Light Shines Anew
Chapter 23: Amnesia
A bright light.
There was a bright light above him.
It was causing Yuma's eye to hurt.
Eye.
Singular.
Why was he only seeing out of half of his vision?
Where?
What happened?
"Hang on a second. I'll save you soon."
Yuma's eye widened.
His body jerked violently.
And that was a mistake.
Pain.
Pain suddenly wracked through his entire body.
The sound of his heartbeat was thundering in his ears.
His vision went white.
And then with a single blink, his vision and all noise came rushing back to him.
What was once an empty room was now filled with strange faces looking down at him.
Hands were on him.
Hands that were making his body feel like it was on fire.
They were shouting.
He saw their mouths moving as they shouted, but all he could hear was the pain filled screaming that drowned out their voices.
And then it went black.
*L*S*A*
"Who are you?" Yuma's voice was sharp and confused.
Jin's jaw twinged as he forced a smile in place. A frown wasn't going to help this situation. It would only make things worse in this moment. Smiles always put people at ease. "Hi, Yuma. I'm Jin Yuichi. I just came to say hi, but I need to talk with Doctor Deacon real quick. I'll be right back."
Jin quickly backed out the room, hating how Yuma's eye narrowed in suspicion as he tracked Jin's every movement. He only broke eye contact when he snapped the door shut and rounded on the doctor and Rata, ignoring the gaping looks of his comrades that were shifting from the door to the doctor.
"What happened?" Jin demanded. "Why doesn't he know me? This was just a surgery to repair his broken body with Trion prosthetics, wasn't it?"
"Like we told you before, there were some complications." Rata replied.
"Memory loss is a minor complication?" Toma said confused. When he heard 'minor complications' earlier, he thought there was a problem with getting Yuma used to his prosthetics or his organs weren't assimilating well to be some of them being made of Trion.
Deacon held up a hand, silently asking for peace from the shocked agents. "Yuma went through a huge amount of trauma when he was eleven. He shouldn't even be alive right now, but like I said, that kid is a fighter. However, no matter how strong of fighter someone is, trauma is still trauma, and when people go through trauma, they sometimes block it out to protect themselves."
"You mean he's repressing the memories?" Kazama suggested.
Deacon rubbed at his jaw as he thought. "I only just met Yuma recently so I'm not a good judge of who he is or what is going on in his head. From what he was willing to tell us when he woke up, the last thing he remembers is his father turning to dust in front of him."
"That's not repressing then. He remembers the worst thing he went through that he would want to forget." Jin said confused. If anything, if Yuma was going to lose his memories because of trauma he wanted to repress, Jin thought that he would drag his memories all the way back to before the assassin attacked him, before his father died. That would let him forget the pain of his injuries and that his father sacrificed himself.
"Yes, which is why I began to look at another reason for why he got amnesia upon waking up." Deacon replied. "So, the type of surgery we did on Yuma is to attach his nerves to sync them up with Trion limbs that are powered by a Trigger we gave him. It's a common surgery here and thus, it fairly natural for us to perform. We never had someone lose memories from it. However, Yuma's situation was quite unique."
"We're aware. That's why we knew this was risky to do." Jin said, glancing through the window again, feeling a bit unnerved when he saw Yuma still glaring at them through the window. Yep, this was a suspicious Yuma who just watched his father die in the middle of a war.
Deacon nodded. "We assumed there would be some complications as we had to pull his body out of the Black Trigger. In doing that, it took us a bit to get him stabilized and under anesthesia."
"Meaning, Yuma who has been trapped in a Trion body for years, unable to feel pain, was hit with it all at once." Rata continued, grimacing as he recalled that day. He wasn't involved in the surgery, but he had been keeping an eye on the proceedings from a viewing room of the operation room.
"Which means more trauma. He already went through the trauma when he was initially attacked and now he has the trauma of being reminded of what pain is. On top of that, we put him through a risky surgery to replace his missing body parts." Deacon replied. "We also had to do the surgery over two days because his body couldn't handle the strain. The first day, we got his body out and focused on replacing his missing organs with Trion ones, which included his eye, and patching the hole in his side. The second day we focused on getting him a new arm and leg which was significantly easier."
"The whole process was a huge a shock to his body and when he woke up, he didn't know where he was or who we were. He didn't know any of the names we gave him from your group. The only thing that brought any recognition to him was the name 'Border.'" Rata explained.
Jin pinched his nose, already feeling a headache to develop. This explained so much about the confusing futures he was seeing. He had a child here who didn't know them and the last thing he remembered was a war. This wasn't going to be easy to deal with.
