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She, a name.

With her face squished against the fine, and thick wooden counter, Ilinca snored loudly, with her arms extended entirely towards the ground and her back bent while sitting on a metal chair, fixed with a small red pillow, movable left and right.

The barman turned around after fixing tens of bottles in strategic positions on glass flat spaces, all inside a glass circle formation, and slammed the table, while screaming as loud as he could towards Ilinca.

“ILINCAAA!”

Ilinca, a girl of twenty two years of age, short hair with a ponytail in the back, a bandana over her eyes, low-shoes, cargo pants and bandages around her chest, as well as a 4-pointed star tattoo on the back of her left hand, woke up to reality, from the deepest dreams, just like a bolt of lightning hitting the land of mortals.

Startled by the scream, Ilinca accidentally raised her right knee, making a big dent inside a thick, wooden counter.

Seeing the dent, the old barman’s look has targeted the spot from every direction possible, widening his eyes, almost getting a heart attack, while his entire face quickly turns red from rage, with cartoonish smoke slowly coming out of his ears and nose.

“ILIIIIIN–!”

“Wha-what-what happened”
Asked Ilinca in a confused manner, quickly reaching for her sword, jumping up from the seat, and targeting the side that was going towards the exit.

“Ilinca, you’re scaring all of my customers again! You damn alcoholic. I can’t even comprehend how does one barrel of pure beverage straight from my–”

“From your father?”

Continued Ilinca, stopping his sentence and continuing it herself”

She looked behind her, tilting slowly towards the left, then dragging herself back to the normal standing position

“There is no one behind me… oh (places hand on head, grunting her eyebrows and looking down) I’m not feeling so good”

Taking out a small noise of a hiccup, she held her mouth with one of her hands while her mouth got filled from the inside.

“Oh no. NOT AT ALL. DO NOT THROW UP INSIDE! ILINCAAA!”
Shouted the barman, breaking the record of weirdest skin colorations, slowly turning to blue from anger.

She swallowed what was inside her mouth and then gave the barman a loud smile and one cocky thumbs up jokingly.

“DO NOT THUMBS UP ME!”
Shouted the barman jokingly, stressed.

The bell of the shop clings and two tall men, along with a smaller one in the middle, enter.

Their entrance made a dominant air all around the bar. The smaller one clothed up in a literal gold suit and the other two had expensive dark-colored suits.

Headline image:

“Redericker Denis “NO BOUNTY”

“Redericker Marcu, 320 Mede”

“Redericker Alejandro “NO BOUNTY”

“Heya, Ilinca, those are the twins, the bosses of that one small function. The middle one has a bounty on his head. Don’t talk… shh”

The barman looked very frightened by their appearance, knowing how infamous they were in the city.

Ilinca targeted Marcu’s eyes, the smaller one, but not with any look, a look that was piercing through the man’s soul.

Denis, seeing that Ilinca tried to intimidate Marcus by a staring contest, feeling the tension between the two looks, he grabbed his pocket knife and in a matter of a second, quickly jumped to her throat with a unusual looking knife that had an pale-orange edge. It was the twin, Denis. The other twin, Alejandro, targeted her face ever since they came inside the bar, charmed by her beauty. Even if he couldn’t see her eyes from the bandana that she had placed over her own eyes, her semi-blonde and fine looking hair, her muscular body structure, but not too much, just enough for him, as well as how she was dressed up, amazed him. 

“Denis… (does a gesture for him to lower the weapon) calm, calm fratele meu”

Marcus slowly approached Ilinca, and gently placed his hand on her chin, wandering his eyes all around her body, checking out her muscular structure and also her womanly proportions.

“Unde ai gasit-o pe domnișoara aceasta, barman?”

Asked Marcus, lowering down his arm, then proceeded to take out a cigar big as all five fingers from a hand stuck together, and lighted up the brown material with a golden ladybug lighter.

Taking a long sip from the cigar, he then continued to make a few more circles.

“You’re not allowed to smoke in here”

Said Ilinca, quickly placing her hand towards her hip, where something long was placed inside a thick leather toque.

“You can’t speak Romanian, huh? Beauty?”
He chuckled, which went to a slight laugh and a snort of his voice, while looking back at his brothers, then turning back to Ilinca, giving her a kiss in the air, followed by a slight blow on it, a gesture of love, but in this case, it was for more of a joke.

“Ilinca…”

Bernard mentioned her name in a calmer manner and she lowered her hand also, but still continuing to hold a grunting pair of eyebrows.

