Light Shines Anew
Chapter 32: Arashiyama Jun
Osamu stared down in concern at seeing Yuma lying on one of the benches with a wet cloth over his eyes. "What happened?"
"He got a headache and almost collapsed." Shiori explained as she gently threaded her fingers through Yuma's hair. She wasn't sure Yuma was even aware she was doing it. She didn't think he was asleep, but he wasn't completely here either.
"You should have told us." Osamu said.
Shiori shook her head. "What would telling you have accomplished? Jin-san said Yuma-kun isn't fully recovered yet. He just needs to take it easy."
"He has been taking it easy. He was just standing down here." Hyuse said, staring down at his partner with a frown. His dumbass partner couldn't be left alone for five minutes. "What were you two doing while we were training?"
"Just looking at one of our Rank Wars from last season and talking." Shiori replied, staring at Yuma in concern. She didn't think looking at Rank Wars would cause him to just collapse. She just thought it would help Yuma to see some proof that Tamakoma-2 was his team. His side effect would have let him know they were telling the truth about it, but even with that, seeing it would really help solidify the fact for him. At least, that was how she saw it. She never imagined it would hurt him. "It came out of nowhere."
"I doubt it was from his Trion prosthetics." Hyuse said. "Those might cause him some pain as he is trying to get used to them still, but it shouldn't hurt his head and cause him to be unaware, especially for this long."
Yuma kicked out a foot towards where the voice was coming from, but because of short legs, he missed hitting Hyuse. "I'm not unaware, Hyuse."
"You were before. Are you feeling better, Yuma-kun?" Shiori asked.
Yuma sat up which knocked Shiori's hand off of his head and let the cool cloth fall into his lap. He rubbed the back of his hand across his forehead to wipe off some of the excess water from the cloth. "Yeah, the headache dimmed a bit. Sorry about that, Shiori-chan."
"Don't worry about it. I'm just glad you're okay." Shiori said.
"But, do you know what happened?" Osamu asked, eyes shining with concern.
Yuma massaged his temple, frowning down at his lap. "A memory? I think it was a memory, but it was all blurry. I couldn't make out things too clearly."
"A memory? Really?" Shiori grinned at Yuma. "Even if it wasn't clear, that's great, Yuma-kun. It means your memory can recover. It seems Jin-san was right about you just needing more time to recover from the surgery and being in a familiar location."
Yuma would disagree heavily with it being great that his memories could be recovered. If it was just going to blurry memories coupled with a headache every time, he did not see it as being worth it. He understood how everyone wanted his memories to return so he would remember them and everything would make sense to Yuma again, but he didn't see the point if everything was going to come back blurry. He wasn't really remembering anything. It was just painful, confusing flashes in his head that didn't make any sense. If the pieces didn't connect in his head, he didn't consider them to mean anything to him.
And they weren't connecting.
The blank puzzle in his head wasn't having anything form in it with these blurry, headache inducing flashes of memories. They were just there to cause him pain.
"If you're going to remember something, can't you remember something useful that will help us in a fight?" Hyuse suggested.
Yuma rolled his eyes. "I can't control what attacks my brain."
It seemed that despite some changes in Yuma, other things stayed the same. Osamu did not know why his friend needed to describe getting flashes of memories as an attack. It made it sound horrible when getting memories back was supposed to be a great thing. At the very least, this told Osamu that even when he was a child, Yuma had always been blunt with a sharp tongue.
"Sure you can. What caused the memory to attack you to start with?" Hyuse asked.
Osamu groaned and buried his face in his hands. He should have known Hyuse was just going to go along with this. It had to be a product of being raised in the Neighborhood. "Weren't you listening last night, Hyuse? We can't force the memories to come back."
"If we know what caused the flash this time, we can replicate it." Hyuse argued.
"I don't know what caused it." Yuma interjected quickly as he didn't want the two to argue about this, but also because he didn't want Hyuse to get any ideas. He was not going to seek out ways to give himself more pounding headaches.
Hyuse tsked in annoyance, but Osamu was giving Yuma a weird look. Yuma didn't know enough about Osamu to know what the look meant though. For that reason, just for a moment, Yuma and Osamu just stared at each other with frowns. The staring contest didn't last long though as Osamu sighed and looked away without saying anything. Whatever the look meant, Yuma got the feeling that it was caused by Osamu knowing he lied about not knowing what caused the memory flashback to hit him. If that was true, Yuma appreciated that Osamu didn't call him out on the lie.
*L*S*A*
"Are you just going to hang around in the top tier of B-Rank for the whole season?" Arafune asked as he dropped his tray on the table and sat down across from Murakami.
Murakami smirked as he looked up from his lunch. "Why? Miss me in the mid-tiers? I thought you would be glad to be rid of me."
Arafune scoffed, but it was mostly in amusement. "I wouldn't mind the challenge of fighting you again in a match."
"We can fight in solo rank wars any time then."
Arafune shook his head.
