Daniel stood across the street. The walking stick strapped across his back.

  The street was empty. Even the usual sounds of Chinatown had gone quiet, as if the neighborhood had decided collectively to look the other way tonight. The fog sat low, curling around his silhouette on the backdrop of neon city lights and the heavy weight of the night sky.

  Let's finish this.

  The Golden Palace was as traditional as most restaurants went. It had two floors, with more floors on top, probably apartment flats built over it over the years as the place expanded. A bookstore selling Chinese novels hung off to the side, sandwiched inconspicuously between a trinket store selling jade carvings and silk garments.

  He walked from the flower shop across the street, the smell of lemon and roses in the air. A single man stood guard at the front door, gold watch and chain, shades on his eyes.

  "The sword," said the guard.

  Daniel pulled the walking stick from his back and popped it open, drawing out a shimmering sword with wave-like patterns, before putting it away. Tying it behind his back. The guard looked at it, then at him, and spoke into a radio. A moment passed. He opened the door.

  Several eyes seemed to watch as he made his way past the front door. The ceiling opened up high above him, a grand balcony running along the second floor overlooking the hall below.

  Inside, the air changed.

  Smoke hung at chest height across the room in a flat gray layer that didn't rise and didn't drift.

  The last time he was here, he had gone through the back entrance, stumbled upon a few hallways and private rooms before fighting Li Mei.

  Now, he was coming through the front door.

  The tables and chairs had been pushed to the walls, clearing the center of the room into a wide-open space.

  A small concert stage sat to the left, empty. A microphone stand stood on it alone, trailing its cord across the floor.

  Against the far wall, a long glass tank glowed blue-white. A single golden arowana drifted inside, watching him with one flat black eye.

  Above the tank, mounted on the wall in gold leaf, a single character: 武. Martial. The gold caught the tank light and held it.

  Daniel counted bodies. Seventy, maybe more. They lined the edges of the room, standing against the walls, leaning on the pushed-back tables. Some in suits. Some in street clothes.

  A few had their jackets open enough to show what was underneath. Holsters. Blades. A few familiar faces.

  But no one moved, just watched from afar. Like sharks waiting for the first sign of blood. Henry sat at a table near the center, next to a man with a pair of sunglasses, dressed nicely.

  Dark suit, no tie. Hair combed back, graying at the temples. His hands rested on the table with two gold rings on his index finger, and behind him stood Li Mei with her fox mask on.

  "Hey," said Henry, sitting at the table.

  "I'm here."

  "They roughed me up a little. It looks worse than it is." Henry tried to smile and winced. "Okay, maybe not."

  "I'm getting you out."

  "There's like a hundred guys in here, man."

  "I know."

  Li Wentao motioned his hand up, signaling a few men to bring out some food. Lobster noodle, the kind often served for good health and longevity at every birthday and Lunar New Year.

  "Daniel Li," said Li Wentao. "The name is Li Wentao. Li Mei's father. And the head of the Black Tiger Society. Come sit. We have some things to talk about."

  "And why would I want to talk to you? You said bring the sword. I got it. Now let Henry go."

  Li Wentao chuckled.

  "Sit or he dies."

  The man behind Henry pulled out a knife and pressed it against Henry's neck.

  Daniel squinted and then obliged.

  "Fine. Let's talk."

  Li Wentao began to eat.

  "Do you know how to use chopsticks?"

  "Of course."

  They ate for a while.

  "I want to offer you a place by our side. You might not fully appreciate it yet, but you are skilled. The world is changing. We need people like you."

  "And why would I do that?"

  "Don't you feel that your old life was a drag? That the world has been unfair, and never given you a chance? That every day at an ordinary life is not worth it?"

  Daniel's skin pricked.

  "You, who should have been a great prodigy in any other era, is simply a nobody who works at a corner store. Spit on by society. Is that the kind of life you want to live?"

  "And what? I have to follow your orders. Kill people till I can't anymore? Why would I do that?"

  "I'm offering something more than that," said Li Wentao. "I'm offering you purpose, a future. You must already know that the martial world is in pieces. All of our history is either stolen or broken."

  Li Wentao waved his hand.

  "It's difficult to imagine now but imagine a day where that isn't so. Where all the stories you've been told as a child came true. Shaolin. Wudang. Huashan. It need not fade into nothingness. We can bring it back. All the old sects, establish a new order, bring about the changes we want in the world."

  "No."

  Li Wentao studied him for a moment.

