Light Shines Anew

by Fallen Crest

The incident with the Mimics is in the past. The Away Mission is complete and all the agents are back in Japan. Peace had settled down around Border once more, but there is one problem yet to be solved. Yuma's body is still sealed away and dying inside his black trigger. With each passing day, the clock ticks down for Yuma.

11. Ch 11: A Peaceful Day

Light Shines Anew

Chapter 11: A Peaceful Day

Crunch.

Crunch.

Crunch.

Red eyes blinked.

Crunch.

Crunch.

Yuma rolled his head on his pillow to stare at Jin who tossed another rice cracker in his mouth. He was sitting by Yuma's bed, leaning his chair back to balance on two legs and had his feet thrown up on Yuma's bed by his feet.

Crunch.

Jin chewed the cracker, staring right at Yuma's eyes. "How many times do you think you can get away with giving us a heart attack?"

Yuma blinked again and shifted his eyes to the ceiling. "What happened?"

"You collapsed in your match yesterday." Jin replied, tossing another cracker in his mouth. "Mizukami forcibly bailed you out and I took you to Kinuta-san."

Collapsed?

That basically meant he practically fainted in front of everyone.

Yuma grimaced and threw his arm over his face. That was so embarrassing. At least he didn't remember anything that actually happened. His memories felt pretty blurry and he wasn't sure of what any of them actually meant.

"Speaking of, Kinuta-san wanted to know when you woke up so I'm going to text him." Jin said as he pulled his phone out and started to type out a text.

"Why?" Yuma murmured.

"He just had a few questions to ask to determine why you collapsed." Jin explained.

Yuma sighed before blushing as his stomach suddenly grumbled quite loudly.

Jin chuckled. "Guess that what happens when you miss dinner."

"And lunch." Yuma grumbled, rubbing his stomach.

"You didn't eat lunch?" Jin asked sharply.

Yuma sighed and sat up on his bed, brushing a hand through his messy hair. "I was going to, but got distracted with talking with Kage-senpai and Murakami-senpai." He never got back around to making it to the cafeteria after his conversation with them. They had given him so much to think about that he just got lost in thought after he left Arafune squad's room.

"Yuma," Jin said, sounding exhausted already with his friend.

Unfortunately for him, it was at that point that Yuma got distracted from the conversation as he was staring at the other side of the room.

At the array of flowers and balloons sitting on the table and chairs.

"What is with that?" Yuma mumbled.

Jin threw his head back with a laugh. "I tell everyone you'll be awake by the morning and they still all go out of their way to get you get well flowers and balloons."

Yuma blinked.

Oh, it reminded him of Osamu's hospital room after Aftokrator's invasion. Osamu didn't have nearly as many as this though. He guessed that made sense since back then, they didn't know everyone in Border.

"Why?" Yuma mumbled again. This world was so weird.

"Why were your friends worried and brought you gifts to entice you to wake up sooner?" Jin countered.

Yuma grimaced and scratched his cheek. He said that wrong again. He did understand the worry he likely caused his friends. It was the same type of worry he would have for his friends. He had the worry before when Osamu got hurt months ago. Bringing gifts of flowers and balloons to the room was just a strange concept for him.

Yuma swung his legs over the edge of the bed, but paused before jumping off the bed. He stared down at his feet, wiggling his toes. "Where are my shoes?"

Jin pointed towards the corner of the room. "Removed them so you could be more comfortable. Do you feel well enough to be getting up, Yuma?"

"Hungry." Yuma said.

"Hmm?" Jin whipped out a new bag of rice crackers and tossed it to Yuma.

Yuma caught the bag and rolled it over in his hand. "Kind of early to be having these, isn't it? It's not something I would call breakfast food." He said, but he settled back down on the bed and ripped the bag open. "My team isn't here?"

"Tamakoma was here for quite a long time last night, but eventually they all had to go home and sleep." Jin replied. "You'll see them later. And before I forget." He dropped his chair down to the ground so he could stand up and walked over to Yuma so he could ruffle his hair. "Happy birthday, Yuma."

Yuma let Jin smooch his head down with the affectionate pat. It sucked though. He didn't care much for his birthday. All of his friends seemed excited about it, but what Yuma cared about was the Rank War and he missed it completely by collapsing.

Falling back into his pillows, Yuma munched on the rice crackers that Jin gave him as it was all he had right now.

"Thanks, Jin-san." Yuma replied to be polite, crunching down on a cracker. "How long do I have to stay in here?"

"If you're feeling better, you can leave after you talk with Kinuta-san." Jin said. "I doubt he'll need you for very long."

Yuma shifted around on the bed until he got comfortable. As he did, he found his phone sitting on the side table next to the bed and reached over for it. He clicked the power button to wake it up so he could check the time.

Nine fifty-two.

So late.

If he passed out in the Rank War, then he was out of it for at least fifteen hours. His body really did betray him last night if it took him out for that long. Yuma smooched his face into his pillow. Stupid body. He only had so much time left. He didn't want to spend it being passed out.

What even caused him to collapse in the first place?

"Come on, Yuma, smile for me." Jin said, poking his friend in the cheek. "It's your birthday. A day all about you."

Yuma cracked an eye open to look at his friend. "I'm not the only one who has a birthday today. It's about those people too."

"True." Jin agreed. "But they're not here in front of me. You are." He grabbed Yuma's arm and pulled him into a sitting position again. "Come now. You celebrated our birthdays with us. Weren't those parties fun?"

