Chapter 27: Another Incident

Theo walked over and crouched beside Mary.

“What’s going on out there?” He leaned forward and whispered to her.

“…”

Mary did not respond, but that was within his expectations. Truthfully, Theo did not mind. Instead, he focused his attention over towards the commotion outside, as he peered into the hallway through a crack in the glass window.

There, he caught sight of four silhouettes. Judging by the group displacement, they were obviously divided into two parties. One group was pressed against the lockers, their quivering backs and trembling shoulders in full display. The second group was a lot more domineering. They towered over the other two, their silhouette’s bulkier and their stances a lot more confident.

Although they were quite a distance away from the clubroom, Theo could clearly make out those newcomers with the help of his enhanced vision. From this angle, it was a clear case of bullying. Two people were being extorted by a group of unruly delinquents.

Theo briefly wondered whether or not he should go help, when he heard shuffling from beside him. He turned around, only to see Mary walking away from the door. Looking at her face, he caught the brief glint of resentment that flashed through her eyes.

Ah, that’s right… With the commotion going on outside, she’ll probably find it impossible to go out now.

With this, Mary’s daily routine had been broken. Instead of normally ignoring Theo’s presence, she was now forced to stay in the same room as him for who knows how long. What’s more, she clearly did not have the mind to confront the delinquents herself, so all she could do was resign herself to this room.

Mary was clearly dissatisfied, although Theo did have to wonder, how much of that dissatisfaction stemmed purely from being around him? He had a rather negative outlook on his relationship with this blue-haired mute. From his perspective, she probably found him disgusting or something. After all, many people interpret lewd jokes differently. Some find it amusing, while others abhor it entirely. In his mind, her first impression of him should be purely based on that one joke that he had said to Mao Lin a few chapters back.

Still, since it’s already come to this, he couldn’t just stand back and watch his helpless fellow club member. He decided to help out. In the end, he had still been regarded as a hero back on Mistelhan. Although he constantly complained and although Theo did not really view himself as a very heroic individual, at the very least, he thought of himself as somewhat half-genuine. Somewhere deep within his cold (perverted) heart, there existed that one tiny spark of altruism.

Although this is probably going to be a thankless job, a hero’s got to do what a hero’s got to do… He inwardly thought to himself as he shot one last look at Mary’s fuming silence.

Theo looked around the room for a moment, before his eyes landed on an unused metal bucket. He quickly picked it up, and briefly inspected the object. The surface was a bit rusty, but luckily it didn’t give off any sort of weird smell, nor was there any mold growing inside the thing.

“Well, it’s not perfect, but it should work fine…” He muttered to himself as he lightly knocked on the bucket’s surface with his knuckles. A crisp metallic echo reverberated through the air. “I probably need something else too…”

Off to the side, Mary shot Theo a discreet look. For a split second, her face showed a questioning expression.

****

A somewhat chubby looking high schooler stood in the middle of the hallway. His pants sagged almost halfway down his butt, while a wrinkled dress shirt flapped loosely by his side. Underneath he wore a green tank top.

The thuggish looking high schooler glowered at a skinny youth. The youth shivered with his hands held in front of him and his back pressed against the rusty lockers.

BANG!

The thug slammed his fists against the metal surface.

“You got the cash?” A very stereotypical line left his mouth.

“N-no, no I don’t, b-b-bu, but it’s not my fault.” The skinny youth stuttered out. He had pale skin and sickly eyes. He appeared frail, and his hair had started prematurely thinning. The youth had a frightened expression on his face. “Y-you guys suddenly increased the amount. T-that’s not fair. I, I can’t possibly get that much money on such a short notice.”

There was another kid standing beside him. He was furiously nodding his head in agreement.

The thug frowned. “That’s not our problem now, is it? Go steal from your parents or something, I don’t care. We all attend a private school. Your folks should be more or less loaded, right?”

“B-but if I take too much, they’ll notice.”

BANG!

The thug’s friend, a youth with beefy shoulders and a crewcut, suddenly grabbed the sickly student’s collar and slammed him up against the wall. The student let out a frightened shriek as he furiously struggled to free himself.

“I don’t care!” Crew cut had a somewhat dumber face than his friend. It was definitely a whole lot uglier when contorted into a scowl. “Get the money by the end of the day or I’ll rip out your leg and shove it back down your own ass!”

