17 Chapter 15: Duo

Back in Felkra...

Clara and I just got home, and Bianca had been waiting for our arrival in the living room.

"How's your results?" She asked.

"So so."

She asked for the slip and I handed it to her. Upon seeing my results, her eyes went wide and her jaw dropped.

"T-this... What?" She stuttered.

"What?"

"I didn't know you were this smart?!" She yelled.

"Damn you. You think I'm some idiot?!! I wouldn't have pursued engineering if I was!!"

I hand-chopped her head. She rubbed her head with teary eyes.

"That hurts. Ouch...."

"That's what you get for doubting me. Now we should immediately look for a part-time job. We need all the resources we can get for my future plan."

I hadn't forgotten about my plan to prove to my father that engineering isn't as useless as he thought it would be. I wanted to prove him wrong, and I need all the money I can get for my plans. When we were walking home earlier, Clara and I saw some shops or businesses that is looking for part-timers. They know that a lot of high school students just graduated so they put up a job vacancy to attract people into working.

There was a convenience store that needed a cashier for an afternoon shift. There's also a Martial arts gym that needed a cleaner... But I'll put that aside for now. There's a lot other establishments that needed workers, so I might visit some of them soon.

"You asked for my results. What about yours?" I asked.

"Uh, I failed one."

"What is it?"

"Additional Mathematics."

"Well that's a bummer."

"....screw that. You said you want a job ASAP. When do you wanna go?"

I scratched my chin a few times while thinking. "Probably right now. What time is it? Twelve?"

"Close. I'm going with you then." Bianca said.

"Hey it's almost lunch. You should stay at home and help Clara with cooking." I pushed her away before she even stood up.

"No I can't cook. If I cook an egg I'll just overcook it anyways." She insisted.

This means one thing. She wants to eat outside. In a restaurant. With my money. Goddamnit and she has such a big appetite I might just spend more than 50 just for her food alone.

-----------

45 minutes later, Bianca and I were already in an Eastern-themed restaurant. Obviously the one with the most dish is Bianca. Of course. I'd ordered a plate of spicy prawn noodles and she ordered a bunch of eastern food that I don't even know the name of.

She's currently shoving down food into her mouth non-stop. Typical Bianca. I don't even know how she doesn't get fat at all. I slowly finish my food while I observe her unethical way of eating. Even the other patrons in the restaurant are looking our way.

"Hey Bianca. Can you eat more politely? Everyone's looking at us?"

She gulped down all the food, "Why? There's nothing wrong with them looking at us. If they want to look just look I don't care about how I eat," She said.

"Well if you won't eat more politely you'll have to pay your food for yourself." I immediately stood up from my chair. Why not tease her a little?

"WAIT WH-," She yelled as she was stuffing her face with food. Bianca quickly tried to pull the sleeve of my jacket from across the table, but ended up lying on her stomach on the table on top of the food she was stuffing herself with.

Everyone in the restaurant immediately looked at the scene.

"Are they couples? The boyfriend must have dumped her."

"The girl must've done something bad to offend him. Serves her right."

I heard all of this and almost laughed. I tried my best to hold nyself from laughing out loud.

"N-no Damien please *BURP* uhhh don't leave MEEEEE I don't have any moneyyyyy. I don't want them to blackmail me and force me to use my body to do weird stuffffff..."

"Fine. Just get up and clean yourself." I smirked but I hid it from her.

She quickly left the table and went to the restrooms. She took quite some time before returning. I paid the bills to the waitress and we both quickly left the restaurant. Now it's job hunting time. In this area, there are probably more than five establishments that are looking for part-timers. We'll probably have time to check them all out.

.....

Alas, none of them wanted us. Our luck was not good. But we still can check the convenience store out and the gym. We headed to the convenience store quickly, and arrived in less than five minutes. I asked for the store manager for the job, but they said someone else had already got job. The luck just wasn't with us.

We left the store feeling worn out.

"You still wanna check that gym?" Bianca asked me.

My mind were filled with thoughts on our situation. Why not just check it for the sake of it?

"Yeah. Let's go."

10 minutes later, we were already infront of the gym. When we got in, there were no one inside despite it being open and it's almost midday. There was only the gym owner inside doing some cleaning. He noticed us and immediately came at us who are standing at the front door.

"Hello. Welcome to my gym. How may I help you?" He asked.

"I saw your job ad sometime earlier. Are you looking for part-timers?"

His expression went from normal to sad immediately.

"Well you see here, there's no one coming. A week ago there were still people coming in and using the gym. I get more than 30 people coming in everyday. Unfortunately it went downhill when a group of thugs came in and vandalized everything here them scared the gym members away. They threatened me. If I don't pay them enough money by the end of the week, then they'll hurt me and my family. The problem is this week is the last time I am able to pay them with my leftover money."

