chapter 1

Beatrix

As I walked into the martial arts center for my evening training session, I noticed a new face among the familiar ones.

He was standing near the entrance, dressed in the traditional white uniform. He wasn't here yesterday which means he just signed in.

Being the bad friendly bitch that I was, I approached him, my curiosity piqued by his appearance.

"Hey there, I'm Beatrix," I said, extending a hand in greeting. He hesitated for a moment, then shook my hand with a firm grip.

"Call me Ricardo," he replied in a deep, muffled voice. His gaze was intense and focused solely on me, so I couldn't help but feel a sense of unease and excitement around him. He seemed like the type of man parents would tell their daughters to stay away from.

"Nice to meet you, Ricardo," I said, trying to hide my eagerness so I wouldn't come off as desperate. "What brings you to our dojo?"

Ricardo's intense gaze never left mine as he answered, "I've heard this place is known for its skilled fighters. I want to improve my martial arts skills so that's why I'm here, Sensei Tanaka is an old friend of mine."

I nodded, but Ricardo made it impossible to gauge his expression because of the stoic face he had, so I couldn't quite tell what he was thinking, leaving me feeling frustrated by the unknown.

"What style are you interested in learning?" I asked, getting out of my thoughts as I continued to ask him questions

"Multiple styles," he replied cryptically. "I believe in versatility."

"Oh I see, well I'm mainly focused on mixed martial arts" I answered but as I was about to continue asking him questions Sensei Tanaka walked into the dojo and everyone went silent as a sign of respect.

Maybe I could get him to tell me more about himself after class. There was something about him that intrigued me and I wanted to know all his secrets.

"Welcome back everyone, today I would like to introduce our new student his name is Ricardo" Sensei Tanaka announced as Ricardo walked to the center of the ring to join Sensei Tanaka.

"As part of his welcome into the dojo, he will be fighting Shadow, one of our best fighters," Sensei Tanaka announced as Shadow walked out of the locker room and Ricardo's gaze immediately went to him.

"You want me to fight him?" Ricardo asked and I could hear the shock in his voice, wait was he lying when he said he could fight? Because if he was, Shadow was going to crush him.

"Yes, obviously. Is there anyone else in the ring?" Sensei Tanaka asked as he stared at Ricardo with an amused expression.

"Fuck! Wish me luck then, if I die know that it's your fault" Ricardo said as he joined Shadow on the mat, I watched Sensei Tanaka give him a thumbs up before proceeding to start the fight.

"I want a clean fight. You mustn't hurt your opponent badly, or you will lose the fight by default." Sensei Tanaka said as he signaled to the referee in charge to start the match.

"1,2,3 Fight!" The referee announced, and the fight began, they both started by circling around each other.

None of them wanted to attack first but then Shadow launched himself forward with his right arm ready to punch Ricardo in the face but Ricardo sidestepped Shadow and ducked under his arm making him trip forward slightly and judging from the look on Shadow's face, he wasn't happy at all, you could say he was pissed.

"Why are you running? Fight like a man, you freak. Shadow asked as he balanced himself on his feet, his angry gaze focused on Ricardo.

Seriously, he was resorting to using trash talk now. How pathetic? To me, Shadow wasn't the best fighter here. There were better fighters than him, so I wondered why Sensei gave him to Ricardo to fight

"Technically, that isn't an insult because I'm already a man?" Ricardo said with the biggest grin on his face as he stared back at Shadow, who looked like he wanted to rip Ricardo's head off

"That was weak Shadow, come on, take him down fast," one of Shadow's friends said as they cheered him on, but he turned to glare at them

"You all should shut the fuck up! I'm trying to think here" Shadow yelled as the room went silent, that you could hear a pin drop, why was he taking out his frustration on us? Maybe he already knows he has lost this match because Ricardo was obviously the better fighter.

"He is such a drama queen, no wonder he is losing to a newbie," one of the newest members said from the back and that was all it took to make Shadow lose his shit and attack Ricardo again.

If he kept on acting like a kid throwing a tantrum he was seriously going to lose this match, I thought to myself as I continued to watch the match.

He used the same move he used at the beginning of the match, but this time aimed for Ricardo's stomach but Ricardo was able to dodge his attack, and after Ricardo swiped Shadow's leg so that he would lose his balance and fall on his ass.

As the saying goes the bigger they are the harder they fall and Shadow was a really big guy. Enough of my ranting let's get back to the match, Ricardo got the timing perfectly and his attack did what it was supposed to, causing shadow to fall to the ground, flat on his ass and it was quite a sight to behold. To see a man of Shadow's size fall like a bag of potatoes.

“Is that all you've got, Shadow? Because I can do this all day" Ricardo said as Shadow got to his feet his anger evident in his eyes, judging from his expression he looked fucking pissed, so I hoped Ricardo was going to make it out of this fight alive because I still had a lot of questions for him.