Murakami paused in eating his lunch to stare at Arafune in suspicion. Something about the look on his friend's face seemed to be telling him that his friend was hiding something. Considering he was talking about the Rank Wars, it was likely he had something he wanted to try in combat, but didn't want to reveal it in a solo rank war and he wanted to use it against Murakami to try to defeat him.
A chuckle escaped Murakami. "If you want to fight me that bad, then how about you come up to the top tier of B-Rank? I'll gladly face off against you then, but I won't let my team fall in the ranks this season."
Arafune raised a brow. "Just this season?"
"Well, I want my team to stay high up in the ranks. I just find it to be more important this season." Murakami replied.
"Why?" Arafune asked confused. All the teams were constantly trying to reach the top of the ranks. It was all about a sense of accomplishment to see how high they could all take their teams.
"Kuga." Murakami replied simply, which only made Arafune more confused. "So, either his team will be able to maintain their top rank or my squad and Kageura squad overtake them which will force Kuga into helping his team rise in the ranks once more when he returns. Either way, it is bound to excite him. Kage and I made the decision to rise high in the ranks, whether it be team ranks or solo ranks to force Kuga to have to fight even harder to catch up to us."
Well, Murakami was working on keeping his team high in the ranks. He was already high in the solo rankings, but Kageura still had to work his way back up in the solo rankings after losing so many points last years. He had been fighting a lot more agents in solo rankings to get those points back lately though.
Arafune stared in surprise before he was chuckling. "That is why Kage is dragging so many agents into solo rank wars?" With Kage's side effect, he had been making steady work of getting his points back lately. Anyone in the solo rank booths room when Kageura was looking for an opponent was not safe. He had been dragging anyone he could get his hands on into a fight. It was really weird since most of the time, Kageura spent his time either doing team training or solo training with Murakami and Yuma.
"Yeah."
"Kuga was already going to be so far behind by having to leave for his surgery. You didn't have to add salt to the wound." Arafune said.
Murakami shrugged. "He'll find it fun racing to catch up with us in the solo rank wars."
Arafune shrugged in reply. "Well, you're closer friends with him than I am. If that is what you think he'll enjoy, who am I to say otherwise? But," He learned forward, grinning at his friend. "Shouldn't you try something new to really throw him off?"
"Something new?"
"It's one thing to continue to train and get stronger. What about adding a new move or technique to your skill set? That will really throw him off." Arafune explained. "Just imagine the look on his face the first time you use a new move against him."
The image Arafune created passed Murakami's mind and got him snorting as he imagined Yuma's surprise before it shifted into that hungry, eager look he got when he wanted to beat whatever new thing Murakami threw at him. That eagerness to pass Murakami was why he enjoyed fighting Yuma. Yuma never got mad when he lost a lot and just laughed it off. He would then come back a few days later with something new to try to beat Murakami's new moves. When Murakami's side effect allowed him to figure out how to defeat Yuma's new move, Yuma would then double down and try to use his new tactics to beat through Murakami's defense of his new move. It was a lot of back and forth on both of their parts and they both enjoyed the challenge immensely.
"Even if you say that, there is only so much I can do with Kogetsu. It's not as flexible as Scorpion." Murakami replied. Scorpion wasn't a blade that worked for him, but he was always impressed by the many variations of the blade he saw all the Scorpion users use.
"Heh," Arafune smirked. "You really are too rigid in your thinking, Kō."
"There you go again. Treating me like a foil." Murakami replied.
"Maybe if you thought outside the box more, I wouldn't." Arafune retorted easily. "You would think after hanging out with Kuga so much or from having Betsuyaku on your team, you would develop some creativity in your thinking."
Murakami met Arafune's stare with a thoughtful frown. Arafune seemed to really want to push his buttons today as if he had something he wanted to say, but at the same time, he didn't quite want to share it. "If you want have something you want to say, then say it already."
"Hmm, nope. Think on it." Arafune replied.
"Did you come over here just to annoy me?"
"You're the one who came to HQ today."
"Excuse me for wanting to do some solo training. Why don't we take this to the booths?"
"Sounds good. We haven't actually gotten to have a match together since our teams went at it a few weeks ago and you abandoned the B-Rank mid-tier."
Murakami hadn't even realized it, but Arafune was right. It had been about a few weeks since the first match of the B-Rank Wars and since then, he had been so busy with team training and some solo training with Kageura and A-Ranks. It wasn't that he was ignoring training with the other B-Rank Attackers. They had all just been busy and then Yuma had started to get depressed and upset which caused arguments with Kageura and somehow, Murakami became Kageura's babysitter to keep him from going on a rampage in HQ because of his aggravation at Yuma.
"Then, we definitely have to fight." Murakami said. The B-Rank Wars were team matches, and when one-vs-one fights happened in them, they all had to be on the lookout for their other opponents in the match or the chance of getting sniped. Arafune was horrible to fight because when he switched to his sword, he had two snipers to back him up in team matches. If he was using his sword, it was because he wanted to slow his opponent down to give Hokari and Hanzaki time to get in position and blow a hole in someone's head. It would be nice to have a solo match with his old mentor without having to focus on anything else going on around him or worry about a sniper trying to fill him with holes.
