Section 43: Chapter Forty-Three—The Thugs Attack
It was already dark. Ursus and Lungmen were separated by several hours of time difference, so what should have been daytime had already become completely dark in Ursus.
Since she still hadn't adapted to the time difference, Yelena's bedtime had been pushed back quite a bit.
But her sister had gone out.
Yelena was used to that. It seemed like there were many people who needed her sister's help.
But...
Life was like a plant—slow and peaceful. That was what living was supposed to be.
Her sister often kept that phrase on her lips. It seemed to mean that one should live properly?
Yelena still didn't fully understand her sister.
But that sense of security wasn't false.
"Take good care of it. This thing is very delicate."
It was a gift from the neighbor: a pot of four-leaf clovers sitting on the balcony.
The old woman next door had given it to them when her sister brought Yelena here.
Her sister had said that the language of four-leaf clovers was happiness and hope.
Just like those words suggested, after leaving Ursus, life seemed to have become completely peaceful.
Or rather...
The girl who had been endlessly tormented by nightmares from the past had been brought back into this world by a silver-haired girl.
There was no more cold, nor the black masks that represented Ursus's oppression.
All that remained was... an ordinary daily life.
Everything was too real—so real that it seemed as though the past had only been a dream.
A nightmare that would be forgotten as soon as one awoke.
Perhaps it really had only been a dream.
Standing on the wooden stool beneath the balcony, the petite girl was barely level with the flowers.
She picked up the watering can with both hands, then filled it at the faucet so she could water the flowers tomorrow.
They needed watering every other day. They liked sunlight and were hardy, but right now the clover's leaves were tightly wrapped up.
They would only open again after the sun rose the next day.
Life was like a plant.
Her sister really did like saying things that were hard to understand.
But there was no denying that a smile could now be seen on the girl's face.
If things continued like this, perhaps the gloom and nightmares of this world would never come back to torment her...
If only it continued.
Suddenly, someone knocked on the door.
Had her sister come back?
Every time her sister returned, she brought Yelena something delicious.
So whenever her sister went out, the greatest surprise was guessing what tasty food she would bring back this time!
The girl happily jumped off the stool and skipped to the door, just about to open it.
Wait?
Open the door?
Her tender white hand stopped right in front of the doorknob.
Did her sister knock every day when she came home?
No. Her sister had never given her a key! The key was always with her sister.
Since the key had always been with her sister, then why was someone knocking?
The cold touch filled the girl's heart with a trace of fear.
The entire space seemed to grow cramped. An inexplicable sense of oppression descended over the girl's heart.
Who, exactly, was outside the door?!
The girl suddenly pulled her hand back and took several steps backward. The knocking from earlier had vanished like an illusion and did not sound again.
The door, which seemed rather tall before the girl, appeared to be shrouded in shadow.
Had someone knocked on the wrong door?
Or had she heard it wrong?
The room's silence now revealed the dead quiet within.
There was no sound anymore.
Maybe she really had heard it wrong.
In an instant, the seemingly sturdy wooden door suddenly exploded apart!
"Urgh!!"
It seemed to have been an explosion from the outside inward. Countless splinters flew in every direction, and appearing alongside the destruction of the wooden door was...
The grimacing face of a man carrying a baseball bat!
"I told you! Anyone who messes with the Black Hand Gang won't come to a good end!"
The man shouted arrogantly. Dozens of figures stood around him as well, apparently thugs from the neighborhood. Some carried clubs, some shouldered iron pipes, and some even held machetes.
"Hm?"
After barging into the tiny clinic, the man glanced at the little child before him and revealed an unexpected expression.
Why was this little brat still awake at this hour? Shouldn't that slut of a doctor have been the one to open the door?!
"Boss, there's... only a kid here."
The thug beside him had also noticed the child, but the place was completely empty. There wasn't any sign of an adult at all. Where was the woman their boss had mentioned?
"What adult or child? I can tell you're new here. There are no distinctions here! Smash the place up!"
The thug leader, baseball bat in hand, was clearly much more confident this time. After all, he had brought people and weapons with him. Last time, he had been caught off guard by a surprise attack. This time, even if that woman came, he had nothing to fear!
"You dare!"
"Hey, you little brat. You ambushed me last time and now you're acting all high and mighty? Just watch—I'll break your legs this time!"
