Chapter 2 - last part

He smirked. “Every time someone wanted to come near you, I got rid of them. What else could I mean?” He shrugged, as if it was the most normal behaviour to claim someone to oneself. And of all the things the way he, Kento, did it.

“And how did you do that?” I asked harshly. I already awaited the worst of the worst answer to this, which made me really worried. I could imagine from how I got to know him, what kind of methods he used.

“I had my methods.” He grinned broadly, really proud with his success.

“You...” he interrupted me before I could start to insult him by strongly grabbing my arm. “Let go!” I yelled and got up.

“Why should I? I told you already: YOU’RE MINE!”

“NO!” I screamed at him, but the only thing I saw was how he raised his hand. He was about to hit me. Just because I was opposing him. This guy was seriously sick. How could Mia even consider going out with someone like him. How did he coax her into it? Right when his hand was about to hit my face I first felt the cold breeze, the growl of a cat vibrated through my body, and at the next moment his fist was blocked.

“Hey, idiot, you can’t treat a lady like this.” Another guy was standing between us. Really calm and holding Kentos arm. It was neither Shosuke nor Yuichi. I never saw this person before, but he seemed familiar. I neither knew where I saw his facial features before, nor where I heard this voice, even if it was distorted with rage. It was too dark to exactly see his face but this guy was really tall too, at least 20 cms more than me.

„What do you want?“ Kento asked. „This is not your business. Don’t meddle with us. I know how to treat my girlfriend.“

„Your girlfriend? That’s what you wished was true. And it doesn’t look like it at all, the way she behaves doesn’t seem like love. And by the way: she’s taken already. I’m sorry, right?“ he turned towards me and winked, so that Kento couldn’t see it. My mouth opened wide, tongue-tied. This totally unfamiliar guy wanted to help me, even though he saw what kind of person will be his opponent. Was he insane? Mentally ill? Or simply suicidal? Everyone with brains wouldn’t step in when seeing such a scene, like we had in that club. Though usually I think it’s awesome if they did, but no one does in real life. Most of the people would scream for help, which could be more helpful. With that in mind I looked around, because I remembered the breeze I felt. But nothing could be seen. Even Kento stared at that guy. He probably thought the same as me, he must have felt the breeze and heard the growl of the cat, at least I thought so until he found his tongue again. “This can’t be true!” he rampaged, about to have a fit. “And she even said she doesn’t have a boyfriend!” The reason he looked so disbelieving was probably because he knew this guy as good as me. And so he wondered how I got him as my lover. “Then just ask her!” the guy said. His gaze was challenging. He probably knew my answer already, because at this situation every kind of rescue was welcome, which was reasonable. Kento looked at me. Because I didn’t find another way I just agreed. “Yeah, seems like you didn’t do a good job.” I hoped he didn’t notice how weak my voice got. I broke away from Kento and got behind the other guy. I grabbed his t-shirt and from his side I looked at Kento. The guy took my hand, intertwined our fingers and pulled me to his chest. “Seems like you were too late” my saviour joked around and lowered his head towards mine, in slow motion I could see how he came nearer towards my shivering lips.

“We’ll see.” By now Kentos’ wrath was almost corporeal. He got rid of the arm which was still grabbing his and struck out to get back at my helper. But he reacted in a lightning speed, by releasing my fingers and getting in front of me and let Kento hit him without flinching. “If this makes you happy” were the words he told to the attacker. Now Kento seriously was mad. He dug his hand into his jeans-pocket. Before I realized what’s happening, he pulled out a pocketknife and came at me. While doing that he yelled in a loud voice: “When I can’t have her, no one can!” The other guy reacted just in time by getting in Kentos’ way, pushing me away and getting hit with the knife into his stomach where it was stuck. As soon as he fell on his knees you could hear the roar of an animal, probably the same as before, but now I noticed that if this is a cat, it has to be a giant cat. I yelled freaked out. Only now I realized how quiet it got in the club. All attendants were watching our little show, but right now I didn’t care about that. The guy was bleeding a lot from the cut which he was holding. I hurriedly got to him and kneed down beside him

“Oh my God, are you alright?” The words brokenly left my mouth. I didn’t know what to do and immediately grabbed the knife to pull it out. At that moment I didn’t think about if I even could pull it out. On the side I noticed the crowd going towards Kento to put distance between him and us. Ironically it didn’t occur to them earlier that we could need help.

“I didn’t want that.” This statement came really quiet and no one of the people standing around attached value to it. He was dragged out of the Club.

Yuichi came towards me. “Nao? Are you alright?” His voice was full of worry but I couldn’t concentrate on it. I even forgot whom I came with to the club. I was still holding the knife which was stuck to the stomach of the stranger. I closed my eyes and just wanted to pull it out when I felt fingers grabbing my wrists. I opened my eyes. The first thing I saw were the green eyes of a big cat. Before I fell down backwards the guy held me and hindered me on pulling the knife out by mistake, which most likely was better this way. He released the handle from my hand and grabbed it himself with his other hand. He probably wanted to spare me because it seemed like he himself wouldn’t do it. While doing that he loosened the grip on my wrists so that I could pull it out, but when I tried his fingers grabbed mine. He tried to get my attention which was swaying to the cat in front of me. I entwined my fingers with his. He softly swept over my fingertips. The tiger was just calmly sitting in front of us. Just now I noticed that it had strange colours.

“Shosuke!” my brother interrupted my thoughts.

“I’m on my way! The first-aid kit was hard to find”, he answered, but I still couldn’t concentrate on them. I just stared at the colours of the animal. It was red. The stripes were black. So it was a tiger, but why was it red? Shosuke kneeled down on the other side of the guy and treated him fast. When we talked before he mentioned that he took some first-aid courses, but I didn’t expect him to show me this fast. He pulled the knife out, which made a really disturbing slick noise and cleaned his wound thoroughly. The cut didn’t seem as big anymore, but I still was worried. The knife was deep in his flesh. I saw that he had a lot of pain by looking at his grim face. Even if it wasn’t a big cut the deepness must have made the pain worse. While he was treated I slowly reached out at the tiger with my hand. It stayed calm, didn’t try to bite my hand or to hit me with its paw. I started to softly pet it and it purred happily. And suddenly it was gone. It vanished into thin air. I blinked and looked again, but where the tiger was sitting just a few moments ago, I just found its fur, red hair. No one noticed it. I noticed that Sho was also finished with his work but I was totally shocked because of the tiger, and I couldn’t help the guy to get up after he got treated. More like I was pulled up with the guy together.

“I would suggest you to go to the hospital” Shosuke said, but the addressed person just shook his head.

“Not necessary.” He answered through clenched teeth. Then his eyes met mine, insecure, and then slid down to our :fingers which were still intertwined. He immediately let go and murmured a “sorry”. After that he turned around. “Wait” I called out to him. He turned around and pleadingly looked at me, as if he didn’t want me say something which I’ll regret later, but I couldn’t stop myself. “You saw it too, right?”

With a light nod he turned around and staggered out of the club.