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.

31. Ch 31: Tamakoma-2

Light Shines Anew

Chapter 31: Tamakoma-2

Knock. Knock. Knock.

A groan escaped Yuma and he tugged his blanket farther over his head.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Yuma buried his face in his pillow.

KNOCK. KNOCK. KNOCK.

Yanking the blanket off of his head, Yuma turned his head to crack an eye open and glare at the door. Who the hell was pounding on his door? He shifted on the bed, feeling weighed down by sleepiness.

"Yuma, open the door!"

A groan escaped Yuma and he briefly smooched his face back into his pillow for a moment. Sleepiness weighed him down, but as he took a moment to assess himself, Yuma noticed that he did feel better. While his muscles still ached, he could tell it was the normal soreness that he had with his new prosthetics. The worst kind of pain from overexerting himself yesterday was gone and as he laid here, waking up, he found himself being well rested now.

Jin was right about sleep making him feel better.

"Yuma!" His name being shouted was accompanied by another pounding on his door.

With a sigh, Yuma pushed himself up from the bed, letting his blanket fall and bunch up together on the bed. "I'm coming. I'm coming." He muttered. It was pretty quiet so he doubted he was heard over the incessant knocking.

"Alright," Yuma yanked the door open mid-knock so he was nearly hit in the head. The only reason the fist missed his head was because of how short he was. "What do you need, Hyuse?"

Hyuse lowed his fist though by the look on his face, Yuma got the impression that he had wanted to knock it into Yuma's forehead.

Which, rude.

"You look half-asleep." Hyuse commented.

"I was sleeping."

Hyuse scoffed. "It's three in the afternoon."

"It is?" Yuma glanced over his shoulder to look out his window. He supposed it was the middle of the day based on the sun shining into his room. He hadn't even noticed the sun when he woke up to Hyuse's knocking. That medicine Jin gave him really knocked him out. Actually, where did that blanket come from? He didn't remember having a blanket when he laid down earlier.

"Yuma."

Yuma turned back to Hyuse. "Yes?"

"Come on." Hyuse pointed down the hall.

"Come on?" Yuma leaned out of the room to look down at the empty hall with a frown. "Where to?"

"Training."

Yuma looked back at Hyuse, frowning. "I'm not cleared for training." He knew he was on a team with Hyuse, Osamu, and Chika, but not only was he not cleared to train, but he also wasn't the same fighter they were used to fighting with. It just didn't seem like it would work.

Hyuse merely rolled his eyes. "You're not training. We, meaning Osamu, Chika, and me, are training, but you're still a member of our team. Once you're cleared physically, you'll be back on our team." He did not care if Yuma didn't have his memories. He lost five years worth of memories, which also meant five years of combat experience. That meant they had to beat it all back into his head. If the memories didn't come back, Yuma needed to be ready to understand their team and his role so they could get him ready for combat again.

He would not accept anyone else to be his partner.

Yuma was his partner and Hyuse would make sure that everyone remembered that.

"You know I don't remember anything about being a Border agent or being on your team." Yuma pointed out.

"And?" Hyuse drawled. "You promised to fight to survive your surgery and we promised to keep your spot on our team open. We both held up our side of the bargain. You want to get familiar with all things Border, right? This is the best place to start."

Yuma never recalled saying he cared to get to know anything about Border. He was simply picked up by Border agents and brought here because they said that it was where he belonged. Seeing as he had nowhere else to go and that they had Replica, he made the decision to agree with them to come here.

But, he also said he would play nice with Border. It was the place where his father had friends after all. Border may not be anything like his father said it would be, but there were still people here who said they were his friends. Even if getting to know Border wasn't the reason he agreed to come here, he could still at least try.

For his father who loved Japan and always spoke highly of Border.

"Fine."

"Good, because it wasn't a request." Hyuse grabbed Yuma's hoodie and yanked him out of the room so he could slam the door shut. "Let's go."

Despite saying that, neither Hyuse or Yuma moved. Yuma stared at Hyuse, who just stared back at Yuma with a frown.

"Well?"

"Well what?" Yuma countered.

"Are we going to go?" Hyuse snapped.

"I don't know. Are we?" Yuma retorted. "It hasn't been that long, Hyuse, so you can't have forgotten. I don't know where to go."

It seemed that Hyuse did forget as his face twisted into an expression of surprise, but it was only there for a moment before he was quickly shifting back to a neutral look. "No one gave you a tour yet?"

"I haven't been here long enough for a tour."

"You have." Hyuse countered as he spun on his heel and marched off down the hall towards the stairs. He didn't look behind him to make sure Yuma was following him because he heard Yuma move to follow him a second after he started moving. "You just chose to hide and sleep in your room all day."