While Ilinca calmed down, Marcus went to the nearest of the walls and twisted the tip of his cigar, tinting the bright yellow wall with it, then placing it on the nearest table.

He sighted, placing both of his hands in his pockets, letting the gold on his neck and his wrist cling in metallic sounds. 

“Este prea dominanta domnișoara asta, domne’’ Bernard. Daca nu… ar fi putut plăti taxa ta pentru următorii doi ani, dacă nu o sa o strice ăștia din Casa 4”
Marcus started laughing lively and then a few seconds changed his expression to a serious one.

“Este o clienta mai veche, venea aici la mine ca sa mai bea de suparare… hah…ha… stiti cum este, domnule Redericker (swallows while sweating intensely)...… uitati, ea doar ce pleca–”

Continued the barman which was eventually interrupted by the biggest in rank from the twins, Marcus

The scene changes to what Ilinca sees, a world in gray with very blurry shapes such as the floor, the walls, and the roof, and the two of the twins, Marcus and Denis, who had a dark-red “inexisting” necklaces around their necks, and Alejandro, who had the same necklace, but in the pale-blue color. These necklaces did not exist in the real world; They could only be seen by Ilinca and these glowing colors were representing the people’s emotions.

The scene changes back to normal.

“Gluma ca gluma, domne’ Bernard, dar ca tot veni vorba de asta; Taxa de protectie unde o tineti dumneavoastra? Este data de intai”
Marcu’s voice got deeper and more dominant.

“What did he say, Bernard?”

Asked Ilinca, looking towards the barman with a very curious intention to understand the conversation

“Shut up, Ilinca!”
Said the barman, trying to obviously shout at her in a very low pitched voice, because he wanted to keep her out of trouble, but his plan was ruined when she opened her mouth.

His whole entire body started sweating, like he was stuck in a never ending nightmare, running from his biggest fears, but this time, the fear was in front of him.

“U-uitati… domnule Redericker… a-am plata… doar ca…”

“Ah. Deci nu o aveti?”

Asked Marcus, with a dominant and unbothered voice in his tone.

Marcus snapped his fingers with his arm waved upwards with an unbothered motion, and Denis hurried in front of him.

His eyelids loosened while he turned half of his head towards Ilinca.

“Your hand, or the barman’s?”

“A mea, Redericker, taie-mi mana mie! Ilinca nu are nicio treaba! Luati-mi ambele maini, dar lasati-o pe ea sa plece, va rog din toata inima”

Continued the barman, with fright and panic in his voice

“V-am luat deja trei degete, dar vad ca nu v-ati saturat”

Marcus placed two of his fingers in his mouth, both from the same hand and made a gesture with his hand so that his twins would go towards the barman.

“L-ati auzit frații mei, mosneagu’ a ales”

Alejandro was hesitant to go towards the barman at first, but Denis went directly, ready to prepare everything for his twin, Marcus, just like pulling back the barman’s sleeves from his shirt, and to hold his hands down.

Understanding the situation, Ilinca quickly bowed, took out her toque, which she dropped sideways, and offered her sword, a thin metallic piece, with no pointy top, and a short, black-rope covered handle. She offered it just like a prize, bowing her head and extending her arms, having the weapon beautifully displayed on both of her palms

“Haha… vedeti asta, fratii mei, uitați o domnisoara ascultatoare”

Chuckled Marcus, reaching for the sword, while pointing with the tip of his fingers towards Ilinca.

Placing his hand on the middle of the sword, the blade, with a slight carefulness so that he wouldn’t cut himself, Marcus tried pulling it towards him, but it wouldn’t budge.

“Hm…?”

Asked Marcus with a more serious look on his face, looking back to the sword.

She was holding it by the handle, and so like that, even if Marcus used more force than he should have, even pushing himself towards the back, he still couldn’t move the sword, not even an inch

“Fir-ai tu…”

Groaned Marcus, annoyed

Pushing his right shoulder towards the back, Marcus prepared to slap Ilinca with a huge force, but right when his palm would be in contact with her face, Ilinca quickly jumped her knee, which jolted up, cutting Marcus’s upper fingers, just like a hot knife would cut through warm butter.

His fingers fell down on the floor, and blood spurted out from the missing places, all around his face and golden suit, messing it all up.

“Ah..aaah! CE-AI FACUT!?”
Screamed Marcus, narrowing his eyes, going rabid, falling down on the ground, shaking his injured hand, frightened by the sight of his own bone cut off and his flesh gone.

