Chapter 10: The Secret Technique.

Week 1. Friday. 5.57 pm.

"Are you a real princess?"

Lili wasn't sure how to answer the question. Technically speaking, she wasn't a princess; royal blood did not flow through her veins. But then again she was also the sole inheritor to a vast amount of wealth and power. And her father did sit on a throne. Kinda. He had big expensive looking chair in his office. That could pass as a throne right? In the end she decided to play along, the annoyed scowl on Asuka's face was just too amusing for her to not.

"Uhh, yes. You could say that I am a princess of sorts."

The children erupted in shouts of excitement. Asuka just leered.

"What's your name what kingdom do you come from?" asked the tallest girl with streak of red hair in her fringe. Lili recalled that her name was Akane.
"I am known as Princess Lili of the uh,"

She paused as she racked her brain for an answer.

"The uh, Rochefort Kingdom. Yes, I am Princess Lili of the Rochefort Kingdom," she exclaimed in her best princess voice," But just 'Lili' is fine."

Again the children cheered. They then invited her to sit on the tatami mats in the centre of the dojo, to which she complied. For a while she just sat listening to the children learning their names and getting know who they were. They were all so cute. She had just appointed the kids as her royal servants when she noticed how quiet Asuka was being. She glanced at her form sitting behind her pupils. The annoyed scowl that had amused Lili earlier was gone. Now her shoulders were slumped and her face was downcast, her dark brown bangs hiding more of her eyes than usual.

A pang of guilt struck Lili in the chest. Why? Why was she feeling guilty? This was payback after all, for the way she had been treating her the past week. But it was no use. The more Lili tried to convince herself that this was what she wanted, the guiltier she felt. She turned her attention back to the kids, before hushing them silent.

"Now, my royal servants, the time has come for me to bid you farewell."

The kids began to pout.

"Now, now, my royal servants, there is no need to fret, for I will return in a week's time," she reassured them, "But for now I must leave, for I have royal duties to fulfil. And besides, you have a secret technique to learn do you not?"

Lili looked towards Asuka. She was looking at her with a raised eyebrow, puzzled. Lili smiled at her politely, relieved that she no longer seemed downtrodden. She nodded cordially before moving to stand up.

"Wait Princess," Aoi suddenly began.

"Why don't you learn the secret technique with us?" Sora finished.

The other three chirped in approval. Again Lili looked towards their sensei. The Osakan just shrugged in a way that, in Lili's eyes said "I don't care."

And with that Lili nodded, "Okay."

Asuka glanced over at the foreigner. The blonde was tying up her long hair in a mid ponytail with red ribbon. She looked so serious about learning the "secret technique", if it wasn't for her business attire one might have thought that she was a student of the dojo. Asuka didn't get it. Wasn't she only here to complete some sort of assignment? If that was the case, why did she look so eager to learn? Why did she have to get so friendly with the kids? There was no benefit for to do that. And there was yesterday also. If she was here purely on business, why had she been so passionate yesterday? It was almost as if the blonde actually cared abou-

"Uh, Sensei?" foreigner asked out of the blue.

"Hmm what is it?"

"We're ready to start now,"

It was then that Asuka realized she had been staring at the blonde for almost a full minute now. She broke her gaze and looked down at her students. She was right. Everyone was standing in a circle, eagerly waiting her next instruction. Asuka shook the previous thoughts from her head. She had a lesson to teach.

"Alright then," the sensei began.

"The technique I'm about to show you all is unique in that it allows you to defend while you're attackin' the opponent," she explained.

The children were silent in anticipation. She couldn't help but grin. This was the most excited she had ever seen them.

"Let me demonstrate first,"

The brunette positioned herself in the beginner Form I stance; hands up to guard the head, feet shoulder width apart, weight spread evenly on the balls of her feet. The stance and hand strikes of Form I were almost identical to that of boxing, but it formed the foundations of the Kazama Style, and was the easiest for demonstrating the "secret technique".

Asuka began to bounce, shifting her weight back and forth, before suddenly-

"HAH!"

With a loud grunt she thrust out her left hand in a blindingly fast punch. She then relaxed and stepped out of her stance before looking towards the children.