"I was tired." Yuma defended. And in pain, but he wasn't going to say that. It didn't matter now as the pill Jin gave him was working wonders on his sore muscles. The sleep and medicine did a great job as he felt moving around was a lot easier than it was earlier. Feeling better physically and mentally, Yuma was ready to face these people who he was supposedly teammates and friends with.

*L*S*A*

"Azuma squad is going to get the right to pick the map this time."

Osamu nodded. "Normally, Azuma squad picks a map that works well with Azuma-san so he can provide adequate support."

"Normally, but this season Okudera-kun and Koarai-kun are focusing on learning to use bullets so they are changing up their strategy." Shiori said as she planted the little agent markers on the board that had a sword in one hand and a gun in the other. "They're training to be All-Rounders now."

Osamu nodded in agreement. Since they were focused on refining their skill with bullets, they had been changing up their usual strategy this season. Last season they were just Attackers and didn't start using bullets until the last round of the Rank Wars. Tamakoma-2 managed to avoid being blindsided by that surprise change by not having to fight them in the last round. Now though, they had a whole Rank War season where they were focused on mastering using the bullets and it added an extra layer of challenge in the fights against Azuma squad.

"And there's Ninomiya squad and Ikoma squad on top of them." Shiori added as she placed more agent tokens on the board to signify the other two teams.

This was going to be an extremely difficult fight. The top tier of B-rank was never a joke. Osamu never took them lightly which was why had been cautious in all the matches this season. Without Yuma on the team, the fights against the teams were even harder. Even with the experience Osamu and Chika gained from the last Rank War season and on the away mission, they were both still too new to fighting be fully competent on their own.

For that reason, Hyuse had to take on Yuma's role and be the sole ace and the one to back up Chika and Osamu. The thing was, even after all they've been through as a team, Hyuse still wasn't fond of the idea of running from a fight to go save Osamu or Chika when they got into trouble. There was more than one reason why Yuma was the one who ran around the battlefield constantly. He was there to earn points for the team and then run off towards his allies to provide adequate backup when they needed it. Hyuse tended to stay near enemies and focused more on getting points.

Osamu and Chika were doing better this season. They had learned a lot, but they still needed help. For instance, if Chika used Meteor or Hound to blow up her enemies. If her enemies dodged and survived, she had basically revealed her position and Chika excelled in long ranged combat, which meant sniping. When her position was revealed, she needed help from her team to escape her enemies.

Osamu had taken on the role of backing up Chika while Hyuse dealt with their enemies. It had been a struggle to do so. Osamu was learning and getting better at combat, but he couldn't do what Yuma or Hyuse could do yet.

Actually, could Yuma do it anymore? With five years worth of memories gone, that meant he lost five years of combat experience, didn't it? Without those five years of battle experience, without those three years fighting in a war, Yuma was just a child with six years of training by his father. Replica said that Yuma was good at eleven years old, but he wasn't sixteen year old Yuma good.

Chika stared at the little agents on the board in front of them. They always seemed to have the bad luck of facing off against Ninomiya squad in a four-team match. The first time they ever had a four team match was hard enough with Chika's fear to shoot people and Osamu still trying to learn how to be a Shooter. Their second time fighting Ninomiya squad went better because Osamu and Chika had both grown so much since that first match. They learned a lot from their mentors and from Hyuse joining their team and pushing them to be better.

"Is Hyuse-kun joining us for training?" Chika asked suddenly as she noticed the lack of the Neighbor's presence standing over them.

"He said he would be right down. He had something to do before he came down here." Shiori replied.

"Something to do?" Chika echoed confused. Hyuse didn't often leave Tamakoma branch. If he did, it was either because he was heading to HQ to do some solo training with other agents or when his team dragged him out of the branch to go into the city to do something. All of that meant that Hyuse didn't often have things to do that didn't involve someone in Tamakoma.

Shiori shrugged. "He shouldn't be much longer. So, Osamu-kun, got a plan for this match?"

"I want to try out composite bullets."

"Oh? Did you manage to beat Yuiga-kun in a ten round match?" Shiori asked.

Osamu grimaced. "I did, but it was while Izumi-senpai was in Galopoula with Kuga. He might not accept it and I'll have to replicate the score in front of him. Either way, I plan to take the next few days to learn how to use them."

Shiori nodded. "I see, but you are aware that to do this, you'll need bullet triggers set in your main and sub Trigger. If you want to do more than Gimlet, you'll also need more than Asteroid. Can your Trion reserves handle that? You might exhaust your Trion early on in the match and bail out from lack of Trion."

"I'm aware. My Trion has gone up a point."

"It brought you up to a Trion level of three. That's not much more than the level of two you were at." Shiori warned.

