Light Shines Anew
Chapter 33: Jin Yuichi
"Arashiyama-san, I didn't know you were coming over." Osamu greeted with a smile.
"None of us knew he would be showing up." Konami replied before rolling her eyes and shooting a look towards the kitchen where Jin was finishing up dinner. "Well, I'm sure one of us knew and he just decided to not say anything."
Jin rolled his eyes back at her and shot her a smile. "I thought you would enjoy the surprise of your cousin showing up. Everyone likes surprises, don't they?"
Konami scoffed. Surprises were not fun for her because it usually involved a lot of lies that she fell for very easily. Although, even though she hated surprises against her, she wasn't completely against them. She looked over at Yuma and remembered the big grin that spread across his face when he saw his surprise birthday party turned into a summer festival at the insistence of Arashiyama squad. She may hate surprises, but she loved throwing them at other people just to see that look of pure surprise and joy it brought out of them.
"What brought you here?" Osamu asked.
"I needed to talk to Jin." Arashiyama replied. "And I was instead surprised to see Yuma with amnesia."
Osamu grimaced. At least it was Arashiyama and not someone else who showed up here. Of all the agents from HQ, Arashiyama was on the very short list that Osamu would trust with the amnesia secret while they were trying to keep it on the downlow. "Speaking of," He turned to where Yuma was lounging on the couch. "Do you still feel fine? No more headaches?"
Jin twisted around in the kitchen to stare over at the group. "What headache? Did the medicine wear off, Yuma?"
"I'm fine, Jin." Yuma assured before looking towards his 'captain.' "Everything's fine now, Osamu. The headache faded a long time ago."
Osamu gave a sigh of relief. It had been horrifying to walk out of the training room to see Yuma collapsed on a bench. They all knew before Yuma left for the surgery that if the surgery succeeded, then when Yuma came home, there would still be problems. The surgery wasn't going to magically heal all his health issues. It was just going to keep him from dying.
Since they figured this would be the case, they were prepared to be helping Yuma with his recovery. The amnesia really threw a wrench into things, and it was stressful since none of them knew how to handle it, but all of them were willing to work with Yuma on this. They just wanted their friend to be comfortable here.
There was very little that Osamu knew about amnesia, but it had been a surprise to learn that Yuma would get headaches when his mind tried to remember things. It was disheartening to see his friend hurting like that. After not having to feel pain for years, Yuma's body was now attacking him in so many directions. It truly was so unfair.
"Did you not get enough sleep?" Jin asked in concern. He knew Yuma felt bad earlier from the lack of sleep and his prosthetics causing him pain, but he thought he would start to feel better after the nap he took.
"I felt fine, Jin. Hyuse dragged me down to the training room and while I was down there, a memory tried to knock me out." Yuma explained.
A pair of sharp, intrigued eyes landed on Yuma. "That so?" Jin said in a soft tone that was a complete contrast to the look in his eyes. He knew Yuma got a headache on the away ship when his mind tried to remind him of his past, but there was a part of him hoping that the headaches wouldn't happen every time that Yuma's memory tried to recover. He didn't want to see his friend in pain anymore.
Konami glanced at Yuma, but when he didn't seem like he was going to give Jin another response, she turned her attention back to Osamu. "Since he stopped by, Jun is also staying for dinner."
Arashiyama nodded, taking a moment to also glance at Yuma, but since it seemed like the younger boy didn't want to continue to talk about himself, he gave Osamu his attention once more. "Since I'm staying, maybe you can tell me your plan for your next match."
Hyuse scoffed. "As if we would spill Tamakoma secrets to HQ agents."
Arashiyama just laughed. "I'm A-Rank. I have no reason to spill your secrets to the B-Ranks."
"Give it up." Jin suggested, dragging his attention off of Yuma since his young friend didn't seem to want to discuss his headaches. "Tamakoma-2 only lets us in on specific details of their plan when they need help preparing for a certain tactic. They like to surprise all of us with whatever crazy scheme they come up with next."
"Like Chika's Meteor blowing up the field in their last match. None of us expected them to do that." Konami said.
Arashiyama laughed again. "That was a huge shock. It's really impressive to get three kills with one attack."
"Chika-chan did what?" Jin asked amazed.
"That's what you get for leaving for days. You miss everything!" Konami shouted.
The conversation drifted over Yuma, but he felt nothing as he watched Konami berate a laughing Jin while Hyuse rolled his eyes as Arashiyama and Osamu tried to get Konami to relax. He saw it happening, but he felt completely detached from all of it.
According to everyone, Yuma was a Tamakoma agent. If that was so, did that mean he had a role he played in conversations like the one currently happening? What was it? How did he connect in all of this?
