Light Shines Anew

by Fallen Crest

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

25. Ch 25: Broken Puzzle

Light Shines Anew

Chapter 25: Broken Puzzle

"I thought we agreed on no fighting."

Jin gave an easy smile in return to Rata's statement. "We did, but I thought enemies attacking would be considered fair. If we're forming an alliance, it's only natural for us to help you out in the event of an attack."

"Are you saying we can't handle a few Trion Soldiers?" Reghi asked offended.

"Never said that. We were just at the hospital already." Jin replied. "And how could we stand back and leave the hospital defenseless when we're already there?"

Rata sighed. "I do appreciate the help. It's just the citizens don't know of the strange warriors who suddenly showed up to help us."

"Were you going to form an alliance with us without telling your citizens?" Jin countered.

Tachikawa scoffed behind him as he knew that Tamakoma was basically doing the exact same thing in Japan. It was natural for Border to keep a lot of secrets about Neighbors from the citizens so of course, Tamakoma wouldn't let it be known publicly that they were making friends with Neighbors. However, it wasn't just the citizens of Mikado City Tamakoma was going behind the backs of. Only top agents and the higher ups even knew that Tamakoma was in contact with Galopoula. He didn't think Jin had a leg to stand on about criticizing Rata for his own secrecy.

"They were going to be informed of the decision when the alliance had been confirmed and finalized." Rata replied.

"Hasn't it, though?" Jin countered. "We agreed that the alliance was in play once we were on equal ground with neither side owing a debt. Once you performed Yuma's surgery, we were put onto that equal footing."

"Sounds like an excuse to get out of breaking your promise to not get into fights here." Reghi said.

Tachikawa smirked. Twisting the facts and the situation was exactly the kind of thing that Jin did all the time. He was a self-proclaimed master schemer and he was extremely proud of that fact. Anyone who spent a good amount of time with Jin could realize that, and thus, start to get annoyed with him and how he tried to manipulate situations to his side's benefit.

As if knowing what was going through Tachikawa's head, Jin twisted his head around to shoot a look at Tachikawa as if telling him to shut up, which Tachikawa found kind of rude. He hadn't even said anything in this whole conversation. It was a good thing that Toma chose to stay hanging out on a nearby roof to keep watch from the sky that everything would remain peaceful. He likely wouldn't have kept his mouth shut like Tachikawa was doing.

Rata held up a hand towards Reghi to stall any more complaints. "I'll handle it. We'll just have to announce our new alliance early. This might work out in our favor. Having our new allies jump into action so quickly to help us will earn you points from our citizens."

"See?" Jin turned back to Rata, grinning at him. "There's always a silver lining somewhere."

"Do you know when you will be leaving?" Rata asked.

Jin felt his grin grow in amusement. That felt like Rata, though eager for the alliance, was ready for Jin to get out of here. "Earliest would be tomorrow, at the latest the day after." Jin squinted up at the hospital behind Rata and Reghi. "I guess it depends on Yuma and how he feels. I need to check on him to see if this attack aggravated his recovery."

"Of course." Rata stepped to the side to let the Border agents passed him. "I hope the rest of your visit will be more peaceful."

"Don't worry about it. We're used to Trion Soldiers." Tachikawa replied.

*L*S*A*

Yuma kept shifting on his bed. There was a lot he hated right now. He hated that he had to be in the bed at all right now. Trion Soldiers just attacked. He wanted to be doing something in regards to that. He hated that he didn't even have a Trigger on him right now. It made him feel so unprotected by not having a weapon at his side.

He hated that he was injured on both sides of his body because that meant he couldn't get comfortable at all. When he tried to rest on his left side, his leg and his newly created organs and skin on his torso screamed at him from being uncomfortable from the pressure. When he shifted to rest on his right side, his newly created arm screamed at him for the same reason. If he laid on his back or stomach, they all yelled at him.

It was the absolute worse.

"Can you stay still?" Izumi asked.

Yuma replied by shifting on the bed again, kicking his foot against the stuffed animals that were settled at the bottom of the bed. He wasn't aiming for them. They were just in his way as he tried to find a way to get comfortable. Physical therapy on top of getting tackled to the ground and then walking back to his room left him feeling really sore.

"You would think, you would sit still to deal with the pain rather than keep moving around." Izumi continued.

Yuma rolled his eye. "I can't get comfortable."