As she had expected, they all had confused looks on their faces. All of them except for the Blondie who, to her surprise, was nodding her head knowingly. Again her curiosity spiked. Just who in earth was this girl?

"Sensei, I don't get it," Akane said, forcing her attention back to the class, "All you did was a basic Form I, lead hand strike."

"You're correct Akane. I did do a lead hand strike. But that's not all I did. What did I do differently guys?" The sensei asked the group quizzically as she paced around the circle. As she paced she heard Hiro mumble something.

Asuka walked over to Hiro and squatted down so she was at eye level with him, before asking, "What was that Hiro?"

"You shouted when you punched," little Hiro answered shyly, but loud enough for everyone to hear.

"That is exactly right Hiro. Good job." Asuka praised, ruffling the boy's hair as she stood up.

"Now does anyone know why I did that?"

Everyone apart from Blondie shook their head.

Noticing this, Takumi spoke up.

"Lili, do you know why sensei shouted?"

"I do actually, but," the foreigner looked towards her," I think Asuka Sensei can explain it much better than I can."

It's fake. She's a fraud. Her politeness is a lie. She's only being nice to get what she needs.

Asuka wanted believe that wholeheartedly. But for some reason she couldn't. Damn it.

"Well then," she started," Everyone put your hands on your bellies. This will explain everything,"

The class did as they were instructed. The children were still completely puzzled.

"Now on the count of three I want everyone to shout 'Yah!' while still holding onto your bellies. One. Two. Three."

The class did as they were instructed, and a short series of "Yah's" erupted around her.

"Now, what did everybody feel?" Asuka asked.

"My stomach became hard!" Akane exclaimed.

"Exactly," Asuka confirmed. "Remember how I said that every time you attack leaves you open to a counter? Well this is one way you can lower the damage done by a counter to the body. It's even possible for your attacker to sprain their wrist against your stomach if they aren't trained to punch properly."

"That is so awesome!" Takumi shouted in awe.

The rest of the children followed suit with excited squeals. It wasn't long before they all started to try it on each other. Uh oh. Someone was bound to get hurt if she didn't stop them.

"Hey!" Asuka yelled. Immediately they all snapped to attention.

"I never said you could start testing it out on each other did I?" she said strictly.

"No Sensei," the children answered in unison.

"Then why did you do exactly that?"

The five stared at the ground silently.

"Apologize and swear to yourselves to never do that again,"

The five all bowed and all together said, "Sorry, Asuka Sensei."

"Good," she said curtly. The children remained silent. It appeared they all seemed a little shaken from her reprimanding. She glanced at Blondie. Even she seemed a little upset.

"Ok. I'm going to let you all try the technique before we wrap it up for this week. I'll be doin' the punching but don't worry, I won't go all out. You guys are still kids after all," she smirked. They all seemed to perk up at this.

"But I have one condition. You all have to make up your own grunt and scream it as loud as you can,"

The five looked at each other, big grins on their faces, before saying, "Okay!"

"Positions," Asuka commanded.

At her word the kids lined themselves up on front of her. She moved towards Akane and kneeled before her, touching her fist to the girls stomach.

"Ready, Akane?" Asuka said as she drew her fist back to her own body.

The girl nodded.

"On the count of three then; One. Two. Three-"

"DORRRYAAAAAHHHH- AHHHH!"

Akane shouted for all she was worth as Asuka punched with a quarter of her strength. The other children laughed at the small hiccup-like sound Akane made when Asuka hit her stomach.

"How was it?" The instructor asked.

"I didn't feel anything!" exclaimed the eldest student.

Asuka grinned in amusement before shuffling over in front of Takumi.

"HIIIYAAAAAAAHH- AHHH!"

Again the little hiccup sound interrupted the middle of Takumi's roar when Asuka punched him softly. And again the kids burst into laughter.
Asuka shuffled over again and continued with last three.

"WAAAAAAH-AHHHHHHH!" shouted Sora.

"HAAAAAAAAAAH- AHHHH!" screamed Aoi.

"YAAH- AHH!"

It took all of Asuka's composure to not smother little Hiro with hugs after his short battle cry. He had tried his best to be as loud as he could and it was so CUTE. From the looks of it Blondie was feeling the same thing, seeing that she was holding her hands behind her back in an attempt to control herself.

