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.

16. Ch 16: Home

Light Shines Anew

Chapter 16: Home

"WHAT?!" Shun quickly looked around the hallway, pleased to see that it was still empty after Arafune had departed. Despite that, he still lowered his voice to a whisper. "Is that a good idea?"

Yuma raised a brow. "I told you."

"I pushed you into a corner because I was getting frustrated because I realized you and Yoneyan-senpai were keeping something from me. Murakami-senpai and Kageura-san have no suspicions." Shun whispered frantically.

"I could have kept lying to you." Yuma whispered back. "You would be upset, but you would eventually forget what Yosuke-senpai and I said because it wasn't that important."

"Do you know that for sure? Maybe I would drop it, but in the back of my mind, I would still remember the sting of betrayal I felt when I realized you two were keeping a secret from me." Shun hissed back.

"Just because we are friends that does not mean I have to tell you every secret I have." Yuma argued.

"Exactly. You have no reason to tell Murakami-senpai and Kageura-san when they haven't questioned anything." Shun retorted.

"No, not 'exactly.' I didn't have to tell you. I could have just left you to ponder on what was being kept from you, but I told you because you're my friend and I trust you. I trusted you to keep my secret and you've excelled at it. I want to extend the same trust to Kage-senpai and Murakami-senpai." Yuma explained.

For someone who didn't want to come see his friends to tell them he was leaving tomorrow, Yuma sure was making a rash decision. Shun didn't want to say Yuma was wrong, but Yuma had never brought this up before. In fact, unless it involved knowledge of the Neighborhood that they needed, Yuma never mentioned his Neighbor status. If certain people found out he was a Neighbor, it would be an issue because of their hatred of Neighbors. However, never bringing up the Neighbor status meant no one would find out so it was a nonissue.

It was such a nonissue that it should never be brought up.

"And what if they reject you?" Shun pressed. "Do you want the last time you talk to them before your surgery to be them rejecting you?"

That would certainly be a painful memory to have right before he went under for surgery. It was the kind of negativity that Yuma didn't need right before a life-or-death situation. He didn't think it would change anything for him since he had no control in the surgery, but he knew from his experience from having a bad life that the memories would hit him at the worst time and leave him miserable. He was already going to be miserable from pain. He didn't need more bad memories on top of that.

"If you really want to tell them, can't you wait until you come back?" Shun added.

"I guess I was just wandering if they would still care so much about me recovering if they knew I was a Neighbor."

"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."

"But what if it's the opposite?" Yuma countered. "What if they don't care?"

"If they don't care, they won't care if you wait to tell them when you come back." Shun replied.

Yuma shook his head. "But it's something I will be thinking about if I don't ask them now."

"Since when do you care if someone will still accept you or not if they know?" Shun asked confused.

"It's not that I would care." Yuma replied before pausing for a moment. "Well, unless they were my friend and they turned my back on me after I told them the truth."

"So, you do care." Shun said. "Won't it just upset you if they turn their back on you right before you're meant to leave?"

"I think I would rather know before I leave. It would hurt to lose their friendship, but I would at least know where we stood with each other with no secrets between us." Yuma admitted. "Those two don't keep any secrets from me. They've brought me fully into their circle and tell me everything. I know everything about their side effects and their struggles with them. With how much they've trusted me and the effort I know they put in during the away mission to find a solution for me, I just feel I should reciprocate the trust."

Shun sighed and raised his hands in surrender. "It seems your mind is settled on this decision so I'll stop wasting my breath. But listen, Yuma-senpai, if they take it bad, tell me and I'll take care of it."

A touching gesture, but Yuma didn't think Shun could do anything against Kageura and Murakami.

"I know what you're thinking." Shun said offended. "I never said I would take care of it alone. I'll get Yoneyan-senpai and Izumin-senpai to back me up and we're beat their heads in!"

"Hmm? I actually want to see that three vs two fight. It sounds interesting."

That would be the thing to interest Yuma. Three A-Rank agents vs two of Border's strongest Attackers who were only in B-Rank. It would be a very interesting fight. Shun really didn't know who would win the fight. It felt like it would be a pretty even fight. Murakami and Kageura were strong and had powerful side effects, but they were not invincible.

"It's not a fight that can just happen, Yuma-senpai." Shun said. "Team matches like that can't just happen in the solo rank booths without us fiddling with the settings. We only did it a few months ago because all the C-Ranks got kicked out before dark."

Yuma pouted. "I didn't get to participate in that."

"We fought you in the training rooms." Shun pointed out. "Anyway, I would find a way to make it happen if those two are jerks."

"Do you really think they will be?" Yuma asked curiously.

Shun shrugged. "I'd like to think the answer was no, but I never discussed with either of them how they felt about Neighbors. However, if they have any hatred, it's very subtle." No one could beat Miwa's level of hatred. His hatred of Neighbors was so loud that everyone knew about it. His level of hatred was probably the worst level and Shun knew that he...well, accepted Yuma and Hyuse was not the right way to phase it. He acknowledged their presence and typically stayed out of the way of the Neighbors. That was really all Miwa could do. Since Yuma and Hyuse were Border agents, it didn't matter how Miwa felt about Neighbors. He just had to accept it. It would be the same with Kageura and Murakami if they did reject Yuma. The problem was if they hated Yuma for being a Neighbor, that they would then be in on the secret and it would cause a riff.

"Alright, I need to do this today." Yuma decided.

"Want me to go with you?" Shun asked.

Yuma shook his head. "Thanks for the concern, Shun, but I can handle those two."

"Hmm?" Shun hummed in disbelief. "Thought you couldn't use your Triggers right now."

"Not what I meant." Yuma gently butted his shoulder with Shun's. "Seriously, thanks, Shun, but I'll be fine telling them on my own. It feels like something I should tell them privately anyway."

"Fine," Shun lifted his fist and held it out towards Yuma. "But be sure to text me later and tell me how it went."

