"Last night you told Old Kawasaki that his niece should show her face to the world. You compared her to your wife, Emmy Lascaux," Mr Kanawa said. We'd more or less just arrived at the dojo and when he pulled me aside I'd expected to talk about training with his son. "One of my students sat right behind you in the concert hall and followed you outside after the performance. She stood close enough to hear your entire conversation. You never once took any notice of her, did you?"

"No," I admitted. "I didn't."

"This is the true ninjutsu," Mr Kanawa said. "Invisibility in plain sight. This was the secret that made our ancestors so feared and so useful to the powers."

"Mr Kanawa," I said, making it very clear that I was serious. "This is what I want from you. I want you to train my people. My guys are good, but anything you could teach them would be welcome."

"This is a secret of our people!" he protested. "I can't give our secrets away!"

"Mr Kanawa- look at me. If last night's meeting wasn't clear, you and your fellow elders have put yourselves in my hands. Your people are now my people, too. My people, your people- we are all the same. We're all Children of the Night. We must work together. I'm happy to do what I can for the Night Children of Japan, but in return I expect the same from you."

Mr Kanawa looked as if he was about to protest some more, but then his shoulders slumped. "How will this work? There is no way I can teach your men anything in less than a week. It takes years of study and practice to master the technique."

"How much can you teach in six months?" I asked.

"The basics, if the students are disciplined in their training."

"Excellent. I'd like you to inform your students that your sons will take over the dojo while you're gone. You're welcome to bring one of them with you, and he can study our forms of fighting while you're teaching my men ninjutsu," I told him.

"What are you talking about? Gone where?" Mr Kanawa demanded.

"You'll be coming back to the US with me, to New York where my men are training. You will find them to be highly motivated and ready to learn all you have to teach them."

"New York?" Mr Kanawa gasped.

"We'll leave on Friday," I confirmed. "Let Jiro here know what you'll need, and we'll make sure it's ready for you."

"New York…" the old man said as the reality that he'd just been Shanghaied hit him.

"I will pay you well for your time, don't worry," I told him. "You can rest assured that this is for the good of all our people."

"My students…"

"Will be in good hands," I said.

Hoshi bowed deeply when I entered the main room of the dojo.

"I am deeply honored to be your student, even if it is only for a few days," he said.

"Unfortunately, there aren't many things I can teach you in just a few days," I replied. "What I can do is point you in the right direction."

"This is all I can ask," he said, nodding.

I told him that all we were going to do is light touch practice, and after I got changed we took our positions in the practice area. I had him do his best to poke me or lightly slap me while I blocked, dodged or deflected. After a bit of that, we changed roles.

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"There is no way I can match your speed," he admitted after a while.

"No, there isn't," I told him. At his surprised expression, I added, "It's because you're reacting, not anticipating. I know what you're going to do almost before you do, so I have plenty of time to respond. You, on the other hand, see my movements and react to them, which will always put you behind. For our next exercise, I'll slow way down."

When I slowed to half speed he had no problem blocking or deflecting my attacks, so I gradually sped up until I reached a speed at which he couldn't respond quickly enough.

"Now we know how fast your reaction speed is, and to be fair, it's as good as almost anybody I've ever fought," I told him.

"But not fast enough to ever beat you," he grudgingly admitted.

"Nobody is fast enough to beat me," I told him.

"I can believe that," Hoshi said. "I never would have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes."

"Part of it is my natural speed," I told him. "But most of it is reading my opponent. Everyone gives some sort of sign of what they're going to do next. Learn to read that and you'll gain an enormous advantage," I told him. "Watch my eyes and my shoulders. Watch my hips. Those are what always lead. The fists and feet will follow."

"That is what I have been taught already," Hoshi said.

"You might have been taught that, but you didn't truly learn it," I told him. "You've grown to rely on your natural strength and speed, which have been good enough to beat anybody you've gone up against. The problem arises when you fight someone as fast or faster than you are. You simply can't react quickly enough. You need to anticipate, to predict."

"How can I learn this?" Hoshi asked.

"Watch," I told him. "Focus. Focus so closely that nothing else exists but your opponent. If you're watching somebody else fight, give all of your attention to only one of the combatants. Watch, and predict what they will do. Train your eyes, and train your mind. Your body is good enough- it isn't what is holding you back. Also," I added, "branch out in your techniques. Train at a Muay Thai gym for a while. Your style is good, but there's a big world of fighters out there and they all have things to teach."

"I see…" Hoshi said thoughtfully. "Did I hear correctly that you are taking Father back to New York with you?"

"Yes, he'll train my men for six months," I said.

"May I accompany him? I would like to learn more from you."

"Who would run the dojo?" I asked.

"My older brother," Hoshi said. "He is our chief instructor after our father."

"I'd be happy for you to go with your father, but I won't be in New York much. I live on the other side of the country, in Los Angeles. You can learn from my combat instructors, and…" I paused, thinking about it. "Or you could come to Los Angeles and train in my gym. I can set you up with coaching and we could spar together. Think about it."

"I have a hard time understanding how you simply told Mr Kanawa that he was going to come with you to New York and he went along with it," Jiro said in Hayate's van on the way back to the hotel.

"You did what?" Hayate asked, looking back over his shoulder in surprise.

"I told Mr Kanawa that he had to come to New York for six months to train my heavies in ninjutsu," I told Hayate.

"He didn't even argue!" Jiro said.

"Nobody ever says no to Queen Leah," Eddie said from the back row. "Nobody, ever."

"I'm starting to see that," Jiro admitted.

"To answer your question, I simply never framed it as there being any other option. I told him what was going to happen. No equivocating."

"And now Hoshi is going to come to Los Angeles to train with you, too," Jiro said. "How will that even work? He doesn't speak English!"

"Jiro," I said, "we may need to discuss the length of your employment with me."

There were other guests in the baths that evening for a change. Not a lot, but certainly more than the none there had been up until that point. After over a week in Japan I'd grown used to the stares, but it hits a little different when you're naked. Of course my guys got their share of looks, as did Teddy Bear and even Jiro, but it was me all the shinobi's eyes seemed glued to.

I can't say that I didn't understand it- after all, I was so far outside the realm of what they'd ever seen before that I might as well have had three arms and green skin. Still, understanding didn't make it any more comfortable, and as our time in the baths progressed I could tell my three heavies were getting more and more upset with it.

I couldn't ignore their attitudes any longer when the three of them moved to form a living wall between me and the rest of the guests.

"It's time for us to go," I told them. "Teddy Bear, Jiro, you're welcome to stay," I said as I got out of the hot water and Eddie, Nick and David followed immediately.

Walking back to our floor, I told the three of them that they were overreacting. "People stare at Emmy every day," I told them. "She's used to it. To these people I'm just as exotic as Emmy is to the average day walker. It's natural they're curious. I'm huge, muscular, and a Westerner. Remember, this hotel is a secret, only frequented by the shinobi. Jiro, Teddy Bear and I might be the first non-Night Children they've ever seen bathing."

"I didn't feel comfortable with the way they were looking at you," grumbled Nick.

"Neither did I, but I'm not going to let that stop me from enjoying the hot springs for the rest of our time here. None of those people were any sort of threat. Remember, we're here to convince the locals that we're all one big, happy family."

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