Narrator 1
"While it is true that, thanks to fire, man was able to not only protect themselves from the predators that sought to return them to the abyss, they were also able to nurture it and in turn make it stronger. But what happens when a flame is left alone and unattended? Will it merely cease to burn, or grow uncontrollably until the very fire keepers who were meant to care for it are forced to extinguish it else they too become fuel for it?"
Narrator 2
"While it is true that there is always a risk of allowing an unattended flame to grow, the risk becomes far greater when a flame is only grown to forge weapons."
Narrator 1
"But with the right care taking, a flame can be used as a weapon. One capable of setting the world ablaze and burning through any storm."
A booming sound of thunder bellowed across the forestry land as a crack of lightning briefly illuminated the dark, and stormy, night sky.
There are only a few cars on the road. They're moving fast, but at a safe and spacious pace. Thunder aside, it appeared to be a quiet night. Until the sound of a very loud, as well as powerful, engine roared in a matter similar that of a lion. The sudden, and unexpected, noise caught most of the drivers attention. What they saw was a large rose gold motorcycle easily going thirty over the speed limit weaving its way through the little amount of traffic there was on the road. A screeching sound could be heard as it drove dangerously close to any cars. The daring, or maybe just reckless, driver wore a large matching helmet with a black visor. In no time at all the motorcycle was at the front of the "traffic," moved to the leftmost lane and took the next exit. After two minutes of driving on a road overlooking a few, modest and a few shady looking, buildings a neon sign reading "Junior's" caught her attention.
"This is the place." The motorcyclist thought while removing the large white helmet, paying no mind to a black bird -that was either a raven or a crow- she heard squawk before flying away from its perched spot.
With the helmet off the cyclist was able to let her bright, gold like, blonde hair move freely in the breeze of the nighttime wind.
Shady or not, this place could definitely be worth coming back to. She thought to herself as she could hear an awesome club mix of Red Like Roses play before she made it to the front door. Once she was inside she got a good look of the club and it's interior. It had four glass pillars on each corner of the, also glass, dance floor. It was primarily made of what appeared to be a type of black tile, most likely marble judging by the way the strobe lights reflected off of it. A few stray rose petals slowly descended from the ceiling, the strobe lights changed from white to black and occasionally red as they rotated. The dance floor was full of civilians, nearly all of them covered in shadows. Outside the dance floor, like the area around the bar, were easily twenty or so men all dressed identically. They all wore black tuxedos with matching black dress pants and an orange pair of sunglasses. Including the DJ, who wore a large cartoony bear head in place of the sunglasses.
They couldn't have made it more obvious that they were part of a gang if they tried, but at least they don't look too out of place in here.
After a second glimpse, she spotted her target: a single bearded man, taller than the rest, dressed similar to those others save for a vest in place of a tux. He was standing at the bar with two ladies on his left, one of them was wearing a white dress and boa while the other wore a red dress and a black boa. The two girls had started walking towards the back, where only employees were allowed, giving her a chance to get a good look at their faces.
Likely sisters. She thought, judging by how identical their faces looked, as she stood next to Junior.
"Strawberry sunrise, no ice. Oh and one of those little umbrellas." She said to the bar tender.
"Aren't you a little young to be in this club blondie?" Junior asked the girl before him. Her wardrobe consisted of a faded blue jeans vest over pink/yellow crop top, both fitted, with the bottom stylishly torn and a black emblem that resembled a beowolves head made of a flame (though the wearers little sister told her it looked like a dragon) located where the two colored spirals met on her left breast, a brown belt with a matching brown (with a contrasting white interior lined) half skirt in the back buckled over a pair of short black shorts, her hands were inside a pair of fingerless black gloves that rode halfway up her forearms, her wrists had large -mostly plain looking- rose gold bracelets and the last of her outfit were her pair of black leather platform boots that went up to a little below her knees and covered her hot pink socks that varied in length -the right one was barely visible while the other went past her left knee.
"Aren't you a little old to have a name like Junior?" She retorted, playing coy.
"So you know who I am, you got a name sweetheart?" He inquired.
"Yes Junior, I've got several." She said, now sliding the fingers on her right arm across his left.
"But instead of 'sweetheart' you can just call me 'sir!'" She said as she, quite literally, grabbed him by the balls. Causing Junior to loose his breath.