"But it is more." Osamu replied. "I'm not going to recklessly throw composite bullets around. I want to save it for a surprise attack." It would be similar to how he used Hound last season. No one had seen it coming because he waited until the right moment to use it. He learned in round four last season to not just recklessly show off new moves at the beginning of the match in a desperate need to rack up points. He now knew to hold off until the right moment. He didn't need to rush anything. "I need to talk about it with Izumi-senpai. I should start simple so Gimlet might be the best at the start or maybe Hornet."

"You'll only be able to do one with the amount of Trion you have and you wouldn't be able to use it a lot in a match." Shiori said.

"I agree, but I was thinking of learning as many of the composite bullets as I can. That way I can switch out my bullet Triggers for the matches that way no one will know which one I will be using for the match." Osamu explained.

That got a smirk out of Shiori. That kind of trickery was exactly what Tamakoma-2 was infamous for. The more tricks, the more strategies, they had meant the more they could confuse their opponents and put them on edge.

"Even if you do learn them and try them out in the next match, you get one, maybe two shots, Osamu-kun. You'll need to make it count." Shiori said before getting distracted as the door opened and Hyuse walked in. Trailing behind him was Yuma which was a surprise, but a pleasant one which got Shiori smile. "Hyuse-kun, Yuma-kun. You're late."

"It's Yuma fault. He wouldn't answer the door." Hyuse replied.

Yuma huffed. "I was sleeping."

"Sounds like an excuse."

"Since when is the truth an excuse?"

"Since it serves his agenda of pushing the blame for being late on you over him." Shiori said as she suddenly appeared in front of Yuma and Hyuse. "Enough of that though. Come in. Come in." She grabbed both of their wrists to pull them farther into the room, but was surprised when she felt resistance to her pull. She looked back at Yuma to see him glaring at her and trying to pull his arm back from her. "Oh, sorry, Yuma-kun." She released his wrist, smiling sadly as she was reminded of the fact that Yuma didn't know them.

Yuma simple pulled his arm towards his chest once it was free and rubbed at his wrist.

Hyuse looked at him strangely as Yuma had no problem with him yanking him out of his room earlier. He didn't even acknowledge Hyuse grabbing his shirt earlier.

Osamu shifted back where he was sitting on the bench with Chika to look over at the three, frowning in concern as he examined Yuma's defensive stance, Shiori's worried, sad expression, and Hyuse's confused expression. Focusing on Yuma, Osamu stared at the arm he pulled to his chest to protect it from being grabbed by anyone. Staring at the arm, Osamu found realization hitting him as he remembered the horror of seeing Yuma's real body for the first time months ago. The arm Yuma was hugging to his chest was the arm that was missing from his body.

"Do you not want us to touch your prosthetics, Kuga?" Osamu asked.

Yuma's eyes snapped to Osamu. He stared at the captain who was looking at him with such open concern and understanding. He hated having people be concerned about him. It was something he always hated because it mostly came from his father. His father was always concerned for his safety which was why Yuma always wanted to prove himself to his father. He wanted Yugo to see that he could handle himself and Yugo didn't have to be concerned all the time.

That completely backfired on Yuma.

He proved the opposite to his father when he got ripped to shreds by the assassin.

Despite Yugo's teachings to protect himself, Yuma couldn't handle things on his own.

Shiori's eyes widened and she covered her mouth in surprise at Osamu's suggestion. "Oh, god. I'm so sorry, Yuma-kun. I didn't even think of how that would make you uncomfortable." That was so stupid of her. Yuma just had an extensive surgery and was still recovering from it. Of course he wouldn't want them touching his prosthetics.

Yuma's attention shifted back to Shiori. The sheer amount of remorse on her face and the complete honesty in her tone from her apology made Yuma's tense shoulders slackened. He couldn't be mad in the face of such honest regret for her action. "It's fine, Usami. Just, please, don't touch my arm again."

"Of course. Or course." Shiori promised. "And you call me Shiori-chan, Yuma-kun."

Yuma blinked in confusion. Based on the explanation that Izumi gave him the other day, he thought chan was used for girls younger than him. However, since that was what Shiori said that was how he addressed her and his side effect wasn't going off, he supposed she was telling him the truth. "Okay, Shiori...chan." He said, hesitating for only a moment on the honorific.

The honorifics still felt weird to him, but he was told he would have to get used to them or it would cause problems down the line with him seemingly being disrespectful. He wasn't concerned with being respectful, but he did say he would try to get along with Border so he would try the honorifics. It certainly helped when people told him how he apparently addressed them.

Shiori waved a hand into the room behind her, withholding herself from trying to take Yuma's hand again. "Come on in, Yuma-kun."

