Trying to Kill Each Other Doesn't Count as Flirting (or Does it?)

Chapter 3

When (F/N) woke up, she was in the single most cliché kidnappers' headquarters ever—what appeared to be the inside of a dilapidated building. She was lying on her side, hands and feet bound, watching a bunch of middle-aged douchebags with nothing better to do discussing her ransom.

Boring.

She stifled a sigh, and slipped a kunai out of her sleeve.

"I guess we're doing this the hard way."

She cut the bonds, and sat up.

The man closest to her noticed first. He opened his mouth to scream, but she stabbed him in the throat. The others must have heard the splattering of blood, because they all turned to look at her, eyes widening with horror when they saw what she'd done.

She got to her feet, and smirked.

"Thanks for the adventure, boys, but I'm afraid we're gonna have to cut this thing short. My parents will be worried if I'm not back by dinnertime."

The men looked at her, standing there with handful of kunai, and back to their dead companion. Then, after a moment of deliberation, they turned and ran.

"Don't go!" she pouted. "I was looking forward to testing my new kunai on you!"

She stabbed one, two, three men in the back. The remaining few, realizing running was futile, stopped in their tracks, and slowly turned towards her. Their hands shook as they held their swords, and their eyes were wide with terror. (F/N) smirked. This would be fun.

Then she heard a voice from the doorway.

"Well, that's a surprise."

Her blood froze. It couldn't be...

"O...okita-san?"

She spun around. Sure enough, there was her bodyguard, standing in the middle of the floor surrounded by the bodies of the men she'd taken out.

"I came to save the day," he drawled, "but it seems I'm a bit late."

(F/N) ducked as a man swung at her with his sword, and stabbed him in the stomach. Then she scampered back a few steps, tossing one, two, three kunai. Each one struck their mark.

"I told you," she growled. "I don't need a bodyguard."

"I can see that." He took a step forward, raising his sword in the air. "I do wish you'd let me have a little fun, though."

"Trust me, you don't," she muttered, taking down the last man with a kunai to the head. "These guys are nothing more than target practice."

"I wasn't talking about them."

(F/N) was only just in time to block his swing. Her hand shook under the force of the blow, and she hurried to leap back, out of the way of his blade. The moment she was out of range, a kunai left her fingertips, aimed straight for his throat, but before it could hit its mark, he knocked it away like it was nothing more than a bug.

What the hell?

He closed the gap between them in an instant, and swung down. She dodged to the side, the blade just missing her ear. Her breath caught in her throat. She'd fought lots of people in her life, but no one like him. How was she even going to make it out of this alive?

She leapt out of the way of another swing, and slid all her remaining kunai out of her sleeves. Then she took a deep breath, and threw them all at once.

He deflected them all, and (F/N) felt her heart sink into her stomach.

"I see," he said. "You're confidant in your aim, but not so confidant in close combat. Good to know."