That beautiful, tearful voice fell on Teuchi's ears. His heart ached, and at the same time, it stirred. Inwardly, he cursed that uncivilized seat-hogging uncle a few hundred times, wishing he could stand up right now and help the blonde foreign beauty, but he really didn't dare.
He didn't want to get beaten up in public by that uncle.
How humiliating would that be.
There were quite a few people on the bus who were thinking the same as Teuchi.
And seeing that pretty foreign woman scared into tears, her delicate body trembling, looking as fragile as a pear blossom in the rain, that seat-hogging uncle's face grew even more smug, as if he had just done something impressive.
He tilted his head back proudly, glancing around at the passengers. When he noticed that none of these cowards dared meet his eyes, all of them looking away, he finally couldn't resist. His eyes glinted with malice as he reached out a hand toward the full, perky chest of the blonde, blue-eyed foreign beauty beside him.
"Haha! Don't cry, come share a seat with Uncle."
"N-no… please don't!"
Watching that rough hand reaching for her chest, Alisa tried to resist in a trembling voice, but her legs were shaking so badly with fear that she couldn't move.
She could only watch in despair as those thick hands came closer and closer to her chest.
But just as that lecherous uncle, trembling with excitement, was about to touch the voluptuous foreign woman, a hand suddenly shot out from behind him and grabbed his wrist before he could make contact.
"Hey, old man. You're not really thinking of m*lesting her, are you? Talk about the seat if you must, what's with all the grabbing?", said Hikari calmly, holding the tattooed man's wrist, his tone even.
The burly, tattooed uncle was stunned, especially since he'd looked around before acting, making sure no one would dare interfere.
He hadn't expected to overlook the boy sitting right next to him.
And when Hikari's words exposed his intentions, the uncle, who'd assumed no one would dare meddle, suddenly found the surrounding passengers staring at him with scornful eyes. His face flushed red with embarrassment.
He jerked his hand free from Hikari's grip and barked loudly, "What the hell are you babbling about, you yellow-haired brat? Still wet behind the ears and you think you can lecture me? Where are your parents? Bring them here! A snot-nosed kid who hasn't even grown hair dares to meddle in my business?"
"You're old enough, yet still this shameless. What, all those years you lived went to the gutter? Hogging someone else's seat, trying to m*lest her, don't you feel any shame?"
Facing the tattooed man's roar, Hikari's expression didn't waver. He spoke evenly, his voice calm.
"You little punk… you dare slander me?", The burly uncle, relying on his size, thought the boy would be scared stiff, but he hadn't expected the kid to talk back to him, directly.
If everyone really believed he'd both stolen a seat and tried to grope a woman, that'd be bad.
He snapped angrily, "Don't spout nonsense, brat! I wasn't trying to m*lest this filthy foreign w*man! I was just giving her a lesson for falsely accusing me of taking her seat!"
"I didn't! This seat is exactly the one printed on my ticket!", the foreign woman, Alisa, said tearfully, defending herself.
"You damn foreign sl*t still dare talk back? Is this your country? You can't even speak Japanese properly," the tattooed uncle glared, looking ready to hit her.
"I… I can stand in the back," Alisa's voice trembled with fear. She didn't dare argue anymore, hoping to appease him.
She was afraid, not only that he'd hurt her, but also that if things continued, the boy who'd bravely stood up for her might get hurt because of her.
Everyone on the bus knew, judging by their builds, that if the uncle fought the boy, Hikari would probably end up bloodied and beaten.
Hearing Alisa's timid words, the tattooed man folded his arms smugly and sneered at Hikari, "See, kid? I told you she was lying, trying to take my seat! And you still jump out like some righteous hero, have a little shame, will you?"
Most high schoolers, embarrassed by such mockery, especially after the girl had backed down, would've sunk into silence and sat down again, too humiliated to continue.
That was exactly what Teuchi, crouched in his seat up front, was thinking.
But Hikari wasn't that kind of person, or rather, he had the confidence not to be.
He said calmly, "She's just scared, that's why she said that. But the seat isn't necessarily yours."
"I'm too lazy to listen to you argue anyway. Do this, both of you take out your tickets. I'll check whose seat this actually is."
The foreign woman quickly handed him her ticket, "Here… here you go!"
Hikari took it, glanced at it, and nodded, "Mm. It says this seat. Seems right. But I won't rule out forgery or a system error. Uncle, your ticket too."
At that, the tattooed uncle snorted derisively, "Who the hell are you, kid? The bus inspector? You still wet behind the ears, and you think you can butt into my business!"
By the end, he was shouting, and as he did, he reached out and grabbed Hikari's collar, clearly intending to haul him up and teach him a lesson.
Seeing this, Alisa panicked, trying to intervene, but her fear made her babble incoherently in Russian.
Some passengers looked worried, but others, like Teuchi up front, felt an odd sense of glee and anticipation.
They wanted to see the tattooed man beat Hikari up, right there in front of everyone, including the foreign beauty.
Maybe because they, too, had hated the uncle's behavior but didn't have the guts to act. Hikari's courage made them feel small, so seeing him get hit would somehow make them feel better.
But just when everyone thought the uncle would lift Hikari off the ground and thrash him, something strange happened.
Because no matter how hard the burly man tugged at Hikari's collar, the boy didn't budge an inch.
The uncle's face turned red with strain, veins bulging on his arms and forehead, but Hikari didn't move.
Everyone on the bus stared in disbelief.
