Blazing Dragon, Roaring Panther - Chapter 2
Running a hand back through her mane of golden locks, Yang took a deep breath as she stood outside Junior's club in the early afternoon, having come from the visit to her sister and trying to psyche herself up to not take no for an answer. There had to be some way to earn the money they needed. And if there was anyone that would have a way for her to earn that green fast enough to get Ruby's surgery, it would be Junior. The guy was a bit of a dick sometimes, and had tried to rip her off when she had first been approached for the fighting, but if it meant he'd get a cut of the cash, he'd be the one to help her out. Balling up her strength and holding it in her chest, she walked on through, pushing the door roughly open with one hand.
Surprisingly, with no patrons yet in the bar and sunlight flowing through the windows, the place didn't look as seedy as it had last night. Instead, it looked just grimy and old. There were patches on the walls where the white paint had chipped off to reveal grey stone walls, those same patches growing each night by club-goers shoving each other up against the paint, to either lock mouths madly together as they grinded like mindless animals on each other, or in the midst of a brawl. Wooden tables that had seen better days were spread around near the windows on the walls that were left and right of the door, no chairs with them. Junior had learned early on that they just gave drunks an extra weapon to grab at when the bouncers were trying to chuck them out. The positioning of the tables gave plenty of room for the crowds that normally formed around the counter of the bar, which itself took up almost a quarter of the room.
The old planks of darkened wood that made up the floor creaked under Yang's feet as she walked through, heading towards the bar. Not noticing her yet, Junior was busy trying to buff out a mark left on the counter top with an old rag, growing more irritated as he failed to make any progress in it. Perhaps it was because the rag was as dirty as the mark and in need of a good wash itself. As of right then, they seemed to be the only people in the building, but there was a floor above them, and the basement below, so she wasn't counting on that to be a sure thing. Needing to get his attention, the blonde coughed into one hand, relieved when he stopped rubbing the spot almost right after. Upon seeing who it was, his eyebrows creased in confusion.
"It's a bit early for you to be here, Yang." He said, both hands resting upon the bench top. "The first fight doesn't even start for a couple of hours more." It was out of habit for the girl to show up when she didn't need to, and that normally meant she turned up half an hour before her matches to get ready, and then left straight after she got her pay. Just like last night. Her hand returned to her hair to worm its fingers through the mane.
"Well, you see-" Junior cut her off before she could get much further.
"Actually, this is good. I wasn't sure if I was going to have the time to talk to you about something if you had shown up like you normally do." He twisted to one side to chuck the rag into a bucket nearby momentarily. "There's this big event coming up, and I want you to be in it." This time, it was Yang's turn to furrow her features, a little anxious as to what this could mean. It wasn't pole dancing, was it?
"Don't you already have Pyrrha for those kinds of-" He cut her off again with a brisk wave of his hand and a shake of his head.
"Not that kind! This is different! And much more important!" A pause, Junior casting a glance over towards the front door to check if anyone was coming in, before leaning forth on folded arms across the counter. "Every year, there's a city wide tournament." He laid out to her. "Just like the fights you've been doing so far, but much bigger. I've told you about there being different leaders for different sections of the city, yeah?"
"I... vaguely remember that talk." Maybe she should have paid more attention to those times when the man would ramble on and on. Mostly it was boring, but he did know a few things about the underbelly of Beacon, being the son of a major mob player, and a leader of his own area. Still, she was all ears now, and what this tournament could mean for her. He rolled his eyes before continuing, not expecting much different.
"It's sort of a test, in many ways. Of the strength that can be found in each area's members, and of the leader's abilities to find talented people and keep them." Ah, that explained why he was talking so seriously about it. He had only been a boss in his own right for around a year now. "You have a winning candidate in the year's contest, you get respect wherever you go. If you don't participate, or have one that drops out in the preliminaries, you're seen as weak, and potential targets ripe for the conquering. And I don't aim to have a bullseye painted on my back this time."
