda postponed the start day for two days to give the agents a break after the chaotic last week they had. It was nice of the directors to give them a break, even if they were still technically working since they couldn't stop defense duty. However, regular defense duty was easier than dealing with the Mimics. His team had defense duty tomorrow morning. Right now, it was just him, Chika, and Hyuse scheduled. Rindo and him were willing to let Yuma skip and as of right now, Yuma hadn't given an answer of whether he would take the offered time off.

Osamu walked down the hall, heading to the stairs to head down to the kitchen to get himself a snack before going back to his studying of strategy. He hadn't even made it halfway down the stairs before he was pausing when he saw Konami sitting on the stairs, playing with her phone.

"What are you doing, Konami-senpai?" Osamu asked.

"Waiting for some guests. I want to catch them before they break the door." Konami replied.

Osamu raised a brow, opened his mouth to question what she meant, and then closed his mouth. He didn't want to know. Nope, it was best not to ask. If Konami wasn't freaking out, it wasn't truly dangerous. Having seen the agents of Border, Osamu understood quite well how rambunctious they all could be. It was probably just one of them.

He just needed to not acknowledge how weird this branch was.

Just keep walking.

Osamu barely got halfway to the door to head to the kitchen when he heard pounding on the front door. He closed his eyes in defeat as he realized he wasn't going to escape this chaos. He could easily ignore it by leaving it in Konami's hands, but if this was happening while he was standing here, he was now involved so he turned to watch as Konami stood up to answer the door that was still being pounded on. Who would knock that aggressively?

Konami swung the door open, taking a quick step back to avoid getting Kageura's fist in her face mid-knock.

"Hey, can Kuga come out to train?" Kageura asked.

"You could at least offer a greeting when showing up on short notice." Konami scolded. She nodded towards Murakami. "Hello, Ko-san."

"Konami," Murakami took notice of Osamu over her shoulder and offered a polite smile. "Mikumo."

"Hello." Osamu took the greeting as permission to enter the conversation and stepped a bit closer. "Did I hear you right? You're here for Kuga?"

"They apparently want to play with him." Konami explained.

"Train!" Kageura snapped.

"Can we come in?" Murakami asked quickly before Kageura could start up an argument.

"If it keeps Kageura-san from breaking our door." Konami stood to the side and waved her arm out to tell them to enter. "We just got this place fixed so don't break anything."

"We're not the ones who have breaking things the past week." Kageura shot back.

Murakami sighed and pushed his friend by his shoulders so he would enter the base. "Pardon us."

"I don't think Kuga is going to want to train." Osamu warned.

"I'm not asking." Kageura snapped. "He doesn't want us to pity him then he can stop sitting around."

Osamu blinked, feeling a bit bewildered. That was true. Yuma didn't want anyone to treat him any differently, but he didn't think that meant barging into Tamakoma and confronting Yuma about training. There was nothing subtle in that type of tactic, but that was also what he expected from someone with Kageura's temperament. It was probably why Murakami was here as well. His job was to keep Kageura from going over the top.

"Is this a good idea?" Osamu glanced towards Konami since she seemed to know they were coming over and didn't tell them not to. "I thought we didn't want to push him."

Konami shrugged. "Normally, I wouldn't, but Torimaru brought up a good point earlier. Yuma is just hiding in here to avoid seeing his friends and having to talk about what happened." She spun around to level a stern glare on Murakami and Kageura. "Which means you can take Yuma to train, but unless he brings it up, don't mention his body or his father. If he wants to speak of it, it should be on him to broach the topic."

"Kuga's history with his father is his own." Kageura said. "All we want to do is train and for him to stop dodging our texts and calls."

Konami nodded, satisfied with that answer. It was Kageura she really wanted the promise from. She knew Murakami was a lot more respectful of the space that Yuma would need. The warning was more of a reminder of what they needed to avoid. "He's in the living room." She pointed to the nearby door.

Kageura saw that as more than enough invitation to barge forward, throwing opening the door with less force than he would have liked since he didn't want to deal with Konami yelling at him for breaking the wall. He marched into the room, past the kitchen where Karasuma was standing, nonchalantly drinking a soda while staring at him in an unconcerned manner.

Kageura ignored his stare as his eyes zeroed in on the head of white hair that was sitting on the couch watching–"Are you seriously watching Fairy Tail?"

Yuma choked on the water he was drinking in surprise as Kageura's voice that did not belong inside Tamakoma. He covered his mouth with his arm as he coughed up the water while Yotaro patted his shoulder as if that would help. "Jin-san told me to." He said as he twisted around to look at Kageura and Murakami. "What are you doing here?"

Kageura's hand came down onto Yuma's head to shake it roughly. "You've been ignoring our texts for days."

"Cause I haven't felt like hanging out." Yuma replied, though he didn't push Kageura's hand away so he must not have been too averse to their presence.

"Sitting on a couch, watching anime all day, is not a very Kuga Yuma thing to do." Murakami said.

"I'm trying something new." Yuma leaned to the side to see Konami and Osamu come into the room and join Karasuma in the kitchen. Traitors, the lot of them.

"Why?" Murakami asked. "You don't have to change after what happened last week. You went through something immensely difficult, but you're still you. I don't believe you're the type of person to let Meraki win by letting them destroy who you are."

Yuma stared at his friends in surprise. He opened his mouth to say something, though froze as he wasn't sure what to say to that. The last time he had seen them was before he forced Yugo into making the same sacrifice for him. They had all seen. They had seen Yuma's real body and the wreck he truly was. Despite seeing how weak he was, they still thought he could be strong enough to overcome what he had been forced through last week.

His friends didn't seem offended by his silence as he thought over those words. In fact, they seem to take it as a means to proceed while he was distracted.

Unexpectedly, Yuma found himself hoisted up and over the couch he was on and thrown over Kageura's shoulder. He blinked for a moment in surprise before he tried to push off. "What are you–"

"We're taking Kuga!" Murakami shouted as they began to leave.

Osamu stared as the three aces disappeared out the door. He didn't know why anything surprised him anymore. "Do you think that can be considered kidnapping?"

"Once he gets over his surprise, Yuma will find it hilarious." Karasuma replied.

"That doesn't answer the question of whether it could be considered kidnapping or not." Konami pointed out. She wondered if she should feel bad about what she subjected her student to since she was technically an accomplice in this.

"It will be fine. Yuma will get out, get some fresh air, and have some fun with his friends." Karasuma replied. "It will take him back to a sense of normal that he needs. Sitting inside all day isn't going to help him heal from what happened."

"Then why were we letting him?" Konami asked.

"To give him the space he needed." Osamu replied. "I think we thought he would go out when he felt ready, but he was avoiding that?" He glanced over at Karasuma to see if his guess was right.

Karasuma nodded. "I think Yuma is beginning to back track from letting everyone know his past. He's afraid they will bring it up after his final confrontation with Kuga-san and I don't think that is something he wants to discuss anymore. It's been a heavy topic for over a week now so I think he wants to move on from it."

"He wants people to either not bring it up or forget about it." Konami concluded. "But, it's very like no one will forget that." She glanced over at Osamu. "You've known for months. How do you avoid thinking about it when you look at him?"

Osamu shook his head. "Because I never saw how bad it was. Hearing about it was one thing, but seeing the damage done to his real body is an entirely different thing. It made it easier to not focus on it. That and just keeping busy, I guess. We have a goal to accomplish so we let training become our main focus. I'm sure the away mission training and the actual away mission will keep everyone busy enough that they won't be thinking about it every time they see Kuga. We are going to have other things to worry about and focus on." He pushed his glasses up as he thought. "Plus, I know saving Kuga isn't within my skill set so I'll just do what I can. That kind of knowledge isn't something I possess."

Konami nodded. "A good way to think about it. We can't let ourselves get distracted with our concern." She tilted her head as a sudden thought came to her. "What do we know about Kuga-san besides his history as a Border member and he died to save Yuma?"

"Um, his wife created the Inchoate." Osamu suggested.

"That's Yuma's mom. What about Kuga-san?" Konami insisted.

Osamu gave a weak shrug. "Only what Kuga said."

"Which was all stuff connected to a difficult past." Konami replied, frowning. "It's all we know. When you only focus on the bad, you forget the good memories and what made that love between them possible."

"Okay?"

