Light Shines Anew
Chapter 26: Discharge
Yuma wanted to scream.
He wanted to punch someone in the face, but...
Everything hurt.
Just trying to lift his arm caused agony to flare through his body.
And his other arm just didn't want to rise at all. It felt like it was weighed down.
Everything did actually.
He felt so lethargic.
His vision felt like it was swimming.
And he couldn't see half of the room.
It felt wrong.
Why couldn't he see the full room?
What was wrong with his other eye?
"Yuma, are you back with me?"
A face was suddenly leaning over Yuma.
Yuma lazily moved his attention to him. He didn't know him, but the face was familiar. He saw him before. "Rata, right?" His voice didn't come out easily.
It felt hoarse.
Like it hadn't been used in days.
Rata smiled softly. "That's right. I'm Rata."
Again, strange black smoke wafted through Yuma's vision, but he just ignored it as he didn't know what it was. Focusing on Rata was more important. "Where am I?"
Rata's smile slipped away into one of concern. "You're in Galopoula. Do you remember?"
Galopoula?
Yuma twisted the word over in his head in confusion. That wasn't right. He was supposed to be in Calvaria. There was a war going on. Oyaji and him...
Oyaji?
Yuma twisted his head around on his pillow, ignoring the flare of pain it caused him. It wasn't important.
Oyaji?
Oyaji was...
Oyaji was just in front of him.
He saw his father appear in front of him and then he blinked and...and...
"Oyaji?" Yuma murmured in confusion. "Where's Oyaji?"
There was a sharpy intake of breath from Rata. "Yuma? Your father died five years ago." He sounded confused.
He sounded worried.
He sounded...
Five years?!
Yuma's eye tore off the empty room he was looking at to whip back around to stare back up at Rata. At those eyes swimming with concern and pity that was directed at Yuma.
Yuma hated it.
But he didn't focus on it.
Five years?
No, that wasn't right.
Oyaji was just here.
He was just in front of Yuma.
There was an incessant beeping filling the air.
Five years?!
Air was struggling to enter Yuma.
Oyaji was dead?
Why was his vision swimming?
Rata was no longer looking at Yuma as he was shouting something that never reached Yuma's ears.
Where was he?
"Tell me how it feels. Does it hurt? Can you see?"
Yuma only opened his eye a little bit as the last of the bandages came off. He immediately shut it again when the bright lights of his room hit his eye.
"You've had your eye covered for days so it will take a minute or two for it to adjust to the light." Deacon deposited the bandages in the nearby trash can. "Just try to slowly open it and close it a few times to help you adjust."
Yuma tried to do just that. His eye opened and he blinked a few times in rapid succession before closing again and rubbing at the skin under his eye. His third attempt at opening his eye did a lot better. The light still bothered it a bit, but he could at least keep it opened if he just kept his head ducked to avoid having too much light shining into it. Besides, Deacon handed him a mirror earlier so he could examine his face once the bandages had been removed.
His reflection stared back at him as he looked in the mirror. Black bangs fell over his eyes from his head being angled down so he pushed the bangs out of the way. It was strange. Black hair was his natural hair color, but it felt weird looking at it. Maybe it was because in that picture on his phone, he had white hair. Apparently, his hair changed to white when his father saved his life, but Yuma couldn't remember that so it shouldn't feel strange to look at his reflection and see black hair.
Keeping his bangs pushed to the side, Yuma stared at his two eyes. If he just focused on his eyes, he couldn't tell the different between them. They were both red eyes that were the same size and color. Just looking at the eyes, no one could tell that one was a Trion eye prosthetic. Even with it being a prosthetic, it functioned exactly like a real eye would. It was a Trion eye put on a real body so its functions were the same as a real eye just with the functions that one would get while using a Trion body.
That was just the look of the eye though. The area around his Trion eye was scarred. The scar didn't go fully around the eye. It was just in a few places, but it was there. One of the scars under his eye was weird though as it was black.
"Those scars will fade with time. They won't fully go away, but they will be less noticeable." Deacon approached the bed and brushed Yuma's eyebrow to push the tiny hairs up a bit which allowed Yuma to see a black scar hidden under it. "This is the Trion scar from attaching a Trion piece to a real body. This will never fade so we hid one of them under your eyebrow. It's lucky you have black hair so it's not noticeable. The one below your eye couldn't be hidden though."
Yuma gingerly touched his eyebrow when Deacon walked away. He didn't even feel anything off. It felt as smooth as his skin, unlike the other scars on the sides of his eyes which were rough and bumpy. He didn't really know much about the operation beyond what they did, but he could tell that he had Trion scars and flesh and blood scars.
"Do the other parts you put Trion parts on have scars like these?" Yuma asked curiously. He hadn't seen his new limbs without the bandages on them. He never took the time to look at them when his nurses changed his bandages as he was too sore and uncomfortable to care to look.