A hand came up to gingerly run a finger over his Trion eye. Did Yuma really want to know the answer? Finding out the answer meant dealing with those horrible headaches again. His body ached enough without him needing to add to it.
These people were really nice and friendly, but did he really need to remember them?
He didn't know.
He didn't know what he wanted.
*L*S*A*
It was delicious.
Jin's yosenabe.
It was nothing like Yuma had ever had before.
Yuma had been in this world for just over twenty-four hours and he was already amazed by how good and varied the food was here. With how good the food was, it was strange how his father never had them make a trip to Japan to visit his old friends and eat this delicious food. With how good all of the food had been so far, surely his father was nostalgic for it.
With a sigh, Yuma flopped over on his stomach on his bed and sat his arm on his pillow so he could stare at his ring–at Yugo's Black Trigger.
"Yuma, keep out of the battle for a while."
"Listen. Don't you dare go outside the gate. Stay put."
"Hang on a second. I'll save you soon."
Yuma's next breath got stuck in his throat. Even as he scrunched his eyes shut and buried his face in his pillow, it did nothing to erase Yugo's last smile from his mind.
The moment he had been forcing himself to not think of, but was always tickling the back of his mind wouldn't leave.
If was going to forget stuff, couldn't it have been that day?
Without looking up from his pillow, Yuma grabbed his hand and...
And what?
What could he do?
Throw his ring away?
Yuma's grip loosened as he brought his hands down to his chest so he could hold them–his ring–protectively against his chest. The ring was Oyaji. He couldn't just throw Oyaji away so he didn't have to be forced to remember his mistake every time he looked at his hand.
The sudden feeling of a hand on his back had Yuma snapping up to his knees in surprise and baring his teeth at Jin.
Jin pulled his hand back and raised it in surrender. "I guess that will teach me not to sneak up on a soldier." Jin's attempt at a joke fell flat as it didn't match the concern on his face.
"Why are you in here?"
"I knocked, but you didn't answer." Jin replied, looking more concerned as he studied Yuma. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine."
Jin replied to that by reaching forward and brushing away the tears at the corner of Yuma's real eye as his prosthetic eye couldn't produce tears. The tears that Yuma didn't even realize were there. Yuma twisted away from Jin to frantically scrub at his eyes to get rid of the evidence.
Jin said nothing as Yuma worked to hide the evidence of something he already saw. Instead, he clambered onto the bed to sit with his back resting against the wall. "I came to ask if you needed any more Tripioid to help you sleep tonight, but now I think there is something else we need to discuss." He looked over at Yuma to see a pair of wet, red eyes peaking at him from over his arm. "No one here expects you to be okay. We know you have a lot going on with the amnesia, your father's death, and trying to get used to your prosthetics. But, did we mess up? Did you think you had to hide your struggles?"
All Jin had wanted to do was make Yuma comfortable in Tamakoma. He wanted him to feel welcomed here and give him the space and time he needed to adjust. Did they mess up somewhere and push Yuma too hard? It had only been a day since Yuma arrived in Japan so he didn't think Yuma would feel overwhelmed already, but maybe the past few days in the hospital with Border agents hounding him caused him stress and now he had to deal with getting used to the Tamakoma branch.
Yuma swallowed thickly. "You have all been great. It's me that's the problem. I –when–you guys..."
Jin waited patiently as Yuma fought to gather his thoughts on what he wanted to say.
"I feel disconnected and confused." Yuma forced out. "I'm a Tamakoma agent, right? But when I watch you all talk and laugh, I get lost because you say I belong here, but I don't feel anything most of the time. I just mean it doesn't feel familiar. I thought..."
"That you would feel a familiar sense of belonging when you came here?" Jin suggested gently.
Yuma shrugged. "It's not you guys. Everyone has been super welcoming and kind. I can find myself really liking it here. It's just..." He trailed off to stare at his ring.
Jin waited patiently, but it seemed this time, Yuma didn't know what to say. All he could do was stare at his ring as if it might hold the answer he needed.
"Do you remember Kuga-san's friend in Border?" Jin asked after a moment.
Jin's question did its job of getting Yuma to look up from his ring in curiosity at the shift in conversation.
"Mogami Soichi." Yuma said softly.
"Right-o." Jin grinned, though it wasn't a happy one. He dropped a hand to Yuma's fluffy hair and knocked their heads together. "He was my mentor."
Yuma blinked in shock. He tilted his head back enough to catch Jin's eyes, but not enough to dislodge their heads.
"Like your father, he died creating a Black Trigger."
A Black Trigger.
Oyaji's friend created a Black Trigger.
A Black Trigger.
"Oh, ah, no. You remember how I mentioned S-Ranks earlier?"
"Black Trigger holders." Yuma recalled.
"Got it. Jin-san held a Black Trigger for a while so he used to be S-Rank. He returned Fujin, the Black Trigger, to Headquarters and dropped back down to A-Rank." Izumi explained.
