Light Shines Anew
Chapter 14: Hope
Jin sat on the ledge of the roof, eyes turned to the stars as he enjoyed a hot cup of tea. If he looked down at the bridge, he would see a bridge devoid of people, but filled with their abandoned booths as the agents only took the valuable stuff with them when the party finally ended. It meant it was going to be a lot of clean up later, but that was a problem for the future.
Right now, in this moment, Jin was going to relax, basking in the light of the fairy lights that were strung up on Tamakoma's roof. He would say that today was a roaring success.
However, it wasn't over yet.
A quick look at his phone told him that it was eleven fifty-two.
Eight minutes until the day was officially over.
The day had gone perfectly.
And by perfectly, he meant that everyone had been happy and had a lot of fun. There were a few bumps when he had left Yuma alone at his party so he could run around just having fun. Though he left him alone, Jin did see him around and he caught the forlorn expression Yuma had while Ikoma was singing earlier. He told Yuma that he didn't want to see him frowning today, but Jin knew that no matter how hard they tried to distract Yuma, Jin's prediction would still be nagging him at the back of his mind. He wanted Yuma to be happy, but he also wanted his young friend to think everything through. Yuma needed to decide for himself what path he thought was best.
Jin and everyone else could only tell Yuma what they thought. In the end, Yuma was the one who had to make the final call based on all the information he gathered.
Even knowing that it was Yuma's choice in the end, it didn't take a sting of fear away from Jin. He saw the future, but the future was never set in stone. Anything could shift the future so even Jin couldn't be a hundred percent sure of what the future would bring.
Yuma was scared of dying during the operation, but all his friends were also scared of him dying. They likely didn't explain that in the best way to him, but right now, Jin was fine with that. They didn't need any more discussion of fear. Fear wasn't bad. It kept people alive by keeping them from getting overconfident and completely disregarding danger. There was a reason why experiments to remove the fear factor in Trion bodies failed. Without fear, people didn't think straight and thought they could do everything.
Fear helped people take a moment to stop and think.
However, fear could also freeze people in place and completely prevent them from acting.
That was where Yuma was.
The Yuma who was never afraid of anything was frozen in fear at losing everything that was in front of him.
So, Jin decided giving Yuma the best day ever for his birthday was the best thing he could do for his friend. It was his fault that Yuma was so distracted and depressed the past few days so it was on him to make sure his birthday turned out as good as it could.
And it worked out for the most part.
Six minutes until the day was officially over.
The door to the roof creaked open.
"What took you, Yuma?" Jin asked before taking another sip of his tea.
"Were you waiting for me, Jin-san?" Yuma asked.
Jin smiled, pulling his eyes off the sky so he could look at Yuma. "Weren't you the one looking for me? I wasn't hiding, Yuma. I am in your usual spot." He reached next to him where another hot mug of tea was sitting and picked it up to hold it out to Yuma.
Yuma accepted the tea and sat down next to Jin on the ledge. He blew on the tea to cool it down a bit before he took a sip.
Jin watched Yuma from the corner of his eyes for a moment. His young friend looked more at peace then he had in a few days. He seemed quite content to just sip at his tea, but Jin knew that Yuma wanted to talk to him. It was what Jin had been waiting for all day.
"Are you going to say anything?" Yuma asked.
"You're the one who wanted to talk to me." Jin pointed out. "Shouldn't you speak first?"
Yuma took another sip of his tea before adverting his eyes towards the stars. "You know what I'm going to say though, don't you?"
"Hmm, nope." Jin replied. "My side effect doesn't give me answers. It tells me what future we are heading towards. If you need to tell me something, you need to say it." Though, based on the futures he saw, he could guess what people would say. It helped Jin to confirm what he saw by hearing it and the person saying it could confirm what was in their heart by voicing it out loud.
Yuma breathed out slowly. Once he said it, there was no going back. Well, he could go back on his word again. Nothing was set in stone until it was actually happening, but in this moment, Yuma was prepared.
"I think I'm willing to go to Galopoula." Yuma shot his friend a grin. A fearless grin that he finally found the strength to use again. "But I bet you already saw this future coming."
Jin smiled in return. It was a future with a high possibility of occurring.
"But," Yuma rolled his mug back and forth between his hands. "Even with this, the chance of success is still low, isn't it?"
"That's not going to change, Yuma." Jin replied. "In fact, if you wait to go to Galopoula in a few weeks, the chance of success is lower. If you're going to do this, we don't have time to wait. You need to go to Galopoula as soon as possible."
"It also prevents me from backing out." Yuma added.
Jin ruffled Yuma's hair. "That future doesn't exist. It was always go or don't go. I don't see you backing out."
"Do you see me coming back though?"
Jin smiled sadly. "It's a possible future, but it's not set in stone, Yuma." Unlike a few days ago when that information upset Yuma enough to make him run off and put him in a depressive slump, this time, Yuma just hummed in reply and kept watching the twinkling stars above him. Jin knew it was possible for them to get Yuma to agree to the surgery. He had been working towards this, but he wasn't expecting such a change in Yuma's mindset so fast. It was like something just switched in his head. "Are you no longer scared about dying on the operating table?"
Yuma shook his head, dislodging Jin's hand from his hair. "No, that fear is still there. I was just reminded of something important."
"And that was?" Jin prompted curiously.