“I’ll do it, I’ll do it!” He sputtered out a cough. “Let me go, l-let me go first, and I’ll—”

Just before he could finish, a creaking sound suddenly filled the hall.

For a moment, silence. The Crewcut’s shoulders tensed. He had a somewhat apprehensive expression on his face.

That was definitely the sound of a door opening, why was there the sound of a door opening?

The abandoned section of the building should be… well, abandoned. It was one of the primary reasons why this place was their go-to spot for making ‘transactions’ like this. There wasn’t supposed to be anyone around here. That’s how it’s supposed to be, but… lately, there’s been rumors.

During the days, pain filled anguished moans echo through the abandoned halls of the building. The regular students all assumed that the gangs were behind the noises. Maybe they were fighting amongst themselves, or they were torturing another poor sod out of his money, who knows. The regular students did not pay it much attention, but the thugs thought differently.

In a sense, the abandoned section was a strategic location for them. They wouldn’t dare do anything that attracted too much attention. Heck, they don’t even visit this place all that often. Maybe once a week or a few times a month. That was all to keep up the illusion that the abandoned section was truly abandoned.

Thus, after the rumors of the noise started to spread, some theories began to pop up within the inner circle of thugs. Some thought it was a busybody trying to cause trouble for them, while more gullible delinquents concluded it to be ghosts. Idiot faced Crew-cut was the latter.

Once he heard the noise, the first thing that popped into his mind was ghosts.

His face turned a shade paler. The other three also showed surprised faces, albeit with noticeably less fear than Crew-cut. He cautiously turned around to the source of the noise. The sight before him shocked him into silence.

Standing in the middle of an opened doorway was a silhouette of a student.

The figure itself wasn’t all that intimidating. The student was a bit on the thin side, just a little better than the kid he currently held by the throat. He held a broom in one hand. Nothing about him stood out, nothing except his head.

What the…

His head, or rather, the place where his head should be, in its place was a rusty metal bucket.

“What the hell?” He heard one of the nerds exclaim.

Crew-cut nudged his friend. “That, you think that’s the ghost from the rumors?”

His friend, while not as gullible as he was, was also plenty superstitious.

The thug in the green tank top dazedly shook his head. “I, I don’t know. He looks kinda human, don’t he?”

Crew-cut stiffly nodded his head. Looking a bit more closely, he discovered that instead of the guy having a bucket for a head, it was just a simple case of a bucket over his head.

Suddenly, the lone figure moved forward.

The group of four tensed up. Confusion and hesitation with just a tiny dash of fear. Crew-cut exchanged glances with his friend.

What should we do? was what his eyes were saying.

Theo stopped just a couple of steps away from them. While he couldn’t quite see with the bucket in his hand, he was plenty capable of identifying their general direction. Even fighting in this state wasn’t much of a problem for him.

“Get out of here,” he said. His voice sounded muffled and metallic. “and leave those guys alone.”

After hearing the bucket-headed newcomer speak, the tenseness in the air suddenly dissipated. It was as if an illusion had suddenly been lifted. While they still didn’t quite know who the newcomer was, or why he was here, at the very least, they were certain that he was not some ill-fated apparition that haunted the empty halls.

Still, everyone was confused. One of them couldn’t help but ask, “Why the hell do you have a bucket on your head?”

“It’s so that you won’t come looking for me after I beat you all up.” Theo calmly answered, citing anonymity once more. As always, he was an advocate for a quiet and peaceful life.

“Okay, but why a bucket?” The thug pressed on.

“Yeah, like why a bucket? Can’t you use a hood or a bandana or something?” At this point, even the ones being bullied started questioning him.

“Can you even see out of that?”

Theo let out a sigh. Through the bucket, it sounded more like a low-rumbling growl. Their questions were pricking on his nerves. It was fine for the thugs to ask him these things, but why the hell were the people he was trying to save acting like this? Where was their gratitude? Why did it feel like they didn’t actually know he was trying to save them?

“I can see perfectly fine. Never mind the bucket. You two,” he pointed at the thugs. “Just get out of here. Quit picking on the weak. “

“Hah?” Crew-cut furrowed his brow. He let go of the sickly youth and approached Theo. “Quite butting in our business. You get lost, bucket boy?”