  "Do you know the original purpose of the Great Sects? How and why they were influential? They originally did have a practical purpose for the longest time."

  "What, killing people, causing mayhem and chaos? Jianghu rules right? Might makes right?"

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  "Taking care of children."

  Li Wentao looked into the distant past.

  "In the old days, when war and famine struck. Who are the first to suffer? Children are abandoned at the first sight of trouble, women who can't fight are killed or worse. It was out of these situations that the Great Sects first originated. We talk about rules and laws, but the world today has forgotten them. The highest rule wasn't might. It was… Protect the innocent."

  "And so that's why you killed Li Qinghua?"

  Li Wentao coughed.

  "True, it's difficult to say such things when things like that happen. But if I said it was not my intention would you believe me? If Li Qinghua were alive, would she have wanted you to come here alone? Surely, she would have told you to do something else?"

  Go to the Wudang Mountains. Please bury me by the peach blossom tree.

  "Does it matter? You took Henry."

  "You could have chosen not to come. He's just a friend. I have many friends."

  "I don't."

  "Very well. But the offer stands. Daniel."

  Li Wentao held a napkin to his cheek.

  "I'm getting old. In a few decades, it's hard to say whether I'd be able to continue this path to bring martial arts back. So, I'll give you one more thing."

  He snapped his fingers and all the rest of the men around him gave a Baoquan salute.

  "I'm offering you everything I have. You will have all my resources, all the manuals and training that we've obtained. In a few years, I'll retire and you will take leadership over the Black Tiger Society, shape the world as you see fit. I know your past. You have no one really to call family. But here you can finally have people on your side. You can do whatever you want. Beat up whoever you like."

  He looked over to Li Mei.

  "Even marry my daughter."

  This caused Li Mei to flinch, looking at Li Wentao.

  Daniel paused.

  "I have a question."

  "Ask."

  "If you had everything you wanted. If you obtained all the things you've talked about. Would that fix all the hurt you've caused along the way?"

  Li Wentao's expression didn't change.

  "Sometimes, when you play a part. You can't stop but doing it till the bitter end."

  "I guess we can agree on that." Daniel stood up. The chair scraped against the tile. The men along the walls tensed. Li Mei's head turned behind her mask.

  "I'm not joining you. You are going to let Henry go. And I'm going to beat the fuck out of all of you."

  Li Wentao set down his cup.

  "That's disappointing."

  "Mei," Li Wentao said. "Get the sword."

  Daniel's shoulders rolled forward. His hands formed Tiger Claws and he launched straight at the man holding Henry.

  It's time to stop playing around.

  Li Mei was faster. She kicked the table into his path. Plates and food scattered across the tile. Daniel smashed through it without slowing, but the half-second cost him. The man next to Henry had already yanked him off the chair and was dragging him back toward the wall.

  Daniel reached. Li Mei's palm caught him in the ribs and knocked him sideways.

  Li Wentao hadn't moved. He flicked a piece of debris off his sleeve.

  Li Mei settled into her stance and the men along the walls pulled the remaining tables and chairs further back, widening the ring. The smoke layer rippled and broke apart around them.

  Daniel stood.

  She's still better at movement. Calculate. What weaknesses did the move have? Use it against her.

  He came in fast. Jab to test the distance. She slipped it, barely moved, and answered with a palm that grazed his jaw. He pulled back. Came again. Hook to the body. She redirected it with her forearm and countered with a knee he only half-blocked.

  She closed the gap before he could move. He stepped back and she followed, pressing, not giving him room to breathe.

  Daniel threw a combination. Left, right, left. She parried all three without moving her feet. Her hands moved in small circles, turning his force aside with barely any effort. Everything he'd learned rough, she'd learned clean.

  Their forearms touched on the next exchange.

  Something flickered. A half-image, like a word on the tip of his tongue. Her weight was shifting left. He moved right and her follow-up missed.

  Push Hands. He was beginning to see where she was going.

  But only a fragment. One read out of twenty exchanges. Not enough. She came again and he lost the thread. A backfist he didn't see until it was already past his guard. His head snapped to the side.

  He snapped back. She circled. The men watched in silence. Li Wentao picked up an orange slice.

  Daniel aimed high, distracting her vision with fists, and then went low. Sweep at her lead leg. She hopped it, light as paper, and came down with an axe kick that cracked the tile where he'd been standing. He rolled and came up swinging. She caught his wrist, turned it, and threw him.

  He hit the floor. Slid. Got up.

  Again.