A hand came up to grip Jin's arm. Jin used to wield a Black Trigger that was called Fujin. Black Triggers came from someone giving up their life to create it. That was something Yuma knew his whole life as his father had taught him all about Triggers his whole life, but he didn't truly understand what it meant to pour all their life into the creation of the Black Trigger until he saw his father crumbled into dust.
Having been through the hell of getting his body being ripped to pieces by the assassin and then watching his father give up his life for him, Yuma thought no one could possibly understand that hell. It wasn't the same. Jin didn't get his body ripped to shreds and lose limbs, but he did lose his mentor to the creation of a Black Trigger.
Jin understood the pain of losing someone he cared about.
"I heard about you from Jin and Mikumo-kun. My team has no intention of capturing you." The man behind the desk said. "But tell me one thing. You came to see your father's friend, right? Do you know the name of that person?"
"Mogami Soichi." Yuma said. "The name of the friend of my father was Mogami Soichi."
"I see. I guessed it was Mogami-san." The man picked up his cigarettes to take one out of the box and put it in his mouth. "Mogami Soichi was one of the founding members of Border and a rival to your father. And he was also the master of Jin."
Jin stepped forward and put a black and green sheath on the desk.
"This Black Trigger of Jin is Mogami-san."
"Then he...?" The boy standing next to Yuma started.
"Mogami-san died five years ago and left a Black Trigger behind."
Yuma's grip tightened on Jin's arm as the sudden headache hit him. It felt like his head was trying to split open. Jin was in the memory.
Jin was so clear in the memory, but no one else was.
Jin's grim expression that spoke of painful memories from the past.
Yuma fell forward, dropping his face into Jin's chest as he gritted his teeth in pain. His eyes scrunched shut to block out the light that was suddenly blinding him. It was too bright in here when he was trying to deal with a sudden headache.
Today sucked so much.
"Yuma?" Jin asked in concern. He didn't want to upset Yuma. He just wanted to discuss his old mentor who Yuma was told to find in Japan. Yuma was back in the state of mind of an eleven-year-old so he thought Yuma might want to know about his father's friend and that he was no longer with them.
"Jin-san."
Jin's whole body stiffened in surprise. He never thought he could be so shocked by a simple honorific, but here he was, completely surprised that Yuma was whispering his name and giving him -san back.
Why was it coming back all of a sudden?
"Jin-san." Yuma repeated. "Can you tell me why Oji-san created a Black Trigger?"
Oji-san.
It wasn't only Jin's eyes that widened in shock at the form of address for Mogami. Yuma's shoulders stiffened and he stared wide eyed at Jin's chest. Oji-san in this context was clearly Mogami, but Yuma had never met the man before. There was no reason for him to call a stranger Oji-san so where had the title came from? It had just slipped out without him even thinking about what he was saying.
Jin dropped a hand to Yuma's hair and ruffled the hair, which did the job of dragging Yuma out of his thoughts. "We were in a country called Aristera that was under attack by another nation. Mogami-san was defeated by an enemy and was severely injured. He was dying so he made the decision to pour the last of his life and Trion into creating Fujin." As he explained Mogami's death, Jin's hand tightened in Yuma's hair as he pressed his friend's face tighter to his chest.
It was reminiscent of a hug, but that wasn't what Jin was going for. He simply needed a moment to school his own emotions. Right now, he wanted to reassure and comfort Yuma. That would be difficult to do if Yuma saw Jin's pained look that he adopted as they discussed his mentor's death. This wasn't about Jin and Jin wasn't going to selfishly try to make it about him. As much as he missed his mentor and talking about him wasn't the easiest thing for him, Mogami had died a long time ago. Jin had made a lot of progress in healing from it.
Right now, despite it having happened over five years ago, Yugo's death was very fresh in Yuma's mind. All the progress that Yuma had been making towards recovering physically and mentally from the Calvaria war had been wiped away from him.
Yuma needed Jin to be strong and focused on him. He couldn't selfishly make it about him.
"Oyaji wasn't dying." Yuma whispered. "He wasn't even injured. It was my fault."
"You made a mistake." Jin replied gently. "Everyone makes mistakes, Yuma." Most mistakes didn't end up with a child torn to pieces and his father having to make the ultimate sacrifice to save his child. That was just hugely cruel and showed just how unfair life truly was.
Yuma shook his head, or tried to. It was hard to do when Jin was still holding his head in place.
"Remember what my side effect is?" Jin asked.
"Fortune teller." Yuma said.
Jin chuckled lightly as Yuma unintentionally used Tachikawa's unflattering nickname for him. As unflattering as it was, it was true. "Yes, which means I can see the future of my enemies and comrades. It means I know what is going to happen. If I know what is going to happen, that means I can prevent it, right?"
