7 Chapter 7: New Neighbors

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"Oioioi, that isn't the way to greet your old man now, is it, Baki?", The man said, letting his energy pour out of his body as he asked.

Hearing that, my body tensed up, freezing for a good moment. My lips started to twitch into a grin. But before I could even turn around, the man swiftly reached with his arm, opening his giant palm of a hand.

"Urk...", I replied, feeling my movements come to a complete halt. What replaced it was a giant hand now gripping the entirety of my head, proceeding to lift it up with ease.

The man forcibly turned my body around, letting me get a good look at him.

"...Oyaji.", I said, reluctantly greeting him. "I thought I had vanished from you for good. Just how did you find me?", I squinted my eyes at him.

"Ahhh? Finding traces of others is a cake walk for martial artists like us. You did good leaving no traces behind from that hospital. I figured you'd keel over after that last thrashing I gave you. You even had the guts to move out of my place.", The man said, revealing a grin.

He was probably referring to when Baki was still a kid. There was a kid saga that took him up to being 13 years old. I guess it took me up to sixteen considering the change in the timeline. I should have been thirteen right now, but I'm sixteen. 

"Stop wasting your breath, Oyaji. Just state your business already. I'm going to be late for school as it is.", I retorted.

"Hahaha! You're actually talking back to me. Can your actions prove it though?", The man said, letting his grin become wider.

"Huh?", I tried to ask, but my eyes turned wide the moment I saw this man's fist suddenly swing inward, aiming straight for my chest. I felt a large pain strike into it, causing the wind to get knocked out of me.

"AHHH!", A pained voice escaped from my lips, feeling a heavy impact from the man's fist before. To add to that, my mouth immediately received the taste of iron, letting a large pool of blood splatter out from it, landing onto the floor in front of me.

[-75]

A deep red number appeared over my head.

This pained yell was loud enough for the neighbors to hear it, but some instinctively backed away seeing the giant man before him. 

Unexpectedly, I heard a whistle off to my left.

"Damn. That must've hurt.", A second voice called out from the distance of what appeared to be a white haired man dressed in a high collared dark blue jacket. The odd thing though was that his eyes currently had a black blindfold around his eyes. But he could still see clear as day seeing what just happened.

As for me, I could only relent seeing the giant man still sporting a grin.

"Consider that a housewarming gift, Baki. You'll never be able to run from me. No matter where you run off to, I'll be there to hunt you down, hahaha!", The man bellowed letting out a crazed laugh. He let go of his fist right then and there, causing my body to slump over, letting more blood spill from my mouth.

The giant man crouched downward, and did a leap into the sky, directly landing on a nearby rooftop. With his insane leg power, he began to jump from roof to roof. But before he disappeared, he turned around again.

"Oh right, you should head to the Underground Arena for your own good, Baki. Grow stronger. I'll be waiting.", The man said, before he continued his jumping, vanishing from sight.

The white haired man to my left casually looked my way for a moment before he disregarded me completely, starting to whistle away as he did.

Taking in a deep breath, I tried to regulate the pain that was still spreading inside my body, letting the blood stop flowing to my throat. A large imprint of a fist now appeared on my school uniform.

Great. Just great. The faculty is definitely going to question it.

Still, I couldn't help but look over to the rooftops where that man vanished.

"Yujiro Hanma...", I uttered, as I knew who that man was.

I did indeed vanish from sight the moment the previous Baki's wounds were closed up and healed after getting pummeled by none other than Yujiro during the finale of the kid saga.

Turns out he was able to find my new house location. I won't even bother saying whether it's safe or unsafe, Yujiro likes to go where he pleases. Most times it's at fancy hotels residing at the topmost floor, letting him gaze down at the rest of Tokyo.

I could care less about that though. My HP was insanely low now, so I had to be careful going to school. 

And to think that was just a greeting from him...

I could only shake Yujiro's words off for the moment. But I did have plans to grow stronger. 

"Ano...Are you alright?", A third voice called out to me, appearing to have a worried voice. I blinked my eyes, only to observe the house to the right of me this time. The man that left from the left house I also found surprising, but my current interest lay to the right.

"I'm sorry if you had to witness that. Crazy bitch of a father, am I right?", I said, wiping the blood away from my lips. Sucking in a deep breath, I spat out, letting the remainder of the blood that was still residing in my mouth to fly away, landing on the dirt beside me.

