Chapter 144 - Gustav's Worry It was a beautiful and slim girl with an oval face shape. She wore a fancy pink gown sporting dark red hair and blue pop socks. Her eyes looked extremely lively and she seemed overjoyed to see Gustav. Gustav didn’t need to be told before he knew that she was the celebrant. "Yes I am," Gustav replied with a light smile. "Ah," Her eyes shimmered even more after hearing his reply. "I’m glad to finally meet you, grandpa has told me so much about you," She voiced out with a look of excitement. "Nice to meet you too, Mara," Gustav replied. He remembered her name from when boss Danzo mentioned it earlier. "Come on let’s talk over there," Mara said with a delightful voice and dragged Gustav towards one of the sofas. -- Two hours later Gustav was returning home. His mind couldn’t help but wander back to Mara’s birthday celebration. Mara was really the jovial type. She couldn’t stop talking and making fun of lots of things. She mentioned some of Gustav’s funny and embarrassing past experiences with boss Danzo and also how Gustav had to cook for her one of these days. Mara really liked eating like Gustav but unlike him, she didn’t have the talent for cooking so she focused on something else. She asked Gustav lots of questions about himself. He answered some and ignored some but she didn’t pry too much even when he answered. Gustav felt she was a bit similar to Angy but Angy was more of a nice girl that couldn’t make fun of anyone while Mara wouldn’t hesitate to make fun of a lot of things. He remembered she shoved a large palm-sized portion of cake into his mouth forcefully. She was very playful also. Gustav couldn’t deny that he had a wonderful time with Boss Danzo and Mara but he was still worried about boss Danzo because of what happened today. He really hoped that boss Danzo would be okay. Gustav got back to his apartment around six pm. His plan earlier was to get home by four pm so he would infiltrate the border once again, but he couldn’t disappoint boss Danzo so he had to push that aside. Now that it was six pm, he could only spend about an hour within the border before it was time for the night patrol. He started hesitating on whether he should still go or not since he couldn’t tell whether he’d be holed up in there for more than an hour or not. Gustav was still contemplating while sitting on his bed when he heard a knock on the door. Trrooiinn! Rays of light shot out from the ceiling, forming a holographic projection in which a beautiful girl with two horns on her forehead was displayed. This was one of the functions Gustav added after when he upgraded the security protocols in his apartment. "Hmm, Angy’s early," Gustav muttered as he stood up and walked out of his room. He got to his living room and walked towards the door to open it. "Hey, Gustav," Angy voiced out immediately she saw Gustav’s face. "Hey Angy, is something the matter?" Gustav greeted and asked. "Hmm, no nothing is wrong, we’re supposed to meet today," Angy said to Gustav with a reminding tone. "Yes I know but it’s still really early, we’re not supposed to meet until an hour later," Gustav answered. "Uhm, I thought you had something to show me, that’s why... But I’ll leave if I’m disturbing you," Angy said while turning around to leave after noticing that Gustav didn’t seem to be in a receiving mood. "Hold on," Gustav said while walking out of his apartment. "Follow me," He added while walking down the corridor. Angy stared at him with a curious look while following behind. - Some minutes later, they arrived in the sparse forest region before Gustav came to a stop. "Angy," Gustav called out while his back was still turned towards her. "Yes, Gustav?" Angy replied. Swwoosshh! Gustav suddenly turned around and dashed towards Angy while swinging his fist at her. Angy was shocked and reacted by moving a step backward while turning her face towards the side and closing her eyes. Fwooom! Gustav’s fist stopped inches away from her face causing her to feel a slight touch of breeze on her cheek. She slowly opened her eyes after noticing that no contact was made. "Why didn’t you dodge?" Gustav asked while still hanging his right fist in the air. "Well... I... There’s..." Angy stuttered as she tried to find an answer. "Angy... You saw my fist approaching right?" Gustav asked. Although there was no reply, the answer was already obvious from the look on Angy’s face. Angy was currently faster than Gustav so she definitely saw the attack coming but didn’t counter or try to dodge. "I want you to remember how you felt when that captain was beating you up," Gustav stated. Angy’s mind immediately went back to the exchange event and her face shone pain as images appeared in her mind. She had truly gone through a traumatic experience at the hands of Zim and it was something she didn’t want to experience again. "If that experience was a truly painful one for you, I want you to remember it anytime someone tries to attack you and let your body respond in the way it wants to," Gustav said before throwing out his fist again. Zwweeiiii! This time his fist went towards her belly area with force. Images appeared in her mind again reminding her of the way Zim’s palm slammed those stones into her body. Gustav had purposely targeted one of the spots. "No!!!" Angy voiced out as she swerved towards the left and pushed out both her palms to strike Gustav on his right side of his chest. Bam! Gustav slid thirteen feet backward after her palm made contact with his chest. Sshhhsssh! A trail of dust was formed due to that. "Ah," Angy voiced out in shock as she retracted her arms. "Gustav, I’m sor..." She was about to speak when Gustav interrupted her. "Hmm, good job," Gustav said while straightening his body. He started walking towards her. "Uh?" Angy voiced out in surprise. She had used her full speed to dodge Gustav’s attack and responded with an attack of her own but Gustav was hardly fazed moreover, he replied with, ’Good job,’