I hadn’t thought through what Xianying had meant by “Collections and Cleanup”. Oh, the collections part was straight forward enough. I was watching Blast’s back in case anyone got jumpy. They didn’t, which I was grateful for. I had no particular desire to use my fists on some poor overworked shopkeeper, nor to sit by and watch Blast do it. The part I should have put thought more about was ‘Cleanup’. In this case it was to put an upstart gang in the neighborhood into its place. Contrary to fiction, Yakuza, especially the dragon, were very interested in keeping the local shops in business running smoothly. These wannabes were bothering people and they’d already sent two locals to the hospital. It was bumps and bruises mostly, but rumors spread quickly and the whole affair was throwing cold water on the shopping district. Naturally, the cops weren’t going to do shit, so that was our job. Humility by knuckle sandwich.

If I had any doubts these punks deserved what was coming to them, they absolutely evaporated when I saw them pestering a businesswoman on her way home. It was hard enough holding down an office job in this country as a woman already. Low pay, long hours, awful uniforms, stupid co-workers who will never just leave you alone, dammit! Not that I had any personal experience mind you, but I had good reasons not to wanna become yet another office girl, trying to tie down some borish asshole with a decent salary simply because it was the easiest way to live. Then, if it didn’t work out I’d just be like my mother wouldn’t I? Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t trade my mother for anything in the world, but I’m also not about to trade my way of life for hers.

The office worker found herself surrounded on all ends by hoodlums. Really, their whole wardrobe was pretty much in line with what I’d seen out of Tsubasa, lots of loose fitting tracksuits and hoodies. A few of them wore blue bandannas around their arms which I took as a sign for their gang. Blast walked up, cupping her fist.

“Sorry boys, the ladies around here are all mine.”

The gang turned to look at the fiery biker chick calling them out. Then like a buncha morons two of them tried to grab her. Blast sidestepped with surprising grace, taking one by the arm and reversing his momentum to send him stumbling toward me. I tapped into my training and slugged him in the jaw. I don’t think he liked that because he grabbed my arm and squeezed it hard. I put everything I had into a left hook which caught his eye. He let go of it and stumbled backward right into a leg sweep from Blast he never saw coming that landed him right on his ass. Blast had apparently taken down the other one while I was preoccupied. We had their attention now and three of the four others charged us while one stayed back holding down their captive.

The first one swung wildly at Blast who took to taking back steps. She’d told me of the most effective tactic in a fist fight, which was allowing your opponent to wear themselves down on offense. It was a bit like how some boxers would stay on defense, waiting until their opponents stamina runs low before bringing the pain. I was not really in a position to do that, as I had two guys larger than myself barreling down on me. These guys were either not as dumb as their contemporaries, or had at least learned from their mistakes. They kept their distance while circling in different directions. Dammit! If this kept up, they were gonna surround me. I thought about breaking right and trying to run for Blast, but their reach was quite long and I was not confident I could outrun them. I couldn’t think of anything and the one who’d managed to get behind me ran up and locked my arms. The one in front gutted me with a brutal uppercut. I’m glad I hadn’t eaten recently because the blow to my stomach would have squeezed it back up if I had. He hit me again while his buddy chuckled behind me. I was starting to get dizzy from the pain. It was about then when Blast’s heel slammed into the rib cage of the one in front. He doubled over with a pained yelp, holding his possibly shattered ribs.

Blast glared at the one holding me.

“I told you.” she said raising her fists. “The ladies around here...” Blast shot low and to his left,

“ARE MINE!” Blasts fist slammed into his arm just above the shoulder. The shock made his grip loosen and I pushed forward out of his grasp and spun around. He had his balance back. He glared at me but quickly turned to find Blast. I saw an opening, I moved up to him and drove my heel into the side of his knee. He yelped and began to fall over in my direction. His fall was interrupted by Blast grabbing him by the collar and wrapping her arms around his neck. It was a sloppy grapple, but I was able to unleash a barrage of kicks to his side and back while he could do little struggling to throw Blast off. Finally, he gave out an anguished groan and dropped to the ground. Blast slammed her heel into the side of his face twice.

It didn’t look like he wanted to get back up. The last guy made an attempt to break away with his hostage, but she was struggling and likely stronger than he expected. When he saw the fight was over, he pushed the woman over, causing her to lose her balance and topple over. Blast bolted after him, chasing him down a side street. I jogged over to the fallen woman. She let out a terrified shriek as I approached. She was sobbing and doing her best to crawl away from me. She was clearly muttering something, but it was completely incomprehensible to me. Given the way she was awkwardly scooting, her ankle was badly bruised or broken. She pulled herself up against the side of a building and wept loudly.

I had no idea what to do or say. I didn’t wanna scare her, but staying here was not a good idea for the long term. Blast returned with a satisfied look on her face.

“I just did some negotiating with the gang’ss ambassador.” That asshole looked like she was about to chuckle at her own joke.

“And how did that go?”

She shrugged her shoulders in a flamboyant manner.

“I just explained to him the Dragon’s expectations for visitors and residents. How are things going here?” I looked down at the poor woman who was still shaking.

“Erm... ” I stammered “Could be better. I don’t think she can walk, chief.” Blast snorted at the nickname.

“Ha! I like that. Blaster Chief!” She giggled like a little girl. It was such a girly thing to witness and my jaw dropped from the tonal backlash. She much have caught my stare because she seemed to get very self conscious.

“Eh… anyway we should probably move her.” If she was listening, she showed no sign of it. But her sobbing had softened to the odd pained whimper.

Blast grabbed her by the arm, just under the shoulder, and pulled her to her feet. She did not resist, and I got under her other arm to help carry her.

“Where are we going?” Blast asked me like I was freakin’ supposed to know.

“Take her back to my place?” I did not sound certain at all, but Blast just nodded as we hauled her off.