"When you told me I was going to die soon, I froze in place." Yuma admitted. "My feet wouldn't move and all around me, I saw everyone smiling and laughing without a care. It felt like when I got stuck in place with your prediction, that they were all still walking ahead and leaving me behind. I was scared of losing everything." It was truly a childish thought. He was scared of missing out on what his friends were doing while he left to go to Galopoula for a surgery that could possibly save him. Even if the surgery did by some miracle succeed, he had no way of knowing when he would come back here.
Yuma glanced down at the bridge, at the mess that they still had to clean up. It was a ridiculous birthday party, even by Yuma's basic understanding of how people of this world celebrated birthdays. Despite how crazy it was for a party, Yuma did appreciate the effort that everyone put in to give him a chance for an amazing experience for his birthday gift. None of them had to go to such an extreme just to cheer Yuma up after he had been depressed, but they went above and beyond.
"I realized that everyone was still standing by my side. They weren't running ahead of me." Yuma scratched his cheek, feeling a bit sheepish. "I should have realized it sooner." He shot an embarrassed grin at Jin. "When everyone was scared and freaking out when I said I was choosing death over trying to save myself."
Jin.
Osamu.
Chika.
Hyuse.
Shiori.
Arafune.
Midorikawa.
Murakami.
Kageura.
Arashiyama.
Everyone at Border.
"They were all standing right in front of me and telling me their thoughts, but I just wasn't seeing it behind my own fear." Yuma admitted. "I've always been selfish like that. Only seeing my problems and not wanting to get involved in things that didn't involve me." That started to change in him when he came to Japan and met Osamu. His friend just started to drag him into his way of doing things and with how fun it all was, Yuma let himself be dragged along.
"I don't think you're as selfish as you believe." Jin replied softly which got Yuma to drag his eyes to his friends in surprise. "You've been alone for a long time so it made sense for you to focus on your own safety above everything else. When you came here and started to gain allies, you had people to watch your back so you had something to fight for that wasn't just yourself."
Yuma glanced over at Jin. "Maybe, but when it comes to my situation, I'm pretty selfish with it by only thinking of my own feelings." And that was why his friends were getting mad at him. They were all scared of Yuma just dying without considering their feelings on the matter. However, though it might feel like to his friends that Yuma wasn't seeing their perspective, he was because their feelings of losing time with a friend was something he too felt.
"But you're willing to try now so you did listen to what they said." Jin pointed out. "It's not wrong to put yourself first, Yuma. You should think about it from your side and consider your own feelings on the matter, but listening to what everyone else has to say and put that into thought as well is a good thing. It lets you make an informed decision."
Yuma hummed softly. "I've been on a steady path towards death for years now. I never ran from it as I saw no escape so when you proposed a possible solution, I saw it as hope that would only destroy me completely if it fails. It was so bright and blinding that if it failed, I would just collapse on the ground and when I look back up, I would be alone in the darkness." He brought a hand up to his chest, curling it into his hoodie. "That darkness was me dying alone on an operating table. My reason for fighting to live is all here in Japan. If I go to Galopoula, I'm leaving it behind for something unknown. The unknown never bothered me before as I faced it so much in my life through all my travels, but..."
"It's different because death is scary and it is final." Jin finished.
"Yes," Yuma stared at his Black Trigger. "But it never stopped Oyaji."
"Because it's eighty percent failure."
Kido frowned. "Your father didn't hesitate when failure was a high likely hood. Perhaps I misjudged and you're less like him than I thought."
"My father never failed." Yuma said.
Kido raised a brow. "No, but he could have. Take a look at yourself, Agent Kuga. At your Black Trigger and at your Trion body. Tell me, how difficult do you think it was to do everything that Kuga did? Black Triggers are extremely difficult to create to the point that it's more likely people will fail when trying to create them. On top of that, Kuga created a powerful Black Trigger, he forced it to activate while he was dying and sealed your body inside it and created this Trion copy for you to continue living."
Yuma's eyes widened, staring down at his Black Trigger.
"You're scared to take the surgery because of it only having a twenty percent chance of success and you're likely to die, but Kuga was in the same position when he chose your life over his. There was no guarantee he would succeed in saving you when he chose to create a Black Trigger." Kido stared at the shocked agent, unsurprised that Yuma hadn't even considered this when thinking about his choice. He turned and continued on his walk down the hall. "He chose to fight for you knowing that either you would both die if it failed or you would survive. Even as he was dying, he never stopped fighting for what he wanted."
"I'm going to continue fighting like he would have." Yuma decided. Everyone had given him so much strength. He wasn't alone in this fight for his life. It may have felt like it at first because he was the only one dying, but all his friends were right there hoping for him to survive and rooting for him to beat this. It was Yuma's problem, but that didn't stop his friends from butting into it and getting themselves involved.
It honestly brought a smile to Yuma's face.
It seemed Osamu wasn't the only fool in this world who didn't know how to stay out of other people's problems.
A hand dropped onto Yuma's head and dragged the younger agent into Jin's side.
"I'm glad to hear that, Yuma. You should always fight for what you want."
*L*S*A*
Eventually, Jin did have to go to bed which left Yuma alone. Unlike usual though, Yuma didn't stay on the roof to think. When Jin left the roof to go to bed, Yuma followed him down and went into his room. He stopped in the doorway of his room to flick the light on and then just stood there to look at the gifts sitting on his desk that his friend made sure to pass on to him before they left for the night.
Yuma's hand traced over the free vouchers that Kageura gave him. He so desperately wanted to use these, but based on what Jin said, he wanted to get Yuma to Galopoula as soon as possible. That felt like it meant that Yuma wasn't going to have time to visit Kageura's family restaurant five times before he left.
That was alright.
