Chapter 18 – Yang Xiao Long
The night draws near an end as the sky changes to a lighter shade of blue. However, the shadows still fall over the slums in a place called, The Club. The bartender is behind the counter, cleaning some drinking glasses. He has a smile on his face after a successful night of business after last call.
"You can take off now, see you in a few hours." He says to the DJ to take off for the rest of the day.
Suddenly, the large door to his establishment is busted open by a girl with long blond hair as she enters. Her eyes are a bright red and teeth ever grit. She walks down to the bartender with her weapons on her writs pointed at his head. The DJ runs out of the room as fast as he can. The bartender lets out a sigh of disapproval as he laments the door he just paid to fix.
"Blondie, what are you doing here? My Club is closed and you are banned after your last two unwanted drop in's." He says as he puts down his glasses and talks to his unwanted guests.
"I do not care about that now. I need answers, and this time, you are going to give them to me." The blond woman says as she slams her fist on the counter. The bartender waves her off to say he does not to speak with her. She then fires a shot from her weapon at the bottles of liquor behind the bartender.
"I do not have time for your nonsense! Listen, one of my friends is dead now. Somebody killed her and you have tell him who did it!" As she says this, a group of men wearing black suits and red glasses rush her with guns pointed at her. She turns around and glares at all of them. They all lower their weapons as the bartender signals then to walk away.
"Look, sorry to hear about your friend. But I do not know anything about the criminal underworld like you think I do. I just rent out my men to some shady people sometimes, the two girls are out on a job right now, but not to kill someone. So I know nothing about who killed your friend." The bartender said as he tries to calm down the situation. The blond girl still aims her weapon at the bartender. "This is your third time here, you do not scare me anymore. I got insurance."
"You are lying, you know something." She says as tears form in her eyes. "You have to know something! Please, I cannot go back to her emptyhanded."
"Who?" The bartender inquires.
"Ruby, she called me earlier after she found out about Weiss. She says that Weiss went on a personal mission to fight someone who has killed Wight Fang members." The blond girl says as she sits on one of the bar stools. "Now Weiss is dead. I cannot talk to my sister or friends again until I find out who did this and make them pay."
The bartender picks up the glass. "I am really sorry, but I cannot help you with what you are looking for again. I can give you a drink if you want."
"Strawberry sunrise." The blond girl says as her eye color changes form red to a lilac color.
"No ice?" The bartender says as he gathers the ingredients for the drink. The blond girl wipes the tears from her eyes. "No, I want the ice."
"So tell me about her?" The bartender says a he mixes the drink.
"She was a major pain, but we always had each other's back. I cannot believe she is gone. I just feel empty now not being with her till the end." She says in a remorseful voice. The bartender then places a pink drink in front of her. She takes a sip and then looks into the beverage in depression.
"You know I never did ask your name before." The bartender says.
"It is Yang."
"I just remembered something Yang, somebody jus-"the bartender says but is cut off by a guard from the outside of the club running in.
"Junior Xiong! There is a blond woman with incredible strength beating up our men!" The guard says as he tries to catches his breath. The bartender looks in confusion at his current customer.
"…but she is right here." Junior say as he points at Yang. The large door is then flung off the wall and lands on the dance floor. A beast woman now enters into The Club, this time she has a smile on her face. She has a cat ears, a tail, and wears a revealing outfit.
She shouts to the two people at the bar. "Am I early to the party? It took me a while find a bar in this town."
The bartender then calls his guards to apprehend her. The same goons from before rush down with their guns. The beast woman smiles and rushes to fight them all. She sends each one of them crashing against and the walls with a barrage of punches. After all of the guards are taken care of and looks over at Junior.
"Sorry, but where I am from, if people rush you with guns. You have to remind then how painful getting punched in the face is." The beast woman says as she walks over to the counter. She takes a seat next to Yang. As she sits down, she says "What type of beer do you have here. Whatever is the strongest, I will take a bottle."
"What makes you think I would sever you anything after what you just did to my club." Junior says. Yang says nothing as she takes a sip of her drink.
"Because I asked nicely, would you like to ask you another way?" The beast woman says as she points back to the destruction that she caused coming in. The bartender sighs as he moves over to get a bottle of beer that his customer wants. The beast woman waits as she looks at the girl next to her. She see the drink that person has and lights up at the color of it.
