Chapter 8: Alpha and Outcast (part 2)
Hot, stinging tears of sheer terror and humiliation filled Renjiro's eyes.
The walls were closing in fast.
He completely discarded whatever microscopic fragment of pride he had left, pressing his thick hands together in a desperate, begging motion.
"Please, listen to me, bro!"
Renjiro pleaded, his voice breaking into a pathetic, high-pitched whine.
"I swear to God I didn't do anything! I didn't know she was your girlfriend!
I was just eating my lunch!
She approached me!
She sat down here!
Ask anyone!
Ask the guys at that table right there!
They saw the whole thing!"
Meiko saw her opening to seal the trap.
She pointed a trembling finger directly at the nearby table where Kenta Ishida, Ryo Takeda, Reo Hayashi, and Shoji Murakami were sitting, frozen in fear.
"I'm not lying!" Meiko cried, her voice breaking perfectly.
"Akuro, if you don't trust me, ask those four!
They were sitting right there! They saw how he was harassing me!".
Akuro slowly turned his head. His cyan eyes locked onto the four boys.
The temperature around their table seemed to drop to absolute zero.
"Kenta... Ryo... Reo... Shoji," Akuro said softly, reciting their names from memory—a terrifying, subtle flex of his absolute control over the school's hierarchy.
"You boys were sitting right here, weren't you?
Tell me... was this fat pig harassing my Meiko?".
Kenta Ishida's face went chalky white.
He looked at Renjiro's desperate, pleading eyes.
Kenta knew the absolute truth, and he knew exactly what Meiko was doing.
But then he looked at Akuro's smiling, dead eyes.
He knew that if he told the truth, Akuro would systematically destroy his life. Kenta chose his own survival over his humanity.
He stood up so fast his chair almost fell over.
"Y-Yes, boss!" Kenta yelled, his voice cracking with fear.
"We saw everything!
This disgusting pig was talking to Meiko-san in a creepy, incredibly seductive way!
He's a total stalker!
We were completely disgusted just watching him!".
Once Kenta broke the dam, his three friends scrambled over each other to eagerly throw dirt on Renjiro's grave, desperate to win Akuro's favor.
Ryo pounded his fist on the table, injecting fake rage into his voice.
"I saw it with my own two eyes, boss!
He even tried to grab Meiko-san's hand!
He wouldn't let her leave the table!".
Reo spat onto the floor in Renjiro's direction.
"Dirty pig!
We even tried to tell him to move away from her, but he just stared at us with those dead, perverted eyes!
He was straight-up harassing her!".
Shoji finished the character assassination. "Boss, he was physically forcing her to stay here!
Meiko-san was so scared she couldn't even stand up to run away.
This guy is a highly dangerous pervert!".
The rapid-fire lies tore through Renjiro's soul.
He didn't even know these people.
He had never spoken a word to them.
Yet, they were gleefully burying him alive just to save their own pathetic skins.
As soon as the false testimonies were spoken, the agonizing silence in the canteen shattered.
It was replaced by a massive roar of collective mockery.
The sheer, paralyzing fear the student body felt for Akuro was instantly redirected and transformed into a cruel, euphoric excitement.
They had found their sacrificial lamb.
"I absolutely knew it!
I always said that fat pig was a total creep!" a senior student sneered loudly.
"Poor Meiko-san... imagine having to actually look at that sweaty monster while trying to eat your lunch," a girl whispered loudly, her face contorted with exaggerated disgust.
"Look at the fatass crying! Does he actually think he has a chance with a girl like her?
Know your place, pig!".
The bystander effect morphed into active, vicious participation. Dozens of students surrounding the scene gleefully pulled out their smartphones.
They didn't see a human being being psychologically tortured; they saw prime entertainment.
Camera flashes began to burst like strobe lights in a nightclub, blinding Renjiro.
Click... click... click..
The relentless, mechanical sounds of cameras capturing his tears, his flushed face, and his violently trembling body echoed through the hall.
They were turning his agony into a digital joke.
Renjiro blinked past the blinding camera flashes and looked back at Meiko.
She wasn't crying anymore.
The trembling, the fake fear—it was all gone. Instead, she was looking down at him, resting her chin on her hand with a twisted, ugly smirk.
"God, you are so pathetic," Meiko muttered, just loud enough for him to hear.
She casually wiped the hand that had held his earlier on her uniform skirt.
"You actually thought I'd touch a sweating pig like you?"
Something inside Renjiro's head just snapped.
The sadness burned away, leaving behind nothing but pure, blind anger.
He didn't care about the cameras anymore.
He didn't even care that the most dangerous guy in school was standing right next to him.
"You lied to me!" Renjiro roared, his voice cracking loudly.
He slammed his heavy hand on the table, pointing a shaking finger right at her face.
"You planned this whole thing just to make a joke out of me! You're sick!"
Akuro didn't blink.
His smile just got a little softer.
"Hey," Akuro whispered. His voice was so quiet, yet it instantly cut right through Renjiro's shouting.
"Don't raise your voice at my girl."
There was no warning.
No pulled-back fist. Akuro just moved.
A Kudo palm strike. Just a sudden, explosive twist of his hips and a brutal open-handed hook directly to the jaw.
CHATAak!
The impact sounded like a wooden bat snapping in half. Akuro's hard palm slammed flush against the bone.
The sheer force rocked Renjiro's brain against his skull, instantly shutting down his nervous system.
The 100-kilo boy was literally lifted out of his plastic chair.
Blood and spit sprayed from his mouth as his eyes rolled back completely.
THUD.
Renjiro hit the cold ceramic floor face-first.
He was out cold before he even landed.
The canteen went dead quiet again.
The cruel laughter stopped. Somewhere in the back of the room, someone dropped a phone.
Clack
Nobody even dared to pick it up.
Everyone just stared, completely frozen by how casual the violence was.
Akuro lowered his hand. He wasn't breathing hard. He wasn't angry.
He just stood there, looking down at the massive boy, still wearing that same gentle smile.
Kenchon stepped out from the shadows, breaking the silence with a loud, raspy laugh.
"Damn, Boss!" Kenchon clapped his scarred hands, highly amused.
"One slap!
You put the fat piece of trash right to sleep!
What a hit!"
Akuro slowly turned his head.
He looked at his enforcer.
"Oh?"
Akuro asked softly.
"You liked that, Kenchon?"
Kenchon grinned, totally oblivious to the shift in the room.
"Hell yeah, Boss! Flawless!"
Akuro took a slow, deliberate step toward him.
"Do you want to eat a slap too?"
The grin vanished from Kenchon's face instantly.
The blood drained from his cheeks.
On the dirty floor, Renjiro lay completely motionless. He had hoped for a little bit of light today.
Instead, his world just went completely dark.
The horrifying swelling on his jaw and his busted lips were only physical pain.
For Renjiro, the real nightmare had just started.
Chapter End