"Well, yeah." Yuma said, but he also just always enjoyed it when they all got together and hung out. It was always so loud and crazy and full of so much energy and so much good food. The only difference between those parties and the normal gatherings they had was that there were presents and cake for the birthday person.

It wasn't that Yuma never celebrated his birthday before. It's just that it wasn't a huge affair. For most of his life, it was just him and his dad and Replica. He usually just got a gift from his father and then they had other things to focus on. There were very few days in his days traveling the Neighborhood that Yuma actually got a peaceful day. The days back then were so chaotic.

"And now it's your turn!"

Yuma glanced at all the stuff behind Jin that the agents who came to visit him left behind. "But I don't want gifts, Jin-san. I'm not going to be around long enough to even have any use for anything people give me."

"Nope." Jin grabbed Yuma's cheek and pinched it. "None of that talk today, Yuma. Today is about having fun and only fun." He paused and thought for a moment. "After Kinuta-san lectures you."

"Lecture? Why?" Yuma said. "I didn't do anything."

Jin prodded him in the forehead. "Exactly."

"Eh?" Yuma rubbed his forehead, pouting. He had a feeling if his health kept failing and he ignored it, he would get a lot of lectures. "By the way, how did the match go after I...passed out."

Jin blinked. "The match?" He pulled his phone out of his pocket to get the Rank War information. "I wasn't actually paying any attention to it and Osamu didn't talk about it last night. Looks like, it was three to two to two in Ikoma squad's favor."

Yuma groaned and dropped his face into his pillow.

"The next match will be Tamakoma-2 vs Oji squad vs Suzunari First on Saturday." Jin added.

Yuma's head popped off his pillow. "Murakami-senpai's team made it to upper tier?"

"For now it seems." Jin said as he scrolled through his phone. "It will be the day match on Saturday."

Yuma smiled, but it didn't last long as it slipped away and his head dropped back down to his pillow. He brought his hand up to above his face and stared at his ring. His team would be facing Murakami's team in the next round of the B-Rank Wars. It was something he should be excited for. He loved facing off against his friend's team, but considering he collapsed in his match against Kageura, he didn't know how well he would actually hold out against Murakami. Could he really handle a match?

Knock. Knock.

"Ah, good morning, Kinuta-san." Jin greeted.

Yuma dropped his arm down onto the pillow by his head so he could see past the limb to see Kinuta coming into the room.

"Finally awake, Kuga?" Kinuta said by way of greeting.

"Yeah," Yuma pushed himself back into a sitting position. "Sorry for the trouble I caused you last night."

Kinuta grunted. "You've been nothing but trouble since you came to Japan. I'm used to it."

That actually got a genuine smile from Yuma. He didn't mean to cause trouble, but maybe he did have some bad luck with how he just seemed to attract trouble to him. It seemed everyone around him was just getting used to him and the chaos that seemed to surround him.

Kinuta smacked a tablet down on the side table next to Yuma's bed, drawing Yuma's attention briefly to it before he was looking back at Kinuta. "I kept an eye on your vitals and Trion for about an hour last night. After you passed out, Jin transferred his Trion to you which helped you stabilize and kept you from entering a sleep mode. After that, your Trion began to recover and even out to your normal levels."

"Meaning that my Trion depleted in the match yesterday." Yuma said, frowning. "Why would that happen?"

"Probably because you didn't eat yesterday." Jin suggested.

Kinuta rounded on Yuma so fast that Yuma was surprised his neck didn't break.

"I had some breakfast." Yuma said.

"A few bites you mean." Jin corrected.

Yuma scowled. "I didn't mean to skip meals. I got distracted with my thoughts."

"Kuga," Kinuta said sharply to get Yuma's attention back on him. "It's one thing for someone else to miss a meal, but it's completely different for you. The nutrients you get from eating keep your body functioning. You cannot afford to be missing any meals, especially right now. Your body is in a perilous state and is beginning to shut down. You will only hurt yourself more if you miss meals."

"I didn't skip eating on purpose." Yuma protested.

Kinuta raised an unimpressed brow.

Yuma held his hands up in defense. "So, my body shut down because I missed eating by accident?"

"Yes, your body is fighting desperately to live right now and you're starved it. When someone misses a meal, they lose energy. If they don't eat for days, their body starts fighting back against them and they can collapse. For you, the only way for your body to survive and function is for you to eat more than the average person in a single day. Not eating means your body will turn against you and it took your Trion as payment to try to feed on something." Kinuta explained.

Yuma ran a hand through his hair. "So this happened just because I forgot to eat? I'll be fine if that doesn't happen again?"

"No."

Yuma's attention flickered over to Jin.

"This was only the first time, Yuma. The truth is, your body is still shutting down." Jin replied.

Yuma frowned, thumb brushing over his ring. This was always going to happen one day. He didn't have much answers when he first got trapped in this situation. They could only make guesses back when he first got his real body trapped in his Trigger. Even now, they were still only working on hypotheses, but the closer his body got to dying, the more they could confirm to be truth.

They all needed to be on the same page to understand this.

"My head hurt before the match yesterday." Yuma admitted. "I thought it was strange since I shouldn't feel anything. I thought the stress of everything was getting to me."

Kinuta nodded. He picked up his tablet and made a note of what Yuma said. "That likely was a warning to you about the lack of nutrients you didn't ingest yesterday. Entering the match pushed your already tired body too far and it caused you to pass out. Be sure to eat more." He looked up from his tablet and pointed at Yuma's bag of rice crackers. "And that is not good enough. You need more nutrients."

"No problem." Jin interjected. "I'll take him to the cafeteria. It's nearly lunch time anyway."