Yuma smiled and fist bumped Shun. "Got it. Bye, Shun."

"We probably won't see each other again until you return from Galopoula so I hope your surgery goes well, Yuma-senpai. I'll be waiting to fight you when you get back." Shun grinned mischievously. "And since you'll be in recovery for who knows how long while I'm still training every day, maybe I'll actually beat you when you come back."

Yuma laughed as he ran off down the hall. "Not in a hundred years, Shun!" He called back as he rounded the corner.

*L*S*A*

Somehow, Kakizaki found himself marching through the halls of headquarters. He had abandoned his lunch break in the hopes of finding either Kuga or Kageura before they found each other and there was a bloodbath in HQ that they needed to clean up. He thought the idea of Yuma leaving for a surgery was a great thing. Yuma didn't give them much information on what it was, but Kakizaki figured that if Yuma was leaving for a surgery then it meant that he was working on a plan to get his real body back.

It basically meant that Yuma was going to save his life.

And yet, somehow that angered Kageura to a degree where he would abandon team training for the Rank Wars tomorrow to hunt Yuma down. He knew Kageura had been in a bad mood for a few days, even if he didn't know the reason as to why that was the case.

Kakizaki could feel a pounding starting to form behind his eyes. He liked Kageura. He did. They were friends, though he wasn't as close to him as some of his other friends, but Kageura was very rough to be around when he was in one of his moods. Though, his moods were usually caused by his side effect going off constantly and making him irritated. In this moment, Kakizaki wasn't sure what was setting Kageura off.

"Oof."

Kakizaki took a step back, hands dropping down to the small shoulders of the person that just rounded the corner and ran into him. "Pay attention, Kuga."

"Sorry, Kakizaki-senpai." Yuma took a step back to stop leaning on Kakizaki, but he was still in his personal space as Kakizaki still had his hands on his shoulders. "Guess I'm just in a bit too much of a hurry since I don't have a lot of time before I leave tomorrow."

Kakizaki didn't reply right away as he leaned around the corner, but when he didn't see anyone marching down the hall for Yuma's head, he settled back down on his heels and gave Yuma his full attention. "That's alright. I know it won't hurt you, but please be aware it can hurt others when you do that."

"Got it."

"Although, if you're preparing for a surgery to get your real body back, you should start to be more cautious anyway." Kakizaki tacked on. "You're not going to be impervious to pain for much longer." His grip on Yuma's shoulders tightened. "Which means, please, Kuga, no more running into the street and getting hit by cars. You're not going to walk away from that once you get your real body back."

Yuma's mouth dropped open in shock for a moment before he recovered and snapped his mouth shut. "Who did you speak to?" He demanded.

"Jin." Kakizaki admitted.

Yuma twisted away from Kakizaki, which got him free from the older agent's grip and dragged his hand down his face. He really was never going to live that down. At least the first two times he got hit by a car, it was long before he joined Border and made all these friends.

Yuma was aware of the fact that he wasn't perfect. He made many mistakes and did stupid things. When confronted with those mistakes, he took the teasing with grace. However, the car accidents that occurred from him walking into traffic were something he liked to avoid being reminded of. It was like his friends told him. Even children knew to look both ways and wait for the light to change. It was so commonplace in this world. For that reason, when he made the mistake of walking into traffic, he liked to avoid it being known because it just felt like a hint to him that others would pick up that something was strange about him.

"Kuga? I'm not mad. I'm concerned." Kakizaki said. "You've been in that body for years and so you haven't had to face the consequences of having a real body that can be injured in years. I'm just worried that when you do go back to your flesh and blood body that you're going to forget you have it and do something that you can normally only do in a Trion body. All of this will be for nothing if you get severely hurt again because you forget that."

Yuma wanted to refute Kakizaki's concerns, but he honestly couldn't. Those worries were truly valid. It was like what Hyuse said the other day. Yuma really did pay less attention to certain things because he wasn't at risk of getting hurt or killed. After five years of living like this, it would honestly be really easy to forget. He likely would try to jump onto a roof or use his seals without activating his Black Trigger or anything else that had become natural to him in these past few years.

"I know." Yuma admitted. "But at this point, that stuff is muscle memory to me."

Kakizaki sighed. "Do you need a babysitter for the first year to make sure you don't do anything reckless?"

Yuma puffed up his cheeks as he was offended by that. The only chaperone he ever needed was Replica.

Replica.

He was still broken.

He wondered if Kinuta would have him fixed by the time Yuma came back from Galopoula. He hoped he would be.

"I doubt Tamakoma will let me wander too far after the surgery anyway." Yuma said instead.

Kakizaki smiled. "They'll do a good job of getting you readjusted to everything after your surgery."

"Yeah," Yuma glanced around the corner he just came around a few minutes ago. Upon seeing it was still clear, he sighed in relief.

"Are you still hiding from Kage?" Kakizaki asked.

"Not so much as hiding as it more like I want a private place to talk to him." Yuma admitted. "A place not in HQ. If he finds me before I get out of here, we'll just argue here and I won't be able to get him somewhere else."

"So, you're running to the exit. How is he supposed to find you and talk to you privately if he doesn't know you're getting out of here?" Kakizaki asked confused.

"He'll know where to go soon."

"Sounds ominous."

Yuma just grinned. "Not at all. I'm not going to do anything."

*L*S*A*

"Do you want to go, Kō?" Kuruma asked.

"Go where?" Murakami asked confused, only half focused on the conversation as he was looking at his phone.

"To HQ." Kuruma replied. "That's where Kuga-kun is, isn't he?"

That got Murakami to look up from his phone in surprise. "We're preparing for our match tomorrow."

Kuruma smiled. "We got a solid plan down and we've been training all morning. We can take a break and resume training tonight."

"That's quite generous, Kuruma-senpai." Taichi said. "Especially since we all missed training yesterday to have that festival at Tamakoma."