"Yes, the flesh ones will heal and fade. The Trion scars will always remain." Deacon replied as he began to remove the bandages from Yuma's arm. "I do apologize for that. There is nothing I can do about the scars."
"I'm not concerned about scars." Yuma reassured his doctor, dropping the mirror into his lap. "I was just curious." His appearance was never something he was concerned with. Adding a few scars to his body was a small price to pay to have a fully functioning body, even if half of his body was only functioning because of Trion.
Scars were truly the least of his worries right now.
"Evangelia said your physical therapy has been going great, but that will only continue to be the case if you continue to do your exercises once you leave here." Deacon said, depositing the bandages he just cut from Yuma's arm in the trach can. "I know it's uncomfortable, but that feeling will go away as you continue to do the exercises. The exercises are meant to get you used to using your new limbs so they don't hurt."
That was something Yuma already understood. The pain was becoming less and less with each day. With each day, he could even walk farther and longer. He hated how much pain he was in when he woke up, but he was promised that it would go away. He just needed to put the effort in and if there was anything Yuma was good at, it was putting in the effort and fighting for what he wanted.
"I heard from his highness that your group, Border, I believe he called it, has a knowledgeable Trigger and Trion department. He asked me to release the details of your surgery to you to take them back with you so they can manage your Trion limbs and know what they are working with if anything were to go wrong." Deacon added.
"Hmm?" Yuma looked up, feeling amazed at being able to fully see from his peripheral for the first time since he woke up from his surgery. After only being able to see with one eye for days, it was like seeing the world in a whole new light. "That's really generous. Most nations are quite secretive with their Triggers." He gently brushed his hand over the new Trigger on his wrist that was designed to allow his Trion body parts to function on his real body.
"We are, but his highness is forming an alliance with your organization. It is not only for your benefit that they have your medical file on what we did, but it is also a show of trust to give them this." Deacon explained. "No one outside of Galopoula knows of this Trigger we use for medical applications. For that reason, we never had to send someone to a different nation with this information. It means you'll be leaving behind the experts so your doctors and engineers need to study these files extensively since if something does go wrong, you'll have them knowing what to do since we won't be there to help you."
That made sense. At least he wasn't trying to give it to Yuma. If Yuma had it, he just knew he wasn't going to understand what any of it said. He was a fighter, not a Trigger expert who knew how Triggers functioned and how to build them. That was always his father's area of expertise. On top of that was all the medical jargon that went with the surgery Yuma went through. It would just make his head spin.
Perhaps it was a good thing he agreed to Jin's request to go to Japan. It would be much better to have their doctors and engineers study the surgery and answer any concerns he had until Replica was fixed and could study the data Deacon was giving him. Once Replica downloaded the data, he was sure his partner would be able to help him understand things.
"Thanks for taking care of me, Doctor Deacon." Yuma said, switching his attention down to his arm as his doctor got to work on removing the rest of his bandages on his leg and torso. He saw what Deacon meant about the scars. Like before, where his Trion arm met his flesh and blood body, there was mix of flesh scars and black Trion scars going around his arm. Ignoring the scars, he looked down at his arm that had the same skin tone as his real body. He opened and closed his hand a few times to watch how it worked. It really moved just like his real body, but he expected no less. It was just Trion body parts attached to the real body...in a really complicated manner. It was amazing that Galopoula had managed to master this technique and keep it a secret.
"Alright," Deacon deposited the last of the bandages. "So, anything feel off?" He doubted it. If Yuma didn't complain of anything in the days since the surgery, he doubted there was anything. He had only known Yuma for a couple weeks, one with all his memories and one with memories missing. Both types of Yuma were not afraid of letting his opinion being known or asking questions.
"Everything feels fine." Yuma replied.
Deacon nodded. "Right, so your biggest concern if something malfunctions will be your lungs or organs. If your leg or eye malfunction, there shouldn't be much to worry about as the real parts of your body have healed into stumps. If your arm were to break, you would have a stump there so you won't have any worry of bleeding out. Your lungs are another concern since you lost part of one of them so we had to replace it with Trion parts. If you ever have trouble breathing or feel pain in your chest, go get checked out immediately."
Yuma nodded in understanding. "Yes, Doctor."
"Good." Deacon held a tablet out to Yuma. "Then I just need your signature to discharge you. Once you do that, I'll leave you to get dressed. I believe your friends will be here by now. I'll go greet them."
Yuma quickly signed his signature on the designated spot of his discharge papers on the tablet and handed it over to his doctor as he was quite eager to get out of this hospital. Since he had been in physical therapy for days and so exhausted after it that he didn't want to do anything, he hadn't been outside in a long time. He just wanted to get out of here already, no offense to the hospital staff. They had been great to Yuma after all.
"Then, excuse me, Yuma." Deacon said as he took the tablet back.