"On second thought, forget the beer. I will have what this girl right here is having." she says as the bartender puts back away the bottle. The beast woman then looks at the person to her side with an endearing smile.
"What is your name?" She asks.
"Yang, sorry but I am not in the mood to talk right now." She replies as she takes another sip of her drink.
"I do not blame you Yang, I guess that someone close to you just died." The beast woman response, causing Yang to look back at her with shock. She wonders how she knew what had happened. The bartender returns with her second customers strawberry sunrise.
"Here, you better be able to pay for this, Faunus." Junior says in a begrudging tone.
"Faunus? I am a lot of things but I do not think I am one of those." She replies as she picks up the drink.
"Are you blind? You are practically part cat. That is a Faunus." The bartender says challenging what she has just said. The beast woman is confused still but thinks of the answers his question.
"Oh, that is only because of my imperial arm, Lionelle. Let me show you?" After she says this, the beast women is engulfed in flames that fade away as fast as they appeared. Her hair was shorter and she had no more animal features. Junior and Yang are shocked at what they just saw. The blond woman then take a sip of her drink and is delighted in the taste.
"Who are you?" The bartender says as he takes a step back.
"Leone and this is delicious. It think I will have one more." The blond woman say as she finishes her drink in a quick gulp.
"I have never seen a weapon that could do that before." Yang says still in awe as to what she just saw. "I know, it is an awesome weapon. I see you have a pretty cool weapons too." Leone points to Yang's bracelets.
"How would you like to blow off some steam with me?" Leone as she gets up.
"Ember Celica is pretty cool but, you want to fight now?" Yang comments.
"In my club?" Junior inquire also.
"Yeah, come on. I can tell you still want to punch something after the loss of your friend. And bartender, it is not like we can ruin this place anymore. What do you say?" she says as she tightens her fist. Yang turns back to her drink and finishes it. She then gets up and raises her hands in a defensive stance.
"Alright, but do not blame me if you get to hurt." Yang says with a smile.
"What about me!?" Junior says in an angry tone.
"You have insurance." Yang says as she gets off the stool and walks over to Leone.
"Just do not whine if I break your arm." Leone says as she reactivates her imperial arm. She transforms in her beast form and feels her blood pump as the fight is about to begin.
"You can break my arm, but do not touch my hair." Yang says as she feels her blood pump as well. Leone giggles a bit and gets ready to fight. Junior takes shelter behind the counter as he takes one of a bottle of beer. He opens the bottle and starts drinking, lamenting all the future damage he will have to repair and the deductible on his insurance.
The two start the fight rushing each other with close quarters combat. Leone lands the first serious punch right in Yang's face. This sent her flying back, but Yang regains her balance shoots behind her, using the weapons recoil to send her back at Leone. She then hits Leone with an uppercut. The beast woman is sent in the air, but is caught by Yang by the ankle. The blond girl, the slams the beast woman on the floor.
Still holding on to the ankle, she throws Leone against the wall. The beast woman lands on her back, but stands back up quickly.
Leone composes herself and complements Yang, "Not bad, but is that all you got?" Yang then looks around and sees the door that was recently knocked down. She picks the large door and throws it at Leone. The beast woman has a look of interest as catches the large metal slab. She then throws the door back at Yang at a fast speed. The blond girl barley dodges the door but takes her eyes off of her enemy.
Leone then rushes an unaware Yang and punches her right in the stomach. Yang losses her breath for a second as she feels her aura drop significantly. Leone then grabs Yang by the face and rans with her to the opposite wall. The beast woman slams the blond girl into the wall. Yang has her eyes change from lilac to a furious red. She then shots Leone in the gut at close range.
Leone loosens her grip on Yang's face. Yang brushes off her foe's arm and gives her a right hook across the beast woman's face. Leone falls to the floor as Yang tries to stomp on the back of her head. However, the beast woman reacts in time to dodge the attack and grabs Yang by the heel. As she gets up, she throws the Yang to the ceiling. The blond girl dents the ceiling and falls back on the floor. She barely moves after she hits the floor. Leone then walks over to the bar and starts talking to Junior.