"Sorry about that, but things are pretty hectic right now. I don't think your nurse can get here to deal with your IV." Izumi replied, turning to lean against the doorframe of the room so he could watch the hallway. He had managed to drop Evangelia off to a passing nurse to get her leg looked at since that needed treatment and she wasn't going to be getting any of that in Yuma's room. Things had calmed down since the Gates initially opened in that there was no more fighting. The same could not be said for the hospital staff that was running around the halls to check on patients and to treat the people who got hurt during the attack.

"It's fine. I get it." Yuma was just uncomfortable from the soreness in his Trion prosthetics. It's not like he was actively bleeding out. Even if he didn't want to, he could deal with some soreness. He would not, however, stop shifting around every few minutes like Izumi asked of him. He would keep moving whenever his sore muscles became too uncomfortable from being pressed into the mattress.

As much as he hated how uncomfortable he felt, there was one positive in it. It kept him distracted from thinking about other things that he didn't want to think about. He was sure those thoughts would bother him later on when he didn't have any pain to distract him from them.

Thoughts about his father.

Thoughts about what Izumi said about going to Japan.

Japan.

His father's home.

A place he had seemingly been to before but couldn't remember.

Yuma twisted his head on his pillow to stare at Izumi's back in the doorway. "Were we friends?"

Izumi blinked, not expecting that kind of question. With one more glance up and down the hallway, he turned to face Yuma. "What are you asking?"

"Before I lost my memories, were we friends?"

"Were?" Izumi repeated, brows furrowed in confusion. "Just because you lost your memories, does that mean the people who are your friends are no longer your friends? Do our own memories of you mean nothing?"

"I don't know." Yuma admitted, averting his attention to stare at the ceiling. "I never had a lot of friends."

Izumi stared at Yuma in surprise. For as outgoing and friendly as Yuma was, he never expected to hear something like that. He figured Yuma could make friends with anyone anywhere he went. Considering how many different people he saw Yuma hang out with in Border, he just assumed that Yuma had been a social butterfly his whole life.

Yuma looked at his phone sitting on the nearby table. "The pictures on the phone. I didn't know anyone in it so I didn't think it was mine, but Rata said it was in my stuff so it was mine."

Since Yuma was staring at the phone, Izumi took it as permission to pick up the phone and opened up the picture gallery as Yuma was talking about pictures. It really felt like the conversations came out of nowhere. He really didn't understand what was currently going on through Yuma's head right now.

When he opened the picture gallery, his eyes were assaulted with an array of familiar pictures. While he wasn't involved in the Attackers Group Chat as he was a shooter, Yoneya and Midorikawa were involved and he saw all the pictures being sent into the chat via their phones. For that reason, he was able to recognize all the pictures from when Yuma was getting ready to leave Japan. "These are your friends and allies from Border. A lot of them are your friends, but you are simply comrades with some of them." He clarified as he didn't want Yuma to assume they were all his friends, especially when he spotted Miwa in the background of one of the pictures. That was an interaction that didn't need to happen while Yuma was not aware of what was going on or what their relationship was. "They all sent you these pictures before you left as a way to send you well wishes for your surgery to go safely."

Izumi handed the phone over to Yuma, who just scrolled through the pictures with a frown. These people all knew him and sent him pictures to encourage him to recover and come back. That was the basic gist of what Yuma was understanding from what Izumi was saying. For Yuma, though, it was so weird to be faced with people who said they knew him while Yuma could only stare blankly back at them. It was unnerving how much they knew of him while he knew nothing of them.

"Are we close friends?" Yuma asked.

"Hmm?" Izumi took a seat by Yuma's bed as it seemed the younger kid was going to continue this line of thought. "If we're talking about your closest friends, I would put your team at the top of the list." He took Yuma's phone back and scrolled until he found the picture of Tamakoma-2 and showed it to him. "Mikumo Osamu is your captain. Usami Shiori is your operator. Amatori Chika is your team's sniper. And Hyuse here is an Attacker."

Yuma blinked as Izumi pointed at each face as he explained who they were. His brows furrowed when Hyuse was brought up. "Why does Hyuse only have one name?"

"Ah, his supposed name is Cronin Hyuse." Izumi replied. "He's actually a Neighbor like you, but a good portion of Border doesn't like Neighbors so when the Tamakoma Branch accepts Neighbors, they make a cover story for them to pass them off as citizens of our world to the rest of Border."

Yuma looked up from his phone to give Izumi a considering look. They didn't like Neighbors in Border? That was strange since his father always spoke of Border as being a place that wanted to make friends with Neighbors. Well, he supposed his father must have just been wrong. Yugo did always tell him that parents weren't always going to be right and that he needed to think on his own and see things for himself. He needed to develop his own opinions on things.