As soon as the door snapped shut behind Deacon, Yuma threw himself off his bed, wiggling his toes on the cold floor, though he only felt the cold seeping in through his flesh and blood foot. He quickly grabbed his bag off the nearby chair and began to ruffle through it to find some clothes. Since he had been stuck in the hospital for days, he hadn't gotten to wear anything except hospital clothes. He was ready for a change.
Although, as he looked through his clothes, Yuma's brows rose as he felt his curiosity rising. These type of clothes looked so different from anything he wore before. It was certainly nothing like what he had as a child so it had to be stuff he got in Japan.
Not that Yuma was really complaining.
Just from ruffling through his bag to grab his clothes, he could feel how soft the fabric of the clothes was. It was nothing like the stiff, uncomfortable military uniforms he was used to. He wondered if they were just as comfortable to wear as they felt.
*L*S*A*
Jin stared out the window, watching the sky with a soft smile. It really had been too long since he had been in the Neighborhood. Even though it was the middle of the day, he could still make out planet nations in the sky as they were near Galopoula. It was probably one of those nations that attacked them with Trion Soldiers yesterday.
Well, that was the norm in the Neighborhood. If any of those nations tried more than that, like start a war, Border would come aid their new allies. They wouldn't be alone and forced to do with a war all by themselves again.
"This is a fascinating place."
"Hmm?" Jin turned towards the voice to see Fuyushima walking down the hall. "Where did you run off to?"
"You can't drag me to a world that invested a lot of time in medical applications of Trion and Triggers and not expect me to look around." Fuyushima replied.
Jin snorted, feeling amusement rise up in him. "Says the guy who was complaining about how he didn't want to come here."
"You know I hate the away ship." Fuyushima complained.
"Well, be assured that the return trip will be shorter since we'll be closer to our world." Toma replied from where he was leaning against the wall opposite of the window that Jin was standing in front of. "You only have to suffer for a couple hours."
Fuyushima scowled at his allies. "Why did you have to bring up the away ship? I was okay with not thinking about it."
"You do realize we're going to be leaving soon, right?" Jin pointed out, grinning when he got a glare directed at him. "I hope you saw everything you wanted to see here."
"I did not." Fuyushima grumbled. He had been so sick from the journey here that he had been too miserable to even come to the hospital and the trip here was turning out to be really short. It was a shame since this was the first time they've ever been in a hospital in the Neighborhood. It was fascinating to see how everything was being run on Trion and different Triggers.
Jin glanced down the hall to see Yuma's doctor turning the corner with his arms ladened with a bunch of stuff. "Well, that's a shame. You might just be out of time."
"Good, there you are, Jin." Deacon paused and looked at Fuyushima with a frown. "Apologies, don't think we met the other day. Are you with them?"
"Yes. Fuyushima Shinji." Fuyushima greeted. "I was busy when we arrived here so I wasn't able to make it here until today."
"Deacon. I was Yuma's head doctor." Deacon replied back and then turned back to Jin. "And for you." The tablet he was carrying was suddenly dropped into Jin's hands. "Yuma's medical file, his report from the surgery, his physical therapy reports, the physical therapy exercises he has to do, and a bottle of pain medication, Tripioid." He pulled out a small white bottle from his pocket and dropped it on top of the pile in Jin's hands. "If he needs it. It's what we give our patients who go through the Trion prosthetic surgery."
Jin shifted the tablet to under his arm so he could grab the bottle and examine it more closely. "Tripioid?" It was clearly a medicine designed specifically in Galopoula so he had no idea of what it was. He couldn't even read anything on the bottle as it was written in Galopoula's language.
"Attaching Trion limbs to flesh bodies isn't exactly painless or easy. Tripioid is designed to relieve the taker's pain and at the same time release the taker's Trion to divert it to the Trion limbs. It makes a thin barrier of Trion where the Trion prosthetic connect to the flesh body if it becomes too uncomfortable. The purpose of it is just to thin out the pain until their body adjusts to the new limbs. Usually, the user would take two at a time and not more than two times a day based on age and weight. Yuma would normally take two based on his age, but because his body is still that of an eleven year old's, he should only take one two times a day." Deacon explained. "At this point in recovery, he shouldn't need it as often, but I'm giving it to you just in case. Even when his physical therapy is done, I would keep a hold of that in case anything goes wrong."
Fuyushima seemed to be listening with rapt attention. That hardly surprised Jin. He just knew Fuyushima would find all of Galopoula's uses of Triggers and Trion in the medical field fascinating. It was a shame he couldn't get to the hospital sooner than today. He would have had a field day learning about what Galopoula was doing in the hospital.
"How likely is it that something will go wrong with Kuga's Trion prosthetics?" Fuyushima asked.
