"Girl? Do you mean Ashley?" Allie asked. Akisame nodded. "Well, um, she said a lot of things at the clinic so you might want to be more specific." Allie had a feeling she knew what he wanted to talk about.

"When Sakaki had asked Ashley why you two had gotten her a Taser. She had first responded with the fact that you two didn't give her the Taser. You had stopped her when she was about to say where Haley truly first got the Taser. Care to explain?" Akisame said. Allie felt nervous trails of sweat start to fall down her forehead and onto her cheek.

Darn it! He did notice! And he probably noticed me glancing at Haley too! No, there's no way he could have noticed a silent action of the eyes like that! Allie thought.

"Also, after Ashley made a cover up for her slip up, you glanced at Haley. The only logical thing that I could come up with was that you two are trying to hide something either from us or from Haley," Akisame said. Allie laughed nervously, wondering whether he could read minds. Then she sighed.

"Uh, well. It's not that we're hiding it from you guys. Just trying to hide it from Haley for a while until Ashley and I get more information," Allie said. Akisame stopped and Allie didn't notice.

"What kind of information?" he asked. Allie then noticed that his voice was behind her so she stopped walking and turned to face him sideways.

"Well, it's kind of a long story that has to do with Haley's past. And I'd rather let the least amount of people know as possible," Allie said.

"I can assure you, when I am told that a secret is to remain a secret, I will not tell a soul that doesn't need to know," Akisame said. Allie continued to look at him, trying to judge whether or not she should tell him. Then after a minute Allie sighed.

"Okay, I'll tell you. But you can't tell anyone. Not even anyone at your dojo. And some of what I'm about to tell you has to do with Ashley's past too. The past she doesn't remember. So I repeat, don't tell a soul. Especially your disciple, Kenichi Shirihama," Allie said. Akisame raised his eyebrow.

"Why do you emphasize on not telling Kenichi?" he asked. Allie shook her head.

"You'll understand once I tell you the story," she said. He nodded and came back up to her side. They then continued to walk to the store, as Allie told him the past that eventually brought her, Ashley, and Haley together.

Haley

Ashley and I had left Ryozanpaku before Allie and Akisame had left for the grocery store. However, we didn't get very far. Someone from the dojo called out to us and caused us to stop in our tracks. We turned around to see the blue haired guy.

"What's up? Did we forget something at the clinic?" Ashley asked. He shook his head.

"No. I just wanted to know your name," he said. I looked over at Ashley. Not a blush was in sight. Not even a hint of one.

"Why?" she asked. I could tell she wasn't aware of what he was doing. I looked back at the blue haired guy to see him rubbing the back of his neck and laughing nervously. I also saw a faint blush.

"Um, well. Isn't it natural for strangers who just met to want to know each other's name?" he asked. Ashley raised an eyebrow.

"Uh, I guess. Fine, my name's Ashley," Ashley said, not extending her arm for a handshake.

"Ashley? That's a really pretty name!" he said. Ashley rolled her eyes as he laughed. He then extended his hand, grabbed hers, and shook it while saying, "My name's Takeda."

"It's nice to meet you, Takeda. Now that you know my name, is that all you wanted?" she asked. He started to laugh nervously again.

"Well, um, you see…" he trailed off. He shook his head violently as if to shake off a bad thought then smiled at her. "Yeah, that's all! Bye Ashley! I hope to see you again!" He then ran back to the dojo without another word.

"What was that all about?" Ashley asked. I shrugged.

"I don't know," I said. However, inside I was smiling. It was so Ashley not to notice when someone was flirting with her. Well, who can blame her? For all I knew, she might have been unconsciously pushing away any thought of a possible boyfriend because of the way her last one treated her. I shuddered as I remembered the scars he left on her body and the talks Allie and I had with her to help her get over one of the fears he implanted on her. Ashley must have noticed the shudder since she looked at me with confusion.

"You okay?" she asked.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Just got some shivers," I lied. Well, technically it was a half-lie since they were shivers. "Why don't we head back now?" Ashley nodded.

"Yeah, it's getting kind of late and I'm getting hungry. I'm sure the masters are getting hungry too since you made them skip lunch!" Ashley said, laughing at the end. I joined in as we both imagined the powerful masters collapsing from hunger.

"Hey! Ashley!" a voice from behind yelled. Ashley sighed as we once again turned around. This time we saw the guy named Kenichi running towards us.

"Oh, you're Kenichi aren't you?" Ashley asked. He nodded.

"Yeah, um, since it's really late and Master Sakaki is the reason you guys had to come here, we were wondering if you three would like to join us for dinner? The old man even said that he would personally go to your dojo to bring your masters here as well," Kenichi said. When I got a good look at him, I noticed that he was wearing a different outfit from earlier. This time he was wearing a typical karate uniform that I usually saw Ashley and Allie wearing when they first started karate.

"Us three? Oh, you mean me, Haley, and Allie," Ashley said. Kenichi nodded. Ashley looked at me, as if silently questioning what I thought. I shrugged.

"Sure, why not?" I said.

"Yeah, I guess it can't hurt," Ashley said. She looked back at Kenichi and told him that we would be glad to eat dinner with them. Kenichi suddenly looked really happy then raced inside. After a minute or two he told us to go ahead and come back in. We did as he said and followed him back into the dojo.

"Oh, and once Allie gets back Apachai said that he would like to watch you two spar for a bit. Haley's exaggeration of the 'terror' cousins seems to have gotten him pumped up," Kenichi said. Ashley laughed.

"Yeah I'll bet!" she said. Kenichi laughed along with her. For some, unknown reason, their laughs sounded very similar. I shook my head and figured that I must have been imagining it. We entered the dojo a moment later.

"So, would you guys like something to drink?" Kenichi asked, turning sideways to face us. Suddenly something wizzed past Kenichi, Ashley moved to the side and her arm flew up to my head. I closed my eyes and only opened them shortly after hearing a metal object being stopped. I opened my eyes to see a very thin, sharp object less than an inch from my face.