*L*S*A*
There was definitely something going on. That was something Arashiyama had already been aware of all week though. From the moment Jin told him he was going to check on Yuma and then a couple days after that, Jin, along with multiple A-Rank squads, disappeared from HQ. It wasn't as noticeable Jin was gone as his base was at Tamakoma, but it did become noticeable when their top agents weren't seen for days, even in passing.
Arashiyama was no idiot. He was able to put it together quite easily that they went with Jin to go to Galopoula. It made sense to Arashiyma. It was only natural that the higher ups wouldn't want Jin taking the away ship to go to Galopoula alone. They would want him to have backup in case anything went wrong.
However, it was clear nothing went wrong to delay the team's return as Arashiyama had started to see the members of Tachikawa squad, Fuyushima squad, and Kazama squad in passing again. They all looked relatively fine, but that wasn't what was bothering Arashiyama.
The problem was that if they were all back, what about Yuma? The point of Jin wanting to go to Galopoula was because he wanted to check up on Yuma to figure out what his side effect was trying to tell him. That meant that Yuma's surgery was done and he was in a recovery period. It had been three weeks since he initially left for the surgery. Arashiyama didn't know what happened in those three weeks, but the surgery had to have happened a while ago. He couldn't live in the hospital the whole time until he was at one hundred percent as that wouldn't be very comfortable for him. Once he recovered enough, surely he could come home and finish his recovery here in Japan.
Based on Jin's quick departure to Galopoula and his quick return, Jin didn't see a reason to stay in Galopoula that long. He wanted to check on Yuma, but Arashiyama didn't believe he would go there just to check on Yuma for a couple days and then leave again. He went there with the intention to bring Yuma home. If he didn't intend to bring Yuma home, he would have stayed in Galopoula longer.
Considering all that, Arashiyama was left with rising concern. The trip to Galopoula was done in secret, but Jin's return was too silent. So silent in fact that Arashiyama wasn't even sure when the away team came home. He just started to see the top squads around and realized they were back.
If the purpose of the trip to Galopoula was to bring Yuma home, why was the return so silent? Where was the excitement from Yuma's friends at getting to see him again and learn that his surgery was a success?
Either Jin really did leave Yuma in Galopoula after only spending a couple days with him and he was keeping things silent or whatever was causing Jin to worry came to fruition.
It was for that reason that Arashiyama found himself at Tamakoma. Despite being here multiple times, Arashiyama was not the type to just barge into someone's else base which was why he was finding himself knocking on the door. He wasn't even sure if someone would hear the knocking. The Tamakoma base was originally a lab to test the water quality which meant it wasn't designed to have guests knocking on the door and being heard in the building.
Tamakoma really needed to get an alert system so they could know when someone was the door.
To Arashiyama's surprise though, the door was opened a few seconds after he knocked and his surprise skyrocketed to a new level to find himself staring at a pair of familiar red eyes coupled with unfamiliar black hair. The black hair and the flesh scars and black scars on his face were the only things different though. Everything else clearly told him who it was.
"Yuma!" Arashiyama said, shocked but pleased to see the younger boy. "It's good to see you're back."
Yuma only stared at him with a frown for a second before glancing back into the building behind him.
Arashiyama's smile immediately slipped off of his face. He wasn't sure if Yuma realized it, but that silence spoke volumes to Arashiyama. Yuma normally would greet him with a grin, but the silence was a very telling sign that something was wrong. Whatever it was that caused Jin his concern seemed to be warranted.
Whatever Yuma looked at behind seemed to not be helpful as he turned back to face Arashiyama, brows furrowed. "Hello. I'm Yu–argh–Kuga Yuma. Who are you?"
Arashiyama's heart sank to his stomach as he stared at those curious, but wary eyes. He hadn't even noticed the caution in Yuma's eyes when he first opened the door. He was just relieved to see that Yuma was back home and walking around. "Hello, Yuma. I'm Arashiyama Jun. You should be careful about talking to strangers."
"But you're not a stranger, are you? You said my name the moment I opened the door so clearly I'm supposed to know you." Yuma explained.
Arashiyama chuckled. That logic and awareness around him was very much Yuma like. He wasn't sure of how much Yuma had forgotten, but it was clear he had forgotten at least everything Border related. "Yes, we do know each other."
"Are you a Border agent?" Yuma asked curiously. "Is that why you're here?"
"I'm a Border agent with HQ. I was looking for Jin." Arashiyama explained.
Yuma glanced into the building behind him again. "I don't know where he is at. I saw him this morning, but that was hours ago."
"What about Kirie?"
"Kirie?" Yuma repeated. He knew he heard that name somewhere, but he couldn't quite place it.