Kuruma shrugged. "Rank Wars will always be here. We have the B-Rank Wars three times a year. Kuga-kun is leaving tomorrow though." He tilted his head towards Murakami's phone where he could see that the Attackers Group Chat was still opened. It didn't take a genius to see that Yuma's message had really distracted their ace. "He sent out that mass text out, but that's not how you want to see him off, is it?"

"It's not seeing him off at all." Murakami looked back at his phone. "It's Kuga avoiding having to say bye in person to everyone."

"I don't know Kuga-kun as well as you do." Taichi leaned over the attacker's shoulder to see his phone screen. "Is it like him to want to avoid saying bye and doing something like this?"

"He's not avoiding anything." Kon interjected. "If he wanted to avoid saying bye altogether, he wouldn't have told you he was leaving or he would have texted you right as he was leaving and giving you no time to find him. He told you today so if you want to see him in person, Kō-kun, you have the time to do so. Kuruma-senpai was right when he said there would always be more Rank Wars."

Murakami raised a brow. "You think I should go talk to him as well?"

"From what you told me of his injuries, I can make a good judgement call that this surgery Kuga-kun is trying isn't going to necessarily succeed. Surgeries always have a chance to go wrong and for someone to die, and based on Kuga-kun's injuries, I feel like he has a high chance of dying." Kon explained.

Taichi snapped forward in his seat in surprise, hands slamming on the table. "Are you serious?"

Kon's brow twitched in annoyance as Taichi's actions caused the mugs of tea sitting on the table to topple over and spill all over the place.

"Sorry!" Taichi whirled back so fast that his foot hit the edge of the table which set the mugs rolling across the table to where they fell to the floor and shattered. "Oh, shoot! That's my bad!"

"Sit still, Taichi, before you break something else or cut yourself on the glass." Kon ordered as she left the room. With his clumsiness, if he tried to help clean up the mugs, he would just cut himself and then they would have to clean up blood as well.

Murakami knocked some of the glass away with his foot so he could stand up without stepping on it and breaking it into even smaller pieces. He slipped his phone in his pocket and made his way around the coffee table.

"I've got the table." Murakami said as he accepted the wash cloth that Kon had when she returned.

"I'll clean up the glass." Kon said as she went to get the broom.

"Really, sorry about that. I just didn't even consider that Kuga-kun might die from the surgery." Taichi said as he lifted his feet up to the couch to get them out of the way for Kon when she came back with a broom.

"Don't worry about it. Accidents happen." Kuruma reassured him as Kon reappeared with the broom and dustpan.

"Do you really think it's possible he'll die?" Taichi asked. He was all for having a rivalry with Tamakoma. He had fun having a rivalry with all the teams they faced off against in the Rank Wars, but they were still comrades at the end of the day. He didn't want to see any of his comrades or friends hurt or for them to die.

"I agree with Kon-chan's thinking. I don't know what kind of surgery he is going for, but I doubt it will be an easy one." Kuruma replied. He glanced at Murakami, whose brows were furrowed, as he focused on wiping up the spilled tea. That was a look he was very familiar with from his friend. He was already bothered by the text Yuma sent. Now with Kon's reasoning for why he should go see Yuma today, he was even more troubled than before.

Murakami didn't understand what was going on. One day, Yuma was saying he wasn't going to try to get his real body back. And then he was saying he was leaving for a surgery. It really felt like it just came out of nowhere. It was what they wanted Yuma to do. He was finally fighting for his life, but when they were pushing Yuma to do this, they were more focused on him saving himself. Yuma was focused on nothing working and just giving up. What changed to make him want to try a surgery? Where did the surgery come from?

And now he was being faced with the chance that the surgery would fail. What Kon said should be obvious, but it was something that Murakami didn't think of until she said it because he was confused and worried about everything else going through his head.

"What happened in here?"

Murakami jerked up from the table, twisting around in surprise to see Yuma standing in the doorway.

"Did you just walk in here?" Kon demanded immediately, looking like she was one step away from sweeping her broom at Yuma. "Where are your manners?"

Yuma blinked. "People barge into Tamakoma all the time." He shot a pointed look at Murakami.

"No, we're knocked. Konami let us in." Murakami refuted immediately.

"Heh, well Tachikawa-san didn't knock. He came in and yelled at me."

Murakami snorted. "It's Tachikawa-san. What were you expecting?"

Kuruma just laughed. "Don't worry about it, Kuga-kun. The door is always opened."

"Not when we're planning how to crush his team in the Rank Wars." Kon argued.

Yuma leaned to the side to look at the mess behind Murakami and Kon. "How does creating a strategy against my team translate to breaking mugs?"

"Taichi gets overzealous." Kon replied.

"Ah, come on. Putting all the blame on me?" Taichi whined.

"You did break the mugs." Kon retorted.

"Eh, well," Taichi laughed sheepishly.

Yuma blinked again. "Sorry, I know everyone is busy planning for the Rank Wars tomorrow which is why I initially didn't want to bother you guys today."

"But you're leaving tomorrow. It's really fine, Kuga-kun." Kuruma promised. "We're not upset about it. It's just, I thought you were at HQ?"

Yuma laughed sheepishly. "Ran out of there pretty fast when Kage-senpai began hunting for me."

"Good to know you have some self-preservation, but he's not going to stop. He will make it a point to find you before you leave tomorrow." Murakami pointed out.

"I know. I don't plan to avoid him forever. It's just," Yuma pointed over his shoulder. "Do you have some time, Murakami-senpai? There was actually something I wanted to talk about with you and Kage-senpai in private. It will be faster and easier if it was at the same time though." He glanced at Kuruma. "Is it fine if I interrupt your training for like an hour or two?"

Kuruma waved his concerns off. "I understand, Kuga-kun. If I was going to be leaving for an unknown amount of time, I would want to say bye to my friends too. Between a life-or-death surgery and the Rank Wars, this is much more important after all."

