Unyielding Pursuit: Apologize (2)

The frustration that her cherished possession had been taken away; the inability to retaliate against those who had hurt her friend; the disappointment of being backstabbed by the Airburst organization; the feeling of powerlessness; all of that was going around in Ravyn's mind, who had just regained consciousness. The girl gets out of the infirmary bed, out of the operation center, and runs down the street. She ran and ran until she was exhausted. Looking around, she was already in an unfamiliar place.

"Ey young lady, what are you doing here alone? Wanna have some fun together?"

A thug walked up to hit on the weary Ravyn. He extended his hand to touch the purple-haired girl, so she brushed him off and attempted to walk away from him in the opposite direction. But five other men appeared in front of her.

" Where are you going?.. Why aren't you answering me? Ey don’t be so stuck up."

The same man continued, looking like he was the ringleader here as he flicked his head as a signal to summon the men behind him to surround Ravyn. That ringleader followed Ravyn, trying to grab her arm again. Ravyn grabbed his hand first, twisted his arm, and threw him at the crowd standing in her way.

*bash*

The gangsters in front of the purple-haired girl got overturned. As she continued walking for a few steps, passing those guys, Ravyn found about ten more people coming from the side alley, preventing her from going any further. Upon noticing more carefully, they were all wearing sleeveless robes on one arm, which is the signature of Single Sleeve, a famous gang on the outside of Themeise. Ravyn swung her fist at the offender next to her and snatched his club to block the stab from the other knife-wielders. She kicked a handful of them back, turned around, swung the club she snatched to open the way back to the ringleader.

"Ho, coming back to me yourself? You know, I kinda into bad girls. And I like the way this is going."

The leader raised an eyebrow before beckoning Ravyn with a finger as he retreated into his reinforced army of gangsters.

*bash* *bwok* ...

The thugs that kept coming out couldn't slow down the purple-haired girl even a little, until..

*bang!*

The sound of the ringleader's gun rang out. A bullet was embedded in Ravyn's shoulder. The girl paused for a moment.

"Okay, everyone, let's not dillydally. I hate waiting."

The gangsters who took orders took the opportunity to beat Ravyn ruthlessly. Many of the parts that were hit were still recovering from the battle with Weiss. She crouched to protect vital organs before gritting her teeth to snatch the bludgeon from one of the hitmen, and used it to knock them away. But Ravyn was hit in the head by the person behind her and fell down again.

...Darn it, there are too many of them...

Ravyn, the blood flowing from her head, was about to meet the end of her rope. The ringleader grabbed Ravyn's chin, lifted her head, and turned left and right once.

"Still in good condition. At first glance, your features are not half bad, so I was about to invite you to have some good time with me. I didn't think you would be this wild. More than 30 of our good hands got beaten up just to subdue you... Be glad that you found me. You guys, take her to our base first.."

The ringleader's voice stopped when he felt the gun barrel at the back of his head.

*Bang!*

The wind bullet hit the ringleader's head and sank him to the ground, followed by several shots fired from a pair of guns to deal with all the gangsters who were there.

*bang!* *bang!*...

A 178-centimeter tall man with Caesar cut hair in an orange Airburst body suit takes a pair of guns with the AB logo engraved on them, stows them in a holster at his waist and touches a communicator to his ear. He squatted down and offered his hand to Ravyn, who was trying to push herself off the ground.

"An emergency ambulance is coming. Please hang in there Ms.."

In a polite yet comforting tone, an Airburst assured Ravyn.

"You're finally here. Claretam's hero."

Ravyn took the hand of a man in front of her and got up.

"Just call me Erios. By the way, what brings an Assistant from the neighboring city here?"

Airburst in the sight of Ravyn asked. At the same time, he turned to pick up a bandage and medicine from the portable first aid box before getting an unexpected response.

*bwok!*

The purple-haired girl's clenched fist punched Erios' left jaw hard enough that his face turned.

"Your face."

######

Soon after, in a small hut made from recycled water bottles, Kanji was sobbing while searching the newspaper for a new job application on his desk. There was a knock on the front door of his hut, but it wasn't loud enough for the grieving Kanji to hear. The person at the door saw that the door wasn't locked, so she took the liberty of coming in and standing in front of Kanji’s desk.

"Oh my omni, why are you sweating..err and bleeding like that, Ravyn?"

The young man asked the purple-haired girl, looking all ragged. Ravyn didn't answer him, but instead, she yanked Kanji's shirt collar up and made the little boy's feet hang up in the air. He was dragged across the table where he had placed his documents.

" This is because of you! … Your uselessness put me in this position!!"

Ravyn yelled at Kanji vigorously.

"What are you talking about..?"

The young man, who still had tears on his face, was confused by Ravyn's aggressive expression.

"I'm in a bad mood today. All the money for your medical expenses has been used up. Bring me another five hundred thousand and I will forgive you."