Yuma stepped into the room, looking around in curiosity. His eyes flashed over the team to see the desk with multiple monitors at one end of the room then to the mats set up at the other end of the room and then the lockers and finally on the doors with numbers on them.

"I thought you guys were training." Yuma said after a moment.

"We're preparing for our next Rank War on Wednesday." Chika said.

Yuma's nose wrinkled in confusion. He looked at the board sitting between Chika and Osamu on the bench with their miniature figurines holding weapons. He was sure the weapons held meaning, but he didn't know what they were. "I guess when Hyuse said training, I expected a training room."

"Behind you." Shiori pointed at the doors with numbers on them. "Actual combat takes place in there. We talk and strategize out here."

Ah, that made sense, he supposed. It wasn't what Yuma was used to as he did all of his training outside where it was more spacious, but perhaps those rooms were more spacious than they looked to be. He hadn't seen the inside of the rooms, but with how close the doors were to each other, he didn't think they would be big rooms, but maybe he was wrong.

"Do you know what the Rank Wars are, Kuga?" Osamu asked.

"Training matches between agents that you guys use for some reason to rise in rank." Yuma replied.

Osamu's brows furrowed in confusion. Yuma was right in the basic definition of what the Rank Wars were, but he didn't sound all that interested in them. That was strange since when he first heard of how to rise in rank back in December, he had been excited at how fun the Rank Wars sounded. Or, maybe not how they sounded fun, but he did sound eager to beat up a bunch of C-Ranks.

"The idea is training, but our agents are quite competitive. They use the Rank Wars to compete with their friends and try to best them." Shiori explained. "Your team can beat out another team to rise in rank above them and they'll fight extra hard to get it back from you." That was how Yuma and his friends saw them. She wanted him to understand the fun he had in the Rank Wars, but he likely wouldn't remember that until he could participate in them again. Just explaining it wouldn't do justice to the enjoyment Yuma got out of them.

Shiori's explanation didn't seem to do anything to lessen Yuma's frown. She wasn't sure what was going through his mind so she didn't know what else to say to him.

"Do you have something against fighting for rank?" Osamu asked as he was confused about Yuma's reaction. He really wanted to understand what was going through his friend's head.

"It's primitive." Hyuse answered before Yuma could.

"What?" Osamu shifted his attention to Hyuse, who seemed to understand Yuma better than them as Yuma looked to agree with what Hyuse said.

"Things like rank and fighting for rank doesn't exist in the Neighborhood. We're too busy fighting for our lives every day to be worried about fighting for the title of the strongest." Hyuse explained. "If you want to be seen as strong in the Neighborhood, it's not through fighting our comrades and coming out on top. It's about results in real battlefields and that is how you get looked at with respect and admiration."

Looking at it from the perspective of Neighbors who have had to fight just to live their whole lives, Osamu could see how they might see Rank Wars as pointless and a waste of time. It was certainly how Hyuse acted when he first started to get introduced into Rank Wars. If he thought about it like that, Osamu supposed he couldn't be surprised that Yuma didn't see a point in them.

It was just a bit strange because Yuma wasn't against them when he agreed to join Border back in December. It was the complete opposite of Hyuse who started with something nasty to say about the Rank Wars, but eventually grew fond of them and found he enjoyed the challenge of them. Well, the challenge of them and his competitive nature demanded him to fight to be the best.

Yuma, though.

Yuma liked them from the start, but now he didn't? Those five years of lost memories really did change a lot about Yuma, but if Osamu thought about it, the Yuma in front of him just lost his father and was in the middle of a war before he was suddenly waking up in a hospital five years in the future.

Perhaps that was having a harsh impact on Yuma's opinion on Rank Wars. All Yuma knew was training to survive and fighting in wars. Since he was trained by his father and got thrown in dangerous wars where he could die, Yuma didn't have rivals who could push him to be better. He didn't have rivals he wanted to compete with and try to beat. He didn't have rivals to fight with just for fun.

Since he had forgotten all of that, Yuma had forgotten the enjoyment that fighting against friends could bring him.

"I see. Well, this is something Border does. Its purpose is to push our agents to want to improve to be stronger and it produces results very fast." Shiori replied. "Fighting against multiple teams can teach you a lot." She pointed down at the board on the bench. "We were just discussing the teams we're facing off against on Wednesday. Ninomiya squad which is currently B-Rank number one, Ikoma squad who is number four, and Azuma squad who is number six."

Yuma just stared blankly at the little figurines which were stand ins for the teams. The figurines were at least somewhat familiar to him as Yugo used similar figurines to help Yuma visualize a battlefield when they were discussing strategy and warfare. "And the different weapons they all hold?"