Yuma bowed his head towards the captain. "Thank you, Kuruma-san. I'll try not to take too much of his time. We just have to meet up with Kage-senpai."

"Does he know that?" Murakami asked.

"I was just about to text him."

Murakami snorted and leaned against the armrest of the couch as he waited for Yuma to do just that.

*L*S*A*

Kitora stared at the chaos flowing through the Attackers Group chat with a sigh. She rarely used the group chat because it always ended up so chaotic somehow. The boys had so much rambunctious energy. Sometimes it exhausted her just watching them roughhouse constantly.

"Is Kuga-kun's surgery the reason we've been given special orders from Director Shinoda for defense duty tomorrow, Arashiyama-senpai?" Kitora asked.

"As sharp as ever, Kitora." Arashiyama replied with an easy smile.

Tokieda took a sip of his drink, leaning on the couch to look over Kitora's shoulder to read the chat. "Yuma didn't give any details, but I'm guessing with his kind of injuries, the only place for him to get a surgery that can help him would be in the Neighborhood. That would mean, we're covering for the Gate opening that he will be going through."

"Exactly right." Arashiyama replied.

Kitora glanced up from her phone at that. "Does that mean we're going to have to file a false report about our actions from the Gate opening?"

"Don't make it sound so horrible. We did worse when we broke the rules and fought the other A-Ranks in the Restricted Zone." Arashiyama replied. "We're just following orders like before."

"Director Shinoda and Tamakoma keep dragging us into their rule breaking." Kitora said. After all the lectures she gave Osamu when they first met months ago, it seemed that her squad kept getting orders that went against the rules established by Border. She wasn't a fan of breaking the rules, but at least they were doing it as a result of direct orders. On top of that, it was to help a fellow agent who was in desperate need of this surgery before he ran out of time and died. All of this sneaking around was for a good reason.

She just had to keep telling herself that.

"If it makes you feel better, Kinuta-san and Kido-san are in on the plan. So, all of this is just to avoid drawing attention from the Border members who hate Neighbors." Arashiyama pointed out. "I doubt anyone will look into a Gate opening in the Restricted Zone as long as we write the report about it."

It was falsifying a report, but it's not like Kitora didn't do that before. Back when that Ilgar attacked the city, she gave Osamu credit for helping her because she couldn't figure out who it was at the time that did something to prevent a catastrophe from the Ilgar from blowing up on the city. She knew now that Yuma interfered back then, but she saw no reason to go back and fix the paperwork, especially back when she found out, it still wasn't common knowledge that Yuma had a Black Trigger.

Honestly, she kept having to cover for Yuma and his Neighbor status. This was Tamakoma's problem, but it somehow kept falling into her team's lap as well.

"We have the easy part out of this whole thing." Tokieda said. "We just have to ignore a Gate opening and write a report. It's Yuma who has the worse part in this."

Kitora sighed. "I'm sure Kuga-kun will be just fine. He's strong enough to pull through this." And he would be back in Japan being a nuisance to all of them again soon enough.

Arashiyama smiled. "That's some nice faith you have, Kitora." Now, if only Yuma felt the same way about the surgery. He understood that Yuma agreed to the surgery, but he doubted all of Yuma's fears about it were gone. They would just match Yuma's unease about the surgery with their faith that everything would be fine.

*L*S*A*

"Why are we meeting at a damn rundown temple?" Kageura demanded as he reached the top of the stairs and found Murakami and Yuma sitting on the steps of the temple.

"It seems to be the place I go to for conversations like this." Yuma replied. "It's private and out of the way so no one disturb us."

Kageura's eyes narrowed, scowl forming on his face. "A good place for me to strangle you."

Yuma pointed at Murakami. "That's why he is here. He's going to protect me so you will hear me out before you do anything too rash."

"I was not informed of my role for this meeting." Murakami said.

"I didn't think you needed informed. You protect everyone from Kage-senpai's rage."

Murakami thought about that for a moment before shrugging. "Fair enough."

"Kuga!" Kageura snapped, stomping forward until he was a foot away from the steps. He crossed his arms and glowered down at his two sitting friends. "What the hell is going on? What is this surgery you texted us about?"

Yuma wrinkled his nose. "So, you want to discuss that before we go into what I wanted to talk about?"

"Yes!"

"It depends on which one is more serious." Murakami disagreed with Kageura. "So, it's your choice, Kuga."

Yuma hummed. "I guess the surgery it is." He said without thinking about it. He had a feeling revealing he was a Neighbor was going to derail a lot of the conversation. "But I'm not sure what you want me to tell you about the surgery. It's an attempt to get my real body back."

"You cannot be serious." Kageura hissed angrily. "It was what, four or five days ago when you said you weren't going to try to find a way to get your real body back. And now all of a sudden there is a surgery you can attempt that might save your life? I do not believe for a damn second that this surgery just came out thin air today, Kuga. How long have you known about this surgery?"

Oh.

Oh, shit.

Maybe Yuma should have brought Shun as a sort of buffer between him and Kageura.

"Kuga," Kageura snarled when Yuma paused. His eyes narrowed dangerously as that pause was basically a confirmation of what he had guessed when he first saw Yuma's text. "How long?"

"Does that really matter at this point?" Yuma protested. "I am going to try it."

Kageura nodded his head, scowl seemingly morphing into a maniacal smile. "I see." He lunged forward, but Murakami anticipated this and was ready to meet him. He hooked an arm under Kageura's and stuck his leg out to catch Kageura's ankle and yanked both of them back. "Kō, let me hit him just once!"

"What is hitting him going to achieve?!" Murakami retorted, grunting as Kageura elbowed him in the stomach. He really appreciated the fact that Yuma ran out of HQ before Kageura found him. This was exactly what he was expecting and if it happened at HQ, both Kageura and Yuma would have ended up getting in trouble for fighting. "Would you calm down and listen to him explain his reasoning?"

