When the police had arrived, they could see bits of bone through holes in Hiro's mangled body. Bunta's parents were devastated and furious.
To their surprise, a man, and woman had come out of that house and had an interview with the police. They were in there the whole time but pretended they were unaware.
The Itachi couple apologized but Bunta could tell they didn't mean it.
For all he knew, they were watching the show.
The couple had offered a 100k compensation to keep their mouths shut but they refused.
They took the Itachi family to court with a lawyer they had spent most of their savings on. It ended quickly and smoothly.
The Itachi family was not guilty. It wasn't hard to figure. They were rich.
The luxurious house of theirs was across the street from his house. They had the best lawyers. Who knows how many people they had in their pocket. Perhaps the whole panel of judges.
The defense claimed that the dogs were defending the house from intruders, and they naturally weren't trained to discern the age, threat level, and intention of intruders to determine the correct course of action.
So, unfortunately, it was not their responsibility that a little boy had provoked them by jumping over the fence.
Bunta only realized later that the dog was acting friendly to lure his brother in. These dogs weren't being territorial or protective. They were a pair of hunters, who lured their prey.
Grief broke Bunta's family. Since they couldn't vent their frustrations on the Itachi family, the parents took it out on their only son.
They blamed him for leaving the house, letting Hiro cross the fence, and not jumping in to save him.
Soon after that, Bunta found out that he had a phobia of dogs. So when he planned revenge a couple of months ago, he found it difficult to even see a photo of a dog.
The therapist he had in the first year when his family could still afford the sessions, had treated him with a wide range of techniques in cognitive therapy and exposure therapy.
His make-shift image training was based on exposure therapy. He used the same photo which he had taken with Hiro, cropped his brother out, and printed it then sticky-taped it to the cardboard.
Seeing blood would also trigger panic attacks.
He also confronted other dogs on the street to build his confidence.
***
Now he had the chance to avenge his brother's death. He didn't mind dying, but it would be a waste if he couldn't ensure the two dogs' death. Since Elijah was fighting against the dogs, this made his plans likely to succeed.
Bunta walked dizzily from his bedroom to his front door. He fell to the ground after walking a flight of stairs. He puked.
An eyeball rolled across the concrete and settled. He recognized the black eye that stared at him.
He looked up and saw a pale face staring back at him from a couple of meters away. It had one empty eye socket.
Bunta cast his eyes down to avoid looking at his dead brother.
"Why did you leave me?" The ghost spoke without opening its mouth.
Bunta could hear the voice in his head.
"I didn't…"
"Why didn't you save me?"
"… I was a coward."
A moment of silence passed.
"Say it."
"…"
"… No."
When Bunta lifted his chin, Hiro who was further away was now standing face to face with him. Black blood trickled down from Hiro's eye and his empty socket.
"Say it." The ghost said menacingly.
"I can't…"
It wanted him to self-destruct, to remind himself of how pathetic he was.
Bunta stood up and stared down at the apparition.
"Because I don't want to be a coward anymore. I want to save you… To be your hero."
"…"
"You're not a hero."
Bunta closed his eyes. The figure of Elijah crossed his mind.
"I can become one."
When he opened his eyes, there was nothing in front of him…
Bunta rushed to where Elijah was. There were two dead dogs on the road in a puddle of their blood.
He looked around and couldn't find the gaijin.
He inspected the blood on the ground and could see bloodied shoe prints.
However, there was no trail. It's as if he disappeared from that spot…
***
The pain Elijah felt wasn't like the feeling of a sharp stab like a knife. It was more like a crab's pincers or thin nutcrackers pulverizing his neck. It was extremely painful.
-25 HP
"Ahhh!"
-1 HP
The beast pinned Elijah down on the ground and so it limited his mobility.
He suffered pain from the knife on his stomach which he laid on. The knife had gone deeper inside when he was shoved to the ground.
Elijah's arms reached to the back of his head and grabbed whoever was on his neck. It surprised him to feel soft hair.
*Growl*
'A dog!'
"Ah!"
Elijah struggled to get it off even with his higher strength because of the pain and the positioning. The amount of force exerted was a fraction of his true strength.
Elijah saw something jump over the fence from across the road. It was another dog, and it was as big as a full-grown Great Dane.
The world's tallest dog in the Guinness World Records is a Great Dane of 1.11 m. This mutant offspring was 1 meter tall. Since Japan has smaller dogs, this was beyond massive in their standards.
Elijah stood up. He then had the proper posture to engage more of his muscle groups.
He gripped hard on the dog. It loosened its jaw because of the pain and Elijah threw it over his back. The dog winced as it smashed into the ground in front of him.
[Threat Level: --]
The larger dog was quick because of its long legs. So fast that it lunged onto his leg from across the street.
[Threat Level: -]
-21 HP
It yanked him off the ground by his thigh. Elijah fell onto his back.
Although it hadn't chomped on a vital spot like the neck, its jaw strength was so powerful it caused that much damage.
It dragged him across the road until the other one clamped down on his neck and then chewed into his face. Elijah screamed in horror when it scooped his left eye out.