"Yuma thinks since he has to rely on Galopoula to save him, it doesn't matter how good he is at beating the odds." Jin explained.
Hyuse scoffed as he dished out some food for himself. "With that kind of attitude, he'll surely die."
"Hyuse!" Osamu slammed his hands on the table as he stood up, causing the glasses to shake, but Hyuse didn't even spare him a glance.
"If you go into it already believing you are going to die, then you will die." Hyuse said, glaring at his surprised friend. "It's the same as going into a fight you don't plan to win."
A smile tugged at Yuma's lips.
It meant when he came back, he could have all the free meals he wanted. It gave him something to look forward to.
Right?
Yuma's eyes shifted to the grey hoodie that had black sleeves and hood. In the center of the hoodie were big red letters that read 'UMA.' Underneath that, it read Unidentified Mysterious Animal with a while llama below. Yuma wasn't completely sure, but he was sure the idea behind Shun's gift was because it matched Yuma's purple 'UMA' hoodie he loved and was also a dig at the fact that Shun knew of his Neighbor status. He was sure it was Shun joking with him, but the hoodie did feel soft so Yuma was going to wear it.
He pushed the hoodie and food vouchers to the side to look at the fighting game that Murakami had bought him. Since Murakami had helped him buy his game system, he knew what kind of games to get him. He really wanted him to keep himself busy and off the roof off the night.
Yuma leaned back in his desk chair, laying the game on the desk as he glanced over at the tv and game system behind him. He looked back at the game and read the back of the box again. His brows furrowed as he struggled through some of the longer words, but it looked to be a story focused combat game.
It was something to do until everyone woke up.
The only other thing he could think about was his upcoming surgery which he was still scared of. He really didn't want to focus on that right now so he could try this game that Murakami got him. It should distract him.
*L*S*A*
"Good morning!"
"Why are you so cheerful?" Konami complained, waving her spatula at Jin's face. They were up late last night and she had to get up early to make breakfast for everyone. She did not need Jin's cheerful greeting as he got to sleep in this morning. "We have to clean up that party!"
"Oh, come on." Jin replied, smiling easily. "Most of that stuff belongs to the agents. They'll be back to pick up their stuff. We just have to take some of the stuff down and get it ready for them." He glanced over at the table where Osamu was. "Don't worry about helping us, Four-Eyes. Just have your team focused on training for your match tomorrow. You lost a whole day of preparation for Yuma's party yesterday so you'll have to make it up today."
"And we have a day match tomorrow so we have less time to prepare." Osamu groaned, rubbing the back of his neck. On top of losing a day of preparation, he also had to somehow tell Yuma that he was benched. How could he tell Yuma he couldn't fight anymore? He didn't want to see his friend's expression completely drop after they went through all the effort of making him happy yesterday.
"A strong team is ready to fly into combat against whoever whenever." Konami pointed out as she flipped the pancakes she was cooking. "The purpose of the ranks wars is to teach you how to fight and to lead so you have that preparation time, but you won't necessarily have that if we get invaded. Your team needs to be ready at the drop of a hat for anything. Last season, you needed all the prep time you could get since you and Chika were so new to fighting. At this point though, you've been on an away mission and been through a few invasions. I think it will be good practice to see how well you do without much preparation." She paused and stared at the pancakes she was cooking. "Unless Yuma collapses again."
Jin leaned his hip on the counter, watching Konami's face drop from her lecture tone to one of worry. Tamakoma-1 had no idea about the surgery that Jin had found for Yuma. Considering Yuma's acceptance of trying it last night, they wouldn't be able to keep it from them any longer. They all needed to be on the same page.
When Jin looked away from Konami, he saw Osamu staring at him from the dining room table, brows furrowed in the way they got when he was overthinking all the worst-case scenarios.
"Yuma's not going to participate in the match." Jin admitted.
That got Konami to jerk away from the stove, eyes blown wide in surprise as she twisted to face Jin. "Is he that bad off?" She demanded. Jin hadn't fully explained anything to them about what happened when Yuma fainted the other day. Maybe that was partly Konami's fault for yelling at him for so long about him not telling them that Yuma was going to collapse or stopping Yuma from even entering the fight.
"Osamu," Jin said, instead of answering Konami. "Yuma agreed to the surgery last night. Be prepared to not have him back in your squad for a while."
"He did?" Osamu asked, relief coating his tone.
"What surgery?" Konami demanded.
"Pancakes, Konami." Jin reminded. He poured himself a glass of juice and made his way over to the dining room table.
"Shoot," Konami twisted back to the stove and got the pancakes off the pan before they could burn. She scooped more batter into the pan to cook more while promising herself that she would give Jin the third degree when she was done with cooking. He couldn't just mention Yuma and surgery in the same sentence and not expect her to demand to know what he was talking about.
Ever since she had learned about dying state, she had been so scared of losing her cute student. She kept it to herself, but she had nights where she woke from nightmares that Yuma had died while she was sleeping and they woke to find his bloody, torn body lying on the ground. She couldn't voice the nightmares out loud to Yuma because she knew that it would just upset him that it got to her this badly. Instead, on those days when her dreams got like that, she would find Yuma and dragged him into a harsh training session for half the day.
For all these months that she knew the truth of Yuma's health, it had been a major concern for her, but she wasn't able to do anything for him. All she could do to help Yuma was to continue to be his mentor and friend. She wished that she could do more to help him, but there was nothing she could do to change Yuma's situation. It made her feel so useless.
"He really said he would go?" Osamu asked as Jin sat across from him.
"Yep." Jin said.
