Location: Random Bar, Sonomachi City.
Through one of the Bar's widows a group of friends could be seen sitting at a table laughing, the five of them enjoying themselves at the late hour. Across the street from a bar was a lone figure standing in an alleyway, resting against a wall, keeping an eye on the group as time went by. After what seemed like a few minutes had gone by the group of friends had calmed down, having finished their drinks they paid their bill and gathered outside the bar, they exchanged words of goodbye as three of them left together while the other two waited there.
"it was great getting together again, we should do this more often"
One of them spoke in a female tone to break the silence that was settling over the area.
"yeah... it's just difficult with everything going on, life gets in the way of life you know?"
The second one said in masculine tone, offering a joking smile, receiving a friendly bump of the shoulder from the girl.
"don't remind me, I have to wake up early tomorrow remember?..."
She said with an annoyed grin as they both stood still.
"... you sure you don't want a ride home Veronica?"
The guy asked her in a slightly concerned tone.
"my apartment is only three blocks away, I'll be fine, I just wanted to keep you company until your taxi gets here"
Veronica said with a smile, the guy didn't seem convinced but didn't want to continue on the matter as the taxi he called drove up and stopped near them, he looked to Veronica one last time.
"last chance"
He said with a small smile, Veronica shook her head slightly as she began walking away.
"talk to you later Mike"
Veronica said as she waved back to him, Mike chuckled slightly before getting into the taxi, it left it's spot a few minutes later as it drove of. It was then that the figure who had been watching the group dwindle from the alley across the street had left it's spot. As Veronica walked with a relatively calm smile she zoned out as she listened to the sound of her shoes against the sidewalk, she was basically on auto pilot having walked home from the Bar before.
But something disputed her state of mind as she was walking, it was an irregularity in the sound of her footfalls, it was almost unnoticeable, but it was enough to bring her to her senses. Veronica stopped on point as if to recalibrate her hearing, but when she heard another footfall that wasn't her own she jumped in surprise as she quickly turned around and looked behind her, only to see nothing but the sidewalk that she was walking on.
"Hello?.."
She called out to whoever might have been walking behind her, she stared for a good long minute, her heart pumping a little harder and faster in her chest than normal, after concluding that there was no one there, she gulped before returning to walking, but at a slightly quicker pace than before, even though she thought she knew that she wasn't being followed, something inside her screamed that she was and it terrified her. There is was again, just like before it sounded like someone was trying to keep pace with her own footsteps and it was getting closer, it sent chill up Veronica's spine as her heart rate speed up. Veronica began running as panic began to set in, that panic then turned into fear as she heard the footsteps behind her fall out of sync with her own as they speed up and began to close in.
It was just at the end of the street, her apartment building was sitting there with the light over the door shining like a beacon of safety as she ran towards it, her heart pounded in her chest like a hammer as panted for breath, the footsteps behind her sounded like they were directly behind her, Veronica close her eye's as she closed in on her apartments door. The satisfying sound of her hands planting on the door with a thud rang out as she pushed the door open, falling onto the floor and sliding a little, she quickly got to her feet as she turned to face the with open door with apprehension as she caught her breath. She stood there for what felt like the longest time before she cautiously approached the door, pulling it open fully she looked around to find the street empty, taking two steps outside she looked down both streets before letting out a sigh as shaking her head while letting out a mild chuckle.
"I swear, that is the Last time I drink at a Bar..."
She said humorously as she put together in her head that it was the alcohol that made up her imaginary pursuer, with the fear of being followed gone she turned around to enter her apartment to get a good nights rest, it was then that Veronica's heart sunk into her stomach as she visibly paled. What stood between her and her apartment's front entrance was a tall dark cloaked figure with hungry auburn eye's.
"Boo"
Veronica went to let out a cry of pure fear but before she could even open her mouth a powerful hand clamped her lips shut as she was spun around before a strong arm wrapped around her and lifted her off the ground.
"shush, shush shush shush... we wouldn't want to wake anyone after a hard days work now would we?"
The dark figure said in a distinctively male tone before chuckling darkly while showing a mouth full of razor sharp teeth, then it began to carry the ensnared woman towards a dark alleyway, Veronica let out muffled cries of dread and fear as she kicked and struggled to get free as tears began to roll down her cheeks, this was like something out of a nightmare to her. To make things worse the cloaked man had pulled out a roll of duck tape and managed to not only tape her mouth closed but tape up her hands together in a way that would prevent her from being able to take the tape off her mouth to call for help. After having done so the cloaked man held Veronica's hands above her head and held her up against a brick wall, he glared at her with hungry eye's while grinning his toothy smile, it sent chills up Veronica's spin.
"alright lady I'm going to be honest with you, so listen up... tonight your going to die, and nothing's going to stop that... but if you do as I say, then I'll make sure it's quick and painless... and if you don't, I'm going to make sure your begging for death before I'm done with you... understand?..."
The man said with a crazed look it his eye's that seemed to be glowing orange, Veronica let out a whimper of despair as she struggled in vain to get free.
"maybe I wasn't being clear-"
The man quickly pulled a knife from his cloaks pocket before holding it against Veronica's left arm which made her freeze as tear freely rolled down her cheeks.
"-do you understand?..."
He asked slowly with a crazed smile, Veronica closed her eye's as she weakly nodded her head which seemed to cause the mans smile to grow.
"that's a good girl... now -"
He said before carelessly tossing her to the cold hard ground.
"- run..."
The man said darkly as he tilted his head to give Veronica a done chilling glare, he held his knife in his right hand while he left hand looked like it was prepared to strike as if he had claws, she quickly got to her feet as best she could with her hands bound, but as she finally stood up strait to look at the cloaked man one last time before running, she noticed something behind him. Seeing that his prey wasn't running for it's life he grit his teeth in annoyance and he clenched his left hand shut, the other tightening it's grip on his knife, what good was prey if it didn't act like prey?