"I'm here because Roman Torchwick, the guy who already paid to hire your men, told me you're trying to walk out on your deal." She said as she maintained her torturous grip and reached for her scroll in her back left pocket. Quickly punching in Roman's number as she brought the device to Junior's field of view, accompanied by a buzzing sound.
"Say you've reconsidered, and I'll let you go." She said just before the sound of the humming of her scroll stopped, signaling that the call's receiver had picked up.
"Talk to me." Roman's voice said over the scroll, sounding clear as day.
"I'll keep my end of the deal, I swear!" Junior painfully said, his pitch a couple of notches higher.
"Excuse me." She said as she strengthened her grip.
"I swear... sir!" Junior said in an even higher tone through clenched teeth, barely capable of masking just how painful this experience truly was.
"Oh hey Hei. I knew I could count on you to help. I'd ask how my girl's doing, but it sounds like she has her hands full." Roman sadistically said, clearly aware of the method this brash girl was utilizing and amused by it.
By this point, Junior's men had noticed the commotion and circled her. Awaiting for any signal their boss might make to attack her.
"We'll talk more later, ciao." The bowler hat enthusiast mockingly said as he hung up.
"Hmm... Looks like we have an audience. This must be kind of embarrassing for you, huh? Awkward." She said, unfazed by Junior's men.
"Listen Blondie... Sir. If you wanna make it out of this club alive, I suggest you let me go... Now." Junior said, hoping she'll take his advice. Thankfully for him she did just that.
Now free, Junior let out a relieved groan. He also regained feeling, courtesy of his aura, including some anger.
"You'll pay for that." Junior said before turning away, walking towards the dance area as he put on his own pair of sunglasses. Likely trying to appear more intimidating, to save face around his bar.
"Oh Junior, I was just playing with you. Don't be so sensitive, come on. Let's kiss and make up, okay?" She playfully insisted, back petaling after him as she did so.
"Huh?" Junior replied; the large, towering man was completely caught off guard as well as stopped dead in his tracks.
"Okay." Junior said, captivated by this admittedly attractive girls offer.
She let out a light chuckle and puckered her lips with her eyes closed, waiting for him to do the same. Despite his better knowledge perhaps; Hei, or Junior if you didn't want to make him angry, mirrored the intruder's position and slowly began bringing his face down to hers. When they were an inch or so away, and the girl could smell his nauseating cologne, she quickly decked Junior hard in the face with a dynamic punch. Courtesy of her right hand. To everyone, aside from hers, surprise the club owner was sent flying through one of the decorative glass pillars, hit the wall behind the counter of the bar on the opposite side of the club, and slid to the floor. Where an unlabeled bottle of liquor fell and (somewhat comedically) bounced off his head with a thud. Miraculously, the bottle remained completely intact.
The sight of seeing a fully grown man, who could overshadow most people, get launched several feet above the dance floor and careen into a wall frightened the people in the club, causing everyone who didn't work there to vacate the club in a matter of seconds.
With mercy off the table, the girl took a fighting stance and her bracelets switched to their battle forms -admiring the next song, a club mix for Mirror Mirror, that began to play as she did so. When her rose gold bracelets switched to their battle mode, they extended to cover both her forearms as well as her knuckles. In this form they appeared to be gauntlets with metallic, bone like, frames that seemed to trace her hands bone structure and a single gun barrel mounted to the back of both of her hands. The transformation caused two dust shells to pop out. As the thugs began closing in on her, she jumped high in the air and effortlessly performed a backflip at the peak of her jumps height. Along with a clenched fist. As she began to descend, she cocked her elbow back and punched the floor hard. Her punch was strong enough to cause a seismic, as well as fiery, wave to brush past multiple of her would be attackers. Causing the majority of them to fall to the floor, knocked over as the fiery wave passed by them. While others were launched back, with varying landings ranged from unconscious to just pushed back.
The first thug she attacked was distracted, too busy observing how far one of the other thugs were sent flying by her tremor. It gave her a perfect opening to leap towards him and deliver an axe kick to his face.