"It's pretty rare for it to happen. We warn all our patients and their family and friends of the possibility though so they knew to keep a watch out for anything that changes." Deacon explained. "The chance of something messing up goes up the more Trion prosthetics you have since you have more fake limbs on you that can screw up then a person who only has one. On top of his arm, leg, and eye, Yuma has part of his lung made into a Trion prosthetic and his liver, kidney, gallbladder, and part of his stomach there and then we had to remake part of his torso. Just because they are all in the same area that doesn't mean they are counted as one unit. They are all counted separately and with each one, it raises the chance of something malfunctioning which is why you should be careful." He turned back to Jin and tapped the files in his hand. "Have your engineers read it all carefully. One of the files on the tablet has the full details of the surgery we perfomed. They'll want to study it in depths."
Fuyushima whistled. "Kinuta-san will definitely appreciate getting all of that."
"He'll surely read it all eagerly." Jin agreed. It was well known how greedy Kinuta was to learn all he could about the Neighborhood and more uses of Trion and Trigger. This would definitely make him happy, even if it was Tamakoma putting more work on him as he was going to be their resident expert on Yuma's surgery. Well, maybe Jin could also pass some of it off to Michael. It would be helpful to have someone directly in Tamakoma's branch who would have a keen understanding of the surgery and know what to look for in Yuma.
"That's all I have for you. I've already discharged Yuma. He is in his room getting changed if you want to go pick him up." Deacon said.
Jin shifted the tablet and pill bottle in his hand so he could bow to the doctor. "Thank you for all you help, Doctor Deacon. I truly appreciate it."
Deacon waved it off. "It's my job. Have a safe journey home."
As Deacon took his leave, Fuyushima rounded on Jin. Knowing what he wanted, Jin handed the tablet over to him. Most of the information on the tablet was likely in the Galopoula language, but since they had been working with Rata for a while now, they had worked out a translation system on their devices. Jin figured Rata would have had the hospital use it as well. In face, Jin was sure they did since the files Galopoula origianlly gave them on the surgery was in a language Border could understand.
Fuyushima wasn't like Kinuta with his obsession with needing to study all things Trigger and Trion related, but he was intrigued to learn more. There was a reason why he started as an engineer when he first joined Border.
"Please tell me this is going to be an easy trip home." Toma said as the group started making their way down the hall where Deacon just came from. He and Jin took the lead as Fuyushima followed a few steps behind them as he opened the first file to start reading it while they walked.
"Everything will be fine." Jin replied. "You don't want a fight?"
"We got an amnesic Kuga to deal with. I really don't feel like adding a fight on top of that." Toma replied.
Jin snorted. "I don't think he will be that difficult to deal with. He's a bit cautious, but overall still polite. Just don't lie to him. That will really hurt the trust we're trying to build with him."
"It's not hard to be honest with someone." Toma replied. "It's just how do you think Kuga will feel when he learns we once tried to go after him once?"
"What is this 'we' business?" Jin countered. "I've never tried to hurt my cute kōhai."
Toma rolled his eyes. "You know what I meant."
"There's no need to ever bring it up." Fuyushima said as he swiped to the next page of the file. "Kuga's not going to know anything about it so he's not going to think to ask about it. As long as you never hint at it, he won't have anything to question about it. Although, I don't know much about Kuga, but from what I've seen of him around the base, he doesn't seem like the type to hold that kind of grudge. I doubt he would care even if he did know."
"Yeah, the sixteen year old Kuga. This is the eleven year old Kuga." Toma argued.
"An eleven year old who is just coming down from the tragedy of his father's death and a painful surgery. He may have lost five years worth of memories, but he is still a child of tragedy." Jin said as he slowed his walk down to a stop as they reached Yuma's room. He glanced in the window on the door to see Yuma sitting on his bed with his bag in front of him as it looked like he was trying to pack up all his stuff. "It would be a bad idea to treat him like a little kid. Just act normal around him."
"Sounds like what I planned to do already. I don't know how to handle little kids anyway." Toma replied.
Jin chuckled, not feeling at all surprised at Toma's admission. He was good with younger people who were agents because he could help train and mentor them. If he had to actually interact with a kid outside of Border, he would probably be lost on what to talk about with them. With Yuma, he was a fighter and a child soldier his whole life so it would be easier for Toma to treat him like the agent he knew him as.
Jin knocked on the door and when he saw Yuma's head pop up from his bag, he slid the door opened and went inside with Toma following him. He chuckled when he looked in the hall and found Fuyushima leaning against a wall as he continued to read the files.
"Good afternoon, Yuma!" Jin greeted cheerfully. "Are you ready to get out of the hospital?"
"Jin," Yuma twisted on the bed to throw his legs over the edge. "And...?" His brows furrowed in confusion at the other person with him.
Toma took a moment to look at Yuma, or more specifically, his hoodie which had 'UMA' in big red letters on it and a llama below it. He just stared for a moment trying to understand why Yuma had something like that in the first place, but decided it was better to just not ask and ignored it. Yuma wouldn't know the answer even if he did want to ask.