Bianca and I looked at each other, and we both understood what was in our heads right now. We decided to keep it for ourselves for the time being.

"When will they come?" Bianca asked.

"By the end of this week. Two days maybe."

"We'll help you then." I said.

He looked surprised hearing that.

"Help with what?". He questioned.

"With those thugs. How many were there?" Now it's Bianca who asked.

He thought for a moment before bringing up seven fingers.

"I Know how to fight but, I can barely fight two dudes at my age. If I was 20 years younger then maybe I can fight them off. Are you sure you can help?"

"We can, and we're sure with it." I said.

"Great. My name is Alexander. Yours?"

"I'm Damien. She's Bianca."

He reached out his hand to us.

"Nice to meet you kids." We both shook his hand. Then, the front door of the gym opened, and came in was a group of men. They all did not seem intimidating. Just normal looking guys who acted like they were tough. No tattoos, no gangsterish outfits. All wannabe thugs.

"Hey old man. We came earlier this time. Just checking out this place but while we're at it, can you spare us some change?" The guy at the front of the group spoke to Alexander. He wore baggy clothes, and had spiky blonde hair.

Alexander didn't answer but looked at me and Bianca.

"Go do what you have to do." He said to us both.

" What the fuc* old man? You ignoring us now? Who the hell are these two brats?!" The guy yelled at us.

I stepped further, facing him.

"I'm the guy that would beat you to death." I said.

"Haha this kid's fun-"

Before he could finish his words, Bianca had already made the first move and dashed forward and punched the guy in the face. He was no facing the floor unconscious.

"Six left. Damien, let's give em hell." Bianca said with a cold expression.

"You got it."

I sprinted towards the furthest guy on the left. He saw me coming and prepared himself by raising his guard. Unfortunately for him, I punched right through his defense by hitting him straight in the face. Blood came out of his nose as he fell down backwards.

Five.

Not letting me have time to breath, another one came at me while I was unprepared, and swung his fists at my temple. I slightly ducked down and countered him by kicking his legs. He winced in pain after my shin connected with his knee joint. I took this opportunity to send in a left uppercut straight to the liver.

WHAM!

He fell straight down, spasming.

Four.

Now it was four against two. Two guys came at me while the other two fought Bianca. I could see that Bianca was dodging left and right, sometimes ducking down and crawling on the floor on all fours, like a tiger, then she would leap up from that position to strike her opponent. Rinse and repeat. Those two guys are basically being played with by Bianca.

Now these two guys infront of me, they were more confident that it's two on one. They both punched at the same time.

Left, right cross.

Right sent a left jab.

I parried down the left jab, countered with a fist to the throat, then sidestep.

Block right cross, right sidekick to the solar plexus.

Both went down easily. Now It's Bianca's turn to defeat her opponents.

She basically did consistent damage on those two guys, while she didn't receive any hits whatsoever. She looks ridiculous when she's on all fours, but if you think about the benefits, she dodges faster and strike harder, but her striking ability is limited, so she must find a moment to strike back when fighting, which she is doing so with ease.

One guy tried to stomp her, she roll dodged and leaped using one leg and threw a sharp punch straight to the jaw, knocking him unconscious. She then went back quickly on all fours, and sweeped the other guy's legs making him fall down on the floor. She quickly dashed and finished him off with a quick strike to the temple.

Just like that, we finished off a group of wannabe thugs.

From behind, we heard claps. It was Alexander who was clapping.

"Wow, just wow. I knew from the start you guys were excellent fighters, but I didn't expect you to be THAT good!" He exclaimed.

"Well, we had good teachers. Maybe." I said and glanced a little at Bianca who was now standing on her feet.

"I can see that. Bianca. I'm interested in your fighting style. Is your Martial arts called Hu Zhang?"

"Uh yes. How did you know?" She looked surprised and confused at the same time.

"It's not hard to guess with your movements. In Balkan there's only one person who knows about it, and getting to learn from him is like a dream come true. How did you manage to persuade that old guy to teach you?" He asked Bianca.

"Uh, I'd rather not talk about it for now, but you knew my master?"

"Not really. Met him on a few occasions but he's a solid fighter. Well, enough about that. What about you son? Seu-Pineo, eastern Martial arts wasn't it? As far as I know, the original school only taught three forms, but redirection of strikes wasn't one of them. Only one person managed to add the fourth form into it."

I went quiet for a few moments to process what he had said. He knew?

"You knew that person too?"

"Of course! There's not a single fighter who doesn't know the creator of the redirection technique. His technique was used in other Martial arts as well!" Alexander was getting excited.

"Wait Damien, what's he on about?" Bianca asked me.

Maybe it's time I reveal my childhood memories.

"The one who created the redirection technique.... Was my father."

It's time I look back at my past.