A damsel in distress (Part II)

"Hey! Leave her alone!" Hajime yelled

"Who the fuck are you!?"

The men turn to Hajime, angry that they've been interrupted.

Hajime studied the three men carefully. The one on the left was a blond-haired man, and the other two were bulky with muscle. The blond-haired man had a goatee, and scars on his face. He had a scowl on his face as he stared at Hajime. The other two were bulky, and one of them had a scar over his eye. The scarred one held a baseball bat.

"Stay out of this kid, this isn't your business."

"She's my friend of course it's my business," Hajime exclaimed, pointing towards Yuki. Though this was a bluff, he never interacted with Yuki before due to her reputation.

The blonde thug laugh in amusement, "You fucking bitch, why didn't you say that you had a friend!"

The three men glared at Yuki, and she cowered in fear.

Hajime also sees two of the thugs cracking their knuckles, readying themselves for a fight, while the other one with the bat is twirling it around playfully.

Hajime stepped forward, wanting to protect Yuki. But before he could say anything, the thugs rushed towards him.

'Damn, they are moving fast!'

Hajime took a step back, raising his guard.

But the blonde man noticed and shifted his attack towards Hajime's legs and swiftly swept his legs off of the ground.

"Crap!" Hajime screamed, losing his balance.

Hajime fell to the ground hard. The sound of a loud thud echoed through the streets. The shockwave reverberated throughout his body, and he felt dazed. Hajime could barely think straight, and a sharp pain pulsed through his limbs. the blonde man then finishes his attack by delivering a hard stomp to his face, bruising both cheeks.

"Kazuma-san!" Yuki cried to Hajime who lay crumpled against himself after being hit so viciously all because those thugs wanted money and her body.

"You got some balls kid." the blonde thug said. His voice sounded amused rather than impressed or even angered.

Hajime spits blood from where teeth once sat onto dirty cobblestones, mustering enough strength together to get back up.

'Why am I this weak?' Hajime thought to himself as he wiped the blood off his mouth

"Hey, this idiot's getting back up, get him."

"Ah, please stop this... Leave him alone!!" Yuki yelled.

But the thugs didn't listen and instead walked towards Hajime.

Hajime can sense the danger, his instincts were screaming at him to back away. But Hajime felt numb from the hit and was unable to move, and before he knew it the thugs in front of him kept coming closer, grinning wildly.

Hajime closed his eyes tightly, anticipating another blow.

One of the thugs raised his arm and prepared to swing his bat, the whole world seemingly stopped. the time he seemed to slow down around Hajime as he watched the bat coming down upon him. What's going on?

Hajime's mind was like it was on fire all he could think was saving Yuki from this mess but then he thought of something, no he could see himself fighting them off, he could see the fluid movement of his legs and swings of his fist hitting every single last one of them, and a swift movement of his body doing attacks after attacks. Something was popping into his mind like someone forcing him to watch an action movie clip inside his head; suddenly everything went dark again.

Hajime was then brought back to his senses and grabbed the metal bat with his bare hands without thinking whatsoever, almost like his arms have a mind of their own. Suddenly, Hajime yanked the bat towards him, taking the man with him and smashing his face with his knuckles.

Hajime knocked out the thug with one punch. It happened too quickly everyone froze except for the blond thug whose eyes widened in fascination when saw how easily Hajima defeated his buddy, a complete opposite of what happened a few minutes ago.

"Woah, Looks like the tiger is out of the cage!" Blond Thug was astonished. Even though they just encountered Hajime, how he even knocked out his friend was a question he was asking himself. Was that him or the system?

"Let him have it boys!" The blond shouted to his lackeys as he was excited to see what Hajime could do, he continued his attack by charging towards him. The blond thug was eager to see if what Hajime did was due to luck.

Hajime then turned to the Thugs and took battle stands once again as the Thugs surrounded him.

