The Bounty Hunter

March 20th, 2089

Terra’s POV

It’s the morning after Veronica and Kira’s first outing and I am taking Reiji out to lunch in order to try and get him to not spread news of my relationship with those two around.  It doesn’t matter if he does, but things would get irritating.  And technically I am engaged, so if this were to reach the ears of my parents… *Shudder* I’d rather fight a hydra again than face my mother’s wrath. 

As we were walking in silence, I could overhear other people’s conversations as we passed.  “Wow, look at that perfect couple.  The girl is so small and lovable, yet that guy is so serious and sexy.  It’s an amazing match!”  “Damn it, why do some guys have all the luck when it comes to women?”  And so on caught my ear.  I couldn’t help but comment to Reiji “You need to find a way to signal people you’re a guy.  Right now everyone around us seems to think that we are a guy and girl on a date.” 

Reiji made a pouting expression that only emphasized his femininity as he complained “I’ve tried, but apart from walking around naked I don’t have any other ideas left.  Everyone thinks I’m just a tomboy.  It’s scary how many guys have tried to pick me up.”  I chuckled lightly at that thought “Ah Trap-kun is hard at work it seems.”  “…You suck.” 

We were walking past an alley on this deserted street when we heard a girl’s cry of “Get away from me!” resound.  We both turned to look at the sound and saw a pretty girl with brown hair surrounded by three older thugs.  I noticed a tattoo on one of their forearms that depicted a dragon weeping blood.  That was the mark of the local Yakuza in this area.  Damn, that girl has no luck at all.  Oh, it’s Tachibana-san.  Well that sucks for her. 

I proceeded to continue on my way but stopped as I realized that Reiji wasn’t moving.  “What are you doing Reiji?”  “I should be asking you that, why aren’t you going over to help her?”  The look of reproach he was giving me was annoying so I decided to lay things out for him.

“Those guys are members of the Blood Dragon Yakuza, who specialize in loan sharking.  They aren’t high school delinquents, they’re career criminals.  They don’t randomly harass people.  So Tachibana-san or an immediate family member has a loan from them that they are not paying off.  I have no interest in getting involved in something that could piss of an entire criminal organization for some girl I don’t care about.  This ain’t an anime where the girl always gets saved.” 

“Wait you know her and still won’t help?!?!”  Reiji responded in an outraged tone.  What does that have to do with anything?  “That girl is one of Hikari’s modeling sempais.  And just because I know her doesn’t mean I care.  It’s not worth the hassle.”  “Fine! If you aren’t going to do anything about it, I will!”  And just like that he charged down the alleyway, leaving me standing dumbfounded behind him.

Reiji’s POV

Damn it Minato, I knew you were a cold-hearted loner but I thought you would always save someone if you saw them in trouble.  I started drawing closer to the thugs and the girl.  One of them was yelling “Your trash of a father skipped town on us, so it’s your problem now to pay his debt!  So cough it up or else we’ll make you work it off in a different way!”  The other two gave lecherous smiles as the girl started to cry. 

“Leave her alone!” I yelled at them, finally attracting their attention.  “Who the hell is this girl?”  One of them asked.  The others just shrugged in confusion.  “My name is Okamura Reiji and I’m a boy, damn it!”  While they were still confused I put myself in front of the girl and smiled to her as I said “It’ll be okay now, so don’t worry.” 

The girl seemed a few years older than me, and was completely in my strike zone.  Brown hair, green eyes and big breasts made her incredibly attractive.  Ah, how I love the onee-san type.  I refocused my attention to the thugs and realized that they were all a lot bigger and more menacing up close.  And they did not look happy at my intervention.  “Well, your timing was unexpected but convenient.” He then directed his next statement to the girl at my back “We’re going to fucking beat the shit of this wannabe hero to show you what’ll happen if you don’t pay up by our next visit!” 

Ah crap, what do I do now.  In the manga and anime, the protagonist always scares them off by this point, but I have absolutely no real fighting experience.  Shit, is that guy putting on brass knuckles?  They started to approach me as I started trembling from fear.  But I didn’t move away from the girl.  I will protect her because that’s the right thing to do.  The first fist came crashing down and I closed my eyes in preparation for the pain that… didn’t come. 

