Party girls don't get hurt, can't feel anything, when will I learn?

Ai no Koto Shiranai – Chapter 6

Last year, Eva thought Mr. Yamada, her history teacher was just a plain crazy old man. The colourful geometrical patterned tie he wore everyday was the only 'life' there was to his otherwise boring demeanour. His lessons can effectively drug anyone to sleep and they can suddenly recognize their grandparents they've never met through their dreams. He was that good.

And she thought it was funny during Ancient Greek class when he said that "Dogs will always be man's best friends….even in hell," because apparently Hades, the lord of the Underworld had a "pet dog" himself.

LOL.

But right now, she wished she remembered if he ever mentioned whether Hades taught his pet any good old dog tricks. Then at least she could try to get this 7 foot tall Cerberus, the three – headed hell hound to nicely put Yumiko aside and sit like a good dog.

But it wouldn't work that way if this monster only knew how to kill; especially since it was some sort of hybrid standing on twos with a body like Arnold Schwarzengger pre – Terminator all covered in slick black fur and thankfully was sensible enough to wear a pair of ripped jeans to cover up its "ding – dong."

Now where was a handy Ancient Greek monster 101 annihilation manual when she needed one?

The monster bellowed with rage and randomly swatted a boy who was trying to get past it. The boy ended up with a bone – crushing crash against a wall and fell into an unconscious heap onto the floor.

He was still breathing. Just a few broken bones and a dislocated shoulder but he was still breathing.

Eva analysed the creature's strength data. That wasn't even a 1% of its power. Who knew what else it could do, now that Yumiko was its hostage. Yumi screamed at the top of her lungs but there was no use. Eva only feared for her.

"EVA! WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU STANDING THERE FOR?"

Eva spun around to the direction of the voice, and she nearly fell over herself in utter shock.

Kenzo was running toward her.

That was the first she heard him speak that loud. He hardly ever spoke in a complete sentence. She used to think he had autism.

She tried to act tough. "What does it look like? I'm trying to save my best friend!"

"That's suicidal! You're crazy!"

"Not as crazy as Yumi is crazy over you, you ignorant jackass!"

"What?"

"Forget it! Help me come up with a rescue plan!"

"Are you insane? That thing is a monster for God sake!"

The Cerberus growled, saliva dripping from all three of his jaws and Yumiko's cries weren't as loud anymore. She wasn't trashing much. She was getting exhausted.

Eva grabbed Kenzo by his collar and glowered at him, ignoring that he was a head and a half taller than she was. This newfound sassiness; she was getting surprisingly better at it since her breakup.

"Look, if I can put Ryuu in the hospital then I can send that fucking thing back to hell." She released him and walked away, leaving the green – haired male to look at her disbelievingly.

With all this havoc and shit panicking going on, she didn't know which was worse: the fact that she literally didn't have nerves at all or that she didn't have a plan but she just acted like she knew what to do because her best friend was in a monster's death grip and because her pride was too much as to back down and flee after she'd just bitched at her ex – boyfriend's best pal.

As she stared at the dangling chandelier from the ceiling, she didn't know why the chorus from Sia's song crossed her mind, amidst all of the screaming, roaring and yelling.

I'm….gonna swing….from the chandelier…from the chandelier….

That was exactly what she was going to do.

Everyone else momentarily forgot about panicking as they watched the captain of the cheer squad climbing up the wall with her bare hands; something they thought only Spiderman was capable of. Eva didn't know how she resolved to pulling this stunt, but a cyborg's gotta do what a cyborg's gotta do even though it was utterly brainless. She honestly couldn't imagine how much dumber she could get if she still stayed human.

Eva crawled closer to the chandelier. Thankfully the menthols didn't emit light that would hurt her eyes from an up-close view. While hanging upside down, she could see the monster randomly scaring people which she thought was pretty childish and that Yumi was getting weaker as minutes went by. She needed to act fast.

But as she steadied herself, gripping on to the chandelier with hopes that it wouldn't fall much earlier than she expected (it was going to fall anyway she had thought), she saw something else happening down there.

Kenzo threw something at the monster. The creature bellowed angrily and just like that, it released Yumi from its grip. The boy quickly manuevered his way through the monster's legs and was fast enough to scoop up Yumi and rushed her over to the cushions. But Eva knew the monster had a change of plans. Just like the story of the greedy dog who wanted the bigger bone, the Cerberus was going after Kenzo instead.

Despite not on buddy – buddy terms with him, Eva still needed to back up that guy's ass for Yumi's sake. That was when she charged at the monster.

The impact of the chandelier knocked the Cerberus over its feet causing it to be in a daze, but not for long. As Eva swung backwards, hoping to gather enough momentum to charge for the second time, the Cerberus went ballistic. It growled like a rabid dog (or rabid dogs) and lunged for the chandelier; snapping the cords with one paw.