"You don't seem to hate me?" Yuma said.

Izumi shrugged. "I don't have anything against Neighbors. I go after them if they attack us or if my boss orders me too because he believes they pose a threat. Some people in Border aren't like that because they've been hurt by Neighbors and hate them all."

Yuma understood that. That was their opinion on Neighbors and they were free to determine if they liked Neighbors or not. No one could make that decision for them. It was like how Yugo raised him to think for himself. Opinions could be swayed, but no one could force someone else to think differently just by saying they disagree.

That was always what his father taught him. He needed to think for himself and let others think for themselves.

Yuma rolled his head on his pillow to go back to staring at the ceiling. The soreness in his body was meant to be distracting. The conversation with Izumi was supposed to distract him from the soreness in his body.

And yet somehow, that led him back to his father, because of course it did.

It had been five years since his father's death, but for Yuma, who had forgotten the past five years, it felt like it happened yesterday. Being in a hospital, surrounded by strangers and strangers who claimed to know him, all Yuma wanted was a familiar face in this sea of strange faces.

Yuma wasn't anxious or nervous by being surrounded by strangers. It was something he had to deal with his whole life from traveling constantly.

He just wanted his dad and Replica with him because it would be a form of comfort in all this frustration and confusion and pain he was feeling. He needed something familiar in this strange world he suddenly found himself waking up to.

Izumi stared at Yuma who had seemingly got lost in thought. He could just stand up and walk away to go back to staring into the hallway, but there wasn't anything out there. Right now, there was nothing going on that he could help with. He was a fighter, not a doctor so since the battle was over, the hospital staff were the ones who were busy. All he had to do right now was waiting for Tachikawa to show back up so he could stand here in silence or talk to Yuma, who looked like he needed an escape from whatever was going on in his head.

"Murakami-san and Kageura-san are two people you seem close with too." Izumi said, dragging Yuma out of his thoughts.

"What?" Yuma looked at Izumi in confusion.

"I don't know everyone you hang out with, Kuga, but based on what I've heard, you spend a lot of time training with those two so I can figure out that you three are close." Izumi showed Yuma a picture of Suzunari-1. "This one is Murakami Kō. He's the number five Attacker in Border."

"Number five?" Yuma repeated, looking intrigued now. "What's that mean?"

"We have team rankings." Izumi shifted to show his arm to Yuma so he could see his team emblem. "My team is A-Rank number one. You met Utagawa yesterday. His team is A-Rank number three. We also have solo rankings though for snipers and shooters and attackers. Murakami used to be number four Attacker, but Jin-san returned to the solo rankings a few months ago and he joined the top ranks of solo ranking. He and my captain are constantly switching between number one and number two as they are rivals. Because Jin-san reentered the solo rankings, he pushed Murakami-san down to number five. I think right now, Jin-san is number one."

Yuma pushed himself up into a sitting position, wincing a bit as his aching muscles hated the movement. He curled his real leg under his under him, but kept his Trion leg stretched out in front of him. "He just returned to solo rankings?" He asked curiously. "Did Jin-san leave Border for a while too?"

"Oh, ah, no. You remember how I mentioned S-Ranks earlier?"

"Black Trigger holders." Yuma recalled.

"Got it. Jin-san held a Black Trigger for a while so he used to be S-Rank. He returned Fujin, the Black Trigger, to Headquarters and dropped back down to A-Rank." Izumi explained.

Yuma stared at Izumi blankly. Jin voluntarily became A-Rank? He gave up his Black Trigger? "What kind of moronic decision was that? Who gives up a Black Trigger?" Black Triggers were extremely valuable. No one sane would ever give one away that kind of power.

Yuma's statement was such a surprise to Izumi that he barked out a laugh. He hunched forward to hug his stomach as he laughed while Yuma just seemed to get more confused by the action as his facial expression twisted as he watched Izumi laugh. He didn't get what was so funny. He was quite serious when he thought it was stupid to give up a Black Trigger.

"Sounds like a good time in here."

Yuma looked up to see Jin and Tachikawa coming in. Izumi did as well, but when he saw Jin, he just started laughing again and went back to hiding his face in his elbow.

Jin's brow raised. He looked at Yuma while pointing down at Izumi. "What did you do to him?"

