It was dim outside when I finished my required readings. It took me less time to go through the pages and thanks to my photographic memory, I could survive the daily recitations in class. I leaned back on my seat, my now cold coffee in hand, and took a sip. Jazz floated softly around the coffee shop. I relished in the calming atmosphere and the strong coffee aroma, my aching body notwithstanding.

A soft thump made me refocus. Michael had likewise finished and was packing up. Not a word to Marie during our whole stay. Marie, for her part, had not even glanced at Michael's direction. She was engrossed in her notes, or pretending to be.

"I'll go ahead," Michael gave me a curt nod before leaving. I kicked Marie's shin when Michael was out of earshot.

"Ow," she protested and glared.

"What's wrong with the two of you now?"

She huffed. "He's so annoying. That's all." Marie returned her focus on her readings, but with lips pursed together. She was also highlighting more words than usual.

"If you highlight another line or two, you would have highlighted the whole page. Defeats the purpose, bruh," I said casually.

Marie's hand abruptly stopped moving. "Right."

My phone vibrated. Michael's number flashed on the screen. It was not the personal number he was using, so I excused myself and got up, looking for an inconspicuous corner to talk to him.

"Yo."

"Rei, the search warrant for Hugo's Mansion got released. They will search the place tonight. Do you want to come?"

"Sure," I responded nonchalantly. I do not have anything better to do anyway. Also, the fact that Baron was in my apartment earlier made me want to avoid the place for a while.

"By the way, why did you collapse earlier? Who was the man you were talking to?"

"Ah, I got a little banged up yesterday. I think I injured my ribs. And the man I was talking to earlier was just an acquaintance I met somewhere. No biggie."

Michael tsked. "Let me guess, you haven't gone to the hospital to get yourself checked?"

"Uhm..."

Michael's sighed on the other end. "Go to the hospital, Reianne. You should have gone this morning. Our last night. Why didn't you mention it when you called this morning?"

"Uhm..."

"Well?"

"I...already went to the hospital? I got it covered, I swear." Thank fuck, Youtube.

"Liar."

"Who? Me?"

"Go to the hospital, Rei or I'm telling the Inspector you're being reckless," Michael threatened.

I pouted. "I don't have money for the hospital, Michael. I got it. Don't worry about it."

"The Inspector will take care of it. You know the man. He will curse and scream, and extracting money from him will be like pulling a tooth without anesthesia, but he will pay for it in the end."

"Geezus, I would have wanted to avoid the whole screaming thing if I can help it."

"Go to the hospital, Rei. Forget about the search later too." Michael dropped the call. The unspoken threat was clear as day. Unlike me, Michael worked for the Inspector voluntarily as an intelligence agent. He had more leverage with the Inspector than me. If I didn't go to the hospital, the Inspector would freeze my assignments. Even though I sometimes felt trapped with this arrangement with the Inspector, I had to admit that it paid for my rent. Being vacant indefinitely would put me in a tight financial bind.

With a defeated sigh, I headed back to our table. Marie had given up on the readings in front of her. She was now browsing Instagram and from the way she tensed and tightened her jaws, I would bet Korn's fluffy butt that she just chanced upon Michael's feed.

"Okay, bruh, spill. You're just about to crack your phone with how tight you're holding that thing."

"He flaked on me. Again. He was supposed to lend me a textbook the other day. I put off studying because of it and now I'm so far behind schedule. He told me it was because of something important. Guess what"--Marie showed me her phone--"he was just out partying."

I recognized some of the people in the photo, however. They were persons-of-interest; people whom the police had their eyes on for a while, and Michael happened to be acquainted with them. Michael was not partying per se. He was working. Marie didn't know that, however. I feigned shock and maybe raised my brow a little.

"The bastard," I quipped, lost for words. Goddamn, I think I used up all my acting skills earlier.

Marie snorted. "I'm just a friend, I know. It's just that I--I felt...disregarded most of the time."

Marie's face crumpled a little as she averted her gaze from me, and a sliver of guilt crawled up my frame. In that regard, I was also at fault. There was nothing that could be done though. We couldn't endanger her by telling her about the police assignments.

"Hey, want to go to the karaoke nearby and angst your heart out?" I offered. It was the least I could do.

Marie snapped her eyes at me. At first I thought she'd refuse, but her jaw ticked. She stood up abruptly. "Yes, let's do that."

Twenty minutes later, Marie was belting to Evanescence's Call Me When You're Sober while I guzzled my beer. Marie was a good singer. The alcohol deadens my pain. This was as good as this night would get.

It was around dinner time when Marie finally finished screaming her lungs out. As a dutiful friend, I let her hog the microphone the entire time. It was impossible to sing in my condition anyway.

Marie gave me a tight hug, squeezing the remaining life out of me in the process. My breath hitched as pain flooded my chest.

Fuck. Fine. Hospital it is.

"I'll see you on Monday, Rei," Marie said as she turned, giving me a last minute wave.

The pain prevented me from returning her farewell verbally, so I gave her a small wave back. My hand grasped my side when Marie was finally out of sight. I slouched and leaned on the wall, groaning as I waited for the painful wave to subside.

"Ah, fuckin hell." I hissed when my chest contracted and made it doubly hard to breathe. A passing pedestrian heard me curse and gave me a stinky side eye. I mentally gave him my middle finger.