"No okay!" Konami said, slamming her hand on the counter, surprising Osamu enough that he jerked back a bit. "Kuga-san is more than his sacrifice, but that is all Yuma can focus on!" She marched to the doorway. "Where are Jin and Rindo-san?"

Osamu watched her disappear from the kitchen without waiting for a reply to her question and then turned to his own mentor, who looked confused, but just shrugged when he caught Osamu's stare.

"Best not to question her when she gets an idea in her head. Since it likely involves Yuma, it won't be anything bad."

Osamu had no doubt about that. Once he got past Konami's rough exterior she displayed when they first met, she was actually a very loyal and protective friend and mentor. They were very lucky to have her looking out for them.

*Mimics*

It didn't take Yuma long to realize what was happening or that his mentor and captain had just betrayed him. Considering these were his friends, it did take him a bit longer than usual to struggle which was mostly just him trying to get some leverage to push himself up a bit as Kageura had a strong arm wrapped around his waist to keep him on his shoulder.

"Why?" Yuma asked. "I have two fully functioning feet."

Murakami seemed to read Kageura's mind because before Kageura could even open his mouth to make a snide comment about that not technically being true, he was finding an elbow being dug into his side. Instead of words, a hiss of pain came from Kageura as he glared at Murakami.

Fine, damn it.

"You being so small and light for you age makes more sense now that we know you're have the physique of an eleven-year-old."

Murakami closed his eyes, sighing in absolute defeat. He wanted to avoid bringing up Yuma's real body at all cost since he didn't know what would set him off. All they needed to do was get to HQ and train. That was all they were supposed to do. Konami even warned them off, and yet, he wasn't surprised that Kageura broke that promise to not mention it so fast.

Yuma snorted. "Works out in my favor. If I was your weight, I wouldn't be able to move as fast as I do. I take quite a bit of pride in being a speed Attacker."

Oh, good, Yuma wasn't offended. He was never offended when his height was mentioned. Murakami was just worried that might change after everything with Yugo and it being so fresh in his mind. However, commenting on Yuma's height was something that was normal. It happened all the time when he first joined Border and still happened. It was just one of those things that Yuma just went along with.

There was a bit of concern that those jokes would hold a different weight to them since they knew the truth of why Yuma was so short, but if they didn't change the tone or meaning to the jokes, maybe it would be fine.

"Huuuh?" Kageura growled. "Are you saying I'm slow?"

"Well, you certainly can't match my speed." Yuma retorted.

"Says the brat who didn't even react to me grabbing him until he was already on my shoulder." Kageura retorted.

Yuma rolled his eyes. "I thought you would appreciate my request to be alone."

"I did." Kageura snapped. "For a couple days, but your sniper said you don't want pity, so I'm not going to give you any. We are going to train."

Yuma blinked in surprise. Chika did what now? She told on him to Kageura squad? It wasn't pity to respect his space when he needed time after what happened with his father. After his conversation with Jin the other day, he was beginning to feel better, even if the hole in his heart from missing his parents would never truly go away. Even though he was beginning to feel better, he was avoiding going to HQ because he didn't want to see the looks or have anyone bring up Yugo or his sacrifice. Those were just things that still hurt. Not that it happened the other day, but that it happened five years ago. That pain would probably never leave him and it wasn't something he wanted multiple people talking to him about.

If Murakami and Kageura truly just wanted to train and not discuss Yugo, he could handle that. That was a normal he wanted back, but was too scared to go back to since he was worried it wouldn't be the same now that his secret was known.

"We wanted to see our friend again as well." Murakami added, doing his best to ignore the strange stares they were getting from civilians as they walked down the sidewalk. Once they could get to one of HQ's entrance in the Restricted Zone, they could get away from these looks. "We haven't seen you since the battle and the only time we heard about you was from the other members of Tamakoma when we ran into them. It's one thing to hear you're doing fine, but there is a comfort in confirming it with our own eyes."

Doing fine? He was more than fine. In fact, Yuma was feeling great. He had no issues with his Trion, his body wasn't breaking, his Black Trigger felt as strong as it always did. He truly was great, minus the fact that this wasn't his real body and he was in fact still dying. However, that wasn't what Murakami was concerned with. He just wanted to see Yuma as the way he always knew him, white hair and all. He was saved when his dad died the other day, but at the same time, he truly wasn't. For right now though, he was as good as he could be.

"I think Midorikawa has been the worst of us all." Murakami added.

Yuma grimaced. He needed to make an effort to see Shun. He was one of the first friends Yuma made in Border outside of Tamakoma and has been very helpful and loyal since then. His loyalty truly stuck out to Yuma last week when he was always trying to help Yuma and being concerned even when Yuma would snap at him. He owed Shun a lot. In fact, he owed all of the Border agents a lot. He truly would not have survived a confrontation with a Mimic version of his father without them by his side.

*Mimics*

It was strange how peaceful and quiet headquarters felt after the chaos of the past week. It was absolutely something that Kazama was going to enjoy because he just knew that after the past few months they have had, this peace was not going to last. The amount of attacks in the past few months were just record breaking. Ever since Border went public, all they have had to deal with in terms of attacks were Trion Soldiers, but in the past few months it has been invasions and humanoid Neighbors. It felt like a storm was brewing with the scale of these attacks.

Or, perhaps, it simply had to do with Border's strength. They had grown so strong in just a few years that the Neighbors realized they couldn't simply rely on their Trion Soldiers to do the work anymore. Border was becoming a force to be reckoned with.

The elevator Kazama was waiting for finally arrived and the doors opened. Instead of stepping inside, he found himself taking a moment to contemplate his life at the sight of Yuma thrown over Kageura's shoulder. Sometimes, he truly thought Yuma and Kageura were worse than having to deal with Jin and Tachikawa.

Murakami flung his hand out to stop the elevator doors as they began to close. "Are you going to get on?" He asked.

Kazama stared for another moment, but neither Murakami or Kageura acknowledged the strangeness of the situation. Perhaps it was simply the fact that Kazama had to deal with this the other day with Midorikawa, Yoneya, and Yuma that he was just done with this.

Kazama stepped into the elevator, slipping around the younger agents. "Kuga." He greeted nonchalantly.

"Kazama-senpai." Yuma replied in the same tone.

That put an end to the conversation, but it seemed to put them in an awkward silence as the elevator started to move again. The awkwardness seemed to cause Murakami to finally acknowledge the strange scene or maybe it was because he was now watching Kageura's brow twitch in annoyance and his nails scrape against his neck.

"So," Murakami started.

"Shut it." Kageura snapped.

"Did you carry Kuga all the way here?" Kazama asked while wondering why he would dare engage this insanity.

"Kage-senpai does not seem to believe me when I tell him I know how to walk." Yuma replied.

Kageura responded by dropping his arm which caused Yuma to roll off his shoulder. Yuma reacted quite quickly to adjust himself and landed in a crouch. He pushed himself back up to his feet and brushed himself off to try straighten out his clothes that got messy from being carried for so long.

"Couldn't you have done that earlier?" Yuma asked.

"So you could turn right back around and head back to Tamakoma?" Kageura retorted.

"Touche." Yuma replied.

"Dragging someone to a place they don't want to go is kidnapping." Kazama pointed out.

"Kuga could have escaped at any more point." Kageura argued. He dropped a hand to Yuma's head and shook it rough. "This idiot is stronger than us in our normal bodies because of his Trion body after all. It would have been easy for him to break my hold."

"Idiot?" Yuma muttered. He hadn't seen his friends in a couple days and now that they were together again, he was being insulted. At least from Kageura and it was something he got used to from Kageura since it was just his gruff nature. It was just that he usually understood where the insult came from since it related to the conversation like when Kageura called him a bug a few months ago. Back then he was talking about how Yuma didn't activate his side effect so he called him a bug. He didn't know what he did to get referred to as an idiot here though.

"Just ignore him." Murakami suggested. "He's been on edge the past couple of days."

Yuma turned to give Murakami a knowing look as he realized why Murakami wanted Yuma to give Kageura a fight. This fight would help Yuma get back into a normal routine, but it would also help calm Kageura down. Honestly, what did they do before Yuma joined Border and Kageura got extra frustrated from his side effect bothering him so much? There had to be other ways Kageura distracted himself.

Kazama was beginning to regret getting on this elevator. He wasn't in any hurry so he could have just let the doors close in his face and waited for a different elevator. He turned his head up to watch the numbers count up with each floor they passed. Soon, they could go their separate ways.