"Yo, Kuga." Toma pointed at himself. "Toma Isami. Good to see you again. Are you still not using honorifics?" He had heard from Tachikawa and Izumi how Yuma seemed to not get the idea of honorifics being used as a sign of respect yet. It was kind of hilarious to him, especially seeing Tachikawa's frustration with it.
"Toma." Yuma repeated, studying the face of the older agent. He had seen his face in one of the pictures on his phone. Although, seeing him in person and hearing his name did nothing to jog his memories.
"Huh," Toma turned to Jin. "It's kind of weird to have someone just drop the honorific on your name when you're so used to it from them. It doesn't bother you?"
"I'm just glad Yuma is alive. I can deal with this." Jin replied.
"I'm sitting right here." Yuma pointed out.
"Right, right." Toma grinned at their short friend. Besides the black hair and the black scars on his face, he looked very similar to how he looked when he initially left Japan for the surgery. It was kind of sad how small he still was. He really didn't grow while his body was stuck in the ring. "Do you want to call me Toma-san?" The lack of understanding of honorifics was hilarious to Toma, but he did know that Yuma would have to start getting used to them. It would be a start to just trying to gently remind him of how he used them.
Yuma didn't seem to think that required a reply as he hopped off his bed, testing his leg by bouncing on his heels a bit to see how it felt. He didn't have physical therapy today as he was getting discharged so it meant his body wasn't sore and tired yet.
"Did you pack all your stuff?" Jin asked as he looked around the room to scan for anything that looked like it came from their world. The Yuma right now might not care about this stuff, but if–when–his memories returned, he was sure that Yuma would want all his stuff. Jin wasn't sure of everything that Yuma packed, but he would at least recognize stuff that belonged to their world over the Neighborhood's stuff. The phone and mini Replica were missing from the side table so Yuma at least grabbed that stuff. It wasn't surprising. Jin didn't see any future where Yuma would abandon anything that had to do with Replica.
Yuma snatched his bag off his bed and made sure to swing it up on his left shoulder. "I got it all. Even those weird toys."
"Weird toys?" Toma echoed.
"Stuffed animals." Jin said by way of explanation, laughing under his breathe when that only made Toma even more confused. He supposed based on Yuma's personality that no one expected Yuma to have stuffed animals. To be fair to them, Yuma didn't buy them and likely wouldn't have any if they weren't gifted to him. "Well, if you have everything, Yuma, let's get out of here. The rest of the team is getting the away ship ready to launch."
Yuma adjusted the bag on his shoulder as he followed Jin and Toma out the room. He paused outside the room when he saw an older guy leaning against the wall invested in a tablet in his hands. "Another new person who was in the pictures." He commented as he had studied those pictures intensively during the first few days when he was awake. He had it done it out of confusion but also because he didn't have anything else to do while being stuck in a hospital room with nothing to keep him from being bored.
"Hey Kuga." Fuyushima swiped to the next page of the file he was studying. "Call me Fuyushima."
"Just Fuyushima?" Yuma asked confused as everyone else had been giving him two names.
"Fuyushima Shinji." Jin said for Fuyushima as he motioned for Yuma to walk ahead as Fuyushima would just wander along behind them. "He's going to be distracted with reading the whole walk back to our ship so don't worry about it. Toma, make sure your captain doesn't get lost on our way back."
"He's a grown adult. He shouldn't need a babysitter." Toma said even as he grabbed his captain's arm to prevent it from running into the corner of the wall as they reached an intersection in the hospital.
"A better idea would to be not read and walk at the same time." Yuma piped up.
Toma snorted. "Not for Fuyushima-san. He doesn't handle the away ship well so this is the only time he's going to get to read those files."
"What does that mean?" Yuma asked confused. Didn't handle the ship way? It was just a ship that helped people travel through the Neighborhood.
"It means the motion of the ship makes him sick. He's going to be laid up in bed in misery during the journey." Jin explained.
*L*S*A*
Yuma blinked and looked up at the sky as they walked out of the hospital. It had been so long since he had been outside. The feel of the sun felt amazing after so long. The gentle breeze of the wind blew his hair around, making the strands tickle his face and pull a smile out of him. The fresh air was so much better than the sterile scent of the hospital.
And yet, Yuma found his steps faltering the more steps he took away from the hospital. He found himself glancing over his shoulder at the hospital that he was walking away from. He didn't even like being in the hospital, but it was familiar. With his memories feeling strange as he felt like there was something locking away his memories, waking up in the hospital had been terrifying and confusing, but after spending weeks in his room, it became a familiar comfort.
He didn't realize it would bother him so much to walk away from it.
A tug on his arm pulled Yuma's attention forward.
