A Young Bear Cries Out (Wan)

This is a startling situation indeed.

“Hey~ Say something red.”

The putrid stench of the man’s alcohol stenched breath stings Elyss’ nostrils. Though, she’s used to this feeling how many drunkards she has to be around within the Tavern. This situation, however, is worse than that. These men must have had an extra three glasses of whatever foul substance they had with how absolutely revolting their breaths felt on her skin. Yes. This is a situation indeed. She remembers how she ended up in this alley with surrounded by four men of rugged appearances.

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“He seems to have caught a bit of a bug, so tonight, the Tavern is closed, Elyss. Go enjoy yourself out in the town.”

Elyss continued letting those words rewind in her head over and over as she walks the streets of Rukongai at night letting the little lights around guide her footsteps. Have fun? She honestly has no idea how she is suppose to have fun. She’s been so busy with work and her own situation, that she’s never gone out or thought of going out to enjoy herself. What is she to do with herself out here?

Her left arm, suddenly, twitches causing her to flinch. Her eyes move down as she holds up her arm spying the cast around her left wrist. She recalls breaking it during while punching that tree and having to explain it when she had returned. Luckily, no one was angered saying she’ll just have to be more careful while working and not try to pick a fight with anyone. Those two old folks are a bit too forgiving, but she appreciates their hospitality with her blunders. She definitely should do something special for those two, but isn’t working for them enough? She’ll have to think a bit more about this.

“Hey, love? Why not you and I go out and- Ugh, No thanks.”

Elyss’ dark eyes move to the side seeing some drunk idiot trying to seduce some woman outside of a bar, but he’s instantly shot down as she walks by. She couldn’t help but smirk a bit seeing how hopeless the man seemed, and as she stepped by, she didn’t notice the man turn his gaze towards her; recognition in his eyes as he notes her red hair and familiar outfit.

‘This is boring. There’s nothing really out here but drunks and more drunks.’ Elyss’ head concludes feeling the need to return to the Tavern and rest for the night. Maybe she just chose a bad night to be out. She also has to think about how to exactly show her gratitude anyway. Yes. That is a much more worthwhile task than having fun with unruly people.

A sudden can being kicked causes her head to turn. There are only a bunch of people roaming the streets behind her and any of them could have kicked something randomly on the ground. She knows not why she was so startled by such noise, but that’s when she sees the man she saw earlier. Why is he out here? Why did he leave that bar to travel out here. Elyss notes that many of the areas around her have closed down anyway, and with how run down things look, she realizes she had absently walked into the more poorer districts of the Rukongai. The only causes her to feel more cautious about the man.

For now, she continues on deciding to test her thoughts. If she really is being followed…

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“Hey!” She feels a hand slam against the wall near her head snapping her out of her thoughts. “Ya death or something, Red? Ya do know the situation ya is in, right?”

Her black eyes look at the darkened faces of the men around her; the light of the moon above the only light in the alley. Yeah. She remembers walking and making notes of how the man before her seemed to be always behind her. She shouldn’t have turned down that alley in an attempt to go around him. That only led to a dead end where the man reappeared with three others leading to this situation.

“Ya don’t remember meh, huh? Well, let me remind ya. Ya threw me and my boys out of that Tavern, and said we’re not allowed back in there again.”

Elyss remembers this. She didn’t recall the man at first from so far away, but up close? she remembers each of these guys ugly mugs. Of course, with her violent tendencies and love for a good fight, she doesn’t show much fear in this dire situation. Maybe she should seeing how she only has one hand she can fight with.

“Oh yeah, Quiet one, aren’t ya? All ya said was to get out and never come back. I don’ts even knows ya name.”

His bad breath continued to make her skin crawl the more he talked, but she has to act wisely here. It’s one against four, and despite her bravado thoughts about how she could win this, one wrong move, and she knows she’s going to be in for a bad time.

“We’re gonna break ya, then, we’re gonna break that little Tavern.” The man gives her a despicable smirk. “Oh, how fun it’ll be.”

This causes Elyss to grit her teeth in anger. Hurt the Tavern? It’s one thing to come after her, but after the Tavern? The man notices her sudden tightening of ehr facial muscles and looks even more disgustingly evil.

“Ah, there weh go. That little Tavern got ya riled, eh?” He backs up to group with his mates who start speaking.

“We should trash it. Yeah. Break it all down to pieces.”

“What about the two owners? What’ll we do to them?”

“Well, it’s easy. They let us get kicked out, so we’ll kick them.”

There voices start to muddy together as Elyss’ mind started to get darker the more they joked about hurting the people who helped her when she was starving and lost. She could feel a pressure in her chest; a rising anger; a hunger for their bodies broken. Something’s urging to be let out, and it’s spreading throughout her body threatening to suffocate her as her vision becomes blurry for a bit. It felt like her body’s a wine bottle with a cork over it that someone just shook. The liquid wants to spill out, but that damn cork is in the way. Though, suddenly, there is a finger there popping that cork off, and at the moment, Elyss’ body sort of burps. Or is hiccup a better word. It’s weak, but there is a sensation; a sudden wave of energy around her that pushes against her surroundings forcibly. It pulses outward from her reaching a short distance outward. Her spiritual energy just popped outwards from her body, but since it was her first time, it shook her to the core feeling a sudden adrenaline within her.

She wastes no time digging her foot into the ground blinded by rage striking out at the man who dares threaten the Tavern and its owners. She holds nothing back connecting her right fist to his nose while the group were stunned by her sudden explosion of energy. Though, she immediately stumbles as the man hits the ground hard; his nose spilling blood onto his face and ground.

There’s sudden pain riveting up her left arm causing her to falter and flinch. “Ah!” Her sudden explosive attack irritated her broken wrist immensely causing her to lose vision for a second from the pain, and that falter is what gains her a fist connected squarely into her jaw rocking her world. Even if a person is untrained in fighting, a man usually has a lot of natural strength within them, and she feels the full brunt of it. Though, she does not fall to the ground as she cries out suddenly lifting her leg to connect it to that man’s side as her vision goes black; her ears ringing.

That leaves her wide open though for the next man to push her grabbing her by her hair, and "CRACK!" She feels her whole body shake; her brain bouncing against the inside of her skull as her head if forcibly pushed into the wall behind her. Her vision goes red, and she feels as if she’s going to puke as everything is incomprehensible around her.

She cannot truly tell what happened next as she feels herself falling to her knees and hitting the ground after such a hard sickening attack. No doubt she is bleeding immensely from her head after that; blood mixing with her naturally red hair. With hazy eyes, she looks upwards unable to tell who is around her.

“Ya bloody bitch! Oh, we’re going to teach ya a lesson about crossing us.”

And, she only feels her pain everywhere that soon numbs as her brain shuts down as feet begin raining down on her.