A shrug was the only reply Yuma could give Jin. He really didn't know what he said that made Izumi laugh. He didn't think their conversation had been all that funny. All Yuma wanted to know was who his friends in Border were and that led the conversation down a different path.

"He..." Izumi looked at Jin to answer for Yuma, but started chuckling again.

Tachikawa kicked the chair's leg. "Get it out of your system."

"Right." Izumi coughed and cleared his throat. "He called you a moron."

Jin's face instantly shifted to one of offense which just got Izumi laughing again, but Jin just ignored him and turned back to face Yuma. "I wasn't even in here, Yuma. What did I do?"

Tachikawa smirked. "Look at that. Your cute kōhai has lost his memories and realized he can't stand you." His smirk just grew bigger when Jin shot a glare over his shoulder at him. Coming on this mission was turning out to be a great thing for him. It was horrible that Yuma lost his memories, but on the positive side, watching Jin lose his kōhai's loyalty and understanding of their friendship was hilarious. He was sure Jin would get it back, but for the time being, he was going to enjoy watching this.

"Izumi-san was just telling me how you gave Border your Black Trigger back. I can't believe you would do something so stupid, Jin." Yuma explained.

Now was the time where Tachikawa started laughing with Izumi falling into another fit of giggles while Jin just continued to gape at Yuma, who was now staring at Tachikawa squad like they were insane. Tachikawa couldn't look at Yuma or Jin right now. It was killing him. After everything Jin did to get Yuma safely enlisted in Border by fighting A-Ranks and surrendering Fujin, Yuma just calls him stupid.

Jin, meanwhile, didn't even know where to start. He came here to check up on Yuma, and instead, he was being attacked on all fronts. He was being insulted. He was being laughed at. And worst of all...

"Why is Izumi Izumi-san and I'm just Jin?" Jin asked.

"Cause I'm better than you." Izumi piped up, only to start laughing again when Jin shifted a glare his way. This just kept getting better and better. He could just imagine the way Yuma could unintentionally insult the Border agents by not knowing who they are or what they have done. Izumi needed to be there when that went down.

Well, if Yuma's amnesia lasted that long.

Jin just shook his head in reply to Izumi's response and turned back to Yuma. "Do you want to know why I gave it up or do you want to leave that story alone until you get your memories back?"

Yuma's brows furrowed. "Do I know why you gave up Fujin?"

"You do."

"You were upset with his reason back then as well considering everything that surrounded Fujin and Jin and you, but you weren't as rude about it." Tachikawa added, getting his laughter under control so he could join this conversation that Jin likely wanted to kick him and Izumi out for, but the joke was on Jin. Tachikawa wasn't going anywhere right now.

"Why do you have to continue to not be helpful at all?" Jin asked.

"Who was it that defended the hospital while you were late in getting here?" Tachikawa countered. "Izumi and I were here protecting Kuga while you took your sweet time in running here. I killed way more Trion Soldiers than you."

Jin shot an unimpressed look towards Tachikawa for his gloating. "Since you were here from the start, you better have put in more work than me."

"Kind of shameful that the number two Attacker outshined the number one Attacker, don't you think?" Yuma piped out.

"Yuma, why are you doing this to me?" Jin groaned, collapsing into one of the empty chairs by his bed.

"I'm really liking this Kuga." Tachikawa said with a smirk.

"Did you not like me before?" Yuma asked curiously.

"I liked you enough to want to train with you sometimes." Tachikawa replied.

Izumi snorted. "Tachikawa-san will train with anyone who gives him a fun challenge so take it as a compliment that he finds you fun."

"Hmm," Yuma hummed softly. He couldn't really say anything back to them after that. He didn't know enough about any of them to say whether they were fun as well or not. Though, if he did train with them and hang out with them, that had to mean he enjoyed spending time with that, didn't it?

Instead of focusing on those questions, Yuma turned back to Jin. "You said you can see the future, right?"

"Yeah." Jin tuned back into the conversation, hoping that it would be them stop teasing him now so they could focus on something important. "Why are you bringing it up now though?"

"Do you see me getting my memories back?" Yuma asked curiously.

Jin sat up straighter in his sit, instinctively suddenly focusing on all the windows of the future that appeared in front of Yuma. "It's not that easy to just say yes or no, Yuma." He said even as he watched future events play out in front of him. "I can see events of the future, but the information I gain from it is just things I can see. I don't know what is being said in the future. For example, if I need to figure out what is causing Gates to open outside the Restricted Zone and I see a future of me learning the secret, I don't get the answer because I need to be verbally told the answer when I jump onto that future path. I can't hear information with my side effect, only see things."