Another thug ran towards her, his large red machete in hand, likely using fire dust to make it more deadly, and intended to cleave her while her back was turned. Possibly even meant to butcher her. However she was expecting this from at least one of them, and the sound of his footsteps didn't help mask his obvious sneak attack either. The moment the unsuspecting fool was close enough she thrusted her elbow back and, with surgeon-like precision, hit him dead in the crotch. The blow had already shot enough pain to render the poor mongrel unconscious, but that wasn't enough for her. She followed up her counter attack with a vicious right hook to the side of his chest, right on said rib. This right hook sent him careening into another thug. Effectively taking him out of commission as well.
Upon seeing that this chick, that can send men around two times larger than them all flying across the room in a single punch, has no problem with hitting below the belt; the rest of the men started to cower. Exactly what she, and anyone watching really, would would expect upon witnessing such a vicious attack. The thugs who didn't start to back away, seemingly unfazed by her actions, decided to advance towards her. However, unlike with the predictable sneak attack, she wasn't waiting around this time. She rushed towards three of them, hopping just enough to bring her knee to one of the guys chin. As well as grab the other two by the throat and force them to hit the tiled floor, the back of their head first. Those three won't be getting up for some time.
Next she fired off a few rounds from her gauntlets, about six in total. Each shot hit a thug in the chest and left them lying on the floor. Seeing her take out three men at once scared one thug enough to drop his weapon, that was a mistake. A big mistake that he would regret. When he dropped his machete, he took a direct punch to the jaw and was sent flying through another of the glass pillars. Those pillars would likely have been more resistant to her punch than that clumsy fools jaw.
The next guy to try and hit her, not learning from his predecessors failed sneak attack, received a bone shattering stomp on his knee. Even with aura to heal it, he won't be walking normal for at least a month. The now one legged man nearly screamed from the pain as he went into shock. Two more guys tried to jump her, by actually leaping at her. With plenty of time on her end to act: she roundhouse kicked one of them on the kidney, resisting the urge to send him careening into one of the last decorative glass pillars, and lightly head-butted the other. The one who was head-butted was on the ground, though not unconscious, while the one who was kicked was holding his side in pain. She grabbed the one she kicked by his left leg and neck, lifted him up in a scooping motion and threw him on the downed thugs crotch headfirst. The crushed man wasn't even capable of screaming, due to the ungodly amount of pain he felt in the last few seconds of consciousness.
She let out a, rude, chuckle after the person in a headstand position fell flat. She made it intentionally loud enough to be heard by Hei's remaining conscious men. This caused one of the seemingly dime a dozen morons to actually take a step back, his expression like that of a deer caught in a headlight. But three more approached him from behind and aimed their guns towards her, with this revelation the coward raised his firearm as well. Unfortunately for them, this woman intended to leave no man standing by the time she leaves this club. This was demonstrated by an explosive swing of her forearm that nearly took one thug's head off his shoulders, the other three were fortunate enough to have ducked. Out of fear as opposed to an intentional dodge. Using the sudden loss of momentum, the streaked savage managed to bring herself to a stop two feet behind the three thugs. Each quickly tried to turn and potentially avoid a trip to the doctor, but she was too fast. She quickly slammed their heads together and let out a sadistic snicker as she watched them drop to the floor. Only slight twitches proving her attack wasn't fatal.
Junior's men are clearly a textbook example of quantity over quality, by this point most of the men were out cold. The last grunt, who must get paid a lot, to try and attack her was the DJ. She admittedly was surprised to see a thug wearing a bear head trying to shoot her with a dust firing tommy gun, but not enough for it to actually give him -or anyone- a free shot at her. She grabbed one of the already unconscious idiots by the ankles and tossed him at the DJ. The DJ quickly ducked, narrowly avoiding the thrown thug but soon too found that it was just a diversion. When he looked at the dance floor below, he saw nothing but the unconscious bodies of his coworkers. The next thing he saw was his turntables; courtesy of the girl kicking their asses slamming his head onto them with her right hand -doing so with enough force that the tables switched to shuffle and a party remix of From Shadows, which she also loves, slowly began to play. With the DJ dazed the blonde bruiser bent her knees slightly, grabbed him by his left wrist -using her right hand- and pulled him so that his chest would fall onto her shoulders. As soon as she was sure she was holding him in the air the girl moved her shoulders and shifted the DJ's weight, releasing her grip as she did so. This caused the bear headed man to plummet to the dance floor below, where he landed flat on his back. The harsh drop was enough to render him unconscious, but not before spotting his attackers' next opponents. The bouncers that they all took orders from: the Malachite sisters, who easily analyzed the situation. More so who the trouble maker was.