"Yeah."
"Yeah, it does, but then, why did I lose so many of my comrades in Aristera?" Jin asked, feeling Yuma stiffen under his hold from the question. He didn't wait for his young friend to give him an answer. Jin wasn't looking for an answer. He had already spent so many days after the Aristera war mulling over that question. There was no need to do it again. "Because I was a child in the Aristera war. I wasn't much older than you were in the Calvaria war. I didn't prevent my comrades' death because I was a child in war for the first time and I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't even think of looking at my comrades' futures and seeing their deaths and fight to prevent them. I didn't save them because I didn't think to."
It was something Jin would never do again. He would never forgo looking at the futures of his allies. He would not see his comrades die again. The closest he ever came to losing his friends since Aristera was with Osamu in the Aftokrator invasion and Yuma in the Mimic incident. They all had to fight tooth and nail to survive both of their incidents.
They fought so hard because it was their job as Border agents to protect the city, but they also put in the effort because Jin was taking control of the situation to bring them down the best path. Mistakes were meant to be learned from. They allowed people to grow. It was a tragedy when the mistakes resulted in a horrible outcome like all those deaths, but as painful as it was, Jin learned how they had to move on.
Never forget though.
Jin would never forget those they lost as it was the reminder he needed to remember why he put so much work into shifting the future in his allies' favor.
"That's not..."
"The same?" Jin finished for Yuma. "You jumped into a fight against orders and got targeted by the assassin. I ignored my comrades' futures to focus on predicting my enemies' futures to win my fights. What we both did caused us to lose people we care about."
Yuma's fingers curled tighter in Jin's sleeves. Jin knew. He knew about the assassin and what Yuma did. Yes, Yuma mentioned the assassin to his doctor in Galopoula, but it seemed like Jin knew a lot more details about it than the Galopoula hospital staff. Did that mean Yuma trusted Jin that much to tell him his past?
It made sense that Jin knew about his past. Of course someone here had to know his past and his injuries. Border was the one to find the surgery to save Yuma's life. Yuma wasn't the one who put in the work to get that surgery in Galopoula. It just never really crossed Yuma's mind that they knew about the assassin that attacked him or about how Yugo died. He didn't even think to question them about it as he was so focused on his own grief and being confused as to what was happening around him.
"I don't want to remember."
It was said so softly that Jin nearly missed Yuma's whispered confession. His heart dropped as he processed what Yuma said. "What do you mean, Yuma? Why don't you want to remember us?"
Yuma shook his head. "Oyaji's death. If I had to forget something, why couldn't it be that?"
Jin's eyes widened in surprise before softening in understanding. Grief was very painful to deal with. He couldn't say that the same thought never passed his mind, to wish he hadn't met Mogami and the other Border members and joined them. If that never happened, he wouldn't have had to go through so much loss and grief.
However...
"Memories are proof we lived." Jin said softly. "Those memories might become painful when you lose someone and realize you can never make new memories with them again, but we shouldn't throw those memories away just because it would be easier to forget than to live with grief. The people we love are more than just their deaths. Our love for our friends and family will have no meaning without those memories."
"But it would be easier." Yuma said softly.
"But without those people in our lives, life would have no meaning. You would just be going through the motions of life without really living. All these memories are the proof that you have lived. Don't throw them away just because it would be easier to deal with forgetting them and thus the grief that comes from losing people." Jin said. "Life and death are two sides of the same coin. Everyone dies eventually. That doesn't make it any easier to deal with their loss, but that is why we should celebrate the life they lived and how we spent it with them."
Celebrate them? Celebrate what? The people they loved were dead so what could be gained from celebrating their life? Yuma just didn't understand what Jin was trying to say. It made no sense at all. Celebrating those who died just seemed like a way to cause more pain as it would cause him to remember his father and how he would never be a part of his life again.
How they would never create memories together ever again.
"Should I go first?" Jin suggested.
"Go first?"
Jin smiled and pulled back from Yuma to go back to resting his back on the wall. He caught Yuma's eye and smiled. "Mogami-san was my mentor. He took on a father role for me when I joined Border. I remember on one of my birthdays, he wanted to make a cake for me." His grin turned into a crackle. "It didn't go well. I don't know what he was thinking. He knew he couldn't bake, but I don't think any of us realized just how bad he was."
Yuma blinked. "What do you mean?"
Jin chuckled. "He somehow got cake batter on the ceiling. It was truly impressive."
"Sounds like he wanted to do something special for you." Yuma murmured.
"It can be special without making a big mess we need to clean up." Jin replied, but he was grinning as he said it. "Though, I suppose messes are a part of life. I mean, just look at your room."