Kinuta raised a brow and looked back at Yuma. "Do you feel well enough to leave?"

Yuma nodded, eager to get out of this room. The rice crackers might not be very nutritious, but they did their job and put something in his stomach. He could feel that it wasn't enough for his stomach though. It was still begging for some more food.

"Then get out of here." Kinuta said as Jin made his way to the corner of the room to grab Yuma's shoes. "I don't want to see you again today."

"Understood."

*L*S*A*

"Sorry for the trouble, Jin-san." Yuma said as he rocked back and forth on his feet as he watched the elevator numbers move as they made their way to the cafeteria floor.

Jin sighed and ruffled Yuma's hair. "I'm not going to say it's okay, because it's not, Yuma. You really scared everyone last night."

Yuma scratched his cheek, feeling very embarrassed about the whole thing. He hated having people worry about him. All he wanted his whole life was to be just strong enough where his dad didn't have to worry about him. That ended horribly as Yuma was left with severe injuries and a dead father. After that, he got focused on himself and making himself stronger. Despite that, despite the reputation he built in Border as a strong agent, he was still worrying his friends.

Jin hated the way Yuma blushed and frowned at the same time. He didn't want to upset Yuma, but he wanted his friend to understand how he and his other friends felt. The concern they felt was something Yuma should be familiar with. It was what he feels when his friends were in trouble, but Jin knew Yuma hated it when it was directed at him.

"Let's not think about it right now." Jin decided. "Today is your birthday so let's just have fun with that."

Yuma didn't care about his birthday, but if it got his friend to leave him alone concerning his health, that was the best birthday gift he could ask for.

The elevator doors opened so Jin took the time to push Yuma out of it. "Anything you're in the mood to eat?" He asked.

Yuma's brows furrowed as he thought that over. His stomach was grumbling so hard at him. It was like telling him to get some delicious food in it before it starting to eat him. "A hamburger?"

Jin nodded. "Good choice. We'll get you some fries and soda with it too."

Yuma's stomach growled eagerly at the thought of the food. "Let's hurry then!"

Jin smiled as he watched Yuma rush down the hall. There was no doubt in his mind that his friend was still upset by his prediction and that it was attacking him mentally, but he was doing his best to focus on other things. Today was the one day that Jin was going to make sure Yuma didn't have to worry about his death. There was going to be plenty of time to be worried about Yuma after today.

When Jin stepped into the cafeteria, it was to find that Yuma had been stopped very quickly by Kako who had latched onto his shoulders from behind before he could reach the line.

"Kako-san." Jin greeted as he approached the two.

"Jin," Kako greeted. "I've come to steal Kuga-kun."

"Can't let you do that today." Jin replied though he didn't make any effort to separate Kako and Yuma. He was too used to her being playful with Yuma. It always got Yuma to smile and that was exactly what he wanted for his young friend today. "You also can't distract him long. Yuma only just woke up and is starving."

"Understandable." Kako replied. "It's good to see you back on your feet, Kuga-kun."

"Thanks." Yuma replied. "I'm disappointed that I missed the match though."

"I'm sure you weren't the only one." Kako replied.

"Ah. Kuga-senpai!"

"Hmm?" Yuma leaned his head forward to see around Kako's arm around him to see Obishima standing there. "Yo, Obishima-chan."

"Are you going to be here a while?" Obishima asked.

Yuma blinked. It was a normal question, but it felt quite a bit forceful when coming from a normally very docile girl. "I think so? At least long enough for me to eat lunch."

"Great," Obishima replied. "Don't leave until I get back, Kuga-senpai!" She then ran off, leaving the trio of confused agents behind as she headed out of the cafeteria.

Kako loosened her grip on Yuma to look behind her as the younger agent left. "She's gotten a lot more forward with approaching Kuga-kun. She usually needs Yuba-kun to give her the shove forward." She had seen Obishima hovering shyly in areas where Yuma was in the past. She could tell the girl had wanted to talk to Yuma before, but was always hesitant to approach when he was surrounded by too many agents who were being loud and boisterous.

"I don't think you're on to talk." Jin said, sending a pointed look towards how Kako still had her arms draped over Yuma's shoulders.

"Oh, Kuga-kun doesn't care." Kako replied easily though she did release her hug on Yuma. She quickly ruffled Yuma's hair before stepping out of his personal space.

Yuma straightened out his messy hair.

"So, what are you guys up to today?" Kako asked.

"Lunch and making sure you don't try to steal Yuma." Jin pushed Yuma towards the line so he would go get himself some food. Once he had Yuma in the line, he turned towards Kako. "I'm serious about that too, Kako-san. Tease him all you like today but no fighting him today."

Kako raised a brow at how serious Jin was sounding, but she didn't look too surprised. "He fainted last night and only just woke up. I'm not going to drag him into the solo rank booths." She looked past Jin towards Yuma. "But does he know that?"

"I think Yuma is smart enough to know training isn't a good idea right now." Jin said. His young friend would be hugely disappointed about not getting to have all the fights with his friends that he likely wanted. To Yuma, getting to fight all the strong agents he could would be a wonderful birthday gift, but unfortunately that wasn't an option available to him today.

"But you didn't tell him." Kako deduced. If Jin had talked to Yuma about it, he wouldn't have pushed Yuma away before bringing it up with him.

"I just want him to get food before he gets distracted again." Jin replied. "Also, are you free today?"

Kako raised a brow, smirking slightly in amusement. "Well, that depends on what you are asking for me. Are you trying to send me after another horde of Trion Soldiers?"

"Nope, but it is for Yuma." Jin replied.

"Hmm?"