"Melanie, who is this girl?" The twin in red asked, her weapon of choice -a pair of claws, attached to her wrists- drawn and attention focused on the assailant.
"I don't know Miltia, but we should teach her a lesson." The white dressed twin replied, her arms crossed and her sight on the girl with the long blonde hair.
Unfazed by the aggressive girl, the two twins merely scoffed before watching as she emptied the chambers of her gauntlets. Once the last empty dust shell landed on the floor, with an almost plastic-esque pop noise, the potentially psychotic girl reloaded her gauntlets in a flashy way -by tossing her new clips in the air and positioning her arms so that gravity would do the rest for her. With her gauntlets reloaded she leaped towards her new opponents, easily clearing the guard rail. While she was airborne, she decided to create some separation between her and the sisters by firing a few shots towards the small space in between the two.
Judging by their stances, and the way they dodged together with ease, these two were definitely not going down as easily as Junior's men. The fact that they were capable of dodging proved them to be light years ahead of their coworkers in terms of combat.
The twin dressed in red briefly hopped back before taking a pouncing leap towards the intruder, aiming her claws at the golden girls head. While the white one with the long hair jumped to the side and followed it up with a kick, made more deadly by her bladed heels, aimed at the girl before hers partially exposed abdomen. The girl who put Junior's staff, as well as the Malachites coworkers, on workers comp pivoted on her feet with every step she took back. Using her gauntlets she managed to block both the twins attacks, but the combined impact from their repeated attacks, every one of which saw the twins swap positions and their targeted areas of her, nearly caused her balance to be thrown off and her guard stance to break.
Sensing this; the Malachites both attacked her at the same time, causing her to fall to the ground. The girl with the mane used the momentum from the fall to carry her body with a quick roll that let her stand on her feet a second after her opponents actually managed a good hit.
The blonde felt a sense of excitement after being pushed back, unfortunately for the sisters it was over shadowed by her anger and her fists thirst for very harsh physical contact.
With our protagonist now feeling what her little sister describes as "the blood lust," she again used her wrist mounted boomsticks to give herself a burst of speed and rush the red clad Malachite with the claws. Who made the mistake of showing that she was intimidated.
With all the momentum the blonde picked up, she brought her right elbow back and practically fired her fist forward. Delivering a devastating straight punch. The shorter haired girl barely had enough time to block the blonde powerhouses strike with her claws; claws that along with her aura, thankfully, didn't break. Though Miltia's body remained intact, thanks to her aura, the initial hit of the lariat was enough to send her flying into a wall -much like the blonde bombshell did to her boss earlier. Only her body left an imprint so deep that she was stuck in it, all her body's strength was being used to hold itself together.
"Ugh... got careless..." the red sister said as she felt her last conscious breath, along with her strength, abandon her.
Seeing her sister get punched into a wall made the white dressed one, Melanie, act far more aggressive. Highlighted by her attempt to knee the girl with a megaton punch in the back of her blonde hair covered head. This strike was blocked by the suspecting blonde and followed up by her own attempt to induce head trauma with an axe kick. One that the remaining Malachite side stepped.
"Are you trying to match my footwork?" Melanie asked with a mocking grin, knowing that this would tip the odds in her favor.
But the intruder who knocked out her sister merely let out what was best described as an uninterested growl. The brawler positioned her arms in a stance that would allow for quick changes between offensive as well as defensive movements and kept her feet moving slightly slower than the bladed heel girl's own. Each time they were within a certain distance, Melanie would bring her legs up and attempt to land a few kicks onto the bruiser, followed by another (more deadly) kick. Each and every strike was blocked by the blondes gauntlets.
On their third exchange the white clothed girl attempted to land a strong, potentially staggering, side kick aimed at the other girls ribs. This wasn't only blocked by the girl, but with the hand that coincides with her foot. With her balance relying on her other foot stationed to the ground; the Malachite soon felt the dazing force of a back handed straight punch to the gut, courtesy of her opponent and her truly intimidating strength. Which hit harder due to the savage girls fist picking up momentum from the pivot she used to deliver it.
