Mr. Nogi raced towards Azumi.

His intent was to strike her with his baseball bat with enough brute force to knock her out. If he unleashed all the rage he was feeling at that moment in that one strike, he wouldn't only knock her out, he would probably kill her.

However…in that moment…he didn't care.

Azumi, who had been completely shocked and motionless, during that horrific scene, finally awoke some strength in her to try and run from him. 

But it was too late, he was already upon her.

"You fucking bitc—"

Suddenly, as Mr. Nogi was about to strike Azumi's head with the baseball bat, someone shoved him out of the way in a swift motion. Mr. Nogi rolled over the park's ground and dropped the bat.

"What the fuck?" muttered Mr. Nogi, laying on the ground, as he tried to make sense of what just happened. When he looked up, he saw someone standing beside Azumi. 

"You fucker!!! This has nothing to do with you! Get out of tha way, you brat!" shouted Mr. Nogi.

While she was still shaking, Azumi somehow looked a little bit more relieved as she gazed upon her savior.

"Hin-nato wh-what're you doing here?" stammered Azumi.

"Azumi, get behind me and call 911. Tell them someone got severely injured." Hinato commanded without hesitation.

"Who got inju—"

"Call them, now." Hinato commanded once more, now looking over his shoulder at Azumi.

"Okay! Hinami, I'll c-c-call you right back!"

"Azumi what—" 

Hinami's response got cut out as Azumi ended the call and typed 911.

"You little shit! I'll fuck you up too!" shouted Mr. Nogi, as he quickly picked up his baseball bat from the ground and raced towards Hinato.

As he reached him, he immediately swung his bat, coming from his right, targeting Hinato's head.

Hinato swiftly stepped to the opposite direction, while lowering his body, and landed a massive roundhouse kick on Mr. Nogi's solar plexus (soft spot on top of the stomach).

"Uh—" Mr. Nogi spat from the pain, as he fell on his knees. 

As he looked up, he saw Hinato gazing at him, no expression of anger, no sign of struggle, just a cold and emotionless expression on his face.

"Ah…y-y-you little—"

Mr. Nogi quickly picked up the bat again and started swinging violently and desperately in Hinato's direction.

"Hinato watch out!" shouted Azumi, afraid he was going to get hit by those irregular movements.

Hinato effortlessly dodged Mr. Nogi's attacks, without breaking a sweat.

As Mr. Nogi grew tired of using that much energy in his strikes, Hinato rapidly evaded his attacks, closed the distance between them and threw a left hook to Mr. Nogi's liver followed by a right elbow strike to his jaw. The sound of his jaw breaking was heard. 

Mr. Nogi fell unconscious on the ground, almost immediately, after Hinato struck him.

Then, Hinato walked towards his school bag that he had left on the ground, took out a pair of gloves and put them on. He proceeded to grab the baseball bat and, then…landed a massive hit at Mr. Nogi's face, while he was laying on the ground. Following that hit, he landed several body hits with the baseball bat, including one to the knee that definitely shattered the bone.

Azumi witnessed that act of violence completely speechless.

After a couple of blows to the body, Hinato suddenly stopped and walked over to Azumi.

"Hold this." commanded Hinato.

"W-w-what?" Azumi responded with confusion.

"When the 911 arrives, you'll tell them that the baseball bat slipped from his hands as he tried to strike you and that you quickly picked it up and defended yourself."

"W-why would I— W-w-where are you going?" asked Azumi, as Hinato gave her the baseball bat.

"I'm sorry to leave you like this, but no one can know I was here. Don't worry, the 911 must be arriving shortly. Tell them what I said and everything will be fine, they'll probably escort you home, though. So, text me when you arrive home." explained Hinato.

"O-okay…" muttered Azumi, while looking down with a troubled expression.

Hinato proceeded to leave Azumi, walking down his path without ever looking back, as she stood there next to Mr. Nogi's unconscious damaged body, with the baseball bat still on her hand, while she digested all that had happened.

I am sorry to leave you like this Azumi…I'd like to avoid getting you involved in these troubled confrontations…but… unfortunately, incidents like this or worse is what awaits us on the horizon. If we want to tackle the system, we'll be dealing with numerous stressful events and people, we'll need to keep our cool, we'll need to be prepared for the worst, just as I told you. 

I didn't tell you this, but I was expecting Mr. Nogi to do something imprudent, such as coming to confront you about the incident and force you to clear the confusion so they'd take down the charges. When we were at the cafe, I noticed a hooded man with sunglasses, (which for some reason people still find that outfit unsuspicious) with a physiology similar to his, trying to subtly look around inside the cafe through the glass windows. As he finally noticed you, he locked his gaze, like when a predator, which, in this case, he actually is one, spots his prey.

Before we parted ways, I made up that assignment change because I knew you'd contact one of your friends, and, most likely, through facetime, which you constantly prefer over a simple phone call. That way, we could have a witness, an assurance that someone would see you be confronted and threatened by the very man who had tried to "molest" you the day before. Even though I saw him follow you and I proceeded to tail you both, I was going to let everything play out its natural course, you are a smart girl, you'd leave the facetime rolling, and, in the face of that exchange of words, Hinami would record the conversation.

