The Inconceivable Flame: A Fallen Angel's Disguise

There was a group of five people keeping watch outside the private room and when Ru came up to them, they immediately stood in her way stopping her from going inside.

Ru rolled her eyes at them and pretended to leave. But her half-turned body moved in a nimble way as she raised her hand and delivered a ’phoenix eye’[1] punch on one of the lackey’s temple. Since the punch was precisely at the temple which happens to be the thinnest part of the cranium, the lackey’s bulky body fell down; lifelessly.

The others raised their fists to punch her but Ru rolled around a bit and struck with the heal of her hand on another one’s forehead making him fall down with a ’thud’. Before others could make sense of her moves, she jabbed her two fingers behind their collarbone and forced them to the ground.

As the group of five men laid unconscious in her feet, she dusted off her hands and said, "Well, this wasn’t fun at all."

It couldn’t have been fun for someone like her who had been involved with all kinds of martial arts since she was only four. And the moves she used on these men were used by the most basic martial art practitioner. Although the moves seemed simple, a bit of carelessness could have killed anyone. But Ru only focused on making them unconscious, she wasn’t planning on killing.

After the men were out of her way, she languidly opened the door of the private room and took long but steady steps as if walking in her own backyard.

There were only four men inside; two were the small time mafia bosses while the other two were their lackeys. "Who are you? And who allowed you to walk in?" Both of the lackeys came up to her. One of them held her collar while the other glared with his burning gaze.

Ru tilted her face and only stared at the hand that was holding her collar. In half a beat of time, her hand held that ignorant hand on her collar and twisted it in a way that a bone cracking sound was heard alarming everyone in the room.

"Ahhhh!" The man whose hand was crushed wailed in anguish.

Both mafia bosses stood up from the couch and looked at Ru in a different light. Their original thought was that the young man was simply in the wrong room but now, they felt a feeling of foreboding seeping in their hearts.

"You! Don’t you dare move!" The other lackey pulled out a gun and pointed at Ru’s head.

Her eyes flashed as the lackey heard her low voice, "Bad move!" Her words had just fallen when her hand lifted to grab his wrist.

"BANG!"

In his moment of a hurry, the man pulled the trigger but Ru had already turned to a side to dodge it. She had expected that. But before he could get another chance to pull the trigger, Ru struck the crevice of his forearm with her thumb making him disabled to even lift his hand. She took the gun and looked at the mafia bosses staring at her with anger.

"Our men are surrounding this bar, you won’t be able to leave." One of them tried to scare her with his threat.

Ru scratched her forehead with the muzzle of the gun and took slow steps towards them. "I’ve never met someone who could keep me from leaving. If I want to leave, no-one can get in my way." Her pleasant voice sounded like ticking time bomb scaring them out of their wits.

They heard some crashing sounds and then a group of five people clad in complete black walked inside in an orderly manner. They were all part of the Black Mist squad. "Master, we’ve settled the ones outside." One of the five spoke with respect.

"Mhmm..." Ru gave a response.

"Don’t you know who we are? We have strong backers. You can’t possibly touch us." The other mafia boss tried to sound brave as he threatened her.

Ru took off her cap and threw it backward. Jack from the ’Black Mist’ caught it and held it like a precious pearl in his hands. Ru lifted her green eyes and outstared the one who had just spoken. She pointed the muzzle of the gun in her hand at his forehead making him freeze at his spot.

With a ’bang’, the gun went off and the man fell on the couch behind him with his eyes wide open. Even though, the bullet hadn’t even grazed him. It just passed from right beside his ear.

"Ay, I don’t like these toys," Ru remarked and with both hands opened the whole gun dropping its pieces like sand. She lifted her beautiful green eyes making that man feel haunted and said, "Don’t think that I missed. I never miss my target unless I want to."

Both men before her gulped down the saliva stuck in their throats with much difficulty. "Why- Why do you want to take our lives?" They asked pitifully.

Ru titled her head to side saying, "Confucious said, ’If your face is ugly, you can’t blame the mirror.’ Since you both have threatened me repeatedly then how can you blame me for treating you the same way?"

Ru moved around the table in the middle and sat on it facing both men huddled on the couch. "Now, let’s talk about that," she pointed at the trunk placed inconspicuously in the corner.

"Wha-What about it?" One of them licked his lips as he questioned.

Ru waved her hand and the members of Black Mist opened the trunk and brought an AR-15 towards her. Ru took it from Adia’s hand and looked at the men before her with a practiced sweet smile. "This gun shouldn’t be here. So, my question is simple. Who’s managing to smuggle the arms in Asia?"

"We- We don’t know him!" They decided to keep their mouths shut since they didn’t know the power of the one before them but they knew the power of the one behind this smuggling deals.

"Well, this is certainly annoying." Ru turned to the Black Mist Squad and said, "Take them away and make sure to extract something out of them." She paused to stare all of them down before adding, "And don’t you dare disappoint me as you did with those assassins. Otherwise, I’ll demote you all to the Yellow Bonesaw Squad."

The Black Mist Squad’s people gulped down at the reminder of Yellow Bonesaw Squad. It was the only squad that had the worst kind of training schedule and activities. The worst part was that Yellow Bonesaw Squad was at the lowest of the hierarchy while their Black Mist was at the top. That demotion was a bit brutal. Wait! It was plain brutal.

"We won’t disappoint you, Master!" All of them spoke with conviction and took hold of the mafia bosses and dragged them along with themselves. Both the old bosses yelled and screamed at Ru. "You can’t do this to us. What have we done to you?"

Ru simply replied with another phrase from the Confucious, "Life is an echo, what you send out comes back." They couldn’t possibly blame her when they had been spreading the brutality themselves.

Ru rubbed the tip of her nose and looked around at the mess making her feel uncomfortable. She stood up and with the same ease left the bar.

What she didn’t know was that there was a certain teenager hiding in a booth who had watched everything that had transpired in the bar. His eyes were shining like twinkling stars in the dark night.

[1] "Phoenix Eye Punch": It involves extending the index finger while raising your fist.