Reeling from the pain, the bouncers head bowed slightly and she felt her right wrist being grasped. The violent girl brought the physically weaker girls arm just over her blonde head and then spun her body around clockwise, forcing the clearly less experienced fighter to shift her body towards the girl wrenching her arm. The blonde then pushed the combat skirted girl backwards as she released her arm before quickly pivoting on her left heel and performing a slight hop as she brought her right leg up. This meant that the kick enthusiast was defenseless, aside from her aura, when the person she was getting paid to beat up delivered an aura consuming (on both ends seeing as how the attackers hair momentarily gave off an ember like glow) roundhouse kick to her head. This kick put the white clad sister on her back for several seconds before she got back up holding her ribs, likely still feeling the after effects of that gut punch, as she slumped off the dance floor. Clearly not fit to continue and would prefer to use her remaining strength to check up on her sister.
Suddenly the lights shifted to just white, while also giving the she-conqueror a sort of spotlight, and the music changed to a club mix for her favorite song: I Burn. Hearing this song just pumped her full of energy and as a result, she had hoped that she was not done just so she could exert this energy onto her next piece of fodder. Luckily for her, she had no need to wait. Another spotlight appeared over her next fist magnet: Hei/Junior, who had returned after getting a second breath, with a missile launcher resting over his right shoulder.
"You're gonna pay for this." He uttered again, much like he had after being freed from her death grip earlier.
Wasting no more time, or words, Hei took aim and fired five rockets where the source of his and all of tonight's problems stood. She quickly rolled to the right, followed by a quick hop backwards. Evading every one of the rockets, as well as their blast radius.
Seeing that each of his shots missed their mark, Junior took aim again and this time utilized his bazookas rapid fire function to try and turn this iron gripped wench into mulch. This time however, due to the setting, his shots were nowhere near as accurate as before, with some even curved a little too upward and missed her entirely. Not fazed by the succession of explosives flying towards her, as well as having a good idea what kind of ammunition that thing fires now, the girl who was enjoying this way too much began to throw repeated punches. The storm of punches caused a rain of her own concussive dust shells to create a flurry of explosives, her little sister had always warned her about getting caught up in the moment, and she couldn't help but marvel at the sight of what were essentially violent fireworks that were going off in front of her.
Noticing that she let herself get distracted, which would've earned her a stern look from her sister, Hei leaped forward with his weapon now in its club/melee state and proceeded to swing it from his right side to his left. Unlike most of the hits she took earlier, that one definitely hurt. She knew her sides would be feeling a little sore the next day. That strike had enough force behind it for Junior to manage four identical follow up swings, the only difference being the side each swing started from. After the fourth hit, the club owner brought the club down on her head -staggering her indefinitely- before finishing his onslaught up with an extra strong swing that lobbed her up in the air and crashing down on one of his glass cases. Collateral damages be damned!
The bear sized man watch with intent and his club resting on his left shoulder, much like it had on his right when it was a bazooka, as the human wrecking ball got back to her feet. She had an arrogant look in her eyes, a toothy grin, and a little bit of an embery glow radiating from her hair. The blonde bombshell waited a moment, sizing Hei up as he did her, before slamming her fists together at the knuckles. Causing a fiery shockwave, much like she had earlier, that broke the remaining glass cases and etc around her.
Not wanting her to get close in this state, Junior quickly reverted his club back into a bazooka and fired off five more rockets again. But unlike before, the she bruiser merely dodged in between them as she continued to close the distance between herself and the bearded man -completely unfazed by the light shrapnel she soaked up as she did so. Unfortunately for him, he wasn't able to keep the girl who was now looking to be on fire and she returned the favor from a mere moment ago by giving him several crosses, a left hook to the face, and a stiff straight right to the gut. The latter of which even had a small fiery shockwave exit from the bear in a suits back and sent him rolling backwards like a bowling ball. Once again showing he wasn't just some pencil pushing dime store hoodlum; Junior managed to land on his feet, as well as his aura to help stop his momentum, before noticing that both his hands now held something. In his left was his now broken club, undoubtedly a result of his brief but hard tumble, and in his right was some of the girl's hair. The contents of his right gave Junior a grin not unlike that of the girl's from a few punches ago.
Realizing what was in her adversaries hand, the girl let out an enraged roar before seemingly gliding towards Junior at a speed that the human brain could hardly process and delivering a knee with so much raw power in it that a fiery combustion was created on contact. The controlled explosion had enough force to ensure that none of the glass inside or part of the buildings structure would remain intact, punctuated with its owner being propelled through where the center skylight window once was. He landed outside, semiconscious and defeated, on the parking lot pavement. A few feet away from where she parked.
