I quickly assessed the situation.
The men were blocking the only exit, and they looked ready to pounce at any moment.
I stood protectively in front of Naomi, trying to buy us some time.
She couldn't stand on her own feet, and it looked like she was drugged.
"Who are you? What do you want with her?" I demanded, my voice trembling slightly.
Naomi and I were in danger, and I had to react at the right moment.
The leader of the group laughed, a cold, mirthless sound.
"We're just here to collect what's owed to us. Naomi here thought she could run, but no one escapes us…" he said, while throwing a cigarette on the ground.
Then, he stepped even closer, and I saw his face better.
He had grey, short hair, a big scar on his right eye, and a line that continued from his eyebrow to his cheek.
He didn't have a beard, but his facial features looked very old and evil.
Only his presence was enough to scare someone.
But… he was dressed casually, with an elegant blue smoking with grey stripes.
There were also two men behind him with machine guns in their hands, to protect him from any inconvenience.
I glanced back at Naomi, her face pale and eyes wide and empty with fear. "Is this true, Naomi?" I whispered.
She nodded slowly, tears streaming down her cheeks. "K-Kai... T-They are not talking about me… they… they *cough*"
Naomi coughed out some blood and fell to the floor, trying to use her hands to stay up.
She was breathing heavily, and it was obvious that she required medical assistance.
I rushed to her to give her some help, and she weakly clung to my arm.
With a broken gaze, she stood in silence, still crying.
I felt so… bad.
How did she end up in this situation? And what did she mean by saying that they weren't talking about her?"
I turned back to the gang members, trying to think of a way out.
"Please, let us go. She needs medical assistance, or she's gonna die!! I promise that I'll pay any amount of money that you want, but please, leave us out of this!" I said, with a broken and desperate tone of voice.
The leader shook his head while laughing menacingly.
"You probably don't understand the situation, boy. Do you want me to explain it to you? We don't care about this bitch. She's already dead." He said with a cold voice while looking at us like we were worms
I felt a surge of fear and anger.
There had to be a way to save us both.
I stayed silent, looking at the man with a determined gaze.
I was scared deeply into my bones since I could be dead in any second, but the adrenaline in my veins was making me feel "brave".
"Two of my men were killed. Nobody knows who the killer is… but… all the roads guided me to you. I thought that you needed to be taught a lesson." The man said, while looking at me with a very deadly look.
"What? I didn't kill them! And I did nothing!!" I said, yelling.
"I don't fucking care." He said with a voice even colder than before.
A shiver ran through my spine.
Naomi was still coughing blood, and her body was so weak and wounded that she was still staying on the ground.
"What…?" That's all I could say.
My first thought was that I was about to die.
"You see, I can kill you in any second, and the anger inside me for brutally murdering two of my men is too much. But…" he said, while getting closer to me.
I was on the floor, beside Naomi, still holding her.
I tightened my grip on the gun knife in my pocket, ready to defend Naomi with everything I had.
"…You're not our target. A weak boy like you could never kill those two alone…" The man added.
I looked at him, confused.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Don't play dumb. You know what I'm saying. If you tell me who killed our men and help our society find the culprit, I'll promise that I'll give you my protection and let you live…" he said, while looking at me with a cold gaze.
"…" I didn't speak.
Judging from what he said, the man didn't know that the culprit was Hina and probably wanted to take advantage of me to investigate.
But that was strange; the letter was sent from their organization… how could they not know about Hina?
But… a spark snapped into my head.
Considering that he knew the men who died… he probably was…
"You're Kuragiri Takeda, right?" I said with a cold voice.
The man was surprised, and his eyes widened a bit.
He then let out a small but malicious laugh.
"Oh? Good! How do you know about me?" He asked while clapping his hands a few times.
The men behind him were still pointing their weapons at me.
"… That's none of your business," I said, while getting up from the floor and facing the man.
Kuragiri's eyes widened a little, and he stood in silence, not expecting me to reply like this.
The fear was still inside my heart, but the adrenaline kept hiding it behind a veil of fake courage.
"HOW DARE YOU SPEAK TO OUR BOSS LIKE THIS?!?!" One of the two men yelled angrily.
The men with guns pointed their weapons at me even more, ready to fire.
But the leader stopped them.