"Their main and sub triggers." Shiori picked up one of the blue figurines. "The blue ones represent Azuma squad. This particularly one is Okudera-kun. His main Trigger is a Kogetsu blade and he recently added a sub Trigger of Hound."

A good chunk of those words meant nothing to Yuma in regards to what Shiori was saying. Main? Sub? Kogetsu? Hound? Azuma? Okudera? At the very least, Yuma knew what a Trigger was.

Shiori smiled softly when she saw Yuma's confused look. "We can have a lesson on Triggers later, Yuma-kun."

"Why not now?" Chika suggested.

"Because this is us discussing our plan for the next Rank War. We need to decide what we all want to focus on the next few days." Shiori replied. "Osamu-kun is going to see if Izumi-kun will start his lessons on composite bullets. What about you, Chika-chan? Hyuse-kun? Got something you need to focus on?"

"Bothering Izumi about lessons on bullets." Hyuse said. "I'm coming with you, Osamu."

Osamu chuckled nervously. He was pretty sure that Karasuma had been joking when he made that suggestion last night. He should have known that Hyuse was going to end up taking it seriously. "Well, you can try. I'm not sure how much you will accomplish though."

"You know, Hyuse-kun, you have a lot of Trion and spare Trigger chips in your Trigger. What do you say about learning about composite bullets too?" Shiori suggested. "You did say you wanted to make a statement against the other teams that Tamakoma-2 is still strong. If you're going to bother Izumi-kun anyway, you might as well go all out."

"Why haven't you tried composite bullets yet? You're definitely skilled enough to have gotten lessons on them." Chika asked curiously.

"Because I'm not aiming to be a Shooter." Hyuse replied. "I'm training to be an all-rounder. I've been more focused on mastering Kogetsu and Viper. Adding composite bullets in before I fully understood these Triggers would have gotten me killed in Rank Wars."

Osamu supposed that was where experience came from. He was warned against going beyond the basics last season, but he was impatient and tried to do more than he could handle. It was how he got killed first in their first match in the top tier of B-Rank War. Even if he got killed first, it did teach him a valuable lesson and Kazama's advice after the match helped him understand even more on what he should be doing.

Osamu was truly lucky in getting to learn from such high ranking A-Ranks. He would either still be fumbling in C-Rank or maybe lower B-Rank if he hadn't gotten so lucky as to meet Yuma and make friends with him.

"The Izumi you're talking about. It's Izumi-san from Tachikawa squad, right?" Yuma asked.

"Yep, A-Rank number one." Shiori replied. "Izumi-kun and Arashiyama squad have been helping Osamu-kun train when Torimaru-kun is too busy."

"I see." Yuma blinked. That seemed like a lot of people to be getting mentored by. He supposed being trained by so many people gave Osamu a lot of different viewpoints and ideas. It was very different from what Yuma was used to as the only person who trained him was his father. "And Chika? Are you learning composite bullets?" Though, honestly, Yuma was barely following this conversation as he didn't know what composite bullets were.

"No." Chika shook her head with a soft smile. "I'm not comfortable with combat that is that close. I only use Hound and Meteor when I'm getting cornered. I prefer being a sniper and fighting from a distance as support."

"And Meteor is...?"

"Another bullet type we have." Shiori said. "Don't worry. We'll make sure you get a full lesson on our Triggers soon." She planted the miniature figurine back on the board with the rest of the blue team. "For now, we should get to training. So, Osamu-kun, any ideas of what map Azuma squad might choose?"

Yuma blinked in confusion. There were maps now? What exactly did that mean?

"Since there are four squads taking place in this round, Azuma squad isn't going to want a small map since it will be very crowded and after Chika revealed she will throw a Meteor at anyone bunched up, they'll going to want to keep the fights small." Osamu said. "So, cityscape D is out since they won't want Chika blowing up the mall."

Blowing up the mall? Yuma found himself blinking again and staring at Chika, not that anyone else seemed to notice as they were looking at the papers Osamu put on the bench that were showing different locations. What was Meteor and why was Chika using it to blow places up?

"I also don't think cityscape C will be used since three of the teams in the match have snipers. Azuma squad won't want to risk the chance of Chika or Oki-senpai getting to the top before them."

"A shame. Chika could get to the top and just throw a Meteor down over the whole city." Hyuse said.

Yuma was starting to get the impression that Chika, despite looking so small and innocent, was actually a dangerous sniper.

Osamu nodded. "The point is I think Azuma squad is going to either mark her to prevent her from destroying the field or they are going to make their map choice based on preventing us from disfiguring the map."

"Does it really matter what map you fight in?" Yuma asked confused. "If Chika can demolish a building, it won't matter what map you fight on. She's always going to be a problem."