"That makes sense. His father told him about Border, didn't he?" Utagawa asked.
"Yes, but the only person he knew from Border before coming to us was Mogami-san." Jin replied.
Deacon gave a small cough to draw attention back to him. "We believe the amnesia is a result of the shock that his body went through upon returning here and then having to go through intensive surgery on top of that. However, I believe it to just be temporary though. I think Yuma just needs time to readjust to a flesh and blood body and process everything properly."
"I was hoping he would recover after a few days, but it's been nine days since he woke up and nothing has changed in his mental state." Rata explained. "So, when you said you were coming, I thought it'd be helpful to him. Some familiar faces, a familiar location, might help jog his memories."
"A familiar location?" Kazama repeated, latching onto that part since he recalled the orders to bring Yuma back to Japan if he was okay enough to be discharged from the hospital. "Meaning, he is fit to be released?"
"I would prefer to keep him for at least one or two more days." Deacon said. "But after that, I'd be willing to discharge him. It would also give me time to complete a medical report for you to take back with you."
Toma glanced into the room, shooting a smile when he saw Yuma looking at them from the bed. "So, question." He started. "Why does he still look like an eleven-year-old when he is back in his real body? When we heard he was getting his real body back, I imagined him taller. He is sixteen after all."
"An easy question." Deacon said. It was so much easier when compared to trying to understand Yuma's memory loss. "When his body was sealed away in the Black Trigger, his body's time was slowed down to keep him from dying, so essentially that means his body stopped growing."
"So what? He'll be a shrimp forever?" Kikuchihara asked curiously.
Deacon shook his head. "His body used all resources to keep itself alive while in the ring. But now that he has his real body back, after he fully recovers, he will probably go through a growth spurt. I doubt it will be big one though. Those injuries on top of being sealed for five years have likely stunted most of his growth." He nodded towards Yuma's room. "If you're willing to, you can try to talk to him again and see if he can remember anything. I'll be in my office if you need anything." He nodded to the agents and then gave a bow of his head to Rata. "Excuse me, your highness."
When the doctor was gone, Rata looked back at Jin. "Sorry about not telling you sooner. I thought this was a conversation better held in person."
"No, don't worry about it. I do understand." Jin sighed, scratching the back of his head. Amnesia was tricky enough, but amnesia with a child soldier who just lost his dad and woke up in a strange place that wasn't Calvaria was going to be tricky.
"Memory loss, huh." Tachikawa leaned past Jin to glance in the door's window and grimaced when he caught Yuma's glare. "Well, good luck, Jin. You have a tough road ahead of you."
"Not helpful, Tachikawa-san." Jin shoved his friend out of the path of the door before turning to his team. "Anyone who isn't Utagawa stay out here."
"Are you forbidding us from seeing Kuga?" Izumi asked offended.
Jin gave him a dry look. "You guys have foul mouths. That is the last thing I need right now when I have to explain things to Yuma." He grabbed the door handle and shot them a look. "Seriously, don't come in."
"Rude." Toma muttered.
"Not inaccurate though." Izumi said, even if he was a bit offended. He was not as bad as the other people he was being lumped into a group with.
Jin pushed the door open and entered, leaving it open for Utagawa to follow him in. He heard a pair footsteps follow him and the door slid close a moment later. Paying it no attention, Jin took the seat by Yuma's bed, maintaining contact with the suspicious kid. "Sorry about that, Yuma. I just needed to confirm something with your doctor. You have my full attention now. Should we start over? How about we begin with introductions? My name is Jin Yuichi. I'm twenty years old. My side effect is foresight. It allows me to see the future. I work as an agent in Border."
As he spoke, he carefully watched Yuma's expression. The only thing to really capture Yuma's intrigue was the information on his side effect, which Jin expected as most people got interested in that, and the word 'Border' like Rata said it would. Border was truly all Yuma knew because Yugo gave him that name.
But, Yuma didn't ask anything about Border. Instead, he just looked at the agent behind Jin.
"And you?"
"Hey, Kuga. I'm Utagawa Ryō. I'm seventeen years old and I work as an agent at Border." Utagawa greeted.
For the first time since they saw Yuma, Yuma's eyes shifted from suspicious to confusion.
"Kuga?" Yuma repeated.
"That's your name." Utagawa said, feeling confused back. The doctor said Yuma only lost five years worth of memories so he should be quite aware of what his name is.
"Yeah," Yuma drawled. "I'm Yuma Kuga. I'm eleven years old. I'm..." He trailed off as he thought about what he was. He wasn't a Border agent like them, but he wasn't a soldier either. He was helping Calvaria in a war, but that was because his dad took him there to help them out. It was basically a job. "A mercenary."