*L*S*A*

"Jin texted. Yuma woke up." Rindo told his agents who were gathering in the kitchen at the base.

"He's okay?" Chika asked quickly, twisting around in her seat to look at her boss and setting her cookie cutter down on the counter.

Rindo sent her a reassuring smile. "He's up and about."

"That's perfect." Konami dumped the bags she just brought into the room on the couch. "Jin is going to keep him busy which means we have all day to set up the base for his party without worry of him walking in on us." She thought a look towards Hyuse. "When I say 'we,' I mean all of us. You're helping too."

"Reiji's not here." Hyuse protested. "Why does he get out of helping?"

"Reiji-san is picking up Yuma's cake." Konami countered. "When he gets back, he'll be helping us decorate."

"Also, Hyuse," Rindo called to the Neighbor. "You're going to have to activate your Trigger tonight."

"Why?"

"Jin is inviting Yuma's friends from HQ. Since they don't all know about your Neighbor status, it's best to hide." Rindo explained.

Hyuse tsked. He didn't have a problem using a Trigger to hide his horns, but this was his base. He shouldn't have to hide in his own base.

"It's for one night. Relax." Konami rolled her eyes. This was for Yuma. After the clear stress he had been under the past few days and his passing out last night and missing the match, she truly believed he needed this party tonight. She would make sure he had fun tonight.

Yuri turned around from the cabinets and set a tray on the breakfast counter that was between her and Chika. Using a spatula covered in flour, she began to life the cookie dough that Chika already pressed out with her cookie cutter to move them to the tray.

"Do we know how many of his friends Jin-kun is inviting?" Yuri asked. "Yuma-kun is quite popular among the agents. If Jin-kun invites all his friends, we might need more cookies and food then I planned for."

"It should just be his closest friends." Konami said. Their base was a decent size, but it wasn't Border HQ size. They didn't want it to be too crowded in here.

"That doesn't actually make the list that much smaller." Osamu said weakly. Yuma got along so easily with so many squads. It wouldn't be fair to those friends to pick and choose among them who got invited and who didn't.

Yuri chuckled. "Can I at least get a list of who the possible guests are to see how many cookies I'll need?"

"Midorikawa-kun." Chika piped up. There was no way he wouldn't come for his friend's birthday.

"Kageura squad and Arashiyama squad." Osamu added.

"Kō-san will definitely come." Konami added. "Yuma is friends with Kako-san too."

"Toma-san might come too. He and Yuma-kun get along really well." Shiori added. "He's friends with Kakizaki squad, Suwa squad, and Arafune-san, but I don't know if they are coming."

"Izuho-chan said she would come to." Chika added.

"He's friends with Yoneya-san too." Karasuma added.

Yuri blinked. "Yuma-kun certainly gets around to different friend groups, doesn't he?" She glanced towards her uncle. "Will Shinoda-san be attending?"

Rindo nodded. "He will be."

Osamu hoped that none of Yuma's friends that were coming would want to go down to the basement. He did not want to bring up the fact that Yuma could not train right now with them or Yuma. He knew that training was something Yuma and his Attacker friends all loved to do because they found it fun, but he really hoped they would just focus on hanging out together tonight so they didn't have to talk about the no fighting rule they were going to have to put Yuma under. There was also the fact that Yuma's friends from HQ didn't know about Yuma's time coming to an end.

As far as he knew at least.

Osamu didn't think Yuma had told any of them, but he hadn't gotten around to asking him about that.

"We can make cookies besides sugar cookies." Shiori said.

"But what about the cake? Did we get a big enough one?" Yuri asked worriedly.

"Jin-san was in charge of ordering the cake." Shiori replied and that instantly caused Yuri's worries to subside.

"Then the cake will definitely be big enough."

Konami shoved one of the bags of decorations in Hyuse's arms. "You guys focus on the cookies. I'll take charge with getting the decorations up."

"Are we just decorating in here?" Osamu asked.

Konami scoffed. "Of course not. The roof is getting decorated too. If Jin wants to invite so many of Yuma's friends, we need more than the space in here. Get moving, Osamu. You're helping Hyuse, Torimaru, and me."

"I can help too." Yotaro declared.

"You can help Hyuse blow up balloons." Konami said.

"Is that a good idea?" Shiori asked. "They can't even be trusted with a blender together."

Hyuse felt his neck burn in embarrassment at the reminder of that failure. "That was months ago!"

Osamu's eyes flickered from Shiori to Hyuse in confusion. He had never heard anything about a blender incident, but he wasn't going to ask. Even after all this time, he still did not need to know about the crazy shenanigans that his friends got up to. It would only cause his stress to rise to know what they got up to. He had enough stress in his life without adding more to it.

"I'll make sure they know how to do it properly before I leave them to it." Konami promised Shiori.

"Does Yuma even want a birthday party?" Hyuse grumbled. "He's never once mentioned his birthday at all." If Yuma's birthday came up at all, it was because someone else brought it up first and made the conversation about it. Besides, Yuma was turning sixteen. Hyuse didn't get the big deal. In Aftokrator, once someone turned fifteen, they were on their own. Considering that, he didn't get the big deal of celebrating birthdays. They hadn't done anything like this for his or Osamu's birthday, but to be fair, both of their birthdays passed while they were on the away mission so there wasn't time for them.

Konami pointed a finger in Hyuse's face. "Yuma never had a birthday party here before. He doesn't know what he wants."

"Yuma-kun just likes having fun. He'll definitely have fun with a party so he'll enjoy it." Chika added.

