You attract trouble, you know? [Solo Job]

"Could you escort me home? I never heard good things about people outside at night. I promise, I will pay you." Soft, melodic voice reached the boy's ears. The redhead looked again at the girl who stopped him a moment ago. Apparently, she was out partying with her friends and lost track of time. Really, Zesh didn't have anything against escorting her for free. Firstly, she was a beautiful young girl who would owe him a favor if he escorted her. And he loved to tease teenagers and young adults. They had best reactions. Secondly, streets at night were indeed dangerous. Redhead often meets thugs in the dark alleys. Beauty of the girl he was supposed to escort would attract trouble. There was no doubt about it.

"Sure. Beauty like you would be kidnapped by thugs, and we don't want that, do we? What's your name? I'm Zeshin." Redhead asked with a smile and held out his hand for a handshake. The girl sighed in relief and with a warm smile, shook his hand. For his words, Zeshin would give himself 7/10 points. After all, she didn't meltdown or anything.

"I'm Dia. Nice to meet you, mister." She said, and the boy felt like someone pierced his heart.
"Mister? Hey, hey, I'm not that old." He pouted and girl giggled at his words, apparently considering it funny. It wasn't for him. With a sigh, he continued "Right. Where do you live?"

Dia pointed in one direction, and with that, they started walking towards girl's home. Honestly, she was quite polite and nice. Definitely good children type. Her parents must be proud of her. Many people her age, including Zesh, love to party and get drunk. It wasn't exactly good lifestyle, but hey... everyone is different. They walked a few minutes, engaging in casual talk. However, just as Zesh predicted, the beauty of Dia was trouble magnet.

"Well, well... what do we have there?" Zeshin instantly pulled the girl's hand and stood in front of her, separating her from a band of thugs. At least, that's what trio who came out of the dark alley looked like. They were grinning sharply, showing off their rotting teeth. In their eyes could be seen lust, which was typical for these kind of guys. Their age wasn't that different from Zesh's or Dia's. "Would you be kind enough to stay out of our way, redhead? We will even let you have some fun with her."

These words didn't get any reaction out of young mage, but he could feel that girl behind him was shaking a little. Honestly, he wasn't surprised. In her mind, these thugs must be dangerous and strong enough to beat Zesh. "Don't worry. Weaklings like them won't be a trouble for me." He whispered and squeezed her hand lightly, hoping it would help her calm down. It did. "Stay behind me."

With these words, Zesh stepped forward and looked in more detail at his enemies. One of them - the one responsible for talking - had a baseball bat in one hand, the other had a knife, and the third didn't have anything. They also looked like they were typical skeletons without muscles. This excluded the possibility that they were trained magicians. It was fortunate. It meant Zesh wouldn't have to use his magic or 'Berserker' state.

"Sorry, but I have to decline." He said and with quick dash, closed the distance between thug with bat and him. Thug with bat apparently didn't though that Zesh will attack him so soon. His problem. What followed was quick, upper palm strike in the jaw and powerful front kick in the chest, which send him flying backwards. Well, he was quite light so it wasn't really shocking. Seeing what happened to their friend, the thug with a knife jumped at him and tried to stab him. It didn't work. The redhead quickly grabbed his wrist before knife reached him, and broke it - with a small smile on his face. Rascal shouted in pain, grabbed his broken wrist and forgot about his opponent. Of course, it was the wrong choice. Quick spin kick to the head later, he was lying unconscious on the floor. The last enemy seeing what happened to his friends, quickly tried to run away. Zesh grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and threw him backwards. After that, he stomped on guy's stomach to keep him from moving too soon. Zesh still had to give them to police. Unfortunately, Redhead forgotten that he didn't knock out his first opponent. That was his mistake. Thug with bat hit him with it in the back, which had to hurt quite a lot. Zesh clenched his teeth, turned, grabbed a baseball bat with his hand, snatched it from rascal hand and hit him with a bat handle over his head. Guy A instantly went into unconscious bliss. At least he wasn't dead "That wasn't nice."

"Zesh, are you fine?!" Dia instantly appeared near him and looked at him with concern, and began searching with her hands for some wounds. Seriously, he got hit once and it wasn't that powerful to be life threatening. Though his back will hurt him for a few days, without a doubt.

"Well, while I'm more than fine, I certainly don't mind your hands on me." He teased with a large grin, and the girl became tomato from embarrassment. At least for a while, because she hit him over his head for that joke and huffed. Apparently, even she had some claws. "You know, I'm a mage who specializes in close-combat. I learned a few martial arts, so dealing with lowly thugs from the streets isn't that hard. Seriously, all you need is technique and healthy body to deal with them."

After quite lenghty explanation why she shouldn't worry about him, he knocked out last thug and dragged them behind him, while escorting a girl to her house. At the first police station, he left them, knowing that they won't be able to attack another girl. After that, no one tried to attack Zesh and Dia. They spend their time chatting together, with mage mainly teasing and girl having mixed reactions to it. She for sure wasn't used to Zeshin kind of personality.

"Thanks for the escort. Jewels for your efforts. Don't even dare to give them back. You deserved them." She said when they stopped in front of her house. For a while she was struggling with something internally, but then with a red face, Dia kissed him on the cheek. "Visit me sometimes, okay?" Dia added with red face, and before he could anwser, ran into the house.

Zesh laughed softly with embarrassment, and shouted "For sure!" Not seeing point in staring at the closed doors, he turned around and began to walk away. He forgot why he was in Clover because of this journey. Now, he began his hunt for some dango.