Yuma didn't think Jin meant to actually do it, but Yuma still found his eyes doing a quick scan of the room. What he saw just made him frown in confusion. "What about it? It's not messy in here."
"No, you keep it clean in here. I just meant, it's slowly but surely beginning to fill up with stuff." Jin explained. He hopped off the bed and made his way over to Yuma's desk to pick up the toy octopus that Yuma abandoned there yesterday. "When you first moved here, you didn't have many material possessions and you weren't much concerned with buying yourself anything." The only exception to that, besides clothes and food, was Yuma's bike.
The room didn't look nearly barren enough for that to be true. The room wasn't overflowing with stuff, but if Jin was saying it was all his, it was certainly more than Yuma had ever owned before. "Did I go on a shopping spree at some point then?" Clearly, not wanting to get material items didn't last.
That got a laugh out of Jin. "Nope. Most of the stuff in here were gifts for your birthday."
Yuma stared at the stuffed octopus in Jin's hand. That was right. Izumi said something like that coming from his team's operator because of his birthday or something. He didn't really get the point of the gift, but the him with all his memories kept it so there had to be a reason it was still amongst his stuff.
Jin pointed at the tv. "The tv and game system were an impulse buy by you when you were out with Kō and Kageura. I think they pushed you to buy them when they learned you couldn't sleep. They wanted you to have something to keep you entertained when everyone was sleeping."
'Couldn't sleep?'
Jin didn't seem to notice Yuma's confusion at the 'couldn't sleep' part as he dropped to his knees in front of the tv and begin to shuffle through the cases sitting in a pile on the tv stand. "Shun and Yoneya were introducing you to different anime you could watch at night too." Jin turned one of the cases over as he examined it. "I think this actually belongs to Shun. We should make sure to get it back to him."
Kō.
Kageura.
Shun.
Yoneya.
Who?
Jin was talking about people as if Yuma knew them, which yes, Yuma knew he should, but he didn't anymore and he wished people would remember that fact. He was the one here with memory loss, not them.
"The point, Yuma," Jin turned back to face his friend. "Is that memories aren't only in our heads. I think objects are also proof of how we lived. The tv and game system are a memory of shopping with your friends and sitting in front of it as you played together. Same with watching anime with Shun and Yoneya." He switched the blu-ray case for the octopus so he could toss it to Yuma. "That is the memory of your last birthday. That hoodie you haven't taken off since yesterday, despite it being summer and too hot for it–"
"It's really soft." Yuma defended.
"–Was a gift from Shun for your birthday. Another memory." Jun dropped back next to Yuma on the bed. "It all has sentimental value. I don't think there is anything wrong with material possessions as they show how we lived and let us remember the people we've spent time with." His eyes dropped to Yuma's left hand. "I think it goes without saying that Black Triggers are included in that."
Yuma followed Jin's line of sight to stare at his father's Black Trigger. The thing that was a painful reminder of his mistake, but even without the ring, Yuma would never forget. His body wouldn't let him forget as he was covered in Trion scars and half made of Trion prosthetics. His mistake was forever etched into his body.
"If that's so," Yuma found himself saying, swallowing thickly. "What does it say about you? You surrendered your mentor's Black Trigger to HQ."
"That I understood my mentor very well." Jin said, smiling softly as he recognized that Yuma realized the creator of Fujin from the conversation. "I valued my mentor and everything he taught me, but when I took a hold of Fujin, I knew one day it would be very likely, I would get into it with HQ. Their view on Neighbors and Tamakoma's view are vastly different, so I always had a feeling Fujin would be my bargaining chip one day."
Bargaining chip.
"So, about Fujin." Yuma said. "Why would you make the insane decision to throw a Black Trigger away?"
Jin smiled and leaned forward slightly to catch his friend's eye. "Because I wanted to protect a friend."
Yuma blinked and refocused his attention on Jin, feeling suspicion begin to rise in him. "Who were you trying to protect by giving it to HQ?"
Jin stared at Yuma in surprise before giving out a small chuckle. "You really need to ask? Black Triggers are powerful. HQ would never accept Tamakoma having two." He planted a hand in Yuma's hair, smiling sadly at Yuma's surprised look. "Back then, even if your Black Trigger wasn't the only thing keeping you alive, I would never ask you to give up Kuga-san's Black Trigger. After all, it's my job as your senpai to look out for you."
Jin just smiled at Yuma's baffled look. This was the role Jin decided on taking when he invited Yuma and his friends to Tamakoma. He knew this was what Mogami would have wanted to see. Peace in Border. He didn't want anyone fighting over power within the organization.
It was Jin's resolve to forever follow in Mogami's footsteps and do for Border what he believed his mentor would want done for the good of the organization.