At least that would explain why Jin was so happy this morning. Though, honestly, Jin always seemed to be in a good mood with how often he was smiling. His smile just seemed a bit easier today. Osamu guessed that he had been stressing about Yuma not wanting to go to Galopoula and now that he agreed, it was a weight off his shoulder.
Osamu looked down at the table, frowning as he felt anxiety begin to grow instead of happiness like Jin. He had wanted this for Yuma. He even told Yuma he wanted him to take the surgery. "Strange that I don't feel happy about it. This is the only option we have, right?"
"Yes. Even if there is another option, I haven't seen that future yet so the surgery is all we have." Jin replied. "I understand the anxiety you're feeling, Osamu. Despite my relief at Yuma agreeing to the operation, I'm worried too. This isn't guaranteed to work."
SLAM!
"Eh," Jin glanced up from the plate of pancakes that suddenly smacked the table next to his arm to see Konami glaring down at them.
"What are you having Yuma do?" She demanded. "Have you been keeping something from me again, Jin?!"
"Why are we shouting so early in the morning?" Karasuma asked as he came into the room just in time to hear Konami's rage.
"If you have that much energy, you should go for a run." Reiji added as he came in behind his teammate with damp hair as he had just taken a shower to clean up after his morning run.
"No way." Konami scoffed as she returned to the kitchen to grabbed the freshly cut fruit she had prepared to go with breakfast. "Did Jin tell either of you about a surgery he found for Yuma?"
"A surgery?" Reiji questioned as he and Karasuma joined Osamu and Jin at the table. "I assume it's to get Yuma back to his real body without killing him."
Jin took a sip of his orange juice. "Got it in one, Reiji-san."
"I didn't think Kinuta-san had managed to find a solution yet." Karasuma said confused.
"He hasn't." Osamu admitted. "But," He paused to glance at Jin, but when the power elite just smiled behind his glass and made no attempt to stop him, he looked back at his mentor. "Galopoula is advanced in–"
"GALOPOULA!" Konami slammed the bowls of fruit on the table as she had returned to hear Osamu speak. "It was one thing to trust Hyuse to let him to join Border, but now we're going to trust Galopoula to save Yuma?" She had known that Rindo and Jin were making deals with Galopoula. The whole point of Tamakoma was that they believed good Neighbors existed and they could be friends with them. She understood that Jin was trying to ally with those who attacked Border to prevent it from happening again and give them people they could trust on the other side of the Gate. However, when agreeing to have Hyuse join Border and now asking Galopoula to help Yuma, it was them putting their faith in previous enemies to help her kōhais. She didn't want to put them at risk.
"Konami," Jin put his glass down, looking at his friend seriously. "We have no other options to save Yuma right now."
"That's why Kinuta-san is looking into it." Konami argued.
Jin shook his head. "Not fast enough."
"Not fast enough?" Konami repeated those words weakly.
Konami stared at the tv in confusion. "What is Yuma doing?" This wasn't at all like her student. He never took his eyes off of his enemy in front of him. In fact, his eyes were always piercing into his opponent as if studying every little movement they made as if looking for their tells. He didn't back away from his enemy and cover half of his face.
"Something's wrong." Karasuma said, frowning in concern.
Something serious because even Yuma's opponents had lowered their weapons and were staring at Yuma in confusion. They were speaking, but they couldn't hear from the agents were saying to each other. It didn't matter as Yuma didn't reply to them at all. With the strange expression on his face, Konami didn't think he even heard his friends speak.
It was when his knees hit the snow that Konami snapped to her feet, heart jumping to her throat. That shouldn't be possible. It was extremely difficult for anything to affect a Trion body that wasn't a Trion based attack.
"What's happening?" Yotaro demanded, tears starting to prick at his eyes as he watched Kageura and Ikoma squad run over to Yuma, weapons completely disappearing from their hands.
Konami didn't know. She didn't know the answer to that. Was Yuma dying? Was this the moment they had all been dreading from the moment they learned of Yuma's injuries?
No.
Don't let it be now.
"He's out of time, isn't he?" Konami asked softly, all fight leaving her. Jin said there were no enemies coming, but that he was still busy. He was busy trying to find the answer to Yuma's injuries and getting the go ahead for it. If Yuma had to go to Galopoula, that required permission from multiple higher ups. This would also explain why Yuma looked so depressed and distracted the past few days.
Jin didn't reply. He didn't need to as his silence gave the answer to Konami's question. The realization caused a heavy air to fall over all the occupants of the room.
"If there's a surgery, then that means he'll be fine, doesn't it?" Karasuma asked.
"It doesn't have high success which is why Yuma originally didn't want to attempt the surgery." Jin said. "But, he changed his mind last night." He added quickly before anyone could start on an argument or run off to yell at Yuma.
"How low is the success rate?" Reiji asked.
"Twenty percent."
Reiji's brows furrowed in confusion. "For a life-or-death surgery for a child who is already dying, that is pretty high."
Jin hummed in agreement. "Maybe, but for the person actually going under for the surgery, it's a terrifyingly low number. The eighty percent chance of not waking up after the surgery is quite scary."
That made sense to Konami. There was very little that scared her, but the things that did seemed much more terrifying at night. When the sun came up, the world looked much less terrifying. It was why when she had thoughts of Yuma's injuries and impending death, they always scared her more at night when she was at home and couldn't easily see Yuma until she went to Tamakoma the next day. She imagined it was the same for Yuma. Yuma didn't sleep. The only time he got anywhere close to it was when he fell into sleep mode during the Mimics incident and when he fainted two days ago. Both times were because of extreme circumstances because of his health. Considering that, it made sense that he would be scared of going under for a surgery.