"You call her Konami? She's my cousin." Arashiyama explained.
"Oh!" Yuma's eyes lit up as he recognized the name. Kirie. Konami had said it last night when she introduced herself, but Yuma quickly ran out of the room after the introduction and no one else used 'Kirie' for her. "Konami. I don't know where she is either."
"You don't know?" Arashiyama asked surprised. He didn't think Konami or Jin would just leave Tamakoma when Yuma came home recently and had a case of amnesia.
Yuma shrugged. "I was sleeping all day and then Hyuse dragged me downstairs to show me the training rooms here so I haven't seen Jin or Konami for a while."
Arashiyama raised a brow as the lack of honorifics coming from Yuma, but didn't comment on it. It was strange that Yuma dropped them, but if Tamakoma wasn't pushing the issue, Arashiyama wasn't going to butt in. "Alright, can I come–"
"Jun! I thought I heard a knock."
Well, that made things easier.
Arashiyama smiled Konami behind Yuma. "Hey, Kirie. I came to talk to Jin."
Konami looked hesitant for a moment as her eyes fell to Yuma, but after a moment, she sighed. "Well, you already saw Yuma so there is no point in refusing you."
"So, you are hiding him?" Arashiyama asked.
Konami gently nudged Yuma to the side so Arashiyama could come in. "I suppose we are. Jin wants Yuma to get comfortable being here and see if we can jog his memories before we introduce him to HQ agents, so you can't tell people you saw him!"
Arashiyama chuckled. "I figured Jin was doing something secretive when he and the top teams didn't make any mention of the away mission they went on. They went silently and came back just as silently."
Konami froze in leading Arashiyama and Yuma to the kitchen. She slowly turned on her heel to look at her cousin. "Are you telling me you know Jin was going to Galopoula to see Yuma before he left?"
"Were you not aware?" Arashiyama asked just as slowly back. He never mentioned what Jin told him the other day to his cousin because he tended to not bring up information that was clearly meant to be discrete. "He made a comment the other day to me, Ikoma, and Kakizaki that he was going to see Yuma."
While Konami's brow twitched in annoyance at the names Arashiyama gave, Yuma's head just spun as more and more names kept being added to everything that was going on. If they kept throwing new names at him, he wasn't going to be able to keep track of what was going on any longer. He just knew this was going to be an issue when Jin warned him of just how many people were employed in Border.
"Ikoma-san and Kakizaki-san are not meant to know that Yuma was in the Neighborhood." Konami hissed.
"They don't. Neither Jin or I mentioned the Neighborhood when Jin said he was going to visit Yuma. I don't know what they are thinking on it, but they didn't question anything." Arashiyama replied. It was likely they just didn't want to think too hard about where Yuma went. They weren't going to question anything and remain in the dark.
Ignorance is a bliss after all.
Not knowing meant they didn't have to get mad or upset at what Tamakoma and Border's higher ups decided to do.
"And why did you know Jin was going to Galopoula when I didn't know?" Konami added annoyed. "Jin just disappeared without telling us what he was doing! And then he shows back up with Yuma by his side." She shot a glare towards her cousin. "Somehow you keep learning stuff that involves Tamakoma before me."
Arashiyama shrugged. He couldn't help that Yuma and Jin both confided in him. He was used to it from Jin as they were good friends, but it was a surprise when Yuma let Arashiyama in and told him about the surgery. Taking a moment to think about it, Arashiyama did find it strange that Yuma confided in him over Konami, who was his mentor. Maybe it was just a matter of timing. Arashiyama just happened to come across Yuma when he was very depressed and it just came out.
"I can't help what Jin and Yuma decide to tell me."
"Can I ask a question?" Yuma asked, innocently raising a hand into the air to get their attention.
"Go for it." Konami replied as she pushed the door to the living area opened and led the way in.
Yuma followed Konami into the room, but kept looking over his shoulder to look at Arashiyama. "So, when Jin and the others were telling me about Japan, they said it is more respectful to call people by their last names unless you are good friends with them. Are we close?" Yuma asked, motioning between him and Arashiyama as he said this.
"Hmm, we are friends, but not close enough friends that we would use first names. I only use your first name without a honorific because I know you lived in the Neighborhood your whole life so I thought that would be what makes you more comfortable as it is what you are used to." Arashiyama explained. "If I was wrong and you want me to use your last name, just tell me."
Yuma shook his head. "No, you were right. I prefer my first name. I'm just trying to figure out everything out. Your world is so complicated with the names and honorifics."
Arashiyama nodded, shooting a smile towards the younger boy. "I understand. You always called me Arashiyama-san. To make it easier on you, just address everyone by their last name with san attached, Yuma. If that is the wrong form of address that you use, they'll correct you."
"They better. No one better try to take advantage of Yuma when he is confused and get him to address them differently." Konami growled, feeling quite defensive of her confused student. She was too used to people lying to her to trick her as a joke. She was horrible at lying, but she tried to lie to trick people back as revenge. However, she did not find it funny trying to trick a kid with amnesia who was already confused and loss.
