Hayasaka's POV
"Hayasaka, are you sure this top will be casual enough?" Lady Kaguya exclaimed as she frantically switched between a mountain of clothing to go on this outing. Unfortunately, luck wasn't on her side as she switched from dress to dress from the modest black gown to the pyjamas she wore last night. She thought at one point about just choosing the school uniform...but I managed to avert that calamity not out of humanity but rather out of vanity.
Oh, that rhymed.
From yesterday till today, the plans have been going like a cascade of falling dominos. It looks charming almost and a bit too perfect. It was probably my paranoia. I spoke, "Looks just lovely Lady Kaguya. The gentle blue contrasts well with the red matte lipstick and the dark black hair you possess." She thought about the blue top with the baggy sleeves and a top bow-like knot embracing her and gave a smile.
She nodded, "This is the one! Now it's your turn! Oh, I just have the perfect dress for you. I picked it out for you yesterday." And saying so, in about 10 minutes I was ready in a black top with sleeves going about three-quarters of my pale hands and was given high cut black shorts to match with it.
It didn't look bad, in fact it seemed to be quite perfect for such an occasion, "Lady Kaguya, this is quite befitting. But can I ask something?" She nodded as I asked, "If you found such a pair for me then why did it take so long for you to decide on your own dress." I could see the slight embarrassment she had on her face. But she simply shrugged and replied, "It's called, having too many choices...now let's hurry up or we will be late."
With this, we finally got in the car and rushed to the venue which Lady Kaguya 'borrowed' from the President's notepad when he according to her was 'so cute that he cared for his fellow committee members when it, in reality, it was nothing but a concoction of social anxiety and perfectionist nature of the Student Council president.
The car stopped a few feet away from the mall entrance as I left the car and watched as the fumes of the car's exhaust passed me leaving me in the dark street with the street light forming a shadow down my face, as if I was a villain in a light novel.
The time ticked 7 pm as the streets were buzzing with activity but that specific street had a different aura. If I had to pinpoint, there were unwanted gazes at my bare legs. In this heat ironically my legs felt a slight shiver as those gazes were focused on me.
If I wanted I could very well take 2 of them down...3 would be a stretch...but all 10 pairs of eyes, would be impossible after all, this is reality and not an anime. I looked around to find only those gazes. I turned my head and fastened my footsteps. The voices then started echoing.
'Hey babe, where are you going? Why don't you catch a ride with me.'
'Hey hey, respect her. She is your future sister-in-law dumbass.'
'Shut up shitheads. Let me focus on that shirt of hers. Gosh, it looks ravishing.'
'Don't say such stuff. Hey darling, come with me, I will treat you better than these freaks.'
'Hah, you mean you are gonna treat her in your room. Haha, I don't think would mind if I joined too.'
While they didn't affect my stoic face. The odds were certainly stacked against me. If I did fight, there was a chance the school would come to know about it afterwards. Not just that, if I did call anyone, they would lunge at me thinking it was the police. With a side-eye glance, I noticed...metal knuckles at 9 o clock and knifes at 12 o clock and 6 o clock.
If I was attacked, they would have to be the first to be disarmed and then grab one of them as a hostage. But I would be walking the fine line between self-defence and unneeded violence. While certainly the Shinomiya family would provide me with the best lawyers, even they can't prove 1+1 = 3.
I felt a breath close to me, as I ducked avoiding the touch of the man with a disgusting smile plastered on his face. My leg swerved and kicked his shin as hard as possible causing a crack sound to echo. Honestly, that wouldn't be possible without my boots considering his body weight.
I saw the smile shrivel down to nothing more than howling pain. Without wasting a moment I lifted my other leg and gave a roundhouse kick with my body as the balance point. It was enough to knock him out.
I looked at the surprised visages of the now wavering gazes. But it seems one of them had other intentions," That girl is stronger than we imagined. Look, if we get her now, we can at least escape the attention. Grab her and pull her into the alleyway back there."
9 o clock
12 o clock
3 o clock
All came at once. This was a difficult situation, considering that no matter what martial arts I learned, none ever commented on attacking multiple opponents. I felt a cold sweat drip down my back as I positioned myself calculating every path of escape possible. After all, my best possible bet was to run away.
3 o clock just had brass knuckles. If he isn't well versed in it's use, my best bet would be to use him as an escape point. I ran right at 3 o clock as the others changed their directions screaming, "Get a hold of her, if she let the police know we will be fu*ked."
What I was about to do, was nothing less than crazy. I used my momentum and jumped as hard as possible with my knee shooting Infront of me as the man's knuckle hurled at me. At a split-second difference, my knee connected to the chin of the man. And threw him down. I rolled on the hard pavement as I injured my knee and ran.
But, it seems fate had other plans. I did manage to escape but it seems it was a trafficking ring rather than a small-time gang. Given that they saw me come out of such an expensive car, they could have assumed that the Shinomiya family might pay for my release, which is obviously incorrect. They would just hire another maid This is something that happened to Lady Kaguya once but at that time, the situation was different. She had quite a few bodyguards. Something that I lacked.
I noticed no other route to escape with my injured knee. Well, honestly isn't that unfortunate?
