Masaru wanders around The Lower Ring. (Now Closed, sorry folks!)

Masaru looks around curiously at his surroundings curious to what has changed it the past years that he had been gone, he wonders if people have forgotten about the fighter he had murdered long ago, he looks at the vast food shops and sighs deeply, sad that food has no effect on him considering he has lost his stomach from killing the fighter in a no limitation fight, he wanders curiously until finding a peculiar shop, he stumbles into it and looks around at all the different items they have for sale, vases, pots, and other miscellaneous items.

The sun began stretching towards its noontime peak, the shadows of the people walking the street shrinking more and more. Several people, as the fighter wandered the street, began to look uneasily at their shadows and scampered off. As he turned into the shop, the last of the doors on the street slammed closed. The shopkeep looked up at the man as he entered and stuttered a greeting. He seemed nervous about something, to be sure. "G-g-good day, sir! I-is there anything I can help you with?" His eyes shot around the room, which was piled high with a variety of clutter. However, some places seemed to be empty. There were some gaps, some places where dust had settled around an item that had been moved. And in a corner of the room, on the same wall as the entrance, stood a woman.

Siri was leaning against one of the tables with her arms crossed and her eyes closed. She cracked one eye open as the stranger entered. He wasn't one of the Cranes, and since he was here at this time it meant that he didn't live there. Or perhaps he used to, but certainly he hadn't been around recently. Otherwise, he'd know the schedule. The shopkeeper sent her a stare, and she shook her head. He seemed a little relieved for a moment, but then looked back at the man. "Good sir, I do thank you for your interest, but I don't believe you have picked the best time to visit." He shot another look at the woman in the corner, and she nodded just a bit. This guy...he looked familiar, but she couldn't quite tell where she knew him from. Her mind raced, trying to remember. She'd looked into a lot of people, perhaps he was one of them? Or maybe she was just mistaking him for one of the various musclebound thugs she'd bested in the past. Either way, he didn't seem to be any sort of threat, so for now she would watch with mild interest what he did and how he reacted.

Masaru slowly looked towards the shopkeep, his right ocean blue eyes fixated on him while he cleaned some dirt out of his left emerald green eye, "Well doesn't that just suck then?" he says finishing it with a sigh, "I'll take my leave then, have a nice day, also would you kindly tell that woman at the table to quit staring at me, I have nothing to hide, or share with her." he states boldly before walking calmly out the door without another word, he begins walking down the street search for a certain place that has been on his mind since he arrived back in Ba Sing Se, his claw weapon tucked down to his side, in a pouch that wouldn't cut into his leg, swinged with every step he took, his katana with a fiery handle stays almost completely balanced on his back.

The woman said nothing as he left. However, she tracked him with her eyes. Glancing out one of the windows, she saw him turn and walk down the now abandoned street. She chuckled a bit in her throat, shaking her head. "Wrong way..." she whispered softly, then stood. He was well armed, but that didn't mean much. He really had no idea the sort of territory he'd wandered into. The shopkeep looked at her fearfully, his eyes wide. She gave him a smile and a bit of a wink. With that, and ignoring the voiceless protests from the shopkeeper, she walked out the door.

Down the street, about 10 yards ahead of the new guy, there was a corner. And around this corner, 8 rather gruff looking men emerged. Each of them wore different shirts or tunics, but their pants were all uniform. They were long and brown, and down the side of the right leg was what looked to be an elongated bird's leg, but it was bent oddly at several points. The symbol of the Crooked Cranes. It was an odd one, that was for sure. Siri saw them round the corner and spread out across the street. She widened her stride to speed up without looking hastened, but the men were completely ignoring the small figured girl. Instead, all of their attention was on the man who was in the street.

"Well well well, you must be new here. Ain't a lot of people who'd go wanderin' on collection day." One of the men, the biggest, guffawed and crossed his arms. The others followed suit.

Masaru looks at the men boredom in his mind, knowing they probably wont be much of a fight for him, he sighs and looks to the one addressing him, "I don't know who you are, or why you have decided to confront me, but get out of my way before there is blood splattered on the streets." he says calmly and contently, his ear flicks as he hears Siri approaching closer and closer, his hand slowly slips down to his side into the glove of his claw, ready to pull it out if needed, he slouches to one side to make it look like he is resting his hand on his hid as he slides his large hand into the glove, he blinks slowly at the men as he waits for their next move while he keeps one ear tuned on Siri's footsteps.

The group burst out laughing harder, and the man who had spoken before grinned in amusement.

"Put your weapon away."

The laughing slowed down. Siri had spoken up now as she got closer. She looked at the lone stranger and shook her head. "If you're going to fight on my streets, you're going to follow my rules."