A bowl was set on the counter near where the group came to a talk. "I don't think they could anyway with Yuma's side effect protecting him from people's manipulation tactics." Jin butted into the conversation. "Hey, Arashiyama. I wasn't expecting you to visit."
Arashiyama stared at the assortment of fruit that was cut up with some having toothpicks in it. He picked up one of the toothpicks and pulled out a piece of pineapple that was cut into the shape of a stare. "Sure you weren't." He said dryly.
"Jin's a liar." Yuma said.
"That he is." Arashiyama agreed before taking a bite of his pineapple.
Jin gave Yuma a strange look. As Yuma got more comfortable with them, he expected Yuma to start calling them out on their lies again, but he was expecting his catchphrase to come back. Instead of calling Yuma out on it, he grabbed a toothpick from the bowl and pulled out a star shaped piece of pineapple and held it out to Yuma. "Pineapple?"
Yuma stared at the fruit, blinking. He looked at Arashiyama, who seemed to be enjoying his own pineapple. Shrugging, Yuma took the fruit from Jin. "Why do you have star shaped fruit?"
"It's not actually star shaped. Jin just cut it that way." Konami explained, snatching a strawberry from the bowl and plopping it into her mouth.
"Hmm?" Yuma spent another second admiring the fruit before taking a bite of it. His expression twisted for a moment as he tasted the sour taste, but underneath the first impression of tartness, it turned sweet. As he chewed the fruit, he gave the pineapple in his hand a strange look. He wasn't sure what he was expecting when Jin handed him the slice of pineapple, but this taste was not it.
"So, what did you come here for, Arashiyama?" Jin turned his attention to his friend.
"I was trying to figure out what you were hiding, but got that answer quite quickly when Yuma answered the door." Arashiyama explained as he took another bite of his pineapple.
"Why would you assume I was hiding anything anyway?" Jin asked.
Arashiyama, very aggressively for him, pointed at Yuma. "The evidence speaks for itself."
"It?" Yuma asked offended, taking his eyes off his star pineapple to shoot a frown at Arashiyama. Just because he was curious about the pineapple, that did not mean he wasn't listening to the conversation that was going on around him.
"Himself." Arashiyama corrected before looking back at Jin with a frown. "You told me you were going to see him and then you don't say anything when you come back. I had a feeling that something was up."
"My bad." Jin replied, grimacing. It was something he saw coming. Yuma's friends at HQ were constantly asking the Tamakoma agents if they had heard anything about Yuma yet. They wanted to know if Yuma's surgery had gone well and when he would come home. "We've been overwhelming Yuma with information the past few days. I don't have any malicious intent in keeping Yuma's well-being from his friends. I simply want Yuma to have the chance to settle in and get comfortable before adding the chaos of HQ into the mix."
Arashiyama was about to argue that the agents would understand the situation, and thus, they wouldn't swarm Yuma. The words died in his throat and his mouth shut with an audible click when he remembered who Yuma was friends with. Someone like Murakami would understand and keep his distance until Yuma was ready. Someone like Kageura was a completely different story and it wouldn't be fair to Kageura squad or Murakami for them to constantly be running interference with Kageura until Yuma was ready to be reintroduced to his friends.
"I understand why you're keeping it a secret he is back in Mikado City, but I do not agree with you not even sending a message to his friends, his friends who have been worried about his surgery for weeks, that he at least survived it." Arashiyama argued.
While Konami looked like she agreed with what her cousin was saying, she didn't voice it out loud. Instead, she grabbed the bowl of fruit and ushered Yuma to the adjacent counter where they could sit on the bar stools and enjoy the fresh fruit while being a safe distance from the conversation but still in hearing range.
Yuma, for his part, just let himself be pulled along by Konami as he was too busy staring at Arashiyama in wonderment.
Jin grimaced at Arashiyama's argument. As usual with him, Arashiyama always knew the right thing to say. There was a reason why Arashiyama was the captain of the Public Relations team. "His friends have stopped asking about his surgery as much. Bringing it up now will open the floodgates for a bunch of questions when we should be focused on helping Yuma recover his memories."
"They stopped asking because they got disheartened by the lack of news and are now thinking the worst!"
Yuma's eyes bounced back and forth between the two older males in wonder and confusion. "Why?"
Konami paused in tossing another strawberry in her mouth. "Why what?"
"Why do they all care so much about how my surgery went?"
It wasn't just Konami who stared at him confused and worried at the question. Jin and Arashiyama put their argument on hold to shoot the same looks at Yuma.
None of it made any sense to Yuma. All this care and concern all these people kept giving Yuma was so strange to him. The only person to ever show such open concern for Yuma before had been Oyaji and it was always something Yuma tried to reject by showing he was strong.
That no one ever had to worry about him.
That Yuma could handle himself.
How badly did he fail at showing his strength if this many people were worried about him?
