The random attacker, with a deranged look in his eyes, slowly approached the girl. Of course, he had a knife clenched in his right hand.
I ran towards them, holding the 1.5-liter PET bottle from the shopping bag in my right hand.
“Run away!!!”
I shouted loudly to the girl. However, that choice only worsened the situation.
“Huh?”
“What the h**l are you doing?!”
While the girl uttered a bewildered voice, the attacker, upon hearing my voice, abruptly changed his slow pace to a sprint. With his left hand supporting his right hand, he held the knife near his chest. The distance between him and the girl was less than 20 meters. Probably, fearing that she had noticed him and would be able to escape.
I intervened between the girl and the attacker, attempting to grab the attacker’s right hand. However, being completely unfamiliar with hand-to-hand combat techniques, I failed miserably at grabbing his hand.
“Ugh!”
The knife hit my right shoulder and pierced through, but I didn’t lose consciousness from the pain and was able to immediately counterattack. It was probably due to the rush of adrenaline, like a surge of strength in a crisis.
I delivered a knee strike to the attacker’s groin, which is also the most vulnerable spot for a man in an assault.
“Guah!”
The attacker, directly attacked in the groin, stumbled backward, accompanied by a pitiful cry of pain.
Seizing that moment, I followed up with another strike to the attacker’s solar plexus using the head of the PET bottle.
The strike to the solar plexus worked well, as the attacker’s movements were already sluggish from the pain in his groin. I felt a definite sensation of impact in his solar plexus.
As expected, the attacker experienced difficulty breathing and staggered, eventually falling down.
I forcefully took the knife out of my right shoulder. The attacker was writhing in pain, unable to offer any resistance.
Looking around, I saw that the girl was still trembling in place. I urged her to run away, as we couldn’t know when the assailant might regain strength and launch another attack.
“Run away quickly!”
“Are you alright?”
“I’m fine! Just hurry up and get away from here!”
Seeing the urgency in my expression, she hurriedly ran off.
After confirming that there was no one in the direction I was about to throw, I threw the knife I had taken from the assailant far away. I wanted to make sure he couldn’t physically hold a knife again, as there was a possibility he would come back to kill with it.
Then, I positioned the man face-down to prevent him from escaping. He was barely breathing, and it seemed that the PET bottle attack to his solar plexus had taken its toll.
Afterward, while enduring the pain in my shoulder, I explained the situation to an adult who seemed to be a passerby, likely a salaryman, and asked them to call the police. Soon, a patrol car arrived with sirens blaring and proceeded to restrain the attacker.
As for me, I was taken to the hospital in an ambulance. Being relieved from the tense situation when the police arrived, I couldn’t bear the pain in my shoulder anymore and fainted.
The fact that I lost consciousness indicates that the pain in my right shoulder had reached its limit. It can be said that I had experienced the most hellish time in my life up until now.
At the scene, there was a knife stained with the assailant’s blood, a novel with a book cover, and a PET bottle inside a shopping bag, all scattered around.
***
Three weeks after the incident, the stab wound on my right shoulder was mostly healed. Fortunately, there was no damage to blood vessels or nerves, but the wound had to be stitched up.
When I received questioning from the police at the police station, I heard that the assailant had been arrested for attempted murder and violation of the firearms and swords control law. The motive for the crime remained unknown as the assailant had remained silent.
It seems that my actions were captured on the convenience store’s security cameras, but “justifiable self-defense” is not immediately recognized. It is said that the judge will objectively assess the situation based on the evidence.
Well, I’ll leave the legal matters to a professional lawyer in that field.
My father, who rushed to the scene, praised me, saying, “I’m proud as a father that you protected someone’s life.” On the other hand, my sister, who came from afar with my mother, told me, “I want you to value yourself more.”
Her expression at that moment looked very sad. That expression of my sister is deeply engraved in my heart.
Clatter, clatter
I heard the sound of the hospital room door opening. It was probably the attending doctor or a nurse.
“Kurata-kun, how are you feeling?”
The person who came in was my attending physician. Despite having a strong appearance, he turned out to be unexpectedly kind-hearted, and I realized that appearances can be deceiving.
“Oh, thank you. Thanks to you, the pain has subsided quite a bit.”
“That’s good to hear. Well, it was an unfortunate incident, but seeing you recover makes it all worthwhile.”
“By the way, doctor, when do you think I can be discharged?”
“Well… probably tomorrow or the day after. It may be inconvenient when you take baths at home and such. Also, please refrain from engaging in strenuous activities.”
“Thank you.”
The doctor explained in my hospital room. In reality, the pain in my shoulder had been subsiding recently.
Two days later, the wound on my shoulder, where I had been stabbed with a 15cm blade, had closed up, and it was determined that it didn’t interfere with my daily life. I was discharged from the hospital and returned to school after three weeks.
Amidst the noise of the classroom, which I hadn’t heard in a while, I quietly entered the classroom.