Now…I must admit that my heart skipped a beat when I noticed he was hiding some object behind his back, covered by his hoodie. He must have picked it up from his car, before we left the mall. I knew he was reckless, but I didn't predict he would go for a premeditated violent assault, and that he would even try to rape you, we really drove him to the edge. But I would never let him physically harm you. I don't want you to feel cornered in any way, not like Erena felt…no…I promise I won't let anyone dear to me lose its way again.

I don't want anyone to spot us frequently together, especially in incidents like this, because there will be people suspicious of the events that will unfold. They'll quickly realize that someone is behind all of this, so it is imperative that they can't trace that trail back to both of us. 

It was a nuisance having to intervene and showing myself like that. However, after that heavy beating with the baseball bat, he might have a concussion, which will make it difficult to remember I was even involved when he wakes up. And, if he does remember when he wakes up, by that time, Azumi will have already told the authorities that she was attacked by him and defended herself with the weapon he dropped. 

He can try to deny all he wants and tell a different version, but every factor is against him. Most of his bruises match the impact of the baseball bat, the same bat that only has both his and Azumi's fingerprints. The facetime call with Hinami ended the moment I arrived and signaled Azumi to call 911, so Hinami can act as the last resource witness based on what she heard through the call before. And, of course, this is the same man that was accused of molesting the girl he'll soon be accused of violently assaulting. 

I must say I'm impressed, he was able to dig his own grave even further…

Now, I'll wait until you get home and I'll give you a call, to try and soothe any stressful thoughts. These days have been quite the roller coaster for you, after all. 

I know I'll seem cold to you from time to time, but I promise I'll always be here for you.

(...)

On the following day, the High School's halls were filled with news about Mr. Nogi's new assault. The students were shocked to hear about the incident and all their attention focused on Azumi, who was just trying to get by unnoticed by the public. 

However, a big group of Azumi's friends surrounded her all day, showing her their support and admiration for her, since they also came to know that Azumi defended herself and even put Mr. Nogi in the hospital.

Out of all the girls, two in particular stood out, as they were Azumi's best friends and the ones who caught Mr. Nogi red-handed in the locker room with Azumi.

The girl with brown short hair, wearing a light pink knitted jumper, was Hinami. She sat in front of Azumi's desk, while their friend Saiko, who had straight black hair in a ponytail and was wearing a beige turtleneck jumper, was standing right beside Azumi, caressing her hair.

"Wow, Azumi, you are so brave." praised Hinami.

"That pig must have a fixation with you. I hope that the good beating you gave him makes him leave you alone. If not, I'll beat him myself!" snapped Saiko.

"Of course he has a fixation, Azumi looks like a model! Still, attracting the wrong type of attention sucks, you deserve to be stalked by good looking guys, like those college ones we saw the other day." remarked Hinami.

"Hinami, any kind of stalker is bad! You're going to get yourself in trouble one of these days!" replied Saiko.

"How could I ever be in trouble if a cute guy likes me?! You make no sense, Saiko!" countered Hinami.

Sparks could be seen emerging from Hinami and Saiko's heated argument. Until, almost immediately, they both remembered the true purpose of this conversation and apologetically spoke in unison.

"Sorry Azumi!" Hinami and Saiko shouted, almost whimpering.

"We didn't want to be insensitive." said Saiko.

"Yeah, we just kind of lost focus." added Hinami.

"It's okay, really, don't worry about it. Besides, I agree, I'd rather be chased down by a cute guy" responded Azumi, while chuckling.

"See!!! I told you, Saiko!"

"Don't you get me started, Hinami!"

Even though Azumi seemed to shake off the situation and even played with it, she still hadn't fully recovered from yesterday's encounter.

Is Saiko right? Is he going to stop? Or…will he go after me again? 

During our call yesterday, Hinato said that it was unlikely he'd get released onto the streets again, that he would go to prison after recovery. Still…I feel so uneasy…even in school I feel like looking over my shoulder all the time. I even dreamed about him last night and woke up sweating and so frightened I couldn't go back to sleep. Being surrounded by Hinami, Saiko and the girls does make me feel a little more secure, but all this attention…I want it to go away. 

The more we talk about it, the more I feel like bursting into tears, it is getting more and more difficult to shake it off, so please stop talking about it, please, please, please…

Azumi what the hell, get your act together!

Hinato warned you, didn't he? That things would be rough from here on out? You took on this challenge because you're worried about him, didn't you?

Yeah I want to help out, for his sake. And Erena's sake. Besides, he promised he would never let anything bad happen to me and he proved that yesterday. 

I guess I shouldn't be so worried, he is really smart, he's got this covered.

I trust him…

(...)

The day went by without any particular incident and, as the classes ended, the students headed home. 

However, a sudden heavy tension could be felt inside Kashikoi High School.

That was because…a troublesome act was about to unfold.