Family Ties Pt. 1

Kenji's body lept into action before his mind could process what was happening. Pulling on his underwear, he barreled out of the bathroom and ran through his apartment before reaching the front door. Throwing it open, he stepped outside and froze at what he saw. 

Toga was sprawled on the ground holding her cheek but it wasn;t enough to stem the blood seeping in between her fingers. Her eyes were wide with sheer terror as she looked up at her father standing above her with a shattered beer bottle in one hand, its jagged edges dripping with Toga's blood. 

Kenji's vision narrowed as he looked from Toga to who he could only assume to be her father. His face was red with rage and booze, and his dirty blond hair, matted beard, and sparse head of hair barely clung to life. Stature-wise, the man towered over Kenji, standing about six feet tall with barrel-like arms and a rotund beer belly. 

"I warned you not to come around here anymore!" Toga's father bellowed as he took a menacing step forward, his hands tightened in a death grip around his improvised weapon. Toga tried to get up, but her body refused to move, overwhelmed with terror and shock, "But I guess you can't follow damn instructions, just like your whore mother!" 

As Toga's father took a menacing step forward, Kenji moved in front of her, placing himself between the raging alcoholic, "Lay another finger on her, and I'll skin you alive." 

Kenji's voice barely came out above a whisper, but the words seemed to ring through the air with a sharp hiss and a promise of danger, like a knife being drawn from its sheath. 

For a moment, the man stopped before he snarled at Kenji and tried to stare him down, "Who the fuck are you." 

"K-Kenji?" 

Turning around, Kenji flashed Toga a smile as she stared up at him in shock and awe, "Told you I was a late bloomer." 

Toga sniffed, "G-get out of here, p-please!" 

"Oh, is this your little boyfriend?!" A booming laugh came from Toga's father, and Kenji turned back around to glare at the abusive asshole, "I wonder how you convinced him to help your worthless ass? Tell me, son, how was it?" 

Kenji's body physically recoiled hearing the man in front of him talk about his own daughter, "No wonder your wife left you, why would anyone want to be with a cesspool of a human being like you." 

Toga gasped behind Kenji as her father suddenly stopped laughing, and a storm passed over his face. "What did you say, boy?!" 

Balling his hands into fists, Kenji didn't feel an ounce of fear as he stared into the man's bloodshot eyes, "I said you're a pile of shit, a waste of space, and an example of everything wrong with the world. A drunk nobody who's going to die alone and forgotten, smelling of piss and booze." 

Kenji's words rang through the air clear as day before a roar of rage ripped from the man's throat as he lunged at Kenji, the shattered bottle in his hand wielded like a knife. 

Throwing himself out of the way, Kenji avoided a wild swipe from the sharpened glass as Toga's father went stumbling past him. Before the drunkard could fall atop of Toga, still frozen in fear on the ground, Kenji's tail shot out, wrapping around the man's neck and pulling him back. 

With a startled scream, Toga's father tipped over and fell down the stairs. With a thud, the man came to a stop at the bottom and lay still for a moment. But after a second, he rolled over and slowly got to his feet, glaring up at Kenji with a river of blood seeping from a gash across his forehead. 

"I'm going to gut you like a pig!" Toga's father roared as the blood dripping down his forehead reached the corner of his mouth. Kenji then watched as his tongue flicked out and licked the blood like a bloated pink grub drinking a droplet of water. Getting a bad feeling in the back of his head, Kenji wondered why. When Toga's father roared again, his skin flushed a bright pink, and his entire body swelled with muscle, 

For a moment, Kenji's mind went blank as he stared down the mass of drunk, raging muscle before he felt something slam into his chest with the force of a sledgehammer. 

Kenji left the ground as he was thrown back into the air and through his doorway. Hitting the ground, Kenji slid along the wooden floor, his bare skin burning from the friction as he came to a stop. 

Clutching his chest, Kenji tried to breathe, but it felt like his chest had caved in, compressing his lungs like sponges. Tears streamed down Kenji's face as he curled up into a ball, his brain shouting at him to breathe even though the rest of his body refused to follow. 

'I didn't even see him coming!' Kenji thought in the back of his mind as he opened his system.

[Eros Points: 1000]

[Stats]

[500 EP] Strength: FF

[500 EP] Durability: FF

[100 EP] Vitality: F

[1000 EP] Agility: FFF

[500 EP] Perception: FF

[100 EP] Intelligence: F

[Cost: 900 EP]

[Remainder: 100]

[Would you like to finalize this upgrade: Y/N]

'Yes!' Kenji nearly screamed in his mind as he let out a wet hacking cough before his body was plunged into an ice bath even though he hadn't moved from his fetal position on the floor. 

Every muscle in Kenji's body screamed as it spasmed and flexed. Gritting his teeth, Kenji felt like someone was wringing him out like a wet towel and flooding his veins with liquid nitrogen. 

After what seemed like an eternity, the feeling passed, leaving Kenji feeling raw and abused. But as he uncurled his body, an undeniable power flowed through every fiber of Kenji's being. But before Kenji could stand up, a shadow fell over him, followed by the smell of booze, "Good, you're still alive; I like to savor my meals."