"I don't need to hear it! He knew there was a surgery and was still planning to just let himself die! He looked us right in the eye, told us he was scared to die while knowing there was a surgery to save him, and just said he accepted he was going to die!" Kageura seethed.

It really sounded bad, even to Yuma, when Kageura said it like that. He knew Kageura was going to be mad about this. It was part of the reason why he wanted to just leave tomorrow, but Arafune and Shun were right when they said he needed to clear the air before he left.

"I know!" Murakami shouted over Kageura's rage. "I know, Kage, but give Kuga a chance to explain. He came here willing to open up about this so take a breath, calm down, and listen to him!"

Kageura glared down at Yuma, who was still just sitting on the steps and watching Kageura and Murakami roughhouse. He stared at those red eyes that stared right back at him without an ounce of hesitation. This was what he respected about Yuma. Despite how rough Kageura was and the attitude he knew he had, Yuma had never once been scared of him or turned off by his attitude. He just met him with that challenging stare and a confident smirk.

Kageura let himself go slack in Murakami's hold and did as he suggested. He took a few deep breaths and let them out slowly. As he did this, silence fell over the three as Kageura focused on letting the anger that had been burning through him since he saw Yuma's text just dissipate.

"Kuga, you have thirty seconds to give me an argument of why I shouldn't hit you and fully listen to you." Kageura decided. "If you knew about this surgery that could help you, then why did you tell us you had no intention of saving your life? Have you really been drowning in guilt so hard that you were willing to die as retribution for what happened to your father?"

"No." Yuma said immediately. "I told you the other day. It has nothing to do with guilt. My guilt will always exist, but the incident with the Mimics did help me heal a bit. I'm not trying to die, Kage-senpai. I never have been." He was going to completely disregard his original goal of wanting to revive his father from the Black Trigger which would kill Yuma because that was not a conversation he wanted to have with Kageura and Murakami on top of everything else he wanted to say to them.

"Twenty seconds." Murakami warned as he was counting down the seconds in his head. He still had a grip on Kageura even though his friend had settled down with his struggles to escape. However, if Yuma didn't give him a good reason to sit down in the next twenty seconds, Murakami knew Kageura was going to try to get to Yuma again to strangle him.

There wasn't anything Yuma thought he could say to completely calm Kageura's rage. From what his teammates said, they didn't see Yuma's initial reasons for not wanting to go to Galopoula to be good reasons. To them, it was between a surgery that could possibly save Yuma against Yuma for sure dying at the end of the month. For Yuma, it was between having as much fun as possible before the month was over vs very likely dying on an operating table in a world surrounded by strangers. It's not how he wanted to die. Being that he has been a fighter his whole life, he always saw himself dying on his feet in a fight, not while unconscious on an operating table.

The thing was, Yuma shouldn't be making excuses.

He just needed to be honest.

"The success rate of the surgery is low." Yuma admitted, refusing to look away from his friends who were both staring at him. "When Jin-san told me about it, I got scared because all I could think about was dying on an operating table. I've been trained to be a fighter my whole life by my dad so I always thought I would die on my feet in a fight someday. I don't want to die lying down on an operating table with a bunch of strangers leaning over me."

Kageura stared down at his young friend. His friend was staring him straight in his eyes as he openly showed his vulnerability to them. His friend who hated pity and hated showing weakness was letting them in to see his fears. This very rarely happened with Yuma.

Damn it.

"You're such a damn idiot." Kageura pushed Murakami off of him, who let him go as it seemed all the tenseness drained out of Kageura's muscles. "Maybe it's not the kind of fight you're used to, but it's still a fight." He dropped his fist on Yuma's head and dug his knuckles into the skull. "Such a dumbass."

"Are you ever going to stop insulting me?" Yuma asked.

"When you stop being an idiot, sure." Kageura sighed and sat down on the steps next to Yuma.

Seeing as his friend had seemingly calmed down, Murakami sat on the other side of Yuma. "I agree with Kage, Kuga. You may not be fighting an enemy, but fighting for your life is still a fight. In fact, you could make the argument that it is an even harder fight."

"I'm not doing anything but lying on a table." Yuma muttered.

"Moron." Kageura elbowed his friend harshly in the side.

Not expecting the hit, Yuma got pushed to the side and hit Murakami in the arm. "Sorry."

"I'm used to this from Kage." Murakami replied, pushing Yuma off of him so he could right himself. "What he is trying to say, in a very horrible way," He shot a glare at Kageura over Yuma's head that Kageura just rolled his eyes at "Is that agreeing to the operation is the first step in this fight, Kuga. It's you fighting to live. You may not be the doctors performing the surgery, but just wanting to live and agreeing to the operation is a big step. If you went into the surgery without any desire to live, your body might not fight to survive it."

Yuma snorted. "Sounds like some wishy-washy bullshit."

Kageura choked on some air.

"Who taught you to talk like that?" Murakami scolded.

"You two, but mostly Kage-senpai."

Murakami glared at Kageura over Yuma's head again. "Don't speak like that. Konami might not be so lenient this time around and actually attempt to kill us."

Yuma snorted in amusement. It seemed that neither of them forgot about the night when Konami came pounding on Kageura's front door to know why he wasn't answering his phone. "I know I look like a child, but I am sixteen."

"It's so easy to forget with that baby face." Kageura teased, pinching Yuma's cheek as if he was some cute little kid. Yuma responded by elbowing his friend in the side.

"It's going to be weird when you have your real body back. Maybe you'll finally stop being a shrimp." Murakami said.

Kageura snorted. "He'll lose his short, light weight statue which he is so proud of because it gives him an advantage as a speed attacker."

"Maybe I'll be Kazama-san's height. That's short enough to keep my speed attacker body type." Yuma suggested.

"Seriously? You want to be short forever." Kageura scoffed, dropping a hand on Yuma's head to knock it around.