"Mercenary?" Utagawa choked on air. Is that how Yuma saw himself before he came to Border?
"Sixteen." Jin said, unconcerned with Yuma's mercenary comment. He already had a good idea of what Yugo was doing in the Neighborhood years ago.
Yuma's eye flickered back to Jin again, brow furrowed in confusion. "Sixteen what?"
Jin smiled gently at his friend. "You're sixteen, Yuma. Did Doctor Deacon and Rata explain to you how it has been five years?"
"They did." Yuma replied softly. It honestly didn't make any sense to him. He pulled his eyes away from Jin and Utagawa to look down at his hands. One normal and one covered in bandages from fingertip to his elbow. He knew there was an assassin that attacked him and then there was pain. There was so much pain that he couldn't even get any air in his lungs to scream out in pain. All he could do was struggle to get air in his lungs. The next thing he remembered was his father in front of him, a blinding light, the pain disappearing, and then he opened his eyes in this room and was being told five years had passed.
It didn't make any sense.
A lot didn't make sense.
Yuma looked up at Utagawa. "Why did you call me Kuga?"
"Because it's your name." Utagawa was still confused by Yuma.
Jin tapped the bed railing to get Yuma's attention. "Yuma, do you remember your father telling you Border is in Japan?"
"Yes?" What did Japan have to do with this?
"Well, in Japan, unless you're really close to someone, we address by last names." Jin explained gently.
Yuma's eyes flickered from Jin to Utagawa to Jin. "So, we're close, Jin?"
Utagawa choked on some air from where he was standing behind Jin. So much was beginning to make sense. He never questioned it because from the moment he Yuma months ago, the kid had been using honorifics and talking in Japanese. He was confused by some things in Japan, but when they met, he seemed used to living there.
Right now, though, the Yuma in front of him hadn't even visited Japan yet in his mind. He didn't know anything. He was suspicious of them. He wasn't understanding anything they were saying because five years worth of memories had just been snapped away from him.
"You got it, Yuma. We met a few months ago when you came to Japan." Jin explained, ignoring the lack of honorific for now as he didn't want to overwhelm Yuma too much. "You became a Border agent and joined my branch."
Yuma wrinkled his nose. A Border agent? Him? And branch? What did that mean?
Jin thought for a moment. He needed Yuma to trust them as quickly as possible. It would help things move forward immensely. The best way with Yuma was always with his side effect. "Yuma, do you remember what Kuga-san's side effect was?"
Yuma glared at him. "I'm not an idiot. I know it was seeing through lies."
Jin nodded along, ignoring the glare. He would accept all of Yuma's frustrated confusion with ease. He understood his friend was just lost right now. "Okay, okay. When Kuga-san created his Black Trigger to save your life, his Trion and your Trion got blended together and that caused his side effect to get transferred over to you. Doctor Deacon and his team just performed a surgery to get you back to your real body so I want to see if you still have the side effect. For me to do that, I'm going to give you a lie. Are you ready?"
Utagawa glanced at Jin. This seemed to be a lot to be throwing at someone who thought they were eleven years old. None of them knew what eleven-year-old Yuma was like, so he didn't think treating him like his sixteen-year-old self was the best idea, but it was also Jin doing this. If he had to guess, Jin was using his side effect to help the conversation flow in the best direction. If this was how Jin thought the conversation should go, Utagawa would trust his judgement.
Yuma looked away from Jin for a moment, gingerly touching the uninjured side of his face. "Is that the black smoke?"
Jin looked at his friend with a sharp look. Black smoke? He grimaced. If Yuma was already seeing black smoke, then that meant he had gotten some lies from someone here before Jin arrived. That was not a good way to gain Yuma's trust when he was already confused and lost, but that was why Jin came here. He would never lie to Yuma, except for now when he needed to test it.
Jin took a breath. The lie detector side effect would help them a lot with gaining Yuma's trust here. "Yuma, can you look at me?" He requested. When Yuma did turn his head to him, Jin said, "Replica is dead."
The pained look that crossed Yuma's face hurt, but then to the relief of both Jin and Yuma, black entered Yuma's eye which gave them both the indicator that the side effect was there. A sigh of relief escaped Jin. Good. He figured that Yuma still had it based on his friend's question, but this way, they could both be on the same page. Right now, Jin needed Yuma to acknowledge that he had his father's side effect so he would understand that Jin was being nothing but honest with him.
"You know Replica?" Yuma demanded, glaring at Jin as if he was the one who took his partner from him.