The smile was stuck in Yuma's head. As he laid in bed, mind getting fuzzy from the Tripioid Jin gave him, Jin's smile wouldn't leave him. He had been completely honest about everything he said, but there was still a twinge of sadness in his smile. Despite his honesty, it didn't take away the hurt or grief from losing his mentor.
He went through the pain of losing someone he cared about, but he was still able to face each day. He was able to smile.
Where did he find the strength to smile after tragedy?
Yuma rolled over in bed and stared at his ring through tired, blurry eyes. Jin's smile transformed into a strong confident smile belonging to a much older male.
Oyaji.
In the face of death, to save his disobedient son, where did the strength from Oyaji's smile come from?
*L*S*A*
Yuri hummed softly to herself as she added flour to her bowl and mixed it into her dough. It certainly was a peaceful day, though that likely was because it was starting to calm down. Yuma's sudden return and the surprise of amnesia had thrown everyone into chaos and a state of unsureness.
Everyone's frazzled nerves at the surprise were starting to settle.
Or, maybe the peace came from the fact that all the members of Tamakoma-2, minus Yuma and Shiori, had gone to HQ for training today. There were not as many people to cause noise in the branch.
And yet...
Yuri smiled as the door to the kitchen opened and a pair of sleepy red eyes looked in. "Good morning, Yuma-kun. You slept in quite late and missed breakfast. Osamu-kun saved you a plate though. It's in the fridge."
Yuma didn't acknowledge the greeting at first as he scanned the room, but saw no one apart from Yuri. His eyes fell on the array of utensils in front of her. "What are you doing?"
"I'm just making some cookies. Do you want to help?"
Yuma looked at the counter where there was a mess of ingredients and whisks and measuring cups. Confusion lingered on his face for a moment as he didn't know anything about making cookies so he ended up just shaking his head. "No thanks."
"That's perfectly fine. How about you take a seat?" Yuri suggested, motioning to one of the stools at the breakfast counter. "This way you get to try the first cookie when it comes out of the oven. Well, you've already had my cookies before, but you don't remember that. So, lucky you, you get to try them for the first time a second time."
Yuma slowly took the offered seat. He watched Yuri mix up the dough before looking around the otherwise empty room. "Where is..." He hesitated for a moment. "...My team? Downstairs?"
"They all went to HQ today."
"Oh." Yuma felt strangely disappointed at that.
Yuri must have seen it because she smiled kindly at him. "Shiori-chan is still here."
"Was I summoned?!" The door snapped open to show a grinning Shiori. "I heard my name."
"Yuma-kun was looking for his team." Yuri replied, unperturbed by the door slamming open as she was too used to the lively nature of the branch.
"Ah, they are all doing personal training today." Shiori sidled up next to Yuma and threw a friendly arm around his shoulders. "Which means we can do our own training."
Yuma frowned. "I'm not allowed to train."
"No physical training." Shiori agreed, bopping him on the nose. "Mental training is fair game."
"Huh?" Yuma said confused as he rubbed his nose.
"I told you, I would teach you all about Border Triggers, didn't I?" Shiori ruffled Yuma's hair affectionately. "We'll start today since the rest of the team is out. Don't go anywhere. I'll go get my laptop."
For as fast as she appeared, Shiori disappeared just as fast from the room. Yuri chuckled softly. "Well, it seems you have something to do after all, Yuma-kun." She pointed towards the fridge. "Heat up your breakfast and eat it before you guys get started. You're going to need all the energy if you're going to focus on her lessons."
*L*S*A*
Yuma found himself sitting on the couch not long later with Shiori setting up her laptop on the coffee table.
"To start with," Shiori raised Yuma's Trigger that she snatched from his room when she went to get her laptop. She set it on the table and tapped it lightly. "Inside this Trigger are eight chips. These eight chips are where we programmed the Triggers that use. Four are for your main Trigger and four are your sub Triggers. Basically, it means if your main Trigger is a sword and you have it out in your dominant hand, you can't use another Trigger on your main side, but you can activate a sub Trigger. This means you can use two Triggers at a time." She slid the Trigger closer to Yuma on the table so she could turn her attention to her laptop.
Yuma stared at the Trigger sitting on the table. If he was understanding right, Shiori was basically saying everyone could have eight Triggers at most. They could only use two at a time, but they had the option of eight Triggers to use for offense and defense so they could switch freely in the midst of combat.
"We have our main Triggers which consist of weapons that the agents can choose from and then we have optional Triggers that agents can add to their Triggers. These optional Triggers are chosen by agents based on what kind of combat style they are going for." Shiori explained as she opened up the list of all the Rank War logs that she had. "One of the optional Triggers that all agents have is Bagworm. It is a cloak that agents activate when they want to hide from radar. Snipers always activate them in battle since–"
"A sniper being found will lead to them getting killed." Yuma finished, focusing on the video Shiori brought up. It was just showing a team running through a city with bagworms on. He guessed that it was probably one of those virtual spaces that Shiori told him about yesterday.