"Alright then, that's all of you. Starting next week we'll be usin' this technique all the time," Asuka said with a huff as she stood up, "I think dad made yakisoba and korokke for you guys this time so head over to the house and eat up while you wait for your parents."

"Wait. What about me?" Blondie suddenly asked.

"Huh?"

"Don't I get to practice the secret technique?" the foreigner clarified.

Asuka raised an eyebrow at her. Really? Was this girl serious?

"Yeah sensei you forgot about the Princess!" said Sora.

"You have to show her so she can protect herself!" continued Aoi.

Blondie shot her a challenging look. Tch. She was underestimating her. But in a few moments that would no longer be the case.

"Fine," she agreed, "But I ain't gonna hold back since you're an adult. I won't care if you cry after this."

The blonde huffed in amusement, before walking up to her and leaning over until her face was just inches from hers. Icy blue eyes locked onto her own in a deadly gaze as a pair of glossed lips opened to challenge.

"I think you're underestimating me a little too much, Asuka Kazama. Now bring it."

Full name... What was she, a villain from an anime? Whatever. She was asking for pain. Who was she to deny her of something she wanted?

Asuka touched her fist to the blonde's abdomen and pulled it back towards her body, like she had done with the children previously. This time however she focused on channelling her Ki into the knuckles of her right hand. When she was ready she took a step back and began to count.

"One. Two. Three."

"WOOOOOSHHYAAAAA-AAAAAH-AAAAAAAH-AAAAAH. HAHAHAHA!"

The ridiculousness of the blonde's grunt was amplified by the hiccups caused by Asuka punching her three times instead of just once, as well as the fact that she ended up laughing at herself for making such a strange sound.

Her laughter was infectious. The children had begun to giggle almost immediately afterward. Soon enough Asuka found herself laughing as well. It was the hardest she had laughed in a long time. Just when she thought the laughter was beginning to die down, the blonde snorted loudly, resulting in a fresh bout of laughter in the dojo's inhabitants. Asuka's knees buckled and within seconds she was on the floor clutching at her stomach, unable to stop her guffawing. Their laughter continued for what felt like hours before it finally started to settle.

Somehow Asuka managed pick herself up off the floor. Her abs were so sore, it felt like she had just done 200 crunches. Damn it. The one who was to be in pain was Blondie, not her.

She looked at her roomate. The girl was still kneeling on the floor, gently dabbing tears of laughter from her eyes, taking care not to smudge her eye shadow. As she stood up from the floor, their eyes met, and the blonde immediately gave her a serene smile as she undid the red ribbon she had used to tie her hair up.

Asuka smiled back without even realizing it. The foreigner had surprised her. Blondie had a sense of humor it seemed; maybe she wasn't so tightly wound after all?

Memories their first meeting abruptly flashed through her mind. The brunette frowned.

No. In her experience, first impressions were usually accurate.

As the blonde made her way towards the exit, amber met crystal blue, yet again. They held each other for much longer this time, neither of them breaking the gaze for a full thirty seconds until the blonde's cheeks suddenly flushed red, at which point she averted her eyes towards the floor.

Weirdo.

But seriously, who the heck yelled "Wooshyaaah" as a grunt? The only person she could come up with was Sharapova; she had watched her play while waiting for one of Nishikori's US open matches. Go Japan.

Asuka watched as the foreigner's long hair swayed to and fro as she made her way down the steps.

Hmm.

Maybe it was just a blonde thing?

Author Notes:

Sorry for the long wait. Kinda had some irl things I needed to sort out.

But yay more happy things.

Again apologies if Lili seems ooc. But tekken characters bein goofballs is a rare gem in fanarts and fics. My head canon is that she snorts when she laughs really hard because laughing whole heartedly isn't something she does very often. Usually when she laughs its just her being condescending. And so because of the lack of experience from laughing really hard, she snorts.

Oh and thankyou for the comments kudos. Praise really helps keep me going. Hehe.

And telamon to answer your question is yes i'll put it up on fanfiction as per your request. I just gotta remember my old password...

But anyway I hope you enjoyed this chappie. Bye for now.