"It might seem low to Yuma, but it's better than the zero percent chance of survival he has without the surgery." Reiji said.
"True, but we don't need to argue it since Yuma–" Jin cut off with a grin when he saw Yuma coming in with his hair all messed up and a thoughtful expression on his face. "What happened to you?"
"I was playing a game all night." Yuma replied, dragging a hand through his hair. "I think I need Murakami-senpai and Kage-senpai to give me more lessons on how to play them. Or Shun and Yosuke-senpai."
"That sounds fun." Jin said. "Though it will have to wait."
"Until after the surgery?" Yuma guessed.
"Exactly."
"Yuma!" Konami snapped to her feet, hands slamming on the table.
"Ah," Yuma grinned sheepishly at her. "Are you mad about not being told about the surgery?"
"No! Well, actually, yes, but that's not what I want right now." Konami marched around the table and glare down at her short student. "I let it go last night since it was your birthday, but why do you still have Kako-san's team emblem on your cheek? You didn't wash the face paint off!"
Yuma blinked and brought a hand up to touch his cheek and then around his eye. "Oh." He leaned pass Konami to look at Jin. "Why didn't you remind me last night before you went to bed?"
Jin just grinned at him. "How was I supposed to know you forgot you got your face painted and weren't going to take it off?"
"Yu-Ma!" Konami pulled at Yuma's cheeks. "Go wash your face. No breakfast until that emblem is off your face! I can't have Kako-san thinking she is ever going to succeed in stealing you from Tamakoma!"
"Yes, yes." Yuma said amused as he escaped Konami's hold and ran back out of the room, grinning at Chika and Hyuse as he passed them.
"Is something going on?" Chika asked curiously. She had been worried Yuma's smile would only last during his party and he would fall back into his depressed state pretty quickly after his party when he had to go through another night alone. To see it now as he ran back upstairs was a huge relief to her.
"Kuga's going to Galopoula." Osamu explained, smiling when Chika's whole expression lit up in relief.
"That's great!"
"Did everyone know about this surgery except us?" Konami demanded, motioning to her team when Chika didn't even have any questions based on Osamu's statement.
"Yuri-san didn't know either." Jin said, though considering she was the operator of Tamakoma-1 that didn't change anything in Konami's rage. "Other than that, I don't think anyone outside Tamakoma except Arashiyama, Ayatsuji, Kinuta-san, Shinoda-san, and Kido-san know about this."
"They knew before us?" Karasuma asked surprised. "WAIT! Jun knew?!" The absolute betrayal of her cousin knowing before her and never saying anything to her.
"Why wouldn't they? They're the ones that have to approve Yuma going into the Neighborhood." Hyuse said as he sat next to his captain. He grabbed a plate and began to get himself some food to eat. "Despite how much Tamakoma does behind HQ's back, there are certain things even you have to ask permission for. Otherwise, Yuma wouldn't be allowed to return to Border."
That was certainly true. Considering how well known it was among the agents and higher ups that Yuma was dying, he couldn't just disappear from Border for a while and then return with his real body and act like nothing happened. Everyone would start questioning where Yuma went to get saved. Though, even if they had permission from Kido to do this, they wouldn't necessarily want everyone to know about Galopoula. That was something they would have to figure out later though.
"Did Commander Kido give Yuma permission to go?" Karasuma asked.
"Yep, that is all handled." Jin replied. "You guys have nothing to worry about. I have everything ready." He leaned forward on the table. "Actually, you can help Osamu and his team prepare the Rank Wars this season. They'll be dropping down to a three-man squad again. The top squads will take advantage of the loss of one of your aces."
"We were going to do that regardless." Reiji replied.
"Then we're all good."
"Not good. When is Yuma leaving?" Konami asked.
"As soon as possible." Jin replied.
"And that means?" Osamu prompted.
"Tomorrow."
"Tomorrow?!"
"The sooner the operation takes place, the better the chance of success. We don't have time to wait around."
Konami collapsed back into her seat at the table. "I know. It just feels like this is moving so fast."
"It will be fine. Yuma-kun will be back before we know it." Chika declared, firmly believing that her friend was going to survive the surgery and be back to claim his role as Tamakoma-2's first ace. There was no way Yuma would let Hyuse take that title from him without a fight. He would be back with them and able to laugh so easily without this hanging over his head anymore.
When Yuma was healed, they could all have as much fun without anything to be scared of.
*L*S*A*
Yuma stared into the mirror, at the blue flames and butterfly on his face. He traced a finger over the design, finding himself smiling as he looked at Kako's emblem. He would never leave his team or Tamakoma behind, but he really enjoyed the game he and Kako played. Every chance to rough house and play with the HQ's agents was a joy to Yuma. It was a wonderful experience to have gotten so close to agents outside of Tamakoma.
When Jin first asked him to join Border, Yuma hadn't wanted to because he felt so out of place in this world. His fight with Miwa squad showed him how he would never be welcomed in this world. Japan wasn't a home for him back then, but Osamu and Chika asked for help and he was ready to put away his feelings of feeling out of place to do anything for them. As he got to know more people, he learned how much fun the people were here. It made him feel more welcome here, but he wondered if that feeling would remain if his closest friends knew the truth about him being a Neighbor. Shun hadn't cared and that lifted Yuma's spirits so much to know he did have friends in HQ who wouldn't reject him for his Neighbor status.
But what about the others?
"What are you doing?"
