It was a moment like that of an action movie, one that seemed like it happened out of nowhere, but nonetheless, was real. I was on my last train home together with Hikigaya, real exhausted from a club mission that involves the 2A people.

Hikigaya-kun seemed to be more exhausted than I was, though. All the way from school, he had been in deep thought.

"You've been really quiet, Hikigaya-kun", I said, trying my best to loosen him up.

"Huh, then that's normal, isn't it?", he said. Yeah, who would've thought. Even though it was just a mere two months, I knew what kind of person he is, it was just that he was unusually locked inside of himself.

"No, I mean, you're unusually quiet today", I said, "are you still thinking about those two?"

"Yeah", was the only thing he said in response, though.

I gave him a smile, and then said "that's so you, Hikigaya-kun". I didn't know what was so special about what I said, but it was special enough it made him blush and avert his eyes. It was a sight I had not seen before, an expression I had never seen him make. His flushed face, and his embarrassed self looked really cute, I thought. I just want to spend the rest of the little time left to indulge myself in this rare scenery.

But then, he suddenly faced up to me weirdly – maybe I stared too much. In any case I kept smiling to keep things from going awkward. His expression then changed, as if he was alerted by something. I hope he wouldn't get the wrong idea.

He moved himself toward me, holding both his hands up as if to catch something. Yup, he definitely thought I that thought of him weird, 'I'm sorry, I didn't mean to!', I thought.

"Hiratsuka, move away!", he said loudly, thrusting his arms passed my head. I didn't know what he did, but he groaned painfully and his arms started trembling. Knowing that it definitely wasn't a joke, I moved forward, away from Hikigaya-kun and then turned around.

"Hikigaya-kun!", I yelled, shocked from what I saw. His hands caught on the blade of a knife and bled. The person at the other end of the knife was a police officer, holding the knife in a battle stance.

With the blade still on his hands, Hikigaya-kun pushes forward, trying to knock the officer back, and he succeeded. The officer landed on his foot, and was able to gain his balance, but he was at least pushed backed.

I was worried more about Hikigaya-kun; both his hands took a blow from a knife. I at least wanted to do something, at least apply first aid to his hands.

"Hiki- "

"No, stay back", he said, stopping me from advancing any further.

Much like the officer did earlier, Hikigaya-kun changed to some weird battle stance as well.

"Stay off my teacher!", he said, dashing forward with his bloodied hands. He held his hands into fists, trying to push forward a jab. But the officer would dodge it completely and gave a knife blow to his arm. It continued for many more times, where Hikigaya-kun failed with the jab, then would get a new knife wound somewhere on his body. Each time I could not hold my gasp in, and tears would flow from my eyes.

Then Hikigaya-kun tried punching the officer once more, but this time Hikigaya-kun was jabbed in the face with the officer's bare hand, knocking him back. He was knocked back so hard, his head made an impact with the list of station display, and he fell down to the floor, unconscious.

"Hikigaya-kun!", I yelled out one last time.

I gathered all my senses together and ran in, kneeling down behind Hikigaya-kun and then embraced him by the head.

I looked up at the officer, still teary on the face.

"Please, don't hurt him anymore!" I said, "your target is me, right? So here you have it, I'm right here! Please, just leave him alone!"

The officer, probably completely ignoring my pleadings, changed his position to a battle stance once again. 'He's not intending well', I thought. I am not a Christian, but I closed my eyes and hoped to god that there would be some supernatural being around to protect me and Hikigaya-kun. As if my non-religious prayer was answered, somehow, both me and him are still alive.

Intrigued, I opened my eyes to see the officer being punched in the face by some lady.

"I'm sorry if this guy scared you, but everything will be fine now", said the lady as she turned her attention back to the officer, "as for you, I'm not letting you hurt someone unrelated"

The train came to a stop a brief moment later – the situation was probably too tense that I didn't notice the next station announcement.

The door opened behind the officer, to which, he took that chance to spring himself off the train and ran off.

"It's fine," the lady said, "he's not coming back for a while", as the door closed and the train started moving again.

"Who.. who are you?" I asked the lady. When my vision finally focused, I got a clear view of what she looked like. She was a middle aged lady with blue eyes – somehow, looking at them made me feel real cold.

"I'll take him back to his place" the lady said, lifting Hikigaya-kun up to her back.

