The Seventh Case

Chapter 8

"Why do I have to dress like this?", Kazuto whined as his sister glared at him.

"Do you want to dress up like a homeless man on your first date?", she snapped causing him to frown.

"It's not a date", he childishly retorted. He tried hard to fit into his pants. They seemed to literally stick onto his legs. He had worn modern clothes many times before, but none of them seemed as uncomfortable. His affinity to black coloured clothes had not changed however. He sighed as he straightened his jacket with the fur collar. It seemed awkward to him no matter how many times his sister told him that he looked handsome. He would never trust her in that aspect - irrespective of his horrible he looked, she would always brown-nose him.

"Fine, I'm off Sugu", he said, stuffing his hands in his pocket. Suguha waved with satisfaction, smiling happily to herself on seeing her brother grow up.

"Have a good time! And don't try to get into her pants!", she yelled and before her brother could pulverize her, she locked the door, hearing his colourful words.

Cursing his sister's immaturity, Kazuto plodded towards the local park where he was supposed to meet Asuna. Even while fighting hundreds of heavily armed warriors, the living weapon did not feel nervous but the idea of meeting a woman on a date rattled him completely. His phone buzzing threw him off the course of nervous thoughts.

I will be there shortly.

It was just a simple straightforward message from her. But Kazuto smiled at the message. Her candidness seemed nice. A few minutes later he reached the park and spotted her tapping her phone with a frown on her face.

Kazuto approached her and a wave of caution hit him. He felt uneasy and checked his surroundings. Although he found nothing spectacular or conspicuous, he was a bit wary.

Are you here? I am feeling uneasy.

"Asuna-san, I'm here", he shouted and her eyes shot up. Kazuto saw her sigh in relief and a smile appeared on her face. The smile however, was like a flash of lightning. It disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. Her eyes widened and she pointed behind him, almost about to yell.

Kazuto whirled back to see and was promptly met with a powerful club to his temple. He faltered and dropped down to his knees. Who was it?

Ignoring his thoughts, he prioritised Asuna first. Through his blurry vision, he saw her rush forward and raised his hand weakly, asking her to leave. He felt a powerful foot step on his back and he grimaced in pain.

He was not going down without a fight. He pulled out a small knife from his chest pocket and drove it into his attacker's ankle before the man could process his actions.

The man howled in pain and stomped on his hand causing Kazuto to wince again in pain. Ignoring his previous wish, Asuna rushed forward, and through his fuzzy unfocused vision he noticed someone approach behind her.

Kazuto tried to warn her, he tried hard but failed. He saw the person gag her and knock her down, but could not see her face. Asuna slithered forward to him, but her attacker moved forward and slammed her iron fist to the side of her forehead and Asuna was instantly knocked out cold.

He did not have time. He was going to follow suit. With the last bit of his energy, Kazuto turned to try and see the face of his attacker and all he saw was a thick scar running down his left eye upto the tip of the left side of his jaw. The very next second, darkness overtook his eyes and the last sight he saw was of his fiancee Asuna being dragged by the bulky woman.

Later

Kazuto felt as if his captors had a gala time beating him up as he literally could not get up even after regaining consciousness a few minutes before. Kazuto was left staring at the beautiful twilight sky. He could not spot anyone else close to him based on his angle.