Path of the Warrior Ch.4
By Shadow Ryu

Birdie started the melee by violently overturning a table, causing dishes to fall to the floor in a crash. Overtaken by panic, the customers still dining jumped to their feet and tried to keep themselves off to the sides of the dining room.

The commotion immediately brought Ryu and Narin out of the kitchen to see what was going on. When the situation became clear to him, Ryu hopped over a chair and intercepted the thugs as they made their way into the restaurant's main dining hall and stood in front of Thuy. With a determined look on his face, he quickly grabbed the closest thug he could and took his feet out from underneath him with a sweeping low kick.

"Get ‘em, Ryu!" Narin shouted from the kitchen door. His enthusiastic cheer was oblivious to the danger of the situation.

Ryu's first act of defense did not go unnoticed. A little surprised that there would be some form of resistance, Birdie stepped toward him. "Take a look at this, Crackerjack!" the brute said as he measured Ryu up.

Crackerjack was busy smashing the front window of the restaurant. After a couple more whacks to make sure it was broken right through, he turned his attention to see what Birdie was squawking about.

"Seems we got us a problem, ‘Jack."

‘Jack looked Ryu over. "Since when did we become a part of some chop-socky movie here?" he said. Birdie snorted a laugh. Meanwhile, Mr. Black quickly positioned himself behind his men to avoid any personal injury. It wouldn't be proper for him to get his hands dirty when he had spent a good deal of money hiring bigger people to do his work for him. He had to get his money's worth after all.

"You hired a bodyguard, Thuy?" Mr. Black quipped while shaking his head. "How sad. Getting other people hurt at your expense. That's not very nice. It would have been simpler if you had just paid up. Or you could just hand over your restaurant peacefully. You know I've been wanting this place of yours for a while now."

"I can't do that." she responded.

"But you can't pay me the money you owe me either? Kind of puts you in a spot, doesn't it?"

Thuy had no response. Although worried about what would happen to the restaurant, she was now more concerned that Ryu would get seriously hurt fighting on her behalf. This caused her to think of possibly trying to work out a peaceful settlement somehow. No ideas were coming to her though. In contrast, Ryu stood in front of Thuy, not concerned at all about the dialogue.

"Enough with the small talk." Mr. Black said, arrogance oozing out of his words. "Trash this place and anyone who tries to stop you."

The whole gang began to advance into the dining room and began overturning, kicking or smashing anything they came to. Birdie and ‘Jack stood in front of Ryu.

"You want me to take him, or do you wanna do the honours?" Birdie asked ‘Jack with a smile.

"This one's on me." ‘Jack responded cinching up on his weapon. Taking a couple of steps in he swung the baseball bat at Ryu in an attempt to shatter his ribs. Ryu responded by kicking the bat right out of his hand. As the bat bounced off the wall, ‘Jack stepped back frantically fearing a possible counter attack. He was not nearly as confident without his weapon.

"Get out!" Ryu yelled, throwing the invaders a warning.

Birdie did not comply with Ryu's request and stepped forward menacingly. Some of the other gang members followed but they were stopped by Birdie's command. "It's okay, boys. He's all mine."

Ryu smiled in response. He was always up for a challenge, and Birdie's size most certainly looked as if it would present one. Not waiting for his bigger opponent to get the first move, Ryu immediately pressed forward and threw a kick into Birdie's midsection which only had a minimal effect. Birdie tried to respond with a punch, but Ryu ducked it and countered with three of his own, two into the stomach and one into the chin. Birdie shrugged it off and tried once again with another punch, but Ryu parried it off and jumped into the air, leveling his enemy with a spinning kick that connected with his cheek, sending the massive brute to the floor with a resounding thud.

Then the restaurant went silent. The gang stopped their acts of destruction and looked either at Birdie on the ground or Ryu standing over him. None of them could really believe that the smaller fighter had overtaken the much bigger one.

Mr. Black, though, was hardly amused. "What are you just standing there for? Get him!"