*Mimics*

Frustration was blinding Shun. Frustration he hadn't felt in months. The last time he had this kind of frustration clouding his judgement was when he first met Yuma and started to lose to him. It wasn't the fact that Shun was losing to him as he lost to people plenty of times. It was the fact that at the time, Yuma was C-Rank with a training Trigger, barely had over a thousand points, and he was crushing Shun. It didn't make any sense so it made him mad.

It seemed only fitting that the next time he felt this kind of frustration again it was caused by another Kuga. Kuga Yugo was dead. The Mimic of Kuga Yugo was dead. It was all over, but now that everything had finally calmed down, Shun had the time to think. This time to think caused him to acknowledge the frustration inside of him about not being able to properly help Yuma in the battle. He fought Kuga Yugo. He fought Kuga's Trion Soldiers that used the Black Trigger abilities.

He fought, but didn't win. After everything that went down, he felt useless during it all. He wasn't able to do anything to stop Yugo when he fought him.

He was an A-Rank. He was on the No. 4 squad, but he didn't feel strong enough right now. There was this feeling in him that he just didn't do enough to help his friends.

In his mind, Shun knew he wasn't weak. He wasn't the strongest, but he wasn't weak. He had confidence in his skill, but when he came face to face with Kugas, he could see just how much more he had to learn. He wanted to learn so much more and get stronger. He wanted to learn how to properly fight Black Triggers and survive them so he didn't fail like this again.

However, getting frustrated wasn't going to help him learn anything. That was something he learned from Yuma. He had to learn to keep his head cool and focus on the important parts of a fight.

Yoneya knocked his fist against Shun's head to get his attention. "Where is your head at?"

"Yoneyan-senpai!" Shun swiped at Yoneya's arm to push it away from his face.

"I don't often see you so distracted." Yoneya said. "Especially in here when you have so many playmates around that you can fight."

Shun took a glance around at the trainees that were milling about in the solo rank booths. Now that Shinoda had released the order on the trainees to get out of the Restricted Zone before dark, the amount of trainees had significantly increased in here to the point that it was hard to spot the official agents through the crowds. It felt like they were just standing in a sea of white. It was because of all the white uniforms surrounding him that he almost missed a different type of white that was weaving through the crowd towards the booth. In fact, he only took notice of it because of the two taller, official agents with him that stood out in the sea of trainees.

In an instant, any frustration Shun felt was forgotten as he shoved Yoneya a step away from him so he could jump over the couch. "Yuma-senpai!" He shouted, ignoring the strange stares he got from the trainees as he skirted around them towards the group he cared about who came to a stop at his shout.

"Shun," Yuma barely got his friend's name out before he was engulfed in a hug that left him blinking in surprise. He and Shun did not hug each other. In fact, Yuma hugged very few people. "Good to see you too?"

"That's all you have to say?" Shun pulled away from Yuma. "You've been ignoring my texts for days which I get since you were recovering but to come back today without even telling me you were coming back!"

"Uh," Yuma glanced over at Kageura and Murakami. "I wouldn't exactly say I planned to return today. More like someone was eager for a fight and got tired of waiting."

Shun followed Yuma's stare to look at Kageura and just understood. As concerned as they were all for Yuma as they waited for him to come back, if anyone was going to get tired of waiting and go to him, it would be Kageura to act first.

"You're going to fight them?" Shun asked. Instead of waiting for a reply, he grabbed Yuma's shoulders and shook them. "Me too! Fight me when you're done with them, Yuma-senpai?"

"That eager to lose points?" Yoneya asked.

"Don't start." Shun snapped at him. "Yuma-senpai, it's been days!"

"What's the hurry?" Yuma asked. "It's not like I'm going anywhere."

That seemed to be the wrong thing to say as the excitement at Yuma being back dropped from Shun's eyes and turned sad. His hands fell from his friend's shoulders to turn into clenched fists at his side.

In return, Yuma adopted an irritated expression. A comment like that would have meant absolutely nothing a week ago. "There's a reason I don't tell people I'm dying." He snapped. "Because even when I make a comment that means nothing, you can twist it in your mind to make it refer to my condition."

Even though he just arrived, Yuma didn't care and spun on his heel to leave, but before he could take two steps away, Kageura snatched his wrist and yanked him back.

"Do you want us to not care?" Kageura snapped.

"I want you to save your pity for someone who deserves it." Yuma retorted harshly.

"Is it pity when it's concern?" Murakami asked.

"What's the difference?" Yuma asked bitingly.

Kaguera understood how annoying pity was. When people found out about his side effect, they either thought it was cool or they thought it was horrible since feeling constant pinpricks of emotion directed at him would be painful and annoying. When they thought that, he got pity directed at him and he hated it. To him, it was one of the worst types of emotions to feel.

"Pity is about feeling sorry for someone in a way that belittles them since we don't truly understand what they are going through and doing nothing to help."

The agents looked up in surprise as Kako approached them. If she was the one replying, maybe they were being a bit too loud.

"While concern is about sympathy. It comes a genuine place of worry and wanting to help because we care about you." Kako smiled at Yuma. "Your friends want to help you, but don't know how. We aren't pitying you. We're simply worried for you and trying to figure out what we can do."

They clearly considered pity and concern to be completely different things. To Yuma, he just saw it all as pity. The looks from the people of Calvaria always felt so belittling. It felt like he was being looked down on. No one in Calvaria wanted to help him outside of Raymond and his kids. They gave condolences, but they felt hollow and like they were just there to get on Yuma's good side so he would be more willing to help them with their war.

His friends in Border had no ulterior motive. It was never about pity from them. It was actual concern for Yuma's wellbeing. How could he forget that? These were all the people who just spent a week fighting against Yugo and Mogami to help Tamakoma. They showed so much loyalty that he just pushed to the side because he didn't want any pity again.

That was wrong of him.

Shun looked up as he was suddenly reminded of a conversation from the other night.

"I'm not sure I know how to help someone recover from something like this." Shun admitted.

"You don't need to be his therapist." Osamu replied. "Just do what you've been doing all week. Be his friend and listen to him when he talks."

Shun let out a soft groan. "Do you have any idea of how hard that is? He doesn't talk about anything that is wrong. You have to ask him what is wrong and if he hides his stress and concerns, how would you know to ask?"

"I think after this week, it's going to be plenty clear that he is bothered by something." Osamu replied. "You don't even need to talk to him if that's not what he wants. Go to lunch, train, just hang out. It can be quite helpful in helping him recover if you don't treat him like glass after what he went through. Jus treat him normally."

"Ah," Shun said softly. Osamu's advice was easy to say, but it was much harder to do in the moment, especially after what they saw at the end of the battle. It was hard to get that memory out of the forefront of his mind, but he would try for Yuma. He didn't want their time spent together just focused on Yuma's condition. Yuma obviously felt the same. If only he remembered that a few minutes ago.

"Argh, why are you here, Phantom hag?" Kageura complained.

"Isn't it obvious?" Kako teased and immediately latched onto Yuma from behind, grinning mischievously while ignoring the glare Kageura sent her way. "I saw Kuga-kun over here and just had to come over to take the chance to steal him for my team."

"Oh?" Yuma said amused.

"Unbelievable. You're still on about that?" Kageura snapped. He grabbed Yuma by his hoodie to try to pull him away from Kako. "We're here to train so leave."

"Maybe I want to train with him for once." Kako replied. "You two train together all the time. Let someone else have a turn."

Yoneya snorted. "He's not a toy you can just pass around."

"It should be his choice of who he fights so," Murakami put a hand to Kako's shoulder and one to Kageura's shoulder and shoved them apart. "Stop tugging on him. You're drawing too much attention."

Kageura scoffed. He turned to look over his shoulder and glared at the nosy C-Ranks. Every time he was in here, he noticed that they could never mind their own damn business.

Now that he was free, Yuma straightened his hoodie out. "Sorry, Kako-san. Kage-senpai dragged me here for a fight with him and Murakami-senpai and then Shun requested one after that. If you want to fight me, you can have a turn afterwards."

"What about me?" Yoneya asked, pointing at himself. "I feel I deserve one as well."

"Geez, someone's popular today." Kako teased Yuma.