"Since when did you take it? You know, to pay for insurance for my brothers and sisters, it's already a privilege just to eat with you guys. Give it back..*keuk*"

Ravyn lifted Kanji up until the collar of his shirt strangled him.

"Don't you dare talk back to me! If you don't have any money, go find it! Break your other arm or your leg, I don't care."

"I.. I can't breathe."

Kanji hit Ravyn's hand that grabbed his shirt collar before she threw him to the ground.

"Arrr…?"

When he himself felt as though it had taken forever and still hadn't hit the ground, the boy, with his eyes closed, slowly opened his eyes. He saw Ravyn still holding his shirt collar while the other hand touched the communicator in her ear.

"Is this enough?"

She spoke to the person on the other end of the line while putting Kanji on the floor. Kanji hurried to look at the secret place where he had kept his money and let out a long sigh when he saw that all his savings were still intact.

"You shouldn't play pranks when people are upset. What on earth are you."

The young boy's arms were crossed in dissatisfaction. Ravyn then projects a video call of Eugene's hologram from her ring to Kanji.

"There are a few additional budget plans for the All Star project that you will have to look at. Be on time tomorrow, okay?"

Eugene told Kanji.

"What are you talking about, sir? I've been fired."

It seems like Kanji hasn't grasped the situation yet. Hence, Eugene answered him by playing a video that Ravyn recorded during the extortion that seemed awfully real and believable.

"It's been sent to the AB international committee as proof that your thievery was due to Ravyn’s threatening. This would without question have them considering bringing you back."

Eugene's answer immediately made Kanji frown.

"What about Ravyn? With this, she must be fired for good, or even worse, she will also be blacklisted by AB. What about your goals, Ravyn? You can't do this. Delete the video now."

Kanji shook his head.

"You need to take care of your family. How can you be picky with your job?"

Ravyn inquired. When Kanji thought of the younger siblings, he couldn't deny it. There was only one thing he could do. The young man knelt down in the presence of his friend as tears slowly trickled down to the ground.

"Thank you! Really thank you... *huff* I shouldn't be so greedy that something like this happens. But even then, you still help me.. I'm sorry. I'm sorry! I am sorry!!.."

Kanji started banging his head on the ground, but Ravyn grabbed his shoulder to stop him.

"Don't misunderstand me. I didn't do all of this for you."

Abruptly, both Ravyn and Kanji's AB rings flashed the same breaking news, with the announcer speaking in a slightly annoyed tone.

["You are with KTV Hot Topics.

The hot topic of this evening can’t be anything other than this. It really happened, dear viewers. Finally, it really happened. The 'Airburst Challenge' that no one has accomplished in the past 4 years, a challenge that, if done successfully, would be considered the enemy of the girls from big to small all over Komveena. It’s clearly a taboo that everyone knows about.. But even so"]

The reporter gritted her teeth before continuing.

["The challenge of Erios, the hero of Claretam, has been cleared for the first time! And that savage is the mysterious purple-haired girl who is thought to be the same person who messed with ABWeekly today. She even resorted to such a cowardly act that I would feel ashamed in her place by just imagining doing that. Let's take a look at the video recording of the incident sent from one of our Claretam inhabitant fellows."]

The screen now switched to a recorded video capturing Erios' assailant, zoomed in to vaguely see a girl punching Erios when he looked away.

["Dear viewers, look at her pretending to be injured. She’d got the nerve to punch even when Erios was about to treat her wound. This is clearly disgusting. But still, Erios himself came out to cover for her and announced that the challenge had been cleared. What a gentle soul with a heart as big as the ocean.. It's really unfortunate that Airburst's policy prevents us from ascertaining her true identity.."]

###

On the rooftop of a building in Claretam...

"I never thought my 'Challenge' would be cleared after introducing myself to the person I helped. You totally duped me. But after declaring yourself hostile to my fans across the country like this, there’s no turning back now."

Erios sat with his legs hanging off the corner of a building and caressed his swollen left cheek. Those who noticed him from below gave whistling of encouragement and shouted out his name until, a few minutes later, that building was surrounded by people.

###

"I will never stop until I avenge Pim.."

The name Ravyn mentioned caused Eugene's eyebrows to twitch.

"..And I will have to get back the last gift I received from her, even if it means I have to step into her holy garden or whatever... One more thing is that Angus still owes my friend's apology from his mouth."

Ravyn took a flyer she received from Eugene when she was a new Assistant out of her shirt and placed it on a rectangular frame on the hologram from her ring. Kanji, who could guess what he was going to hear next, covered his mouth as he sobbed, trying to hold back from crying.

"If this organization is so desperate that it accepts heroes who use their inhuman punishments anyhow against the perpetrators, then I'll be a better choice.. I'll be an Airburst and bring everything back to its right place."

The screen is now projecting an essence of the application forms that says:

[Airburst Special Recruitment

Name: Ravyn Nipha

Condition(s): Winner of Komveena's Emissary Airburst (Erios) Challenge

Status: Approved]