Two months and a half had passed since Ling Xiao Yu had arrived in Tokyo, two and a half months since she'd left home. Two weeks and one day till the Tournament, the tournament and Jin's birthday. Xiao had been enrolled into Mishima High. She could speak fluent Japanese now and she had even been allowed to take Panda with her to school. Heihachi had insisted that Panda be trained as a bodyguard for Xiao as Kuma had been for him. It hadn't seemed like a bad idea so Xiao had agreed as had Panda. Xiao had found an unlikely friend in Jin. He had been distant at first, absorbed in his training and studies. But she had been able to prise the youth out of him into the open. 

Presently, Xiao was having a bad day. No surprise seeing as it was Tuesday, and they were always bad days. Two maths lessons in one day, that was too much for any teenager to take especially back to back. Xiao walked out of the building tiredly, with Panda dragging her feet slowly at her side. Xiao sighed, relieved that the day was done and as she turned the corner of the building she heard a voice shout her name.

"Xiao Yu! Hey Xiao! Wait up!" Miharu said and ran breathlessly towards her, clutching a stack of books to her chest.
"Oh hey Miharu, sorry. I thought you'd gone on ahead" she replied
"No, I got held up, had to give in my assignment in to Nishida-sensei"
"Ok." Xiao didn't address the issue any further and continued to walk down staring emptily at her plaid school skirt as she did. The week before she'd stumbled across one of Jin and Heihachi's private sparring matches. She knew she wasn't supposed to be watching but it'd changed her entire perspective of the tournament. She'd seen Kazama train before, even sparred with him a few times, but never before the way she'd seen him sparring with his grandfather. Heihachi was ruthless and Jin gave back as good as he got. No play sparring or child's play. They fought as if for real. She didn't know if she could cause as much damage. Well.. she knew she could do it, she could physically cause serious damage, but she didn't know if she could bring herself to do it…


"What's wrong? You look down." Miharu questioned. Xiao was never this quiet.
"Nothing, I was just thinking about the tournament. It's going to be tough."
"Stop worrying about it, you'll do fine. I'll tell you what, after you get home and you've cleaned up gimme a call and we can go into town. You wanted to go right?" Xiao looked at her and smiled. It was a good idea, that way she could look for something Jin might like for his birthday and she could relax a little more. For some reason she felt obliged to get him something. He had been kind to her and been more than comforting in rough times.
"Yeah, why not, that's a great idea." She replied with a satisfied smile. Her day had been brightened up and she felt suddenly happier.

When she had first enrolled at the school she had found it hard to make friends because of her lacking knowledge of language. But Miharu had befriended her despite that. Over the month they had grown closer and closer and Miharu had become the closest to a best friend Xiao had ever had. Aside from Jin of course…

Funnily, Miharu supported Xiao's idea of fighting for the theme park. That was good to know that someone didn't think she had a few screws loose, it comforted her.