Eva's own screams drowned everyone else's in the hall as she plunged all the way down with the chandelier and crashed onto the floor. She was starting to lose grip on herself and felt painful tingling sensations all over her body and a weird void feeling in her right arm. That was when she realized her arm had completely sloughed off.

The Cerberus towered over her. The middle head yanked away the fallen chandelier, leaving her unarmed and exposed; baring yellowish sharp canines at her. Deep growling noises rumbled in its throats as it lowered all three heads down. Eva was slowly losing her conscious and thought death smelled just as bad as the monster's rancid breath.

Everything around her melted in slow motion and whatever she was hearing grew distant and didn't make sense to her anymore. But the last thing she knew was that the monster suddenly exploded into sputtering blood and flying limbs.

And a cape – cladded figure emerged as the monster dropped dead. The figure was coming toward her.

"Oh, your arm came off."

X

Eva felt like she was in a swimming state; like her entire body was submerged but not in water. The feeling wasn't unpleasant. It was just a little confusing and misty. It felt like she was dreaming while asleep, or sleeping while dreaming as if neither made any sense.

She knew she was broken, but she felt warm, she felt safe. She felt protected, like a newborn in the arms of her mother.

She could hear voices, but it was difficult to concentrate hard enough to understand them in her languid state. But she managed to pick up a few words that were so deeply casketed in worry, regrets and fear.

"I should've been there…"

"Don't let go…"

"Please hold on…"

And the words "I'm sorry" repeated like a record player on loop, lulling her to sleep. The emotions in that simple word was so clear that her own heart weighed down.

It was like staring up at the surface from the bottom of a pool in daylight; there was when she saw a face as she was about to drift away far into unconsciousness. She was already too tired, but she still wanted to look at that face although her vision was cloudy.

A face of a boy with the most intense golden irises that was searching for her, fearing that she'd go far away and never come back.

She tried to lift hand. She wanted to touch him, to say that she was alright but she was too exhausted.

Eva finally succumbed to a deep sleep.

"I'm sorry, Eva…"

X

"Yo, Saitama. Are you sure that guy's OK?" King whispered to Saitama while the two men duelled at this new fighting game King had purchased. The highly respected S – class hero decided to spend the night at Saitama's with a good playstation game, instant ramens and bottles of coke.

Saitama casually glanced over his shoulder to look at his disciple who had been sitting at the newly bought kotatsu table since this morning, writing god knows what on a piece of paper which he ended up crumpling furiously into a ball and throwing it onto the floor. The waste paper basket had already fallen over from too many crumpled papers and spilled on floor around the cyborg. Genos was literally sitting in the middle of a sea of crumpled balls of paper.

"I don't know man." Saitama whispered back. "He's been at it since this morning. He already made half the amount of trash when I woke up."

The bald man cleared his throat, hoping that would distract Genos but the cyborg was already attempting to write on another sheet of paper.

"Hey, Genos."

The blonde cyborg looked up. "Yes, Sensei?"

"Are you OK?"

"No, Sensei. I'm not."

This guy was brutally honest. Saitama and King paused their game and exchanged glances.

"Are you trying to get back to school or something?" King asked, taking a swig of his coke.

"No. I didn't complete junior high and I didn't join high school. I'm not eligible for a college diploma." Genos replied while scribbling furiously on the paper so hard that his pencil might just break.

Saitama put away the game console and crawled to the kotatsu table. He picked up a ball of paper and opened to read it. "Then what are you doing?"

"Who's Eva?" King unexpectedly joined in as he inspected another random piece he picked up from the floor. The cyborg managed to fill an entire page with his typically boyish but neat handwriting. King wasn't the kind who'd actually read every word and crumpled back the piece of paper.

Saitama's eyebrows raised. "Eh…you already have a girlfriend so soon, Genos? Why didn't you tell me?"

Genos paused momentarily and sighed. "She's Dr. Yukio's daughter and she's not my girlfriend, sensei."

He continued, "I feel like it's my fault she got hurt. I wish I knew where she went to school then I would've known immediately it was her school that was under the Cerberus attack. If I knew then I would've gone sooner. I feel indebted to Dr. Yukio for giving me the parts I needed for my armour. The least I could do was to keep her daughter safe." Then he sighed sadly and put down his pencil. "And I failed."

"Nah kid…" King said. "It's not your fault. Things just happen. Was it that three – headed dog attack at Kaito Academy?"

"Yes." Genos replied. "I don't know how she's faring but since she's a cyborg too, she should be OK by now. I want to pay her a visit so I've been desperately trying to compose my heart – uhm…core felt apologies."

"Writing is boring." Saitama interrupted. "I suck at writing essays. Never made it above a big fat F during my school years. But I do have an idea to propose. You said you want to keep her safe, right?"

The young cyborg's face sparkled with hope as he leaned in to listen to his sensei. "Yes, I do, sensei. What is your idea?"

Saitama smiled triumphantly.

So Genos bought his dumb theory of moving up ranks to become stronger.

He would definitely buy this one.