Inbetween Ch. 2
Where I accidentally hit on a guy
6th of February; 13.27
Location: School Gardens
The girl, who I guess is named Gumi swings the hammer around trying to hit the weird guys, but what I want to know is who they are? And why on Earth does that girl carry a hammer around?
As far as the battle goes she's losing, big time. After overcoming the first shock of the sudden attack they have no trouble fending her off. Another one of her attacks misses it's target and suddenly she's thrown towards me. I can barely catch her before she hits the ground but I can't keep myself standing because of the sudden extra weight.
"Thanks for catching me, I guess I'm not such a big help after all." She apologies and stands up. The guys have stopped attacking us and are just staring at us. The one who they call Alexander steps forward.
"I take it you're a daughter of Hephaestus, seen as you carry such a hammer around." I follow his gaze towards her hammer. It's not really a battlehammer as the ones I've seen being carried by dwarfs in movies, more like one a smith would use in those pictures of blacksmiths in the middle ages. Some symbols have been carved in it but that's as far as decoration goes.
Gumi takes up a fighting position and stares fiercely at our enemies. Even though she doesn't really seems to be a fighter I'm quite happy she's on my side, and I don't even know why. I also have no idea what daughter of Hephaestus means, but wasn't that the guy from the amazing picture in my history book?
"You're right, normally I only use this hammer to make stuff, now I use it to break your bones. Prepare to have your skull smashed!" She storms forward with her hammer high above her head... And Alexander has no trouble throwing her right back at me.
"Alexander, do we have any orders regarding a daughter of Hephaestus?" Razor asks his companion.
"I don't believe we do, so after I suck her blood you can have her for dinner." There they go again, these guys are insane, actually, Gumi as well. Carrying around a huge hammer and calling herself a daughter of Hephaestus, how crazy would she be?
Alexander comes closer towards us as Gumi tries to stand up again. "Listen up bloodsucker, there's no way in hell I'm going to let you touch her or me! Our blood is going to remain where it is, in our bodies. The same goes for our flesh doggyman!" I hear the chuckles from the small army as they hear her words.
This time it's Razor who talks to us. "Listen, you're just a little girl with a big hammer she can't handle, what can you do? Even if you smack Alexander here in his face, it'll heal and we'll kill you. So keep it down and I may knock you out before Alexander starts his bloody sucky stuff. And for you, little blonde, I would close my eyes for the coming thirty minutes if you don't want any nightmares of your girlfriend being eaten alive." He lets out a small chuckle and gives a wide grin.
I stare at him with big eyes, he can't be serious. He's not going to eat her, is he? I start to doubt my former assumptions, maybe they are serious about eating her after all... No, they can't be, can they? "Y-you're lying! You're not going to eat her. You're just saying that to scare me, so I give up and you can do whatever you plan on doing."
"No, Rin listen, they are serious. I just have to smack their heads before they can do it. How hard can it be?" Gumi says while preparing to go in again. She's mad, she'll just lose again! I have to do something. Before I can help it my hand finds its way towards her shoulder. I'm shocked, why?..
"Gumi do-" She just shakes my hand off and charges in again. I watch helplessly as she's thrown around as if she's just a doll. I can hear her scream, it must hurt, a lot. Why is she doing this, why would she fight for me, a girl she barely knows? Why is she fighting against these guys? They're probably just fooling around, they're not going to eat us... Or are they? I suddenly realize this is real, I don't know how but I just know no one's joking, they really plan on eating Gumi. Otherwise they wouldn't be so serious about this fight, otherwise she wouldn't be hurt so badly.
She's thrown on the floor and one of the pale guys climbs on top of her. He makes himself comfortable with his fangs close to her neck. Something snaps inside of me, he's going to suck her blood. I must do something, like now! I run towards them, push two totally surprised guys out of the way and throw myself against the guy who's on top of her. Both of us are swept away by the impact and I land somewhere on the cold wet grass.
My sudden action surprises them long enough for Gumi to recover her hammer and stand up again. "Rin!" I hear her call my name but my vision's a bit blurred, probably because of the force with which my head hit the ground.
"Gumi?.."
"Rin, oh gosh, are you okay?" She asks. I try to stand up, but my head hurts, I must have hit the ground quite hard.
"I'm fine, just give me a minute." I roll over untill I'm on my back. The world's spinning around me. My head hurts, well done Rin. Oh well, at least I saved Gumi, who now has to protect me as I'm lying her on the ground even more helpless than before.
As if on cue a new voice cuts in. "Gumi, how long is this going to take you? You told me it would take you only one minute to convince her, it's been fifteen already!" I look in the direction where the unknown voice is coming from, but I can't see anything due to one of the guys blocking my view.
"Not now Hio, I'm busy. If you're so tired of waiting then come and help me!"
Finally the guy moves and I see a boy. He seems to be only a little older than I am, his hair is a far lighter shade of blonde than mine and reaches halfway to his shoulders. He has stunning crimson eyes which, at this moment, look at us amused. On his lips is a small smirk. He wears some black pants with some black and gold shoes underneath them. On top he has a long jet black coat, it looks warm, but when I look again I see that only the upper half is closed.
"Okay, fine, I guess I could help you... Just shows you're nothing without me." I can see the irritation on Gumi's face, but she remains quiet. Meanwhile the world is in one place again and I sit up, still a bit dizzy.
The, I must admit, beautiful boy, who's apparently named Hio, reaches for something on his back. It's a white pole, almost two feet long. Just like Gumi's hammer it is decorated with a few symbols, which I can't place. Teto probably could, but that's probably because she's such a geek with these things.
