January 27, Saturday. 5.10pm evening.
I'm running out of cooking ingredient again.
So I went to the market I often visit and quickly bought all the ingredients I needed.
Not long after I left the supermarket, at the back alley where that incident took place in, I saw a human's shadow, that reminded me of the similar shadow I saw last week.
It seems like it wasn't my imagination back then when I thought I saw a suspicious shadow.
So I entered the alley and try to seek for the shadow's owner.
While tracking, I saw the shadow's owner (albeit only a short glimpse of his back) a few times.
From afar, I was sure that the shadow's owner is a guy, around my size if not slightly taller, or bigger than me. What makes me confirm he was suspicious was the briefcase he carries at his back. It's a black briefcase with its length probably half of his height. As the briefcase knocks a street pole accidentally while he walks, the sound of the impact was quite strong, that makes me firmly believe that briefcase was heavy.
Walking in the back alley with a suspicious looking briefcase that is heavy, though I feel like playing too much game has made me think too much but I can't help to think there is weapon inside the briefcase.
After tracking for a few minutes, I heard a girl shout shortly after the guy make a turn at a corner.
I sprint towards that corner and make a turn. I saw the guy with his back facing me and a girl who I can't see clearly due to the guy blocking my sight. He was grabbing the girl's shoulder, then let go of his hands and start to take his briefcase.
From that little action, I deduced that he was going to take something from the briefcase.
I quickly charge towards him and attack him at his stomach, but my attack was blocked by his briefcase.
From my fist that came in contact with the briefcase, I could tell the briefcase is very hard, almost like a wall or a steel. So what I thought might not be wrong.
Before I could make my second move, the guy tried to smash me with his heavy briefcase. Even though I didn't really think much about it, I dodged it reflexively instead of blocking his attack. Perhaps my body recognize the sensation my fist felt earlier so it automatically thinks any direct hit by the briefcase will hurts a lot.
After dodging a few attacks, I started to get used to his movement. Because of the briefcase's weight, there are always delay after every attack, so I make use of that delay and attempted to hit his jaw.
As I thought the weight of the briefcase should causes him to lose a bit of balance after each attack, he dodged my attack perfectly by slightly turning his head to the side. In other word, he dodged my attack without moving his body at all.
Though I was surprised, I didn't waver at all and quickly launch another attack.
Previously, my hand missed his jaw, so it was positioned at the left, so instead of pulling my hand back and wasted some time, I grab his shoulder with my right hand, and pull him closer to me. Because the weight of the briefcase threw him off balance a little earlier, so it is obvious that he lost all his balance when I pull him.
This is it! I thought, and hit his stomach hard with my left fist.
After the attack, I can feel his weight from my right hand. He seems to be losing his strength and starting to fall down.
When I thought I had take care of him and started to relax, he headbutt me followed by an attack from his briefcase.
Though I took a full hit from his headbutt, I managed to block his briefcase attack.
As expected, it is a very powerful strike. From my rough guesstimate, the weight of the briefcase should be more than 20kg.
I fell back by quite a distance after taking the last attack.
As the girl is further from the guy than earlier, I believe it should be safe for her to run now, so I shouted to the girl and ask her to run away.
"Huh?"
The girl made a questioned face.
"What do you mean?"
She asked.
Now it is my turn to make a questioned face.
"What do you mean what?? He harassed you earlier and was able to hurt you earlier so of course you should run!"
"Huh? No, he wasn't. He is my elder brother."
"........Eh!?"
------------------------------
The girl introduced the guy and herself to me, then I introduced myself in return.
The guy who I thought was dangerous, is named Aoba Alexander, and the girl is named Aoba Miley. Now that I'm facing both of them and talk in calm, I could tell clearly that this guy is both taller and bigger than me. His height is probably 180cm or more, and he probably weighted around 90kg. The girl on the other hand, is so much smaller while she stood next to Alexander. Though she is at least taller than that mini dinosaur.
Okaaay........ so, I was making a huge mistake and embarrassed myself greatly.
The girl shouted earlier because her brother was approaching her from the back and shocked her. So it is a shout of surprised than shout of fear.
"If you just accidentally surprised her, then why would you take your briefcase down after that?"
Because normally one would just try to calm her down, it makes no sense to take the briefcase down.