Yuma hummed thoughtfully. He supposed that made sense. Side effects weren't some magical, fix all to problems. They only gave an advantage to the user. "Path?" He questioned.

"The future isn't set in stone. It can be changed or shifted. It all depends on our actions and what we do. We might be on one path which may lead to a disastrous future, but based on the actions we take, we can shift ourselves down a path that leads to a better future. On the flip side, our enemies' actions can also shift us down a worst future path." Jin explained. "What I do is try to manage our futures by finding us the best path and trying to get us down it."

"Scheme he means. He creates schemes behind the scenes and puts people where he wants them to put the advantage on our side." Izumi corrected.

Side effects had a huge advantage, but that didn't mean they were all powerful, and yet, to Yuma, it sounded like Jin was a master of using his side effect. It wasn't just a matter of finding the best path. He had to find the best people he could send to shift the future to his desire. It meant that Jin understood his allies' strengths and weaknesses and with that knowledge, Jin knew where to put people to save his side's future.

The future.

Jin could spare his friends' deaths by seeing their futures. He was able to manipulate the battlefield. It surely was a convenient power for his side. If only someone like him had been in Yuma's life before now.

Maybe things wouldn't have turned out like this.

Yugo dead.

Half of Yuma's body made of Trion.

No, that wasn't fair of Yuma to think. Yuma wasn't Jin's responsibility. Everything that happened to Yuma and Yugo was the result of Yuma's overconfidence and his need to disregard his father's warning. He only had himself to blame for this.

"Why did you want me to see if you got your memories back anyway?" Jin asked.

"To see if it was worth hearing your story about giving up Fujin." Yuma admitted, now distracted with his own thoughts that he didn't particularly care all that much. "It seemed to be a waste of a question though if you can't see it."

"I can see your future, Yuma, but I can't tell what is going on in them. I rushed to Galopoula because I started to see the future shift while in Japan and I wasn't understanding what I was seeing. I came here to see you and figure it out." Jin explained.

"Do you understand it now?" Yuma asked.

"It was the amnesia." Jin admitted. "Most of the things that didn't make sense to me were your interactions with your comrades in my visions which was caused by the amnesia. Something about them felt wrong. I wasn't sure what it was. I was worried..." He trailed off, leaving his thoughts to himself. It hardly mattered at this point about what he thought was happening in his visions because they turned out to not be true. There was no point in bringing up something that wasn't true. The important thing right now was Yuma and that besides the memory loss, he was fine.

Yuma stared at Jin for a moment longer to see if he would continue his thought, but when he didn't, he just shrugged and let it go. He got the main point of his question answered. There was no need to push Jin on anything else if he didn't want to discuss it. Yuma understood the feeling of not wanting to bring up things that weren't easy to talk about so he knew when not to push. Since he understood that feeling, he also knew that a distraction was helpful to push those thoughts away.

"So, about Fujin." Yuma said. "Why would you make the insane decision to throw a Black Trigger away?"

Jin smiled and leaned forward slightly to catch his friend's eye. "Because I wanted to protect a friend."

Yuma quirked a brow, seemingly unimpressed with that answer. With how powerful Black Triggers were, it would be easier to protect a friend by keeping hold of the power and acting as their defender. He just didn't understand the idea of giving up a powerful weapon. Yuma wasn't one to go out seeking power, but he wouldn't throw it away either if he possessed it. Power was how he kept himself safe after all.

Safe.

Yuma stared down at his hands. Something felt wrong. It felt like something was missing. He felt this earlier when the Marmod attacked him. He had instinctively thrown his hand up to produce a shield which was weird. He wasn't in a Trion body. He couldn't make a shield without activating his Trigger, but, even though it didn't produce any results as he didn't have a Trigger on him, it felt so natural to him when he tried it.

It was weird.

"Kuga's face clearly says he still thinks your decision was dumb." Izumi said. "I don't think he will ever agree with this."

Jin shrugged. Yuma felt bad about Jin's decision when he learned about it. Of course, Yuma's disagreement right now was different from his reason back then, but it was still a disagreement.

"Hey," Yuma pulled himself out of his thoughts. "I have a Trigger, right? Oyaji's Black Trigger? Where is it?" He glanced towards his table where some of his stuff was sitting. "I didn't see it in here when I was coherent enough to look around and Rata said not to worry about it right now." He turned a pair of suspicious, cautious eyes to Jin. He was no idiot. He was in pain and a bit out of it, but it had been days since he woke up in this room. As the days passed, he became more aware and realized what Rata's reply to him meant. He had a trigger somewhere. It had to be his father's Black Trigger.