"Do you think I'm joking?! Start Running Or I'll Make You Suffer!"
The cloaked man exclaimed as his eye's glowed menacingly, it's then that he noticed that the girl wasn't looking at him.
"You know, it's scum like you that really put me on edge..."
The cloaked man spun around in the blink of an eye to confront the owner of the voice behind him, his knife held at the ready as his body visibly tensed in surprise. Before the cloaked man stood a six foot tall man with silver hair, pale white skin and glowing cyan colored eye's that were looking at him with a cold hardened glare. In his state of shock from the mystery mans appearance he failed to notice the glowing eye's as being strange, and the fact that someone had interrupted his dinner angered him to the point of not caring about the mystery man's appearance. The cloaked man grit his teeth in anger as he glared back at the silver haired man, while he had taken his attention off Veronica she had snuck away to hide behind a dumpster and watch what would happen.
"how dare you interrupt... I ought to kill you right now, but I don't want my meal to get away... consider this a warning, if I ever see you again you're dead..."
The cloaked man turned to go look for his prey but didn't get two steps before he was stopped again as he felt a strong hand grabbing onto his right shoulder. That was the final straw, whoever this guy was just sealed his fate, no human was going to lay a hand on him and get away with it alive, as he turned to face the mystery man and brought his left fist around to throw a punch his world was sent spiralling nearly twenty feet before he found himself slammed into a brick wall leaving a small crater in it before falling to the ground out cold with blood flowing from both his shattered nose and mouth which was missing a few teeth.
"...."
The cyan eyed man stood still as he observed the body against the wall before turning his gaze to Veronica, she flinched slightly, having watched the whole event she didn't know if she could entirely trust this powerhouse of a savoir. Her rescuer smiled warmly before gesturing her to approach.
"here, let's get that tape off you"
He said in a trusting tone, she hesitated for a moment as she regarded the man before her while she stepped away from the dumpster. The guy must have been nearly seven feet tall, he was wearing a white collared buttoned long-sleeved shirt, black jeans, black running shoes, and some kind of metal backpack, even though he was fully clothed she could tell he was fit, would have had to have been to be able send someone flying with that kind of strength he displayed, but what disturbed her the most was he glowing cyan eye's and silver hair. Even though the mans glowing eye's kind of creeped her out, there was something about him that made her feel as though she could trust him.
Veronica approached the man who happened to pick up the knife the cloaked man dropped when he was sent flying, she held out her hands and he carefully cut her hands free, she pulled the tape off her wrists before pulling the tape off her mouth, while she did so her rescuer had tossed the cloaked mans knife into the dumpster she had hid beside. When the tape was finally off she ran up to the cyan eyed man and hugged him, his eye's widened in surprise before he grew a soft smile.
"thank you... thank you..."
She said quietly as sobbed, He placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder as he gently pushed away from her hug
"no problem, next time consider calling a ride home at this hour, or possibly walk with a friend, I don't think I need to tell you why"
He said as he gestured with his head towards the knocked out cloaked man with a slight smile, Veronica nodded with a smile of her own as tears of relief threated to roll down her cheeks.
"wait here, I have to deal with our 'friend' then I'll make sure you get home safely"
The man said as he turned to walk towards her unconscious attacker, she waited where he left her, then a question entered her mind.
"who are you?"
She asked, trying to calm herself down from what happened, the man stopped and looked back to her with a smile.
"The name's Johnathan, or John for short, if we ever meet again you can decide which ever name you wish to address me by"
Veronica smiled at John's reply, she could make a break for her apartment, but she'd rather not run another guy like the one who attacked her again on her way home. From behind Veronica wasn't able to see John's friendly demeanor vanish as a hardened glare was sent to the unconscious form before him that was now waking up. The cloaked man's eye's were glowing red as the world came back into focus form him, only to see John standing in front of him, hatred instantly filled him as he grit his teeth in anger, how dare he, a human, strike him, did he want to die that badly.
"you... You B*stard! I'll Kill You! Do You Hear Me!? I'll F*cking Kill You! And When You're Dead That B*tch Is Next!"
John continued to glare at the man struggling to bring himself to his feet, it was almost sad. Veronica took a nervous step back from the mans threatening tone, even though John was between her the her attacker she was still afraid. As the cloaked man continued to rant John reached into his metal backpack, planning on bringing an end to this monster of a man.
"Do You Hear Me You Son Of A B*tch?!, YOU. ARE. DEA-"
A sickening piercing thud quietly rang out into the alleyway as John's combat knife dug itself deep into the cloaked mans skull, silencing him for good. Veronica flinched at the sound, it was almost too fast for her eye's to follow. John pulled the knife free with ease before giving it a quick flourish to clean it of the dead mans blood, John then put his knife back into his metal backpack before walking away from the corpse, returning to Veronica.
"come on, lets get you home"
Veronica nodded quietly before both of them left, had they stayed a few seconds longer he would have noticed the corpse disintegrate and leave behind a small crystal like rock in place of the body. The walk back to Veronica's apartment was relatively quiet, after they reached her home she thanked him once more before going into the safety of her building, John then went on his way down the sidewalk.
"if it's not midnight robberies, it's crazy people who are literally blood thirsty..."
John said to himself with a sigh as he crossed a street, his hands at his sides while walking down the sidewalk as he kept his eyes and ears open for trouble. Unknowingly John just so happened to be walking on a random course, one that would lead him directly towards the Dangeki Pawn Shop.