"What about Melanie and Militia?" She asked, curious as to why the pair of bodyguards hadn't been his first pick for this. There wasn't anything concrete, but the word out was that the twins had been raised as assassins for a good chunk of their lives, so they should have been much better choice for this than her.
"Them? They tried last year, didn't end well." His mouth was sour at the memories popping up in his head. "Those two may be good, but their specialities are subtlety and surprise. The tournament matches are straight up brawls, which is not their best field. The both of them got tossed out onto their asses just during the fights to make a shortlist out of the dozens entered." Yang winced at what that would have meant for Junior. In a moment of frustration, he gestured around the room with both arms. "Why else do you think I run the shittiest bar in the city? And barely have more than two blocks of territory near the Beacon docks? Cause no one would actually want to fight me for this crappy piece of land, that's why!"
That, and his dad had wanted to make sure his youngest son at least had something left, had been another rumour floating around. Not that Yang went around asking for information like that, it was just... hard to not overhear people when they openly gossiped in the bathrooms while she changed in a stall near them.
"And that's where you come in." There was a slight thump as Junior slapped the wood with a open palmed hand. "I want you to enter into the tournament. Even just getting past the preliminaries would be an improvement over last time, but I want to aim high. I want to get to the damn finals, and you're gonna be the one to do it for me."
There was an excited grin to his mug, though he tried to keep it toned down. This was a serious affair, there was no time to just think of all the other bosses faces dropping when they saw his Dragon in action. Maybe he would even show up one or more of his older brothers along the way. That would be golden for him. Yang wasn't about to jump straight into this though, not without something in it for her. This was sounding like a definite big step up from fighting chumps in the basement.
"So, what reasons exactly are there for me to want in on this?" She asked coyly as she crossed her arms, knowing there was something he would give her. The man was definitely holding something back from her, waiting to see if she was interested. "I'm not about to jump into the ring with people that could be seasoned killers, not for the pay I get for taking down egotistic dock workers."
"That's the beauty of it." So there was more, and it was a good one judging by the way his grin widened. "The preliminaries... eh, the pay from that will only slightly higher than normal." He gave a careless shrug with the words. "But, the fights after that, the cash prizes get bigger and bigger. A good chunk of it will go to me, as leader." Taking pride in that, he straightened out the black vest he had on, pulling the hem down with both hands. "But you'll still be getting a percentage of it for being the winner. Which means the first normal match could land you about... double your normal payout?"
This almost seemed too good to be true. Here Yang had been, about to beg Junior for some kind of loan or for a chance to earn the extra money through other means (she still didn't want to do any kind of stripping, though) and a golden opportunity had been held out in front of her without even a word from the girl.
Double what she had got last evening, for just the first one on one match? Part of her remembered that the surgery was meant to be damn expensive, even if she hadn't gotten the exact figure off of the nurse. So, if she at least got to the finals, she would be almost there to making her sister better, if not having just enough? Her mind seized on that thought. This was it, this was their way out. And nothing was going to stand between her and getting what she wanted.
"You've got a deal!" Yang eagerly accepted, a determined grin on her face as she held out a hand across the bench. "Here's to winning this tournament then." Junior's own expression mirrored the blonde's, reaching out with one gloved hand to shake the one offered to him.
"They're not going to know what hit them."
"Who's getting hit now?" The new voice rang out as the front door creaked open, the pair turning around as they need to peer at the source of intrusion. Two women, one middle aged, the other looking around Yang's age, and the both of them wearing that unmistakeable navy blue uniform of the Beacon police, had decided to come in at the end of the conversation. It was the older one who had spoken up, yellow hair pulled back in a bun, bright green eyes peering through oval glass frames.
"Hey, club's closed till five o'clock." Junior said, moving to walk around the counter and towards the pair of cops. Yang hung back, not wanting to get any more involved than she needed to. She didn't need nor want to risk her chance of getting a better life for her and Ruby, and messing with the police while being involved in illegal organised brawls, would certainly do that. "If you read the sign on the door, you would have known that."