He holds it in one hand and suddenly two segments come out at both ends. I hear a faint click and the three segments have formed one long staff.
He takes it with two hands and charges towards the people surrounding us. I expect him to be beaten in mere seconds like Gumi, but actually the opposite happens. He dodges their attacks as in a graceful way and uses his staff to hit them down one or two at the time. He handles it with so much ease, it's completely different from Gumi and her hammer.
As one of the wolfmen comes running towards him he takes a quick sidestep to dodge the attack and turns around fast enough to hit the man on his head with his staff. His hand goes in one of his pockets and he takes out something which he throws towards his attacker, who suddenly let's out a terrifying scream. It chills me to the bone and I actually want to look away. But at the same time I want to watch this boy fight, it's captivating to see him fend off all of those men.
Where Gumi had difficulty with attacking and defending he knocks them down one or two at the time while he prevents himself being hit by most of their attacks. I stand in awe, my mouth shaped like an O while I watch him fighting. That's when he reaches us, and stops for a little chat. At that exact moment I'm knocked wide awake by his words.
"So, how are my damsels in distress? You enjoy the show?" Before I can answer he continues. "Good, cause you're about to join in." And with that he hands me a tiny pouch before he runs off.
I open the pouch and look inside. There seem to be some little shiny balls in there. I take a hand out and stare at them dumbfounded. "Just throw 'em Blondy!" I hear the boy shout, I look up and see a furred man running towards Gumi and me.
"Throw Rin!" I takes me a few seconds before I do as she says and throw the balls in his direction. Right in his face.
As soon as they touch his skin he starts to scream in pain and falls to the the ground, where he starts to roll over almost desperately. His hands go over his body, searching for the little balls I just threw at him. My eyes stare at him with a horrified expression, what did I do to him? "Gumi, what are those?"
She has an almost sad expression on her face as she watches the man's frantic actions. "Those things are pure silver, one is enough to knock a weak werewolf like him out. Throwing an entire hand at him was cruel, but we can't help it now. Just throw them one at the time from now on." I've messed up, big time. But it's not my fault okay? There's no way I could know! But as I look at the man, somewhere, deep down, I feel guilty.
"Uhm, not to interrupt anything, but maybe it's time for us to go." I hear Hio shout as he uses his staff to block an attack. "And how do you plan on doing that?" I hear Gumi ask, she seems to have forgotten about the man. I haven't, I'm too scared to look at him but I can still hear his agonizing screams of pain. "I'll make a path, you take Blondy and follow behind me."
She nods en Hio knocks the pale man off and turns around. He starts creating a path towards the street by hitting the men between him and his destination out of the way. Gumi takes my hand and pulls me up. "Come on Rin, let's go." She leads me closely behind Hio through the mass. Even though there aren't that many of them blocking our way it still takes us some time to get through them.
As Hio knocks the last of them out of the way I suddenly feel a hand taking my arm. It's ice cold and reminds me of how my grandmother's hand felt when she died, only this is even colder. It pulls me back towards the group. I want to scream but the sound's stuck in my throat.
Luckily Gumi notices. In one motion she has her hammer out and swings it at the hand which holds me. I hear the bones shatter and I'm suddenly released. Gumi pushes me away as she prepares a next swing at my sudden attacker. Meanwhile I can't balance myself and close my eyes as I prepare to fall to the ground face first, but someone catches me.
This person's body is warm, his arms hold me tight, I can feel his muscles under my hands which I held in front of me to catch myself. As he moves I feel his lean body against mine, it smells faintly of, I don't know, a forest? I press my nose tightly in his chest and inhale his smell. It's amazing.
"Are you okay?" His voice asks me and I open my eyes, only to look straight in Hio's crimson ones.
You have got to be kidding me.
"I'm used to girls hitting on me, but now's not the time." He slowly moves away, taking his scent and warmth with him. I feel sad for a moment before I realise I don't even know the guy I've been hugging for at least ten seconds.
He takes my hand and starts running towards the street. I'm shivering, and where's Gumi?
"Wait, I have to go to school. I can't just leave!"
"That's not important right now!" He yells back at me.
"Can't we go past my locker to get my jacket, it's freezing." He sighs and lets go off my hand.
"We'll go back, but not now! Just take mine." He unzips his jacket while running and it's only now that I realize he's not holding his staff anymore. He must have dropped it somewhere. When he's done unzipping his black coat he hands it to me. It's still warm and wears his scent, though it's faint.
"Where's the station?" He asks me, since I have his jacket he's shuddering right now, but I actually don't think about giving it back.
"A few streets from here, just go left and then straight, it's pretty easy to spot." He nods and as he starts running again he takes my hand. "Shouldn't we wait for Gumi?"
He shakes his head: "She's only a bit behind us, don't worry about her."
I nod and we continue running. I have no idea how close those guys are behind us, but after running for five minutes straight Hio allows me to slow down till we're walking, still in a high pace, but slower than before. It's now that Gumi catches up with us.
"You could have stopped running two minutes ago at least. Those guys don't like going out in public." He shrugs. She hands him his staff which he makes shorter again before he puts it on his back.
Thanks to Hio's pace we're already able to see the station and it won't be long until we're there. Since we're walking in a lower pace now I feel like this is the time for me to ask my questions, because I have quite a lot of them.
"Okay, since things have calmed down let me ask this: Who exactly are you guys and what just happened?"
I'm not really proud of this chapter, definitely. But after rewriting it several times in different ways this is what I chose to do in the end.
So Hio, YOHIOloid was introduced in this chapter. For this story he'll just go by Yohio or Hio, since YOHIOloid is not really a name.
Thanks to my only reviewer of the last chapter.