"This is Arafune squad. A team made up solely of snipers." Shiori explained. "Well, not solely, Arafune-san is the captain of the team and he was once an Attacker, but now he is training as a sniper. Their squad mainly uses Egret when sniping." She sped up the video to show Hanzaki taking a shot at Suwa, who defended that shot with a focused Shield in front of his face. "Egret is used to get the best range and accuracy. However, as I said, everyone has a preferred fighting style so we have more than one kind of each weapon type." Shiori sped up the video until they got to Chika. "Our very own Chika-chan is fond of the Ibis rifle. You saw this yesterday when she blasted buildings in the round five footage I showed you."
As Shiori played the video once more, Yuma watched in amazement as, once again, Chika took her shot and it tore through multiple buildings until it blasted apart the building that Yuma and Sasamori were standing on. At that point, there was so much debris and dust in the air that he couldn't see what happened after that.
"Chika-chan's powerful blasts like that are unique to her. Ibis boost very high firepower so it is used to combat large Trion Soldiers. It doesn't usually get used on humans." Shiori switched to another video. "Those who do use it, don't get the same power output as Chika-chan as they don't have her level of Trion."
The newest clip showed another sniper on a roof to take a shot at an agent in a suit chasing after Chika. The agent on the ground predicted the shot and activated a Shield, but the powerful shot simply tore through the Shield and destroyed the agent's arm.
"That's what an Ibis shot with a normal level of Trion looks like." Shiori explained.
That was a huge level of difference between Chika and other snipers. Just what kind of insane levels of Trion did Chika have? He knew Chika had a lot of Trion when he saw her blasting apart buildings yesterday, but now he really had to wonder how high her natural level was. It truly was impressive.
"And our last rifle is Lightning." Shiori switched to another clip which was in a city covered in snow. It looked to be the same city where Ema shot Inukai. "Lightning boosts a high bullet speed and a high fire rate. Basically, snipers use Lightning when they want to fire in quick succession and have their bullets travel at a high speed since it gives agents less time to react. However, the bullet's power is weaker in contrast."
Shiori hit play and allowed Yuma to see an older agent wearing a white bagworm taking a shot at Yuma who had flung himself in the air. The first shot got blocked instantly by Yuma's Shield by his head, but he clearly didn't anticipate the second shot as it took out his leg.
"Azuma-san is a top tier sniper so he is one you really need to be careful about." Shiori said.
"They all seem to be good snipers." Yuma commented. At least, from the few clips he saw of them taking shots, all of their shots seemed to be aimed very well.
Shiori smiled. "That is the reason for these Rank Wars. I know you don't understand the point of them, but the reason for them is to put our agents in combat where they can safely train and make mistakes without those mistakes affecting a real battle. In the Neighborhood, you don't get to safely train like this and learn from mistakes in a safe training environment, but you also have to fight to survive every day. Those who grew up over there and fought to live have a better understanding of combat and more experience. Our agents grew up in peace and never had to fight to live. These training matches allows them to get experience in combat. It's much better than just handing them a Trigger and throwing them in the field to fight Trion Soldiers."
Yuma watched Shiori from the corner of his eye. No one was ever thrown into combat like that. Even in the Neighborhood, they were trained before jumping into actual combat. The difference was, in the Neighborhood, they were trained as children. Well, not all children were trained. Only those who were destined to be soldiers because of their high Trion reservoirs or those who were going to be in high levels of danger, like Yuma. Yugo took him through the Neighborhood so he had to train Yuma so Yuma could keep himself alive.
However, training only lasted as long as Trion lasted. That, or they had to train in their real bodies if they wanted to go farther. For that reason, Yuma was quite adept at physical activity, or well, he used to be. He had to get more used to his prosthetics and get his full mobility back.
And his Triggers.
He missed using his Triggers. Fighting with Triggers was such a common place thing for him that not doing it for weeks was making him restless.
Having nothing to do but rest and do physical therapy for weeks gave him too much time to think. To think of what it was that he forgot. To think of what his father did for him. To think of his father's last smile.
It was painful to do.
He wished there was something else he could do so he could forget about the thoughts attacking him which was one of the reasons why he agreed to Shiori's lessons on Border Triggers. It was a nice distraction.
Yuma shook his head. "Oyaji's death. If I had to forget something, why couldn't it be that?"
Jin's eyes widened in surprise before softening in understanding.
"Memories are proof we lived." Jin said softly. "Those memories might become painful when you lose someone and realize you can never make new memories with them again, but we shouldn't throw those memories away just because it would be easier to forget than to live with grief. The people we love are more than just their deaths. Our love for our friends and family will have no meaning without those memories."
