Chapter Deux-Point-Cinq: Nike the Hero
My day already sucked and I was already in a bad mood from being chewed out by Ms. Kuroyami, but as I rounded the corner of the building, I saw something that made my mood took a nosedive again and what I saw filled me with a rage I'd long forgotten.
What I saw were four bigger guys, lizard looking guys, picking on a small girl in a pointy hat I remembered seeing earlier that morning. One guy shoved her into one of his friends, who shoved her back. The first guy sidestepped and let her fall to the ground, causing her pointy hat to fall into the dust. She lay on the ground for a moment, then pushed herself back up. By this time, I'd altered my course and picked up the pace toward the scene, shoving past a few cowards watching from a distance.
The girl (I couldn't remember her name) ran at the biggest guy, who appeared to be the leader and kicked him in the shin while reaching for something pink he was dangling above her head. He roared in annoyance and slapped her hard with his free hand, making her spin around and collapse to the ground. I arrived seconds later.
As he drew back his leg to kick her, I tapped his shoulder.
"Hey," I said. He turned and I punched him in the jaw with enough force to send him to dreamland for a while. "Next?" I said to the others who had been tormenting the girl as I stepped on the leader's throat.
For a long moment, the only sound was the gurgling of their leader. Then the first guy to push her ran at me, swinging a wild punch. I laughed and shook my head. It looked like he was moving in slow motion. At the last second, I leaned back slightly to avoid it, then delivered a bone-shattering uppercut to the underside of his jaw, the force tossing him in the air like a rag doll. I pivoted on my left foot, removed my right from the leader's throat, and unloaded a shotgun blast of a side kick into the other guy's stomach as he came down, disrupting his descent.
Without pausing, I launched myself at the next guy, driving my knee into his nose with an audible crunch. He screamed and clawed at his bloody nose, but I silenced him with a quick roundhouse to the head. He collapsed into the dirt next to the girl, making her flinch.
The next guy tried to jump me from behind, wrapping his arm around my neck, but I leaned forward and used his momentum to flip him over my shoulder. As an unfortunate side effect of this, he took my scarf with him. I lashed out with a vicious front kick that caught him in the back and sent him flopping onto the ground four or five feet away.
After nothing else attacked me, I straightened from my defensive stance and took three deep breaths. Somewhere during the course of the fight (ahem, beatdown) the band holding back my hair had popped, leaving my dreadlocks to hang around my face and neck, partially obscuring my vision. I swept them back and pulled a band from my pocket and re-tied them.
My hair situation remedied, I turned and gently pulled the girl up from the ground and brushed the dirt off of her clothes. She stared up at me, something like awe in her eyes. I probed her jaw gently with my fingers and she winced, making a pained hissing sound. I sighed.
"You're gonna have a bit of a bruise there," Her eyes studied my face intently, and then trailed down my neck. She gasped and I remembered that I was missing my scarf. I stepped past her and snatched it from the limp boy's hand before wrapping it around my neck again. I picked up her hat and brushed it off before placing it on her head.
"What's your name, kid?" She pouted.
"I'm not a kid," I cocked an eyebrow and she looked away, blushing. "Yukari Sendo." I nodded at her.
"Nike. I take it you're a. . ." I chuckled. "friend of Tsukune-kun's?" She nodded.
"We're going to get married." I smiled.
"Okay." A groan brought my gaze back to the ground. The leader was attempting to crawl away. Fury roared through my veins and heated my blood to a boiling point. I stalked after him and grabbed the back of his shirt before flipping him over roughly and lifting him up by the tie.
"You bastards think it's cool to beat up girls?" He gurgled and I punched him in the throat with my free hand. "Huh, asshole?" I hauled him up higher and brought my knee rocketing up into his balls. He let out a high pitched squeal and thrashed a bit in my grasp. I pulled him up even more and brought my head down hard on his. He crashed back into the ground, leaving his tie in my hand. I tossed it on his chest and stepped on his wrist, prying a strange pink stick out of his fingers. "Thought so." I sniffed.
Upon further inspection, I saw that the tip flared into a heart at the tip. I turned back to Yukari.
"I assume this is yours?" She nodded eagerly and I handed it back to her. She looked up at me and I threw her a salute.
"See ya," I called as I turned to leave.
"W-wait!" She called. "Why did you help me?" She asked quietly. I stopped.
"Because I can't stand to see women treated that way. Because I would never forgive myself for leaving you. And because any friend of Tsukune's is a friend of mine." There was a rustling noise behind me and I turned to see Mizore standing behind Yukari. She regarded me emotionlessly, then nodded slightly.
"Thank you," I smiled, and she snapped at me. "Wipe that look off your face, this doesn't change anything between us." I laughed as I walked away. Giving Lizard boy a kick for good measure.
"I didn't expect it to." I called over my shoulder.
This was a little something I did in my spare time. Felt like doing a little something featuring Yukari. She didn't say 'desu' because I didn't feel like it fit in the dialogue. Meh. Oh well.
