Hans was certain. The voice he had just heard belonged to Olivia. He had only heard her voice like that one time. Hans was a fresh awakened then too. But the two of them were already good friends and she had helped him cope with his parent's death. He was a complete wreck but she managed to pull him back together.
Hans could still remember that night. He had gotten a call in the middle of the night. Olivia was scared and crying on the other side. Her awakened boyfriend had beat her but she somehow managed to get away. Hans picked her up and brought her into his home. She bawled her eyes out all night until she fell asleep in Hans' arms. That day Hans saw the strongest person he knew break down. That's when he vowed to never let Olivia be hurt again, even if it meant his own death. That was a vow that he would come to keep in the distant future.
-
Hans stormed out of the store and a streak of lightning leaked out of his right eyes as he did. He made his way in front of the man he heard being referred to as Dan and stopped him by grabbing the arm he was using to drag Olivia around.
"She said she was in pain. Let her be." Hans said coldly.
"Who the fuck are you to tell me what to do? She's my fucking girlfriend and I'll do whatever the fuck I want." Dan said and tightened his grip on Olivia's wrist, making her wince in pain, her bright blue eyes were covered in tears.
"I. Said. Let. Her. Be." Hans said, tightening his grip on the man's arm.
"I'm a fucking hunter. Who the fuck are you to try to play tough in front of me?" Dan screamed, letting go for Olivia and punching Hans in the face.
The punch was sloppy so it didn't have much strength behind it. Dan might have been a hunter, but he was a weak one and a rookie at that. Hans really wanted to kill him. He knew he could. If only he grabbed that scum's head he could guarantee complete brain death in less than 3 seconds. But, despite his rage, he didn't want to scare or scare olivia. She had gone through enough. So he formed a smile on his face, even though his lip was busted open.
"You sir are being detained under suspicion of being a regressor. No reasonable person would act this way towards a romantic partner. Especially a hunter since the law is hard on awakened folk when it comes to committing violence towards unawakened folk, and it's even harsher for hunters. You also seem to be in extreme distress, to the point of disregarding your partner and causing her harm so I would like you to give me your full legal name and hunter code as we wait for my colleagues since I am off the clock right now." Hans said.
"Oh yeah, I am Hans Baker. Member of the regressor discovery and tracking team of the regressor elimination agency. I would like to request your compliance." Hans added with a forced customer service smile on his face.
"What bullshit is that huh?" Dan said, punching Hans yet again, knocking him back and causing his nose to start bleeding.
Hans wiped the blood off his nose with his hand and after looking at it turned back to Dan.
"This adds assault towards a government official to your case. And, under the agency's employee manual I am allowed to exercise my right to self defense to the degree I see fit. This is your last chance to comply." Hans loosened his tie. "Mister….Daniel was it? The lady did call you by your name."
Hans then reverted his attention to Olivia who was frozen, just looking at him and Dan with fear in her eyes. "Miss, please go into the coffee shop, you will be safe there." He said with a warm smile with blood still trickling from his nose.
Olivia looked at the coffee shop and then back at Hans and Dan. She didn't know what to do. Hans caught Jack getting out of the coffee shop and signaled him to stay where he was. "Jack, please help that lady." Hans said as another punch connected to his face, knocking him off his feet.
"Very well. I'll take it that you will not comply. I guess drastic measures are necessary." Hans stood up from the ground and put his hands up in a very poor copy of a boxing stance, signaling he was ready to fight.
He couldn't use his fighting knowledge. The years he used to hone his body and mind as He desperately tried to reach the realm of S-rank that was barely out of his grasp. But all of his effort was locked away, in the past he was bad at fighting. He never trained so casually outmatching a seemingly semi-competent rookie hunter in hand to hand combat as a fresh awakened was simply too suspicious and a gross overuse of his skill was also out of the picture given that he had just recovered from passing out minutes before. He was left with one last option. To slug it out.
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Hans saw Dan charging at him yet again but he slipped the punch and counterattacked sloppily with a punch of his own. The two men grabbed each other by the collar of the shirt and started exchanging heavy blows. Physically, they were evenly matched but Hans subtly used his superior knowledge to make his hits more meaningful. Meaningful enough to make Dan doubt he could win.
"I've played with you long enough" Dan barked.
Dan's face started getting covered in perfectly uniform hexagonal rocks and then the rest of his body. His clothes looked fuller than before due to the rocks over his skin taking more space. Hans continued punching Dan in the face but he only chipped the quickly regenerating mass of rocks. His body was not strong enough and his fist even started to bleed.
"Even D rank monsters have a hard time making their way through this. How do you feel when face to face with the real deal? This is a C rank skill. Only 1 in 100 awakened manage to awaken such a high ranked skill from the get go. Do you feel the difference between us now?" Dan mocked Hans and punched him square in the jaw once more. That punch was much harder and much more powerful than the previous one, so much so that Hans' head started to spin.