"Yeah..." Yuma really thought he could get in and into a booth to train with Kageura and Murakami without attracting any attention. It was truly a foolish thought. It seemed impossible to not draw attention when he was in this room. It had to be because a gathering of high rank agents always drew so many eyes to them and caused more people to join in.

Yuma felt dread rise in him when he saw another agent approaching from behind Yoneya and Shun.

Nope.

Not happening.

Not today, Satan.

He swiftly turned around to Kageura and snagged his wrist. "Let's train already. It's why we are here." He didn't give Kageura a chance to protest as he yanked on him to drag him to a booth, leaving the other agents to watch in confusion at the abruptness of Yuma's sudden need to depart.

Murakami saw movement out of the corner of his eye and turned to see Arafune joining them with a bemused expression which Murakami matched. "What did you do to Kuga?"

"What does that mean?" Arafune asked.

"He saw you approaching and practically ran away to train with Kage." Murakami asked.

"Oh." A smirk started to make its way on Arafune's face. "Is that what that was?" He had been confused to see Yuma grab Kageura and run to the booth because that wasn't how Yuma normally was, but if it was because of his approach, it certainly became more amusing.

"Wait, did you actually do something to him?" Yoneya asked upon seeing his smirk.

Arafune rolled his eyes. "I've been spamming his phone with money math problems the past couple of days. He never replied to me, but seeing his face now, I can tell he has gotten them. I'll have to hound him when he gets out of the booth for his answers to them."

That got laughter from Yoneya and Shun while Murakami raised a brow. "You were serious about teaching him how to use our currency?"

Arafune gave him an affronted expression. "Why would I not be? He can't just continue to slap a stack of money on the table the way he does and not realize how much he overpaid or expect someone he is with to count it out for him. If his captain is going to abandon the mission, then I will pound the knowledge in Kuga's head myself."

"That might be the one battle Yuma-senpai will constantly try to escape." Shun snickered. And it might become one of his favorite battles to witness.

"I don't understand his aversion to learning this!" Arafune complained. "He's eager to learn everything else, but this?"

Kako snickered. "I don't think it's aversion. It seems more like frustration since he truly seems like he is having a hard time comprehending the currency." Now that she knew he was a Neighbor, it made a lot more sense to her. She didn't know what kind of currency they used in the Neighborhood, but it had to be vastly different for Yuma to be this confused with their money.

"I'm more amazed that you were texting him math problems." Yoneya with a wide grin. "He was dealing with his father's death and you chose to send him math problems. I like where your priorities lie."

"It was meant to distract him." Arafune huffed. "He has plenty of people to fuss over him. He doesn't need all of us to do that."

"Amazing." Murakami said, but he wasn't all that surprised. Arafune was very dedicated when he said he was going to do something and he actually was a great teacher. Perhaps a bit stubborn as well. Yuma wasn't going to escape Arafune when he set his mind to something. Should Murakami feel bad for Yuma? No, not for something like this. It was a valuable life lesson that he needed.

*Mimics*

A smile and a certain spark of enjoyment that had been lost for days now. Shinoda hadn't even expected to see Yuma on the video feeds for the solo rank wars anytime soon. From what Rindo told him, though Yuma was recovering mentally, he had been avoiding training so Shinoda assumed once Yuma was ready to fight again, he would train in private at Tamakoma until he was ready to return to HQ. For that reason, it had been quite surprising to see the young agent fighting on the video feed. Surprising, but it certainly gave Shinoda a wave of relief to see that excitement grow in Yuma's eyes as he kept entering the arena with a different opponent. Either everyone wanted to fight him or Yuma had a lot of pent-up energy to burn after taking a few days off.

Probably both.

Even as he watched, it was hard to look at Yuma and not see the footage he saw of the final confrontation with his father, but Shinoda was doing his best to push it to the back of his mind. They wouldn't be able to solve anything if that was all they thought about. Yuma's life was important to him because he wanted to protect him as a way to return the lifelong debt he owed to his mentor.

However, it wasn't the only important thing he had to focus on, which included the away mission they were supposed to start training for soon. He had to make sure all his agents assigned to the mission were ready for whatever they were going to face.

For the time being, Yuma was finally having the fun that he deserved to have. In the moment, there was nothing they could do to help Yuma with his condition so Shinoda would settle for being happy that Yuma was smiling once more.

Especially since as soon as the away mission began, there was going to be very little time for fun and games, which Shinoda was sure Yuma was quite aware of as he grew up in the Neighborhood. It was the agents who had never been to the Neighborhood and this was going to be their first away mission that would likely struggle. It would be quite a stark difference for them when they saw it. He needed to make sure that all of them were ready.

Shinoda's phone vibrating distracted him from returning to finishing up the reports he was going over for how the training for the away mission was going to go. He flipped his phone over to see a text from Rindo and found both of his brows raising in surprise before he snorted.

Tamakoma really did things the Tamakoma way.

Or, really, they did things the way Old Border did it.

*Mimics*

"Does the idea of currency traumatize you or something?" Kageura asked in disbelief as his eyes shifted from Yuma to Arafune back to Yuma at which point his disbelief turned into a glare. That one second he looked away from Yuma, Kako had come up behind their couch to wrap her arms around Yuma from behind. It was amazing how he hadn't actually been stolen for her team yet with how lax Yuma was around the phantom hag. It's like he didn't realize how dangerous she truly was.

Yuma made an affronted noise, not acknowledging Kako hanging off of him again at all. "Seriously, Kage-senpai? I have a lot of trauma and none of it is caused by money."

"Could have fooled me with the way your eyes keep shifting as if looking for a way to get out of this." Arafune replied.

Yuma huffed in annoyance. "This is the solo rank booth room. It's not a classroom. We should be training in here."

"I mean, you could argue that studying is a form of training since it is about improving yourself." Murakami suggested.

Yuma glared at his friend. Oh, how he wished he could be in a booth fighting Yoneya or Shun right now, but they had both went to fight each other once Arafune got his hands on Yuma. "Training is fun. This is a special kind of torture."

"It's no different than school." Murakami replied.

"Yeah, school was interesting for the first month, but now it just feels so time consuming." Yuma argued. The only good thing that came out from enrolling in the school was that he got to meet Osamu and that was a huge turning point for his life.

Kageura snickered. "So what? You've been in hell for ten years."

Yuma gave his friend a strange look. "Ten years?"

Kageura raised a brow. "You're fifteen, aren't you? Starting school at five means you've been a student for ten years."

Yuma's eyes widened in surprise. "You guys start school at five years old? When do you stop? That's like your whole life!"

Kako loosened her hug on Yuma so she could lean down a bit more to get a look at Yuma's face. She may have never been to the Neighborhood so she didn't know how that world work, but she found it very hard to believe that they didn't have schools of some sort there. "You've been to a school before, right?"

"Nope," Yuma said, surprising his friends. "I traveled my whole life with my dad so everything I learned was just stuff he taught me. A lot of it was about how to fight and strategy and how to live. When I moved to Japan, I decided to enroll to see what school was actually like. It's actually pretty boring sitting around day getting lectured at." At least when his dad was teaching him stuff, it was more interesting and hands on. Just sitting around and getting lectured wasn't really Yuma's preferred style of learning.

"You never got a formal education?" Arafune asked to clarify what Yuma was saying.

Yuma's eyes narrowed in on the sniper. Perhaps admitting he never went to school was not a good thing to say to someone determined to make sure he understood how money worked.

"At least that explains why you struggle so much with kanji." Kageura said.

"I struggle with Kanji because I was raised abroad and I didn't need to use it." Yuma pointed out.

Arafune rolled his eyes to the ceiling, feeling a bit of his soul leave his body. No formal schooling. He was sure Yuma's father taught Yuma what he could, but if Yuma really traveled his whole life, he probably didn't have the chance to focus specific topics. Kuga Yugo likely did the best he could, but there was something to be said about letting children sit down and focus on the lessons they needed to learn. Yuma never got that so he could see why Osamu and Reiji struggled to help Yuma with this as it basically meant they had to start from the basics. He could drill this knowledge in Yuma's head. He just had to start with the basics and get Osamu and Reiji to help him. He would make sure they were all on the same page so they could keep on Yuma's case about this when he was at Tamakoma.

Yuma eyed Arafune warily. He felt a strange sense of unease work its way down his spine. He definitely should not have said anything about his schooling. He really needed an escape route from Arafune. As fun as it was hanging out with his friends was, he really didn't want to sit through any more lectures.