"Because it's natural to be concerned about your friends." Konami said. She gently took Yuma's hand in hers and gave it a light squeeze. "People care about you, Yuma, and when they heard you were leaving for a surgery that could kill you, they got scared for your safety."
There was so much honesty mixed in with the concern in Konami's eyes. Looking at it, Yuma felt like it would swallow him up and drown him. Despite that, Yuma couldn't look away from them.
No, that wasn't right.
It wasn't that he "couldn't look away."
He didn't want to look away.
Something warm was spending through Yuma, lifting up his spirit.
Yuma hated having his dad worry about him because he wanted his dad to put his energy and attention in battle to focus on himself and keeping himself alive. While he did that, Yuma would keep himself alive in return. Yugo didn't need to spare him a thought in combat was the idea Yuma was going for.
'Protect yourself by yourself, right?'
And yet, the open concern, the complete honesty...
All of it from strangers-friends was completely foreign to him, but something in Yuma was welcoming it. It wasn't drowning him. It was wrapping around him like a safety blanket and providing him with much needed comfort.
As comforting as that thought was as he realized what he was feeling, Yuma had no idea of where it even came from. These people were strangers to him. Despite their claims of being friends with him, that wasn't enough for him to be comfortable with them.
Maybe it was because of how open and true they were all being with him that was making him lower his guard? With Oyaji's side effect protecting him, he didn't have to doubt their sincerity for even a second.
Yuma's hand twisted in Konami's. She seemed to think he wanted to break free so she went to let go, but before she could withdraw her hand, Yuma quickly turned his hand over and returned her grip with his own. He stared at their interlocked hands. He didn't know how old Konami was, but he didn't think she was that much older than him, and yet, her hands were much bigger than Yuma's. Seeing the difference in their hand sizes, it really made it hard for Yuma to believe he was really supposed to be sixteen.
Konami stared at Yuma in surprise as she hadn't expected him to return any gesture as he still didn't quite know them like they knew him. "Yuma?"
"Those people at HQ," Yuma turned to face Arashiyama. "Do I like them?"
"You like most of them." Arashiyama replied carefully as he knew that Yuma hung out with a lot of different agents at HQ, but he didn't know everyone he was friends with. He was sure there were people in HQ he didn't like or those that didn't like him. The biggest person that came to Arashiyama's mind was Miwa, but he wasn't going to start that conversation with Yuma.
Yuma hummed thoughtfully at that, head tilted in consideration.
"It's not the homecoming I wanted for him." Jin said, turning his attention back to Arashiyama. "I'm sure all of his friends and Yuma were dreaming of him bouncing back into Japan with a huge grin and immediately making his rounds to show everyone he is still alive and kicking."
"I never dreamed that." Yuma replied.
Jin gave a small huff of amusement. "I meant before you went under for the surgery and still had all your memories."
Yuma shrugged. If that was the case, he couldn't really say anything since he didn't remember what he was thinking back. Honestly, he was still trying to figure what made him agree to the surgery in the first place. What reason would he have to want to fight for his life with a dangerous surgery when his father couldn't do the same? His father died for a disobedient son when he shouldn't have had to. The one who made the mistake and met the assassin was Yuma. He was the one who should have to pay for his disobedience.
But...instead...
Yugo came and stepped into Yuma's path and trade places with his son.
Yugo sealed Yuma's dying body inside the Black Trigger which bought Yuma time to find the people who would search for a way to save Yuma completely.
But, why?
Why did Yuma deserve to live when he got Yugo killed?
"–no one that Yuma is here?"
Yuma tuned back into the conversation just in time to hear Jin asking Arashiyama something about him.
Arashiyama's jaw tightened up, no smile present on his normally friendly face. "Fine. Yuma's presence here in Japan will be kept a secret for now, but stop keeping the success of his surgery a secret. His friends deserve to know that he is alive."
"Agreed." Konami butted into the conversation, glaring at Jin as she tightened her grip on Yuma's hand. "I told you to tell me if anything happened, Jin! I told you to not carry that burden by yourself and you completely ignored me! You blindsided us all with Yuma's return last night. You cannot do that to all his other friends. It's how you're going to get punched in the face."
Jin felt like he was being ganged up by the cousins. He did understand where they were coming from. All of Yuma's friends had been worried about his condition for weeks, but they couldn't do anything about it so they were forced to go on with their lives. They had to train. They had to continue the B-Rank Wars. They had to go on defense duty. They had to go out and enjoy their summer vacation.
They had to move on.
When Jin proposed the surgery to Yuma, it was with the intent of saving his friend's future. When he proposed the surgery, he was looking forward to the day when Yuma would step back into Japan with a huge smile on his face and jump back into living the carefree life that Yugo wanted for Yuma if he ever died. Yugo wanted Yuma to come to Japan if he died because he believed Border, Mogami, would take on the role of watching over his son.