Yuma squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head to get rid of what Jin said. He understood that Jin was coming from a place of empathy and wanting to comfort Yuma, but that didn't make it any easier to let go of this pain that was trying to suffocate him.
"Yuma-kun?" A concerned voice pulled Yuma out of his thoughts.
Yuma's attention was first drawn to the hand that gently squeezed his hand. He followed the hand up Shiori's arm until it landed on her face. Her face that was shining with worry.
"Are you okay? We can stop if you want." Shiori said softly. Perhaps this was all too much for Yuma. It might not be a good time to be pushing all this information on him. She had thought he was ready for something like this since he looked curious yesterday and he looked bored today. That seemed like a good combination to start giving Trigger lessons. "We went over all the sniper rifles so we can do the others later."
Yuma shook his head. He tugged his hand to turn it over to return Shiori's grip, shooting her a small smile. "I'm good, Shiori-chan. Please continue."
A plate was set down on the table by Shiori's laptop, drawing two pairs of eyes to Yuri, who gave them a kind smile. "Fresh cookies right out of the oven to help you with your discussion." She shot Yuma a teasing smile. "Just be sure to not think too hard. If you get tired, the lesson can wait until later. You have all the time in the world to learn about Triggers."
"Thank you, Yuri-san!" Shiori said, eagerly taking one of the cookies and taking a bite to savor the hot, chewy deliciousness. "Your cookies are amazing." She gently nudged Yuma in the side.
Yuma stiffened up a bit at the motion as Shiori's elbow pressed into his Trion side, but he couldn't snap at Shiori when she was smiling so happily and gently. She probably didn't even know about his Trion side or organs. There was nothing malicious in her intent. All she wanted was to get his attention so he would grab a cookie too.
"Thank you, Yuri-san." Yuma repeated what Shiori said as he snatched a cookie off the plate.
Yuri grinned. "Don't worry. You'll love it."
Yuma gave a small smile back as Yuri seemed to really believe he would love cookies as she made sure to tell him that earlier as well. She said that he loved her cookies before he went to Galopoula for his surgery. All he did was return to his real body and lose his memories so his taste buds shouldn't have changed.
And so, with taking a bite of the cookie, Yuma was met with bliss as the gooey, sweet chocolate chips hit his taste buds. "Mmm, delicious."
"I'm glad you think so." Yuri ruffled Yuma's hair as she walked back around the couch. "Enjoy those cookies."
Shiori took another bite of her cookie. "Alright, Yuma-kun. Next, we'll go into Shooter Triggers. Shooters use bullets." She tossed the last of her cookie in her mouth so she could free her hand to get to work on bringing up some more clips for Yuma to see. "So, with bullets, they can be used in two ways–"
"I smell something amazing!"
Yuma twisted in his seat to see Yotaro coming into the room with his capybara following him. He really was not understanding why there was a capybara in a Border base. It was so weird.
"We have cookies." Shiori said.
"Awesome!" Yotaro ran over to the coffee table to snatch a cookie. Before he could grab one, his hand froze over the plate when he saw Shiori pulling up Rank War clips. "What are you guys doing?"
"I'm reteaching Yuma-kun about Border's Triggers." Shiori explained.
"Oooh! I can help! I'm an expert on Border's Triggers!" Yotaro exclaimed eagerly. "I'm the one who taught Hyuse all about them and he's a master on understanding them now!" He climbed up onto the couch between Shiori and Yuma, who were both forced to shift over a bit to make more room for him. "Where are we at?"
"I was just about to explain bullet Triggers."
Yotaro nodded all serious like. "Show him his team. Hyuse, Osamu, and Chika all use bullets."
"But they don't use guns." Shiori pointed out. "We should show Yuma-kun the difference between Shooters and Gunners."
"Of course." Yotaro agreed. "He needs to know it all so he is prepared to counter them when he reenters the Rank Wars."
Yuma could only blink in confusion as Shiori spoke so seriously with Yotaro about how they were going to explain the rest of Triggers to him. It was strange to him how this seemed so important to all of them. He was here mostly out of curiosity, but everyone else seemed to be very invested in him learning all about Border.
His eyes shifted over to the laptop again to see Osamu was frozen on the screen as Shiori hadn't started the clip yet. Was it important for him to learn about the Triggers? Yuma wasn't sure as it didn't seem to be helping him to remember anything, but staring at his captain on the screen, he did find himself invested. It was a nice distraction from his thoughts and just from seeing the sniper rifles and the differences between them was interesting. He couldn't help but feel intrigued enough to want to learn more about what kind of Triggers Border had made.
They seemed to be completely different from the Border Triggers his father had and the one his father gave him. It made it quite interesting to learn how much Border had changed since his father left Japan.