Hans stumbled back. His vision was blurry. He could barely make out Dan's silhouette. And it was coming closer. Hans' instincts rebelled against his conscious decision and he dodged the incoming punch by a razor thin margin. Dan lost his balance after punching the air that hard and before he could regain it, Hans had gotten his footing back and he could see clearly yet again.
"1 in 100 huh?" Hans said. Lightning started coiling around his right hand. Loud crackling filled the entire block as Dan looked at the lightning gather, in fear and awe. "1 in 100 is nice. But I like 1 in 100,000 more."
Hans rammed his fist into Dan's abdomen. The moment Hans' fist connected, the deafening sound of lightning striking roared. The intense lightning blew a hole in Dan's stone exoskeleton and blew him back, into a parked car whose alarm started blaring. Dan was unconscious.
"Was that too much? I held back quite a bit." Hans mumbled and looked around to inspect the damage. Excluding Dan and the car everything was unscathed. He took out his phone and informed Jonathan of the situation via text before heading into the coffee shop.
Hans entered the shop nonchalantly with his shirt covered in blood and his nose barely having stopped bleeding. Jack stood across from him with his arms crossed, glaring. Meanwhile Sarah was talking to Olivia who was drinking a cup of tea.
"The tea is on me." Hans said and sat on one of the chairs. His face was pale and he looked ready to pass out.
"What's going on?" Jack asked
"It just happened. Like an hour ago. I was at work grabbing some coffee and then boom. My hair is a different colour and I have superpowers." Hans replied
"I was going to ask you about that right before you stormed out. I thought you painted it." Sarah entered the conversation.
"I did not. I just…got awakened" after Hans finished talking, the room fell in an uncomfortable silence. Everyone was sitting idle.
"Erm. About the case. Is Dan really one of those regressors?" Olivia broke the silence. Her voice was meek and could barely be heard.
"Oh that? That case will not stick." Hans said with a smile "How are you feeling? Is your arm okay? I made him squeeze it harder, I'm sorry."
Olivia took her eyes off her cup and looked at Hans.
"I'm fine but… why did you stop him if you knew he wasn't…? You got hurt." Olivia's voice gained more vigor as she spoke.
"I think we should still put some ice on it anyways." Hans looked at Jack who went to the back to get some ice. "As for why I helped. He was hurting you. That's all there is to it. And as for being hurt. I should be fine by tomorrow. I did get superpowers after all."
Silence fell again and Olivia broke it for the second time.
"He wasn't like that before. But after awakening he changed. He'd be his usual self one moment and a different person another moment. One day he would be nice and loving. The other he would get angry over the smallest things. I don't understand." Olivia's voice cracked as she spoke.
Sarah grabbed Olivia's hand and looked at her in the eyes "Some people change after being given more power. He was one of them. I've had my fair share of bad experiences. You just have to know when to let go. I ended up finding my honey afterwards. He is an absolute angel. Isn't that right Hans?"
Olivia looked at Sarah and then turned her head to look at Hans. She repeated that a couple of times until she gathered enough courage to ask what was on her mind "You two are married?"
"What?" Sarah blurted out. She wasn't expecting that question.
Hans simply laughed and pointed his finger at Jack, who was returning from the back with a bag of loose ice and some ice tightly packed under a towel.
"I'm Hans. He, is honey" Hans said with a devious smile.
"Catch" Jack tossed the bag of ice to Hans' face and handed the ice wrapped with the towel to Olivia.
Hans was struck by the ice bag on the face which slowly drooped and fell off his face. "Thanks Jack. Really cool."
"I'm…. I didn't know. It sounded like you called him…I really didn't know. I'm sorry." Olivia said. Her voice was louder and she looked at ease, be it very embarrassed.
Hans chuckled
"Not your fault. I almost thought I was married to her too. Anyways. Miss…. I never asked you for your name." Hans talked normally but he felt an odd feeling of sorrow creep up on him.
"Olivia. It's Olivia." She replied
"So, miss Olivia. I would like to talk to you as a government employee for a moment. If I were to try my best, which I will, I can only put a warning on his license. If you were to press charges we can not only suspend said license indefinitely but we can also put him behind bars for around a year. Don't feel pressured to decide hastily. The choice is all yours." Hans said.
Olivia reverted her gaze back into her empty teacup. She was deep in thought and as the room was about to fall silent, she started sobbing.
"I'm scared." She said "When he finds out he will…"
Hans felt like a large invisible hand was wrapped around his neck, desperately trying to choke him. The sobbing made him remember that night all over again.
"I'll keep him in custody until the relevant authorities get to this matter. I can do that much. My charges might not stick but I can keep him in there long enough." Hans said "And even if I can't keep him in long enough, I am confident I can at least keep you safe like I did today don't you think?"
A series of black cars parked near the scene of the fight and people in black suits emerged from within them. One of them checked Dan's vitals who was still out cold. Then Hans' phone rang. Hans checked his phone and sighed deeply.
"It seems I have to go. Olivia, one of these two will give you my personal phone number. If you need my help at any point just call me or send a message." Hans said and walked off the shop to meet the suited people waiting outside.