"You bitch…!" The tattooed man scowled, "...We were gonna play nice, but not anymore!"
Reaching to the back of his stained pants, the lanky man retrieved a pocket knife, flipping it open with a dangerous grin.
Beside him, the tall thug pulled out a bat that was stuffed beneath his shirt, somehow.
The pudgy man was no exception, pulling out a crowbar that he was hiding as well, now all wielding dangerous weapons with no good intentions clearly in mind.
"...Cowards don't know when to call it quits…" Yui mumbled.
Before his colleague could take a step forward, he took the first step instead, glancing back at her with a reassuring smile.
"Touma…" Yui said.
"Leave this to me," he said, cracking his knuckles, "...I need to get some cardio in, anyway."
The leader of the thugs clicked his tongue, juggling his knife from hand-to-hand before grinning again, "Girly's boyfriend coming to save the day? You're going to get hurt."
"B-boyfriend…?" Yui blushed at the assumption.
Instead, he merely smiled calmly while facing down the weapon-wielding thugs, which prompted the burly, buzzcut thug to squint before sweating profusely.
"Err, boss…" The sour-faced thug said.
"Huh? What is it?" The tattooed-thug looked back.
"Silver hair and golden eyes…Is that…?" The sour-faced man explained.
Before he could finish, all three of the no-gooders had their eyes widen at the realization of who they were facing down.
"...The King of Brawling?" The pudgy thug realized.
"The Martial Arts King?!" The thug leader realized, as well.
He simply smiled, waving, "Yo."
Despite the thugs seemingly knowing who they were up against, the leader of the no-good trio cackled, flipping his knife around.
"I don't care how good this guy is! There's three of us and one of him! And we've got firepower!" The tattooed thug said.
"Y-yeah!" The tall thug readied his bat.
As they all rushed towards him within the narrow, dingy alleyway, he remained standing still, placing his earbuds back in as the music returned.
With the soothing beats playing into his ears, he smiled as he evaded the wild strike of the bat from the buzzcut thug, leaning back to effortlessly avoid being hit.
"Ngh!" The tall thug gritted his teeth out of anger.
Yui watched the scene, but held little worry for the silver-haired adolescent as he danced around the strikes.
"--Let me at 'em!" The pudgy thug reared his crowbar back.
As he moved his golden eyes over to the approaching thug, he swiftly raised his hand, deflecting the incoming bat and causing it to smack right against the nose of the crowbar-wielding thug instead.
"Juro!" The buzzcut thug yelled out after accidentally attacking his partner.
"Careful how you swing that thing," he said playfully while music still played in his ears.
The bat-holding thug snarled in anger, "Shut up–!"
As another heavy swing of the bat came his way, he smiled as he spun around, launching a high-kick that slammed against the thug's head before the bat could reach him–causing the thug to be slammed against the grimy wall.
The powerful impact cracked the stone that made up the wall, instantly knocking out the thug as the only one left standing was now the knife-wielding leader of the trio.
"--" The tattooed-man was sweating, gritting his teeth.
"Just going to sit back and watch your friends get pummeled? Can't say I respect the grind there," he asked with a smile.
The thug flipped his knife around, beginning to rush him, "I'll cut up that mouth of yours first!"
Yui called out to him, "Be careful, Touma…!"
He only smiled while the melodic beats played into his ears, allowing the knife-wielding thug to draw close before weaving through the array of slashes that came his way.
"Grk…!" The thug angrily clenched his teeth.
It seemed there was some level of mastery with the dingy knife that the man wielded as he swung it around not completely wildly, but with some form and intent.
Even so, the silver-haired young man effortlessly moved his body around the edge of the blade while holding his relaxed smile.
Yui let out a sigh while watching this, mumbling to herself, "...Why was I even worried?"
After enough of the pointless assault, with the next strike of the knife sailing towards the young man's throat with killing intent, he raised his left fist in the path of the blade.
Crack.
Against his bare skin, the steel of the knife shattered as if being slammed into titanium.
"Wha–? How is that…?" The thug muttered in disbelief, watching his weapon crumble.
The Martial Arts King…Is he even human? The thug questioned.
As the tattooed man finally came to, he looked down to see the fingertips of the silver-haired fighter's right hand gently pressed against his abdomen.
"Hold on! I'm sorry! Wait–"
Before the thug could earn his mercy, the attack came–
It was a classic "One-Inch Punch", launched as he compressed all of the muscles in his right arm, unleashing it like a spring as he formed a fist with such speed that it caused the wind to hiss like the crack of a whip.
"Ghhk–!"
From the force of the wind-cracking one-inch punch, the knife-wielding thug was blown back through the alley, landing into the mountain of garbage bags in the back.
With that, all of the vicious, or at least, the thugs who attempted to be vicious, found themselves unconscious in the alleyway.
He pulled his earbuds out before turning to face his colleague, brushing his hands off, "I didn't quite get it right that time."
"It looked to me like you went a bit overboard…" Yui smiled wryly.
"Hey, once you pull a knife out, you better at least be prepared to be hurt a little," he said with a smile, leaving the alley.
He walked with Yui down the street, heading back towards the cafe.
"You never answered my question," Yui told him, looking right at him with her discerning, emerald eyes.
"Oh, right…" He laughed a bit, ruffling his own silver locks, "Mr. Genji let me end my shift early."
"I've never taken you to be the type to skip out on work just for personal time. You're usually a hard worker, Touma…Are you becoming a delinquent?" Yui asked, squinting at him.
"No, but…I have something coming up soon," he looked at her with a smile.
"And that is?" Yui asked.
As they finally reached the cafe, he slid by her question as he waved her off after escorting her back to the humble establishment.
"It's a secret," he cheekily answered.
"Huh? Hey, don't be like that!" Yui pouted.
As they entered the cafe, he chuckled, heading up to the residential floor above while Yui huffed, entering her shift.
In his room, he didn't waste any time popping his earbuds back in before getting to work with his training equipment.
He made sure to have an adequate amount of water on standby, hoisting his dumbbells up as he immediately began lengthy sets of curls, using fifty kilogram dumbbells for each arm.
I'll start with light weight for now to warm my body back into the groove, he thought.