Denis jumped with his fists covered in knuckle accessories, made out of gold and jumped to conclusion in a match of fighting hand-to-hand. Ilinca quickly took her sword and placed the toque on top of it. She used the toque in her advantage, to dodge many more attacks of his

fists. Quick movements, very fast. One single punch from Denis’s athletic and muscular body would be enough to put her in a coma. In that moment, Ilinca would show him that women also got the power in their own hands and that they can fight too.

Ilinca did some moves that looked just like dancing moves, but they were actually very clean and fancy dodges, just like the movement of her hand, parry with her palms, and also the toque and her sword. Her toque was made out of Holy wood, a gray-ish color, which was more durable than gold itself, and her sword was made out of a Blessed material from electric ink from the Oceans between the continents.

The one thing that bothered her the most was Denis’s left hand, which was the most active one and the fastest one (a lefty maybe?), so that was her target. Ilinca used her sword again, trying, with an amazing and neat move of her sword, to cut the golden accessory in half, and succeeded after twenty sword strikes from different positions, awkward and good ones and angles.

The golden accessory fell on the ground, creating a loud metallic thud, with a heavy effect along it.

Denis placed his naked hand right inside his pocket and continued the fight.

A thing that shocked Ilinca was that Denis targeted the nerve from her right hand, in which her sword was, making her let go of it.

The next thing she did was to use the toque to bump her head into it, targeting his “clothed” fist and succeeded in making a big dent inside it, breaking three of his fingers in the process.

That was the moment when Denis stared at his broken fingers for a few seconds, and when Ilinca won the fight by quickly placing both of her hands on his head and dragging it in the wall, slamming it as hard as she could, while letting out a big yell.

“Alejandro, DU-TE, CE STAI AICI!”
Screamed Marcus, having more napkins, strongly attached to his injured hand, which were tinted in blood.

Alejandro was only charmed by her beauty, her style, her overall personality. He couldn’t say it out loud in words, he could only think about her.

She huffed and took deep breaths while staring towards Alejandro. Even if she couldn’t see, Ilinca was staring at his soul, a good soul.

Alejandro ran towards her with a worrying look on his face, not wanting to disobey his brother’s request.

Thinking that it would be a hand-to-hand combat, just like it was with Denis, she dropped down her toque and sword and raised her hands, but to her surprise, Alejandro dropped half of his body towards her legs with a high speed and good tactic.

“What… wrestling?”
Whispered Ilinca to herself

Lucky for her, Ilinca could sense an overall body that would be projected from each person’s necklace, an imaginary context for their bodies that would be of great help to her, either when she has to kiss a boy… or to fight a man taller and more dominant than her.

Alejandro quickly switched up the situation and snuck underneath her raised leg which was meant to break his chin if he wouldn’t have changed the pose, and dived underneath her just like a snake and grabbed her by her back, after which he raised her just like a feather.

He slowly prepared to fall backwards by bending his back.

“This power, is he doing a suplex? Does he want to break my spine into bits?”

Thought Ilinca to herself

Alejandro then whispered in her ear so that Marcus wouldn’t see him

“Act with me. I’ll loosen the grab”

He loosened the grab, after which Ilinca easily escaped and kneed the right part of his ribcage with massive force, leaving him without breath, after which he fell down just like a statue, grasping for a hint of breath.

“Now I remember… I knew I heard your name somewhere, Ilinca Adam, is it? The prodigy of SwordKick who won 225 fights?”

Asked Marcus, huffing and having shallow breath

“I stopped counting for a while, and focused myself on taking the entire association down”

“WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, YOU’RE JUST A FUTILE GIRL!”
Shouted Marcus, raising a gun from inside his coat, pointing it towards Ilinca

The moment that Ilinca saw Marcus taking out the hand-gun, she hit a strike movement with a sword, letting the toque run off the sword, hitting Marcus’s forehead, making him fall unconscious and breaking his skull, but she saw the bullet too late.

Right before Marcus got hit in his forehead, he succeeded in shooting the bullet into a metallic plate from the wall to his  right, which ricocheted to Ilinca.

A slow-motion action happened. From the same position in which she was, Ilinca switched her position of her hands and cut the bullet in two; The bullet let out two sparks, one in the left and the other one on the right, deflecting the high-speed bullets that got stuck in the wall behind her, as the scene changes back to normal speed.

The barman stood amazed and didn’t say a word until now.

“Wait… (groans in pain) what do you want to do with Marcus?”
Asked Alejandro, trying to numb the pain, just to look good in Ilinca’s eyes as he would be a tough guy.

“The money will go to the charity which is downtown, so I will turn him in for the bounty on his head”