Since Mogami was dead, Jin took on the responsibility of looking after Yuma. Rindo, Shinoda, and Kido agreed to look after Yuma in Border to repay their deceased friend who did so much for them. Jin took on the role of Yuma's loving senpai-big brother in place of his mentor who couldn't fulfil the role of guardian that Yugo had shoved on him without ever telling him.
As that loving senpai, Jin put so much effort into finding a solution to Yuma's injuries. He had been looking forward to the day when Yuma could be free of his impending death. When Jin went to Galopoula and was met with those blank eyes staring at him, his heart plummeted. The dream of bringing Yuma home and introducing a Yuma free of dying had been snatched away from them.
The current present of introducing Yuma to his friends and having them be happy only for those smiles to disappear when they were met with Yuma's suspicious eyes was disheartening. Keeping Yuma at Tamakoma wasn't only for Yuma. Jin didn't want to see those upset looks. Seeing them in his visions was already bad enough.
"I was expecting a punch from you, Konami." Jin found himself saying.
Konami scoffed. "I was one step away from punching you, but I got so blindsided by Yuma appearing next to you and then you pulling him away from me that I forgot to hit you." She shot a look towards her friend. "I can hit you now if you like?"
"No, I'm good." Jin replied.
"Jin," Arashiyama demanded his friend's attention back on him. "I haven't heard a confirmation yet."
Jin didn't need to confirm anything. Arashiyama couldn't do anything if Jin didn't tell the agents that Yuma's surgery was a success. If Arashiyama tried to counter him by saying he would tell them that Yuma was back, that would only hurt Yuma since he wasn't ready for all his friends' attention so Arashiyama would never do that.
However, Jin wasn't a jerk. He wouldn't throw that in Arashiyama's face. In fact, he wasn't going to throw anything back at his friends because he knew they were right.
Jin made a show of whipping his phone out of his pocket and typing something on it. After a few seconds, he put his phone back in his pocket and stared patiently at Arashiyama. Arashiyama was going to ask what the stare was for, but didn't voice it as he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket.
Seeing as it was apparently his turn, Arashiyama whipped his phone out.
Attackers Group Chat:
Jin: Yuma's surgery was a success. However, he is not ready to come back to Border yet as he is still recovering and has physical therapy.
"Was that so hard?" Arashiyama asked, still staring at his phone.
Midorikawa: HELL YES!
Midorikawa: How much longer until he comes back?
Kageura: About fucking time you got some information.
Kumagai: That's really good to hear.
Murakami: Kage, the swearing is unnecessary.
Yoneya: Awesome! Tell him to hurry up and get back here already!
Murakami: That's really good to hear, Jin-san.
Ikoma: My chance to get revenge draws near!
Arafune: Good. I can't wait to get back to slamming currency lessons into his head.
Obishima: That's wonderful news! Do you think he will return in time to participate in any of the remaining Rank War matches?
Okudera: Hope that it happens. I've actually missed that nuisance in battle.
Oji: Beating Tamakoma-2 just isn't the same without the whole team present.
Midorikawa: You only get to say that when you've actually beaten Yuma-senpai, Oji-san.
"What about the amnesia?" Konami asked as she looked at her own phone to watch the group chat blow up. When she noticed Yuma trying to look at her phone, she angled her phone so they could both look at the group chat. "Are you not going to tell them about that?"
"I don't want to put that concern in their minds right now." Jin admitted. "I want to see if Yuma's memories will return. If they do, we never have to mention this to them." He paused and thought about that. Well, not never. He could bring it up after Yuma's memories recovered as a talking point, but right now, he didn't want to say anything about it. If it seemed like Yuma's memories were going to take a while to recovered, then they will have to bring it up with the agents as Yuma would have to meet them all at some point.
"And what if they don't return?" Konami countered. "We can't keep Yuma hidden in Tamakoma forever."
Jin raised his hands, asking for peace from his loud, very opinionated friend. "We'll deal with that if it comes up, Konami. If I mention amnesia now, it's going to cause a lot of screaming. I would like to avoid that if possible."
Yuma stared at the chat on Konami's phone. It looked like the chat he was reading earlier before he fell asleep. It was taking him a bit longer than Konami to read the messages, but as he did comprehend what was being said, he realized it was an overwhelming output of support and happiness at the success of his surgery.
Except...
Yuma poked Konami's arm.
"What is it, Yuma?" Konami asked.
Yuma pointed at the phone, eyes squinting as he tried to read the chat. "What is this Ikoma person saying?"
"Hmm?" Konami glanced at her phone again before she was rolling her eyes, but she was smiling in fond amusement. "Ikoma-san is talking about the revenge he has been trying to get against you for weeks now."
Yuma's brows furrowed in concern. "Why is a Border agent coming after me?"
"He's not actually coming after you, Yuma." Jin reassured. "He's joking about the fact that you kicked him across a room a few months ago and he hasn't gotten the chance to pay you back for that slight against him."