"For all the work we're putting in, he better have fun or I'll pound his head in." Hyuse grumbled as he was pushed towards the table by Konami.

*L*S*A*

Kako sipped at her drink, relaxing in her seat. "It really is peaceful."

"Hmm?" Jin stole one of Yuma's fries and tossed it into his mouth. He grinned at the dirty look that Yuma gave him as he pulled his tray of food closer to him. "What do you mean, Kako-san?"

"With all the invasions we had this year and then the away mission, it's been a very hectic year." Kako replied.

"How was the away mission?" Jin asked. "Did you enjoy seeing the other world?"

Kako grinned. "Dangerous, but I really loved seeing what that world was look. I knew all the countries were separated, but to actually see the nations and how different they looked and the unique personalities of each nation was fascinating to see."

"Do you think you would want to go on another away mission?" Yuma asked before taking a bite of his burger.

"Oh, definitely." Kako said with a grin. "For as long as we spent in the Neighborhood, I feel like I've barely seen anything of that world."

Yuma hummed.

"I've been in Border for a long time and I've barely seen anything of that world." Jin said. Back when Border was smaller, they didn't make away missions a priority so he only got to go on a few missions to the Neighborhood and it was usually to their allied nations. They didn't have the resources to be going there often so they only went when an ally nation was requesting their help. When they went to aid an ally, it wasn't a fun time. It was a battlefield so his time in the Neighborhood didn't have good memories. Still, the Neighbors he met were always interesting people and he wanted continue making friends with them. "That's why Yuma is our expert."

Yuma allowed Jin to ruffle his hair. His friend was being much more affectionate than usual. He wondered if it was because Jin knew his death was approaching and wanted to get his hair ruffles in before that happened. "Replica is the expert. He holds all the data from our travels. Kinuta-san needs to fix him." Most of Yuma's time in the Neighborhood was spent following his father and fighting a war. Yugo and Replica would be able to more easily answer questions than Yuma could.

"He's working on it, Yuma."

Yuma pursed his lips. He wished Kinuta would hurry. He wanted to talk to Replica before he died, but he didn't think he would get that lucky.

"Replica is..." Kako trailed off as she thought about it. She knew Yuma picked something up in Aftokrator and she heard the word 'Replica' in his conversation with his team on the away ship, but she never bothered to interject herself into what was clearly a private conversation.

"An autonomous Trion Soldier my dad made for me when I was toddler." Yuma explained. "He forced Aftokrator's away ship to perform an emergency launch during their invasion to force them to retreat. He was broken though and got stuck on their ship. I went to Aftokrator to get him back, but he's shut down in a safety mode right now. He needs repaired."

"Kinuta-san and Michael-san are going to work on it together, but it will take some time." Jin added. "The agents may be done with the away mission, but R&D has a lot to look into from Triggers and intel we got so it might take them a while to repair Replica."

"I see." Kako smiled. "If it's Kinuta-san and Cronin-san, I'm sure they'll be able to fix him."

"I know they will. Yuma is just impatient."

Yuma pouted. "Am not. I've waited this long to get him back. I can wait a little longer." Well, maybe he could. Based on Jin's prediction, that may not be true.

"Kuga-senpai, you're still here!"

Yuma tossed a fry in his mouth before turning to see Obishima making her way to his table with a box in her hands. "You asked me to be so I wasn't going to leave just yet."

Obishima thrust the box in her hands out towards Yuma. "This is for you. Happy birthday, Kuga-senpai!"

Yuma blinked at the gift being shoved at him. "Oh, you–"

A leg kicked him while a foot stomped on his foot. Neither hurt, but they surely hit hard enough for him to acknowledge what happened.

"Thank you, Obishima-chan." Yuma quickly twisted his words and took the package from her. He pushed his tray to the side, away from Jin, and set the package in front of him and looked at is curiously. "Can I open it?"

"Yes!" Obishima replied. "I wasn't sure of what you would want for your birthday, so I thought I would give you the chance to try something new. I know you like to try new foods so I thought of these cookies. They're shichimi togarashi cookies."

Yuma's brows furrowed as he pulled the end of the ribbon to undo the bow on the box. He popped open the flaps of the box and stared inside at the cookies.

"Shichimi togarashi?" Kako leaned forward to look inside the box.

"What is that?" Yuma asked confused.

"It means seven spices." Jin replied. "It has seven different spices in it blended together. It's get used for cooking. When used for cookies, it adds a kick of spice to it."

"I heard from Midorikawa-kun that you like spicy and flavorful food so I thought for your birthday you could try a spice cookie." Obishima explained, face turning red the more she talked about her reasoning for the gift. It felt like having to explain the gift made it not into a good gift. Yuma shouldn't need an explanation of his gifts to have them make sense.

Yuma, for his part, didn't notice Obishima's rising embarrassment. He just kept staring into the box of cookies. She really had gone out of her way to get him this by asking Shun for his preferences. The least he could do was try the cookies. Besides, he was curious about what they did taste like.

"Cool. Thanks." Yuma took a cookie out of the box and eagerly took a bite of it. The result was instantaneously as his eyes lit up in joy at the jolt of flavor that hit his tongue. "Amazing!"

Obishima released a breath she didn't realize she was holding. "You like them?"

"Mm-hmm." Yuma tossed the rest of his cookie in his mouth. "They're amazing! Thanks, Obishima-chan. You really didn't have to go out of your way to get me something, but I appreciate it."

"No, no." Obishima replied. "I appreciate you agreeing to train me. This is the least I could do, Kuga-senpai."

