A frantic dash through an underground hallway. Cracked cement floors and decrepit rooms. Ruined walls and crumbling ceilings. Gray barely glanced at his surroundings, barely thought about what he was doing at all, barely considered what he would do next.

Running. He was running through the hallway underground, his body moving on instinct and autopilot.

Voices were echoing in the distance behind him. Male, and far from friendly.

Get away from them. That was what Gray had to do.

But his body was ragged from years spent in front of computer screens and books. Barely a minute of running and his breath was coming out in shuddering gasps.

A room coming up on his right.

Gray ran inside without a second thought and turned around to shut the door behind him.

Then he realized that he had instinctively grabbed the woman's hand before he left, and that she had followed him this entire time.

For a moment, he forgot what he was doing, entranced by the woman's beauty.

Then he remembered that he was being chased.

Gray still had yet to catch his breath, so he didn't bother saying anything to the woman. He pulled her into the room and let go of her hand. That done, he pulled the door shut and then bent over, taking slow breaths to try and calm his breathing.

Footsteps echoed from outside, not far from the room Gray and the woman were hiding in.

His eyes grew wide and he straightened. His breath was still irregular, but he forced himself to hold it. At the same time, he looked at the woman and placed a finger on his lips, gesturing for her to remain quiet.

She returned his gesture with a blank gaze. Whether she understood him was uncertain, but she stood without making a sound.

A tense moment. Seconds, maybe, but seemingly stretching to minutes.

Gray's heart throbbed and his chest painfully contracted from his breath being forcefully held.

But then the moment was over. The footsteps passed by the door and faded off in the distance.

Gray let out a gasp and took in deep breaths. "That... was close..."

Now that the immediate danger was gone, Gray took a proper look at his surroundings.

It was a room that could best be described as a decrepit library. About a dozen bookshelves were scattered throughout the room in various forms. Some were knocked over, others still stood tall and proud. In every case, however, they were filled with moth-eaten books.

There was a table and some chairs in a corner of the room. Perhaps used as a reading spot in days long past.

Gray made his way to the table and sat down on a chair to rest his body. He set the rusted metal pipe on the floor next to him. While doing so, he found his gaze drawn towards the woman who he had instinctively taken with him.

She was still standing where he had left her. Those crimson eyes were as listless as ever, but they were focused on him.

Gray averted his gaze and ran his left hand through his hair. What have I gotten myself into this time?

This whole chain of events was like something out of an action film or light novel. Running across a beautiful captured woman by chance, freeing her and making a mad dash away from her kidnappers... it was something that Gray would have loved watching or reading about, but was something he absolutely loathed now that it was happening to him.

Something that could have been avoided if he had just left the room early without bothering to free the woman. Something that he would have done, and should have done.

But instead, his impulsive behavior had kicked in and he did the exact opposite of that.

Gray sighed. Now he had to think about what exactly he had gotten into and how to get out of it.

Alright. There are two guys running through this building looking for the woman. They are probably armed and highly trained considering they evaded the police for this long while operating so close to campus.

Gray was armed with a rusty pipe, but now that he reflected on the situation, he realized it would be far from enough. Maybe it would incapacitate one of the kidnappers in a sneak attack, but that was it.

He frowned. The woman is the one they're after. I could use her as a distraction and run away.

It was a valid choice. He had only stumbled across the situation by chance. The kidnappers should place a higher value on the woman, so he could escape after they found her... No, that won't work.

It was an optimistic thought, but three reasons made it fail.

First, it assumed that the kidnappers didn't know he was there. However, with him falling through the floor, that was out. They knew that someone else was here, and they would probably assume that he was here to free the woman.

Second, it assumed that the woman would let him leave her behind. But while she might seem listless with that blank gaze of hers, her attention had been focused on him since he untied her. And even if he left her behind, there was no guarantee she wouldn't tell the kidnappers about him and what he looked like. In that case, the professionals who managed to kidnap a beautiful woman and hide her so close to campus would be after him. And with his involvement on campus, information about him was way too easy to find out...