[ T H U G S]

A massive text that covers Hajime's view was seen, he blinked to see if it was a mistake but then realised it was gone. Hajime quickly ignored the system's shenanigans then he rushed towards the bulky man and sent him a perfect roundhouse kick to his stomach, which made him spat out all the blood he had in his mouth and he fell to his knees. He groaned loudly before coughing violently several times while holding both sides of his chest until eventually falling forward limpingly unconsciousness at first glance.

Another thug attempted to land a wild haymaker at Hajime' face however failed miserably because two other guys were blocking any possible path forward so Hajime simply bent low avoiding those clumsy strikes completely unharmed. Hajime returned it with his attack, a right hook straight into the jaw, and the thug went down hard.

'I did it?' Hajime questioned in his head,

Hajime breathed heavily in and out trying to catch his breath while relaxing his shoulders so he could start breathing properly again. His hand sweats profusely when he looks back up towards the blond thug, as he walks up slowly and cautiously towards him with steps sounding thud on the concrete ground, leaving Yuki who looked too shocked to say something.

His heart raced as adrenaline pumped through his veins, and he was petrified, The terror and shock over what had occurred finally struck Hajime and slowly he stepped backwards instinctively with the blond thug would backed himself into a corner.

"So to see you do have some balls, you are one lucky bastard." The blond thug grinned at Hajime.

"What?" Hajime paused, unsure what he just said exactly. "Me? A... Lucky?"

Blond Thug said with a smirk while shaking his head. "You're one interesting kid, I think that we could do this again."

Hajime was confused and stepped forward a bit closer towards him with caution, "What the hell are you talking about?!"

The blond thug didn't answer his question as he pulled a knife out of his pocket, "Hey! Shut up and fight me!"

The blond thug again used his swift kicking movements once again and quickly grabbed him by his shirt which forced the young boy back, slamming him hard against the wall causing Hajime to cough out spit with great force!

"Look, kid. You think you can beat me?" He said, placing the blade of his knife near the boy's neck.

Hajime just returned a glare on his opponent.

"It took a lot of fucking guts to come here, to help her. You're wasting your time with this whore." He said, his expression not changing.

He then smiled wickedly while taking one step back, "Do you want to die?" he questioned, as he pushed the blade deeper against Hajime's throat.

Hajime gulped at the sight of the knife gleaming in the moonlight, he could almost feel his body starting to tremble a bit now while looking at how close it was towards his flesh.

"Be a good boy and Fuck off!"

"Try me." Hajime taunts dangerously. His anger was boiling up but still his trembling limbs

'What am I doing...?!' He questioned himself

"Is that so..?"

The blond thug said softly, closing his eyes calmly, tilting his head slightly before finally opening them back, grinning wide just before thrusting the knife right through the front of Hajime's chest. but in a swift motion, Hajime dodged the attack and grabbed the arm of the blond thug, he then twisted his arm around causing him to shriek in pain and drop his knife before Hajime finished his attack by sweeping his legs, seeing the thug crashing to the floor.

Yuki watched as Hajime took down the blond thug, to her, this was completely unthinkable, how could anyone be able to fight three men? She stared at the scene in utter bewilderment.

"Guys, Get up and we can't lose to this clown!" he cried, shouting his orders to his unconscious companions.

Hajime took the opportunity to jump over his opponent and send a solid right hook which staggered the man. He followed with a right punch that connected with the jaw, sending another rush of blood spitting from the man's mouth.

The man attempted to retaliate by trying to counter Hajime's move using his left hook but instead got knocked on the ground by his opponent and instantly passed out as a result. Hajime stared for a moment while clenching his hands into fists as if something was bugging him, eventually looked over his shoulder and spotted Yuki cowering in fear when he remembered that he left her standing alone and gone back for her.

"Makato-san, are you okay?!" Hajime calmly said, offering his hand to the infamous ice queen

Yuki looked at him, "Y-yes I am ok. Thank you for saving me." She shakily took Hajime's hand and got up.

"No, No need to thank me." Hajime blushed, helping her up and looking away from her tear-filled eyes.

"Let's get you home, Makato-san"