Hei exerted his last conscious breath just as his persecutor leaped through the barren window after him, where she was soon met with the feeling of the freezing cold rain...
She didn't feel the, unwanted, raindrops for long however and was soon met with the sound of water bouncing off a canopy. After hearing this sound, the living fireball turned her attention to a smaller girl (who stood about eye level with her chest) holding an umbrella. The girl had multicolored hair, the left side a chocolate shade of brown while the right was mostly a flamingo pink with white streaks, and two different colored eyes that match the two main colors of her head respectively. The shorter girl also wore a white jacket with a pink interior, brown pants, and mostly white and black toed boots with very high heels. Under her jacket is a brown corset, curved in the middle and at the bottom, showcasing her hips. She also wore a multitude of black beed necklaces, which made the blonde feel comfort for some reason, that always hung haphazardly around her neck.
"Oh... hey sis..." the girl who just kicked an entire clubs asses said nervously.
The smaller girl said nothing and merely tapped her foot, slowly, to show that she was waiting for her to say something. Her face showed no anger, but the small smile made the taller girl's body tense up internally.
"Ugh. It's a long story..." the pyro puncher, feeling defeated, said.
Author's Notes
This is a story that nobody should expect frequent updates for. I've had this in the works since roughly June of 2016 and will only post a chapter if I feel it is ready (and perhaps a minimum of 5k words). Because of how scarce that could make the uploads however, I will inform you of a few pieces of information as well as try to fill the [large] gaps in between chapters with updates and answer any/all questions I can.
Things for you to know:
Neo and Yang are NOT biological sisters in this story.
Neo is older and has simply taken care of Yang since she found her, because the age gap is small, they always saw each other as sisters.
Neo and Yang are very close, similar to how she is with Ruby.
While Neo CAN speak sign language, Láng has trouble with it, however they have never had any real trouble communicating with each other.
Yang suffered from amnesia and has very an odd array of memories, such as Raven.
Yang's name is/will be Láng Wō Qiú, which is why I never called her Yang.
This entire thing IS Salem's doing, but she doesn't care about Láng or her well being as long as she gets her to become her weapon.
Like Neo, Láng gets along decently with both Cinder and Roman.
Láng and Mercury get along fine, but Emerald dislikes her out of Jealousy for how Cinder treats her.
In truth Láng doesn't mind Emerald at all (she's actually fond of her) and Emerald's jealousy is the only reason she dislikes Láng at all.
Láng and Mercury dated at one point, but they ended their relationship on good terms.
Láng and Mercury DO NOT love each other, but consider each other close friends.
Láng and Mercury broke up because they both felt that they work and feel better hanging out as friends.
Emerald enjoys teasing Láng and Mercury over their mutual friend zoned relationship.
While they're not a couple, Láng and Mercury do still occasionally go on dates.
Hardly any of those dates are normal, one of which (as an example) could consist of fighting an entire street gang and taking over their turf.
Láng still has much of Yang's personality, including her fondness of puns and wordplay.
While she's just as mischievous, Neo keeps Láng grounded/down to Earth when they go out for some fun.
The way Láng dresses is meant to give off a slight mechanic look, this is due to her enjoying everything auto shop (like Ruby's obsession with weapons, only applied to cars, bikes, and etc).
Láng never gave her weapon a name.
Láng's weapon is nearly identical to Ember Celica, but has a few additional features.
Some of those features are actually tied to her semblance.
Neo trained Láng, as a result she is more agile than Yang and was capable of taking on the Malachites & Junior simultaneously with just kicks.
Though she's more refined and can be a more reaction based fighter like Neo, Láng prefers to rush in and be the aggressor because she is more arrogant than Neo and is just as hot-headed as Yang.
The Malachites will hold a bit of a side character role, due to Láng (and Neo) becoming a regular at Junior's.
Láng does want to find out who she (as well as Raven) is, but is worried that that could mean losing Neo as her sister.
Neo is what you can call a Child of Salem, hence her skills as a fighter and overall prowess.
Though she serves Salem, Neo DOES care for Láng and does whatever she can for her (and Salem too of course).
The less Láng looks like Yang, the farther gone she is.