"Let me take care of this" I told Titiana with a confident tone.
She didn't say anything. She only looked up at me with tears on her face as she breathed heavily, sniffing as she nodded rapidly.
"Get away, you scalie monster! You swamp-dweller, sharp-toothed, cold blooded tail dragging, overgrown iguana!" He yelled while moving the boy frantically, causing him shallow cuts with the knife thanks to the erratic movements.
"You finished? Are you satisfied?" I asked while standing my own two feet strongly on the ground. I crossed my arms as I examined the best way to attempt to save the little boy.
"As expected from an uncaring reptile. You all are known for being the emotionless work force of your kingdom. Not a single care about being insulted, what if I insulted the whore of whatever mother you have? Will you finally show any sort of emotion?"
"I don't really care about that sort of things, really. I won't ever be swayed by the words of someone like you. Although you can still spew out any venom you want. Actually, keep talking, maybe then you'll stop what you're doing once you calm down"
I looked over my shoulder on my right, and saw the gang leader older brother standing there and looking at the whole thing unfold. His arm hidden behind his back. His eyes were squinted in a powerful and hateful frown.
I took steps to my left, circling the father on the door of his house.
"Calm down! You want me to calm down after my whole life has spiraled down!? After the horrible time I had in a war that meant nothing? My family crumbled while I was away, my body suffered irreparable, incurable scars, my children have become a disappointment that still live under my OWN roof, surviving with my OWN money I earn working after being promised to never worry about money by the army. I had to live with a baby that was not my own, a bastard baby my wife had. And you want me to calm down!?"
"It was tough for you, wasn't it? You lost your agency as a father and your wife cheated on you. Yet, I only see your mistakes being made"
"Huh!? My mistakes? I have done my best to raise my kids, to live with my wife despite the infidelity, yet they all continued spitting on my face"
"I don't personally know much about your family situation. But all I see here is that you killed your wife, you have a kid held hostage at knife-point, and all of this in front of a huge crowd. Is this such reaction justified for the straw that bro—"
"Yes, it is completely justified. Now I have nothing to me. That dead bitch was finally leaving, MY sons—not this bastard—are old enough to finally leave me alone."
"As I said, your own mistakes. You fell down on your own misery, becoming alcoholic and abusive towards your kids and wife, when you could try to be a better person"
"Be a better person!?" He spat with hatred while moving frantically the kid, who barely slipped out of his grasp. "Is that what you have to say? Just don't fuck up!?"
"Yeah!" I extended my hand, sticking out my thumb and giving him an okay. "It costs nothing to be a good person."
The fire-coloured Vogel man had bloodshot eyes and put so much strength into holding the wooden handle of his knife that it looked about to shatter and break. If I keep pushing him, I could get him to commit a mistake.
"But, if I have to say anything. I wouldn't do anything normally. I am no hero who fights for those who suffer. I have walked past murders, I have seen kidnappings happening in front of my eyes, I have worked in the indirect support of the war of two nations. I am sorry, but on any other circumstance, I'd have walked past this commotion without thinking."
I then looked back toward the Vogel girl on the ground, looking at me with teary eyes.
"But I have been taught to care for the people close to me. As it happens, those I considered closest to me are all dead—their remains at the bottom of the sea. That's why, even if we've known each other for a couple of days, I want to help the closest person to me right now. That girl that works as a merchant of pretty bad quality items, that girl that saved me and took care of me. Who else but that daughter you have? She has been earning money with the purpose of escaping the place she hates the most—"
"Agh!" The Vogel man yelled out in pain. Something that caught everyone else's attention.
His hand suddenly turned a vibrant shade of red, the wood and the metal that composed the knife he held melted as if it was heated up by lava itself.
The pain seemed to be so intense that he let go of the kid. And how couldn't he let go? After all, all that melted steel and the heat on his hand burned his skin. His hand itself started to melt.
"Wha—" I asked perplexed.
Body Strengthening technique: Leg Muscles—Burst.
Even if I was confused by what just happened, I still leapt forward with a sudden burst of speed that cracked the floor beneath me.
