“Please Sensei!” Quana bowed deeply to Hayate, “teach us how to kill!” Quana had been begging Hayate for his services, while the other three girls remained behind them not saying much of anything.

“I haven’t even accepted your request yet, so why are you calling me your teacher?” Hayate asked with a chuckle present in his voice.

Quana stood normally, “aren’t I supposed to? Isn’t that how the kid gets the teacher to train them?”

Hayate laughed, “still, why are you all coming to me for this?”

“Besides Cassie telling me you’re good at this; in the new music video that Amai and Michi’s group did with the martial arts in it, you taught them how to do that stuff! So I figured if they could learn it, then I can too!” Quana explained.

“Alright, but why do you want to learn?” He rephrased.

“Well…” She seemed more reluctant to answer now.

“It’s because she’s scared someone might attack her.” Jessica spoke quickly.

Quana groaned, “It’s all Cassie’s fault!” Yeah, it’s my fault that YOU came over and didn’t ask me to turn when I was watching Law and Order. “She was watching that crime show and I-I got a bit worried. That episode had someone who was really pretty, and they were attacked because some creeper really liked her. So, because I know I’m cute and everyone is always telling me I’m cute, imagine some creepy guy… or woman, who wants to hurt me! I have to be ready to kill them if that ever happens!”

They let her go on.

“Well first of all, I’m not going to teach you how to kill people. If you want that, go somewhere else, but if you just want to learn some self defense, I’d be more than willing to teach you.”

At Hayate’s approval, Quana smiled but then moved back to the three girls.

“Okay, but I won’t go unless you accept them too!”

“What?” Jessica said.

“Uh, isn’t this something you want to learn?” Keris raised a brow.

“Yeah, but I don’t really know Hayate, he could be that creepy guy!”

Seriously, I doubt it. Mainly because Hayate could take us all down… well might struggle with Keris, but he hasn’t done anything.

Jessica sighed, “I guess I see what you’re saying. How long will these lessons go on for?” Jessica asked.

You’re seriously considering this?

“My parents are going on a vacation and they’ve asked that I watch their Dojo for the rest of the month, so you all can either wait for me to come back and only have to take lessons for six weeks—one day a week—or you can stay at the dojo and learn for half a month.”

“Really?” Quana complained, but then turned to the group, “I think we should agree to stay.”

“Why?” Jessica asked.

“Because, it’ll be easier if we have a place to stay, plus I can be sure you guys really show up and don’t just dip on me!”

“Quana, Hayate is not that type of person.” Cassie affirmed.

“Doesn’t matter what you think!” Quana snapped, then turned around, “will we be staying in the dojo?”

“You can, but I could always set up a hotel nearby. It’s normally where students traveling to train at the Dojo stay anyways.”

Quana smiled. “Then that’ll be perfect! We’ll decide if we wanna stay in the Dojo or in the hotel, but you’ll know before we show up.” Hayate smiled. Quana then turned back to the group only to see three sets of scowling eyes on her. “W-what?” They just stared at her with looks that peered into her soul, Quana grunted and pushed past them, “whatever…”

The three girls sighed.

Hayate then came up to them. “No one’s forcing you girls to join.” He stated.

“No, but Quana will be pissed if we don’t show up. You can forget her doing this alone.” Jessica said with a sigh, “this better be worth it.”

“While I can’t see the success of this class, I can assure you, I’ll work my hardest as I do for all my students.”

Jessica made a face before turning to leave.

Keris spoke up. “Speaking of which, I already know a little bit of self defense and I train in boxing right now, so what can I even learn?”

“It depends on what you all pick to learn. Your style might be different from what I teach, but there’s sure to be some fundamentals you can learn.”

“Oh, sounds interesting, I’ll definitely join then.”

Hayate smiled at her and she left with that. Hayate then looked to Cassie as Keris left, she was about to leave as well, but Hayate spoke, stopping her.

“So, no matter what, you’d get dragged along?” Cassie just nodded at his assumption, “well, I’m sure it’ll be nice to learn something new. It’ll be nice to properly teach you.”

Cassie couldn’t think to say anything, especially with the comment he made. So she just gave him a passive smile and turned to join the rest of the girls on the walk back to the parking lot.

Only a week later were the girls all driving for their three week stay. Cassie was picked up by Jessica who already had Keris and Quana in the car.

