Book 1, Chapter: 24

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"Hey! Look who came in to join the party?", the closest of the three bullies spoke, sparing only a side glance at me and laughing.

"…Deal with him", spoke Hook looking over his shoulder with freezing cold eyes, holding both of Ninebark's hands down on the ground as he was all over her.

"Hey… Have you ever killed someone before?", I asked.

"What are you talking about? Whatever, just… SHUT. UP", the closest of my tormentors pulled his fist back, and threw a punch at me. Which I easily deflected with my improvised sword.

Afterward, I then swept his legs from beneath him, and once he fell to the ground, I stroke him with the butt of my lacrosse stick right on his nose, breaking it and instantly creating a blood geyser on his face.

"What the heck?!" the second closest tormentor's eyes went wide as I slowly walked towards him. "Fuck, don't get cocky, Strike!", he tried to kick me down, but I calmly swapped his leg away from me, and punched him right above his left eye blinding him with his own blood as the split eyebrow bleed quite well.

"Trying to man up, hu?! It won't work, Strike! And your punishment will be even worse than before! Are you listening to me?!", the tormentors' leader, Hook, tried to intimidate me.

"Then, come. Show me that you can beat someone other than a girl with your group of cowards", I frowned.

"Raagh!", he came running towards me, fist raised without any posture, without any guidance, pure violence.

And for a moment, I let go of my composed self.

"BAM!", I hit the one who was the midfielder during the lacrosse game right on his face, sending a couple of his teeth flying away.

I then realized it. Or was forced to realize it. Finally.

"BAM!", I hit him again, on his hand, breaking his thumb as he tried to punch me with the finger at a weird angle.

I hated violence. It was inhumane and completely despicable.

"BAM! BAM!", I stroke against Hook's thigh and arm.

But, sometimes, I had no choice but to appeal to violence. And it wasn't to prove myself to anyone as my father thought, for I had committed no crime, but because even if I tried to be completely selfless, there would still be other people suffering because of my passivity.

"BAM! BAM! BAM!", I hit his hands, ears, and feet.

To have power and not use it… It wasn't different from letting a nameless soldier bleed out, spilling his entrails everywhere, bleeding out until he was dead.

"BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!", ribs, chest, stomach, back. Then, I stopped, breathing heavily.

Then I remembered about Hook's goons: there was no way they wouldn't have got back up already! I turned around, ready to fight again, but what I saw was a smiling Coyote, holding two unconscious tormentors with both hands, and one smug Spruce.

"Well, they were the ones who began all of this, so whatever", Skyblue shrugged.

"I knew you had it in you, boy. You're a winner too!", Spruce said, raising one thumb up.

I didn't say a thing, but recomposed myself, and when I turned back to Hook, I noticed I had beaten him a little too much. If I continued, he could probably die. That was enough already.

Then, I turned to Ninebark, the girl on who that piece of trash was discounting all of his frustrations.

She was covered in bruises, her fingers, nose, and lips were bleeding, and her clothes had been shredded to pieces. I had to throw my lacrosse stick away so as not to start beating Hook again and actually end up killing him.

"…Are you okay?", I asked the girl, kneeling before her.

"Yes, master…", she replied, spitting blood on her own torso as she was struggling to get up from the ground.

"Don't force yourself", I said, reaching for her shoulders, and allowing her to stay still for a little longer. "…And don't call me master. I'm Strike, of the Bloodstain Clan. You can call me just Ike. And you?", I already knew her first name from Coyote, but I wanted to know more, so much more about that girl.

"Ninebark… Just Ninebark."

"Ninebark. I don't know how you got involved with these guys, but you should leave them behind and come with us", I begged the girl with pretty freckles.

"Yeah, and we better get out of here too. And quickly", Spruce commented from behind me.

"What are you talking about? Let her rest a little", I protested.

"I don't think we have time for that. There's a teacher coming!"