Third, he didn't know the layout of the underground area they were in. The fact that he had managed to evade the kidnappers in that chase was luck or a stroke of stupidity on the kidnapper's end, but he doubted that would hold up for much longer.

All in all, it seemed like he was forced now to see his decision through.

While ruing his poor decision making, Gray heard a screech. He looked up to see the woman pull a chair out from the table and take a seat in front of him. Like before, her crimson eyes were staring at him. But unlike before, they held some unreadable emotion.

"What is it?" Gray asked.

The woman didn't answer. Of course. She had yet to respond to anything he said since he found her.

Gray shook his head and closed his eyes to think.

A soft, melodic voice called out. "...Are you not scared?"

Gray opened his eyes. A response? He looked back at the woman.

The woman had her head tilted slightly, as if she could find his answer by looking into his face.

Questions popped into Gray's mind about why and how she was there, as well as why it took her this long to respond to him, but he decided to respond to her own question first. An answer for an answer, he decided.

"Of course I'm scared. Who in their right mind wouldn't be in this situation?"

Falling through the floor of the building, randomly finding a woman tied up and blindfolded, being suddenly chased through the underground area of the same building by unknown assailants, potentially armed... yes, being scared would be an understatement of Gray's current status.

The woman nodded at Gray's answer and then said, "...But if you are scared, why are you helping me?"

Gray let out a long sigh and ran his hand through his hair. "Don't remind me. It's stupid, I know. I should've just left you there and walked out. Maybe then I wouldn't be stuck in this mess... guess I've just been playing too many games recently."

The woman continued staring at him with that indecipherable expression. Was it because she didn't believe Gray or was it because she was unsatisfied by his answer?

Gray shook his head and got to his feet. He picked up the rusted metal pipe and said, "Well... let's get going. Since I'm stuck in this thing, might as well follow through. Do you know the way out?"

The woman stared at him for a moment and said, "...You untied me without knowing the layout of the building or being armed with a proper weapon?"

The longest response he had gotten from the woman yet.

Gray ran his hand through his hair again and let out an exasperated sigh. "I told you already, I was being dumb. Now just hurry up and answer. I don't think we have much time left before those guys get back."

He could hear the footsteps back in the distance. It seemed that the kidnappers were doubling back. Gray must have waited too long.

The woman laughed. It was a beautiful sound, and completely at odds with her previously blank expression. An act that fully displayed the woman's attractiveness and one Gray probably would have enjoyed any other time. An act that would have made his heart race, entranced by the woman's beauty and serenity.

Of course, they were currently hiding from a pair of kidnappers, so the act made his heart race for different reasons.

"You-! Don't tell me you want to get caught again!? No, are you working with them?"

A mistake. A huge blunder. He hadn't even considered that scenario.

Of course. It was too obvious, too extraordinary. There was no way that a woman as beautiful as her would just be kept tied up without anyone knowing.

A trap. For him or someone else? Either way, it looked like this time the blame lay solely on him.

The footsteps rapidly approached.

Just as Gray was deciding on what to do, the woman shook her head and said, "I am sorry. It is just... considering who I am, you would still help me?"

An odd question. One Gray didn't have the time or patience to contemplate and answer. Instead, on realizing that the woman (probably) wasn't a threat to him at that moment, he turned around to face the door, armed with his rusty pipe.

Not a moment too soon. The door was wrenched out of its frame and tossed aside. In its place, standing just outside, were two men.

The one responsible for removing the door was a hulking man with massive muscles. His body was littered by scars, and his shaved head was marked by ominous runic tattoos. He took a glance at Gray and the woman before turning to the man beside him and said, "Looks like we found them, Jerm."

"Indeed we have, Rozz."

It was the owner of that smooth, sly voice. The man's appearance didn't betray that impression. Clean-shaven and dressed in an impeccable tuxedo and matching pants, he gave off the aura of a man in complete control of his surroundings.

While the first man was an obvious physical threat, Gray focused on the second man. The reason for that was the fact that the sly man's hand had been kept inside his suit, as if holding something concealed against his chest.

