Path of the Warrior Ch. 5
By Shadow Ryu

"My name is Rose," the woman told Ryu as she took out a handkerchief from her purse and gave it to him. Ryu, looking into her eyes, grabbed it and gave her a nervous look of confusion as he held the handkerchief loosely in his hand. He didn't seem to understand what she gave it to him for.

Rose giggled as she pointed to his head. "It's for your cut!" She couldn't help but find it funny that he had just finished thrashing a large gang of goons, yet was so visibly intimidated by a single woman who had no harmful intentions whatsoever. Ryu wiped his wound off with the handkerchief carefully and tried to maintain his composure.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome, Ryu," Rose said bowing her head politely.

It took a few seconds for what she said to sink in. "How . . . how did you know my name?"

Rose smiled, almost deviously. "Oh, it's a talent. It's hard to explain."

As Ryu was about to speak again, Thuy reappeared with a washcloth and some bandages. Rose noticed the old woman approaching and calmly started to back away from the fighter.

"Well, I'm afraid I have to get going for now," Rose said. "I'd rather not be talking to you in front of all these people. I want to see you again though."

Ryu nodded his head in response, while a mesmerized stare was etched on his face.

"Alone." she added.

"Alone?" Ryu repeated.

Rose nodded once. "Yes. I'll come again tomorrow. Until then, take care of yourself," Rose smiled and walked to the door. Looking back, she gave him a single, pleasant wave at him before leaving the restaurant. Ryu slowly put his hand up to wave back, but when he finally did, she had already walked out the door.

"See, I knew he'd beat 'em all up!" an excited Narin yelled, jumping up and down. He walked up to Ryu and pushed his arm a bit to get his attention. "You were great!"

Ryu smiled at the boy in response.

"Okay, Narin. Enough," Thuy said as she prepared some bandages. "Leave Ryu be for now. I'm sure he's tired. Besides, it should be about time for you to get ready for bed."

Narin sighed in disappointment. "Oh, okay." Although he obviously didn't want to obey, Narin walked away and into the kitchen doors. As he did, he decided to throw a few kicks to mimic Ryu's performance.

"He's a good kid," Ryu commented.

"Yeah, he's a handful to deal with sometimes though," Thuy said as she took a washcloth and washed off the wound on his head. "He grows on you though."

Ryu nodded and smiled.

"Who was that woman talking to you?" she asked.

"I don't know," Ryu told her. "This is the first time I've met her."

Thuy laughed. "Well, a good looking young boy like you, I can't be surprised that you have women after you like that."

"What?" Ryu responded. Surely that wasn't why Rose was talking to him. Well, she did seem to take a genuine interest in him, but there was no way it could be anything serious. Besides, he was sure that Rose seemed was at least in her mid twenties. At seventeen, he was much too young for a woman like that. Ryu stopped thinking about it and changed the subject as quickly as he could.

"I'm sorry about your restaurant," he said, surveying the mess. There were broken tables, shattered dishware, and various debris lying all over the floor.

"I'm the one that should be sorry," Thuy argued. "I should never have dragged you in to this."

"It's all right. I don't mind. I'm used to fighting."

"Oh."

"I really think I should have been able to fight better. I should have been able to stop them from causing so much damage."

Thuy suddenly hit him on the top of his head with her open hand. "What are you talking about? You just beat up a whole gang of thugs by yourself! You're lucky you didn't get killed! Forget about my restaurant, you're life is what's more important! And you're putting yourself down for the way you fight? Don't be a stupid boy!"

Ryu was surprised at her reaction. In truth, Ryu knew that she did not understand the way he lived his life either as a martial artist seeking the perfection of his chosen craft. "Here, I'll help clean up the mess."

Thuy hit him again, a little bit harder. "Enough of that. You've done more than enough for me today. You just rest for the night. You're probably tired enough as it is from hauling around those dishes all day alone. Why don't you just relax for the rest of the night?"

"Are you sure?"

She motioned as if to try and hit him again, but stopped when she saw Ryu flinch slightly. "Yes, I'm sure. Leave the mess to me."

"Okay," he said. After the bandage was applied to his head, he stood up and walked toward the kitchen door. "Good night." he said.

"Good night," she said to him. When he vanished from her sight, she laughed to herself. "Stupid boy," she whispered, shaking her head with a smile.

*****

The next morning, Ryu was up early as per usual and went out for a morning run. It was a run that reinforced how he was not used to the South Asian heat; he had decided that he enjoyed running in cold climates quite a bit better.

When he returned to the restaurant, Thuy was awake, sweeping up the broken glass that remaining outside from the carnage the night before. She did not entirely look like she slept well.

"Good morning," Ryu said, sweat dripping down his face.

"Good morning," Thuy said. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine."

"Good to see someone around here is a morning person," she said with a laugh. "Come inside, and I'll make you breakfast. I'm sure you must have worked up quite an appetite by now.

*****

Ryu wasn't particularily well-learned on table manners, but Thuy did not mind. As the older woman took her time putting each item of food in her mouth, Ryu, much like he usually did, ate like a ravenous dog, putting as much food into his mouth as he possibly could. After he was done, Ryu wiped some of the remnants of food lying around his mouth and took a drink of water.

