(3rd person narration)
March 1st, Thursday
Taekwando's club activity had just ended.
After getting changed and packed up, Minnie left the practice hall and meet up with Akiko.
Usually, when Minnie has club activities, Akiko will go back first by car, but today, both of them decided to walk home together, because Akiko wanted to stay overnight at Minnie's place.
After leaving the school ground, upon reaching a junction, just before they could cross the road, a motorcycle passed by them in high speed, causing a strong wind blowing towards them.
Because their skirt were almost being revealed due to the wind, Minnie got very angry.
She shouted and scolded the motorcyclist, but due to his speed, he was already far away and most probably couldn't hear what she said.
As Akiko tried to calm Minnie down, a voice approaches them from the other end.
"Hey girls, why so angry over some trivia like that?"
There were another 2 motorcyclist, one of them got down from his bike and approaches Akiko.
"You won't lose anything from showing us your panties right?"
"Like hell we won't!"
Before Akiko got to say anything, Minnie automatically stands in front of Akiko and tried to protect her.
"Why would you lose anything when you're just a kid. To begin with, it's uninteresting to look at a kid's panties"
"Hahaha. Damn right. We're more interested in that lady behind you."
Due to Akiko's height and style, Minnie is often treated as a kid when standing near Akiko, but what angers her more is the fact that Akiko is being harassed.
"Stay away from us!"
Shouting so while swinging her bag at the man closest to her.
Maybe because her bag is quite heavy, or maybe it was because her brute strength, the man was hit quite hard.
But of course, it was nothing that will injure an adult. Even more so when his quite muscular.
"Ouch.... damn you kid, you'll pay for this!"
The man launched a punch at Minnie, which was blocked by her bag.
Minnie fell back a few steps because she couldn't withstand all the impact, and before she could regain her stance, the man launched another punch at Minnie.
Even though the attack hits her bag, the impact is all he need to make Minnie fell down.
With frequent practice with Yan, Minnie is supposed to be able to stand up quickly after falling down, but due to her terror towards adult man, she response slower than she could, and was captured by the man.
The man grip both her small hands and held her high at midair.
Minnie tried to fight back by kicking. It's either her attack cannot reach, or it was simply repelled by the man.
"Ahaha, this is what you got for picking a fight with an adult."
"Minnie!"
Akiko tried to help but she was quickly held back by another man.
"You need to be punished..... let's see.... I'll start from here."
Saying so, the man get grab the end of Minnie's skirt, and started to pull it up slowly.
"Pure white? Ahahaha! At least it doesn't have cartoon printed on it! Hahaha"
"Noooooooo"
The man enjoy seeing Minnie struggling in misery, as he was thinking what kind of 'torture' next,
he was kicked hard and flew away.
As Minnie was being release and expecting herself to fall on the hard cold ground, she was being held by someone.
The way she was held, reminded her of how her deceased father princess-carried her.
When she finally came to her sense, she realized the one who held her was actually Yan.
As he appeared, the other motorcyclist who caught Akiko earlier shouted "Who the hell are you? Don't come any closer or else she'll-" and was hit by a bamboo blade before he could finished.
After being released, Akiko turned around to see that she was saved by Yu Zhe.
"Are you alright?" Yan asked as he slowly put Minnie down.
Before she could reply, Akiko pull her away as she was told by Yu Zhe to get to a safe place.
The 2 men who was hit earlier already get back on their feet.
"Shit, being done in by 2 kids."
"I'll not be careless next time"
The 2 men approach Yan and Yu Zhe.
"Looks like a fight is inevitable." Yu Zhe said.
"Idiot, don't state something so obvious." Yan retorted.
Before they are about to start, a loud motor noise was heard.
"What the hell are you doing here, I was waiting you know"
It was the motorcyclist who passed by the girls in high speed earlier.
"Shut up, get your weapon. Someone just challenged The Porcupine."
one of the men said.
"Porcupine?" Yan asked
"I heard they're a gangster group that appears in Kammzet a year ago, but this is my first time to actually encounter one."
"Hm... looks like Kammzet isn't that safe after all."
"But this group is more like an urban legend since there're hardly any witness. I'll tell you the details later after we had settle this."
"Right. But 3 vs 2 huh..... that reminds me of something very unpleasant"
"Haha... but at least we have a much better reason this time."
All 3 men are armed now, each with a metal bat or something similar.
Yan get on his usual Taekwando stance, while Yu Zhe in his kendo stance.
One of the motorcyclist launched the 1st attack on Yu Zhe. Yu Zhe's bamboo blade reached the metal bat and redirect its vector by hitting it lightly from the side.
Because of a change of vector, the man was wide open for attack which allows Yu Zhe to strike 2 quick attacks. 1 on his right hand that was holding the bat, another on his head.
In an instant, the man was disarm and fell on the ground on pain.
The other 2 men attack Yan simultaneously, from left and right.
Yan dashed in between the 2 men while laying as low as almost touching the ground, then did a quick hand stand, take a spin and attacked the 2 men with both his legs.
It wasn't a powerful kick but his attack hit the 2 men's jaw, causing them to lose their balance and stopping their movement.
After that, Yan just stand still and waited for them to fight back.
By the time the 2 men recovered, Yu Zhe had already taken care of the other man, and they didn't notice Yu Zhe's incoming attacks because they were focusing Yan. Which resulted in 2 perfectly clean hit on the back of their heads.