Jin leaned over Yuma's shoulder to look more closely at the cookies in the box. He reached over Yuma's arm, but got his hand smacked in return and a red glare turned to him.

"Why do you keep trying to steal my food today?" Yuma grumbled.

"You don't want to share with your loving senpai?" Jin moaned. "For shame, Yuma."

Yuma stuck his tongue out at him before turning to Kako and Obishima. "Can you believe him? He's trying to steal from the child whose health is failing."

Kako grinned, despite hating the fact that Yuma brought up his own health issues. "Truly. The one for shame here is you, Jin."

Jin put his hand to his chest and collapsed dramatically back into his seat. "I'll never recover from the shame."

Yuma laughed and took another cookie out of the box.

Jin nudged his foot against Yuma's leg, cracking an eye open. "Don't just eat the cookies, Yuma. Eat the burger and fries too or Usami will come after me about your poor food choices." He paused and thought about the lecture Shiori has given him in the past about attempting to ruin his kōhais' appetite by giving them rice crackers. "Again."

Yuma turned to stare straight at Jin as he tossed his cookie in his mouth.

"Brat." Jin said, snickering.

"Um..."

"Oh," Yuma turned back to Obishima. "What's up?"

"I was wondering..." Obishima looked Yuma up and down. When she had gone to his room last night, he was so still that he looked dead. It had been very scary to see. "Are you feeling better?"

Yuma gave her a thumbs up. There were still a lot of issues he had to deal with, but for now, he felt fine. Better then fine actually. The food and cookies were really doing their job to raise his energy levels. "All good." In this moment only though.

Obishima's expression brightened up immediately. "That's wonderful. I hope you have an amazing birthday, Kuga-senpai!" She bowed her head to the older agents. "Excuse me. I have team training today."

"Don't let us keep you then." Jin replied with an easy grin.

Kako watched the young agent leave with a curious expression. "I wonder if she has a crush on Kuga-kun."

Yuma choked on the cookie he just ate and was left pounding on his chest.

Jin reached across Yuma to grab his soda and handed it to him. "He just woke up, Kako-san. Please don't try to kill Yuma right now."

Kako laughed as Yuma greedily drank his soda to help clear his throat. "But she's so sweet around him."

"I really don't think that is it." Yuma replied. "When I first met her, she was telling me how she admired me for my skill in battle."

"Crushes can develop at any time." Kako teased.

Yuma huffed. "Well, I doubt she feels that way about me. I hope she knows better than to feel like that for someone who is dying."

Kako leaned back in her seat, raising her hands on the table in disbelief. "And now you took the teasing one step too far."

"He does that." Jin said.

"I do not." Yuma protested.

"When it's about your health, you do." Jin countered.

Yuma shrugged. Jin was the one who put his health at the forefront of his mind a few days ago. It was hard for Yuma to forget about it because of his warning.

SLAM!

Yuma sipped at his drink as he stared at the hand that suddenly came into view to smack their table.

"Yo, Tachikawa-san." Jin greeted easily, unconcerned with Tachikawa's abrupt arrival.

Tachikawa leaned across the table and pointed a finger in Jin's face. "Good to see you awake, Chibi. Jin, fight me." He said by way of a greeting.

Yuma was never going to get rid of that nickname. He wasn't offended by Tachikawa calling him 'Chibi' constantly, but he thought after the whole Mimic incident was over, Tachikawa would stop with the nickname. Instead, Tachikawa just brought it out sometimes as he switched between calling him Kuga and Chibi.

"Yuma gets a nice greeting and I get that?" Jin asked amused.

"If you're going to walk into HQ, be prepared to be challenged." Tachikawa countered.

Jin smiled, but pushed Tachikawa's hand away from his face. "Sorry, Tachikawa-san. I have to babysit Yuma today."

Yuma's nose wrinkled. "I don't need a babysitter. Go fight if you want to."

"I don't think people who passed out less than twenty-four hours ago have much say." Jin replied.

"I think he does." Tachikawa argued. "If Chibi says it's fine, it's fine."

Yuma glared at Jin out of the corner of his eyes. "Don't put your life on hold because you're worried about me. I know you want to spar with him."

"That's all the permission we need." Tachikawa said cheerfully. "Kazama-san is going to meet us there too."

"Oh, Kazama-san is going too?" Yuma asked.

Tachikawa smirked. "I hear you're still nagging him for a fight."

Yuma groaned. "He still won't fight me! Do I really have to reach A-Rank before he will?" He was going to die before he ever reached A-Rank which meant he would never get his chance against Kazama. He had fought all the other top Attackers. Kazama was the only one he was missing.

"Keep nagging him." Tachikawa suggested. "He'll be in the solo rank booths right about now."

Before Yuma could even think of getting up, Jin's hand came down and pushed down on Yuma's head to keep him in his seat. "No fighting, Yuma. You're still recovering."

Yuma scoffed and leaned back in his seat. "I feel fine."

"Yeah? And how did you feel yesterday before you collapsed?" Jin countered. He turned to Tachikawa and pointed at Yuma. "This is why I'm babysitting."

Yuma scowled. "I had a headache before I collapsed. I don't feel anything off right now."

Tachikawa flickered his eyes from Jin to Yuma to Jin. This truly felt like dangerous territory that he was walking into. It was never a good time for anyone when these two were arguing. It seemed like whenever they argued it was about Yuma's health. That was the only thing to ever put them in contention with each other. It was like Yuma could not deal with Jin's concern for his health.

"You didn't feel anything before the headache when that came out of nowhere." Jin argued.

