The ramen shop was bustling as Kiana, Mei and I went in.
"I'm gonna use the washroom for a bit. Go order first." I said before walking off to my destination.
Walking into the washroom, my eyes briefly locked onto one of the used stalls before breaking away.
I went over to the urinal and stood there.
"You weren't waiting for me to start before popping out, were you?"
"Who are you?" A low, quiet voice sounded behind me. It seemed more like a growl than just asking a normal question.
I didn't answer the question. Instead, I just waved him off. "Hey, I need to pee here. Can this wait? I'm not comfortable with someone behind me."
That seemed to be the end of my attacker's patience as I felt an object rapidly approaching the back of my head.
Wow. Rude.
I instantly ducked down, slashing the pipes with my hand on the way, causing water to spray out.
Making use of the lowered visibility from the water, I spun around and kicked sharply behind me, sending my attacker sliding slightly away.
As I stood up, I came face to face with a man with white hair and blue eyes, similar to Kiana and I. He was quite tall, around the same height as I was and he had long hair tied in a ponytail.
"So you're Kiana's dad..." I said.
He didn't bother answering that, quickly going back to his questioning. "Who sent you here? Otto? Or is it Cocolia?"
Huh, the guy just divulged a crap ton of free information to me.
Nice.
"I don't know any of those guys." I said nonchalantly. "I'm just an ordinary guy."
Siegfried sneered. "Keep your secrets then. I'll beat it out of you mys-"
Before he could finish, I was already in front of him, fist cocked back. "Sure."
Bang
Siegfried blocked my blow with his one forearm. Then, he slammed his head towards mine but it quickly came to a slow just before it hit me. His eyes widened, before I gave him a smile.
"Surprise~" I hit a haymaker on him in the nose.
To his credit, Siegfried barely flinched at the blow as he kicked twice in a row, both times blocked by Infinity again. I didn't give him much breathing room as I pushed forwards, Epitaph activated as well.
We exchanged a flurry of blows, his attacks all being ineffective against me due to Infinity. On the other hand, I was able to sneak past his defenses each and every time due to the futures that Epitaph showed me, along with not needing to defend with Infinity.
I began to notice on thing however.
Siegfried was a tank.
I was much stronger than back when I had just met Kiana, yet Siegfried, despite getting hit quite a bit, was barely taking damage from my blows...
For now.
*Clunk*
I jumped onto the ceiling. As I landed, I squatted upside down before springing back down onto Siegfried.
Siegfried took another step back, thinking I was about to slam into the ground...
But I turned it into an uppercut.
His eyes widened from the sonic boom my fist caused. He was sent smashing outside of the building but I didn't let up, as I charged after him.
Landing outside the building, I saw Siegfried standing on the roof. A single step helped me land on top of the roof as as well. I noticed that Siegfried wasn't too injured, but he seemed a bit out of breath.
So that wasn't enough yet.
And then Siegfried spoke. "You're blowing up Honkai energy as you hit me?"
"Pretty cool right?"
"Not bad..."
"So why are you attacking me anyways? You're just like Kiana. Attacking before we could even talk."
Siegfried's expression darkened. "You're not buying time with small talk..."
He charged once more. As he ran, I noticed that he was reaching into his jacket.
My eyes narrowed. Through the future Epitaph showed me, Siegfried was going to pull out the gun from his jacket- the one that Kiana told me was a superweapon...
I shot forwards, blowing up Honkai energy beneath me. With a sharp upwards kick, he had no choice but to defend.
A few more blows struck him hard after, as I was unrelenting in my assault.
Chest
Face
Kidney
Groin
These were all targets as I swapped between blowing up Honkai energy and normal attacks to trip up his defenses.
And then when he finally made a mistake, my arm slid between his defenses. One arm grabbed his jacket, while the other grabbed his face.
*Clunk*
With a huge smile on my face, I whispered, "Cle-"
And then I paused.
That might be a bit too much for now.
Siegfried was clearly no amateur as he took advantage of my lull to escape my grasp.
"You... were about to do something right..." Siegfried slowly spoke out.
I kept silent, placing my hands behind my back. Letting out a sigh, I then replied, "Nah. You're Kiana's dad."
He frowned. "What's your game? Wouldn't Otto or Cocolia want me gone?"
"I told you... I'm just an ordinary guy. I'm like, fourteen. How could I be from those guys you're talking about."
"Fourteen isn't impossible."
Child soldiers then? Got it.
As the sound of police sirens came out, Siegfried clicked his tongue again. "We aren't done. I'll be back..."
"Sure, Arnold. Any time."
"If you dare to hurt Kiana..."
"She'll be out soon if you don't hurry up."
"You're not going to tell her about me?"
"I'm sure you have your reasons why you can't go near her."
A complicated look appeared on Siegfried's face. He shook it off before he jumped into one of the alleys and started running.
Well, I needed to do that too. I'm sure that Kiana and Mei were alarmed by the sudden explosion in the ramen store.
So no more miso I guess.
Dropping into an alleyway myself, a smile appeared on my face.
I wonder how long it would take for him to realise...
I swung a large gun around from its handle. It was quite large, with a predominant stark white finish across its main body. Accentuating this were panels and highlights of vibrant orange.
That's a pretty good way to pay me back for assaulting me don't you think Siegfried?
(A/N: How was this chapter? I hope that the characters didn't feel OOC. Please tell me if you have any criticisms. And please give me some powerstones if you liked the chapter!)