"It doesn't always benefit us to blow up the buildings because it puts us out in the open too, so we usually only demolish the field when we're enacting a strategy and trying to push our opponents where we want them to go." Osamu explained. He pulled out a paper from the bottom of the pile and put it on top. "That's why I thought Azuma squad might choose the riverside. With a bridge in the middle of the field, they can separate the teams. If they can put Chika on one side, they can worry less about her demolition tactics."

"Basically stealing Nasu squad's idea from last season then? Putting a tropical storm setting in as well. Okudera and Koarai know how to use Grasshopper so they could equip that for this match and change their bullet types to Meteor to blow up the bridge like Nasu squad planned to do." Hyuse said.

"Exactly. The teams aren't above learning from each other and trying out ideas they've seen others use." Osamu replied. The whole purpose of the rank wars was to train agents and have them learn how to fight and what style works best for them. The purpose of watching the rank wars was to teach agents strategy and how to incorporate teamwork and solo fighting into those strategies and how the field and weather affected the battle. Agents could watch the fights and learn techniques that they didn't think of and use them.

It was all about making the agents stronger so they could properly protect the city and defeat Neighbors. It was to the benefit of everyone in Border to experience combat and watch the battles.

"It's just an idea though if they want to stop Chika. It's possible that they might take the risk of the Exhibition Hall or cityscape C to give Azuma-san the edge in the fight. Okudera and Koarai could easily jump around the field to distract everyone else to keep the other snipers from taking the best sniper spots." Osamu added. "Those three maps I think are the most likely."

"Azuma-san lets Okudera-kun and Koarai-kun make the decisions as he is mentoring them. It's hard to judge exactly what they will choose as they like to experiment, especially Koarai-kun." Shiori added. "Okudera-kun is a bit more pragmatic and competitive so he'll make his decision on what is best for the team."

"Changing the weather is disadvantage to everyone. If they were to change the weather to something severe like a storm, it would hinder Azuma-san from providing adequate backup." Chika said. There was more than one reason why Chika didn't do much in that match against Nasu squad beyond demolition. It wasn't just because she couldn't shoot people back then. Being that she was so new to combat back then, she couldn't properly do anything in that kind of weather except provide Yuma some backup in the form of destroying the field.

Change the weather setting? Yuma's head was going to start spinning. What exactly was Border doing that they could change the weather? All of this sounded like complete nonsense to Yuma.

"Normally, I would agree with that, but this is Azuma-san." Osamu replied. "We've seen his skilled sniping through walls and windows. I'm not going to doubt his ability to take a well-aimed shot in a storm."

Yuma's head was spinning. He thought he understood Border agents when he met the ones who came to Galopoula. They were a bit eccentric and rude, but they seemed to be strong and knowledgeable in what they were doing. Yuma might need to reassess that observation and add in the fact that they were clearly insane as well.

"Hmm, okay." Chika nodded. "Then, Shiori-san, can you set up the riverside with a tropical storm for me with some dummies for me to shoot?"

Shiori grinned. "Coming right up, Chika-chan. Come here, Yuma-kun."

Yuma looked at her in confusion, but followed Shiori to her desk.

"You've been looking confused this whole time." Shiori said as she took her seat behind the desk. "I remembered that you were really confused as what this was when you came down here the first time so let's look at this." She brought up room three on her main monitor. "Those three rooms over there are our virtual training rooms. And here." She got to work doing what Chika asked to turn her training room into the riverside and activated the severe storm that she wanted.

Yuma could only stare with his mouth dropping open in shock as the once small room turned into a massive city with a storm raging through it. Despite a storm raging in the room at the other end of this room, he couldn't hear it at all. He could not believe what he was seeing and a second later, Chika walked into the room.

Yuma's head snapped up to face the room, only to see that Chika, Hyuse, and Osamu had disappeared from the room. He looked back at the monitors, but only saw Chika in the city wearing a cloak while carrying a rifle.

"She wants to practice shooting her targets in bad weather." Shiori explained as she activated the red target dummies and dispersed them all around the city for Chika to hunt down and shoot. "While she does that, Hyuse-kun and Osamu-kun are going to do some one-on-one training." She switched Chika's room to her left monitor and brought up room one. "Chika-chan needs more space for her practice which is why I created the city field for her. However, we don't have enough power to do that for all three rooms so Hyuse-kun and Osamu-kun are just going to train in this bare room. The virtual battle setting of the room is still set up for them though."

"What is virtual battle setting?" Yuma asked.

"Virtual battle mode links the computer to the Trigger. It's a mode that artificially reproduces the effect of Trion. It means you can fight continuously for as long as you want."

On the screen, Hyuse already sliced Osamu in half, but a second later, Osamu's body was healed and he and Hyuse were going at it again.