“Okay, where’s this place at?” Jessica asked as she pulled onto the road.

“Hayate said it’d be at his family’s dojo, at this place.”

Keris brought up her phone and showed the directions to Jessica.

“Ugh, I don’t feel like trying to coordinate all that, just put it in GPS.” She complained.

Keris got to work doing so. Quana looked at Cassie.

“By the way,” Cassie looked to her as she yawned, “how long have you and Hayate known each other?”

Cassie thought for a bit, “well, I met him when I was first interning at Ankara’s company. That was back when I was a freshman in college.”

Quana clicked her tongue, “so not that long huh?”

Cassie smiled. “Quana, stop thinking Hayate is some criminal. He’d never hurt anyone like us. We haven’t done anything to him.”

“Still, you don’t know what might make him snap!”

Cassie knew she’d never get through to her, “Quana, next time, tell me when you’re gonna be over.”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t want this happening again just because you got scared of a show.”

Quana huffed. “Who even watches a show like that anyways! Doesn’t it freak you out?”

“Yeah, but then again lots of things do. Public speaking, talking to people-”

“Commitment.” Keris chimed in, Cassie glared at her, “I’m just kidding.”

“But look, I’m into that kind of stuff because of the Psychology around it.”

Quana sat in her seat and crossed her arms. “Whatever…”

Cassie just let out a small laugh and rested back hoping to get a bit of sleep while they drove.

…

Several hours passed and they were finally at the dojo.

“This place is really far from where we live.” Jessica said as she turned onto a dirt road.

“I’m sure it has to be. The place does seem pretty traditional.” Keris said.

“I’m surprised it still looks like this.” Cassie said.

Jessica found where other cars were parked, found a good spot, and turned off the car. The girls were quick to get out to stretch their legs.

“You think by now they would have modernized it.”

“My family wanted a piece of their homeland to remain in the family.” They turned to see Hayate.

“So you’re seriously Japanese?” He nods to Quana, “oh, then you and Jess should be dating or something right?”

Jessica rolled her eyes. “I’m half Japanese, and that doesn’t mean anything. He’s still not my type.” She looked at Hayate, “No offense.”

“It’s no problem.”

“Can we stop talking about stuff like that now?” Keris interrupted, “I actually wanna see the inside of this place.”

“Alright, you can come back for your things.” Hayate wasted no time and began to lead them to the building. “I’m actually a little glad you all decided to stay at the Dojo.” he paused, “I hope you all don’t mind sharing one room together.

None of them seemed to have an issue with that.

“But…does that mean we’ll be sleeping in futons?” Cassie asked.

Hayate looked back and smiled at her. “Yes,” Cassie seemed a bit eager now, “we also have a few artifacts from Japan in the Dojo as well… since our training doesn’t begin until tomorrow, perhaps I could show you around?”

Cassie walked a bit faster and was nearly walking beside Hayate now.

“What about those Kimono things? Do you guys have those here?” Quana asked.

“We have Yukatas as well.”

“Aren’t they just another type of Kimono?” Jessica said.

“Basically, yes.”

“But,” He looked at Cassie who spoke up, “I never learned what’s the difference. Why do they wear them versus just wearing a Kimono?”

“Because a Kimono is more formal. Aside from there being almost no reason to wear one anymore, Kimonos are typically worn for more formal events; weddings, funerals, ceremonies, and even in most traditional sports.” Cassie smiled, “Yukatas are worn informally, I’m sure you’ve seen them being worn during summer festivals in most anime.”

Cassie confirmed his suspicion, “they’re actually really pretty.”

“Perhaps you’d want to try one on?”

Cassie looked a bit excited, “Could I?”

Hayate couldn’t help but chuckle, “of course. You’re guests, so it’s no problem fully immersing yourselves in the culture. That is what my parents want after all.”

Cassie couldn’t hold back her excitement and continued speaking to Hayate. Meanwhile, the girls just stared at the pair as they walked a bit behind them.

“Look at them.” Quana grumbled, “I’m supposed to be learning how to defend myself and they’re flirting!” Quana said through her teeth.

“They’re cute, Cassie seems really excited.” Keris said.

“Whatever prevents me from actually participating in this stuff.”

Jessica said as she let out a small sigh. They all continued to walk to the dojo…