"Huh?" Yuma leaned back from the mirror to see Shiori in the mirror's reflection. "Morning, Shiori-chan! Konami-senpai told me to get the face paint off my face."
Shiori raised a brow. "You don't look to be doing a good job." She teased as she grabbed a wash cloth and got it wet and applied some soap to it. "Pardon me, Yuma-kun." She began to scrub the cloth into his cheek. "So, what were you thinking about so hard?"
Yuma scrunched an eye shut as Shiori scrubbed the paint off. "I was just thinking if my friends from HQ would think of me differently if they knew I was a Neighbor."
Shiori paused in cleaning Yuma's face off, blinking in confusion. "That seems like such a random thought to have all of a sudden, Yuma-kun. What made you think of that?" It didn't seem like something that would normally bother Yuma. He never really thought about the fact that he was a Neighbor. Unlike Hyuse, he had nowhere to return to in the Neighborhood so it was barely a concern to him.
"I'm planning to go to Galopoula." Yuma admitted.
"For the surgery?" Shiori asked calmly as she went back to cleaning Yuma's face.
"You knew about it?" Yuma asked surprised.
"Osamu-kun filled me in. He thought since we're all on the same team we all needed to be on the same page." Shiori explained.
"Hmm," Yuma hummed at that. It was like Osamu's argument the other night where he needed to know what was going on with Yuma's health as he was his captain and responsible for his teammates. "I guess I was just wandering if they would still care so much about me recovering if they knew I was a Neighbor." He got them back on track to Shiori's question.
"I guess it would depend on who you are talking about." Shiori replied.
"Murakami-senpai and Kage-senpai." Yuma admitted. "In the group of my closest friends, they are the only ones who don't know."
Shiori snorted and bopped Yuma on the head with the wash cloth. "Those two? Your Neighbor status isn't even on a list of things they would be concerned about with you."
"Cause they don't know about it for it to be on the list." Yuma glanced in the mirror to see that the emblem was off his cheek and Shiori was moving to the flames around his eye.
"You're concerned with the weirdest thing before your surgery." Shiori said amused.
"I guess it's because I don't want to think about the surgery. I agreed to it, but I have no control over the surgery's success so I want to think about other things."
"And that is if your friends will abandon you if they learn you're from the Neighborhood?" Shiori was starting to think she might have to question Yuma's sanity. He seemed to be having some strange thoughts lately.
"I guess..."
Shiori hummed as she worked on getting the flames off Yuma's face. "You guess what?"
Yuma twisted his head away from Shiori to stare at his reflection. He tugged at his white hair. "I'm going into a surgery to get my body back. It will make me like everyone else with a flesh and blood body again, but I've been stuck in a Trion body for five years." He leaned back from the counter to glance at his operator. "It's setting things right, but being like this for five years, this has become my normal. By doing the surgery, I'm changing what I'm used to. I guess I was just thinking of what else could change by doing this."
Shiori pulled Yuma's face back to her to finish cleaning his face. "Murakami-san and Kageura-san wouldn't abandon you if they learned the truth. That fact will not change."
Yuma knew that Shiori fully believed that. His side effect wasn't...
Yuma twisted away from Shiori again and leaned in closer to the mirror to stare at his eyes.
"What now?" Shiori asked as Yuma gingerly touching the skin around his eyes.
"I got my side effect when Oyaji's Trion twisted with mine when he saved me. If I go back to my real body, will I lose it?" Yuma asked.
Shiori blinked, staring at Yuma's face in the reflection. "I don't know, Yuma-kun." She said honestly. "You acquired your side effect in such a unique manner. We have no idea of what is going to happen. We can only take this one step at a time." She dropped her wash cloth and wrapped an arm around his shoulders to pull him into a side hug. "Whatever happens, I'll...we'll all be waiting right here for you. We won't care if you lose your side effect in the process. All we want is you back by our sides."
Shiori might not care and Yuma might not like seeing every little lie as people lied more than they realized, but the side effect came from his father. There was very little Yuma had left of his father. He didn't want to lose anything he had left of Yugo.
He didn't want everything to change completely because of the surgery.
He wanted some things to remain the same.
It would make it easier to transition back to his real body.
A flesh and blood body with Trion limbs and organs to replace what he lost.
Yuma swallowed thickly at the thought.
He understood that Galopoula was quite advanced with this type of surgery, but the idea of combining Trion limbs to a flesh and blood body was just too weird to Yuma. It was something he was going to have to get used to if the operation succeeded.
*L*S*A*
Osamu leaned back in his chair, staring at Yuma as he dug into his pancakes. Once he had come back with a freshly cleaned face, Konami had decided he could eat his breakfast at last.
"What's wrong?" Yuma asked between bites. "I thought you would be excited that I decided to try the surgery."
"I am, but I'm also worried." Osamu admitted honestly. "You aren't the only one scared of it failing."
Yuma tossed a strawberry in his mouth. He knew. He understood that now. Despite how everyone was pushing him for the surgery, they were still scared of it failing. This was just the only option they had. "But that's not why you're staring at me."
Osamu sighed, knocking his head against the back of his chair. "No, it isn't. We have a match with Oji squad and Suzunari First tomorrow that we haven't started planning for. We need to focus on that, but with you leaving tomorrow, I feel like we should spend the day with you too."
"Ah." Yuma wanted to spend time with his team too, but he couldn't just tell them not to train for their match tomorrow. The match tomorrow would be their first time fighting as a three-man squad without Yuma. They needed to make a plan for that.
"How about we have a farewell feast tonight?" Karasuma suggested. "You guys can train until dinner and then we have a huge dinner before Yuma has to leave tomorrow?"