"Yuma-kun!"

Yuma's head snapped up, twisting away from his friends to see Shinoda walking into the room and towards their group.

"Director Shinoda." Murakami greeted politely, though a bit surprised. It was very rare for Shinoda to come in here. The only time he had ever seen the director in here was on the few times he was training with Tachikawa in public. Those rare days usually drew a crowd since people were very eager to see their strongest Normal Trigger user in combat.

"Are you all having fun?" Shinoda asked.

Yuma grinned. "I was having fun." He shot a teasing look towards Arafune. "Until recently."

Arafune rolled his eyes back at him.

Shinoda raised a brow, curious about what they were discussing, but just closed his mouth and shook his head. It wasn't any of his business. "It's good you're having fun, but we need to head back to Tamakoma."

"Oh, thank you!" Yuma practically flew out of his seat, excited to escape another lecture about money.

"We aren't done!" Arafune said. "This is just a reprieve!" If it was Shinoda's order, Yuma had to leave, but Yuma couldn't escape him forever.

Shinoda almost broke his restraint to ask what they were talking about, but managed to hold back. It truly wasn't his business. The amused smirks from the surrounding agents told him it was nothing bad. They were simply tormenting Yuma for fun and considering the amused light shining in Yuma's eyes, he was taking it all in good grace.

"Wait, did you say 'we?'" Yuma asked, ignoring Arafune for a moment.

"Rindo asked me to stop by tonight and since I knew you were here, I thought I would give you a ride back." Shinoda explained.

"Now though?" Kageura asked. "We just got here."

Yuma pulled his phone out to check time. "We've been here for hours." It didn't feel like that long since he was having so much fun as opposed to the past few days where he just sat around, watching tv. "Should leave before Tachikawa-san appears in here."

"Why?" Murakami asked bewildered.

"I have this feeling he will be hunting me down in the future." Yuma explained. Not so much for revenge since he didn't get his final fight with Yugo, but simply for an actual one vs one fight that he didn't get the other night. As much fun as Yuma had fighting everyone, and he knew it would be a great thrill to face off against Tachikawa, it wasn't a fight he wanted to have just yet. Today had been the first day he used his Border Trigger in a week and he wanted a bit more time to get back used to having Scorpion at his side before he would let Tachikawa cut his head off.

"What? Did you develop a foresight side effect?" Kageura scoffed.

Yuma snorted. "I'd prefer not to see the future."

Jin carried a heavy burden by seeing the future constantly and having to manipulate the field to bring them into the best future, but helping Border survive invasions wasn't the only thing he did with his side effect. He had to see his friends suffering, whether getting hurt in an attack or dying in the future. Yuma knew Jin saw his death last week and he likely saw Yuma's death in the upcoming future. He couldn't imagine how hard it was for Jin to see things like that. It certainly wasn't something that Yuma wanted.

Yuma had been dying for years and that was something he was forced to accept a long time ago. He could not run from the truth about this death approaching. Though he accepted it, he did not want the ability to see the future and see just how close his death was. To know when the exact day of his death would be sounded terrifying.

"I just know Tachikawa-san is coming for me at some point." Yuma insisted. Jin letting him hear that recording of Tachikawa squad talking was all the warning he needed. However, he didn't think Jin thought it was a warning to him. He just wanted Yuma to hear the conversation, but Yuma was taking it as a warning that Tachikawa was going to attack him at some point.

"You're either paranoid or you know something else." Murakami said.

"I know he wants a fight." Yuma replied.

"When doesn't he?" Kageura asked.

"You're one to talk." Arafune retorted. He eyed Yuma and Murakami as well. "All three of you can't say anything. You're obsessed with fighting each other. I just don't know who is the worst amongst you three."

"Kuga/Kuga-kun." Murakami, Kageura, and Kako all said together.

"He'll basically fight anyone." Murakami added. "I bet if a trainee walked up to him, he would agree within a second of fighting them."

"Yuma-kun, don't fight trainees." Shinoda said quickly. "I don't need you crushing their spirits before they learn anything."

"I fought trainees before when I was a trainee and they all survived." Yuma argued.

"You never should have been in C-Rank." Shinoda mumbled.

"Who? Yuma-senpai?" Shun asked eagerly as he bounded over having finished his match just in time to hear the end of Shinoda's question. "He started with base points so I was so confused and frustrated when he crushed me in our first match."

"Why the hell did you have base points when you started?" Kageura scoffed. "You're the last person that should have started at base points."

Yuma shrugged, folding his hands behind his head as he grinned. "Boss insisted and I preferred it that way too. It was a lot more fun making my way through the ranks like everyone else does rather than having Shinoda-san fast track me to B-Rank."

"Because if you started with more than base points, you couldn't shock everyone on enlistment day with your skill." Kako replied, smirking. "It's exactly something Jin and Rindo-san would do to draw eyes to their branch."

"Basically, if we ever see a new trainee with the Tamakoma logo on their uniform, we don't trust them because they're likely hiding a trick or skill or power." Kageura said.

"Basically." Shinoda said. "Rindo will always make sure his agents stand out." It was basically Rindo's manipulative tactic of showing off his agents and how amazing they are because if they showed themselves off, it was less likely someone would ask questions or look into their past. Tamakoma-2 basically came out of nowhere and blasted their way through the ranks. By not hiding their power, they were saying, they had nothing to hide. This was who they were, and it seemingly worked. Until the Mimics appeared last week, no one ever questioned Yuma about his past. He just told them he was raised abroad to explain his struggles with kanji.

Arafune snorted. That was hardly a surprise. It was exactly what he always expected from Reiji and Jin. They were tricky people and taught their new team how to be tricky. He wouldn't be surprised if Rindo was part of the reason they were like that.

"Anyway, we have to head to Tamakoma for something, Shinoda-san?" Yuma asked, redirecting the conversation back to what Shinoda originally came over here for.

"You're leaving already?" Shun asked. He suppose it wasn't too surprising since it seemed that Kageura did drag him here against his will.

"I'll be back. Tomorrow maybe." Yuma hummed thoughtfully. If he was going to train again and especially if he wanted to be ready for when Tachikawa hunted him down, he should probably start training with Konami again. There was also the training for the away mission starting soon, so he was actually going to be quite busy coming up.

Hearing his friend say that brought a sense of relief to Shun's heavy heart. Since Kageura dragged him here, he was worried that Yuma would head back to Tamakoma and then avoid coming back to HQ for days again. If he was willing to say he would be back to train more, that told Shun that he was recovering and wanted to get back to normal.

"Good to know. I'll have more math problems for you." Arafune said jokingly just to see Yuma's face twist in protest at the thought.

"Maybe I won't come tomorrow." Yuma replied teasingly.

That reply got Shun to twist around to attack Arafune instead about scaring Yuma away which Yuma took as an opportunity to escape, waving quickly to his friends still looking at him.

Kako smiled softly as she watched Yuma leave with Shinoda. For as difficult as last week was and how stressed and depressed Yuma had been, to see him smiling again was a huge relief. Was he completely recovered from happened? Likely not, but seeing him on his feet and that familiar light of enjoyment returning to his eyes that had been missing for days was a welcome sight. He may never fully recover from what happened, but he could start to live again.

"You're wasting your breath, Midorikawa." Yoneya said. "Kuga already left."

"What?" Shun spun around sharply to see the spot Yuma was just standing at empty. He threw his hands up in disbelief. "I don't know what I was expecting. A proper goodbye, at least."

"He did wave. You were just busy yelling at Arafune." Murakami pointed out.

"I'll gladly step back and let Arafune-san tease and tutor Yuma-senpai about yen that isn't in here. This is a sacred place that he is trying to scare him away from." Shun protested.

Arafune rolled his eyes. "Kuga is not scared of coming back here. The only thing to scare that kid is his past mistakes and that is a personal thing he has to work through."

*Mimics*

Shinoda glanced in the rearview mirror to look at Yuma relaxing his face against the window as he stared at the passing scenery. Unlike last week, his expression wasn't stressed and upset. He looked entirely relaxed which was a relief to Shinoda. He was looking a lot more like his normal self. "It's been a few days since I've seen you, Yuma-kun. How are you feeling after everything?"

