8 8 - Baseball Man

[Author here. I just want to say, this isn't the end of the story!]

[...And thank you so much for 200+ collections!!! This fanfic got more collections in two days than what the original novel got in 4 months... Insane.]

[I HOPE YOU ENJOY!]

AT HIROKI'S HOME...

"Jeez... That kid is late, and he doesn't answer his phone," Kaede, Hiroki's mother, muttered, glancing at the time.

"He's making me worry like this..." she sighed.

'Honey, you're still watching over him, right?' she thought, gazing at the picture of her late husband.

But just as she tried to relax, the frame suddenly cracked.

"Honey...!?" she called, startled.

"Hiroki, please come back soon," she whispered, clutching her chest in worry.

BACK AT SCHOOL...

'I'm not sure how I'm still conscious,' Yuuto thought as he made his way to his bag. 'My feet are numb. Considering I was already beaten up today, this weakness... anemia. I probably have internal injuries since I can't stop coughing up blood.'

His breath was ragged, obstructed by blood in his airways and throat, heavy and labored with each small movement. 'I'm practically in critical condition. Hiroki's weak body isn't built to take this much of a beating,' he reflected, reaching his bag and struggling to crouch down.

He unzipped the bag, briefly glancing at the seniors he'd defeated earlier.

'...Good thing they're just dumb seniors playing gangsters. With these injuries, they won't dare fight back again, being the brats that they are. It would have been a different story if they were adults, hell-bent on killing me... Even with those injuries I gave them, a grown up fighter have charged right at me... I lucked out,' he thought, clicking his tongue in frustration.

The screams and howls of the pained students he had taken down earlier faded into the background as they writhed in agony on the ground.

'If I fall here, I'll lose everything, just like that pathetic Hiroki did. This will probably end just like in the manga. That veiny turd is as good as new with his sturdy body, while I'm barely hanging on.'

He coughed up more blood as Nao, Rise, and the male student watched, holding their breath.

'But you know what? This is still the best day ever,' he thought, gripping the handle inside the bag.

'Because...' He pulled a wooden baseball bat out of the bag, rising to a standing position.

"Because cough I'm Yuuto Sakurai.... And I'm the Anti-NTR Man....! And I get to baseball an ugly bastard in another world...!!" he declared to himself, his voice raspy and unclear as he brazenly pointed the bat at the towering transfer student with a big smile on Yuuto's face. The setting sun highlighting his features at it rested just above his shoulder.

'There's... There's no way... This guy's actually Hiroki...!' Nao mused to herself, her eyes playing tricks on her as she briefly saw someone else's image where the golden-haired boy stood, wielding the baseball bat.

"Not fair... That's cheating," the transfer student mocked.

"I'm cough sorry, but that's the richest thing you've... cough said. You sure you want these to be your last words?" Yuuto taunted, coughing up blood with every breath as he smiled widely.

'Stop it. Why are you risking your life for this? Why aren't you cowering like the wimp you are?' Nao thought, clutching her chest, her confusion mounting with frustration. 'Stop fighting. You can't win! You'll... you'll really die this time!'

"Hey, slut," Yuuto interrupted, his voice breaking into her thoughts and startling her.

"Why do you look like you're grieving? Save it for... cough... yourself... once I'm done with this bastard," Yuuto muttered with steady eyes and an unsettling calmness.

'How? How can you look like that? How do you still have those eyes? Who are you!!?' Nao wondered, speechless, her mind struggling to piece together his unfaltering confidence.

"You... cough... act like you care about what's happening to this body, given who you are. Disgusting. Well... I'll give you that; Hiroki cough had a bigger pussy than yours... and he was more of a bastard than you, veiny turd... he just cough lacked the build and confidence."

"W-what... What are you...?" Nao stammered, baffled by Yuuto's words as she tried to discern their meaning.

Meanwhile, the transfer student merely chuckled, his gaze twisted with a leer as he thought of Nao's bare body and Hiroki's family.

"Pfft... I'll think about this after I fuck your mom and sister on your tombstone. Since that baseball bat of yours is too weak to do anything to me..." the transfer student sneered, licking his lips as he strode toward the battered Yuuto.

"Hey, veiny turd," Yuuto called, tilting his head.