"We did. But we're not here for drinks, we're here to talk." As the older officer talked some more, Yang couldn't help but peer round to the second, smaller girl. She certainly was small. Couldn't be that much taller than Ruby, maybe a couple of inches more. And that silver hair was in a ridiculous side ponytail, with an extravagant hair tie for it. What kind of cop went around wearing a piece of jewellery like that, that was certain to get ripped off her by some bold thief? "We've been getting reports about certain activities taking place here. Ones that you don't hold a license for, and some that you wouldn't have been able to obtain one for anyways."
"I've said this before. You're welcome to look around... if you have a warrant on you." Junior stuck his hands into his pant pockets, puffing up as the woman didn't respond to that. They wouldn't find anything if they did anyways, the blonde girl remembering how quickly they cleaned up each night and took anything incriminating away to be stored offsite. "You never do though, you just have these 'reports' that you keep talking about. If I remember right, this could be classified as police harassment, right?"
"Coming in to have a chat would hardly be called harassment, Mr Xiong." Her calm tone hadn't wavered for a second. Apple green eyes flickered over to Yang, taking in the girl's appearance. "Have you taken up a new employee since we last met?" The girl tensed, not liking being suddenly under scrutiny. Before it seemed like she would have to speak up though, Junior was cutting in again, a dismissive wave of his hand drawing the officer's attention back to him.
"Her?" A shrug of his shoulders. "A friend of one of my workers, had to come in with a message that he was sick and couldn't make his shift today. But you're changing the subject, as you always do." Drawing in close, he pointed a finger right in her face, not even hiding the hostility that came with the gesture. "If you keep doing this, I will take this up with your superiors. Don't think I won't. I'm sure they'd be interested to hear how much time you take to 'visit' me so often."
The younger cop bristled, and opened her mouth to snap at the man. A hand swiftly held up in front of her by her partner made her pause, the pair joining gazes for a second. Sensing it was time to end this before things got any more tense, the older nodded, turning back to Junior and showing no reaction to his gestures.
"Very well then. If we're annoying you so much, we'll take our leave for now." Still calm as ever, the woman turned towards the door and strolled towards it, a hand on her partner's arm making the other follow her lead out.
"Feh!" Junior let out a noise of disgust as the door closed behind them. "That detective Goodwitch, always sniffing around for trouble! Too bad she's never found anything that she can actually use."
His frustrations vented, the man idly at the edge of his beard on one side of his chin as he continued to face the door. With everything she had needed already out of the way, Yang thought it best to leave for now. She had left her fighting gear back at home after all, so she would have go anyways. Pushing off from the bar, the blonde made her goodbyes and left out the front door, not thinking that an idling police car at one end of the street would take notice.
Even though she knew the fights ahead would likely be a lot more difficult than what she was normally getting, Yang couldn't help the grin on her face as she stuffed the clothes into her backpack. It had all come together so easily! It was like a dream that she hadn't woken up from, though she wasn't sure if she would want to if that was the case. If all went well, and she could make her way up to the finals of this tournament, Ruby could be out of the hospital in a month's time, and she could quit working for Junior. They could finally get back to a normal life!
Glancing up at a clock hanging in her apartment, the blonde realised it was getting close to the time she would need to take off. Another day, another chump to beat unconscious. Wasn't the best way to earn money, but it was relaxing to take her frustrations out on another, she had to admit. And she couldn't say that her opponents weren't willing, after all, not when they clamoured at a chance to earn a wad of cash if they beat her. Not that that would happen. Not now, not ever.
The doorbell chose to ring at that moment. Strange, shouldn't be any reason someone would come visit her. Maybe it was the landlord? Almost tripping over a pile of discarded clothes on the floor as she basically ran to the door, Yang managed to avoid a face plant narrowly as she pulled on the door knob. Her prior happy expression dropped when she saw who was waiting for her.
"Hello, miss Long." Goodwitch greeted her pleasantly, though there was nothing pleasant at all at finding two police officers at her apartment. "I believe we need to have a chat."
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