I felt a hand grab me from one alleyway. I felt a rough tug at me as he pulled me into the nook. I felt this boy with a black hoodie on pulling me close to his body and turned to the side. The boy sat me down at the nook and went out of there. I wanted to stop him as It would be illogical but my body gave up as I sat there catching my breath. Running in heels with an injured foot after fighting two people, wasn't something the human body was generally conditioned to. I just need to catch my breath, that's all.
Ayanokouji's POV
I think it was a fair offer to wear black and accept the strange looks from Ishigami and Shirogane to prepare for this situation. How did I know about it? Well, considering I passed this alleyway earlier today as I was heading to meet the others, I did notice quite a few girls being given unwanted stares. Now if it was a single pair of eyes or even two or three pairs. I wouldn't really have noticed much.
But I felt quite a few stares, 15 pairs to be exact, interestingly I had heard a few days earlier from the store owner complaining about how he doesn't want to let his daughter off alone nowadays due to the increasing crime rates.
If I had to link these two situations, which would be reasonable as the shop is close to the mall, then I could hypothesise that something was definitely out of place. Given that Hayasaka would have created a situation to obviously follow me because of the bet we made in the situation that this all was her master plan, so to be on the safe side I went home and changed into something...that could camouflage well.
It had done it's job.
And now I had to move.
I sent a voice message as I went out in the alleyway meeting the multiple stares of the men running there. I stayed silent as I heard one of them speak
"Hey kid, did you see my sister? She ran away from home and we are awfully worried about her." His acting skills deserved a round of applause...on his face of course.
The others nodded their heads trying to insinuate they were her well-wishers. But after a while of silence, it seems they realised that I wasn't going to reveal anything or believe their poor attempt at this farce. As expected, they tried another method, "Look, we will leave that girl and you be. If you don't rat us out to the police, we will pay each of you 100,000 yen."
My eyes slightly widened when I heard this. They weren't common thugs for sure but the fact that they wanted to settle this without a fight and involving the law showed that they were careful and were playing the long game.
Not just that, it seems, they had enough money to spare poking at the fact there was a bigger organisation at play here. Something that I wasn't willing to entertain but I decided to play along.
"Alright, if I am given the money that is a total of 200, 000 yen. I will break my phone in front of you with hers as well. Not just that, I will also give you my address that you can verify if I try to leak the information. Does that sound fair enough?" I pulled out my phone as I threw it in the air and caught it.
The man in the middle smiled at that and nodded as he spoke, "Sounds quite fair but instead of breaking the phones, you will hand them over. Because there is always a possibility you will try some scummy trick and ask someone else to do it. If you agree, 200, 000 yen is all yours."
I nodded and handed the phone over as he transferred the money to my account with his phone and raised it in the air for me to see. "You look at that kid? That's the deal then. Now, I think it's better if we left."
It seems my calculations were off. It seems it slipped my mind, the police is usually late.
I spoke, "Don't you want her phone as well?" I turned my eyes to Hayasaka's direction as she walked up to me. Her pupils widened...
Oh, it seems my black face mask had slipped off....honestly, these corona masks are really loose at times.
Hayasaka's POV
"Did you leave your boy's gang for this? Wow, what a gentleman." I spoke as I looked at the scene in front of me. It dawned on me that the man in black was none other than the mystery boy of the school. But it's not a time to ponder over how he knew and to what extent, I was relieved that he was here. If that was Ayanokouji's phone in their hands and if I correctly heard what he just said.
It just meant one thing, there was a deal going on.
I felt my strength recover as I felt some words spoken, "Give me your phone." Without argument, I handed it over considering this wicked situation. He went up to the man in the middle and handed the phone over.
I thought about what he was about to do, as he gave the phone over and pulled out the knife from the man next to him and grabbed the outstretched hand of the man and held the knife close to his throat as he spoke, "Well, it seems things haven't gone the way you all had planned. It's fine though, if you want me to not harm him do just one thing."
They were wary of his straight face, it was clear to them that he just might do it considering the conviction he spoke with and how the blade was a hair strand away from the man's throat. He kept speaking, "Give me the contact number of the head of this ring. Do hurry up because even if I can't kill him directly, I can definitely harm him and call it self defence. Can't I?" They seemed to catch on as they gave the number which he ushered to give to me. The paper had the contact number and the knife came off his hand.
"Ayanokouji WAIT" I spoke louder as I lost my cool from the arm grabbing him from behind and ready to stab him. I felt a fuse burn off as I was ready to charge at them but Ayanokouji seemed to say....stay put. Wasn't he even slightly worried as the knife started piercing his jacket? I could...take them on...but....
Could I trust Ayanokouji and just let him be?
Every second...felt like an eternity.
The knife sunk in.
And I was standing there, doing nothing.
Author's Note
Dear Readers,
Expected that? The full black shirt didn't really give much hints did it? Or maybe the time the boys separated before eating? Sigh, try better this time, there are hints as always.
Also, I hope I gave the trope hero saves helpless girl from baddies a fresh view.
If you enjoyed this chapter, do leave a vote and comment. Do try my other books:
1. Fakekouji(Updated
2. Shinzou wo sasageyo Ayanokouji (Update soon)
Thank you