"I've been cough meaning to ask... but what's up with you licking your damn cough lips all the time? From a cannibal tribe? Hungry after seeing my blood or something?" Yuuto taunted, smirking.

"You bastard!" The transfer student rushed at him in full force, his eyes wide with intensity, appearing like a rolling boulder as he charged Yuuto.

Yuuto closed his eyes, inhaling deeply and coughing up more blood before exhaling.

'He's... Hiroki's... dead...' Nao thought, instinctively looking away.

Yuuto's eyes flew open wide, and the transfer student was an inch away from planting his massive fist into Yuuto's face.

[BACKGROUND MUSIC: Maga - Animality (TikTok Remix)]

'KNEE.'

Yuuto ducked, disappearing from the transfer student's view.

"What the...?!" The transfer student shouted as intense pain suddenly flared in his kneecap.

"ARRGH!" A bone snapped as Yuuto struck with his baseball bat, then swiftly rolling to get behind the transfer student.

'ANKLE.'

Yuuto then stood up and swung his baseball bat downward hard against the transfer student's ankle.

Another cracking sound echoed. Of both the transfer student's bones, and the wooden baseball-bat beginning to crack.

"GRRRRUUUAAA!" He screamed as the bones in his ankle cracked and punctured blood vessels.

"N-no way... This... This is... This isn't really... happening... Right?" Rise murmured, falling back in disbelief at the sight of the colossal transfer student being brought to the ground.

"I...Ah.." Nao muttered, unable to believe her eyes.

'LOWER BACK.' 

Yuuto drove his baseball-bat's handle at the transfer student's lower back as hard as he could, snapping it.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAEHHHHHHHHHHKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK.....!!!" The transfer student shrieked, losing all sensation in his legs and lower torso.

The transfer student, in a rush of panic, swung his fist backward, hoping to hit Yuuto. Yuuto dodged, moving out of range - then catching the transfer's frantically thrown fist when it reached the end of its trajectory, keeping it stretched with one hand.

'SHOULDER.'

Yuuto brought the baseball bat's handle down on the transfer student's hyperextended shoulder, easily snapping it.

"GRRRRAAAAAHHH!" He howled in agony. Yuuto then rolled to the front of the transfer student.

'CHIN!'

He swung the strained and cracked wooden bat upwards, striking the transfer student's chin and sending him flying backward as the baseball bat shattered. Blood and wood chips sprayed into the sky as the transfer student tumbled back, yet he still refused to fall. He glared intensely at Yuuto, using all his remaining strength to close in on him with a primal roar.

"RUUAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" he howled, using his good arm to latch onto Yuuto's throat.

'GOT YOU... I'LL CRUSH YOUR FUCKING NECK!'

Yuuto smirked.

'And lastly...!' he thought, fueled by euphoria.

His malicious grin widened as the transfer student applied pressure to his neck.

But as Yuuto felt the pressure building, he drove the broken end of the bat into the student's groin with all his remaining might.

'CASTRATION SERVICES, FREE OF CHARGE, FUCKBOY!!!!' Yuuto thought as the jagged wood pierced the flesh and blood vessels in the transfer student's manhood and family jewels.

"OOH...." The transfer student gasped, losing consciousness instantly. His grip on Yuuto's neck loosened, and Yuuto stared into his eyes as the student succumbed to shock.

As he felt the transfer student start to collapse, Yuuto stepped aside, leaving the broken bat embedded in his groin while blood began to trickle down. His entire body weight pressing on it as he lay defeated on his stomach, the broken baseball bat was sandwiched between the ground and his groin, keeping the transfer student's bottom in the air.

"Ho... Holy... S-shit... H-he... This guy... Actually... He really..." Rise murmured, unable to finish a sentence as she stared at the unbelievable sight: the tiny Yuuto towering over the boulder-sized transfer student.

"Haaah... Haaa!" Rise's male friend gasped, fear consuming him as he shivered.

"Hiro... Ki... Y-you... Ah..." Nao stuttered. Her reasons for siding with the transfer student, her prejudices... all vanished like dust in the wind.

'You... Really... Changed... Are you even... Hiroki?' Nao thought, bewildered, as she watched, frozen in place.

Somewhere, out of sight and out of mind, someone was watching the scene unfold from beginning to end. They didn't move a muscle, following every move...

???: "Hoo...? There was someone this interesting around here...?"

TO BE CONTINUED...