With that, the rest of the gang rushed in with the attempt to tackle Ryu to the ground. They managed to accomplish even less than what Birdie did. Every time someone got within striking distance, Ryu managed to keep them at bay with well-timed jabs and quick kicks to ensure he would not get mobbed. Although the hoodlums were resilient in their attempts, they just could not break Ryu's defenses, even though two, three or four of them would try to attack him in unison. The result of the battle was never in doubt though; eventually all of Ryu's attackers ended up finding themselves on the floor.

While Ryu fought off his attackers, ‘Jack managed to sneak away and retrieve his baseball bat. Once again feeling confident he tried to once again enter the fray. Sneaking up from behind, he decided he would aim for the head on his second attempt.

"Behind you, Ryu!" Narin yelled when he saw ‘Jack sneaking up.

Turning around, Ryu managed to block ‘Jack's bat-wielding arm, then in a swift spin-around, he elbowed his attacker in the face and followed with a spinning roundhouse that put ‘Jack on the ground. The baseball bat, once again, went flying away from its owner. Then, as Ryu turned to face the other aggressors again, he felt something metal lock around his neck. Before he could react, Ryu found himself flung through the air and landed head first on a table, which broke in two upon impact. Lying on the floor, Ryu touched a metal cuff that was now strapped to his neck and was connected to a chain. Looking up, he saw the chain was held on the other end by bloody-lipped Birdie, who seemed angrier than he had been about a minute ago.

"Time to teach you a lesson, mate." Birdie said yanking the chain hard, an action that instantly pulled Ryu to his feet and into the air. Ryu landed hard on the wooden floor, but immediately reacted to the pain upon landing and rolled to his feet. Steadying himself, he tightened his biceps and spread out into a wide, strong stance in the effort to prevent himself from being thrown again. Birdie pulled with only one powerful hand in response, easily matching the smaller boy's strength.

"You're a strong one, you are." Birdie remarked not making any effort to use his second hand, an odd thing considering he would easily overpower Ryu if he did. He was amused at Ryu's resilience, knowing that there was no way he could be outmuscled for an extended length of time. Especially by a mere boy.

Ryu held his stance firmly, but his muscles were starting to tire. His arms and legs were starting to shake due to the strain. To add to his troubles, some of the thugs he had taken down before were now getting back to their feet. It would be only a few seconds before they were on him again.

A look of concern was now etched on Narin's face as he watched on. Thuy, meanwhile, could not bring herself to watch at all, instead opting to hide her eyes in her hands. Mr. Black was standing comfortably, wishing the whole mess would finally be brought to an end.

Ryu moved as quickly as he could, but unfortunately not quickly enough. He was able to knock two thugs down again quickly, one with a roundhouse and one with a hooking punch, but moving from his strong defensive position turned out to be a bad move. Birdie yanked the chain violently, pulling Ryu into the air. After being thrown into the air, Ryu was quickly yanked the other way, causing an awful amount of pain in his neck before landing on the ground hard, with the back of his head taking the brunt of the blow. However, Ryu once again rolled to his feet as quickly as possible, ignoring the pain in his head and neck and once again assumed a wide, strong stance. Pulling as tightly as he could on the chain, he tried desperately to find a way out of this predicament. His situation got much worse, when he noticed that Crackerjack, who had recovered his senses and retrieved his bat, was now moving in on him. Ryu continued to hold on for all he was worth realizing that he was caught between a rock and a hard place. If he left his defensive stance, Birdie would toss him around again; he wasn't sure if he could take another punishing ride into the floor. If he didn't leave his stance, though, he would have to take a blow from a baseball bat; that was hardly something to look forward to either.

"Give it up, kid. You're beat." Birdie taunted.