"Don't-" Jin paused as he realized that would be a horrible thing to say to Yuma right now. He cleared his throat and corrected himself. "I got your Black Trigger from Rata. I'll get it back to you, Yuma. I promise you on that. Can you just wait a little longer?"

Yuma wrinkled his nose at that. Wait? To get his weapon back? That was not what he wanted to hear right now. He wasn't the type of person to rely on others to keep himself safe. He was taught to always protect himself because there wasn't always going to be someone there to save him. Today, he was lucky with Izumi being in the area, but that wouldn't always be the case. Yuma did not want to be defenseless.

However, Yuma's side effect didn't go off. Jin was being honest with him. He would get the Black Trigger back to him. At least, that was what Yuma was assuming based on what Jin had told him about his side effect. He had no idea of what was going on when he first saw black smoke when he woke up, so when Jin told him what it was, Yuma realized that he had a lot he needed to catch up on. It would have been so much easier if Replica was still by his side. Surely, Replica could have answered Yuma's question about the side effect. Yuma knew it let his father tell when people were lying to him, but he felt like there was so much more to it than that. Replica's advice would have been helpful.

"I get it. I get it, Yuma." Jin held up his hands in a placating manner when he saw his friend's grumpy look from his reply. "You don't like not having a weapon. I'm not holding it back because of malicious intent. I just know if you have it, you will use it and I'm worried about it agitating your body in the midst of your recovery."

Yuma's cheeks puffed out into a pout for a moment before he was breathing out slowly. "What if I promise not to use it." He just wanted to have it on him because it was his and he would be more comfortable having it back in his possession.

Jin snorted. "I don't need my side effect to know you won't keep to that, Yuma. You're not one to hesitate to fight when you deem it necessary for your safety."

Tachikawa looked ready to make a comment at that so Izumi kicked his captain's ankle. Izumi saw absolutely no need to bring up the one and only time they had ever seen Yuma actually hesitate to fight. With Yuma's memories gone, it gave him the memories and experiences from when he was eleven and everything before. He did not need to know about the Mimic incident right now. That would just bring more stress into this situation than any of them needed.

Yuma collapsed onto his back and shifted his attention to stare at the ceiling. He hated how he knew Jin was right. Staying out of battles was never something Yuma was good at doing. It was the whole reason he ran into an assassin and caused his father's death to begin with because he just couldn't avoid a fight when he thought he could actually achieve something. He could show his father that he didn't need him to worry about him and try to protect him.

Yuma was strong.

Or, he thought he was.

He completely failed in doing that though.

"Yuma."

Poke.

"Yuma."

Poke.

"Yuma."

Poke.

Yuma's brow twitched and he turned to look at Jin if only to get him to stop poking him the side. "What's up, Jin?"

"What I should have ask sooner. How are you feeling?" Jin asked.

Yuma gave a one shoulder shrug in reply. "Sore."

"He was able to walk back here during the attack." Izumi added. "Evangelia said his physical therapy is going great."

Jin nodded. "I see. Then, do you feel ready to head back to Japan soon?"

A slight groan came from behind Jin which confused him until he saw Yuma's sharp eye shift to him, a frown pulling at his face. Jin met the stare head on, keeping an easy smile in place to counter Yuma's sudden frown. This didn't actually come as a surprise to him. A sixteen-year-old who lost his memories shouldn't just suddenly trust people who were strangers to him. It was the reason he mentioned Replica the other day. He was trying to mention things that they shared. If Jin showed that he knew Replica, he was hoping it would help build a line of trust between them.

Every little bit would help improve their connection that Yuma forgot existed.

"Why would I go there?" Yuma asked.

"Oh, look at the time." Izumi said suddenly, not really looking at anything as he grabbed Tachikawa's arm and began to drag his captain towards the door. "Now that Jin-san is here, we better go see if anyone needs help after that attack."

"What? Now all of a sudden?" Tachikawa complained suddenly as he was dragged out of the room with no warning at all. He came here with Jin to check on Yuma and Izumi and he was staying around for the enjoyment of watching Jin get harassed by a confused Yuma. "And I'm not the best person to be doing clean up."

