9: Chapter 9 Asakura Miyuki

(There are fight scenes in this chapter, and the author doesn't really know how to write them, so they might look a bit messy. Please bear with it, everyone.)

Kaiwen spent the afternoon classes in anxiety. As soon as the dismissal bell rang, she grabbed her school bag and headed straight for the small garden.

However, the process of communicating with Raiden Mei turned out to be exceptionally smooth.

After taking that small notebook, she just casually glanced through it, then nodded and said, "I know."

"J—Just like that?" Kaiwen was somewhat incredulous.

"What did you expect me to do?" Mei tilted her head slightly, a hint of a smile even touching the corner of her lips. "It has only been a day. If you were able to obtain a lot of intelligence that I don't know about, that would actually be abnormal. However—"

"However?"

She raised her hand and waved the notebook in front of Kaiwen. "Continue tomorrow."

Kaiwen nodded with a heavy sigh of relief, taking the opportunity while the Thunder Queen was in a good mood to quickly take her leave.

...

In Changkong City at dusk, the sky had not yet completely darkened, and the streetlights on the road had just lit up.

Kaiwen walked along the old commercial street. This street still had some popularity when snacks were sold during the day, but at night, once the vendors packed up their stalls, it became eerily quiet.

However, Kaiwen didn't mind these things.

Right now, she was lowering her head, checking tonight's work schedule on the screen. The scheduling lately was still quite abstract.

"Please, let me go..."

Suddenly, a weak female voice drifted out from the alley on the left, carrying a crying tone.

Before the words even finished falling, they were muffled by something, turning into vague "woo-woo" sounds.

Kaiwen raised her head.

The alley entrance was just three or four steps away on her left hand side.

The alley was not deep. Utilizing the light of the streetlight, she saw three men wearing sportswear pinning a girl wearing a Chiba Academy uniform against the wall.

The girl's school uniform jacket had already been torn open, revealing the white shirt inside. Meanwhile, the blonde-haired ringleader was covering her mouth with one hand, eagerly pulling at the collar of her shirt with the other, while the other two individuals emitted disgusting laughter from the side.

Kaiwen recognized that girl—her classmate, Asakura Miyuki.

Later, when lying in the hospital, she actually regretted it quite a bit. Who would have thought that playing the hero saving a damsel in distress would turn out like this.

But at that moment, she simply didn't give herself the opportunity to weigh the pros and cons.

"Let her go!"

She shouted loudly, picked up the heavy school bag filled with books in her hand, and using the momentum of her sprint, fiercely swung it toward the blonde's head.

"Bang!"

The school bag slammed solidly onto the blonde's face.

"Ouch, fuck!"

The blonde let out a miserable scream, having been hit quite hard by this blow, and his hand covering Miyuki's mouth instinctively loosened as well.

Kaiwen didn't stop. She grabbed Miyuki's wrist and pulled her toward the alley entrance.

"Run!"

But Miyuki was as if frightened silly, unable to run at all, and could only rely on Kaiwen dragging her as she ran outward.

The two of them started running on the empty pedestrian street, and from behind came the blonde's furious voice: "Chase them down!"

The footsteps followed closely, getting closer and closer.

The stride length and stamina of adult men were not something high school girls could outrun.

Kaiwen pulled Miyuki in a circle, trying to shake them off, but Miyuki's legs kept trembling, severely slowing down their speed.

The footsteps behind were so close they were practically right next to her ears.

Kaiwen clenched her teeth, pushed Miyuki forward, and turned around to block from behind.

"Keep running! Don't stop!"

Miyuki stumbled a couple of steps, turned her head back, her eyes full of panic and hesitation.

"Run!"

Miyuki finally ran.

But before she could run far, those few punks caught up.

"Punk, you're asking for it!"

The blonde didn't waste any words at all, lunging forward directly with a punch.

If it were the former Kaiwen, she definitely wouldn't have been able to dodge this punch, but after coming to this world, her body's reactions were indeed a bit faster than ordinary people.

She abruptly tilted her head, the fist brushing past her ear, and then, utilizing this momentum, she swung the school bag in her hand, smashing it fiercely onto the side of the blonde's face.

The previous hit might have still retained a bit of restraint, but as for this current one...

Only a miserable scream from the blonde was heard as he was directly smashed into a stumble, falling to the side of the road.

But this wasn't over yet; the other two punks had already surrounded her.

Kaiwen didn't know any martial arts moves; she just relied on instinct, wildly swinging and smashing the school bag in her hand.

The one on the left was whipped in the eye by the bag strap, covering his face and squatting down.

However, the one on the right grabbed the school bag, pulled it hard, and then kicked her in the stomach.

Kaiwen felt like her stomach was about to turn inside out, but she didn't let go. Instead, taking advantage of his lapse in attention, she headbutted the person right on the chin.

"Bang!"

That person let out a muffled groan, then fell flat on his rear to the ground.

The scene instantly descended into utter chaos.

Kaiwen couldn't hold on much longer either. She leaned against the cold wall, panting heavily, her hand holding the school bag shaking continuously.

Three punks: one was squatting while covering his face, one was sitting on the ground spitting out blood foam, and the blonde was still lying by the roadside.

Although very disheveled, the person standing in the end was still her—let's just consider it her win.

Kaiwen leaned against the wall, wanting to take a deep breath to calm her heartbeat, and then leave this ghost place.

But in street fighting, the biggest taboo was lowering one's guard.

That punk sitting on the ground groped blindly on the curb beside him, touching a red brick of unknown purpose.

His head was buzzing. Looking at Kaiwen panting against the wall, a surge of viciousness rushed straight to his brain. He suddenly sprang up, didn't say a word, and swung the brick in his hand directly toward Kaiwen's temple.

Then.

Bang—

Kaiwen only felt a whistling sound rush past her ear, and then, the entire world tilted.

Warm liquid flowed down her temple, blurring her left eye, and her vision turned into a glaring red.

It hurts so much...

She wanted to crawl up, but her hands and feet simply wouldn't obey commands.

The sound of the punks regrouping footsteps came into her ears, along with the blonde's vicious cursing.

"Damn it, beat her to death..."

The edges of her vision began to irreversibly blacken, and her consciousness faded rapidly.

Was she going to die here?

At the very second she was about to completely sink into darkness, the cursing in her ears suddenly turned into a miserable scream.

Following closely was a dull sound of flesh colliding.

Kaiwen exhausted her very last bit of strength, slightly opening her right eye, which still held a trace of clarity.

In the dim backlight of the streetlight, a flash of silver-white broke into her vision.