"You okay, Yuma?" Jin asked, looking down at him in concern with Toma and Fuyushima ahead of them as Yuma had slowed down so much that they surpassed him.
Yuma looked at the hand on his arm.
On his Trion arm.
Yuma yanked his arm out of Jin's hold and twisted his body so his real, left arm was near Jin. "I'm fine. Let's just go."
It didn't seem like his words convinced Jin as the older agent's brows furrowed and his lips turned downwards. It was only for a second though as Jin quickly wiped the expression away to smile at Yuma as he dropped the topic, at least for now.
"Then let's go, Yuma. We can't let that old man beat us." Jin ushered Yuma forward without touching him this time though he did shift around so he was walking on Yuma's left side to avoid his right arm. "This is the first time I've seen you without bandages on. How does everything feel?"
Yuma tilted his head as he thought. He opened and closed his hands a few times, feeling his fingers press into his palms. "Mismatched." He said after a moment. Trion bodies simulated real bodies while acting as an avatar so they could fight without getting hurt in their physical bodies. Putting a Trion limb on a physical body didn't feel natural, or maybe it was the fact that Yuma could feel the ache in his stumps. Trion bodies couldn't feel pain unless the user set their Trigger to allow a simulation of pain. The ache Yuma was feeling right now though wasn't in his Trion limbs. It was at his stumps. It was at the unnatural feeling of flesh and blood bodies being attached with Trion limbs.
Trion limbs looked like the real body. If Yuma just looked at his arm without knowing of the surgery he got, the only way he could tell that something was off would be by his scars and the Trigger bracelet on his left wrist. The bracelet that he was advised to never remove, not that Yuma could anyway. It was locked around his wrist and he truly didn't know how to undo it, or even if that was possible.
Mismatched. It wasn't the word Jin would have used. When he looked at Yuma, when he saw the scars around his eye, he could see how Yuma would call it mismatched. With how many injuries he had, now that he was put together again, he was half Trion body and half flesh and blood. He wondered if all of that felt weird to Yuma.
To Jin, though, he looked passed those scars. It felt weird and different to Yuma who was able to tell the difference in his body parts, but for Jin, what he saw was a child who was whole once more. He was made whole with science and medicine, but he had two legs and two arms and two eyes. There was no longer a hole in his side.
There was no longer precious blood rushing to escape his body.
Staring at Yuma now, with black hair and red in his cheeks, Jin could begin to push the image of a little black haired kid lying on the pavement, bleeding out very quickly, out of his mind. He didn't have to think of the memory anymore. He didn't have to look at Yuma's future and see his Trion body falling to pieces and his real body returning to the world in his visions of the future. He didn't have to see the future of him crouched in front of a grave for a child.
There were some other complications the came from Yuma's memory loss, but as long as Yuma was alive, they could handle this. They earned Yuma's trust once. They could do it again.
*L*S*A*
"I've alerted the directors that we will be returning in a few hours."
Kazama nodded along to show Mikami that he had heard what she had said. "Did you tell them about Kuga'a amnesia in the message?"
Mikami's hands paused over her keyboard as she dragged her eyes up from the screen to lock eyes with her captain sitting on the other side of the table. "I did not. I felt that it was something to discuss in person with them as it will cause a lot of questions on their end. I think you or Jin-san will be better equipped to handle the explanation than me." While they had discussed Yuma's amnesia when they initially found out about it, Mikami still knew less than Jin about it. That was assuming Jin knew more though. She wasn't actually sure how much more Jin knew about everything. They all seemed to be stuck in state of unsure how to handle it.
"What about me?" Tachikawa asked.
"It speaks for itself with your name not being mentioned." Izumi replied.
"You think I can't tell someone that Kuga got amnesia because he went through an insanely dangerous surgery?" Tachikawa retorted.
"Not when it comes to the intricate details of the surgery." Maki replied without looking up from her computer. "I don't think Jin-san or Kazama-san even understand enough about the surgery to give very detailed answers."
Maki was right on that. Even with the explanation they get from Deacon, Kazama was still only managing the basics of the explanation. It wasn't too surprising. The surgery that Yuma went through was a highly difficult one to the point that Kinuta couldn't even replicate it with the information Galopoula gave Tamakoma.
The best way Kazama could describe it, Yuma's mind regressed either because of the trauma of returning to his body or because he returned to his physical body which had been stuck at an eleven year old's body for five years. The latter didn't make much sense to him since even if his body didn't age, Yuma's mind did age. With that being the case, Kazama would guess it really was caused by the trauma of pain that caused his memories to get locked away just so he could escape it.
Or, it was simply a mix of everything just becoming too much for Yuma in the surgery.
Honestly, Kazama couldn't be exactly sure of what caused the amnesia. It was likely Yuma's doctors weren't completely sure either. They were just making hypotheticals on what the cause was. He wasn't sure if it mattered what the cause was, just that they knew it came from an effect of the surgery. What was important was getting Yuma his memories back, but Kazama was sure Jin and Tamakoma could handle that part.