"Hmm," Yuma hummed softly. He closed his eyes to let himself focus on the coolness from the window that was soaking into his skin. Since his talk with Jin and Osamu the other night, he was finding it easier to relax. He still occasionally got distracted with thoughts of his father, and it still hurt, but he also knew he could heal. Spending time with his friends and fighting in the rank wars again had brought back the normalcy that had been missing for days. "I feel lighter."

"Lighter?"

"Yeah, like a burden has been lifted off of me." Yuma replied. For as painful as it was to force his dad to die the same way he did five years ago and for as much as it hurt to never get to spend time with his parents again, Yuma realized something important in the days since his final confrontation with Yugo. He lost his family, but he was not alone. His friends would never allow him to be alone again. He avoided them at first just to have a few days to himself after Yugo's death and to avoid conversations about Yugo, but his friends came back to him and avoided the topic as much as they could. "I feel like I can live the way Dad wanted me to now."

"And how is that?" Shinoda asked, but he already had a pretty good idea of what Yugo wanted for his son. It was likely the same thing he wanted for his friends. To simply live their lives while having as much fun as they could.

"To be happy and play as much as I want." Yuma had a little smile on his face as he said that. Today was the first time he had fun in days. He finally got to do what his father wanted him to do.

"That sounds like Yugo-san." Shinoda replied. "Have I ever told you how I met your father?"

"He recruited you to Border and trained you." Yuma said, cracking an eye open to glance over at Shinoda. That was the obvious answer that he got from Rindo and Shinoda back when he first joined Border. Though, since Shinoda was bringing up something that they obviously talked about before, there must be something more he wanted to tell him.

Shinoda nodded. "But it's the way he found me. I was out with my parents one night when we got attacked by Trion Soldiers. It had been an absolutely terrifying experience as these strange monsters came out of nowhere. Having since learned more about Neighbors, I now know their goal was to either kidnap us or steal our Trion glands."

Probably kidnap was what Yuma's mind answered him. He never saw Shinoda in combat, but he had heard about how he was the strongest normal Trigger user in Border. He became strong because he was trained to be strong, but before Border, if he was having Trion Soldiers targeting him like that, he likely had a high level of Trion.

"Back then, I expected to die that day." Shinoda continued. "A Marmod was on top of us in an alley. My parents tried to shield me from them." His hands curled tightly over the steering wheel, knuckles turning white, as he recalled staring up at his mother standing over him with a Marmod's blade through her chest with blood falling on his face as he stared back up at her in shock and horror. "It was one of the worst days of my life, but also the day when everything changed for me. I saw my parents killed and thought I would die next, but then Yugo-san came flying down from the sky, striking down the Marmod standing over me."

"Dad did?" Yuma asked surprised. "I knew Neighbors attacked this world for a long time, but I didn't think Border got involved with those attacks until it all went public."

"They knew about the attacks, but since Border was so new back then, they didn't have a lot of technology so we lacked the resources to know when and where Gates were opening and had no way to track Trion Soldiers. Honestly, it was just luck that had Yugo-san saving me that night. He just happened to be in the area." Shinoda explained.

Border did what they could back in those days when they were still figuring things out. Eventually, they did manage to create radars to help them track the Trion Soldiers, but even after that, they still moved secretly. When they could, they would go out to stop Trion Soldiers attacks, but they were a small group and the city was huge. There was only so much they could do on their own.

"Yugo-san was so remorseful that he didn't get there fast enough to stop my parents from being killed. Maybe he felt he owed me something for being late since he took me into Border and gave me a new home."

Yuma stared at Shinoda, eyes softening in confusion. One of the first Border teams he met were simply full of anger at Neighbors. Yoneya explained that it was just because of the losses they suffered against Neighbors, so Yuma never let the coldness from most of Miwa squad bother him because he did understand that anger. This though? Shinoda's attitude towards them? They made no sense. "Why don't you hate Neighbors? They killed your parents." He asked unafraid. He was never scared of asking about things he didn't understand, except in regards to Japan's money. That still made no sense to him.

"I did." Shinoda admitted. "I had a lot of anger and resentment about it. It just felt so unfair what happened. I see the same anger I had back then in Miwa-kun. It's unfair. It hurts. What did I do to deserve this? Why me? Despite my depression and anger, despite me hating Neighbors, Yugo-san never pushed me out of Border. Back then, Border was mostly about making allies with Neighbors so I wasn't the best representation of Border's ideals. Yugo-san never tried to push Border's ideals onto me. He wanted me to form my own opinion after learning more about Neighbors. He became my mentor, suffered through my resentment with a smile and kind words, and was just always there for me to pull me out of dark spells."

"You don't hate Neighbors anymore." Yuma said. He was absolutely sure of that. Shinoda had been nothing but kind to Yuma and though Hyuse was technically a prisoner, Shinoda treated him with respect and kindness as well. He may not trust Hyuse the way he trusted Yuma, but Yuma never heard any hatred in his voice when he spoke of Neighbors.

"I met many Neighbors over the years. Some bad, some good. Even though not all of them were my enemies, it didn't change the way I treated them in the beginning." Shinoda admitted. "But then Rindo got sick of me one day and said I was discriminating against all Neighbors because of the bad ones that hurt me. He told me to open my eyes and stop being blind to the fact that they weren't all out to get me. That we could be friends with the ones who just wanted peace and to protect their homes against the ones who wanted to invade and take all the power to make themselves stronger."

Yuma smiled. That sounded like his boss. He held no fear when it came to coming into contact with Neighbors. Even Neighbors who attacked them like Galopoula. He went to talk to them to make a secret alliance without worry of the possible consequences, though having Jin's side effect probably helped with making that decision.

"After that lecture, I started to allow myself to be a bit more open. I started to see the Neighbors as more than just monsters. They all have different reasons for doing what they do. I let my anger and grief blind me to fact that I was putting them all into one category. Miwa-kun is doing what I did back then, but I can't force him to change his mind on Neighbors. It is something he has to think on his own about." Though, ever since Yuma came to Japan and got into it with Miwa squad, Shinoda could see a change in Miwa. He wasn't sure what it was. There was still anger in his heart, but something new was running through Miwa's mind about Neighbors.

Shinoda tapped on the stirring wheel as he thought. "Rindo was always more supportive and open to the idea of making friends with Neighbors while I was more focused on getting strong to fight Neighbors who came here with ill intent. I suppose that is why I am more concerned with protecting the city. I know the grief that comes from having your life ripped apart by the Neighbors, so I will make sure that happens as little as possible by protecting the citizens and their homes. And Yugo-san never protested against how either of us felt. He let us choose which was more important to us."

"There's always more than one answer." Yuma's smile grew a bit bigger as he went back to staring out the window. Dad would never force his beliefs on anyone. He would stand back and let Rindo and Shinoda decide which one they would want to focus more of their attention on. It wasn't that they thought the path the other one was taking was wrong or less important.

"It was a lesson we all took to heart, even more so when Border went public a few years ago." Shinoda replied. "It's the reason we were all able to choose how we wanted to run our fractions without hesitation. We knew neither Mogami-san nor Yugo-san would protest how we handled this. After the first large scale invasion, they would understand that we would be divided on our values. As long as we stick to our convictions, we'll be fine."

Yuma hummed. "Speaking of those convictions, I'm sorry you all got into a fight when I came to Japan. I knew staying here would cause more problems after my fight with Miwa squad so I planned to leave, but Osamu asked for my help so I decided to be selfish and stay instead."

"You have nothing to apologize for, Yuma-kun." Shinoda replied, a bit surprised Yuma was bringing up something from months ago. Though, it was likely because he only just found out about the fractions getting into a fight a few days ago. "With our different beliefs on the matter of Neighbors, the fractions getting into a fight like that was bound to happen at some point and it may happen again in the future."

"Let's hope not." Yuma said. "It worked out last time because Jin-san had a bargaining chip to calm the Kido fraction down. And if your fractions fight again, the matter being argued over might be worse than a single stray Neighbor."

"That's only something to worry about if such an event is to occur." Shinoda replied. "Besides, even with those kind of arguments, we need to find a way to settle them in a way that each side can agree on. Border can't afford those battles within or losing agents because of it. We should be able to handle our disagreements in a peaceful manner, but well..." He grimaced a bit as he recalled the emotions that had them riled up that week. "We heard your father's name and Rindo and I immediately went on the defensive. Even with Yugo-san's name in the mix, we knew it wasn't going to be enough to stop Commander Kido since he was worried about your Black Trigger and the power imbalance."