Bucket boy?

What sort of name was that? Why was everyone tacking on the word ‘boy’ whenever they addressed him? He could take being called lover boy by Maddy and Nica primarily because they were beautiful women, but why the hell was this doofus calling him that? Even his Aunt Lynn had a habit of calling him ‘boy’.

Did he really look that young? Even with his face covered and his voice distorted, was he really that young looking?

As Theo was somewhat despairing, the thug in front of him reached out towards his face. Crew-cut was intent on pulling off that stupid bucket from his head.

Just before he could reach it though, Theo suddenly leaned back and dodged. At the same time, he swung his broom, hitting the thug in his exposed armpit.

“Aargh!” A pained scream echoed through the air, before the thug’s arm fell limply to his side. He hurriedly took a step back while caressing his shoulder. “Ouch, what the fuck?!”

At this point, Crew-cut was thoroughly angered. He forgot all about his previous fears and stared at Theo with unmasked rage. At the same time, Theo was disinclined to wait any longer.

He swung his broomstick once more. The thug tried in vain to dodge, but everywhere he went, a wooden stick would be there to intercept him. After a few seconds, a loud thud echoed through the room.

He laid sprawled on the floor, unconscious.

The other thug stood there in shock. The fight had ended so quickly that he hadn’t had time to react. He stared at Theo and hesitated. Should he stay and fight or should he just run? Although he didn’t have much confidence, in the end, he gritted his teeth and dashed towards him.

Theo leisurely sidestepped, easily avoiding the thug’s charge. The thug continued forward for a few feet, before he slammed into the lockers. His knees almost buckled from the impact. He shook his head and turned to glare at Theo.

Theo casually walked towards him, swinging the broomstick by his side in the process.

After a moment’s pause, the thug once again dashed forward. He let out a vigorous roar and rushed towards him like a maddened bull. His head led the charge, much like a pro wrestler or maybe a linebacker.

Before he could get any further though, Theo swung the broomstick horizontally. The bottom end of the broomstick accurately hit him in the small gap between his neck and his jaw. Even before he hit the ground, the thug was already unconscious.

Theo breathed out a sigh of relief.

He lightly stretched his shoulders and turned back around to face the ones that he had just rescued.

To his surprise, instead of them cowering in fear or them profusely thanking him, the two sickly looking youths were huddled around the first thug that he had knocked out.

Their hands frantically patted his body. At first, it looked like a case of sexual assault, but Theo quickly dismissed such a thought after he heard what they were saying.

“Quickly, quickly! Find it, find it!”

“Shut up! I’m looking as fast as I can!”

They were frantically searching for something. Although Theo couldn’t see the crazed look in their eyes, he heard the feverishness in their voices.

Theo thought for a moment, before he walked over towards them. He figured that maybe they were just trying to retrieve something that the thugs had stolen from them. His easy-going attitude abruptly stopped when he heard the sound of crinkling plastic.

Just then, one of the students pulled something out from the thug’s pocket. His eyes glimmered in delight. “Ah, I found it! I got it, I finally got i—AAARGH!” Before he could finish, he suddenly groaned out in pain.

Theo loomed over him. His foot was pressed against the guy’s hand. From the small opening underneath the bucket, Theo saw it. The sickly student’s pale fingers were tightly clutching onto a small Ziploc baggy containing what looked to be crushed powder. The bag was about half the size of a child’s palm. The contents appeared dirty yellow, like someone had taken the time to crystalize concentrated urine and smush it up into tiny particles.

Despite the pressure he used to hold the sickly student’s hand down, the youth stubbornly refused to let go. His hands were clenched tightly onto the bag, almost as if the contents of that bag far outweighed the value of life itself.

Theo frowned.

Drugs?

“H-hey, stop it, man! L-let go of him.” The other student attempted to approach Theo, but Theo was disinclined to respond. Without turning around, he swung his broomstick. It accurately hit the youth in the face, knocking him unconscious.

The second student crumpled to the floor, while Theo dug his shoe even deeper into the first student’s hand. This time, he was forced to let go.

Theo kicked the baggy away, while he leaned down towards the youth’s frightened face.

The dull surface of the metal bucket loomed over him like the emissary of death. In a muffled voice filled with coldness, Theo gravely spoke, “You, explain what’s going on here.”