"That was your father!?", The third voice called out in disbelief. As that voice said that, they approached me as I began to walk out into the street. This let me get a good look at the figure.

It was a boy, and seemed to be the same age as me. No. Perhaps a year younger?

"Yeah. I hoped not to see him anytime soon but he still came knocking. I didn't think it would be literally.", I said, welcoming the brown haired boy.

The boy in front of me was a far cry from my appearance. Scrawny. Weak. But also it was clear I could see kindness in his eyes. I immediately recognized him too. To think this boy would turn out to be one of my neighbors...

"I didn't think it was possible for a person to climb over roofs like that, haha. You learn something new every day. I'm Yuuki Rito, by the way.", The boy introduced himself to me. "I was told we're getting a new neighbor, guess that would be you.", Rito continued to say, stretching his hand out.

I responded, and shook his hand, introducing myself as I did.

"Baki. Baki Hanma. I do apologize for my bitch of a dad. I hope that's the last time I'll see him.", I said, shaking Rito's hand.

Rito was the main protagonist of the To-Love Ru series. Guess I'll be seeing plenty of hot girls in the coming days.

Not that I will mind that eye candy, heh.

"Are...you not in a good relationship with your father?", Rito decided to ask, only to look down at his hand after I shook it. I could see his hand a bit scrunched up. He just stared at it. I just did a normal handshake but guess it was too much for Rito.

"I wouldn't call it a bad relationship per se, it's just complicated. Oyaji likes to indulge a lot of what he does, so I doubt he'll come around often.", I said, trying to remain vague on the topic.

At times, Baki would try to invite Yujiro to his home in the coming years to experience a more normal relationship between father-son, even going as far as sharing a cup of tea and meals together. It definitely weirded Yujiro out, but he tried to adapt and failed at it.

Should I try to pursue that?

Thinking that, I observed the brown haired boy in front of me.

The extremely happy-go-lucky pervert who didn't know he was one. A typical dense protagonist who didn't see that several girls liked him. There was one thing that put him aside from other dense protagonists though, was that Rito did like a girl, but oftentimes he would be too shy about it.

And that Rito is my new neighbor, huh?

"Is that so? I also see you're wearing the same uniform as me. I take it you're attending Sainan High. Can I call you Baki-san?", Rito asked me with a smile.

"Go for it. I'll call you Yuuki-kun.", I said with a smile.

"Haha, I didn't think I'd meet a new friend, more so someone like you. It's nice to meet you, Baki-san--?", Rito tried to say, only to get interrupted by a loud voice that was calling out to.

"Get out of the road losers! Stop blocking the road!", A hurried voice came in at a fast pace. Rito and I saw what appeared to be a girl frantically pedaling a bicycle. Her brown hair was waving in the wind and visible sweat was dripping from her head. 

"Think fast, Yuuki-kun.", I hurriedly said, causing Rito to blink his eyes.

"Eh?", Rito tried to react, but before he could do anything, I swiftly reached my arm out, grabbing the collar of his school uniform. With a whoosh, I let the power inside my legs flow, jumping in place back onto the sidewalk.

Rito's eyes turned wide seeing me suddenly do this. But right after I jumped back onto the sidewalk, we felt a big gust of wind blast us as the girl riding the bike sped along. Time stopped for a brief moment and I too could see a surprised look in her eyes. She seemed to be fifteen or sixteen years old too, sporting brown hair that flowed down one side of her race. 

That moment only lasted for a moment before the bike sped off into the distance, leaving the two of us behind. 

I could see the girl wearing the girl's version of the Sainan High school uniform, so she was probably heading to Sainan High like we are. She did appear quite attractive. I could see her skirt was quite short compared to the normal length of the uniform. Could it be that she was a delinquent of sorts? 

That girl looked familiar too...

As I wondered who she was, we heard the sound of a door opening not too far away, coming from Rito's house. The squeaking of the door paused only to follow the sound of a surprised voice, belonging to a girl.

"Eh? You're still here, Rito? Aren't you going to be late for your first day of school?", A voice called out to Rito with a hint of worry in her eyes.

"Oh, it's you, Mikan. We got a bit distracted. It's possible we might even be late now...", Rito replied with a frown as he scratched his head.