"Emotions always skew everything." Yuma stared at the buildings flying past the window, but wasn't really seeing them as he suddenly saw his father's face staring down at him, made of dust as he gave all his Trion and lifeforce to save his son. "It was a harsh wake-up call last week."

Shinoda hummed sadly. Hearing Yugo's name back in December and that he was dead hit them all hard and caused a fight among them. Had Jin not come in with a way to peacefully end the battle, Shinoda feared it would have turned into a war. Had it come to that, Yuma probably would have gotten involved at some point as well. Those emotions had got heightened when it was announced Yugo was dead and his son was in the city. It was those same heightened emotions that hit them all last week when Yugo and Mogami came back from the dead.

"For what it's worth, Yuma-kun, I don't regret how things played out in December." Shinoda said, glancing in the rearview mirror once more, catching Yuma's eyes this time. "It gave me the chance to meet you and I won't regret that. I'm very glad to have you as one of my agents."

It was strange. There was a sudden warm feeling in Yuma's heart at the heartfelt honesty that came from Shinoda. It was more than anything he had ever gotten from the Calvaria soldiers. The honesty made him feel like he truly belonged here. He wasn't just a soldier to be used because of his Black Trigger.

Yuma's smile grew much more genuine.

*Mimics*

"Yuma-kun! Director Shinoda!"

Yuma blinked and looked up towards Tamakoma's roof to see Shiori waving down at them. "Shiori-chan? Why are you on the roof?" He called up to her.

"We're all up here! Come on up!" Shiori shouted back, grinning down at her teammate and Director. Shinoda seemed to know what was going on, but Yuma just looked confused though he seemed to understand what she was asking as he entered the building.

"Are Yuma and Director Shinoda finally here?" Konami asked as she and Osamu finished setting up the dishes on the table.

Shiori nodded with a smile as she took in the setup they had built on the roof. They had dragged a folded table and chairs up here so they could have dinner on the roof. It was something she had never done, but Konami insisted on doing it today. Yuri and her had spent time putting up fairy lights around the ledges and the part of the building that the door was attached to. It added a bit more warmth and comfort to the roof which she thought they needed considering the reason Konami suggested having dinner on the roof.

Having dinner on the roof was something Konami said they did in the past some time after the failure in Aristera that caused them to lose half of their members back then. It was apparently something that helped them through the difficult experience by coming together for dinner and talking about the good times.

Because the people they lost shouldn't only be remembered by their deaths.

The sound of the door opening drew her attention and she turned to see Yuma who stopped briefly in surprise when he saw what they set up. Shinoda gave his shoulder a gentle nudge to get him to go forward.

"I didn't realize you were coming as well." Konami mentioned.

"Rindo texted me earlier to show up." Shinoda replied with a smile. It had been so long since they gathered on Tamakoma's roof like this. Though, that was not something he was complaining about. It simply meant they hadn't been a time difficult enough to make them want to get together and take comfort in each other's presence.

"What are we doing?" Yuma asked curiously.

"Having dinner up here." Chika said, an excited gleam in her eyes. "Jin-san is making yosenabe."

Yuma's eye lit up. "Jin-san's specialty! It's been a while."

"Be sure to thank him for all the effort he is putting into the meal. This was planned very last minute." Reiji said as he placed pitchers of water and tea on the table.

"Do you need any help?" Yuma asked.

Reiji shook his head. "Jin is finishing up the last touches to dinner. Just relax."

"You should have told me. I could have come back from HQ sooner to help." Yuma said.

Konami suddenly latched onto Yuma from behind, hugging him tightly. "That would defeat the purpose."

"Huh?"

Chika smiled softly, leaning forward slightly to look at her friend's face. "This is for you. We know it's been hard on you lately so we wanted to do something relaxing and fun for you."

"Normally, something that relaxes you is training but you haven't felt like doing that recently." Hyuse said.

Yuma tilted his head. That was true. He had been turning down offers from Hyuse and Konami to train the past few days since he had been so lost in his head about his dad. That was the whole reason Jin plopped him in front of the tv and told him to watch anime. He didn't want Yuma on the roof all night thinking about what happened with his mom and dad anymore than he was already doing. If Yuma wasn't going to train, then he needed something else to distract him.

"Even knowing that, you still let Kage-senpai and Murakami-senpai kidnap me earlier." Yuma accused Konami, who's grip loosened ever so slightly at the accusation.

"So it was considered kidnapping." Osamu said.

"You say that, Yuma, but by the smile on your face from when you came back, I don't think it was a mistake." Karasuma replied. "You seem much more relaxed than you have been in days."

Yuma grinned a bit, scratching his cheek. "They provided a nice distraction, though my points may have taken a huge hit from fighting Kage-senpai, Murakami-senpai, and Kako-san."

"Oooh?" Konami asked. "You fought Kako-san, but you still won't fight me?"

"Tomorrow?" Yuma offered. "I think sitting around too much has caused me to think too much."

Hyuse rolled his eyes. "I could have told you that. You just let your thoughts run wild when you don't have anything to distract you."

"Then why didn't you?" Yuma asked.

"I was informed you 'needed time' or something." Hyuse huffed.

Yuma snickered at Hyuse's annoyed expression. There wasn't anything wrong with taking time after something horrible happened, but Yuma's problem was that he closed himself off from getting back into a normal routine. He let his dark thoughts start to overcloud his mind which caused him to spiral. Maybe Jin breaking his door down to talk to him hadn't been that bad then. It would have been so much worse if Jin didn't do that.

Jin helped him through the worse of his feelings and then Osamu talked to him later to help him understand the rest of what he was feeling.

From there, they gave him the space he needed.

He was given the time he needed to realize something important.

Life is worth living for.

His friends gave him something worth living for.

"Who's ready for dinner?" Jin announced as he appeared on the roof, carrying a heavy pot of food with Rindo and Yuri coming up behind him carrying the rest of it.

"I am!" Yuma said excitedly as he begin to smell the delicious food. He blushed a bit as his stomach grumbled in hunger. Whoops. He must have forgotten to eat earlier since he was distracted with all the rank battles he got involved in.

"Then get over here, Yuma." Jin teased as he set the hot pot in the center of the table.

Yuma wasted no time as he took that as an open invitation.

Warmth filled Yuma as he engaged in dinner with his friends. It reminded him of the brotherhood of the soldiers in Calvaria. It was a comradeship that he never really participated in. It wasn't even something he cared about. Now that he had this closeness of comrades, he realized what he was missing back then, and he didn't want to lose it.

"You can eat stuff besides taiyaki." Konami scolded Hyuse. "Jin went through a lot of effort to make this dinner."

Hyuse took a bite of his taiyaki, staring Konami straight in the eyes without a word.

"Must be his form of silent protest." Karasuma said. Hyuse didn't make an effort to hide how much he hated Jin. It was hardly a surprise since Jin was the one to stall Hyuse in the invasion and take him as prisoner.

"Too bad. You're missing out on some delicious food." Yuma teased, humming happily as he shoveled more food into his mouth. "Though that just means more for me."

"You're a glutton." Hyuse muttered.

"I simply don't snub good food because someone I don't like made it." Yuma replied.

"I don't think you even hate anyone." Hyuse retorted.

Yuma shrugged. The closest he came to hating someone, who wasn't an enemy, would be Miwa and he wouldn't quite call it hate, at least on his side. He was sure on Miwa's side it was hatred and considering that, Miwa would never make food for him. He would rather burn in hell than do that for Yuma.

"Forget hatred," Konami said suddenly, staring at her student who sat across from her. "What I really want is to hear about Kuga-san."

Yuma's brows furrowed in confusion. "Dad? I've told you about him already."

"You told us how he died to save you, but that is pretty much all we know." Konami pointed out. "I want to know more about who he was."

Yuma blinked, tilting his head in thought. "Like what? He was my dad."

Rindo laughed. "They mean more like who he was as a person." He smiled, tapping his chin thoughtfully. "For example, Kido-san was obsessed with coffee to the point that he kept breaking our coffee machine. It caused him and Mogami-san many arguments to the point that Kuga-san apparently threw his wallet at them to buy the most expensive, best quality type of coffee machine that existed at the time. To this day, that coffee machine still exists, but sadly, when Kido-san move to HQ, he took it with him."