"That seems like a bit much. You guys did a giant party yesterday." Yuma argued. "We don't need a big feast as well. I'll be happy with something simple."
Konami suddenly appeared behind Yuma, leaning down to rest her head on his shoulder. "How about my curry? That's still your favorite food, isn't it?"
"It's not your turn to make dinner today." Yuma said.
Konami tugged at Yuma's cheek. "We can switch it up. If you're going to leave for who knows how long, you get your favorite meal before you go. I won't hear any arguments."
Yuma rubbed his cheek as Konami got off him.
"With that decided, I'll need to go shopping. We used up all our ingredients yesterday." Konami decided.
"And I have to get to my part time. I'll be back tonight for your farewell dinner, Yuma." Karasuma said as he stood up from the table.
Yuma scratched his head and looked up at his team. "Don't let me keep you from training."
"But Yuma-kun," Chika protested.
Yuma smiled softly. "Just because I'm taking a leave of absence from the team, that doesn't give you permission to drop in the ranks. I expect good results when I return."
Chika smiled.
"If you get bored, come down and watch our training." Hyuse said. "Maybe we'll be a better three-man squad with me as the first ace."
"Never happening." Yuma argued. He gave a small wave to his team as they left to head down to the training rooms. It was only when they door closed behind him them that his head hit the table, smile slipping off his face. He wished he could go down and train with them, but that wouldn't help them prepare for their match tomorrow at all. They needed to get used to him not being there. "If the surgery is a success, how long will I be gone?"
"Hard to tell." Jin replied as he began to gather up the dishes. Konami had run out of here so fast that she didn't clean up from breakfast. It was usually the rule that whoever cooked cleaned up, but since Konami just offered to take dinner duty tonight, Jin would clean up the kitchen for her.
Yuma sighed, watching Jin's back as he covered the bowl of fruit that was leftover and put it in the fridge. His eyes moved to follow Jin as he moved to the sink to fill it up with water and soap to wash the dishes. "Sorry."
Jin paused in grabbing a wash cloth out of the drawer. He turned confused eyes to Yuma. "What are you apologizing for?"
"I keep asking you what is going to happen to me." Yuma explain, planting his hands on the table to push himself up to get his head off the table. "That's not fair of me. I know you hate seeing the death of your friends in the future and I've been making you stare at my future. At my death this whole time." He stood up from the table and made his way into the kitchen. "I've been so lost in my head with your prediction that I never stopped to consider how you felt with having to stare at my death constantly while you tried to figure this out."
Jin looked at his friend for a moment before he turned to the sink to turn the water off and started to wash the dishes. "I'm not going to say I'm fine with seeing my friends die in my predictions, but I'm not going to avert my eyes. I failed in saving my mentor and friends because I didn't properly utilize Foresight as a kid. I may hate seeing death in my predictions, but I will never turn a blind eye to it. I will save my friends no matter what."
Yuma frowned. "Not at the expense of yourself, Jin-san." He scolded as he mindlessly took a wet dish from Jin and grabbed a towel to begin to dry it.
Jin laughed as he continued to wash the dishes. "I know, I know, Yuma. That's not what I meant."
"And no overworking yourself." Yuma added as he took another dish from Jin to dry it.
Jin snorted and flicked some soap at Yuma. "You sure are bossy for someone who had been trying to convince everyone he was fine with dying in a month."
Yuma pouted as he brushed the soap off his face. He whacked Jin's arm with his towel. "Hope is a painful thing."
"Is it?" Jin countered. "Hope is supposed to be about an optimistic expectation of a good future. It is our belief that everything will turn out okay."
"And when it fails?" Yuma countered. "When everything you hope for is ripped away from you because it failed, what do you have left?"
"You've always been too pragmatic." Jin flicked more soap at Yuma.
Yuma wrinkled his nose.
"Haven't you ever hoped for something?"
Yuma glanced at Jin, eyes narrowed in sadness. "I wanted my dad to get his life back."
A sudden lumped formed in Jin's throat when he recalled his conversation with Yuma so long ago where his friend told him about what happened to him and his father. When Yuma came here, they were forced to rip Yuma's dream of reviving his father away from him. That one hope, one dream, was all Yuma had when he came here and when they tore it away from him, he had nothing else.
"Hope doesn't always pay off." Jin said slowly. "But you shouldn't let that crush your optimism completely. Just because one thing didn't work out for you that doesn't mean everything will fail. You got Replica back and Chika-chan found her brother. Going on the away mission with that goal was a form of hope. You told Chika-chan once before that hope won't win a fight, but it gives you the strength to stand. Were you simply giving her lip service while not believing your own words?"
Yuma grunted in the back of his throat and took another dish from Jin to dry. "It's easy to hope in a situation like that."
"What does that mean?"
"My..." Yuma set the plate on the counter and motioned over his body. "This is completely different. Ever since I got this body, I never saw a way out for me. I never expected to have a chance at a future where I wasn't dying. When you throw a solution at me with a low success rate, I get scared to hope that it will work because if it fails, that brief moment of hope I had is going to crush me." Though, honestly, Yuma wouldn't have time to feel that hope crushing him since if the operation failed, he would just die while under anesthesia.
Jin hummed softly. He wanted to promise Yuma that even if he faltered, they would all be here to get him back on his feet, but he couldn't because if the surgery failed, there was nothing any of them could do. Yuma would just be dead. "I won't stop hoping and praying for your safe return, Yuma. We all will be doing that."