It was what Yuma was used to. These past years had gotten used to so much with this short, Trion copy of his body. If the surgery was a success, so much would be changing for Yuma. If he didn't have to worry about gaining so much height that he wasn't used to on top of that, it would be one less change he had to adapt to.

Perhaps this was another reason he insisted on talking to Murakami and Kageura today. Shun suggested he waited until he returned from the surgery, but there was already going to be so much he was going to have to deal with when he returned. He didn't want to add this conversation on top of that. Plus, there was a good chance he would talk himself out of telling them while he was gone. He needed to say it while he was ready to say it.

He didn't want to wait on this anymore.

Yuma jumped off the steps and walked forward a bit to put some space between him and his friends. He didn't think they would attack him when he told them, but no matter how little that chance was, it was a possibility and he had to be prepared for anything. Besides, he wanted to be facing them both when he said this.

Murakami and Kageura were both now looking at him in confusion as he just shifted away from his friends for seemingly no reason in their minds. There was only confusion, absolutely nothing else. They really didn't know what to expect because all they were focused on up to this point was the surgery that to them Yuma pulled out of thin air since they had been left in the dark for days.

Yuma took a deep breath.

"I'm a Neighbor."

No introduction to what he wanted to say.

He just needed to get it out there. Anything else about this could come after they heard that part.

"What?" Murakami was the first to respond to the statement. Yuma's admittance only caused him to have more confusion then when Yuma first stood up to move away from them.

"Well, that's better than when I told Shun. He freaked out immediately."

"What." Kageura said blandly, mind frozen as he couldn't think to process what he was just told.

Maybe this wasn't better than when he told Shun. At least Shun didn't break and had an actual reaction to the news. It certainly made things easier for Yuma when he had to focus on calming Shun down. These blank stares were unnerving.

"But your father was Japanese. He helped create Border." Murakami said blankly. They had all learned that during the Mimics incident. It had been a huge surprise to them at the time mostly because of the fact that Yuma didn't join Border until he was fifteen. If his father was involved in Border, it was weird that his son didn't get involved earlier on. They had let it go at the time because of everything going on, but afterwards Murakami considered that maybe it involved Yuma's injuries and trauma for why Yuma waited so long to join Border and he simply let the matter drop.

"And my mother was a Neighbor." Yuma replied gently as Murakami and Kageura still seemed broken. At least it wasn't like Miwa who shot him immediately upon finding out. Murakami and Kageura were still just sitting on the steps, staring blankly at him, not even making a move for their Triggers. So much better than Miwa's attack first, ask questions never attitude. "I was born and raised in the Neighborhood. I moved here back in December."

"So, a halfling." Kageura said.

Yuma's brows scrunched down in confusion. "What?"

"Halfling. Just a term in fantasy stories that describe someone who is half human and half another race." Murakami explained blandly, staring off into the distance behind Yuma. This felt like it had come out of completely nowhere. It clearly hadn't since if Yuma really was a Neighbor, born and raised in the other world, then he had been like this his whole life. He just never brought it up or made any hint to his not being from this world which was why Murakami felt so blindsided.

"Is it an insult?" Yuma wondered.

"What? No, you damn idiot. If I'm going to insult you, I'm going to make sure you know I'm insulting you." Kageura snapped as he came out of his stupor.

And those insults usually involved Kageura cursing at him. It was something Yuma was quite familiar with his friend and something he was able to take in stride quite easily. Kageura's rough attitude really amused Yuma as it meant he and Kageura could just tease each other and since they recognized the insults a form of endearment, neither of them got insulted.

"So..." Yuma trailed off.

Murakami held up a hand. "Kuga, please, I need a moment to process this."

Yuma's expression dropped, but instead of saying anything, he just nodded and took another step back. He did just throw this on them with absolutely no warning. When he did it to Osamu and Shun, they both freaked out completely as they tried to figure it all out in their heads. The only people who ever accepted it without question were the Tamakoma members who already had favorable opinions of Neighbors.

"I don't even know why I'm surprised. Everyone knows how Tamakoma feels about Neighbors." Murakami muttered to himself. "It's only natural if a stray Neighbor came here, they would adopt him."

"Are you stray?" Kageura wondered.

"What does stray mean in this context?" Yuma asked.

"Neighbors usually have loyalty to their country in the Neighborhood. Where does yours lie?" Kageura asked.

"Ah," Yuma scratched the back of his neck. "You want to know my history with the Neighborhood."

"Your father was Japanese, but somehow fell in love with a Neighbor and had a child in the Neighborhood. I'm just trying to figure out how that happened if he was over here." Murakami explained.

Yuma shook his head. "As you know my father was Border's first Commander-in-Chief. I don't know when since it was before I was born, but my father left Kido-san in charge of Border because he wanted to explore the Neighborhood. He loved everything about that world and wanted to learn more about it and all the different nations. At some point, he met my mother and they had me. He had settled down with her in my home nation of Tropoi."

"Okay, so Kuga-san basically moved there. I can handle that." Murakami said, trying to focus solely on Yuma, but his eyes kept shifting from Yuma to the sky and then back to Yuma as he focused on processing all this in his head. "So, Tropoi is where you're from?"

"Yeah, but I have no loyalty to it. You asked if I was a stray and by the context you're looking for, I am one. Do you remember Meraki?" Yuma asked.

"They're the nation that attacked us with Mimics. What about them?" Kageura asked warily. Considering what happened with the Mimics and how Yuma almost died, it wasn't something he liked to remember.

"Well, my mother was the one who created the initial design for Mimics. They weren't called Mimics when she made them and they weren't weapons, but when I was a toddler, Meraki attacked Tropoi, killed my mother, and stole her design of them and repurposed them into the Mimics that attacked us." Yuma explained quickly, not giving his friends a chance to react to that bit of information. He ignored their gaping faces and plowed on. They could take the time to focus on this later. "After her death, my father took me out of Tropoi and started to train me to use Triggers while we traveled through the Neighborhood. At that point, my father's focus became training me, exploring and mapping out the Neighborhood, and basically working as a mercenary that traveled to different nations."