Yuma smacked his cup to the table and shimmied out of the booth. He pointed towards the exit of the cafeteria. "Go train with Tachikawa-san and Kazama-san. If it makes you feel better, I will come with you and lay face down on a couch and bemoan my life."

"That seems quite dramatic." Tachikawa said, earning a glare from Yuma in response. He held his hands up in surrender. The chibi was now officially in a mood.

Kako chuckled. "Best do what he says, Jin. You don't want to upset the birthday boy, do you?" She got distracted from the conversation as she pulled out her phone to read a text she had just received, smiling curiously at it.

"Already failed at that." Jin mumbled.

"It's your birthday?" Tachikawa looked at Yuma in surprise.

"Are you surprised that I have a birthday?" Yuma asked.

Tachikawa shrugged. "It's a shame you're banned from training today. I would have gladly smacked you around for..." He paused and looked at Yuma again. "How old are you now?"

"Sixteen."

"I would have gladly smacked you around for sixteen rounds." Tachikawa finished.

Yuma's brows furrowed in confusion. He would have gladly fought Tachikawa for sixteen rounds, but Jin seemed dead set against Yuma doing any training today all because he fainted yesterday. That truly sucked. He would have loved to spend his birthday challenging everyone to a fight.

"You can beat up Jin-san for sixteen rounds in my stead." Yuma replied.

"Hey, come on, Yuma." Jin protested.

Yuma turned his sharp gaze towards his friend. Before he said anything, he turned back to Kako and Tachikawa. "I have to ask him something in private. We'll meet you in the solo rank booth."

Kako raised a brow. "I see. I actually have to get going, but I'll see you later, Kuga-kun." She climbed out of the booth and waved the group away.

"Don't take too long." Tachikawa quickly escaped the tension that was suffocating them all.

As the two older agents left, Yuma took Kako's seat in the booth so that he and Jin could face each other. "I really do want you to train with Tachikawa-san and Kazama-san." He said.

Jin frowned. He told Konami he would keep an eye on Yuma today. It got her to agree to go back to Tamakoma and get the base set up for his surprise birthday party. If it wasn't for Jin's promise to watch Yuma and make sure he would truly be fine after yesterday, he didn't think anyone from Tamakoma would have left. "Maybe I want to spend the whole day with my cute kōhai."

Yuma scowled. What Jin said wasn't a lie, but Yuma also knew that a person could want more than one thing at the same time. "I saw the way your eyes lit up when Tachikawa-san challenged you to a fight. You want to fight him. You get a huge thrill out of it, but you're putting off what you want because you think I need you. Jin-san, I'm fine truly. I know I'm dying, but I don't want you to put your life on hold for me."

"Yuma, it's one day." Jin replied.

Yuma shook his head. "How much of your time have you spent looking at my future to find a way to save my life? How much time have you spent talking with people to find those that could help me? How much time have you spent talking to me about this when I never asked you to look into it? You've been putting so much effort into this, Jin-san. And when you're not working on saving me, you're scheming for everyone's future to get us through attacks. So, this time, I want you to go have fun."

This time. Jin shook his head, smiling. His whole purpose for inviting Yuma to join Border was so he could have fun. After learning his friend's past, all he wanted was for Yuma to have fun and to learn to be happy. It seemed that Yuma was trying to flip the script on him.

"Jin-san, it's my birthday. You want me to be happy, don't you?" Yuma asked. "I want to train, but I don't want to fight with you on it so if you think it's bad for my health to fight right now, I won't do it then. As long as you go spar. Isn't there some saying that is like, if my friends are happy, then I'm happy too?"

Sharing happiness.

That's what Yuma wanted to throw at Jin. The thing was, Jin would be happiest if Yuma would agree to the surgery. The surgery may not have a huge success rate, but it was the only chance his friend had. It was 20 percent chance with the surgery or 100 percent death if Yuma stayed.

However, Jin bit his tongue. He had promised himself and requested the same of his friends who knew of the surgery's existence that they wouldn't push Yuma on it today. Today was just about making Yuma happy as much as they could.

"Only if you promise to not actually bemoan your existence on the couch like you said. I don't want any frowns from you today." Jin proposed.

Yuma tilted his head. He understood what Jin was asking of him. It was the same thing that Yuma wanted for himself every day. The problem was that he was finding it increasingly more difficult to smile his carefree smile. The information of his death fast approaching and a surgery with a low chance of success that his friends wanted him to try was all too distracting for him. He wished he could just put it completely out of his mind.

Jin reached across the table and pulled at Yuma's cheeks. "You're already failing. Where is that smile from when you tried the cookies Obishima got for you?"

Yuma pulled one of Jin's hands off his face. "It's not that easy."

Jin stared at his friend. He knew why it wasn't easy for Yuma to smile right now. The thought of his death wouldn't leave it. Before, it was something that Yuma could very easily put out of his mind because the future was full of unknowns. The moment Jin put the time clock in front of Yuma, he should have expected the shift in Yuma. Knowing the future was a horrible thing to deal with. Jin dealt with it by constantly working to shift the future in their favor.

"I know." Jin admitted. He pushed the cookies across the table towards Yuma. "But I want you to think about how amazing today will be. I don't want you to think about tomorrow or next week or the end of the month. The only thing I want you to think about is everyone in front of you today."

Jin climbed out of the booth, watching as Yuma snagged another cookie from the box.

"If I'm happy, you're happy. That's what you said, right?" Jin asked.

Yuma nodded as he munched on the cookie.

"Then come watch me crush Tachikawa-san in a sixteen round match." Jin said.