Ryu left his defensive position and motioned toward Birdie, but then, almost instantly changed his direction and threw his weight back toward Crackerjack, kicking him as hard as he could in his stomach. A thick wheeze left ‘Jack's body as he got hit just as he was in the middle of swinging the bat. For a third time, the bat went flying once more. This time, by complete chance, it whizzed right into Birdie's shinbone forcing a scream of pain out of him. Still holding the chain, Birdie hopped up on his right leg and tried to shake the unexpected pain out, while not realizing that he had loosened his grip. Ryu, not even taking a moment to think about how lucky he was, immediately took advantage of the opening. Using a second to concentrate as much power as he could, Ryu turned and threw a hard punch solidly into the chain, snapping it from the metal collar around his neck and separating him from Birdie's lethal grasp. Recovered from the blow he took to the shin, Birdie turned toward Ryu and noticed that he no longer had Ryu shackled to his chain. Birdie cursed as he saw his opponent quickly moving in toward him. And moving quickly.

Without hesitation, Ryu closed the distance and leveled his bigger opponent with a straight punch to the head, knocking Birdie clean off his feet and hard into the bar. To make sure his opponent would not get up again, Ryu threw a roundhouse kick and a spinning kick into Birdie's face in succession. Birdie slumped to the ground in a heap. Certain that he wasn't going to recover, Ryu then methodically walked over to Mr. Black. The other thugs, who had recovered from their beating kept their distance, no longer wanting any part of him.

"What are you doing, you idiots?" Mr. Black said angrily, pointing his cane nervously at Ryu. "Get him! Get him!"

Grabbing Mr. Black's expensive-looking suit, Ryu gave him a straightforward warning.

"Get out, and don't come back."

Mr. Black did not look anywhere near as confident as before. After Ryu pushed him back, he fixed his jacket a little bit before walking toward, and then out the door. His cronies quickly followed suit.

Birdie suddenly giggled, sat up holding his head, and looked at the man who defeated him. Ryu responded with a glare of his own; a cautious look indicating he was ready for anything if Birdie tried to cause any more trouble.

"You're a pretty tough one." Birdie finally said as he slowly pulled himself to his feet. When he got to his feet, he then began to limp away to the door, holding his nose, which may have been broken--it looked as if it was permanently broken actually even before the fight started--and breathing rapidly. Then he said, exhausted from the action. "I'll get you back, mate. You can count on it. Ya better hope we don't cross paths again." He looked at Thuy. "Same goes for you too, ya old broad." Birdie then turned, banging his head into the door and cursing once again before leaving the restaurant.

Happy that the fight was over, Ryu relaxed himself. He felt some blood trickle down his head from a gash that had opened up on his forehead. The rest of the restaurant had calmed down. The customers that had not been successful in leaving the restaurant while the fight was taking place, were a bit more relaxed and were even talking amongst themselves about how hard Ryu fought.

"Are you alright?" Thuy asked walking over to Ryu, who looked exhausted.

"Yes, I'm fine." Ryu responded.

"You're bleeding!" she exclaimed when she noticed the cut.

"It's no problem. I've had worse injuries before."

Thuy frowned. "Here, sit down. I'll get something to clean the cut."

Ryu nodded in response and Thuy walked off ordering an excited Narin to follow him first before heading into the kitchen to find some first aid. Ryu pulled his hair away from his wound, reflecting on the fight as he did. As he did, he failed to notice a woman approach him from the corner of the restaurant.

"You are quite a fighter, young man." the woman told him from behind him. She had a distinct Italian accent.

"Thank you." Ryu said. The tone of his voice made it seem as though he was disappointed with his performance. There was a pause of silence before Ryu finally turned to where the compliment came from.

"You're quite welcome." the woman said with a warm smile. It was the yellow-scarfed woman who had been staring at him for most of the night.

Ryu was unsure of what to say. He looked at her face and tried as hard as he could to prevent himself from smiling himself at the stranger before him. Things got even more uncomfortable for him when she took a chair and sat close beside him, crossed her legs and gave him an inquisitive look.

"Do I know you?" Ryu asked, finally being able to find some words that were caught in his throat.

"No." Rose responded. "But perhaps given some time, maybe we could fix that, no?"