Toshi, Ichikawa and Kingo were standing on the underground subway platform.

The walk down here was uneventful and they found themselves standing around waiting for the next train. They had apparently just missed the last one and had a bit of time to kill. They all went in the same direction, so there wasn't really any need to break up, but the awkward silence was getting out of hand. Ichikawa was standing in between Toshi and Kingo. She had hoped to avoid dealing with the growing tension by looking at her cell phone. The two of them just stood on either side of her, occasionally looking at one another.

She wasn't the only one feeling a bit of pressure.

Right next to them was a couple, a man and a woman in their mid thirties, to be specific. The woman was, in the eyes of the man apparently, responsible for them arriving a few seconds too late to make the last train. The man was letting the woman know, in no uncertain terms, exactly what a complete piece of shit she was for taking too much time getting her stuff together before they left.

Toshi had a bit of sympathy for the woman. She had adopted an expression of resignation to her fate. She just nodded along and said, "Yes, dear." and "No, Dear." and "I'm sorry, Dear." Toshi only had a passing interest in this escalating problem, but out of the corner of his eye he noticed that Kingo took a much greater interest in the altercation.

Toshi frowned as he focused on Kingo who was now focused solely on the couple that was standing next to them. As the next train started to arrive, the woman made the mistake of rolling her eyes and saying, "It appears there was another train available, after all, DEAR." Just as he said this, the train had pulled up. Ichikawa looked up from her phone at the train and turned to say something to Kingo.

At that exact moment, the man slapped the woman across the face.

Kingo's eyes grew to the size of dinner plates.

Then the man backhanded her and followed up with another slap.

Toshi then made a mistake. He paused to look around to confirm that what he thought was going on was actually as common as he thought it would be. Most people in the area were ignoring the altercation. If anything, they all seemed embarrassed for the woman. Nobody really cared she was getting yelled at, much less that she was being slapped. To be specific, the number of people who cared she just took a public beating was exactly one.

Kingo.

If Toshi had just assumed his theory was correct, instead of confirming it, he would have had plenty of time to stop Kingo from grabbing the man by the collar to hold him still while he punched him in the face. As it stood, Toshi and Ichikawa only had a mere second to gape in horror as Kingo belted the man so hard he staggered backwards and fell flat on his ass. Everyone could see the man's eyes rolling around in his head like marbles. Well, almost everyone.

The woman responded to Kingo's white knighting on her behalf by punching him in the face.

Kingo was less affected by the punch and more stunned by the fact this woman was attacking him AT ALL. She interposed herself in-between the man on the ground and Kingo. She held up two fists and took up a defensive stance, "Get away from my husband, you bastard!"

Kingo blinked as he held a hand to his cheek where she landed a blow, "HE HIT YOU!" His tone was less of an explanation and more of an accusation. However, no witty dialog was revealed as Toshi grabbed Kingo and Ichikawa's hands and pointedly dragged both of them through the open automatic doors and hopped onto the train.

People gathered around the couple as the wife knelt by her husband, obviously filled with great concern for his condition. The man was starting to cry as he sat there, holding his nose from which blood was gushing forth. The last snippet of conversation the trio heard as the automatic doors closed behind them was the man sobbing about how none of this would have happened if they had just left on time…

And it was all…

Her…

Fault.

"What the fuck was that?"

Kingo stared out the window as the train pulled away. He glanced back at Toshi, "Yeah! I know! Right?"

Toshi smacked his forehead, "Not them!" He stabbed a finger at Kingo, "YOU!!!"

Kingo looked boggled, "Me? What about me?"

Ichikawa motioned for both of them to keep their voice down, "Quiet!" She glanced about. They had drawn some attention, but nobody really looked like they wanted to get involved. She stepped in closer and spoke in a conspiring tone, "Kingo, you can’t do that here!"

Kingo rubbed his temples as if he was getting a headache. He was about to speak when Toshi cut him off, "Look. Imagine you are out on date with Naora. She gets ticked off and slaps you across the face, then my sister comes along and cold cocks her. Who would you be angry with; Naora or my sister?"

Kingo opened his mouth to speak, but then suddenly closed it as he looked thoughtful.

Ichikawa nodded, "I suspect if I was to punch Naora out cold for slapping you, you'd step up just like that woman did."

Both Toshi and Kingo stared at Ichikawa and stared HARD. Several seconds went by before they both burst out laughing! They snorted and chuckled for several seconds before Toshi stopped dead and asked, "Wait. Are you serious?"

Kingo blinked and then held up a finger, "Hold on. Let me laugh harder." then proceeded to do exactly that.

Ichikawa narrowed her eyes at the two men next to here that were having a laugh at her expense. In her old life, she was used to the fact you had to deal out a little pain now and again to maintain other people's respect. So she made a quarter turn as she brought her heel up about half a foot and then down on Kingo's toes.

"YOUCH!" Kingo exclaimed loudly. He stopped laughing as he gritted his teeth in pain and glared at her.

Ichikawa followed up with a solid punch to the upper part of Toshi's right arm.

Toshi stopped snickering as well as he grabbed his arm and let out a short, "Ow! What was that for?" He started rubbing where he was punched as he half turned away to present a reduced cross section for taking punches.

Ichikawa snorted, "You had it coming for a number of reasons!" She folded her arms and lifted her head up while closing her eyes in a way that portrayed utter contempt. This wasn't the smartest choice. Toshi eyes were originally focused on Ichikawa, but he very quickly looked past her to the rest of the passengers.

Every single woman in the entire car was staring at them.

And every one of them had the same murderous look as Kingo had not five minutes before.