Jin raised his hands in a placating manner. "Calm, Yuma. I do know Replica. I didn't do anything to do him. He got damaged in one of the invasions Border faced a few months ago. Our Research and Development team is in the process of fixing him." He glanced towards the table, eyes landing on the mini Replica that sat there. He picked it up, shooting a smile towards Yuma when he made a motion to stop him, but stopped abruptly as he moved his new arm.
The new arm that he wasn't used to.
Yuma groaned at the pain that shot through his nerves and hunched forward, curling his arm towards his stomach.
"Kuga," Utagawa was suddenly crouched by the bed, so he could look up towards Yuma's bowed face, frowning in concern at the pained expression he saw there. "Are you okay?"
Yuma cracked his eye open, grimacing in pain. He tried to force a smile just to get Utagawa to stop staring at him in concern. He didn't want to see those looks given to him. "I'm fine. I'm fine."
Utagawa watched as Yuma's pupil turned black. He thought about mentioning it, but he bit his tongue instead. They knew that Yuma didn't like people being worried about him, so he wouldn't appreciate being called out on it, especially by people he essentially saw as strangers. "Do you want a drink?" Utagawa asked instead.
"...sure."
Utagawa moved over to the table and poured Yuma a drink.
Jin leaned back in his chair, rolling the mini Replica over in his hand as he let Utagawa take the lead in calming Yuma down. He didn't mean for Yuma to overextend his arm that he was still getting used to, but he would make the best of it by giving Utagawa the chance to step in. One of the reasons that Yuma was so loyal to Osamu was because Osamu had been so honest to him from the start and Yuma trusted his naive honesty. For that reason, Jin was going to let Utagawa help Yuma. He needed Yuma to start trusting all of them them and Utagawa's good nature would appeal to him.
"Here." Utagawa held a glass of water with a straw in it out to Yuma, waiting until Yuma's hand had wrapped around the cup and was stable before he let go.
As Yuma sipped at his water, Jin sat forward once more. "Usami, oh, wait. She is member of our branch and your operator, Yuma. Well, when Replica got broken, Usami looked into it for you and she determined that if Replica was dead, this mini Replica would have disappeared." He put the mini Replica on the bed next to Yuma's thigh as he leaned forward so Yuma could see his face. "This is proof that your partner is still alive."
A bandaged finger uncurled from Yuma's fist to brush over his mini Replica. When he had woken up in this room, he had been so confused and couldn't figure out where he was. He had cried out for his dad and Replica, but neither came. What he got were faces of people he didn't know leaning over him and talking to him and saying things that made no sense to him.
Suffice to say that Yuma did not react well.
And he didn't take well to being sedated when he didn't react well.
Eventually, he had calmed down enough to listen to Rata and his doctor explain things to him. It helped that being in pain from surgery and having to recover and having no Triggers on him played a heavy part in him accepting the conversation they were having with him.
Not that the conversation helped him at all. It still sounded so ridiculous to him.
He didn't want to think about any of it, so he didn't.
Instead, Yuma sat in this room in pain and confusion and wondering what he was going to do. In boredom, he had gone through the bag in his room to see what was in it and ended up finding his mini Replica. It had been disheartening when he couldn't get Replica to talk to him at all.
It was a relief to hear Jin's explanation.
Replica was still with him.
Or, he would be.
He wouldn't be alone.
Yuma lifted his head, black bangs shifting over his eye as he did. He brushed them out of the way. "You were in the pictures." He said softly.
"The pictures?" Utagawa said.
Yuma pointed to the table that Jin had grabbed mini Replica off of. Sitting there was his phone. "It was in my stuff. That thing and I saw all these pictures on it." He reached slowly for his phone so he didn't cause another flare of pain in his arm. He flipped his phone to show them. To show them the first picture in it which was Jin and Yuma. "That's me, right? With white hair? And that's you?"
Jin smiled. "Yes. That was the last day we saw each other over two weeks ago. It was before you left to come here for your surgery."
Yuma nodded, looking at the picture. At the way that he was smiling and Jin was smiling next to him. With how close they were together in the picture, when he first saw it the other day, he thought it meant that they were close. When Rata said he was sixteen and not eleven, that he had lost five years worth of memories, he didn't want to believe it. It made no sense when he looked in the mirror and saw his childish face. He hadn't grown up at all. He didn't look sixteen.
And then, he saw the pictures on the phone. He saw a picture of his face with white hair and he looked eleven in that picture too. Knowing that the picture was from a couple weeks ago and that his side effect didn't go off, it was making everything in the blank picture in his head begin to form.