"I think the worst part will be explaining to all of Kuga's friends about his amnesia." Kunichika said, brushing her hair out of her face as she looked up from her computer. "They'll surely be upset about him forgetting about them."
"They'll get over it. Him being alive, even without memories, should be more of a relief to them." Kikuchihara replied.
"Yes, but does Kuga know to keep the fact that he was in Galopoula for the surgery a secret? Does he know to keep his status as a Neighbor a secret?" Kunichika asked. "What all does he know about Japan? During the away mission exam, we saw how he struggled with kanji because he didn't study it before moving to Japan. Is he going to get lost in Japan because he can no longer read our signs? This isn't just about the memory loss. It makes everything more complicated.
Utagawa hunched over the table, feeling more and more weighed down with each question that Kunichika rapid fired at them. They were naive to think Yuma would get his surgery, it would succeed, and everything would be a-okay as soon as Yuma was back in Japan and they could put this whole thing behind them.
So naive.
Nothing was ever that simple or clean in life.
"Which means he also forgot about cars." Izumi added.
"I don't think Kuga cares about cars?" Utagawa said confused. At least, Yuma never brought up cars when he talked with him. He brought up trains before so he knew Yuma was fascinated by them.
Tachikawa snorted. "He cares when they hit him."
"What?" Utagawa said confused.
Izumi snorted. "Kuga got hit by a car a few days before he left for his surgery. Four-eyes was complaining about how it was the third time it happened since Kuga moved to Japan."
At this point, Maki and Mikami both looked up from their computers to stare in disbelief at Izumi and Tachikawa while Kunichika just nodded along with what Izumi had said since she was in the room when Mikumo came in for training.
"Kuga causes his captain a lot of stress." Kunichika said.
"Hopefully he got it out of his system. He won't survive getting hit by a car now." Kikuchihara said before taking a sip of his drink.
"You don't need to be so blunt about it." Utagawa told his teammate.
"Beating around the bush isn't going to help Kuga. You need to tell him outright to not walk into traffic." Kikuchihara argued.
"That's true. Kuga respects a more direct approach." Kazama agreed. It probably had something to do with his side effect. Since he could see through any lie, he had a feeling Yuma hated it when people took too long to get to the point of what they were trying to say. He probably just wanted them to come out and say it.
"And I respect getting respect." Tachikawa said. "How hard is it to add an honorific to someone's name? Surely his father taught him to respect his elders!"
Izumi rolled his eyes in amusement. "He was at least concerned enough to remember your name."
"Shut it, Izumi-san." Tachikawa mocked. He could not believe Izumi was the first one of them that got his honorific back from Yuma. Tachikawa wasn't even aware they were going to have to earn the honorifics back from Yuma. That was just stupid. They should just drag the honorifics out of Yuma.
*L*S*A*
Their away ship was apparently outside the city.
Their away ship was apparently outside the city and required them to travel up a hill.
Sweat trailed down Yuma's brow.
Normally, he was very fit. Even when he wasn't using a Trion body, he trained. Since he couldn't train when his Trion body got destroyed, he and Yugo trained in their real bodies. Even if they weren't training, Yuma was used to traveling a lot by foot to travel through the nations they visited. All of that meant was that Yuma was used to physically exerting himself.
Right now though, none of that seemed to matter to Yuma's body. His body was betraying him. He didn't think it was because he had been laid up in bed for a few weeks.
Was it because his body had been sealed in a Trigger for five years?
That couldn't be it.
His body was sealed away. Its time had been significantly slowed down because of that. That basically meant that his muscles hadn't atrophied. It meant that his body was still in shape, just with half of it missing.
It also told Yuma what the issue was.
Even though he had been in physical therapy for a couple weeks now, he needed more time to get fully adjusted to his Trion limbs. It was annoying. Using his real body was easy. Using a Trion body was second nature to him.
But having them combined into one body?
His body couldn't handle it on its own.
He needed to relearn how to use his limbs.
All because Trion bodies and physical bodies weren't natural when they were smashed together on the same body. Yuma's nerves and muscles were still adjusting to the Trion bodies.
The point was, Yuma's body was sore and screaming at him to take a break. It needed more time and physical therapy. He thought he had been doing really great in his therapy to get his body used to the Trion limbs.
And then he met this hill and he was silently cursing in his head as his feet struggled to move.
Stupid hill.
Jin came to a stop at the top of the hill and took a moment to stare up at the sky, watching the clouds lazily drift by for a moment. After a moment, he turned and crouched down to watch Yuma with his head ducked so he could watch his feet as he climbed the hill.
"So," Toma started from where he was sitting on a nearby boulder. "Does he know he can ask for help?"