In Akiko's eyes, who are not skilled in martial arts, the whole fighting process ended almost instantly.
She was amazed by how well both Yan and Yu Zhe could fight, and also how well both of them cooperated. Because all the while she had only seen Minnie running amok, for the 1st time, Akiko thought fighting could be something gracious and elegant.
"Aaaah. Fuck.... My head hurts..... "
Due to a hit on the back of head and a hit on the jaw, the 2 men could hardly stand properly.
The other one who was less injured realize how absurdly strong Yan and Yu Zhe, so he decided to forcefully pull his unsatisfied partners away.
"Damn. You just made an enemy of The Porcupine."
and left while looking lame.
"He made Porcupine sound very scary"
"I only heard rumors like how ruthless and cruel they could be"
"I'll check on the local forum when I'm home"
"Ok. Then I'll ask people around for more info."
Because of their experience, they know gangster and such won't stop coming at them until the whole group is defeated or disband through some method.
Even though they haven't met for more than 4 years, their ability to react with this kind of situation didn't change at all.
If anything, they had improved in counter-measuring this kind of situation.
After their short conversation, Yan turned back to check on the girls.
Akiko seems alright, but for some reason, Minnie seems to space out.
"Hey Minnie, are you alri-"
As Yu Zhe just about approach her, Yan stopped him.
"Minnie always snapped on us because she couldn't deal with men. My hunch tells me she's more of afraid than hating men."
That's why Yu Zhe shouldn't approach Minnie now, or else she might crumble.
What Yan said isn't wrong, but to Akiko, that is not the cause of Minnie being like this
Since she couldn't thought of any other possible reason, so she just agreed with Yan and asked Yu Zhe to stay away.
"I'll call my butler to drive us back, so I think it's better for you 2 to go home first."
Yan looked at Akiko for a few seconds, then replied.
"While it is good for us to stay away from Minnie, but both of you aren't really safe yet."
"So we'll stay here until your butler comes and pick you up."
"I see. Thank you very much. We appreciate it."
"Don't sweat it, it is more natural for us to stay here to protect you ladies."
Says Yan while smiling gently.
Those words are something Yu Zhe didn't expect Yan to say. At least, the old him wouldn't.
----------------------------------------
The night time of the same day.
After his dinner and bath, Yan started up his computer and went online search for rumors of The Porcupine.
The earliest forum thread founded was 1 year old, as just Yu Zhe mentioned, they existed for 1 year already.
Some forum post mentioned they're a large group with few thousands members.
Some forum post claimed they're more of a criminal group than mere gangsters.
Among the few hundred posts Yan read, there were 2 that were a bit bothering.
One mentioning how a large scale fight broke out between The Porcupine and The Hedgehog, another gangster group from the nearby city.
Yan can remembered vaguely that his elder brother used to mention something about The Hedgehog, but he couldn't recall the content
The other post mentioned how The Porcupine had once broke a few ATM machines of a bank managed by the Katsuragi Group.
Katsuragi Group is the main competitor of The Cauldron Corp that his elder brother work in.
Knowing his elder brother, this couldn't be mere coincidence, but what link could these 2 incident have other than the fact his elder brother is involved?
After thinking for a while, Yan decided to give up for the moment and went to sleep.
A few weeks after that, Yan and Yu Zhe would encounter The Porcupine's attack from time to time. But all attacks were well handled because they had expected this and stay on guard all the time.
While on their way back home as usual,
"Oh man..... I know this is for our safety, but we had been sticking to each other almost everyday since then. We couldn't get much chance to hang out with Ying as well."
"If it was the past, we don't have to worry about Ying since those delinquents are too innocent to hurt a girl, but it's all different now. Our opponents are mostly adults."
"And above all, from what I had gathered, they really did serious crime like trading drugs"
"So does that mean we're facing a criminal group than normal gangsters......? Maybe not, a criminal group won't be defeated by just the 2 of us. Their greatest raid were only 9 men all armed only with metal bat. I haven't seen anything like guns. Trading drugs isn't too possible without guns so...."
"AAAAAAAAAAAA"
All of the sudden, a scream break their conversation.
They quickly rush to the source and found 2 students were held hostage by The Porcupines.
"11 people.... plus 2 hostages. This might be tough...."
"Focus on saving the 2 hostages, after that run wild."
As Yu Zhe heard the word "wild", he smirked.
A few minutes later, they managed to chase those gangster away and save the 2 students.
"Wow, you 2 are just as what the rumors describe!"
One of the student say happily.
"Rumors?"
again? Yan thought.
"Yes. The 2 guys who are unbeatable when they're in pair."
"That sounds kind of gay."
"It's even more so when it comes from you" Yan retorted.
"Ahaha....."
"Thank you very much."
"Be careful on your way back."
After saying goodbyes, the 2 students left while saying things like "Wow, we met the Orthrus!"
"Did they said Orthrus?"
"I think so"
"That's a nostalgic name."
"Back then we thought its a cool name."
"But I feel that it's more of a curse now."
"Why?"
"It feels like the name will force us into an endless fight."
As Yan said that, a certain philosopher's word came into his mind
"Life is an endless fight for yourself"
Upon thinking that, Yan sighed deeply.
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