As Takashi was about to leave that place, his cellphone started to ring again, and this time it was Yurika that was calling him.
Seeing her photo on the screen Takashi sighed, both in relief and in exasperation.
'At least she isn't trying to deal with this herself'
Answering the call he didn't even gave her the chance to talk before saying...
"Let me guess, you are lost"
"...Yes" she said in a guilty tone.
Takashi couldn't help but be a little more at ease hearing that she wasn't trying to deny it. In the past, whenever Yurika was lost, she would adopt a defensive atitude and always deny the simple truth.
'At least this makes things easier'
He asked her to give a rough description to her whereabouts, and surprisingly she was close to the next attraction they would go.
Agreeing with her to meet in front of their next ride, Takashi ended the call and sighed in exasperation at the situation.
'Even now she get lost sometimes eh?'
As far as Takashi could remember, Yurika had always a bad sense of direction.
She had being able to locate herself and reach where she wanted to go when concentrating in recent years, but she still would be lost from time to time if left alone.
But even them it can be said that he was much better now than when he met her. In the first years of their time together she would lose her way in such an outrageous manner that would even put to shame a certain green haired pirate.
This was the primary reason of why she never went home alone, always taking a ride with a personal drive or accompanied by him and his family when available.
A few minutes later, Takashi found the place where they were supposed to meet.
In front of the 'Love Tunnel'.
As the name implied, this attraction was designed so that two people would be alone together while passing through a series of events designed to put their romantic relationship, supposing they were in one, into display.
It wasn't exactly a place that he wanted to go, but Yurika insisted on it. Feeling that rejecting completely this idea might damage the new dynamic of their relationship he agreed in the end.
Once he spotted Yurika, he saw something that made him accelerate his pace even more.
She wasn't alone.
Around of her were three guys trying to get lucky with her, at least this was what Takashi believed.
Just that would be enough to make him annoyed, but what really made him nervous was something else.
He recognized them.
He saw their faces in some of the videos that Akira was keeping in his house.
That's how he knew that even if Yurika rejected them, they would continue to bother her.
An jus like he expected...
"Come on, we will show you a much better time them your boyfriend"
"Yeah, what kind of guy leave such beautiful girl alone"
"No, he didn't..."
"Let's us show you how real men entertain a woman"
"Now, listen..."
The content of the conversation couldn't male their intentions more obvious. They didn't plan to leave Yurika alone no matter what, and she was was already tying to find a way to escape them.
Just as the three of them were getting fed up with her attitude...
"Ah, Taka-kun!"
She saw and called for Takashi.
The three of them turn to where she was looking, and taking advantage of the fact they were distracted, Yurika passed through them and reached Takashi before they could react.
"Sorry to make you wait"
"That's okay. Let's go before the line get any bigger"
After they finished talking, Yurika lead Takashi to a direction completely different to where the line to the 'Love Tunnel' was. Considering that she just escaped from a forceful bunch it was only natural that she wanted to be as far away from them as possible, so Takashi didn't resist her.
Unfortunately, those guys weren't the type to accept that situation.
"Hey, where do you think you're going?!"
Before they could distance themselves from them, one of the guys grabbed Takashi by the wrist with more force them necessary to stop him with a displeased expression on his face.
"As you can see, she's already accompanied so we're going" Takashi tried to reason with the hoodlum, trying to don't cause a scene in a public place.
Unfortunately for him, that guy was the type that acted first and thought later.
"Why the fuck would I care?! Piss off you piece of shit!"
That guy send one of his fists with full strength at Takashi's face, trying to knock him out so that he would do as he pleased with Yurika.
"Taka-kun!"
However Takashi avoided the blow, sidestepping the aggressor and using the momentum of his fist to bent his arm to his back, effectively holding him prisoner.
"Hands off me! Let me go!"
"As if I would do that"
That guy was trying to get free from Takashi but thanks to the skills provided by the system that proved to be impossible.
His two friends were looking at them with conflicted expressions. They couldn't do anything to help the person that Takashi was holding. Normally they would try to use Yurika to their advantage, but right now she was standing behind Takashi and his earlier display of fighting capability made them weary of the possibility that they would suffer if they got close t her.
Their display was attracting the attention of the people nearby and some of them were alreayd calling security.
Noticing what was happening around them, Takashi tried to reason with his captive one more time.
"People are already calling security. Let's end this before we get in even more trouble"
"Grrrrr, fine. Now let me go"
He did as the man asked and let him go, giving him the chance to let this affair stay quiet. Of course he wasn't naive enough to drop his guard just because the man he was holding agreed to don't fight anymore.
And his precaution was proved to be right.
As soon as the man was free, he tried to with a right hook.
Takashi easily evaded the punch and punched his face...
*CRACK*
...breaking his nose in the process.
"AHHHHH! MY NOSE! MY NOSE!"
The man fell on to the ground, using both of his hands to hold his nose, trying to control the blood that was coming out of it.
His two companions lost any courage that they had before and fled from the place, not accustomed to be the ones to suffer damage.
"Taka-kun! Are you alright?!" asked Yurika in a worried tone.
With no more danger around them, with two of them gone and the third one barely capable to do anything but scream in pain on the ground, she approached him to see if he wasn't injured.
"I'm okay. Don't need to..."
"Ma'm, Sir"
Before he could finish to talk, a third voice called for them.
They turn in it's direction and in front of them was a tall a muscular man looking at them with a stern gaze.
A member of the security team.
"Can you two accompany me for a moment?"
It was phrased like a question but his tone implied that it wasn't a request.
Seeing that Takashi could only sigh in resignation.
'How troublesome'
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