The guy stay silent for a while, and said that because he thought I was trying to hurt Miley.
Means the moment I made a turn at the corner and saw them, he already notice my presence and thought I was going to attack them from the back, that's why he let go of his hand from her shoulder and start to grab his briefcase in prepare to defend my assault.
What a silly misunderstanding. I facepalmed myself when I came to realize all that.
"I apologize for my stupid mistake."
"Ahaha... don't worry about it. From your point of view, it is normal to mistaken it."
Oh yea, one of the thing that makes me misunderstood, other than Alexander looked like harassing Miley, is his abnormally heavy briefcase. As I had thought of this, I asked Alexander about it.
For some reason, it seems like he spaced off and didn't reply me. Miley made a bitter laugh and explained to me.
"For some reason, my brother had always been attacked by others when he is alone. More so when he is with me, as he will ended up fighting someone that tried to hit on me. So for that he learned a bit of self defense and fight every now and then. But you see, both of us are from a family with musical background, and my brother happened to plays violin so his violin always broke after fighting. So with some connections my father has, my parents make a sturdy violin case for my brother. The weight is the result of the sturdiness."
That is.... quite something.....
Always been in fight, I guess that's why Miley didn't even try to stop us in the slightest bit earlier. She must have thought I am one of those who attack Alexander.
"What is the briefcase's weight?"
"I'm not too sure. It should be heavier than normal violin case, yet not too heavy that makes traveling with it difficult"
"Can I try to lift it?"
I asked Alexander. Once again, he didn't reply me. Is he daydreaming or he dislike talking?
"I think my brother won't mind it."
While saying so, Miley made a bitter smile.
I lift the briefcase up for a few seconds, then put it down.
It is heavy..... but not as much as I thought.
It probably weights around 10kg, or even less.
Does that mean the powerful impact I felt earlier was more because of Alexander's strength than because of the briefcase's weight?
I shouldn't be surprised actually, from his body build, he must be quite strong. If I am strong in fighting because of my reflex, then he is strong because of his brute strength.
"Say...."
"Hm?"
"Is your brother always like this? I mean.... dislike talking?"
"Hah.... he is the quiet type actually. But despite that, a lot of things run through his mind when he is not talking."
"Hoh.... so you could tell what he is thinking?"
"Yes, to a certain extend. Because his thought process could be very fast sometimes so rather than I don't understand what he is thinking, it is more like I can't keep up with his thinking process."
"........I see."
Putting aside the fact that you don't deny you can read his mind, can't keep up with his thinking process sounds way too unbelievable.
But well, nothing is impossible in this century, more so in the Kammzet City.
I am convinced though, about the fact that Alexander's thought process are very fast.
Unlike me whose body acts reflexively, he probably moves after he had thought of about the move properly.
Like when I tried to hit his jaw earlier, he probably already anticipated my movement, that's why he could dodged my attack with just moving his head slightly.
He should also anticipated me grabbing his shoulder and pull him off balance, but he couldn't prevent it because he can't move his body easily due to the momentum brought by swinging his briefcase hard.
Instead, he probably tensed up his muscle around his stomach area so he can withstand my attack, and could easily tricked me into thinking I had defeated him by faking he lose his strength, and headbutt me when I had let my guard down, resulting in taking his headbutt in full force.
I may be thinking too much, but if what I thought is true, I should really avoid fighting someone like him. in the future.
"Thanks for explaining and sorry for the trouble cause. It is almost night time so I must take my leave now"
"No, it is our fault for not realizing it. Do you live around here?"
"Hm? Ah, yea. Around 15 minutes from here"
"Then I guess we might meet again in the future. Oh yea, next time when you saw someone at the back alley, please check if it is my brother first, because he has the habit of taking a stroll in the back alley"
"Ah.... I.... see..."
That's...... no, I shouldn't comment on people's habit or hobby. I don't quite have the right to do so anyway.
"Well, so.... see you again, somewhere in this town."
"Yes. Good bye."
As I was taking my leave, it seems like Alexander was staring at me. Though he might just be spacing off again, but I just felt like it is not in this case. Could it be he is thinking something about me? Like I could be dangerous? I might be paranoid but I did attack him earlier so it is not strange for him to think so.
The mystery of the shadow in the back alley is now solved. Meh.... Just saying it for fun. It's not like there was any real mystery to begin with.
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