Despite that, nothing was coming back.
He was supposed to know these two people in front of him. They said they did. The pictures said he did.
But everything was just blank.
There was a puzzle forming in his head, but the picture was black. Even with the words coming from these agents being the truth, it didn't help the picture in the puzzle form.
Yuma lifted his phone again to show a picture of Kazama squad. "That's you, right?"
Utagawa smiled. "Yes, that was us. We all sent you pictures to say farewell to you before you left that day."
"Them too?" Yuma diverted his eyes to the door behind Jin and Utagawa. He had seen different agents peeking into the room when Jin had gone back out there to speak to Doctor Deacon. As he was staring at them through the window before, he had been mentally placing those faces looking in with the ones he saw in the phone.
It was disappointing how none of it helped though.
"Yes, we've all been waiting for you to recover so you can come home." Utagawa replied.
"Home?" Yuma tested the word in his mouth, lips twisting into a frown. The word felt wrong. It felt foreign. He didn't have a home. He spent his life traveling through one nation to the next with his father. There was no stable place he lived. He went from the ship to hotels to camping under the stars. It constantly changed.
"Back in Japan." Jin said gently. "You came to us and joined Border. You have a team and so many friends waiting for you."
Yuma's brows furrowed. Friends. The people in the phone? All of them? He looked back at the phone and scrolled through the different pictures of all the smiling faces. He ended on one of a group that was holding up a banner that said "Get well soon!"
The only friends he ever had in his life were Izukacha and Vittano.
Friends?
Where did all these people come from?
*L*S*A*
Izumi sat on the floor, back leaning against the wall as he got tired of standing as they waited for Jin and Utagawa to finish talking to Yuma. "Not really how we expected our next time seeing Kuga to go, is it?"
Kazama found himself leaning against the wall across from the door so he could watch Jin and Utagawa talk to Yuma. "Honestly, memory loss is one of the better outcomes."
"Are you serious?" Toma asked shocked.
"He could be dead." Kazama pointed out. "His amnesia complicates things, but we can make it work." He stared at Jin speaking softly to Yuma, but he could tell that it was also with general respect to not treat him like a child. That was probably the best approach with Yuma who had been trained as a fighter since young. He wouldn't want to be looked down on. "Jin can make this work."
"And what of when we take him back to Border? What if he lets it slip he's a Neighbor because he forgets to be cautious?" Izumi pointed out.
Tachikawa scoffed, crossing his arms as he leaned on the wall by the door to Yuma's room. From this angle, if he looked to the side, he could just barely see in the room through the window. He could just barely make out Yuma and Jin. "Jin won't let that happen. I'm sure even as he is talking to Chibi, his mind is also frantically running through scenarios of how to handle this."
"And we have a couple days here to figure this out." Kazama added. "It's possible Kuga's memory will start to recover in that time." He glanced down towards the floor where Kikuchihara was crouched with his hair pulled back into a ponytail. He resisted the urge to kick his teammate in the side. "Are you eavesdropping?"
"It's not like they're discussing anything confidential." Kikuchihara replied. "It's pretty boring actually. It's just Jin-san trying to explain things to Kuga to get him caught up on some of the basics. The most interesting thing was when Kuga moved his arm."
Izumi quirked a brow. "Why would that be interesting? Wait! You can hear when we move?"
Kikuchihara looked annoyed at the questions being shot at him as he glared at Izumi. "No, simple movements like moving your arm can't be heard. Your footsteps yeah, but shifting like moving an arm or wiggling a finger is hard to hear unless you have something on you that will clink if you move or your clothing shifting at a movement. That's what Kuga's arm did. It didn't sound natural."
"It probably has to do with being a Trion limb attached to a flesh and blood body. It's not natural." Kazama concluded.
"It made a sound?" Izumi looked grossed out by that revelation.
Kikuchihara rolled his eyes. "Not one you can hear with your pathetic hearing, so relax."
"Geez, thanks. Other than that, how does Kuga sound?"
"Like a brat."
Toma snorted.
"Your friend is quite stubborn and suspicious." Rata jumped into the conversation. "We had to have him sedated for a day until he calmed down."
"If I woke up with no memories in an unfamiliar place after just seeing my father die, I would want to go on the offensive too." Izumi said.
"Yes, well, that's why we kept his Black Trigger away from him. We didn't need him leveling the hospital." Rata grimaced. "And perhaps that is part of the reason he isn't opening up to us."
