Baki is staring at his father, Yujiro. He feels nervous. Truthfully he didn't want to show up to the beach, but he knew better than to tell his father no. Yujiro slightly propped himself up to look at Baki.
"Why did you want me to come here?" Baki asks, awardly lowering his head off to the side and looking up.
"Is it so weird for a father to want to be with his son?" questioned Yujiro.
"I wouldn't really know…what a normal father wants" replied Baki, averting his gaze from his father.
"The only thing you've taught me is to be strong and fight." He continued.
Yujiro stood up from his beach chair prompting the teenagers surrounding him to get nervous. The surrounding crowd was surprised as well.
He kneeled down in front of him to the teenager with the red shirt, the one that was rubbing his feet. The teen clearly felt his impending doom. Suddenly, Yujiro grabbed the teens face and lifted him into the air. "Know your place, worm," muttered Yujiro. With a swift "weak" roundhouse to the torso, the teen was forcefully knocked into his friends, through the crowd for several meters.
The teen in the red shirt began to cough up blood, and the other teens were battered and beat up looking due to the impact. There was a woman's scream in the crowd.
Yujiro walked up to Baki, towering over him as usual. Baki was completely shocked by his father's display. Those teenagers were so weak. Baki couldn't wrap his head around what they could have done to provoke his father.
"Come. Let's talk in the water" said Yujiro. Baki quietly followed.
By the time they reached the ocean, Yujiro had gotten rid of most of his accessories. His hat and sunglasses, even his shirt were long gone. The full glory of his muscles were now in view and people began to recognize him.
Stepping into the water, Baki noticed his Father's clothes were mostly gone and he undressed as well. Underneath his casual dress, Baki had his typical underground arena attire. Like his father, he was always ready to fight.
Baki joined his father in the water. The tides were gentle on his feet. It felt good. The coolness of the water was calming. Baki thought about what happened at the beach and whether he should ask. Before he could say anything, Yujiro began to speak.
"Do you know where the strongest creatures on earth come from?" He asked.
Baki felt the question was a bit unnecessary or rhetorical , considering his father, Yujiro, was the strongest creature.
"Do you know?" his father continued.
"Um, I'm not sure," said Baki. He was a bit on edge and confused by his current questioning.
"Lions…dragons… bears..tigers…" Yujiro continued, "All of these creatures are known for their deadly ferocity and strength, but all fail to approach the power of ocean creatures."
"Most people don't think to look in the depths of the ocean to find displays of power, instead viewing ocean dwelling creatures as docile, but for instance, the largest creature in this world comes from here," Yujiro said pointing to the ocean beneath their feet.
"The blue whale," Baki replied.
The blue whale is the largest creature on earth and there is research to suggest that it is the largest creature to ever exist. They can grow up to 100 feet and weigh up to 200 tons. The amount of force they could generate alone is enough to sink large ships that cross its path unscathed.
And it isn't just the blue whale. The killer whale… the shark…the giant squid… all are creatures with legendary strength. Their stories are sprinkled all throughout history and their might is universally known, for example, Jaws, the Kraken, Moby Dick, etc. Many of these creatures could be considered apex predators.
"The secret to their strength is their environment"
The ocean occupies about 70 percent of the earth's surface and can reach pressures of 9000 pounds per square inch in the more normal areas. The average human would be crushed in such conditions, or even drown due to lack of oxygen. Ocean creatures are born in that environment and thus have had to adapt to it. The things most humans struggle with, are a walk in the park for even the weakest fish.
"So," continued Yujiro, "Do you get it?"
"I think so," Baki said, raising his arms in a fighting stance reminiscent of his father's.
"Good" Yujiro began to smile and entered a similar stance. His demon back began to show.
At an amazing speed, Baki approached his father, causing the water to rapidly slosh as he. He attempted to kick his father in the face. Instead, Yujiro caught his son's fully extended leg with little effort, and with a grin, began to swing him in circles at breakneck speeds despite standing in the water. For Yujiro, the resistance was nothing to him. Baki began bleeding from his eyes, nose and mouth, but before he could really react, his father threw him far into the depths of the ocean.
Baki was in a daze and hardly knew up from down. When he began to gain his bearings he realized he couldn't breathe. He was completely submerged in water. Baki clasped his nose in surprise, and he began to also look around. Yujiro had thrown him into an area rich with sea life of all types. That's when he saw it.
Beyond the ocean creatures, Yujiro was swimming towards him with terrifying speed and precision, molding the ocean around him as he moved. Before Baki could react, he was punched directly into a reef. Several fish darted out.
Bubbles escaped Baki's mouth and he was pinned by his father. Yujiro swung at Baki with his left hand. Baki managed to block it, and he hit Yujiro with an uppercut that didn't do much more than reposition his father's head.
Yujiro followed through with his new head position with a roundhouse that cut through the water, hitting Baki in the face. Baki was sent through the water at an alarming speed, causing a ripple on the surface. Pursuing him, Yujiro grabbed Baki's leg and with a swift motion, elbowed him in the groin.
More bubbles escaped Baki's mouth as he writhed in pain. Yujiro reveled in inflicting pain on his son. That victory would soon be interrupted by Baki slapping his father in the face with a fish, and then driving both feet into his father's stomach, sending him far from the reef.
Baki resolved to use whatever was necessary to subdue his father, including cheap tricks.
Baki swam after his father with sea gravel in his hand. With a palm strike, he forced gravel into his fathers eyes and mouth. Yujiro became disoriented by the disruption in his vision. Baki used this slight opportunity to roundhouse his father in the head.
Then a grin crept across Yujiro's face. Furthermore, he showed no signs of breathing even though they had been submerged for a minute by now. He began to wrap Baki up in an octopus until he could hardly move. Then he began a barrage of punches that pounded into his son.
In the flurry of pain, Baki finally saw it. They had become surrounded by sharks. They're attracted to the blood, Baki thought. He became nervous, as there were at least 10 there.
Yujiro was completely unfazed. He mouthed some words in the water.
"Only the weak cower in the presence of the strong" he seemed to say.
Grabbing a shark, Yujiro began to spin causing a small typhoon, until finally, the full force of a shark slammed Baki. Yujiro clearly seemed pleased. He began to swim towards the surface. Before he could make it very far Yujiro was hit by another uppercut and knocked into some nearby rocks.
The impact actually dazed him a bit. When he came to, he felt a strong strike from his son. Baki had punched him, piercing a shark in the process and causing it's blood and insides to spill out. Unfortunately, it was a small victory because Baki started to collapse. The lack of oxygen was finally getting to him. He began to swim to the surface as fast as he could. Meanwhile, Yujiro had been utterly surrounded by sharks. They had easily doubled in number.
Finally Baki reached the surface, but by that time he had little strength left in his body. When he looked up, he could see his father looming over him. Baki realized that in order for him to be there, he must have killed all of the sharks that they encountered, and sure enough, in the distance there was a pool of blood and floating shark parts.
"Pathetic brat." said Yujiro. "To think you were defeated by something like a lack of oxygen."
He stepped on his son's chest. A mixture of blood and water spilled out.
"In order to have a strong body, the inside and the outside must be like a fortress," he continued.
In his mind, he got a flash of the "fortress" his father had on the beach. Baki winced at the pain of his father's weight on his abdomen and his eyes became tightly shut. Then the pressure stopped. When he opened his eyes, Yujiro was gone.
Later on, after getting a first aid kit from the lifeguard, Baki decided to enjoy the rest of his time there. With his father gone, there couldn't be anymore drama.