"I never considered Kuga to be a prideful person." Fuyushima said, leaning against a nearby tree. He looked up briefly to look down the hill where Yuma was struggling to climb and then looked back at the files he was reading. "Then again, I don't know him well enough to be a good judge."
Jin scratched his cheek. That shouldn't be a complicated question, and yet, Jin couldn't just say yes or no. He didn't see Yuma as one who avoided help as the kid he met back in December gave out help when they didn't ask for it (finding the rads) and he also accepted help gracefully in and out of battle. However, Jin also knew that sometimes Yuma was stubborn and wanted to do things by himself. Those things he felt he needed to do alone usually involved his past and his family problems which involved guilt. He supposed Yuma felt that he had to handle those things alone, or he used to. The Mimic incident taught Yuma a lot.
The last five years taught Yuma a lot, which included how to accept help. He grew out of his reckless, do it himself self after his father's death.
Right now though, Jin saw his young friend who lost five years of memories and was faced with Border agents claiming to be his friends. They knew him, but he didn't know them. It was possible that Yuma felt like he needed to be strong and prove himself. That wouldn't surprise Jin. Yuma did tell him before that after his father died and he had to be the Black Trigger wielder that would lead Calvaria to victory, he wasn't allowed to be weak. He had to be strong.
The Yuma he was watching hadn't gone through any of that though. Well, he had gone through it, but he forgot about. He forgot about how he needed to be strong all the time without the memories of the war that happened after Yugo's death, but he didn't remember the experiences of accepting help and learning to rely on people.
He didn't have to remember though.
All he had to do was learn it all over.
Jin walked back down the hill to reach Yuma who had made it half way up the hill. "Hey there, Yuma, want some help?"
Yuma's feet stuttered to a stop at the pair of feet that suddenly appeared in his vision. He dragged his eyes off his feet to looked up at Jin, frowning when he saw how Jin looked perfectly fine. He knew why it was so. Jin wasn't dealing with recovering from a surgery and he was also in a Trion body right now.
There was nothing to cause him to falter in what was a simple walk.
Yuma adjusted his bag on his shoulder. It was feeling heavy. It wasn't heavy, but this walk was tiring him out and all he wanted was to sit down. "Help how?" He asked.
"Do you want help?" Jin asked.
Yuma brushed the sweat off his brow as he looked pass Jin to look up at the hill. He was halfway up it, but it still felt like a very long walk he had to go still. It felt like it would take forever to get a chance to sit down. Besides, he didn't even know if their ship was at the top of this hill or if they still had to walk farther down.
He wanted to walk there.
He didn't want to have to rely on someone.
And it wasn't because of pride.
He simply was mad at his body for not being able to handle this.
And yet...
"Please." Yuma asked.
He needed a break more than anything.
Jin smiled and took Yuma's bag off his shoulder to drop it to the ground before he turned and crouched down. "I'll give you a ride."
The implication of a piggy back ride had Yuma's cheeks turning even redder. He hadn't had to be carried in a very long time. Despite the embarrassment, he climbed onto Jin's back, only curling his left arm around Jin's neck and gripping the front of his jacket with his hand. He kept his Trion arm by his side.
"Not going to hold on with both hands?" Jin asked.
"You won't drop me." Yuma replied in an assured tone.
Jin smiled at the trust that Yuma was giving him.
"We going to go then?" Toma was suddenly with them, scooping Yuma's bag off the ground and throwing it on his shoulder.
"How much father until we get to your ship?" Yuma asked.
"Up the hill and a little ways through the forest." Jin replied, adjusting his hold on Yuma's thighs to make sure his grip was tight enough that his friend wouldn't slip off his back. "And then we'll be on the ship for a few hours and then we'll be back in Japan."
Yuma hummed softly in reply to that. His head fell to rest on Jin's shoulder. He was tired. That walk had been exhausting. He couldn't wait for his health to be at full. He hated getting so exhausted from a simple walk like this.
Jin's walk up the hill slowed down when he felt Yuma become deadweight on his back. He twisted his head around to see what was up, but couldn't see Yuma's face as it was digging into his shoulder.
"He fell asleep." Toma said as he walked pass Jin to reach the top of the hill.
"That didn't take long." Jin hiked Yuma farther up on his back. He wasn't expecting his friend to just pass out the moment he got off his feet. He supposed the recovery from his surgery was really taking a huge toll on his body.
"Maybe if he wasn't so stubborn and asked for help sooner, he wouldn't have been so exhausted that he passed out the moment he was off his feet." Toma replied.
Jin chuckled. There was nothing wrong with being stubborn. It just required a nice balance of being stubborn and being humble. Children just tended to lean too far into stubbornness and needing to prove they can handle themselves on their own. They wanted to prove their independence. There was nothing wrong with independence. Kids just needed to learn that they didn't have to do it all alone.
There was no shame in accepting help.