"Like that. See?" Shiori said.

Yuma nodded, staring in amazement at what he just witnessed. He had never seen something like that before. "Is that how you do your Rank Wars?"

"Hmm, solo rank wars that take place in the training room at HQ are like this since that is where agents train. However, in the B-Rank Wars, it's like what Chika-chan is doing." Shiori switched Chika's training room back to her main monitor. "You don't get continuous Trion in these fields since once you lose in the Rank Wars, you're done for the match."

"That's amazing." Yuma said. He had never heard of anything like this before. Training like this didn't exist in the Neighborhood, at least, none that he had ever seen. This had to be a unique design by Border. Didn't they say earlier the purpose of the Rank Wars was to speed run training their agents? If this was how they did it, it was amazing because it meant they could train for as long as they wanted. They didn't have to run out of Trion and end their training until their Trion return. It also meant they could fight as hard as they wanted to because their bodies would just be repaired a moment later and let them go again.

Shiori watched from the corner of her eyes as Yuma stared in amazement as the screens. A soft smile overtook her features at the expression. It was the most relaxed she had seen him since he came home last night.

"Oh, right. You guys were discussing Chika blowing up buildings earlier. What was that about?" Yuma asked curiously.

Shiori's soft smile immediately turned into an evil, excited grin. "I'm so glad you asked, Yuma-kun." She immediately set to work moving room one's video to the right monitor and Chika's video to the left monitor and brought up a new screen on her middle monitor. "This is from the B-Rank Wars last season." She pulled up the footage from round five and sped through it.

As she was speeding through the footage to get to what she wanted to show Yuma, Yuma watched the sped up footage. In particular, he stared at the fact that Yuma, a Yuma with white hair, kept popping up throughout the video. Shiori didn't seem to pay that fact any mind as she was trying to get it to what Yuma asked about, but for Yuma, just seeing himself there showed him more confirmation that he indeed was a part of this group like everyone said he was.

"Here it is." Shiori hit play.

Yuma stared.

And stared.

And stared.

Chika was on the building with a rifle in her hand. She pulled the trigger and the Trion blast tore through the field until it slammed into a building and brought the whole building crashing down to the ground.

Yuma stared some more.

"That's not normal." Yuma said in awe.

Shiori grinned. "Chika-chan's Trion levels are at that of a Black Trigger. She has so much Trion that she got the nickname Tamakoma's Trion monster. We frequently use her cannon to destroy the battlefield to give our team an advantage. In this case, we were forcing Katori squad and Kakizaki squad to come out of hiding and force them to confront our team by making them come into our wire zones."

"Wire zones?" Yuma asked.

"Yep, Osamu-kun has an optional Trigger called Spider. It lets him plants wires in the field and we can make them only visible to our team." Shiori fast forwarded the video more until she got to Yuma's meeting with Kakizaki squad to show him standing on the wires above them. "Osamu-kun uses them to trip up his opponents, but the main purpose of the wires was to make you even faster." She hit play and let Yuma watch his fight with Kakizaki squad. She leaned back in her seat and half watched the footage of the fight and half watched Yuma watch himself.

Yuma watched in fascination as he saw himself flipping all over the field with the wires Osamu set up while defending and attacking three agents. He was fighting three agents and keeping himself alive. Watching himself now, Yuma saw a new fighting style. Yuma had always been small and fast, but what he was seeing his white haired self do was never a way he had fought before.

As he watched, he was amazed when he saw himself launch the younger boy in orange into the air somehow and a moment later, a black bullet tore through the air and somehow traveled through his Shield and attached something to his arm. As he fell through the air, Yuma used a blade from his foot to behead the other agent.

What?

Yuma really needed an explanation of these Triggers, because what?

"Who are they?" Yuma asked instead. Shiori promised a discussion on Triggers later so he wouldn't ask about the weird blade yet. He would file the question away for later because right now he had so many questions running through his head.

"Kakizaki squad." Shiori paused the video. "The boy you just beheaded is Tomoe Kotaro." She fast forwarded the video a bit to get to the girl. "This is Teruya Fumika." She went ahead in the video again until Kakizaki was on the screen. "And this is Captain Kakizaki Kuniharu. They are currently ranked as B-Rank number twelve."

"Currently?" Yuma echoed.

"The ranks fluctuate during the B-Rank Wars as the teams gain points in each match. At the end of the Rank War season, the teams settle on their current rank for a month. After a month break, we start another three months of Rank Wars." Shiori explained.

"You guys do these tournaments that often?" Yuma asked appalled.

"Hmm?" Shiori turned her attention away from the computer to look at Yuma in confusion. "Yes? We have the B-Rank Wars three times a year. Why?"