"Stop." He said, while giving his men a cold and menacing glare.
"But boss-!" One of them said, but Kuragiri gave him a deadly gaze, and the man quickly fell silent and apologized.
Then, the boss turned his head towards me and laughed a little.
"Oh… you surely have some guts, don't you?" He said while clapping his hands again.
I stood in silence, looking at him with cold eyes.
"You know, I didn't expect a stupid boy with no balls to have the courage to speak to me like this… And I think that I changed my mind." He said while walking around the room.
I still didn't know what they wanted.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
The boss then walked closer to me.
I was still on the ground, close to Naomi.
When he stopped, I was literally at his feet, looking at his face from below.
"I think before anything else, I'll teach you a lesson personally." He whispered, in a low voice.
I didn't even have the time to think that he gave me a kick in the stomach.
It was so fast and rapid that I didn't even see it coming.
The room echoed with the sound of his kick hitting my belly.
The hit was so hard and painful that it gave me some urges to vomit and let out everything that I had in my body.
"URGH-" I yelled, while spitting out some saliva and wrapping my arms around my waist, like I wanted to make the pain lower.
Naomi's pupils became small in horror, and she stepped back from me.
She screamed my name and begged the man to leave me.
I kept standing down, holding my stomach and feeling the intense pain coming from the kick.
I couldn't move… I couldn't do anything.
The man then leaned closer to me and grabbed my face from my cheeks.
His grip was so tight that I felt pain.
"You see… nobody must disrespect me… and now tell me who killed my men, or my next move is to slit your throat and then abuse your beautiful friend right before your eyes." He said, while leaving my face and looking at Naomi.
When I heard the last phrase, my head went numb, and I grabbed my knife from my pocket.
In the blink of an eye, I aimed to cut his jugular vein.
"LEAVE HER!" I screamed with all my might.
It seemed like the pain from the kick disappeared for one second, replaced by an insatiable anger and a sense of killing.
But before I could act, one of the men lunged at me, knocking me to the ground.
The knife skittered across the floor, out of reach.
I struggled to get up, but the man pinned me down, his weight crushing me.
Naomi screamed, but her cries were cut short as another man grabbed her, covering her mouth with his hand.
The leader stood over us, his cold eyes gleaming with satisfaction.
"Looks like you're both going to learn a hard lesson tonight," he said, his voice dripping with malice.
"But I respect you, boy. That surprised me. Maybe you could be a great pawn for our organization… there's a big potential in you…" He added while looking at me and spitting on my hand.
I looked at him with anger in my eyes.
For the first time in my life, I felt the physical urge to hurt someone.
I wanted to make him suffer in the most painful way possible.
Then, I looked back at Naomi.
She was still being held by a man who was slowly starting to undress her.
Naomi watched in horror, unable to do anything.
I was witnessing something horrible.
An unpleasant and terrifying situation where all I could do was watch and blame myself for being so weak.
I kept cursing myself for not being able to do anything…
I didn't even have the force to save my friends…
"Boss, can I have my way with this girl?" The man who was holding Naomi said.
"Do whatever you want, but also kill this guy when you're finished. I'm done here. Rina will be angry if I don't return. I'll tell her that our men got avenged." He said while turning back to walk away.
The man licked his lip and looked at Naomi with lustful and disgusting eyes.
"Be ready…" he said.
As the darkness closed in around us, I knew we had to find a way out of this nightmare.
But how?
"We are dead…" I think.
All I could do was watch impotently as my friend got abused… before getting killed.
But suddenly, I heard the sound of footsteps coming from outside.
Then, a man outside the door yelled.
"Oh…? Who are you? What is a beautiful girl like you doing here in this dangerous place? Let me-AAAAAAH!" I heard a scream of pain, soon ended, replaced by the noise of some liquid dripping on the floor.
I managed to turn my head towards the door, and I noticed a pool of blood entering from the outside.
"What the…" I said to myself, while still being held by the man.
The boss immediately went on alert, sending the two men with the machine guns outside.
"Go see what happened." He said to them.
"Roger!!" The men then opened the door and saw the dead body of their companion, standing on the floor with his throat slit open.
"WHAT THE-" one of them said.
In my mind… I knew that only one person in this world was capable of something like that…