To Bunta's surprise, the gaijin spoke perfect Japanese. Even better than anyone he had ever heard talking in his entire life.
He had never known that level of pronunciation was even possible. What made it more confusing was that the guy looked like he came from overseas, so how could he have learned Japanese better than a native speaker?
"Then I want you to apologize to me." The gaijin said.
"Why should I?" Hachi scoffed.
"Or else."
It stunned Bunta.
'Maybe he doesn't know what he's talking about.'
Bunta figured that the gaijin's pronunciation skills were 10/10 but his understanding of Japanese words and grammar were terrible. After all who would provoke someone bigger than himself!
"Or else WHAT gaijin!" Hachi snapped.
"I'll bash you up," the gaijin said in an uncharacteristically punk voice.
Bunta felt his soul leave the spot.
'So he understands Japanese…'
He had been in the gaijin's shoes before, but he would never dare to say something like that. He would get beat up if he did.
Sure enough, Hachi made a move but in that instant, the gaijin rushed him and knee'd him down.
Hachi actually fell!
He watched the kid get on top of Hachi and throw punches like an enraged monkey.
'He's doing it! He's doing it!'
Bunta sided himself with the kid and cheered him on. The scene was unbelievable.
Bunta believed in karma, and it ran deep in his family. His parents would talk about the stories of "paying it forward". Doing good things when people needed help without expecting it back. Then maybe one day when you really need help, someone will give you a hand.
For example, a person putting money in a church donation-plate and then returning home from the service to discover the money they had forgotten about.
The opposite was true. Do bad to others and one day you have to pay your dues.
His dad told him a tale about someone who mocks elderly people who rely on scooters to get around. That person develops severe arthritis later in life and is bound to a scooter.
Every time Hachi bullied him in middle school, he had counted every one of them and looked forward to when Hachi would suffer from the negative consequences of his actions.
Now he felt some weight off his shoulders, but it didn't last long.
Hachi got up and beat the gaijin to the ground. Every time Hachi kicked the boy was a kick to his dream.
Bunta sighed.
He shouldn't have hoped.
Bunta picked up the mess on the floor and threw it into the bin. Then he took out the garbage since it was full to the outside bins.
He took a peek at the aftermath and was shocked to find the gaijin standing back up.
'Is he going to fight again after losing? Is he crazy!'
Bunta thought he should stop the gaijin before he got himself hospitalized, but Elijah already ran after Hachi.
The same trick wouldn't work twice.
Bunta saw Hachi charging at Elijah as well, but it didn't happen the way he imagined it. Hachi was knocked back. This time Elijah's hits were faster. Hachi went down, and he didn't get back up.
Bunta waited for a moment but Hachi was still down.
He could not believe it.
Then he heard a shout.
He had never met this person but figured out that it was Hachi's older brother. This person was an entire head and neck taller than the gaijin. This was bad.
If he jumped in, they might win against the older brother but if they lost, he would get beat up too.
Worse, they'd bully him at school. Hachi and his friends have already lost interest in Bunta several months ago. He didn't want to go back to that.
"You bastard! How dare you do this to my brutherrr!" Said Hachiro.
Bunta shook his head.
"Sorry, man. I wish you luck."
After watching Elijah get hit in the face several times, he couldn't bear it anymore and was about to leave, but then he noticed Elijah wasn't bruising as much and was holding his ground.
He watched him land a couple of hits into the older brother too.
'He's incredibly tough! How's he doing that?'
After a few backs and forth, it ended up with Elijah savagely beating Hachiro's face like a piñata. The latter couldn't stand up by himself anymore.
Bunta thought that for someone like Elijah's size, he could beat Hachi but not his older brother and immediately after the first fight.
A smaller person can beat a bigger person, but the chances of that are low. The chances of beating two people bigger than one's self are lower.
However, he immediately lost hope when he saw someone climbed out of his truck fiercely.
"Hachi! Hachiro!" Hachirou called out angrily.
"Th-that's their dad?" Bunta blurted.
He was tall and huge. He had a massive skull and a bald head. It looked like he could smash bricks with it.
'Hachiro? They have such similar names.'
Bunta assumed the father named them that because he seemed to lack intelligence. Bunta then wondered if the father's name was ridiculous too.
He didn't think Elijah had a chance at all. This was a demon bigger and stronger than a full-fledged adult. There was no way Elijah could fluke this.
Elijah proved him wrong for the third time. The kid was a beast.
Like Elijah, Bunta thought that the mother was thanking him for saving her from her husband's tyranny, but then he saw a knife sticking out of Elijah's stomach.
He remembered his parents telling him a newspaper story about a victim of domestic violence. In rare cases, they brainwash the victim by gaslighting (manipulation and verbal abuse to turn the victim against their own beliefs and doubt their sanity) and other verbal and physical harassment done to her.
She would give up any idea of saving herself and convince herself that this was what she deserved, or that this is her life and there's nothing she could do to change it.
In even rarer cases, the combination of Stockholm syndrome and coping mechanisms would almost make them fanatical.
They'd be loyal to the abuser, thinking that this was the definition of love. Some submit themselves because they were too afraid of the consequences of rebelling.
This would sometimes lead to the victim committing, abetting, or becoming an accessory to a crime.