Then, Hikari, still calm, said, "So, you're refusing to show your ticket, and now you're trying to hit me. Guess that means you didn't have one in the first place. Add the attempted m*lestation, looks like you need a bit of a lesson."
'Let's cripple him a little.'
With a light push, he brushed off the uncle's grip, then reached out and grabbed him by the neck, lifting the heavy man into the air until his head hit the bus ceiling.
Then, raising his free hand, he clenched his fist and—
One punch.
Two punches.
Three punches.
After several heavy blows, though holding back most of his strength, Hikari had beaten the tattooed man's face to a pulp, teeth flying, before finally tossing him aside.
The battered man was thrown right out the bus window.
BANG!
A dull thud came from outside. The passengers stared blankly at the calm Hikari, and the bus fell into dead silence.
Teuchi, the short, chubby boy with glasses in the front row, gawked, eyes wide with disbelief and fear.
He never imagined that this good-looking, popular guy from the next class could have such terrifying strength.
That two-hundred-pound man, lifted one-handed, beaten senseless without even landing a hit?
That was… terrifying.
And Alisa, who had been standing closest, trembled slightly.
After all, she had seen every punch land, the blood almost splattering onto her, even a tooth flying past her face.
Instinctively, she felt afraid of the boy before her.
Though he looked gentle and handsome, almost scholarly, his actions had been far fiercer than that uncle's.
So even though he'd done the right thing, everyone on the bus now looked at Hikari with fear.
Hikari, however, ignored them, listening instead to the voice in his mind.
["Ding! Detected: Host successfully prevented the seat-hogging uncle's vile act, protecting a helpless foreign beauty from harassment, and upheld the spirit of pure love!"]
["Reward: +100 Pure Love Points!"]
Hikari was quite satisfied with the reward for his good deed.
After hearing the notification, he casually tossed the tattooed man's luggage out the window too.
A scream came from outside, apparently, the suitcase had hit its owner.
Hikari didn't care. He simply turned to the stunned foreign woman beside him and said, "Since you bought the ticket, sit down."
"Oh, oh! Okay!", Alisa immediately obeyed, sitting down beside him so quickly that her large chest bounced several times.
No one else could see it clearly, but it didn't escape Hikari's eyes.
Though he hadn't intended to look, his gaze had been drawn there for a second, and he couldn't help but think: this young foreign woman was even bigger and bouncier than he'd imagined.
One glance confirmed it, genuine. [T/N: Gotta check the Authenticity.]
He silently withdrew his gaze, unruffled.
After a brief silence, the foreign woman spoke first, her tone full of gratitude.
"Sir, thank you so much for helping me just now. I really didn't know what to do facing that man. I'm so lucky you were here, truly, thank you!"
She even bowed deeply as she spoke, her chest swaying dramatically again.
Hikari gave her a glance and said casually, "It's fine, just a small thing. You're Russian, right?"
Hearing that, Alisa looked surprised, "Yes! Everyone always assumes I'm just some Westerner, you're the first to tell right away I'm from Russia!"
Excited, she began introducing herself, "I came from Russia to Japan just a day or two ago. Oh, and my name is Alisa Mikhailovna Kujou… You can just call me Alya!"
"I have a Japanese fiancé, he asked me to come to his hometown to find him. He travels abroad often for business."
Once she started talking, the shy, awkward Alya turned cheerful and talkative. From her words, Hikari roughly understood her situation.
As he guessed, she was Russian, engaged to a Japanese man who often worked overseas. He'd told her to stay temporarily with his brother in their home village until they could officially marry.
As Alya chatted eagerly, Hikari politely introduced himself, "I'm Hikari, a high school student. My family sent me back to our village to take care of some things."
Though brief, his introduction didn't bother her at all, she was still full of gratitude.
With wide eyes, she said, "Ah! I thought you might be a student, but I didn't expect you really are! Hikari-kun, you're so strong!"
As she curiously looked him up and down, as if still wondering how he'd lifted that man so easily, Hikari smiled but didn't reply.
Then she asked again, "By the way, Hikari-kun, which village are you heading to? Can you tell me?"
"Ino Village," Hikari replied casually.
"Eh? Ino Village? That's my destination too!", Alya said, eyes lighting up.
"Oh? What a coincidence," He smiled.
"Yes, yes! Look, here's my ticket!", She eagerly showed him, then added cheerfully, "Since we're headed to the same village, let's go together."
Hikari nodded, "Sure. It's on the way anyway."
"When we arrive, if you have time, I'd love to treat you to a meal. Really, thank you so much for earlier."
"And also, if you don't mind, Hikari-kun, could I ask you some questions about Japan?"
Now that they'd discovered their destination was the same, Alya grew even friendlier, thanking him, offering to treat him later, and asking endless questions about Japan.
Hikari chatted back casually; he had nothing better to do on the ride anyway. While answering her questions about Japan, he also asked a few about Russia.
He soon realized that while Alya seemed a bit naive, she was still Russian through and through, knowledgeable about her homeland's culture and familiar with Russian literature.
Hikari didn't know much about Russia himself, but he was interested in its classic, War and Peace and the like, so he listened with genuine curiosity, learning quite a bit from her.
As Hikari and the warm, talkative Russian beauty chatted, Teuchi in the front row clenched his fists tightly.
Short and pudgy, with glasses, he was burning with frustration and regret.
Watching Hikari and that busty blonde foreign woman chatting so happily made his molars ache with jealousy. He bitterly regretted not standing up to help her earlier.
If he had, then it would be him talking and laughing with her now, maybe even exchanging contact info and slowly building a relationship.
Wouldn't that have been perfect?
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