"Uh… Hi," Touma said to the man in front of him. There were several times when Touma wished that talking could be the solution to his problems. People would listen to him while he explained why he was doing something that they thought was worthy of a punch to the face. He could say his piece. His side of the story, before they started beating the Hell out of him.
Once again, talking was off the table. The man rushed towards Touma with a leap. The boy grabbed for the woman in the case. Her small form didn't retaliate as he took her into his arms; he once again felt how light she was.
Touma dove over the metal case and kicked out with his foot. The case slid across the floor and directly into the man's path. Touma ran down the hallway with looking back. Surprisingly, Touma heard the man trip from behind him. He had figured the guy to be some kind of ninja from all the black and the mask he was wearing.
Looking over his shoulder, Touma saw that the case had barely impeded the man's stride. The white mask became much more frightening to as the man sprinted towards Touma. The frantic youth saw a door at the end of the hallway. He held the woman in his arms a little tighter and shouldered the door open.
He had to stop himself from running into a fence when the door broke open. He turned quickly to the left and started to run into the street. It was a straight shot with no impediments. Touma only hoped he could run fast enough to get to the empty street.
Touma pumped his legs as hard as he could and felt the shift from sidewalk to pavement as he ran onto the street. The street was still dark. The street lights were only now starting to turn themselves on. Touma saw the masked man in a reflection from a storefront window. He was right behind him, only a meter or two back.
Panicking, Touma ran into an adjacent alleyway and continued his escape. He kicked over two trashcans as he ran and didn't look back. He swerved around a few piles of junk and a dumpster to get into another alley. He could hear the man stomping behind him.
Touma heard an electronic whirring and felt something wrap around his legs. His legs collided and toppled Touma onto the ground. The red haired woman flew from his arms onto the ground. Before he could try and move, a boot stamped onto Touma's back with a painful crack. The booted foot flipped Touma roughly onto his back and revealed the masked man standing over him.
The man stepped on his chest and held down. The assailant bent down and looked at Touma for a few moments.
"You shouldn't have run," a gravelly voice came from behind the mask. Touma was surprised the man spoke. The masked man didn't look like the talking type. Being stabbed in the chest would have been more likely in the spiky haired boys mind.
"What'd you expect me to do, let you… uh… do whatever you were going to do?" Touma wished he was better at comebacks. A realization hit Touma at that moment. He wasn't actually sure what the man was trying to do. He just showed up and Touma decided to run off with the woman he'd just pulled from a suitcase. Maybe he was a little rash.
"But he's wearing that scary mask, and all of the black cloths. Who just goes around in that around the town?" Touma thought, "Besides he chased me. And he might have shoved that woman in a briefcase." Touma looked at his feet, "He also just tied me up. Yep can't be good."
The man looked at him quizzically. Well as quizzically as you could be when you were wearing an expressionless mask. The man had expected fear or begging; instead he got poorly worded defiance.
The assailant noticed the woman trying to crawl away. He stepped over Touma and kicked her in the side. He couldn't have her running away. She couldn't get far in her condition, but he didn't want to take any chances.
"Hey!" Touma yelled. The man didn't pay him any mind. A zip tie came from the man's coat. He tied her arms and legs to where she'd have to act like a worm to move anywhere.
As the dark man tied, Touma looked around. Only Touma's legs were knotted up in the cord. His arms were free. He looked for some kind of weapon. A trashcan lid wasn't too far off from his current position. Touma pulled himself as quietly as he could over to the metal lid. The sound of scraping of the rough ground beneath him gave him away.
Another kick to the gut knocked the wind out of him. The man kicked him once more back onto his back and then dropped to kneeling position over him. The man's hand shot out and gripped Touma's face like a baseball. A blue, luminescent glow surrounded the man. Touma grabbed at the man to try and stop whatever he was doing.
A sharp crack sounded at Touma's wild grab at the man's arms. The blue glow immediately disappeared from the man's body. The hand on Touma's face receded quickly. The man looked at his hand for a moment and then to Touma.
"What happened? He should be dead," the thought raced through assailant's mind.
Touma took the confusion in stride and grabbed at the trashcan lid once more. He flung the lid at the man's head and smashed it against the mask. The man reeled back from the hit. Touma, using all of his strength, pushed himself up and then socked the man in his crotch. No sound came from the man as he dropped to a knee.
