The first time Kaito Marx entered the Animal Squadron gym, Satoru Hayabusa brought him straight to the main office for his interview. Once he was done, Kaito left straight out without taking in the gym. This time, however, he waited a bit for a bit of sightseeing. He took in the red walls, the brown wood floors, and the mural of animals on the back wall. He admired the two rings that were in the center of it.

In the closest ring, two men were sparring with each other. One was Yoshi Hirano who was holding a young man in a full nelson. This second man had long, black hair with a low ponytail with his right green eye being partially covered by a bang. He had an two scars on the bridge of his nose making an X and three scars on his left cheek. The both of them struggled in the hold until they saw Kaito watching them.

"Let's take five, Ichiro." Yoshi said letting go.

"Sure." The man called Ichiro replied. He approached the ropes to meet Kaito. "You must be the new guy."

"That's me. Kaito Marx."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Yoshi Hirano. This guy is Ichiro Azai."

"I see you're already meeting the other wrestlers." Said Satoru as he approached from the office.

"So at this moment, I'm an Animal Squadron wrestler, huh?" Kaito asked eagerly.

"Not quite yet." Satoru said. "You need to undergo some training before we test if you're ready for the ring."

"I could test him now, Satoru." Ichiro said.

"You know one man isn't enough to test if he's ready." Satoru said. "Just give Kaito some time, and we'll test him together."

"How exactly do you test me?" Kaito asked.

"You'll see in due time." Satoru replied. "Yoshi, how would you like to show Kaito around?"

"Sure thing, sir." Yoshi replied. He stepped out of the ring and brought Kaito to the left side of the gym. There were two sections, each with different types of exercise machines. "The place in front of you is where we exercise our lower body. The part on the left is where we practice our upper body."

Kaito saw a muscular young man working out at the machines on the left. He had spikey, jet-black hair, amber eyes, and sharp canine teeth. He had scars over his body, one on his right eye, four on his right back and left thigh, three on his mid-section and right bicep, and ten on his back.

"That the new guy, Yoshi?" the scarred man asked.

"Si." Yoshi said. "Kaito, this is Kenji Maeda. He's the tiger of the team. Mostly, because of those scars on his body."

"You mean my stripes?" Kenji asked jokingly.

"Nice to meet you, by the way." Kaito said.

"Same here, newbie."

"So Kenji, is your brother around here?" Yoshi asked.

"No. Kai's taking some time to recover after his last match." Kenji replied.

"All right then. This way, Kaito."

Yoshi brought Kaito to the other side of the gym. Kaito looked at a corner to see a set of weights before following Yoshi into an area with chairs and couches.

"So what's this place?" Kaito asked.

"This is mainly the waiting area." Yoshi said. "You've passed here to get to the manager's office. We've also got showers to the left and a locker room to the right. Give it time, and I'm sure you'll have your own engraved locker, amigo."

Kaito was about to say something, but was stopped when someone came out of the locker room. It was young man with purple eyes, long black hair swept to the side with a purple streak, and a thin goatee.. He wore a purple jacket over a tanktop and purple pants that flared at the bottom over black boots.

"Hey, Kisuke." Yoshi greeted. "Kaito, this is our Sadistic Serpent, Kisuke Uesugi."

"Sadistic?" Kaito asked nervously.

"No te preocupes." Yoshi said in his native tongue. "That's only if he's facing you in the ring. Outside, he's a man of few words."

"You must be the new guy." Kisuke said. "The jobber, right?"

Kaito frowned at that. "I prefer not to think about that."

"If it makes you feel any better, I was a jobber too." Yoshi said. "Back in Mexico, I lost a whole lot more of my matches than I was comfortable with."

"Really?" Kaito asked. "What happened?"

"Well, my old bully, Luciana, moved to Japan too. I wanted to be done with being afraid of her, so I rejoined the circuit."

"And did you beat her?" Kaito asked.

"Well… I haven't had the chance to challenge her yet. But I will."

"Well, while you two continue talking, I'm going to check out." Kisuke said. He turned to leave with Yoshi waving bye to him.

"Don't worry. Most of the guys here are pretty friendly." Yoshi said. "Especially Kisuke, and he's got a snake motif. Give them time. They'll grow to like you."

"What's that about a snake motif?" Kaito asked.

"Well, most of us wrestlers here have beast gimmicks. That's why we're called the Animal Squadron. I'm a hawk. Ichiro's a wolf. Satoru is a dragon."

"So which animal do you think I am?" Kaito asked.

"Hmm… Too soon to say." Yoshi answered. "We'll find out in due time."

Yoshi and Kaito returned to the main hallway. Satoru stood there as if he was waiting for them.

"Well, Kaito, after taking in the complete tour and meeting some of the other competitors, what do you think so far?"

Kaito looked around and thought for a moment. He smiled for a bit before looking back at the ace. He gave his answer.

"Honestly, I don't know quite yet. But I have a feeling it's going to be my most promising one yet. I mean, you're treating me quite differently than all the others. They gave me a debut match instantly just because of who my parents are, but you guys are giving some time to get used to this place. Who knows? Maybe this will be my best chance yet."

Satoru grinned at his answer. "That's what I like to hear. We'll get your training starting tomorrow."

Ichiro approached with a mop and bucket in his hands. He passed them to Kaito. "Today, however, the new guy does all the cleaning."

"What? The whole place?" Kaito asked in surprise.

"A little manual labor never hurt anybody." Satoru said.

"Welcome to Animal Squadron, Kaito Marx." Yoshi greeted.

Kaito sighed for a moment and began mopping the sweat-covered floor. Still, he managed to make a smile filled with hope. "Yeah. This may be my best chance yet."

Author's Note: Another chapter done at last. Apologies for this being done so late. It's just that I was getting used to the Animal Squadron members. The characters in this chapter (other than Kaito Marx) are all owned by Foxboy614. I hope I did his OCs right. Also, everyone based on Kaito's performance here and in my Xtrema story, which animal do you think Kaito most resembles?

Next chapter will be the match between Queen Bee and Digger Yamamoto. Who do you think will win? Any and all comments are welcome.