"Hey, were is my second drink?" Leone says as she looks over the counter to a cowering bartender. He gets up and starts mixing the drink. Junior looks over to see Yang try to stand up. "Is she okay?" he says as he places down a just mixed strawberry sunrise. Leone then looks over at Yang to see her hair start to glow and a golden aura surround her. She then pick up her drink now formed drink.
"Her, she is just getting serious now." As Leone this, the golden aura around Yang erupts to fire as she hits her first against each other, gritting her teeth. Leone smiles as she drink the strawberry sunrise in one gulp. She then throws the glass cup at Yang. The blond girl shoots the projectile out of the air and charges at Leone. The beast woman the charges in retort and throws a barrage of punches at Yang. To witch, Yang response with her own barrage of punches.
The two continue the destructive melee, neither one now giving an inch. Yang delivers a powerful gut punch, while Leone responds in kind after recovering. The two blonds then put all there power into their next punch. The two fist collide with each other and cause a shockwave to emerge from the impact. They both pause in the fight, Leone then smiles and lowers her hand, Yang does the same.
"Not bad, you actually broke my hand with that last punch." Leone says as she holds her left hand, "How do you feel now?"
"I feel better now, it has been awhile since I felt my blood rush like that." Yang says as she holds her left in pain, "Why did you do that?"
"Fighting with your own fist is a thrill I do not like to pass up. I do not care if I break a nail if I can break a guy's face." Leone says as she deactivates her imperial arm.
"That is not exactly what I meant." Yang says in a slightly embarrass tone.
"I know, I have lost teammates also, my friends have had the same look on their face you did when they found out." Leone says as she walks over to the bar. Yang looks in shock as she realizes how she knew. "You remind me of myself when I was a few years younger. When I was a lot more wild and seeking adventure. When I did not find that person yet to vent with yet."
"Thanks, it did help a lot, but I still cannot forget my friend because of a good fight. She meant a lot more to me that that." Yang says after she was flattered at Leone's last statement. Leone answers, "The point is not to forget, it is to make sure you can still move on and live your life. I always think that my friends would not like it if all I did was cry over their death." Yang knew that Leone was right, Weiss would not respect her teammate if all they did was sulk over her death, "I never thought of it that way."
Leone looks back behind the bar counter to see Junior, back down their drinking a beer. "I almost forgot why I came here. I need some information about a person, big boy."
The bartender gets up and looks Leone in the eyes, he says I a slightly drunk tone "Why do people think I know things?"
"You are a bartender in the shadiest part of town, which is the person I always go to when I need find something." Leone says as Yang nods in agreement. I am looking for a pretty girl; in her late teens, red eyes, long black hair, wears a sleeveless mini dress, and has a katana. Now can you tell me where she is?" Leone says.
To the astonishment of the bartender, he did see that person before, "A girl you just described came into my establishment less than an hour ago. In fact she was looking for blond woman when she entered."
"Why did you not say this earlier?" Yang says in slight anger.
"I tired! But Blondie 2 showed up and it slipped my mind" Junior says as he takes a drink from his beer, "That girl said she knew her friend would come here eventually. She entered my kitchen in the back and cleaned out all the food. Seriously, she practically ate the meat raw and passed out on the floor."
"Yeah that is just like her, cannot go a day without meat. Thanks, I will pick her up." Leone says as she follows Junior to the kitchen. Yang is about to walk out when she gets a call from Blake on her scroll.
"Hi Blake, I know I stormed off but I am calm now. I am heading back to Beacon now. Where are you? "
"Yang, I am with Ruby and Team JNPR in the infirmary at Beacon. We are all still alive, but Sun and Neptune are dead." Blake says in a mournful tone, "It is a long story I need to tell you in person."
"I cannot believe that Blake, I will be there in a little bit." Yang says before she hangs up. At that moment, Junior and Leone walk out the kitchen, with a girl over her shoulder. Leone is also on a scroll talking with someone, "Alright, I found Akame. I know where to go next, see you there Chelsea." She then ends her call and walks over to Yang.
"I have to go now, hope to see you around." Leone says.
"If you are going to that near the gate to Beacon, I am heading that way." Yang replies.
"If you want a ride, I think you and your friend can fit on my motorcycle. What do you say?" Yang offers to her new friend. To which, Leone nods in agreement. The two blonds walk on the pathway that used to be covered by a door to leave The Club. In the distance, Junior yells at to them. "Hey, who is going to pay for those drinks?"