"Your streets!? Girlie, you're in Crooked Crane territory. This is OUR street. Now, I'd suggest takin' that back before we-"

"If you don't mind, I'm talking." She shot a glare at the gangsters. Then her eyes went back to the other man. "See, morons like this only listen to force. I want them to know that not only are they outmatched by someone who doesn't need any extra tools." She cracked her knuckles, coming up to stand next to the man. "Now, you bunch of low-rank nobodies, I'm here to give you a message. My name is Siri. This street is now under my protection, got it? So, you lot can go crawling back to you boss and tell him that if he doesn't start playing nice, I'm gonna start playing rough. Catch my drift?" She widened her stance a little, angling her body towards the men. Some of them swapped confused looks, some of them laughed. The ad-hock leader of the group, however, gave her a rather grave stare.

"Siri...You the same Siri who took the tea shop from the Tigers?" He narrowed his eyes. "If so, then we'll be taking that, too. If not, then we'll just have to rough you up to show you just what kinda game you're playin'!" The laughing stopped, and soon enough all eight of the men were staring the two down.

"Hope you can really fight, Butterfly." She glanced over at her temporary partner with a little bit of a smirk.

Masaru smirks wickedly at Siri, "Pleasure to meet you, Siri, my name is Masaru." he says not bothering to give her a fake name, "And yes I can fight quite well." he says drawing out his claws, deciding to only use earth bending for this fight, he eyes the group of men slowly, picking which ones to hit first, "I haven't fought in a few years, but now is a good a time as any I suppose, what strategy you want to use for this fight?" he whispers into the ear of the girl, keeping both of his eyes fixated on the group of men, his left hand flexing its fingers inside the glove of the claw, ready to strike at any moment.

The whisper didn't end up falling onto any ear at all. The second man from the right was just pulling up his arms to toss a fireball their way to start off the attack. Siri, however, was already well on her way. In a second, she had closed the distance between them. The man reacted quickly, sweeping his hands downward to throw a flame at the ground. He underestimated her speed, however, and she ended up inside his stance, crouched right in front of him. Two quick jabs to his left leg and she was on the move again, spinning 360 degrees and rotating around to the right side of his body, ducking under the hand that was now trying to grab her as she went. Two more jabs sunk into his right leg, and she continued her spin, swinging her elbow around to bash into the back of his knee. His knee buckled and he fell to it, holding himself up with his hand.

"Wh-what did you do-"

The woman smirked a bit, now standing behind him, back straight, knees bent a little, arms loosely hold in a fighting stance. She didn't give him the luxury of finishing his sentence. Instead, she brought her fingers down harshly into the base of his neck, and with a light groan he fell forward and passed out. There was silence for a moment, and then the entire group dove at once. The leader backed up a bit, but three from the remaining six rushed each of them respectively in response to this attack.

Masaru watched Siri closely, "Great... She's a chi blocker, I'll have to watch out for her if I have to fight her." he thinks to him self as the three goons rush towards him, he sighs with boredom once more and moves to one side, suddenly his right hand shoots up blocking one of them from coming near him by slamming him into the face as he runs at him, he then slams the rocks down creating a waves of the earth as he jumps into the air and thinks of what to do next, he swiftly moves his boulder into the air and slices it with one of the claws on his three pronged claw and sends both peices down to the remaining two that had charged at him, both land in perfect place knocking them out, he summons an earth pillar to catch him on his descent and he lowers himself to the ground and looks at Siri, "Done over here, you want any help?" he asks stepping on the first guy's chest that he had knocked out by just moving his boulder out of the ground.

Siri delayed for a moment as the three burly men began to rush her. She breathed out slowly, watching their approach. Then, with one sharp intake, she swung her body around the first fiery projectile that came her way. The other two seemed to be non benders, and they rounded around to flank her. She leapt straight up, avoiding both fists as they swung into the space that she had previously occupied. With a light flip, she landed just ahead of them and picked one target at a time. The bender would go down first. She charged him, hopping to the side to avoid the two fireballs, then performed a quick baseball slide beneath his legs. Before he had the chance to turn around, she had fired a line of punches up his spine and he collapsed to the ground, cursing rather profusely at her. She ignored him and flung herself back towards the other two. Again, they lined up to punch her simultaneously, but instead of slowing down she dug in and rocketed forward even faster, ducking under their fists. She pulled to one side and turned, crouching as she did. Three swift kicks hit the man's leg, side, and upper back. He also crumpled.

"So slow..."

The last one grinned. It was the look of someone who had fought a chi blocker before and was ready to defend against it. She grinned right back at him. He lunged at her, swinging his fist hard. She reached out and grabbed it, but instead of stopping it she used its momentum to rotate her a little. He was guarding his important chi points. This guy was smarter than the rest. Wouldn't stop her, though. She brought her knee up and let go of his hand. The offset of balance made sure that her knee dug deeply into his stomach. When he fell to his knees, doubled over, she brought her elbow down on the back of his neck.

Chi blocking wasn't the only way to go. She turned towards the leader, the sound of the firebender's cursing still echoing behind her. She gave him a light smirk and ignored the other man. He had done pretty well, overall.

"Let's just leave the next one awake, shall we?"