A/N: Alright, I will make a little bit of a love interest, but not a big one for those of you who don't want loveydovey stuff in the story.

Chapter 12: Mugged

The morning came slow, as if the shadows didn't want to bend to the light but instead engulf the entire living world in darkness forever. The streets were barren, deadly silent. But the lone figure walking slowly away from her previous destination welcomed these.
Amaranta had decided to return Keiko's belongings by leaving them in a large paper bag in front of her door. She would wake up in a little while to go to school and that would be when she would find the garments.
The sudden addition of footsteps behind her didn't make Amaranta flinch or change her pace. They seemed to be following her wherever she went.
"Hi."
Amaranta looked up and saw a man blocking her path. She started walking toward the side of him to get passed, but he stepped in her way.
"What's your hurry darlin'?" he taunted, grinning.
The two guys behind Amaranta laughed. She turned slightly to see them then tried to get pass the man in front of her from the other side.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," he said, stepping in front of her again. "It's not like we're going to hurt you," he paused, "unless you don't cooperate."
The two men laughed again.
"Hand over all your money."
"I have none," she replied steadily.
The man smirked and took a couple steps towards her. "Well then I guess we will have to figure something else out, won't we?" he said slyly, moving his hand up to place it on her cold cheek.
In less then a blink of an eye, the man was suddenly screaming and flailing his handless arm in the air, blood squirting everywhere. Amaranta looked down at his severed hand, which had fallen to the pavement, streams of blood across her face. She looked up and saw the most unlikely of persons that came to her rescue, Hiei.
"Don't touch her," he snarled, his sword wielded with blood dripping from the end.
"What are you doing?" Amaranta asked him.
"Well it looks to me like I just saved you from these perverted punks," Hiei muttered.
"But why?"
Hiei's eyes went wide but he regained himself when he saw one of the other two guys running at him with a pocketknife. He turned to him and smirked.
"I'm surprised you two didn't run off when I did away with your leaders hand. You are braver then I gave you credit for. Or maybe just stupider." Hiei shoved his sword into the man's gut and watched him cringe and fall to the ground. With the sound of blood, other then what he spilled, splattered on the ground, Hiei turned and saw that the last man's blade had blood on it and Amaranta was backing away from him.
Hiei felt anger rise and he clenched his teeth against it. In the blink of an eye he had decapitated the man who had harmed the demon girl. Breathing heavily, he stared down at the headless body laying motionless on the ground.
"Why were you following me?" Amaranta asked, breaking the silence.
Hiei's breathing returned to normal and he looked over at her. "I wasn't. I just happened to be passing by when I saw you were in trouble." He decided to change the subject quickly. "You're injured. Come with me and I'll bandage the wound."
"That's unlike you."
"I am only offering this once. You can either take it or leave it."
Hiei turned to leave and Amaranta followed him. They left the scene of crime, leaving one of the men quivering on the ground in a puddle of his own blood, missing a hand.