A snort of laughter came from Konami. "That was a sad day. Boss was so upset to lose that coffee machine. I had no idea it was bought by Kuga-san though."

"It made the best coffee." Shinoda said sadly. He worked in HQ and he couldn't even get access to that coffee machine. "Kido-san refuses to ever let it go."

"That's because he thinks you'll break it if he lets you use it." Rindo teased.

"Why would he think that?" Osamu asked confused.

"Kido-san hasn't quite forgiven Shinoda-san for cutting his car in half." Jin said with a wide grin while Shinoda blushed. He hadn't forgotten what he had done, but no one but the old members of Border knew about that. It was something he never brought up as it was one of those things from his training days that he would never live down.

"At least I never shot my partner in the back instead of aiming at the enemy." Shinoda griped at Rindo.

"It was one time!" Rindo protested.

"And I only cut Kido-san's car in half once, but it somehow doesn't get forgotten!" Shinoda retorted much to the amusement of the younger agents. Seeing the smiles the agents were wearing made Shinoda think that maybe the embarrassment from his past mistake was worth it.

"The difference was, you stepped in front of my bullets so that was your fault." Rindo protested.

"You're supposed to work around your Attacker!" Shinoda argued.

Osamu bit down a chuckle as he listened to the directors talk about their mistakes when they were rookies. He knew that the both of them were powerful Trigger users, but there was some form of relief to know that even they made mistakes when they were first learning how to fight. Sometimes when he saw how great some of the agents were at fighting, he forgot to take into account all the times they failed and had to try again and again to get to where they were at now.

"Hmm," Yuma munched on his foot as he thought.

"You don't have any stories like that, Yuma?" Jin asked. He knew that Yuma spent a lot of time traveling the Neighborhood which meant they probably spent most of their time training and fighting Neighbors, but surely it wasn't all work and no play.

"Nothing that ridiculous." Yuma replied. "You guys get up to crazy shenanigans."

"Don't try to tell me you didn't get into trouble when you were younger." Hyuse retorted. "I saw your recklessness last week. That didn't come out of nowhere. You must have been pushing it down in the time we've known you."

Yuma pointedly shoved some more food in his mouth to keep from answering right away, but that didn't stop Hyuse from staring him down expectantly.

Chika hid a smile behind her glass of tea as she took a sip. Hyuse and Yuma really brought a lively attitude to their team and the base in general. They were the opposite of her personality, but she surprisingly enjoyed their energetic personalities.

"Well, I guess there was this time I was infiltrating a base to gather some military intel." Yuma said.

"Oh, you really went around to different nations and stole military intel." Osamu muttered.

"We didn't steal it in every nation we went to." Yuma said offended. "Only some. We played nice with some of the other nations and got intel that way." He quirked a brow as Osamu expression of disbelief. "Do you really think that these nations would just tell two strangers how many Black Triggers they had? There was some sneaking around."

"Your childhood sounds so dangerous." Osamu said.

Yuma shrugged, unbothered by that statement. To him, his childhood was normal, but that was because it was his childhood. He didn't know how anyone else's differed from his because he didn't live their childhoods. "I remember Replica and I snuck into the base while Dad was outside causing a distraction to divert attention from us. Replica hacked into their computer to get information we needed and then we ran, thinking we would have time before they noticed they were hacked. They found out a lot sooner than expected so we had to make an abrupt escape out a window."

"The best kind of exit." Shinoda said while Rindo snorted.

"Yeah," Yuma said, smirking slyly. "Except I didn't quite have my Trigger activated yet. It was supposed to be an in and out with no fighting while all the soldiers were distracted by dad. Dad nearly had a heart attack when I jumped out of a seven story building without my Trigger active."

"How did you survive that?" Konami demanded.

Yuma laughed. "I just activated my Trigger while I was free falling."

"You're insane." Shiori said in disbelief. Though, Yuma's insanity was something she was becoming accustomed to. He always seemed to have a bit of crazy in him.

"Dad thought so too." Yuma replied. "He met up with me when I landed on a roof and would not stop lecturing me about how dangerous and reckless that was as we fought off the soldiers and escaped. It was so strange. He usually doesn't want to talk during fights since the battlefield is a place to focus on killing the enemy."

Jin shook his head, grinning slightly. "You gave him such a bad scare that he forgot his rule and couldn't keep himself from ranting right then and there. I don't think I even scared Mogami-san that bad, but I know I–we–" He nudged Konami in the side, smirking at her. "Caused him plenty of headaches."

Konami rolled her eyes, smiling fondly at her friend. "There was this one time, we wanted to see how far we could jump in our Trion bodies so we came up here and took a running start and launched ourselves over the roof to make it as far as possible in the river below."

Jin grimaced at the memory, but there was a happy shine in his eyes.

"I don't think I ever saw Mogami-san more done with life than when he was lecturing you two about whatever crazy idea you came up with next." Shinoda said.

"It's why he ended up throwing them on a team with Reiji." Rindo added. "He decided he would be their captain and make them his problem."

"That's why you became a team?" Chika asked amused. "I thought it was because you needed a team and you were the only agents here."

"No, they were the youngest and the most headache inducing ones we had so Mogami-san made them my problem." Reiji replied. "It was basically him ordering me to keep an eye on them so they would stop with the reckless ideas that might get them caught by the public."

"Seems like Yuma needed someone like that." Hyuse said.

"I had Replica." Yuma protested.

Osamu raised a brow. "How often did he succeed in stopping your recklessness?" He knew Replica was a chaperone of sorts to Yuma, but he also recalled Replica doing nothing to stop Yuma from breaking so many bones and giving concussions on his first day in Japan.

"He advised me, and I decided whether to follow it or not." Yuma said.

"Which led to you likely ignoring him and jumping out of a seven story window." Karasuma said.

"Maybe Yuma-kun is an adrenaline junkie." Shinoda suggested. "Yugo-san always seemed so mature, but I'm sure it was a façade sometimes. He had this thrill about him that just screamed that he loved the adrenaline from a good fight. Yuma-kun must have inherited that."

"I can see that." Rindo said, grinning widely. "Shinoda didn't just start jumping out of windows on a whim. There was this one day Kuga-san–"

*Mimics*

Yuma lounged on the couch, stomach full and a smile on his face as he watched more Fairy Tail in the living room. Everyone had gone to bed a while ago after spending hours on the roof just enjoying each other's presence and exchanging stories of Mogami and Yugo. It was honestly one of the best nights that Yuma has had in a long time.

He had spent so much time thinking about his dad's death that he disregarded the other moments with his father. Yugo and Eleni were so much more than their deaths. That was why it had been such a good time to sit on the roof and just remember the good times.

A clattering from the kitchen had him lifting his head off his pillow to see who was up at this time of night. It was rare for anyone to be up this late.

"Hyuse?" Yuma said. He rolled off the couch, landing on his feet. He snatched up his empty plate from the coffee table to return it to the kitchen where Hyuse was rummaging through the fridge. "What are you doing?"

"Looking for a snack." Hyuse glanced at Yuma as he put his plate in the sink. He eyed the empty plate with a frown. "What did you eat?"

Yuma raised a brow. He glanced from his plate to Hyuse's sudden frown and annoyed glare. "Why? Looking for taiyaki? What a shame. I just ate the last of them." He teased.

"Are you really a glutton?" Hyuse asked. He had been joking earlier, but now he was thinking he needed to serious consider this.

"I simply can't help it." Yuma said mockingly, putting his hand that his Black Trigger held on his chest. "My poor body needs all the food it can get. I simply must satisfy this deep hunger eating away at me."

"After the grievances you gave us last week, you want to start this?" Hyuse asked.

Yuma smirked in reply, digging his hand into his pocket. "I can't help it that you were too slow to get to them before me."

Hyuse's brow twitched in annoyance. "Yuma." He said lowly, a warning of danger in his voice.

Yuma pulled out his Trigger and tossed it in his hand a few times. "Hyuse." He said back challengingly.

Hyuse's eyes narrowed back, but before he could say anything, Yuma ran out of the room. Hyuse didn't even hesitate and chased after him. Despite their running, they were both keeping themselves quiet so as to not wake anyone up.

By the time he made it down to the training rooms, Yuma was already standing in the first room, tossing his Trigger up and down as he waited for Hyuse to arrive.

Hyuse came to a stop across from him, pulling his own Trigger out.

Both boys smirked, excitement on their faces.

"Trigger on!"