Izumi yanked his captain into the hall and grabbed the door. He caught Yuma's scowl in his direction and Jin's appreciative look before he was closing the door to give the two some privacy. "We don't have to help clean up. We just need to get out of that room."

Tachikawa snorted. "If that's the case, Kuga definitely saw through your horrible excuse."

Which would certainly explain why Yuma was scowling at him when he went to close the door. Oh, well, it would help Yuma get used to his side effect. He was basically helping Yuma by telling him a little white lie to get out of the room. It was getting him to get all his experience with dealing with his side effect back.

*L*S*A*

Jin settled back in his chair, pressing his back into the back of it, keeping his eyes locked on Yuma. "Why wouldn't you come back with us, Yuma? You're one of our comrades."

"So you say." Yuma countered.

"Your side effect isn't going off, is it?" Jin argued. "You know I'm telling you the truth about being a Border agent."

No, it wasn't going off.

Yuma knew what it meant. He knew what it meant last night when Jin came in here and tested his side effect. He knew that it meant that everything Jin told him before and after his test was true. That wasn't the issue that Yuma was having.

It was just...

"What's going on in your head, Yuma? Do you really not want to go to Japan?" Jin asked softly. Five years worth of memories were missing. That meant the Yuma he had in front of him was dealing with the recent loss of his father. It took this Yuma four years after his father's death to make the decision to come to Japan. Did the Yuma whose most recent memory was of his father's death not want to go to the place where his father asked him to go if he ever died?

"Is it us?" Jin asked when Yuma didn't give him an answer. "Is not knowing us when we know you causing you unease?" That wouldn't surprise him either. It seemed natural to be cautious and nervous around people just appearing in front of him knowing more of what was going on while his mind was blank.

Yuma's thumb brushed over his index finger, feeling oddly empty, like something was missing from his hand that would usually bring him a sense of...something...he wasn't sure what it was that was missing from him. It was hard to figure out as his lack of memories caused him to constantly draw up a blank when he tried to figure it out.

So much didn't make sense to him already.

"Too much change." Yuma admitted.

Jin's eyes softened in understanding. He didn't need any more than that one short sentence. He had never lost his memory before so he didn't have anything to compare to what Yuma was feeling, but he could be sympathetic. From his conversation with Yuma yesterday and the talk with Fuyushima about amnesia, Jin was trying to figure out how to handle this. For Yuma to wake up with five years worth of memories just gone and having a bunch of people appear in front of him and claim to know him and tell him that five years had passed since his injuries, it had to be scary and confusing.

On top of that, he was in a completely different country than the one of Calvaria that he last knew he was in. He was being faced with new people, new equipment, new Trion limbs, being thrown into physical therapy, he was defenseless without his Triggers, he saw faces of people he should know staring at him, and now the Border agents were saying they were going to take him to the world across the Gate that he should know, but doesn't. On top of that, he was dealing with the not so recent, but recent to him, death of his father.

It would be too much for anyone to handle.

It was an overload.

It was only natural that Yuma didn't want to go to Japan and add more change on top of everything else he had going on. Their world was so much different than the Neighbor world he was used to.

However, unfortunately, it wasn't an option. Jin couldn't just let Yuma run off the moment he was discharged from the hospital. He would likely disappear in the Neighborhood and get lost and confused with his five years worth of memories missing and forget he was actually sixteen because his body's time was slowed down immensely for five years which made him stay looking like an eleven year old.

Jin didn't want to think of what could happen if Yuma wandered off on his own while like this.

"I know it's going to be a lot for you to handle, Yuma. That's why I'm not just going to throw you into this with no time to get used to all these changes." Jin replied.

"What do you mean?"

Jin smiled. He held up a hand to show his thumb and index finger being barely a centimeter apart. "We start small. There is a lot you are going to have to get reacquainted with in Japan on top of getting used to Border again. I don't expect you to take it all in at once so let's start with just Tamakoma. That's the Branch of Border we're associated with. It's a lot easier to handle a small branch over the main HQ of Border. We only have, with you included, thirteen people in our branch. That's easier to handle than all the people in HQ, isn't it?"

Yuma's brow furrowed. "I don't know. Is your HQ really that big?"

Jin pointed at Yuma's phone. "You saw all the pictures in your phone, didn't you? A good amount of the teams sent you a picture to show their support to you, but not all of them did. On top of that, we have hundreds of trainees who are training to become official agents and some of them have moved up and formed B-Rank teams while you've been gone. Headquarters has grown a lot in recent times so Tamakoma is a better place to get you used to Japan and our agents again."