"Kuga, Kuga, please. This is a lot to process." Murakami pleaded, holding up a hand as a way to ask Yuma to stall his explanation. While there had been a lot going on in the Mimic incident, Murakami hadn't realized that Yuma was actually still hiding a lot of information back then. Granted, the information of Yuma's mother being the Mimic creator didn't really affect anything that happened back then, but it was making his head spin.

"Is it? You know my father trained me." Yuma replied.

"Training is one thing. He took you through dangerous nations while you barely knew anything about fighting." Murakami protested. Having just gone on an away mission and seen the nations and how they were constantly at way, Murakami did not understand how Kuga Yugo was not scared of his son getting hurt or killed every day as they traveled.

"Oh my god. The assassin that attacked you." Kageura realized.

Yuma closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. "That was in Calvaria when I was eleven. My dad was friends with the defense commander there and they got attacked by Spinthir. Oyaji owed Raymond a favor so he agreed to help Calvaria during the war. Spinthir wanted to discourage Calvaria by killing their Trigger users so they hired the Black Trigger assassin. My father warned me of him and told me to stay out of the fight for a while. I disobeyed him and got attacked by the assassin."

They already knew a good chunk of the story with the assassin. This was nothing new to them. Those who didn't know of his Neighbor status or that he was in the Neighborhood with his father years ago likely assumed the assassin came to this world and that was when Yuma got attacked. For that reason, Yuma was just running through the story as quick as possible to fill in the blanks about Calvaria's war. They didn't need all the details of what happened. A rough rundown was all they needed and all Yuma wanted to give. He didn't want to go through all this again when it was likely going to bother him for the next few days while he was getting ready for the surgery.

"After my father saved me, I was suffering a lot of guilt and depression so to avoid thinking about it, I agreed to continue helping Calvaria fight the war with my Black Trigger. The war lasted three more years before it ended in Calvaria's victory. After that, I left Calvaria and just wondered aimlessly through the Neighborhood until I came to Japan. So, yes, I am a stray Neighbor. I don't belong anywhere."

Yuma fell silent as he finished his explanation. He knew he went through it really fast and likely overwhelmed his friends' brains, but he got it out there. They just needed to process it all now and decide–

There was suddenly a fist digging into his skull again which got Yuma to crack his eyes open to see Kageura standing by his side. Even though he was digging his knuckles into Yuma's hair, he wasn't looking at Yuma as he staring up at the sky, scowling in annoyance.

"I wonder if you will ever develop a brain."

"What?"

"Kuga," Murakami frowned in concern. "You do realize this is your home now, don't you?"

Yuma blinked in surprise. He had said that to Osamu. When he first came here, he never considered he would feel so comfortable here, but as the months went by and he began to open up more to his friends, which was something the Mimic incidents forced him to do, he started to feel more at peace in this world. He felt so at peace that he felt comfortable enough to admit to Osamu that Tamakoma began to feel like a home to him.

But...

"Do I though?" Yuma said. "I want it to be my home. I want to feel more connected to this place that my father loved so much, but when I first came here and saw how everyone hated Neighbors, I thought I could never fit in." He claimed that he felt at home to Osamu, but the truth was, it didn't matter how he felt. "If people found out I was a Neighbor, would they still accept me and make me feel like I belong?"

"So, you told us to see if we would validate your feelings?" Kageura asked.

"No." Yuma admitted. "I told you because you two of my closest friends here. I want to feel like I truly belong and can call this my home, but I feel like I can't do that if I keep this secret between us."

"Just us?" Murakami asked. "You mentioned Midorikawa earlier."

Yuma nodded. "I told him during the Mimics incident and obviously everyone at Tamakoma knows." He tilted his head to the side, dislodging Kageura's hand. "Obviously the higher ups know too. Along with them, Tachikawa squad, Fuyushima squad, Kazama squad, Arashiyama squad, Miwa squad, Kako-san, and Azuma-san know."

"Did you say Fuyushima squad? Are you saying Toma knows about this?" Kageura demanded.

Yuma pursed his lips. "Well, yes."

Kageura threw his hands up in the air in disbelief as he walked away from Yuma. "I can't believe he's been keeping this from me! From us!" He amended when Murakami shot him a look.

"A Neighbor in Border is no joke, Kage. It sounds like a confidential secret so Toma couldn't just tell you." Murakami scolded.

Kageura scoffed and kicked at some broken stone from the pathway. "The worse person in that list is Miwa. If he knows, it's no wonder you didn't feel welcome in..." He trailed back, eyes widening in shock as he whipped back around to stare at Yuma.

"What? Are you still processing that I said I'm a Neighbor?" Yuma asked. He thought that Kageura had recovered from the shock. When Kageura knocked his fist against Yuma's head, it had caused Yuma's heart to soar. The hit had been a familiar feeling so to Yuma it had felt like Kageura's way of showing his acceptance of Yuma despite everything.

"You said before that you got into a fight with Miwa squad before you joined Border." Kageura said.

Yuma blinked. He told them that months ago. The fight happened even longer ago. What did it matter now? "Yes."

"Your captain said it was his fault." Kageura continued slowly. "And you and Miwa squad gave us the story. Your side effect didn't go off at all during that conversation." It was right when Yuma told them about his side effect and how his eyes turned black when he heard lies. His side effect never went off in that story they gave. "But I got this feeling you guys were lying now that we know about this, but your side effect didn't activate then."

"That's because we didn't lie about what happened. We told the truth of what happened." Yuma said. "Everything we said was true. It was just said it way that twisted when certain things happened. Basically, some things were told out of order, but that didn't make what we said a lie."

