Marry X Princess

XVIII: Street Fighter!

The air was heavy with the tension of an inevitable brawl. Eva and I stood across from the two thugs who had been harassing Mizuki. They looked quite amused at our presence, but there was nothing humorous about what Eva and I were feeling.

"Shinsuke," Eva started with a smug grin. "You take one, I'll get the other."

I knew Eva was more than capable of handling them both on her own, but this was undoubtedly a gift from her to me. She knew exactly what I wanted to do to the scumbags, and she was allowing me the chance to act on it.

"Got it," I accepted, graciously.

One of the men chuckled and crossed his arms. "So, 'big sis' and the ugliest pretty boy I've ever seen wanna try and take us on? That's the funniest thing I've heard all day. You two are gonna regret stickin' your nose where it doesn't belong."

"Oh yeah? I very much doubt that," Eva challenged. "Tell ya what, though. I'll let you take the first shot at me. In fact, I won't even use magic to deal with you."

"How sweet of you," one of the men snickered. "But all I need is one punch, sweetheart!"

Without a second thought, the thug made a beeline for Evangeline who remained stationary in the face of his advance.

"Night night!" he declared, throwing his fist at Eva's face.

Like a bullfighter, Eva gracefully sidestepped the man's reckless strike. And in what was a motion too fast for my eyes to follow, she flipped him effortlessly.

"Guh!" the man cried out, his large form hitting the ground hard.

Eva hopped around the man in a circle and taunted him. "What's wrong? I thought you only needed one punch~"

"Oh, you're dead now!" the man shouted. He leapt back to his feet and charged his pink-haired opponent again.

"Some people never learn," Eva sighed. Once more, she dodged his attempted strike with no effort. This time, however, she took him to the ground with a double leg takedown.

"Hey! Who the hell is this wench?!" the second thug yelled before darting at Eva who was wrestling with the man on the ground.

Before he could get close to her, I blindsided him by burying my fist in his cheek. He plummeted to the ground in a heap and roared.

"Don't go forgetting about me," I quipped.

A bit of blood dripped from the corner of the man's mouth, and he wiped it off on the back of his hand. It seemed he initially believed the liquid to be saliva, because when he spotted the red staining his rough skin, he shot back up and shouted, "I'm gonna kill you for that, you son of a bitch!"

As anyone could have predicted, he began barreling at me, ready to smash me to paste. I cursed my luck that in the heat of the moment, I couldn't recall any of the techniques Eva taught me. Whatever I would do next wouldn't be nearly as elegant as Eva, but it would have to do.

Gotta think fast!

It felt as though time slowed to a crawl while I scanned my surroundings at a rapid pace. My crosshairs locked in on a garbage can lid that sat slightly ajar atop a typical, silver cylinder. A sequence of events played out in my mind, and as time seemed to resume at a normal speed, I knew exactly what to do.

I grabbed hold of the lid and dug in my heels. As my enemy drew close, he balled up his fist and began to hunch his body. He was taller than me, so he bent slightly to nail me with his punch. But at just the right distance, I tossed the lid at his face, forcing him to stop in his tracks and catch it.