I felt a light wind and opened my eyes in time to see the thug who was about to strike me fly a dozen feet into some trash cans.  He wasn’t moving.  “Fucking moron, now you’ve dragged me into this shit as well.”  Minato was standing beside me, with his serious expression and demeanor as cold as ever.  When did he get here?  Before the other two gangsters could react Minato kicked one in the solar plexus and then elbowed the other guy in the face.  Both collapsed on the spot. 

There was a brief silence until the girl spoke up “Thank you Minato-san and um…” Before she could ask my name Minato interrupted “Don’t thank me.  I had no intention of helping you.  I only got involved to save this idiot Reiji.”  The girl seemed taken aback for a moment but then nodded and smiled towards me like a goddess.  “Thank you very much, Reiji-san.  My name is Tachibana Akemi, please take care of me.”  “Of course.  I’m Okamura Reiji, please take care of me as well.”  I responded with a blush coming to my face.  YES! I think I may have just cleared a romance flag!  It went a little differently than expected but it should still count!  But then Minato rudely brought me back to reality.

Terra’s POV

*Sigh* Damn Reiji has now gotten me involved into something troublesome.  He also has a goofy look on his face, he’s probably thinking right now “Romance flag get!” for Tachibana-san.  “Before you go celebrating, remember that you just gave identifying information to an organization famous for being especially vicious to those people that oppose it.”  At my words, Reiji’s face became grave. 

Tachibana-san also looked guilty as she spoke “My worthless father had taken out a loan with them and then ran away.  So they have been harassing me for it.  I’m so sorry for dragging you into this.”  “Don’t be!  It’ll work out somehow!”  Reiji instantly consoled her and gave her a full power bishounen smile.  She couldn’t help but blush at that and I could feel a pink atmosphere building rapidly.  Haaa, I have had it now. 

“Alright you two, go ahead and flirt elsewhere while I call the police and wait here for them.”  I told them.  “What?”  Both Reiji and Tachibana-san asked in unison.  I sighed “They already know your guys’ names.  Seeing it on a police report will only infuriate them more.  So let’s get the police involved early via myself and make it seem more of a pain to deal with us while we try and scrounge up the money to pay them.  Okay?” 

They were both about to argue so I decided to distract them “Hey Tachibana-san, did you know you’re Reiji’s type?  He’s a huge fan of older big breasted women.  He’s also a virgin.”  Reiji fell silent in shock at my statements.  “And Reiji, did you know that the little brother bishounen type is what Tachibana-san fantasizes about alone at night?  She’s a virgin just like you and a closet otaku.”  Now Tachibana-san has sunk into a dumbfounded silence, she probably didn’t expect that Hikari would talk to me about her secrets. 

Both of their faces couldn’t be any redder so I gave them a gentle nudge “Now go on your guys’ date before I start saying more of your secrets.”  They both started walking away in a daze at my words.  Hmph, they clearly fell for each other just now so they should thank me for helping them jump directly to the becoming a couple part.  Having to watch the “will they or won’t they” back and forth that would have occurred without my intervention for the next few weeks before finally becoming a couple would have driven me crazy.

I waited until I was certain they were gone and then called out “Rin”.  My adorable demonic fox materialized at my call and gave me an enthusiastic yip.  “I’ll need your help on a job tonight, but first could you get rid of these guys for me?”  Rin’s tail was wagging like a dog’s as her excitement at doing a job radiated from our bond. 

She observed the unconscious thugs for a moment and then a small black flame appeared on the tip of her tail.  She did a cute little tail whip and bits of the black flame landed on each of the thugs.  They quickly burned into a thick black fog, but there was no smell nor noise of fire burning.  She then opened her small mouth and sucked in all of the fog.  Once she finished she gave a slight hiccup and then leaped into my arms.  I of course petted and praised her for her work.  

There were no remains of the thugs nor were there any signs that they were ever there.  The Blood Dragons would most certainly not forgive people standing up to them, but if they never hear about it then there’s no problem.  Unfortunately, Reiji and Tachibana-san have clearly had a love-at-first-sight moment so Reiji will be involved with Tachibana-san’s debt situation no matter what.  Haaa, so now I have to take care of it because Reiji’s involved.  Friendship can be so annoying at times.  At least this will be a good opportunity to help nourish Rin’s growth.