I saved the kid by grabbing him by his shirt and throwing him out of the way.
Watching over, the kid fell onto the ground with no protection and no one to catch him. He hit the asphalt floor of the street, bouncing once and getting some bruises and scratches. Thankfully, he was now safe.
"Thanks for the distraction, Grey" Uli finally spoke out. He had his hand extended, and a fading small magical circle in front of him. "You gave me enough time to prepare the spell"
The surprised face from both Titiana and the crowd, along with some comments about "So that's how he fights" and "I didn't know the young master of the Pirate Mafia knew how to use magic" could be heard.
I grabbed the screaming Vogel man whose hand was melting and threw him toward the athletic brother. "I thought you were leader of a minor gang of just hobos and friends. Didn't expect you to be part of an actual mafia"
"Gtomika is known for its many mafia families. I wouldn't show myself unless absolutely necessary" His tone was deep and regretful. His eyes drifted from the injured father he attacked, to his dead mother, to Titiana who still couldn't properly process everything that was happening.
I just hummed and walked to Titiana.
She was still crying, yet she had no voice to yell how much this had hit her. Her eyes were set in front of her, to the corpse of her mother and the house she was raised in.
"Titiana, do you hate this house?"
My question seemed to take her out of the trance of impotency to act she was in.
"Do I hate this house?" She lowered her face and bit her lip. "Of course I hate it!" She yelled out. "I despise it, I loathe it, I detest it, I abhor it, it disgusts me. I want that house to be destroyed, I want to escape and never see any of my family ever again. I don't want to be here anymore!" She yelled out with a voice that broke itself several times as she hit the ground.
"Then escape with me."
"Huh?" She raised her face to look at me, and I saw her expression of confusion.
"Let's go somewhere far away from here. You have no more ties with that house. Any sympathy you could've had with your father is gone. Your mother is sadly now dead. Your brothers have been absent all your life—to the point where they just feel like a stranger rather than your siblings. I'll destroy that house, you won't have nowhere to go back to, nowhere to be tied with"
"What are you saying?" Uli intervened, approaching me.
But…
"Please, Grey, destroy it all. I want to fly as far away from here" Titiana cried out.
I smiled and turned around. "Then watch me destroy the last semblance of your previous life"
I faced the house. A house that seemed completely normal on the outside, a house that could belong to anyone, a house you wouldn't expect to have been the place a girl considered hell.
Body Strengthening technique: Lung Expansion.
With that technique used, I inhaled, and inhaled, and inhaled. I felt my chest growing inhumanely as I kept breathing in air.
Then, that burning sensation. My chest started to feel hot and uncomfortable. Yet, it didn't hurt. I could feel the flames forming inside me. But I needed more—enough to completely make that house disappear.
I never understood how the fire I spew out worked—never really questioned it also—it's not something any race can do. Most would say that it's magic, but I know it isn't. I know it because I don't know how to use magic. It's just something my body has always been capable of naturally doing whenever I wanted to.
"Bwah!" I opened my mouth, and an infernal, blazing hot fire came out of my mouth. Thanks to being let to prepare the fire breath, I stored up so much that I stood there for an entire three minutes breathing fire without being stopped.
By the final part of those three minutes, only black smoke came out of my mouth—black smoke I ended up coughing out—and the house was entirely melted out. Not a single floor, wall, or furniture was left of that house. Only the flames of my act were left.
Look at me, promising someone to escape with me and doing something that'll make them hate me.
For some reason, I didn't turn around, I couldn't turn around. I knew what was about to happen, yells calling me monster, people running away, and… Titiana looking at me with a fearful expression.
I truly am no hero. I just promised a girl that I'd save her, just to fuck it all up.
I stood up straight, and the silence worried me more than anything. Yet, I still needed to turn around, to face Titiana.
When I slowly turned around, I finally gazed upon Titiana's face, and…
She was crying, with her hands clasped together, her lips quivered and… "Thank you!" She lowered her face and slowly stood up.
"Titiana, you…" I couldn't believe that the face I ended up seeing wasn't one of fear, but one of gratitude.
"Let's go, Grey, please…" She extended her hand.