"You're a very good cook."

"Thank you," Thuy responded.

"Is Narin awake yet?" Ryu asked. He felt like having the opportunity to teach some more of his martial art to the young boy like he had the day before.

"No. I could hear him in his room last night, kicking away, causing a commotion. I'm guessing he didn't go to sleep until late. It seems you've made quite an impression on him!" Thuy smiled. "Have you had enough?" she asked, wondering if her guest was still hungry.

"Yes, that was enough. Thank you."

"You're welcome."

Ryu stood up out of his chair and stretched his arms into the air. "Narin practised with me a little yesterday and I'd like the chance to teach him."

"Really? That's quite nice of you. I just hope you don't give him any ideas that he can go out and beat all the punks that hang around here up. But still, I've never seen him so happy since you came around. He's usually a very sad boy."

"Sad boy?"

"Yes. You see, before I met him, he lived on the streets. He often slept out back behind my restaurant, sometimes looking for food in the garbage I put out there."

"So you took him in?"

"I started actually by just leaving him some fresh food every night. Then, a few months ago, I decided that since I had a couple of extra rooms upstairs, I would let him stay here so long as he helped me and the other staff with some of the chores and duties. Like washing dishes and things like that. But even after taking him in, he's still normally a very sad boy. He rarely smiles at all."

"Why not?" Ryu asked.

"The main reason is that he never knew his parents. He knows nothing really about his family at all. That sort of thing must really be hard on him, especially at his age."

Ryu stopped stretching out his arms and concentrated solely on listening when she mentioned how Narin did not know his parents.

"He's a very quiet boy. Very lonely. He seems to enjoy spending most of his time wandering around the neighbourhood by himself. He doesn't try to play with any other children. That's why I've noticed he seems so much brighter the last day or two. He seems really happy to have someone like you to look up to."

"Really?" Ryu responded, smiling slightly. He wasn't sure of what to make of all this attention.

Thuy nodded in response as a sleepy-eyed Narin came into the dining room through the kitchen door.

"Good morning, sleepyhead," Thuy said to the boy. "Sit down and I'll get you some breakfast." Thuy said getting out of her chair.

"Good morning, Ryu!" Narin said brightly, despite the fact he just woke up.

"Good morning," Ryu responded.

As Narin went over to the table to sit down, Ryu could not help but look at the boy. It was a little awkward to him knowing that the boy looked at him as a role model. However, the main thing that Ryu absorbed was that the fact that he and the boy had something in common. Ryu, himself, had also never known who his true family was. He had been left by a temple in the mountains as a baby. It was there were he was raised by the fighting monk, Gouken, who became the only thing close to a father he had ever had. And although Gouken had done a very good job of raising him from a child into a young adult, there was still part of Ryu that wondered who his real family was. These were feelings that Narin must have had to deal with much like he had since he was a child.

"After breakfast, do some of your chores," Ryu told him. "Then I'll teach you a little afterward in your spare time. That is if you'd like."

Narin's face lit up. "Sure!" he exclaimed.

As Ryu smiled in response, he looked outside the restaurant and noticed a black car with tinted windows stop suddenly with a screech directly in front of the restaurant. The door of the back seat opened quickly and a man with a black mask on his head appeared, getting out of the car just enough so that he could take out a machine gun and aim it at the restaurant. It all happened so suddenly and unexpectedly that it caught Ryu off guard.

"Get down!" Ryu screamed when he caught sight of the weapon. Narin, still rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, was oblivious to the danger and sat still in his chair. Not hesitating, Ryu ran over as quickly as he could and took Narin out of the chair down to the ground as lightly as he could to avoid hurting him. Then, the rapid sound of gunfire exploded upon the restaurant. Bullets flew into the walls like an insensed swarm of bees, tearing whatever got in their way to shreads. Ryu held Narin to the ground and covered the frightened boy's ears with his hands to shield them from the noise.

After a few seconds, the barrage ceased and the car sped off away from the restaurant.

"Stay down," Ryu whispered to Narin. The boy nodded in response as Ryu got to his feet. He immediately ran to the kitchen where Thuy was, hoping she was okay. When he swung the kitchen door open, he saw her on the floor. Ryu rushed over and helped her to her feet.

"Are you alright?" he asked her.

"I'm okay," she responded quietly. She seemed particularily shocked by the sound of the gunfire. "What happened?"

"Someone took out a gun and opened fire on the restaurant."

"Where's Narin? Is he okay."

"Yeah, he is," he replied. Taking a look around the kitchen, he came to a decision about what to do. "Stay here. I'll go out there and send Narin back here. It should be safe back here."

Without waiting for an answer, Ryu went out into the dining room, gave the instructions to Narin and then darted out the front door. There was a little bit of a panic outside when he got out there as people were yelling in their native language about what had just taken place. Ryu ignored the commotion and looked down the road to see that the black car was long gone.

Letting out a sigh of frustration, Ryu looked into the distance and clenched his fist to his side in anger.