Chapter 3: Unsafe Protection【P1】
Renji
Throat like a desert.
Lungs deflate to a pancake.
Cramps jab like a boxer.
“Don’t wait for me, right behind you!” I wheeze, pushing through it all.
Jiro accelerates, charging forward like a locomotive. The gap between us widens as my locked muscles drag my pace down to a morning jog.
He sidesteps, dodging a pair of flustered students in stride. They glare at his retreating back, then pan their confusion toward me.
“Coming through!” I lean hard to my left, mimicking his lane change.
My shoulder clips the students anyway, knocking me off balance.
“Sorry,” I shout back while stumbling to regain my momentum, choosing to interpret their wildly waving arms as a friendly goodbye.
No time to stop. We are too close to the final station.
Our westbound bandit sprints closer from the right to meet us at the intersection point. An orange mask with some sort of animal on it sharpens into focus.
The stolen bag serves as a battering ram as they plow through the festival-goers like bowling pins.
They finally notice our headlong stride into his trajectory and whip their head to all sides.
“Grab!” a voice cracks from behind the mask, light and young—a boy.
The masked boy hurls the bag forward like a bowling ball, sending it skidding across the pavement.
A figure on inline skates rolls out from the wall of blank stares, crouching low and catching the bag in stride. I catch a glimpse of a blue mask before the accomplice wheels around, launching straight away from us into the depths of the crowd.
Jiro stays silent.
His head remains level like a gyroscope while his arms pump like locomotive side rods, closing the distance so much I bet he can smell their panic.
The masked boy slides to the right, following the skater with flimsy arms. The pivot costs them their momentum, shearing away his lead just enough for—
Jiro opens his arm like a claw and hooks the thief by the neck, driving them both to the ground in a sliding tangle.
“Get the skater!” he roars from the struggle, rolling around as a hand plants on his forehead.
“On it!” I force out between shallow breaths.
I try to upgrade my pace to a bicycle, but fall short at stilts.
My ankles falter, threatening to give out before I can even reach the impact zone, let alone the escaping skater.
Bystanders scatter, forming a ring of gasps around the fight. No one steps inward.
The thief keeps resisting Jiro’s grip, driving an elbow into his ribs and forcing a grunt from him—a sickening thud that makes me wince.
I almost reach the edge of the circle as my pace reduces to a hobble.
Dive into the mass of limbs on the ground—I look up ahead—or burn my final scrap of momentum to chase a skater rocketing away in the distance?
Ssszzzrrr!
A mechanical whine slices through the air, sounding like an electric car flooring its motor—before I can trace the source, it blasts by. I flinch as the sudden wake of rushing air whips my hair.
A pair of figures in matching blue-and-white tracksuits coast ahead. Their legs remain still, skimming effortlessly across the pavement like low-flying birds over water.
They wear footwear that looks like standard inline skates, but larger—humming with some kind of motorized power…
Without a word, they weave through the chaos with terrifying precision.
A girl leads, crouched low with her hands pinned behind her back like a speed skater. A boy follows a beat behind, slouching forward with hands casually jammed in his pockets.
They split.
The girl blows straight past Jiro, who is still struggling to pin his target.
Zzzt-shhh.
The boy shifts his weight back as the wheels under him hiss to a stop. He drops like a falling squirrel onto the thrashing thief.
“I’ll take this package off you.” A faint grin flashes across his face mid-struggle. He pins the thief’s wrists behind their back, cuffing them with a firm tug.
The girl does not look back.
She leans deeper into her stance, the motorized wheels whining to a higher pitch as she weaves toward the accomplice, rapidly closing the distance.
My momentum dies, forcing me to a skidding halt.
Throat burning, I hop continuously on my toes for a glimpse over the sea of heads at the chase spilling into the center of the square.
She moves like lightning, carving around festival stalls and frozen onlookers.
The blue-masked accomplice swings the bag onto their back, accelerating to maintain their lead, but the girl is already stretching out an arm.
The target reaches the empty main stage to the right of the central fountain, whips their head back, and vaults up the nearest wooden steps.
The girl does not follow them up.
She bypasses the stairs, steering left straight for the fountain.
Closing the distance in a breath, her left skate slams against the granite base to anchor her weight. She tilts inward as her right wheel boosts harder, whipping her around the curve at an unbroken velocity.
I step further right and launch into another jump just as the accomplice leaps off the opposite side of the stage.
The girl springs from the fountain ledge to meet them. Before they can register her approach, her fingers hook the collar of their shirt.
The momentum carries them both through a dance-like spin toward the fountain before she hurls them flat against the stone basin.
The blue mask clatters over the rim, revealing a breathless student.
It is over.
I limp the last few steps into the fragmenting circle, arriving just as the tracksuit boy hoists his captive like a surfboard under one arm. Jiro pushes himself up, clutching his side.
“Jiro! Are you alright?” I close the distance with him.
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Discover what happens next in: Chapter 3: Unsafe Protection【P2】
Written by Limited_Infinity. Extras, official publishing platforms and updates are publicly available only on the Patreon page “_Limited_Infinity_”
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