Nothing was a lie. Everything Jin was saying was the truth. This was truly how he planned to handle Yuma's amnesia while they were in Japan. He wanted to make this easy for Yuma to handle. This was how Jin wanted to help him and take care of him.

It reminded him of how his father wanted to look out for him.

The last time he ignored his father trying to look out for him and keep him safe, he ended up hurt and Yugo ended up dead.

He didn't want to see that happen again.

It was a little different here since he wasn't in an active war, but it didn't matter. He didn't want to make the same mistake again.

"Do I like Japan?" Yuma asked. His father always spoke highly of his home and it sounded amazing and there were things Yugo told him about Japan that intrigued Yuma enough that he wanted to see it. The problem was, that right now, it just seemed like too much for him.

"You love it." Jin replied. It was the whole reason why Yuma didn't want to leave Japan for the surgery. He had been so scared of never seeing Japan again if the surgery failed. "You loved the food and the people. You have so many friends and you have fun every day." He leaned forward and snatched the stuffed Cougar off the bed. "This came from Usami and Konami. And this." He pulled on the tag to show the nametag to Yuma so he could read it. "It says Cougar. It was the nickname Oji, one of the agents at the main headquarters, gave you. He likes to give people nicknames and that is the one he chose for you since it is a play on your surname but also because you're a speed Attacker."

Yuma stared at the toy. The toy that he didn't think belonged to him when he woke up in this room and simply ignored. It was actually a gift from his friends and its name was a fond joke from his friends about a nickname he had been given.

Why were his memories gone?

Why was none of this feeling familiar to him?

He felt like he should have some form of realization that this was correct as Jin explained things to him, but his mind just kept coming up blank. Even with everything Jin was telling him, the blanks in his head just weren't being filled in.

One moment, Yuma was staring at the toy and then he was blinking and he found the stuffed animal in his hands. He didn't even know when he took it from Jin, but Jin didn't look offended at having it snatched from his hands. Instead, Jin simply leaned back in his chair to let Yuma examine the toy.

"You enjoyed everything about Japan. It's horrible your memories are gone, but it's looks like you get to experience things in Japan for the first time all over again." Jin said. "I know you will love it, Yuma." There was never anything disingenuous about Yuma's enjoyment in Japan and the joy he got from experiencing everything their world had to offer. For that reason, Jin could say with absolute certainty, that even a Yuma with five less years of experience and memories would still love his father's home country. "And, don't forget, Replica is getting repaired in our labs so if nothing else, you want to come to see him again, don't you?"

That got Yuma's eye snapping up from his toy to stare at Jin. Replica. His partner. The only thing he had left of his family now that both of his parents were dead. That's right. Jin said he got broken, but they were trying to fix him. He should go to Japan and get Replica back once he got repaired at least. He could figure out the rest after that.

"Okay." Yuma said, mindlessly threading his fingers through the fur of the cougar. "Izumi-san was telling me about some of my friends earlier. Can you tell me anything?"

"Depends on what you want to know." Jin replied.

Yuma tilted his head as he thought. "Were you my first friend there?" Jin seemed quite invested in Yuma's life and safety. It felt like he was someone that Yuma had known for a long time. It definitely felt like Jin was seemingly closer to him than Izumi or Tachikawa or Utagawa.

Jin smiled. "Close. I was actually your second friend. Osamu was your first. And Chika-chan was your third."

Familiar names. Izumi said them earlier. "Mikumo and Amatori?" Those were the names Izumi said, right?

Jin quirked a brow in surprise. "So, you remember them?" Actually, no, that wasn't right. If Yuma remembered them, he wouldn't be using their surnames.

"No, Izumi-san said their names earlier."

"Ah, got it. Well, they are members of your team and you are close to both of them so you call them by their first names." Jin corrected.

"Osamu and Chika." Yuma repeated, feeling the names roll off his tongue with a frown.

Nothing.

Even saying the names of his close friends didn't feel familiar.

It was strange.

Yuma looked down at his hand. When he had instinctively tried to cast a shield earlier, he felt a flash of familiarity, so why didn't he feel anything with everything the Border agents were telling him? His mind was just a complete blank slate for these apparently five years that have gone by.

He hated it.

He didn't want to believe that it had actually been five years, but his side effect didn't go off when people said it. Yuma knew they were being truth, and even if he didn't...

Something did feel wrong.

He knew he felt something missing.

It could only be the memories.

He wished something, anything, would come back and fill in the broken puzzle in his head.