"You even said in the conversation that they attacked you because Miwa squad thought a humanoid Neighbor was here." Murakami realized. They had told them the full story of what happened between Yuma and Miwa squad, but twisted it in a way to make it seem like Miwa squad was wrong in their belief that Yuma was a Neighbor and none of them had even questioned it back then because the A-Ranks all covered for Yuma.

It had been there.

Right in front of their faces and they still missed it.

Murakami felt so stupid for not questioning it more, but when so many people were covering for someone and saying the story was true, why would he question anything?

"We might be idiots." Kageura groaned, rubbing at his eyes as he voiced what he knew both he and Murakami were thinking. "It always felt like something was missing from what we heard about how you got your injuries. It was the fact that it didn't happen in this world. It even fills in missing pieces of the puzzle that I didn't realize were there."

Yuma hummed in agreement. That was the point. When all of this ended up getting revealed back during the Mimic incident, Yuma and the others were still able to spin the story in a way that it didn't reveal stuff about his Neighbor status. Even when he was at death's door, that was still something Yuma chose to keep quiet. If he was going to reveal it, he wanted it to be his choice with a clear head.

It seemed to be going well so far. While Murakami and Kageura seemed to break a bit, they weren't falling into a fit of rage like Miwa did and trying to shoot him. They seemed more invested in trying to piece all the clues that they didn't' realize were there together to form a complete picture.

"Kuga, one more thing." Murakami said, bringing Yuma out of his thoughts.

"Hmm?"

This time, to Yuma's surprise, it was Murakami who dug his fist into Yuma's head.

"It doesn't matter who you are. Not everyone is going to accept you. That's not just true of Neighbors. You can be one hundred percent from this world and people might not like you. Miwa doesn't only hold hatred for Neighbors. There are people he doesn't like here as well. Regardless of that fact, that doesn't make this place any less home for those people. If you feel at home here, then it's your home. It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks." Murakami lectured.

Yuma felt a smile grow on his face. Murakami's words were nice, but there was something that made Yuma feel even warmer inside. Murakami wouldn't have said that if he was mad about the Neighbor thing. He was saying it as a friend who wanted to reassure him.

"So, you don't care?" Yuma asked.

Kageura let out a frustrated growl. He spun around, getting ready to whack Yuma again, but his hand stalled above his head. His hand uncurled from a fist and fell onto those white locks with a sigh. "Neighbor or not, it doesn't change the fact that you're fun to fight against. Stop worrying so much about unimportant stuff, Kuga. You should be focused on your upcoming surgery."

"Oh," Yuma grinned and clapped his hands together once as he twisted away from his friends. He was so happy that they accepted with pretty much no fuss. They were surprised for sure, but once the initial shock wore off, they seemed more concerned about talking about how dumb they were for not noticing. Other people might not realize because they weren't close to Yuma, but Murakami and Kageura were two of his closest friends and hung out with Yuma a lot. They would be upset they missed the obvious signs. "And one more thing."

"What now?" Kageura groaned, not sure he could handle any more surprises that Yuma threw at them.

"The surgery I'm going for is actually in the Neighborhood."

Murakami simply snorted. "Yeah, somehow that is less surprising than learning you are a Neighbor."

"Of course it is." Kageura planted his hand on Yuma's head and shook it around. "This right here is a Trion body. No way there is a surgery outside of Border in this world that can help him and since his text said he was leaving for a surgery, it has to be in the Neighborhood." They themselves had been looking for something to help their friend while on the away mission. They accepted a long time ago that the solution to Yuma's problem would either be from Border or the Neighborhood.

"You know, you call Kuga an idiot all the time." Murakami muttered, covering his eyes with his hand. "But maybe this whole time, we've been the idiots and Kuga has been the smart one with the way he directs a conversation so we don't realize he is a Neighbor."

"And all his idiotic nonsense is him having grown up in the Neighborhood, a place known for wars. His idiotic nonsense is just a lack of understanding of this world." Kageura groaned, collapsing back on the stairs and falling back to stare up at the sky in misery as he realized how stupid they truly were.

Yuma raised a brow at the miserable looks his friends had adopted. Were those looks because they realized how naive Yuma was about this world or because of how oblivious they had been this whole time?

"It's not like Kuga was the one to one up us this whole time with his misdirects." Murakami pointed out. "He had the help of half the A-Ranks and Tamakoma to distract everyone."

"I like the way you think."

Yuma rolled his eyes, smiling fondly at his friends. "It really doesn't bother you."

"Didn't we just say that, dumbass?" Kageura didn't hold back this time as he stood up just he could smack Yuma on the head.

"So rough." Yuma whined. "What are you going to do when I have my real body back?"

"You can handle a bit of roughhousing, Kuga." Kageura scoffed.

"Maybe not at first." Murakami warned. "We don't know what state Kuga will be in after his surgery. Give him some time to recover."

Kageura grumbled, but relented as he raised his hands in surrender. If he didn't, he just knew Murakami would become a protective watchdog and not let him within five feet of Yuma when he came back.

Yuma stared up at the temple, smiling. It seemed that this temple was becoming one of good luck for him. He has had so many private, secret conversations here and they always turned out well for him. No one ever rejected him here.

It was like...

Yuma reached into his pocket and pulled out the amulet he got last night. He stared down at it in consideration.

"Is that the omamori you got at Kage's stand last night?" Murakami asked surprised. He didn't think Yuma would have kept that after he received it since it seemed like he thought the idea of omamori was silly when they told him about it.

"Yeah."

"Be sure to take it with you when you leave tomorrow."

Yuma glanced over at Kageura in surprise.

"Don't give me that look, Kuga! That surgery is dangerous, right? Take your omamori with you. It will bring you good luck."

Yuma looked back down at the omamori. He wasn't sure how much he believed in luck, but his friends believed in omamori. They couldn't come to Galopoula with him, but he could take the amulet with him. He supposed it could be like they were with him in spirit. It was the best he could ask for in this situation.

This was the physical manifestation of his friends' prayers for his safe return.