"I thought I told you to get it done!" the man said with a furious look.
The boy turned back and wiped the blood from his lip with his sleeve.
"Oh, did you bite your cheek?" the other mocked in a patronising tone, but he didn't react to him.
Instead, he turned back to the man who struck him and looked him dead in the eye.
Then he spat blood onto his cheek and said, "I thought I told you I'm not your puppet, you bastard."
"How dare you!" the other yelled as he launched a punch straight for his face.
But before it made contact, he caught him by the wrist with his right hand and said, "Just because you caught me off guard doesn't mean you ever stood a chance."
He twisted his wrist.
"Got that?"
What followed was an elbow to the man's nose that made him tumble onto the ground. There he lay, shaking and disoriented, only able to stop the blood from his nose with his hand.
The boy turned back to the man who had struck him. The man wiped the blood off his cheek and grabbed him by the collar.
He reciprocated, and for a moment they stood there exchanging furious looks. Then the man headbutted him.
Once he pulled back, it was his own forehead that was bleeding, while the boy only had a minor scratch on his.
"Are you satisfied?" he asked, that look still persisting.
That was the last straw for the man. He turned to his companion, who was still sitting disoriented on the floor.
There was no way he could let a boy that much smaller than them have his way. He threw another punch, expecting the same result as before, but this time the boy's face didn't flinch.
"My turn," he said calmly before throwing his own.
Once it landed, the man could see one of his teeth flying out of his mouth. He fell to his knees, only for the boy to drive his knee into his face.
"Damn you!!" he yelled loud enough for the whole street to hear.
Then he tackled the boy to the ground from his knees and proceeded to throw punch after punch.
"Hey!" a voice yelled as two men dressed in orange kimono and black hakama separated them. "Break it up!"
"Let me go!" the man yelled as he tried to break free from the guard's restraint.
The boy, on the other hand, was calm and barely resisted as he was pushed back. Looking at his face, there were barely any marks on it, but the man's knuckles were bloodied.
"We'll look the other way if you break this up now!" the guard restraining him said. "So be the bigger person!"
"Screw that! He made us look like fools. There's no way that I'm going to look the other way."
"What happened?" the guard holding the boy asked.
"That damn bastard and his buddy were trying to dump all their work on me just because I'm the youngest on the site," he replied. "I'm sure he'll think before he acts next time."
The struggle on the other side continued until suddenly a girl appeared amidst the chaos. She long black hair that was tied at the back with a string and dark eyes.
She wore a robe that was covered in dust and so were her hands. But even then she still faced the man as well as the guard holding him.
"What are you doing here?!" The boy yelled suddenly trying to break free.
But instead of causing a scene she bowed to the man and said,"I'm sorry for his behaviour it won't happen again, so please can you let this one go."
"Don't grovel over that bastard," the boy said while struggling," he's the one in the wrong!"
"We'll take your word for it Miss Shia," the guard restraining the man replied," as long as he won't cause anymore trouble we'll let him go after we've separated the two from the same vicinity."
"Thank you so much," she replied," he won't cause a scene like this again."
The guard nodded then turned while holding the man. They started walking away for a moment it felt like it was the end of it.
But then the man drove his elbow into the guard's gut before breaking free.
"Get away!" The boy yelled to her as she turned to him.
Looking back she saw the man charging straight for her and she froze.
But before he could reach her he was tripped onto the ground and restrained by a girl with orange hair.
"What the hell!" The man mumbled but she pushed his head back down to the ground.
The girl was baffled but before she could say anything another voice called out from behind.
"Are you okay, miss?" It asked.
She turned to see a group of four people standing there wearing brown hooded cloaks.
"I'm fine," she mumbled amidst the confusion.
"Let go of me!" The boy shot before breaking free and rushing to her.
"Ayako," he said as he reached her," are you hurt?"
"I said I'm fine," she replied," but I'm more focused on who saved me."
She turned back to the orange haired girl who was restraining the man only for to see the guard usher her off and pick the man up.
"That's it we tried being nice but then you go attacking people after we said we'd let you go," the guard said said as he restrained him.
Then he turned to the orange haired girl and said," That was quick thinking. Thanks for the help."
"It's okay," she replied before the guard along with his other companion took hold of the man and started walking away.
"Um-," the girl said catching her attention," thank you Miss. Who knows what happened if you hadn't stepped in."
"My name is Ayako Shio," she continued," it's nice to meet you."
"Oh nice to meet you," she replied suddenly shy," my name is Yuriko."
"Are you from around here?" Ayako asked," I've never seen you before.
"No, me and friends are travellers," Yuriko replied.
"Of course," she said nervously," with gorgeous hair like that I'm sure i would remember you."
"It's nice to meet you my name is Miyuki Hibiki," the girl with emerald green eyes said as she waved to her."
"And I'm Izumi," the boy with wavey black hair added.
"Hi my name is Lloyd," the other boy said nervously.
"Nice to meet all to," Ayako replied.
Then Yuriko turned to the boy with the white streaked hair and asked," Are you two related."
"No we're not," Ayako replied," why do you ask."
"It's just i wanted to know his name to," she said awkwardly.
Ayako turned to him and their eyes met. He looked at her for a moment skeptical before turning to Yuriko.
"My name-" he said as he took a step closer.
"-is Hyogonosuke Yamada."
"But you can just call me Hyogo."
When she remained silent for a moment, Ayako turned back and asked,
"Is everything okay?"
Yuriko blinked as if snapping out of a daze before finally replying,
"It's just that... Yamada is our last name too."