If anything, that just made Yuma even more confused. Why was he kicking Border agents across a room? If he was doing something like that, clearly Ikoma deserved it, right?
"It's just an inside joke between you two that the rest of us have to suffer through." Konami added.
"An inside joke." Yuma said blankly. That was a new one for him. He never shared a joke with anyone before since he spent so much time traveling. He didn't have time between traveling, training, and studying to make friends and have inside jokes. He didn't get to make friends until he went to Calvaria and met the children of his father's friend. Being that they were in a war when Yuma met them, he didn't get to spend too much time relaxing with them to get the chance to make inside jokes with them.
"It made you laugh and Ikoma rolled with it." Arashiyama said.
Yuma got that they were trying to clarify things for Yuma, but it was honestly making Yuma more confused. It was so strange to him to have these kind of connections with people when he never had something like this before in his life. "Which one is Ikoma?"
"Ikoma-san." Konami corrected. She pulled her hand out of Yuma's and wiggled it at Yuma. "Give me your phone."
A second later, Yuma's phone was slapped into her waiting hand. Konami quickly opened it and sorted through the pictures in Yuma's photo gallery until she found the picture of Ikoma squad to show Yuma.
"Ikoma-san is the one with dark hair in the middle."
Yuma stared at the team dressed in orange. They were holding a banner up to wish him good luck with his surgery. When he first saw this picture, he had been so confused as to what was going on and why such a picture existed in the first place. With context, everything was beginning to make a lot more sense.
He just wished that along with making sense, it would fill in the blank puzzle in his head, but nothing was helping with that. Even the flashes of memories he had gotten had only given him a headache. The memories were too blurry and headache inducing to give him any clarity of what was going on or who he was to these people.
"Am I friends with him?" Yuma asked.
"Hmm?" Konami took a moment to think about that. "I guess you're friendly with him as you guys train together sometimes at HQ, but in terms of someone you hang out with outside of HQ, he isn't on that list."
Yuma took his phone back from Konami and started to swipe through the pictures in the gallery. He had already memorized the pictures while in Galopoula so there was nothing in these pictures that surprised him. However, upon learning that all these people were comrades and friends who wanted him to return to them, Yuma found himself more fascinated by the pictures. He wished he knew their names.
"Perhaps I should leave. I got the answer I was looking for so I should get out of your hair." Arashiyama said. Now knowing that Yuma had amnesia, he didn't want to encroach on his safe space while he was trying to get used to this place.
"You came all this way, Jun. Dinner is approaching so stay and have it with us." Konami replied. "Jin is cooking to make up for skipping out on his day to cook yesterday."
"I wouldn't want to inconvenience you." Arashiyama replied, glancing at Yuma out of the corner of his eyes, but the kid was now completely focused on his phone.
"It's not an inconvenience." Jin replied, also looking at Yuma, but he was smiling when he glanced back at Arashiyama which was all he needed to convey that it was fine. "We have more than enough ingredients to add one more person for dinner tonight."
Arashiyama smiled back in understanding. "Are you preparing anything good?"
"Yosenabe."
"What's yosenabe?" Yuma asked, dragging his face out of his phone at the mention of a new dish. He had only had a few meals in this world, but he loved all of the dishes he tried so far. The food of this place was starting to become one of his favorite things and he was eager to try new dishes.
"Jin's specialty."
"Specialty?" Yuma looked at Konami with a frown. Surely, they all realized at this point that he needed more than a couple words for an answer. He needed a full explanation.
"Tamakoma has a rotation duty for who cooks. Everyone has a specialty that they are really good at cooking. Jin is yosenabe. Mine is curry." Konami explained, grinning at Yuma. "My chicken curry is the best. You claimed it as your favorite meal here."
Well, if Konami was saying it and his side effect wasn't going off, then Konami was telling Yuma the truth about how he really loved her cooking. However... "What is curry and what is yosenabe?"
"We'll introduce you to curry another day. Today is about yosenabe." Jin replied before Konami could start in on her lecture about why her curry was the best. "Yosenabe is a hot pot where I put all the ingredients in it to cook and simmer in the broth until it's time to eat."
Yuma nodded. "Do I like it?"
"I don't think there is a food you've tried here that you haven't liked." Jin replied.
Yuma looked a mix of curious and eager at that. "When do we eat?"
"When I get it done, so let me cook, Yuma. Go play or continue talking with Konami and Arashiyama while I cook." Jin replied.
Arashiyama smiled softly at Yuma's intrigued look. It was a much better look than the one of despair filled with tears that he saw in his squad's room a few weeks ago. Seeing his eagerness to try Japanese food again after he was upset about dying soon and getting lose out on trying all the food this world had to offer really warmed his heart. It was sad that his memories were gone, but at least he was alive so he could experience all the things he hadn't gotten to experience yet. It was a shame, though, that he had to first relearn all the things he already experienced in Japan before his surgery because he forgot them.
New or old things though, it didn't matter.
Yuma would have fun no matter what.