Knight in Uniform

She wiped her tears and finally grabbed his hand.

She was a fully grown woman, but he was still taller than her.

Still holding onto his hand, she said: "Thank you so much."

Then she saw the most beautiful thing in the world.

He smiled

"Don't mention it." He said.

A little cupid baby flapped its wings from the fairy world and pulled back an arrow on its bow. The arrow launched and hit her right in the heart.

The cupid, the fairy world and the arrow in her heart faded away as he gently pulled his hand back. However, her feelings were stronger than ever.

"Motherf*****!"

They turned to the alleyway where Asahi stood up, blocking the exit.

"What the f*** did you do to me, kid!"

"I punched you," Hikaru said nonchalantly.

"Bullsh*t!"

Asahi figured the boy was hiding a weapon like a taser or something.

There was absolutely no way the boy could have hit that hard with those skinny arms of his. Unless…

"Are you doing kung-fu or some sh*t?"

"Maybe."

Either that or he had a bionic arm Asahi thought. The boy got into an accident at a young age, and they had to replace his arm with a robotic one. That's why he's so strong. There must be metal under his skin.

There's only one way to find out.

Asahi took out a flip knife.

The woman gasped and huddled up to Hikaru's arm from behind.

"Stay behind me," Hikaru said.

Hikaru moved away, but she clung onto Hikaru's arm tightly, holding him back.

He could see that she was worried about him getting stabbed.

"Trust me." Hikaru gave a gentle smile.

Her heart melted and worries melted away. Seeing the confidence in Hikaru's eyes and calm demeanour, she reluctantly let go of his arm.

As unbelievable as it was, she remembered him knocking Asahi down in one punch but because she didn't understand how she was worried that it was a fluke.

If he got stabbed, he could bleed to death. She started to regret letting him go. She should have been the one to hold the knife back while Hikaru ran away.

This time Hikaru walked casually to Asahi.

A little kid who does homework was walking towards him, yet he was exuding an oppressive force invisible to the naked eye.

Asahi felt that if he stood in Hikaru's way with all his strength, it would only push himself back.

He remembered the force of Hikaru's punch.

It was like he was facing a tank.

'Me? Afraid of a kid? Don't be ridiculous!'

Asahi charged at him with a knife in one hand.

"Don't get too cocky kid!" He said just before he swung the knife at Hikaru's neck.

Hikaru caught the knife-wielding hand with his left hand and began squeezing it like a toy stress ball.

"Ah!- Ahhhh!" Asahi screamed.

The pressure from Hikaru's grasp was so strong that all his fingers dislocated at the joints and his knuckles splintered through the skin.

Asahi pulled his other arm back to throw a punch but Hikaru's fist smashed into his face before he could take a swing.

The top row of teeth blew out of his mouth along with a spurt of blood. He fell back into a group of bins and was knocked out.

The woman was in a daze as what she feared of happening, what she hoped had happened and how it actually turned out was so different from each other.

But she was joyful.

Hikaru's strength, and temperament made him seem much more mature than his age.

She put her hand on her chest and felt her heart was beating quick.

'When have I felt this before?'

The face of her ex-husband popped up. Her first love.

Her face went red when she thought of this.

Hikaru cupped her chin with his hands and lifted her face to his.

"Are you hurt?" Hikaru said while he inspected the left and right of her face.

They were just blushes. Sure enough, it got redder.

"I'm fine." She said as she pulled away from his scalding hot fingers.

"Thank you for rescuing me."

"Don't mention it."

Unlike others, Hikaru uses the literal meaning of that phrase.

He turned around and walked with his hands in pockets.

She felt something was wrong with him walking away. The image of her ex-husband leaving her overlapped with Hikaru's back.

"Please wait for a moment!"

Hikaru turned around while she walked up to him.

"I- I don't know your name… You're my hero after all." She said, looking a bit flustered.

"Just call me Hikaru." He said casually.

"Oh. My name's Ayume Emiko but you can call me by my first name."

"Well, it's nice to meet you Emiko. Be careful of walking alone in the dark from now on." With that, Hikaru walked away.

It's not that he didn't have social skills, he wasn't interested in talking to her. He didn't even intend to save her. He just wanted to test his combat strength and what better way to do that than against a thug. If he accidentally killed him, then no one would care.

Although there were more polite ways to deal with her, he didn't bother. There was nothing wrong with his behaviour either as he did the bare minimum to satisfy the conditions of a regular conversation.

He also saved her life.

Similarly, Emiko didn't feel that he was wrong at all because she was indebted to him.

She was watching her knight in shining armour (or school uniform) walking away from her.

"Wa-wait! Can I see you again?"

Hikaru was about to ignore her and turn the corner, but a thought came to mind. He turned around and smiled.

"What's your phone number?"

Emiko internally cheered and returned a smile.

"It's… 080 ████ ████"

After Hikaru added her phone number to his contact list. A Line notification popped up on her phone. When she saw it was from Hikaru, he had already disappeared.

Emiko rejoiced.

'I still got it.' She thought proudly to herself.

"Ugh"

She jumped when she heard a groan from the bins behind her.

It was Asahi.

She quickly sneaked away before he could get up.