  He pressed forward. Threw his first fist and then the second a fraction of a second slower. The staggered timing caught her mid-movement and their arms met.

  He pushed into her, not giving her a chance to move away. Her feet dragged on the floor by pure force as he barreled forward.

  He felt the current of her movement running through the point where their skin touched, brimming with qi.

  There. She was going to pull back and strike with her right.

  He was already moving when she did it. Slipped the right hand. Got inside. His fist connected with her ribs and she backed up.

  First clean hit.

  She answered immediately. An elbow that caught his collarbone and drove him back three steps. Then a front kick to his stomach that doubled him over.

  The picture was building. Push Hands wasn't a technique you turned on like a switch. It grew through repetition. Each touch added a line to the drawing until the drawing became a person.

  He was starting to see Li Mei.

  She hit him again. Twice. Three times. He took them. Kept reading.

  "You've gotten better," she said.

  The first words since the fight started.

  But Daniel was smiling.

  "Henry," he said, not taking his eyes off her. "Sit tight."

  Li Mei closed the distance. She threw dozens of strikes, her stance low, nearly gliding across the floor.

  She's getting serious. He'd never seen her do this. The movements were more than single combinations. Blows got dangerously close to his yang and yin meridians.

  Deflect. Don't block. Projections of her movement played through his head, overlapping, narrowing, until they focused on the answer. Left.

  He shifted his body slightly letting the blow pass. Right. Up. Down. He jumped over her sweep. She watched him as he moved overhead. They struck as he landed, but the blows were nearly identical.

  I got it.

  Li Mei pulled back, and he pulled back at the same time with identical movements. Her eyes perked up and she closed the distance. Both of them were moving nearly the same. His hands moved in a blur, repeating her combination right back at her.

  She flinched as one landed, slowing her movements.

  Who was she? She didn't trust anyone. You always go for the killing blow no matter what.

  He shifted past her outstretched arm. He struck at her retreating leg.

  When it doesn't work you run away and try from a different angle.

  She moved back but was too slow.

  You swipe when someone gets close.

  A fist went over his side.

  Or when someone tries to ask about your past.

  He changed angles. Came low with a sweep. He felt it and let her leg pass under him and drove his elbow into her back as she went by.

  She stumbled. Caught herself.

  A girl who practiced alone. Who wanted to believe what she was doing was right. That all of it was worth it. That it wasn't a mistake to have her because she was a girl. That she could be every bit as good as her father wanted her to be.

  She escalated. Her fingers found a point on his forearm. His arm went slow. She hit the same channel higher up and the arm dropped. Pressure points. Dian Xue.

  Daniel raised his remaining hand and formed a Tiger Claw. I never learned Pressure Points right. So fuck it. He didn't strike her. He rammed the full force of his Tiger Claw right into his own body.

  Make the meridians strong enough to take the hit. He'd never mastered it, never had enough jing to make up for his faults. But he could always figure things out.

  If qi is like a river, and pressure points a dam. Then make the river stronger than the dam. Qi blasted through his body like something caged and finally loose. His hair flew upward. The smoke that had just parted between them scattered in every direction, shredded apart. The men nearest him stepped back.

  He bled from his mouth. Coughed.

  Pressure points. No big deal.

  Li Wentao put down his sunglasses and looked serious.

  Li Mei stood there, stunned.

  "You struck yourself to get free?"

  His hand came at her, the ground splintering around him.

  She regained her composure and dodged the first hit, but his second claw came at her overhead with great pressure. This time he got her straight on her guard.

  She could have moved out of the way. Could have slipped to the side. Instead she planted her feet and squared up, teeth gritted, holding his force on her forearms. As if trying to meet some expectation he wasn't seeing.

  It's time.

  He moved his second hand and pressed with everything he had. All my hate. All my demons. If the world was cruel, then he needed to be more cruel, more vicious. Till there was no one left who could hurt him.

  Vajra Subduing Palm.

  The force transferred through his palm into her body, splintering the floor under her. Her hair came undone. And something passed between them at the point of contact.

  The image of her the first time he saw her at the museum. The way she looked at him when she thought he wasn't watching. A sentence she may have said in a different time or place.

  "This isn't so bad. Maybe... we could be friends."

  Daniel's eyes opened, but before he could think anymore she was already on the ground, spitting blood. And then she didn't move.

  The restaurant was silent.

  Daniel turned to the broken table.

  "Your turn."

  Li Wentao stood up.

  "In the end. Nothing but a girl."