"Keeping his father's Black Trigger from him sounds like a good reason to hate you." Kazama said. He didn't know how it worked with amnesia, but that Black Trigger had been Yuma's lifeline for five years. He wondered if there was any part of Yuma that was desperate to have it back because his body recalled what his mind couldn't yet. Or, maybe, he just wanted it back because it was his father's and it was the last thing he had of his father. It didn't matter which one it was. Either way, Yuma would be upset.
"We don't need him bringing the hospital down on our heads with his Black Trigger." Rata reiterated. "So, I'll accept his distrust."
"If he distrusts you so much, I'm surprised he's still here." Tachikawa said.
Rata snorted. "If he could walk, he probably would have left. You can't just attach Trion limbs to a flesh and blood body and expect everything to be perfect. Evangelia has been working with him on that."
"Who?" Toma asked.
"Evangelia. She is Yuma's physical therapist. She is helping him adjust to his new limbs." Rata explained. "I'm sure she'll have some files for you to take back as well to help Yuma."
"We'll leave that to Tamakoma." Kazama decided. That, or the doctors in their medical ward. Their job was simply to make sure Yuma was alive and get him back to Japan if the doctors gave the okay that he could leave.
The door opened and Jin and Utagawa stepped out.
"Done already?" Tachikawa asked.
"For now. Yuma's pretty confused and frustrated." Jin replied. "I don't want to overwhelm him." He glanced into the room through the door's window to see his young friend had fallen back onto the bed and was cradling his arm to his chest, face twisted into pain. Of course he had been putting on a strong face for them, but it seemed he could only hold out long enough for them to get out of the room. He couldn't wait for them to leave the hall. "He's in pain."
"It will take time for his body to heal and fully assimilate to the new limbs and organs." Rata explained. "But, I can call his nurse to up his pain medication. As for the rest of you, since you will be here a few days, I can put you up in a hotel."
Jin smiled. "That's generous, but we can just stay on our ship."
"Jin-san, I know it's been a while since you've been on an away mission, but surely you remember how cramped that ship is." Toma protested.
Jin clapped his friend on the shoulder. "It's a couple days, Toma. You'll survive."
Rata smiled in understanding. His team had stayed on their away ship when they had been hanging around Meeden while waiting for Yuma to be ready to leave. It wasn't the most comfortable thing being in an unfamiliar location with potential allies. While they were cooperating with Tamakoma during that time, Rata hadn't been sure how the rest of Border would react to their presence so they didn't want to stay in the city indefinitely with them. He was sure Jin was feeling the same way with the population of Galopoula.
Both sides were still trying to find equal ground.
"I assume you memorized the path here." Rata said. "I'll add all your names to the visitor's list so you can come see Yuma whenever you like."
"Thank you." Jin said.
"And of course, you can explore the city as well." Rata added. "Just, don't cause any trouble and no fighting." He reached into his pocket. "And before I forget and since I'm not sure if we'll see each other again before you leave, this is for you."
Jin held out his hand with a smile as a familiar black and white ring was dropped into it. He hadn't felt the need to ask Rata to hand it over because he knew it would be ending up back in their possession soon enough. Eventually, Jin would make sure this got back to Yuma. It was Yuma's request that if something happened to him, the Black Trigger went to Border. Jin had every intention of doing as he promised he would do, but he would also make sure Yuma was with them.
Even if Yuma was still confused and still a bit suspicious even after his side effect confirmed that Jin was being honest with him, he was still a child with five years of missing memories. The last thing Yuma knew was an assassin, his father's sacrifice, and a war in Calvaria where he was supposed to be.
For now, Jin didn't want to focus on the war that had ended a long time ago. He didn't want Yuma to focus on it either.
Unfortunately, Jin didn't think it would be that easy.
He had never had amnesia though, so he didn't know what was going on through Yuma's head.
*L*S*A*
This was all too weird and confusing.
He understood that everyone was convinced he was suffering from five years of memory loss and that despite Yuma's insistence that he was eleven, they all said he was sixteen.
Yuma brought a hand up to his face, gingerly touching the area around his eye. It was too confusing. Oyaji was in front of him and he took all the pain Yuma was feeling away from him. That only lasted for a moment though because the next time Yuma blinked, pain was soaring through his body and there were strangers above him and there was frantic talking and then...and then...
Yuma twisted his head on his pillow, grimacing as he pulled his arm closer to his chest.
"Lesson two, there's always more than one answer." Yugo's voice echoed in Yuma's head. "Things can be resolved in many ways. On the contrary, there's no answer in some cases. Don't get hung up either way."
It didn't make sense to Yuma. None of it did, but he wouldn't figure it out by getting upset. He realized that when he got sedated while freaking out about where he was and why he was in so much pain. For that reason, Yuma accepted the fact that he was in a hospital and he needed the doctors to help him.
