The night before the festival

It had been a long day at work for Mion. Her boss had her work overtime because of an inventory mistake. As a result, she had to stay at the store two hours longer than usual. But now work was over and Mion was riding her bike home from Okinomiya. It was already dark and she did not want to linger outside for long during the night. A few days ago, Mion had heard about a woman being assaulted in the town. Apparently, she was walking around in the evening and a group of thugs had grabbed her and pulled her into an alley. The men behind this were still at large. The report said that there were four of them. Because of this and the time, there was hardly anyone on the streets.

Mion grimaced slightly as she made the turn. Her arms were still sore from moving those crates back a few days ago.

I guess I'll just have to make Keiichi pay for that during the festival tomorrow, she thought. Maybe I could force him to wear something embarrassing during the festival, she thought, but then she shook her head. Nah, that's been done before. Mion continued to ponder over how she could best torture Keiichi for a few minutes, but nothing seemed right. I'll just wait and see what happens at the festival, Mion concluded.

Suddenly, Mion remembered that she was riding her bike and was about to go down the wrong road, so she made a sudden turn. Unfortunately, this brought Mion and her bike into a collision course with a row of parked motorcycles. Mion swerved away, but bumped one of them enough to cause it to topple over. This set off a domino effect with the remaining bikes. It came to an end with a loud crash as the bike on the other end hit the sidewalk. Mion had stopped her bike and dismounted. She stood over the pile of motorcycles and surveyed the damage.

"This is bad," Mion said to herself.

Before Mion could do anything, a thick arm wrapped tightly around her neck. "You're coming with us," a gruff male voice growled from behind her. As the man began to drag her away, Mion tried to fight back but it didn't help. She couldn't kick any of the man's weak areas. She tried to hit him with her hands, but her arms were grabbed by two other men.

Mion was dragged back along the walkway and pulled into an alley. As she entered the alley, a man came up from behind them and stood near the entrance of the alley. He had a brown punch perm and a creepy face. He looked back at Mion for a moment and a sick smile crossed his face.

Mion was dragged to the end of the alley. There, the man released his arm wrap around her neck. One of her other captors, who had been restraining her left arm, walked around her and turned to face her.

"Well, little missy" the boss began. "Ya saw what ya did to our bikes. Now how are ya going to make up for that?" the boss said as he stared down at Mion.

"I'm sorry about the bikes," Mion said. "And I'll pay for the dama…" But before she could finish, the thug behind her quickly swung a gag over her head, like a jump rope. Just as it was in front of her mouth, he pulled back on the ends of the gag, forcing it into Mion's open mouth. Mion was startled by what was happening and tried to hit the thug with her free hand, but the boss swung a punch at Mion's face. The punch hit her hard on the cheek. At the same time, the goon holding her right arm let his grip go. That and the impact caused her to fall to the ground.

Before Mion could do anything, the thug who had gagged her got down and pinned Mion's arms to the ground. Likewise, the boss had dropped down and used his knees to hold Mion's legs down. "Oh, don't worry," the boss began as he leaned closer to Mion's face. "Ya'll be able to pay us." the boss said as he starred lustfully at Mion.

Not this, Mion thought. Mion tried to scream, but the gag muffled her. She tried to struggled against them, trying to free her arms and legs, but it was hopeless. She couldn't overpower them.

Please stop.

The boss glanced up at the goon and nodded. The goon reached down, grabbed Mion's shirt, and tore it. The boss whistled at the sight of her exposed chest. "It looks like we'll have lots of fun with ya," he said as he took hold of Mion's pants and began to pull them off.

But before he could finish, there was an echoing thud from the entrance of the alley. They all looked and saw that punch perm had collapsed on the ground. Standing above his motionless body was the silhouette of a young man, who was now moving towards them. Mion could not make out who the young man was, but she saw that he was carrying what looked like a box.

Meanwhile, the boss turned towards his goon, who nodded and charged at the boy. As he advanced, the goon pulled out a knife. Seeing the goon running at him, the young man tossed the box, or whatever it, was on his side and moved towards the goon. The goon thrusted his knife at the boy, but the boy sidestepped him and instantly grabbed the goon's knife hand. He then throw a series of fast attacks at the goon with his legs and free hand and finished with a hard strike to the elbow. The strike, in combination with the grab, caused the goon's arm to break. The goon fell to his knees in pain just as the boy throw another series of quick attacks, knocking the goon out.

The fight between the boy and the goon only lasted a few seconds. The boss was stunned by what he just saw, but he quickly recovered. He got off of Mion and turned to face the newcomer. "Just who the hell do ya think ya are?" He said as he launched himself at his opponent. The boy quickly turned to face the oncoming boss. As he drew near, the boss pulled his right arm back slightly and swung it out as a punch. The boy moved out of the punches path and closer to the boss. At the same time, he blocked the punch with one hand and some of his own with the other. The boss tried to use his free hand to strike, but the boy easily blocked it and continued to pound on the boss. In no time at all, the boss found himself falling backwards onto the ground. He tried to get up, but the boy threw one last attack and the boss was out cold.

While the boss was getting his butt handed to him, the thug pinning Mion's arms down was stunned by how a kid just beat the crap out of his buddies. Realizing that she had an opportunity, Mion swung one of her now freed legs up and kicked the thug in the head. Despite his tough exterior, the kick was more than he could take. As he was collapsing, Mion throw another kick, this time to the thug's side, causing him to fall sidewise, instead of onto her.

The boy approached Mion, who was still on the ground. Mion could see that he was a boy around her age. He had black hair done in a short pony tail. He was wearing dark blue jeans, and a plain green shirt. He walked over and boy briefly looked down at Mion before looking forward.

"Are you hurt?" the boy asked. Mion shook her head.

"That's good," the boy answered, his eyes still looking away from Mion. That's strange, Mion thought. Why is he looking away? She realized that her shirt had been ripped open and her jeans were partially removed. Meanwhile, the boy had gone back to the box he had set down and pulled out something. Mion began to pull her jeans on when the young man walked up and tossed her what he had pulled out. "You can use that."

The object landed softly on Mion. It was a shirt. Mion pulled her pants then sat up. She looked down at the shirt, briefly wondering why this guy was carrying an extra shirt around. She removed what was left of her own she and replaced it with the new one.

"It's OK now," she said. The boy slowly turned his head towards Mion. He had light blue eyes. There was a look of concern on his face, but it had been replaced with one of relief. He reached down and offered Mion a hand getting up.

As Mion got up, they could hear the sound of an approaching police car. Mion and the boy started for the street. Mion felt fine enough to walk on her own. Along the way, the boy stopped to pick up the box he had dropped during the fight. Mion glanced over and saw that it was filled with an assortment of neatly folded clothes. A moment later, two police cars stopped at the entrance to the alley. As the officers got out of their cars, the boy called out. "Over here, officer!"

"We received a call about another assault," said one of the officers as he approached.

"They're in here." the boy said as he tilted his head towards the fallen thugs. "I'm sorry, but I couldn't stand by and let them assault another person." The officers began to secure the scene and separated Mion and the boy to take their statements on the incident. After hear Mion's account of the incident, the officer asked her if she would like them to drive her home, to which Mion agreed. The officer loaded Mion's bike into the car and then let Mion in. After that, the officer drove Mion home.

The ride was a quiet one. Mion kept thinking over about what had happened and about that boy who saved. Suddenly, she realized something. "I never asked what his name was!"