Touma pulled at the cord around his legs. He tugged and ripped at the entrapping line until he got his right leg free. The spiky haired teen stood up into a standing position. He saw the long cord connecting to the, now reeling, masked man's belt. Touma pulled on the line with all of his strength.
The masked man was pulled harshly towards Touma; a soft grunt came from behind the mask. Touma moved out of the way of the masked attacker as he tripped towards him. As the man went past him, Touma looked for another weapon around him. A few loose bricks were stacked around a garbage can, along with an empty bottle.
Touma decided on the brick. He had to move quickly. A crotch shot would only put someone down for so long. He grabbed the brick and chucked it in front of him, not having the time to aim. The building material crashed against the man's chest, breaking apart on impact. Touma picked up and lobbed another brick at the man; then another, and another.
The man grunted at each impact from the unused bricks. He moved out of the way of the third flying shape, but was hit squarely on the top of his head by the forth. The masked man's vision grew blurry.
Touma saw the man moving sluggishly from side to side. He had him! Touma grabbed the last bit of defense near him, the bottle, and ran up on the man. He smashed the empty liquor container on the unprotected side of the man's head. The glass shattered against his skull. The attacker's form wavered for a moment and then collapsed onto the cold pavement.
A deep sigh of relief fell from Touma's breath. "I almost died right there." Touma's legs gave out from under him, dropping him next to the masked man's limp form. "I almost died. You almost killed me," Touma said, kicking the man's unmoving body.
Touma looked into the sky again. He saw one of the fake stars above him, shining brightly. It was a pretty color, possibly blue, maybe purple. He couldn't tell. It glowed brightly for another few seconds before becoming dimmer and blending back in with the rest of the celestial bodies.
As he sat, Touma remembered why he just got into a back alley brawl. He clambered up to his feet with the help of some of the bricks on the building next to him. He ran over a few meters to the tied up woman. Her eyes were opening and closing rapidly. She was only barely hanging onto her consciousness.
"Oh my God," Touma mumbled, "Don't worry, miss, I'll get you to a hospital in no time flat."
"No! No hospital!" the woman sputtered at Touma. She managed to push herself up with her hand and looked into Touma's eyes. "No hospitals. Please." The battered woman's mind gave out with her order. She was dead to the world. Touma caught the woman in his arms before she could hit the ground.
"No hospitals, huh? That's just my luck, aint it?"
A jostled step woke up the woman. She was being carried, almost like a bride, in a pair of slightly muscled arms. She looked up and saw a blurry image of a male face with black hair.
"Hei?" she mumbled. Touma looked down and smiled at her.
"Hm? You awake?"
"Wh-Where am I?" the woman asked.
"My apartment – Well the street my apartment's on." Touma motioned to a building they were walking next to. It was a normal looking building. It wasn't the ritziest of places, but it had its charm.
"Why?" the woman asked in a groggy tone.
"Why what?"
"Why here. Isn't there a more secure area?"
"Uh…" Touma said with an odd look. "Not really. You said no hospitals, so this is really the only place to go. Once I get you inside, I'm going to try and get you fixed up. I saw that you had some nasty bruises on you." Touma walked over to the front entrance of the dorm building and stopped. He peeked inside and did a quick once over of the room. It was empty.
"Sorry, just making sure nobody's there," he said to the woman, "Don't want anyone getting the wrong idea, you know?" He picked up his pace and walked into the dorm. He trotted up the stairs at brisk pace, causing the woman's head to jerk uncomfortably. The woman made a small groan in response.
"Oh sorry," Touma said, slowing down.
After a few flights of stairs, Touma made it up to his floor. He carried the woman to his door and, with a little finagling, got the door open with the woman still in his hands. As soon as he got her inside he rushed over to the bed. He carefully placed her on the mattress and covered her in a blanket; she was only wearing a very thin nightgown.
Touma sat himself down next to the bed. He was so tired. His stomach grumbled for nourishment. That was going to have to wait. He closed his eyes and sighed. His thoughts on the day swirled in his head. Running from Zapper. Scrounging for money like a bum. Finding a woman in a briefcase. Fighting a whack-job wearing a Halloween mask. His mind drifted with on the thoughts of the next day. And what he was going to do with the woman on sleeping in his bed.