After all, he couldn't get anything done if he couldn't move and if he was in pain anytime he shifted.
And it seemed to pay off.
The Border agents arrived.
Yuma had no idea of who they were, but Jin...
Jin never once lied in their conversation except to test his side effect. He wasn't like the other people in the hospital, but even the people in the hospital just told him minor lies.
Right now though, Yuma didn't even want minor lies. He wanted to know what was going on. He wanted to see Replica. He wanted to know why he wasn't in Calvaria. He wanted...
He wanted his dad.
Yuma shifted his arm to cover it over his eyes, feeling his iv dragged along with his arm as he pulled it. Where did such a childish sentiment even come from? He wasn't a little kid.
He was ele–
–Sixteen years old, he corrected mentally.
If he was really sixteen years old like everyone was telling him, he was too old to be wanting his dad to come comfort him. His dad couldn't come here either because he knew for a fact that he watched his father create a Black Trigger. He crumbled to dust in front of Yuma's eyes before the light became too much for Yuma to process and he was blinking.
One blink and he went from lying on the ground in Calvaria to being on a table under bright lights and strange faces and a scream tearing from his throat.
All Yuma wanted in that moment was his father.
He wanted to feel his father's strong arms pulling him into a hug that would protect him from anything that would cause him pain.
It wasn't how his father taught him to live. Yuma was taught to live independently and to make his own choices, but in that moment of pain, in this moment of confusion and pain, all Yuma wanted was someone that he knew. Something that made sense to him.
That would be Oyaji.
It could be Replica.
He just needed someone he actually knew and none of these strangers.
Those faces of the Border agents may be in Yuma's phone.
Those agents may say they were Yuma's friends.
Those agents acted like they knew Yuma.
But...
Yuma didn't know them.
He wanted someone he did know.
"Yuma," A gentle voice called as the door to the room opened. Yuma kept his arm over his eye as he didn't need to see who it was as he recognized his nurse's voice. "His highness said you were in pain. I'm going to up your dose. You might feel drowsy."
*L*S*A*
"Welcome back." Mikami greeted as the agents clambered onto the ship. "How'd it go?"
Izumi collapsed into a chair. "Kuga is alive."
"But, he has amnesia." Toma said as he deactivated his Trigger and took a seat. "So, we're stuck here for a few more days." He turned his head to shoot a glare towards Jin. "And Jin-san turned down the offer to let Rata put us in a hotel while we're staying here."
"Amnesia?" Kunichika echoed softly, eyes widening in shock for a moment before they were softening in compassion. "I see, so he doesn't remember anything."
"That would have made this easier." Jin said. "A Yuma with no memories at all would be scared and confused, but he wouldn't be difficult or demanding. A Yuma who only lost five years worth of memories is very much a trained soldier who was fighting in a war one moment and then appearing five years later in a nation he knows nothing about."
"Which explains the suspicious looks he was shooting our way." Kazama concluded. Honestly, if Yuma wasn't looking at them like that, Kazama would have been highly disappointed in Yuma. Actually, it wasn't just Yuma that would have disappointed him. If Yuma didn't look at them with such caution, he would have scoffed at the way Border's former Commander-in-Chief trained his son. The impressive force of Kuga Yugo would have lost a lot of points if his son failed to display some sense of caution and suspicion to strange people turning up and claiming to know him.
Maki observed the agents. Her usual sharp stare softened just a degree when she heard Toma mention amnesia. When she heard about the surgery from Toma who heard about it from Kazama, she felt sorry for Yuma. They were all aware of Yuma's injuries as they had been revealed during the Mimic attack, but that was the extent of her knowledge as she and Yuma didn't fall into the same friend circle. She just knew that Toma was friends with him.
Even so, that didn't mean she couldn't sympathize with what he was going through. It truly was a tragic and cruel thing that Yuma went through as a child and to have it effect him for years had to be tough on him. Now, when he finally found a solution to his injuries, he ended up losing all the memories of the years that helped him grow and heal from what happened to him a child.
He was back at the beginning of where the tragedy started.
It truly was a cruel irony.
Despite that sympathy, she couldn't let them get off track.
"Is this going to put our return on delay?" Maki asked. The notice from Shinoda said they would be gone for a few days, or at least they should be prepared to.
"We should still be on schedule. I expected to be here for a few days anyway." Jin replied. "And this way, we can try to get Yuma to be a bit more used to us before we leave."