Thugs weren't professional criminal organizations like the mafia. They were criminal gangs made up of people from the bottom of society, with both extremely low standards and limited ability.
With that, the little thug showed no mercy just because she was a child. He swung his club straight at Yelena's head.
However, the little girl did not instinctively retreat from the club's attack in fear, as the thug leader had expected.
Instinct was meant to seek benefit and avoid harm. But sometimes, instinct didn't help people escape danger—instead, it caused even greater harm.
The baseball bat wasn't very long. If she retreated, the force of the swing would reach its full potential.
Close-quarters striking, on the other hand, was a technique that went against human instinct.
It emphasized sticking close to the enemy and entangling them at close range!
The girl advanced instead of retreating. When the club came down, only its handle struck her shoulder.
"What the—?!"
Yelena absorbed the attack with her shoulder, then suddenly hooked her right arm around the man's right arm, the one holding the club. At the same time, her clenched left fist shot forward!!
The man let out a scream and was sent flying again. This time, because one of the girl's arms had restrained him, he took almost the full force of the punch!
After flying backward and knocking down several underlings, the entire gang froze for several seconds.
No one had expected a child to send their boss flying in an instant.
What was going on????
Soon, the man behind them spat the blood from his mouth and cursed loudly.
"Fucking hell, what are you all staring at? What are you waiting for? Get her together!!"
Only then did the little gang react. They raised their weapons and surrounded the girl.
Even a weak hyena would dare snatch food from a lion if there were enough of them!!!
P.S. Chapter recommendation: "Me! Exusiai's Older Sister! I Won't Go Down Easily!"
A lighthearted and cheerful story filled with killing intent, shameless flirting, and a joyous festival of beating up villains.
I just remembered that I should be able to promote my own book at the end, right? I can, right? I can, right? I can, right?
Hehehe, so anyone interested can go check it out. Consider it helping me bring in a little traffic, hehe.
Section 44: Chapter Forty-Four—The Choice
As the saying went.
"She's alone! Get her together!"
The men shouted, and these vicious fellows were naturally experienced street fighters.
It was hard to say how much technique they had, but when it came to ruthlessness, these thugs were a nasty bunch.
Even against a child, they had no trouble striking her—and they might even hit harder.
The crowd surrounded the girl in the cramped room, then swung their clubs wildly!
The whistling wind passed by Yelena's ear. The girl merely tilted her head out of habit, and the club swept through the air beside her.
A difference of a hair could mean a difference of a thousand miles. Her slight dodge sent the attack past her strands of hair, but it also left the attacker completely exposed.
The girl suddenly leaped backward to avoid the machete thrusting toward her. It looked as though she intended to throw her back into the arms of the attacker behind her.
However, while her slender body was airborne, she swung her arm. Her upper body drove her waist, and the girl's limbs turned her body around in midair.
Then her already-curled left fist exploded forward!
It was an attack launched from the lower left after closing in. The petite body released astonishing power.
That punch struck the man behind her squarely in the left side of his waist.
The man could only curl up and collapse to the floor, but Yelena had already found her next target.
Close-quarters striking made it difficult for the enemy to use their blades. Every attack became a melee at point-blank range, and the distance prevented the surrounding thugs from providing timely support. If they attacked carelessly, they might hit their own allies instead.
This left the opponents tying their own hands, while Yelena was like a young wolf charging into a flock of sheep. The moment she knocked one down, she immediately found the next and took them down one by one.
In an instant, more and more thugs lay sprawled across the floor, while the much larger gang couldn't surround their opponent at all!
She could do this.
She knocked aside an opponent's guard with a punch, used Iron Mountain Lean to crash him out of the crowd, then followed up by turning her extended fist into a downward chopping palm that struck another man's neck.
This was insane.
The girl was like a white cannonball flying everywhere she went. Wherever she passed, she left behind a thug lying on the ground and howling in pain. She was so fast they could barely see her, even though they were the ones with the numbers.
Yet the girl had fought her way in and out seven times. Her short stature had instead become a form of protection, making her difficult to catch and bizarrely agile.
Her techniques looked disciplined enough, but in a fight, she used every means at her disposal.
She even resorted to stomping viciously on her opponents' feet.
Had they run into someone truly formidable?
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