-Vol 5: A New Life-

-Chapter 213-

“Shit! Shit!” cursing like a sailor, Kenshin ran faster than a car to an unpopulated area. His forehead was oozing with sweat, which didn’t happen, even while laying waste to a monster. His legs were a blur, and every now and then he created deep footprints on the concrete road. He was in such a hurry that he forgot to control his strength, hence the footprints and blurring effect.

Just a few minutes ago he was having a nice little chat with Chiba, that enthusiastic little girl with heavy burdens. But then everything did a 180 flip; just when he was at the height of his enjoying, his phone rang. It was a call from Ellie who used Mrs. Yui’s phone. The little girl was hysteric about something, unable to even form a coherent sentence. After a few minutes of consolation, she somewhat calmed down and explained the situation to him the best she could.

That afternoon, the shop was very busy. For some reason a lot a customer popped up out of nowhere, wishing to eat at her bakery. They were not locals since she didn’t recognize anyone and neither were they tourists as they didn’t seem to be that different. Despite only twelve, she was very perspective about many things. To her, it's like seeing the people of another part of the town they are living in.

Although she found it odd, she didn’t put much thought into it. Her mother treated them as normal guests nonetheless. That time, for fulfilling their varying orders, she busied herself. While Mrs. Yui was busy, she took Axel to her room, and they started playing. Not long after she entered her room, she heard some smashing and yelling downstairs.

Traumatized by events that happened not long before, she hesitated to go down. But as time passed, the yelling and smashing noise continued to become louder. Fearful, but worried about her mother, she squeezed out every last drop of courage from her body and stepped down from the upstairs. Hiding behind the wall connected to the shop, she peeked outside saw something her young mind couldn’t handle.

A group of muscular men, she recognized them, they were the one who came here to eat cake were breaking and smashing their shop. Her mom was sitting to the side, cradling her bleeding head while looking lost. A thin line of tears was freely streaming from her eyes. Other people also lined to another side while throwing out curses and bad words towards her mom.

It made her very scared; she unconsciously gripped the hands of Axel who appeared beside her and held her hands comfortingly. He was also looking at the spectacle with wonder and a sense of fury whose source he wasn’t aware of. In this situation, she, who didn’t have a father to run into, thought of the next best person besides a father to her. Running upstairs again, she grabbed her mother’s second phone and called Kenshin which Mrs. Yui saved on speed dial.

That time, Kenshin was about to bid farewell with the girl, whose small shoulders were carrying some heavy burdens. While talking to her, Kenshin felt that she was facing some serious problems right now. Since she didn’t tell him, he didn’t felt good about prying into her matters.

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He wasn’t a saint anyway.

When he received the call, he couldn’t even bother to bid the girl farewell and hurried to the nearest unpopulated area. Praying to whichever god listening to him, he ran as fast he could. According to the map, the nearest unpopulated area was an abandoned building towards the west of where he was talking with Chiba.

Hunters rarely showed their superior powers in public, although there was no law preventing him from doing so as long as they don’t damage public property or kill someone. But still, subconsciously, they always avoid using their powers in their daily lives. It's just in their psychology, despite a hunter giving them higher statuses than the norm, subconsciously, they didn’t want to become that different from common people.

Kenshin also affected by this psychology and would often avoid using his skills or extraordinary physical powers in public areas or even in his home. But today, he was just too worried about Mrs. Yui and Ellie to care about that stuff. Despite his better judgment telling him that nothing bad would happen to them for the time being, his heart just couldn’t settle down.

He took nearly fifteen minutes to reach there and that too by jumping above a few buildings towards the end. Activating his Burrow skill, that was faster anything in his arsenal, he entered the ground and vanished from Ibaraki.

Not far from where he entered the ground, a homeless old man, who made the building his own private suit, rubbed his eyes clean and stared at the hard ground where he saw the man jumping into.

“It seems I am way too hungry. I am having hallucinations!” shaking his head, he walked out of the building to somewhere.

XXX

It took him some twenty minutes to reach his backyard. Since the fence was surrounding the whole place, no one could peek inside. After finishing the skill, which cost him some 50 to 60 MP, he rushed in towards the bakery. This time, he didn’t bother to enter via back gate, he directly went for the front gate.

From the moment of Ellie’s call to now, only twenty minutes had passed. If it was a deliberate act, the people must have left the shop already. If not, they might still be there. If it’s later, he wouldn’t do anything and just smooth things over with them. But if it's former, he would make them pay, both literally and figuratively.

Before even entering the shop, he already knew except for Mrs. Yui and Ellie and Axel, there were no one around. Entering the bakery, he found everything in shambles. Not a single thing was intact or in one piece. Dishes and plates were grounded to dust, tables and chairs were half broken and smashed into the ground. Cakes and pastries were smudged all over the floor making it dirty. Even her glass oven was broken so did the windows and her bakery’s washroom appliances. Watching all this, Kenshin could conclude just how brutal those people were. Not even the pictures hung on the wall were spared.

Mrs. Yui, Ellie, and Axel, they were holding mops or cloth in Axel’s case and wiping away all the grimes and shards on the floor. None of the trios noticed his approach, though a few seconds later Axel did.

“Shhh!!!” he jumped around like an excited monkey and made some hissing noises, attracting the other two’s attention. Mrs. Yui was wearing a white bandage on her forehead, but otherwise, she was healthy. Kenshin took a breath of relief.

“Brother Shin! You finally came! Look those meanies…they totally destroyed our shop. Look! They even tore the drawing that I made for mom. One of them pushed my mom, and her head was hurt. They…they destroyed my mom’s hard work!” the little girl jumped into his embrace and cried while complaining loudly. Axel would also nod every now and then amidst her explanation, confirming to Ellie’s complaints.

“Okay! Okay! Don’t worry. Now I am here. I will make everything right. Now, stop crying like a baby. You are a big girl, right?” Kenshin rubbed her head and consoled her while giving a sidelong glance at a silent Mrs. Yui who was avoiding his eye contact.