Gray tightened his grip on the metal pipe, honing his attention to a maximum. Wait for an opportunity.

Don't think and act as soon as you can. Forgetting everything but the task at hand. It was something he was familiar with. While his life was on the line at this point... or perhaps because his life was on the line, his mind had somehow become extremely clear.

Jerm, the man with the smooth voice, cast his gaze upon Gray. It was just for a moment, but it was enough to make Gray feel dread. An instinctive reaction, as if the man could kill him with a thought. Was it the aura of a true villain, or something else?

But the gaze didn't linger long enough on Gray for him to find out. Instead, Jerm turned his attention to the woman behind Gray and said, "...It looks like you have no intention of obediently going back to being a toy, do you?"

A toy?

The woman was silent, but made her intentions clear by moving to Gray's side.

The act made cold sweat appear on Gray's back.

In any other situation, having a beautiful woman so close by would have been great. At the current time, however, all he could do was curse her in his mind. Dammit, woman! Read the mood!

Jerm obviously had a gun beneath his shirt, and the guy beside him, Rozz, was more muscle-bound than Arnold Schwarzenegger in the superstar's heyday.

Provoking the bad guys when Gray was the only one standing between them and the woman... should he be flattered that the woman thought so much of him or irritated that common sense seemed to have completely gone out of the woman's head?

Jerm slowly shook his head and muttered, "That slave trader, selling me a defective product..."

Hearing that caused Gray to freeze. These guys... Gray had the impression he had been caught up in a dangerous situation, but hearing the man actually say that made everything tangible. A sort of weight that hadn't been present when Gray was only suspecting it.

After those words, the atmosphere in the room changed. Gray tensed, ready to move at a moment's notice.

"Well, I guess I don't need you anymore."

Throwaway words. Jerm spoke and then moved. It was faster than Gray could even perceive. One moment, the man's hand was hidden beneath his suit and the next it was outstretched.

A loud BANG followed by a flash of light.

-Was it because they didn't consider him a threat? Or because the woman was more of a liability? Either way, Jerm hadn't attacked Gray, aiming only at the woman beside him.

"What-?" Jerm looked confused. That other man, Rozz, looked just as befuddled by what happened.

Gray didn't know why, but he didn't miss the opportunity presented to him. His vision was slightly blurred from the flash, but he dashed forward, wildly swinging the pipe at the Jerm's head. After knocking him out, Gray could grab the gun and shoot down the big guy.

That was his plan, but...

The pipe connected with Jerm's head. It shattered from the impact. That was to be expected since it was rusted. But the fact that it felt like Gray had hit an iron wall and Jerm didn't stagger in the least was wasn't.

Gray blinked, wondering if he was seeing things. In the next moment, he felt a sudden pain in his chest and was sent flying back. He landed on his backpack, his notebook digging into him for the second time that day.

Winded, Gray couldn't move even if he wanted to. Thankfully, it seemed like it wasn't the big guy that had hit him, otherwise he would have ended up as more than winded.

"...Not quite as planned, but it's of no consequence. Rozz."

"Got it."

Gray struggled to get up. It was dangerous to lie there, even if he had been winded. He fought through the pain and looked up.

The muscle-bound man walked forward, casually lifting a bookshelf up in his right hand. The books on the shelf spilled onto the floor in a cascade.

Gray's stomach dropped. That's... are these guys even human?

The shelf wasn't a small one, and was at least as tall as Gray. While the books had fallen off of it, it shouldn't be so light that it could be lifted by one hand, even by a man as muscle-bound as that guy.

But before he could think too much about it, something else caught his eye.

The woman was standing in front of Gray.

He couldn't see her expression since her back was facing him. Was it guilt? Fear? Anger? Either way, she faced off against the muscle-bound man.

It looked like the time for words had long passed.

Rozz stepped forward and raised the shelf.

Seeing that, Gray closed his eyes, not willing to see the woman be killed in front of him.

There was a loud crash, and then blood and gore splashed against the floor.