"So, for three months three times a year, you guys fight in Rank Wars and spend so much time for days before the next match sitting in here discussing plans and strategy and training?" Yuma asked for clarification.

"Yes." Shiori said, but was still very confused as to what Yuma's problem with that was.

Yuma moved his attention from the fight with Kakizaki squad to look at Hyuse and Osamu going at it. He watched as they both formed Trion cubes and unleashed them. Some of Osamu's bullets slammed into Hyuse's bullets and exploded on contact to stop them in their tracks. However, some of the bullets from Hyuse changed direction to go around Osamu's. Osamu used the shield in his hand to twist around and defend from the bullets.

"I don't get it. How do you guys have time for this?"

"Time?" Shiori frowned before realization hit her. Yuma was raised in the Neighborhood. He spent his childhood traveling through the Neighborhood and all the nations he went to were constantly at war. Taking the time to sit down and plan strategy to fight multiple teams every few days was not something he had. He was too busy fighting to survive every day. "We have a Restricted Zone where we force all the Gates from the Neighborhood to open in. Unless we are in a large invasion, we usually have at the very least four teams on defense duty at a time. That gives the rest of the teams time off from work and lets them focus on training and preparing for Rank Wars. While we get attacked by Neighbors, it's nowhere near as bad as it is in the Neighborhood."

"Huh." If that was really true, it had to be really peaceful in this world. That surely had to be nice and it would explain why all those people he saw in the city on the drive to Tamakoma from HQ looked so relax and happy. They didn't have to fight to survive every day because they weren't being invaded every day and if they were, Border confined all the Trion Soldiers inside the Restricted Zone.

It must be nice to have that kind of peace.

"Yuma-kun."

Yuma hummed in reply to show he was listening.

"Can you answer a question of mine now?"

That got Yuma to look away from the monitors fully to give her his full attention. "You can ask, but I might not know the answer." He warned.

"No worries. I'm not asking about anything Border related. It's more personal." Shiori replied. "It's about Konami."

"Konami." Yuma shifted his eyes towards the ceiling as he thought. "The girl from last night?"

"Yeah, she said she was your mentor and you got mad and ran off." Shiori said.

Yuma nodded. "Right. What about her?"

"Why did it upset you?" Shiori asked curiously. Jin's theory about what the issue was had to do with Kuga Yugo. She wouldn't be surprised if that was the case. Yugo's death was much too recent for Yuma right now.

Yuma didn't answer right away. Shiori's question got him looking at his ring that Jin returned to him last night. The ring that was the Black Trigger that Yugo created to save his son's life. The ring that was the only thing that kept Yuma alive for five years. Five years that Yuma couldn't remember. He may not remember those years, but he did understand the meaning behind it. His father sacrificed his life to keep Yuma from dying at eleven years old. What Yugo did bought Yuma five years and gave him the chance to find people who fought for him and got him a surgery to save his life.

Everything stemmed from Yugo choosing his son's life over his.

"Oyaji is my mentor." Yuma declared, pulling his hand into his chest and curling it into a fist to keep his ring close to him.

Is.

Shiori smiled sadly at the answer. Yuma was aware of his father's death. He was aware of his ring being created by Yugo, but it was still too soon for Yuma let go of his father and accept someone stepping in to be in his new mentor. It wasn't that he hated Konami. Yuma didn't know enough about her to hate Konami. He just wasn't ready to have her step in and take his father's title as his teacher.

"I see. Konami didn't mean to offend you when she said that." Shiori said. "Or overstep."

"Maybe." Yuma ran a thumb over his ring.

Over his ring.

"Because I can see his dream right in front of me." The man took a sip of his drink, but his eyes never left Yuma. "Your life was more important to him than anything else."

"More important than his?" Yuma brushed his thumb over his ring. "He's the one who should be here."

Yuma gasped and stumbled forward, only managing to stay on his feet by grabbing the desk with one hand. His other hand went up to grab his head as a sudden painful pulsating began to try to ransack his brain.

"Yuma-kun?!" Shiori said shocked, spinning her chair immediately. She grabbed Yuma's hand on the desk, wincing when she realized it was his Trion prosthetic. She would have to apologize later as she stood up from her chair to switch with him so she could help to ease him down into the seat. "What's wrong?"

It was all blurry again.

The memory was blurry.

But what really stood out to Yuma was his ring. His ring was on his index finger and he brushed his thumb over it. Pulling his hand down from his head, Yuma stared at the ring that he put on his index finger last night when he got it back. He hadn't even thought about what finger to wear it on. He just slipped it on without any thought.

Why?

Did it just feel right to him?

Did he subconsciously remember it belonged there?

Was it just muscle memory to put it there?