I followed the lady passed the station I'd usually go off to get home, maybe because of curiosity. It was only two stations away where she got off, to which, I also got off, following her pace by pace.

Much like when I walked with Hikigaya-kun, she did not say anything, but what was not like when I was with Hikigaya-kun, was that it felt awkward walking beside her. It wasn't a long walk, probably two blocks far, but the time needed to achieve that distance seemed like eternity. The only conversation we had was when we reached a convenient store half way through the journey, where she asked me to go in to buy some bandages, and I replied "ok".

Eventually, we reached a relatively tall building, a place seems fit only for a upper class looking to spend a night or two, but since the lady led me here, I assumed that was where Hikigaya-kun's place of residence (a portion of it, anyway).

We took the elevator and walked up to one penthouse. The place wasn't as amazing as the exterior advertised it to be, but it was more than any middle class person could ask for. The lady placed Hikigaya-kun on a sofa and applied medication, as well as bandaged his wounds.

"I patched him up, I'll leave the rest to you", the lady said as she stepped outside the apartment.

"Please wait," I said to the lady, "I apologize if this comes across as rude, but.. who are you?"

She gave me a faint smile and said "even Hikigaya-kun doesn't know that. As for what he knows, I'll leave it to him to decide whether or not you should know".

I still had a lot to be answered, for one, who was she? why did she come in all of the sudden? and why did Hikigaya-kun called me a "teacher"? But there she went, off the apartment, and then to the elevator. Maybe one day, I could find the answers.

One day.

As far as I was aware, I knew that I was awake and that both my eyelids were closed. I wanted to get up, to see what was around me, but it felt so comfortable; my head was well leveled, and was gently caressed. Well, some parts of the body felt painful, though.

"Yeah, Mom, I'll have to spend a night here", said some girl, "yeah, it's a very important work – I'll get it done by tonight, I promise."

Normally, I wouldn't have cared if a girl would be having a phone call with her mom, but the origin of the voice felt so close.

"Yeah, take care, Mom.", the girl said, followed by a beep indicating the cutting of the call.

I opened my eyes to see Hiratsuka, holding a phone with one hand, and caressing my head with another. She looked to me and startled a bit.

"Ah, Hikigaya-kun. You're awake", Hiratsuka said as she keeps her phone.

I remembered at that moment, I was on a train, thinking of a strategy to stop the shenanigans within 2A. That was until a policeman showed up and wrecked me. 'Wait, so does that mean..', I questioned myself.

"Hiratsuka," I said, "what happened to the officer?"

"Don't worry about him – a lady came out of nowhere and beated him up", she said.

"A lady?"

"Yeah. A middle aged lady. She actually carried you all the way here – surely, must be somebody you know"

'It must be that lady I met at the back of the school', I thought.

"Nope, I don't think I know her", I said.

"That's what she told me too: 'he doesn't know me', or something along those lines", she said.

Definitely that lady. I didn't, however, knew exactly who that lady was, or what business did she have with me. All I knew, was that she knew I wasn't born in 1980s' Chiba and that she did a lot to ensure my survival, for the reason that even I don't understand. But Hiratsuka wouldn't believe all this, wouldn't she? I mean, even I didn't believe it completely.

"Anyway," I said, trying to change the subject, "how long have I been out?"

"About three hours", she said.

"Three hours?!"

"Yeah"

"Ah, man, and you stayed here all this time"

"It didn't bother me at all," she said, "after all, this is the second time you've saved my life"

"Don't sweat it. I didn't do much", I stated the truth. Had it be other men, they would have beaten the crap out of that officer, carried her like a princess off the train, and kissed her or something.

"You took the blade for me, Hikigaya-kun", she said as she started tearing up, "no other man would've done that for me"

Throughout her teaching career, I had not once seen Hiratsuka-sensei made a sad face, let alone cry. Knowing that, it should not come across as normal to you to see her younger self cry; you would think, because she had a strong foundation in her youths, she would be able to handle a class of thirty. Her tears dropped on my cheek as the thought went through my mind.

"Like I said, you shouldn't worry too much,", I said, "I mean, if you really would like to do something in return, then.. may I ask you of one favor?"

"Yeah?"

"Can I stay on your lap, just like this, for a while?", I said

With her face still teared up, she smiled and said, "Yeah. For as long as you want".

As soon as she finished her statement, she started caressing my hair. My usual self would have told her to stop and go away, but for whatever reason I remained passive in that case.