"Oh? So, we're allowed to see him now?" Izumi asked. He had been upset when Jin pushed them out of the hospital earlier without letting the rest of them greet Yuma. He understood Jin's reasoning as one look in the room after Jin came out showed pain and exhaustion on Yuma's face. Jin simply didn't want to overwhelm the kid anymore than he had to. Even understanding that, Izumi was still upset he couldn't see his friend.
"Go for it, starting tomorrow. And while you're meeting him, see if you can jog his memories." Jin requested.
"And how do we do that?" Toma asked.
Jin shrugged. There were a lot of things he excelled at handling, but amnesia was not one of them. This was never something he had to deal with. "I suppose talk of Border or things you did with him or about other agents. I'm a little out of my depth with memory loss so I'm going to follow Rata's advice. Familiar faces and locations, but familiar locations isn't an option right now."
"Will that really work?" Kikuchihara asked dubiously. "He didn't recognize anything of you or Utagawa."
"Of course he didn't. Amnesia doesn't work like a flip of a switch."
All attention got drawn to the doorway where Fuyushima was leaning. He had his elbow resting on the doorframe so he could lean his head into his palm as he still looked pale from his seasickness. It was surprising that he had even bothered to get out of bed with how miserable he still looked.
"In Kuga's case, amnesia would likely come after a traumatic event. By that logic, he should have lost the memories from the assassin attack and before that, but instead he lost the years after the attack. It's likely the trauma that is affecting him is the sudden return to his body after five years of being sealed away and being forced to endure pain again." Fuyushima explained. "This trauma he is suffering from would have hit him with retrograde amnesia. With retrograde amnesia, it's possible to lose all memories or just specific situations they don't want to remember."
"Don't want to remember?" Mikami repeated. "Meaning that Kuga-kun purposely caused his amnesia?"
Fuyushima shook his head, and then immediately regretted the action as his head spun. He groaned and pinched his nose. "It's not always a conscious decision that you don't want to remember. I imagine returning to his body was a traumatic experience to him, so he subconsciously decided he didn't want to remember the pain and pain isn't only physical." He glanced over at Jin. "I only got spark notes of what Kuga went through as a child after his father died, but I doubt that he had a good time after his father's death considering his situation. It's likely his body in a desperate need to escape the pain blocked it all out. He went into survival mode and that caused everything to be lost from him."
"That logic seems faulty to me." Kazama said. He held up two fingers. "For two reasons. One, Kuga still remembers the assassin and his father's sacrifice. That seems like the main thing he would want to forget yet his mind didn't block it out. And two, a few months ago, Kuga forced his real body back here to force his father into sacrificing his life again to defeat the Mimic. Kuga didn't suffer any adverse effects to doing that."
Fuyushima shrugged in return. "Humans are quite illogical creatures. Nothing will ever make perfect sense."
Jin stared off into the distance, frowning thoughtfully. The pain Yuma went through to return here was what Fuyushima was basing his theory off of.
A shiver worked its way violently down Yuma's spine. "It hurt."
It was such a vague statement. Yuma could have been referring to anything.
"I've been trapped in a Trion body for years so I haven't had to feel pain in so long. I knew it hurt. There is always a vague memory of how torturous it was for me to have my real body torn to pieces by the assassin, but I had forgotten how it felt over the years. It hurt so much to return to my real body yesterday. I had forgotten what pain felt like so to go back to a body that is ripped to pieces had been hell for me."
Jin continued to stare ahead at the wall, but his hand on the back of Yuma's head tightened its grip just a bit in response to what his friend was saying.
"I wonder..." Jin mumbled.
"Wonder what?" Izumi asked.
"After he forced his body to return here, he admitted that it hurt a lot and he had forgotten what pain was so it had been hell to him to do that." Jin explained. "I wonder if he remembered that and got scared before his Trigger got deactivated. In the fight with Kuga-san, he had been so focused on surviving and stopping his father from winning and didn't remember what pain felt like so he had nothing to stall him back then."
"But with it only being a few months since then, Kuga still remembers the pain since it was recent and he got scared and that caused his body to enter a protective state?" Kunichika concluded Jin's thought.
Fuyushima took a seat at the table as he couldn't stand standing any longer. He braced his elbow on the table so he could bury his face in his hand. He was really hating Jin right now for insisting he come on this little trip. "It's possible. It's all speculation though. I doubt it really matters how or why it happened. What we need to focus on is jogging his memory. If it is retrograde amnesia like I theorized, it can recover from time and your friend was right that somewhere familiar would help. Since this is his first time in Galopoula, it's not the best place for him to recover. It's also possible that Kuga just needs time to recover from the surgery which will help his memories return. For now, we just need to be patient and give him time."