The dropkick from another world

As soon as Amélie pulled her rapier out, the other patrons had rushed outside in a panic while a curious crowd of onlookers steadily gathered on the square. Now it was just us three. The cats had all found refuge in the employee-only area of the basement. The bartender, who had been hiding behind the counter, also successfully made a run for it and was now looking at his precious cafe from outside with his hands in his hair.

“Look what you’ve done to this lovely place, accursed witch. It’s in shambles now!” Amélie yelled.

Chiyo shouted back from the safe confines of the second floor.

“You made this mess, did all that sugar rot your brain or something? We were just enjoying a fun afternoon when you had to come in and ruin everything!”

Amélie got even angrier. “You’ve ruined my afternoon as well, haven’t you thought about that? Now come down here so I can bring you to justice!”

It looked like I’d already been forgotten about. This was starting to become a running theme. Chiyo came up to the railing of the mezzanine and hung over it to shout back at Amélie.

“Who the hell do you think you are, ruining our day off like that? Get out!”

The cups and glassware in the cupboard behind the counter started trembling at these words. One by one they flew at the witch hunter at high speeds. She seemed to consider dodging for a split second, but then she started deflecting each and every one of them with stunning agility. This wasn’t going to work. I also needed to step in and do my part.

I rose from behind the counter with Serpens unsheathed and came face to face with her. That feeling of her being in another league only grew stronger, but I tried to suppress it for now. My mind was racing to find a way out as a sense of panic started to well up, just like in the fight with Verus. But this time the adversary wouldn’t be dealt with that easily. 

While she was still distracted by Chiyo shouting obscenities at her, I started circling Amélie with a raised sword. I thought I saw an opening, so I lunged forward to cut her. In an instant her eyes shifted to me and she elegantly parried my sword with her thin blade. I could see the anger in her eyes over having her gluttonous dessert buffet be interrupted. Then came a counterattack in which she put all her emotions.

It appeared to be simple thrust at first, which I dodged. Then came the pain. I had instinctively jumped aside as soon as she parried Serpens, which meant that her counterattack missed me by only a hair’s breadth. But the ensuing blast that shot out of the rapier hit me hard in the side. It knocked the wind out of me and I fell to the floor with a hoarse gasp. I once again hit my head on the floor, this time even harder from being knocked over by the blast.

Amélie came to stand over my body with her rapier pointed at my throat.

“Don’t interfere any further if you want to keep your life. This is your only warning.”

I couldn’t see clearly anymore. The whole room spun around me as dark spots filled with flickering stars appeared in my vision. My mind went hazy.

But I didn’t doubt Chiyo's ability to get us out of this situation, not even for a moment. I thought back to the promise we made, that memory took center stage.

“I care about you.”

“Let’s have a lot of great adventures from now on, together.”

I wanted to see more places with Chiyo, help her find a way back home. I wanted to learn more about her, and I wasn’t about to let some witch hunter stand in the way of that. Even if I was slain, Chiyo would be the one to make it out of here. I clenched my fist as I gathered my resolve.

“Go to hell.” I spat at the hunter as I mustered a grin.

“You’ll be the one burning in hell, fool.”

Amélie raised her rapier to deliver a killing blow, but she had been too focused on me. In other words, she didn’t have her eye on Chiyo anymore. A sudden voice rang out from above her.

“SOMERSAULTING…BALLISTIC MISSILE…DROPKICK!”

Much like how she manipulated the acceleration on the cups earlier, Chiyo now accelerated her own body to an unnaturally fast speed as she jumped with a somersault from the second floor. With overwhelming velocity she aimed her feet at the witch hunter’s head and crashed down onto her. Amélie barely had the time to react, she’d only turned around halfway before a pair of feet hit her square on the head.

Chiyo fell to the ground, hitting me on my already wounded stomach in the process, while Amélie stumbled backwards. She held her head in her hands with a groan. A normal person would’ve been incapacitated or even killed by such a powerful strike, but she was still standing. The last thing I saw was a face contorted in anger with blood dripping from its nose. Then I blinked and I was on the square in front of the coffee house, with Chiyo lying on top of me.

A sizeable crowd had already gathered to see what the commotion was about, and us appearing out of nowhere caused them quite a shock. A murmur went through the crowd as everyone fearfully scrambled to get away from us. We needed to move quicky, as reinforcements could arrive at any moment. 

Right as I was thinking that, the front gate of the Inquisition Headquarters opened and a number of armed soldiers came streaming out.

There was no time. Despite the injuries to my abdomen and head I rolled Chiyo off of me and got up. She also quickly got on her feet and we started running. She didn’t sustain any injuries apart from some bruises, luckily enough.

Amélie already came storming out of the coffee house and started pushing through the crowd. She wasn’t going to let us off the hook that easily. With the old town behind our back, we came to a canal that lined the fourth side of the square.

There were two bridges spanning the canal that connected to the square. One on the side of the coffee house, which was blocked by a gathering of onlookers, and one next to the Inquisition building, which was blocked by soldiers. We went with the first option by diving into the confused crowd and running up to the bridge. The sweets-loving witch hunter was still hot on our trail.

As we were crossing the bridge I thought of where to go next. Then I remembered Aldo. I fished the crumpled piece of paper containing the address he’d given us out of my pocket. When I was in my father’s workshop, I had studied the map that hung from one of the walls for a bit to figure out where the note would lead us. It also meant that I had a good mental image of Indestria.

We dove into an alleyway beyond the bridge and kept taking sharp turns to try lose our pursuers whilst running in the approximate direction of the address we needed to be at. Houses, marketplaces, and parks flew by as we heard running footsteps behind us. Or was it the echo of our own feet? I couldn't tell. My head hurt and I felt like throwing up.

Chiyo, noticing that I had been injured and was falling behind, extended her hand to me.

"I'll drag you along if I have to, keep going!"

I happily took her hand but there was no energizing effect like the previous times. Chiyo must've been too exhausted to have any vitality left to share. Though, running through the streets while holding hands and trying to shake of pursuers was also fun in a way. Am I crazy for thinking that?

With our pursuers having either lost our trail or fallen hopelessly behind, we reached our destination. Hoping that we would be let in, Chiyo and I started desperately banging on the door. A gate on the opposite side of the street immediately swung open and a man beckoned us inside. It was Aldo.

“You sure kept me waiting!”, he commented with a grin, “Get in here, it’s time for you to get some answers.”