When I could move again, I made a beeline towards the nearest public hospital. I took an alley that I knew would bring me faster to it. It was the typical dirt-encrusted city alley, with garbage thrown haphazardly everywhere. I was halfway through the alley when snickers behind me caught my attention.

"Hello there, pretty."

Dazed from the pain, I did not notice the group of men sitting atop the crates at one side of the alley. There were five of them, each wearing leather tops with metal studs. Their tattoos told me that they belong to a gang that festered in the neighborhood. I sighed in irritation and walked faster.

"Hey, hey, hey." One of them approached and blocked my way. "We're still talking to you. That's not very respectful of you, isn't it?" He flashed a lewd grin.

"Go away," I replied as I continued walking.

He grabbed my arm. "Why don't you spend some time with--"

I elbowed his face, bashing his teeth in. He clutched his bleeding mouth as he cursed.

"Hands fucking off," I growled though gritted teeth, breathing shallow as another wave of agony tore through me. "Touch me again and I'll rip your arms off," I said, wheezing.

"Bitch!" he yelled, even as his comrades backed away from me. "You'll pay for that!"

Despite the pain, I rolled my eyes. "I don't have money for your dentures."

He kept cursing, but it was not enough to make his friends come at me. I glared at them before walking away.

A glint of metal flashed before my eyes followed by a twang. I halted my steps on instinct before snapping my head towards the sound. A knife got embedded into the post beside me.

"I believe you owe my boys an apology, miss."

Another voice, and it was not one of the five. A figure emerged from the adjoining alley. From the way the other five looked at him with deference, I bet my non-existent savings that he was the leader of the group.

Great. Just great.

"It's been a while since I had a woman," he said as he focused his lascivious eyes on me.

I raised a brow. "No wonder. Have you seen yourself in the mirror lately?"

It was not the best idea to chide him. However, I did not earn the title "Reaper" by doing what was considered the best at a given situation.

They advanced and I retreated a few steps back, digging into my pocket for my needles.

My pocket was empty.

Of all the days that I could have been accosted, why did it have to the day I left my needles at home? Why? I took deep calming breaths. 

I started training with Master Shao when I was just ten years old, and he was a strict, borderline cruel, master. There was this one time when he made me break a log in half using just my hands.

Whack!

Ouch.

Whack!

Ouch.

Whack!

Ouch.

It went on and on, but the darned log would not break. I had enough.

"Master! I don't see the point in this. We have axes and electric saws for crying out loud. I don't see why I have to do it with my arms!"

Master Shao's lips twitched and he snapped his towel against my butt. It stung a bit.

"Ouch." I touched my butt where it hurt and pouted. "This is child abuse! I know my rights." I shook my fist in the air indignantly.

"Reianne," he said, all serious. "Look at this." He shoved a newspaper at me. The headline is about a child who was kidnapped and murdered.

"This child came from a rich family. He had parents to protect him. The authorities did all their best to find him, and still he died." He paused. "If a child like that can end this way, how much more you? The streets are far less merciful for the likes of you and I will not always be there to protect you."

I groaned but reigned in my smart-ass reply because I could feel the sincerity in Master's words. I still think he was overreacting but I proceeded to whack the log in earnest once again.

By the end of the day, I had broken my right arm and tears flowed freely from my eyes.

"Stop crying!" Master Shao shouted. "You still have your left arm!"

So I switched, bashing my left arm against the unbreakable log. Come the next day, my left arm was broken too. After that, Master Shao made me use my right leg, then my left leg, when the right one became too sore. For the course of the next few months, my broken arms healed and got broken again, but still, the log did not break. I sobbed and completely broke down.

"Master, it's impossible! It's too painful!" I cried. "Please, no more!" I begged him. My broken arms hanging limply at my sides.

"Reainne, as long as you feel pain, it means you can still think. If you can think, you can survive." Then he walked away, leaving me with my broken arms and the darned log. I moped but got up again and kicked the log. I kicked and kicked and let out my frustrations at it. Every movement sent mind-numbing pain to my very core, but I went on. I embraced the pain, and let it go through me with each movement again and again until I could barely move, until I passed out due to exhaustion.

I had no idea how many more days passed, but once my arms were somewhat well again, I got back to whacking the log. I might be hallucinating from the pain, but I sensed that the log was shaking more lately. I gave it one more whack and to my surprise, it broke in two. It broke in two!

"Master! Master, I did it!"

Master Shao approached to survey my work. His lips twitched a little--his version of a smile.

"Good. Do it again. There's another log over there." He pointed at another piece of lumber. I whined.

"And don't use the sledgehammer this time," Master said reproachfully, then went back inside the house.

I huffed. One night, I was so frustrated, I used the sledgehammer. Well, Master Shao taught me to be wise and cunning, didn't he? I went to the new log and whacked away, taking a mental note as to where I last saw the sledgehammer.

Did you know that in order to have strong fighter bones, you have to cause micro fractures on them, let them heal, and then repeat the process over? This cycle of breaking and mending creates superhuman bone strength! That being said, I don't recommend that you try this at home unless you are unfortunate enough to have Master Shao as your master!

Xoxo,

RF

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