*L*S*A*

Shiori and Yuri worked in tandem together. Being part of the same branch and both being operators, they had gotten so used to working alongside each other and understanding each other. It made it easy for them to move around each other as they mixed cookie dough and pulled hot trays out of the oven.

Turning around with another hot tray, Shiori was careful to avoid Yuri so she wouldn't burn her with the tray and put it on the cooling rack on the breakfast counter. She was sure to put it on the cooling rack further from Chika who was focused on decorating the sugar cookies that had cooled down enough for icing to be applied.

When she saw the cookie Chika was working on, Shiori gasped in surprise before she was grinning and leaning over the counter to get a closer look. "Is that Replica?"

Chika looked up with a small smile. "It's not perfect." Decorating with icing was pretty hard to do, but she was determined to get at least Replica made for Yuma. She would have to make sure this cookie in specific got to Yuma.

"Yuma-kun will love it no matter what." Shiori replied.

"It's not about the gift. It's about the effort and love put into it." Yuri added.

Chika nodded, smiling softly as she looked back at the Replica she was working on. Yuma never got mad when something didn't go right. What he always appreciated the most was the effort they all put in to reach their goals. That kind of attitude made it so easy for Chika to team up with Yuma and Osamu. They never got mad at her when she needed more time. They would just smile at her and tell her to take it at her own pace because they knew she was putting a lot of effort into it.

Her hand curled into a fist.

She had put so much effort into improving herself. She watched her teammates do the same.

For all the effort they put in to get stronger as a team, why wasn't Yuma putting the same effort into fighting for his life?

Chika shook her head. No. Osamu told her that Jin said that they weren't to discuss Yuma's death or the surgery today. Today was all about Yuma's birthday. That was all they should be focusing on right now.

"It smells wonderful in here."

"Huh? Oh, Arashiyama-san!" Shiori called in surprise when she turned to see Arashiyama and his squad at the doorway to the living area. "You know the party isn't until tonight."

Arashiyama held up his hand to show a bag in his hand.

Now that Chika was looking, every member of Arashiyama squad was carrying bags.

"Hmm?" Yuri leaned pass Shiori to see the bags. "Kirie-chan already got all the decorations."

"These aren't decorations." Kitora came farther in and set her bag on the table to remove the items from inside to show to the Tamakoma members.

The moment she saw what was inside the bag, Shiori's eyes instantly lit up.

"That is even better."

Tokieda set his bags down on the floor by the door and made his way over to the counter. "I see a lot of cookies, but where is the actual food?"

"We haven't gotten to that yet." Yuri replied.

"You're really planning to do all the baking and cooking today?" Kitora asked, frowning. "That's a lot of work to do so last minute."

"With the B-Rank Wars happening right now, we didn't have time to do any of this with Yuma constantly coming and going from the base. We want it to be a surprise and Shiori-chan and Chika-chan were busy planning for the Rank Wars too." Yuri replied. "Jin-kun is going to keep Yuma out of the base today so we have time to do this."

"Did he wake up?" Kitora asked.

Shiori nodded. "Jin texted us about an hour ago about that."

Satori leaned on the breakfast counter and watched as Chika worked on icing her cookie as neatly as she could. "This seems like a lot of work for a birthday party, especially when you should be training for the B-Rank Wars."

"Maybe," Shiori agreed. "We weren't going to do anything big because of that. It was going to be a simple party with pizza and cake."

"What changed?" Arashiyama asked, grinning. "Besides Kirie being excited for Yuma's first birthday here."

"Jin-san." Shiori shrugged as she put another tray of cookies in the oven. "When we left the base last night, he asked us to prepare for a big party." She smacked her oven mitt on the counter. "He gave us no time to prepare for the sudden change into a big party where he was going to invite a bunch of HQ agents."

Chika's hand stalled on icing her cookie. It was Jin who asked them last minute to put a lot more effort into the party. They were always going to decorate the base and make Yuma's favorite foods and get him gifts, but Jin said to prepare for something bigger and for more people to come then they originally planned. She wondered if Jin's reasoning was because of Yuma's approaching death. Did Jin want to do something huge for Yuma before he died?

"Do you need help?" Haruka asked.

"If you don't mind." Yuri requested. "The others are decorating on the roof right now. If you could help with decorating the cookies or help them, it would be appreciated. Then we can move to the food."

Haruka nodded. "I got that. Hmm," She paused as she remembered the other day. She remembered the tears on Yuma's face and the confession of wanting to experience so many more things before died. "And maybe I can get you some more hands if you don't mind a few more people coming?"

Arashiyama stared at his operator in confusion, but she was just smiling as she seemingly plotted something.

"And maybe change a few things on tonight's menu?" Haruka added, much to the confusion of everyone in the room.

"That sounds like a lot of work." Shiori said, glancing at the clock. "And I'm not sure if we have the time or food to make changes."

Haruka whipped out her phone. "It will suck for those on defense duty tonight that they won't be able to come."

"Uh, what?" Shiori whipped back around to Haruka who was already on her phone.

Operators' Group Chat

Haruka: Anyone who is free, get ready. We got a big task for tonight and we only have a few hours to get it done. I need your teams.

Kunichika: Is it going to be fun or all business?

Haruka: It will be fun after we get it done, but we're on limited time.

Mikami: What do you need from us?

Haruka: Firstly, come to Tamakoma Branch. Do not let Kuga-kun know.

Shiori stared at her phone, feeling quite faint. Haruka was inviting everyone who was free to come here. Most of them probably didn't even know it was Yuma's birthday. They were going to be so confused when they got here.

Wait, where were they even going to fit all the agents?

Then again, how many of them would actually come?