Oh, for fuck’s sake. At least they could’ve waited until that quickie, I sighed.
The girl tried to say something, but the trio of guys ignored her. Meanwhile, I appraised my future punching bags. Hispanic origin, gang tattoos—most likely they were from Diego’s merry bunch.
There were obvious pros and cons to this. On the one hand, I could minimize the potential trouble by calling that officer again; on the other hand, Diego could be a royal pain in the ass if he wanted to do so.
What a dilemma!
As I thought about it all, the fuckers in front of me were, most likely, thinking that I ignored them. And it made them even more mad.
One of them tried to grab me by the collar, but since it was something my grandma chose for me, I was quite against him doing that. So I slapped his hand away.
This escalated things even further, and, as the main control was still with the Beast, I poured even more oil into the fire.
An exchange of insults followed, and soon after, the four of us were outside in an alleyway. My back was against the wall, with all three of the guys standing in front of me.
Oh, no! What could I do in this situation?
I looked around, still ignoring the cocksniffers that were trying their best to scare me with their background. I would’ve laughed out loud, but I was afraid it would make them back out of confrontation.
Oh, I was lucky; there were no witnesses in sight.
The first one fell down, knocked out by the single uppercut right to the side of his chin. To make sure he wouldn’t join in later, in case he woke up, I stomped onto his hand, hearing his fingers crack under the heel of my leather shoes. Still out cold, good.
The second one rushed at me and was met with an oblique kick into his support knee. Oh, man, judging by his howl, he will need a cane in the future. A soccer kick to the head shut him up.
As I was thinking if I should kick him another time, a punch to the face reminded me of the third victim.
I licked blood from the corner of my lips and spit on the second bitch, dodging another slow and predictable punch. A body shot to the liver made the third one fall to the ground in pain.
Motherfucker, another boring fight. Well, at least it helped me release a bit of steam. Speaking of which, where were the girls? I wanted that quickie.
As I was stepping over the fallen dude, he grabbed my ankle, trying to wheeze something. It was in Spanish, so I wasn’t able to understand the full content of his phrase. Most likely another insult. Whatever.
I tried to break away from his hold. The dumb fuck was holding on, as if his life depended on it. Whatever. I guess I could entertain him a bit more.
Without much resistance, I had gotten into full mount and started hammering the bitch into the ground. Punch, another punch, hammer fist, few elbow strikes—it was a slow and methodical process.
As I was about to punch him another time, I caught myself. Fuck. I checked his pulse. He was still alive. Good.
I used his shirt to clean the blood from my fists and fished my phone from the pocket. A quick scroll through contacts, all the way down to ‘Officer, and I pushed the dial button.
A few rings, and a voice on the other side greeted me:
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“Roah, again?”
“Yeah. Another incident. This time I wasn’t holding back all that much,” I explained.
“Ambulance?”
“Yeah.”
“On my way.”
***
I was sitting in the interrogation room, nursing a cup of coffee in my hands. The door opened, and a familiar cop went inside. I raised my eyes to look at him, and he sighed and plopped down into the other chair in the room.
“Well, it’s your lucky day, Roah. Rejoice, no corpses.” His tone was grim. “But it was close.”
“Good.” I shrugged and took another sip from the cup.
“The security footage and witnesses inside the places make it clear that the three victims were the ones who started the conflict, and there was no one who saw the fight itself. Since there are no bodies, and you haven’t used a weapon, it would be considered self-defense. Or, with them being from the gang, gang-on-gang violence,” officer-whatever-his-name continued.
“Good.” I repeated my earlier words.
“Ramirez is fuming, though,” he finished.
“I will pay the medical bills, no problem. If it’s not enough for him, he can write his complaints down, roll them into a tube, and shove them up his ass,” I replied, finishing my coffee.
My words rendered my conversation partner speechless. I shook the coffee cup to double-check if it was truly empty and let out my own sigh.
“Depending on his attitude, I don’t mind turning his gang into history.” While saying it, I took Kouzuki Shinji’s seal from my chest pocket and placed it on the table in front of the cop.
He looked at the seal, then at me, and again at the seal. A moment later, he cupped his face with his palms and let out a long, pained groan. I could understand him quite a bit at the moment.
“Fuck it. Not my jurisdiction,” he came to a conclusion. His response made me laugh. “So, who will bail you out? Alvarez? Roah?”
“I’ll do it myself,” I said, flashing the black card.
He sighed again and left to finish the formalities and paperwork.
The officer returned in about an hour or so, and, to be honest, I was bored and tired enough to consider taking a nap right here.
“You are free to go,” said my cop buddy after I put my signature under the protocol. Officer Zhang, let’s try to remember at least this much.
I put my things back in my pockets and stood up to leave.
“Hey, Roah. I know it sounds stupid, but how about spending the night here? You know, just in case.” Zhang’s words caught me off guard.
His words were stupid, but, for some reason, they actually made a lot of sense to me. If I left right now, I would just go and find more trouble. The Beast wasn’t quite satisfied yet, and there were no maidens to appease him either.
“You know, I think it’s a good idea, actually,” I told him.
It was his turn to be surprised.
***
I left the police station around ten a.m. It was not the best sleep I ever had, but at least I killed some time until I could see Olivia again.
I scrolled through my messenger, noting the messages from Claire.
Counter Girl: [Thank you for your help.]
Counter Girl: [And sorry that we had to end it so abruptly.]
Counter Girl: [It’s a bit ironic.]
Counter Girl: [That after so many dates that ended after a call.]
Counter Girl: [I was the one to do the same this time.]
Counter Girl: [Anyway, thank you for your help again.]
Counter Girl: [I’m looking forward to our next date.]
I chuckled a bit, imagining the flustered Claire who was writing it all, and wrote an answer.
Me: [no biggie]
Me: [and I’m certainly looking forward to our next date]
And sent. I looked at the status: not delivered yet. Well, I bet she's busy right now.
I looked at the time again and decided against calling Olivia yet. Ten a.m. after a party wasn’t the best time to receive a call.
What should I do? I felt pretty hungry, and I needed a coffee after a night like this one. I checked the map, and, to my surprise, I wasn’t that far from that café I visited with Claire.
Eh, why not? And I started my stroll towards breakfast.