"Does hope stack up?" Yuma wondered as he placed another dry plate on top of his growing pile. Since he was too short to put the plates back in the cabinet, he would just dry them and put them on the counter. Jin would store them away when he was done cleaning all the dishes.
"I like to think it does." Jin handed a glass to Yuma to dry. "A single action alone doesn't accomplish much, but when you add that action together with the actions of everyone else, it causes a ripple effect. For example, during the Aftokrator invasion, I told Kyosuke he would be defeated without being able to do anything. He took action against my prediction by being cautious and avoided fighting as much as possible until it mattered." He handed another plate to Yuma. "Since he did that, he was able to fight against the captain and make him and the warp woman reveal a move we hadn't been expecting. Usami sent that data out to everyone and because of that, Shuji was able to see it coming and react accordingly. Or like when Reiji-san injured Viza's leg which slowed him down enough to keep you from getting beheaded in your fight with him." He watched Yuma stack the plate on his pile. "All of it connects. You might be the only one actively dying right now, Yuma, but you're not alone. We're all right here with you. Maybe not physically while you're in Galopoula, but in spirit."
"You know, Tachikawa-san says spirit doesn't matter." Yuma pointed out. "Because it won't make a difference in strength."
"Eh," Jin made a disgusted face and shoved his friend with his elbow to push him away. "Don't listen to the nonsense that Tachikawa-san says. When did you even hear him say that?"
"I went back and watched the full match against Murakami-senpai last season to hear all your commentary." Yuma admitted.
"I'm surprised Taketomi let you back in to watch it." Jin said, having heard of how Tachikawa booted her out of her own room to fulfill Jin's favor.
"Tachikawa-san was the one who threw her out of the room, not me. I was just the poor kidnappee in that situation."
"Poor nothing." Jin snorted. "But why bring it up? Don't tell me you're second guessing your decision to take the surgery already."
"No," Yuma crossed his arms on the counter to lean his weight against it as Jin drained the sink and washed his hands. "I'm just going to miss training and strategizing with my team to prepare for the rank wars. I guess I'm jealous that I have to leave." That was something Yuma never thought he would feel. Ever since he left Tropoi, he had been a wandering spirit. There was never a place that he felt connected to enough that he didn't want to leave.
"I'm sorry about that, but there isn't another choice."
Yuma sighed. "I know."
Jin reached across Yuma to grab the stack of plates to put them away. "I can't do anything about your feelings from missing out, but you should make good use of what little time you have left before your departure."
"And when is that?" Yuma asked as he and Jin never went into the specifics of how they were going to do this. All they talked about the past few days was the actual surgery.
"Tomorrow." Jin closed the cabinet and shifted around Yuma to start gathering up the glasses.
Yuma shoved himself away from the counter. "Tomorrow?"
"Wooh," Jin planted a hand on Yuma's shoulder to avoid them both falling over as Yuma slammed into him when he pushed off the counter. "Yes, Yuma. Tomorrow. I told you we don't have the luxury of taking our time with this."
"But that's so soon." Yuma muttered.
Jin ruffled Yuma's hair. "The sooner you leave for the surgery, the sooner you can come home. You should make use of what little time you have left and go see your other friends before your farewell dinner tonight." He picked up the glasses and began to put them away, but was focused on watching Yuma from the corner of his eye. In particular, he was watching how Yuma frowned and his eyes scrunched down in the way they did when he was disagreeing with something being said. "You don't want to?"
Yuma rubbed the back of his neck as he moved away from the counter to give Jin all the space he needed. "I'm not good with goodbyes." That was on Yuma though. Since he spent so much time traveling and never staying in one place for too long, he never formed strong enough connections to have to do goodbyes. In all his years before coming to Japan, the only people Yuma had a strong connection to beyond his family was Raymond and his kids. Considering his feelings towards everything that happened in Calvaria, he had run out of there pretty quickly after telling his friends that he was leaving.
Jin paused as he set down a glass in the cabinet. "So what? You're just going to leave tomorrow without telling any of your friends you are leaving."
"I haven't even told them about the surgery."
"So, your plan is to just leave them completely in the dark and leave tomorrow?" Jin asked. "They'll freak out if you just disappear."
"Sounds like a nice distraction to give Tamakoma-2 the edge in the fight tomorrow."
Jin grabbed the towel off the counter and turned quickly to flick Yuma with it.
Yuma ducked under the towel and twisted away from Jin. "Psychological warfare, Jin-san. A great tool."
"In real combat. Don't mess with your friends like that in Rank Wars." Jin scolded. "They were scared enough when you fainted in the middle of a match." He sighed and turned back to the counter, dropping the towel. "Don't know why I'm wasting my breath when you've already settled on making this our problem."
"Throwing in the towel already?" Yuma asked.
"They'll be mad if you just leave without saying anything." Jin said.
"Most likely." Yuma agreed. "But I just don't know what to say to them. Or to anyone. Goodbyes aren't really my thing."
"Let me ask you this then," Jin turned to watch as Yuma walked around the counter to get back to the living room. "If you die on the operating table, won't you regret it that you didn't say anything to them before you left? Or what about your friends not getting the chance to say anything to you before the surgery?"
Yuma plopped down on the couch and buried his face in one of the throw pillows. He didn't want to hear those words from his friends. Now that he had somewhere that he felt comfortable enough to call it his home, he didn't want those goodbyes or final words in case they never saw each other again. It would feel too much like saying farewell forever.
It would cause a heavy weight in Yuma's heart when he leaves tomorrow.
He didn't want that feeling pulling him down when he so desperately wanted to come back someday.