"This is your jet?" Mr Kanawa asked as we crossed the large hangar to the waiting Gulfstream. The torrential rain there in Chubu meant that we'd be boarding inside the hangar, rather than out on the tarmac.

"No, it's not mine," I admitted. "It belongs to the King of Europe, my father-in-law. I'm just borrowing it for this trip."

"This is very luxurious," the old man said as we found our seats.

"Yeah, it's nice," I agreed.

"This is my first time to fly," said Hoshi Kanawa.

"Don't get too used to this level of comfort," Teddy Bear cautioned him. "Flying commercial is nothing like this."

I took the opportunity during the ten-hour flight to explain to the Kanawas how things were going to go. I explained that we were going to stop and overnight in Los Angeles, where Teddy Bear and the Tanakas were going to stay. The rest of us were going to continue on the next day to New York, where I'd set the senior Kanawa and Hayate Oshida up. After that was done, Jiro, Hoshi Kanawa and I would return to Los Angeles, unless Hoshi wanted to stay in New York with his father.

"You're free to stay as long or as short as you like in New York," I told Hoshi. In New York Hayate would work as interpreter and English tutor, but if Hoshi opted for Los Angeles Jiro would be his translator and English instructor.

"What if I wish to visit Los Angeles?" Mr Kanawa asked.

"That can easily be arranged," I told him. "I'll be bouncing back and forth and you can make the trip with me if you want."

"Where will my father live for the next six months?" Hoshi asked.

"We have an apartment near our training center- easy walking distance. There is shopping and dining nearby, too."

"Does New York have a Japanese neighborhood?" Hoshi asked.

"I have no clue," I confessed. "If there is, I've never seen it. There are plenty of Japanese restaurants and Asian markets, though."

"What of your men?" Hoshi asked, tilting his head to indicate the three heavies sitting in the back, playing cards.

"They'll be going to New York, too," I told him. "They'll be training under your father."

"Is New York your seat of power?"

"It is right now, but it hasn't always been. We had been based out of the West Coast for a long time. New York is good for us right now, but we may move again sometime in the future. Of course, that's just for North America. Our base in South America is in Colombia."

"Wait- Colombia?" Teddy Bear asked, betraying the fact he hadn't actually been sleeping at all.

"Cartagena," I confirmed.

"That's where Angela was from, right? Is that where you and Emmy met her?" he asked.

"No, we met her in Century City," I told him. "I can give you all the details sometime, if you want."

"When are you going to Colombia next? Would it be cool if I went, too?" Teddy Bear asked.

"Why would you want to go to Colombia with me?" I asked, puzzled.

"Why wouldn't I? Leah, you are easily the most fascinating person I know, and your life is… well, fascinating," he said with a shrug. "Besides, I've never been, and it'd be good to go with someone who knows the place."

"Sure, I guess," I said with a shrug. "It'll be pretty boring, since I'll mostly be occupied with my work there."

"Leah, what I've seen of your work is about the opposite of boring," Teddy Bear laughed.

"I am so glad you are home," Emmy said, holding me tight, burying her face against my chest. "Our video calls were simply not enough."

"No, they weren't," I agreed, breathing in the smell of her hair. "This is so much better."

"You must be very tired," Emmy said. "We should have dinner, then you must go to bed."

"There needs to be a bath in there," I told her.

"Yes," Emmy agreed. "Definitely."

Dinner was a simple chicken salad, which was perfect after two weeks in Japan. The food had been good there, but I was very ready for a change in cuisine and to get back to my old routine.

"I missed this very much," Emmy said as she leaned back against me in the tub.

"Yeah, the bathing wasn't nearly as nice as this over there," I agreed.

"Your stories of the others in the baths were hilarious," Emmy said as she wrapped my arms around herself. "Especially how Nick, Eddie and David acted."

"I can understand it, really I can, but it was awkward as Hell the first few days until they got over it," I said.

"And poor sexually frustrated Jiro!" Emmy said, laughing in that pretty way of hers.

"I think he and Akiko finally got busy the middle of last week," I told her. "She had breakfast with us on Wednesday morning, wearing the same clothes she had the night before."

"Do you really think it was their first time?"

"I can't say for sure, but I wouldn't be surprised," I said. "They both seem really inexperienced."

"I remember my first time, the night you stayed at my house in Fallbrook," Emmy said dreamily. "It was better than I could have imagined."

"It was better than I'd thought it could be, too," I confessed. "You know I'd never really thought about sex with another girl before you. You turned me gay," I said, cupping her boobs in my hands and giving them a squeeze. "Thanks for that."

"You are very welcome," Emmy said, resting her hands on mine to hold them in place on her breasts. "I am glad that my dastardly plan was so effective."

"I am, too," I told her, leaning down and kissing her behind the ear. "Very glad."

"Leah," Emmy sighed, tilting her head to give me better access as I kissed her. "Leah."

Emmy made sweet, tender love to me that night. I rarely got to be a pillow princess, but Emmy was perfectly happy to let me relax and enjoy her ministrations. Delicate kisses, tender caresses, and a long, gentle build-up to a very nice orgasm were her plans for me, and I was perfectly O.K. with that. No complaints at all, really. Afterwards, holding her against me, little spoon to my big spoon, I felt a comfort I hadn't recognized just how much I'd missed.

I was just pulling my gear bag from the trunk of the M6 when a familiar rumble caressed my ears. Sure enough, a Madagascar Orange Aston Martin Vantage with a Capristo exhaust pulled into the lot there at Clancy's Fight Gym and parked right next to my BMW.

"Man, six thirty is too early for rational human beings," groaned Teddy Bear as he got out of the car, grabbing his own gym bag from the passenger seat.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"Honestly, I'm surprised to see you here this morning," I told him.

"Me, too," he agreed.

"You're gonna need to sign up for a membership with Eddie over there," I said as we entered the familiar old gym, pointing to the club's manager who was sitting behind his desk.

"Yo, man, Leah!" Joey said as he walked in. "Where you been? We missed you!"

"I was over in Japan, working on a project," I told him.

Laughing, he said, "Knowin' you, you was probably training with ninjas or some shit," Joey said with a laugh.

"Something like that, yeah," I said with a grin. "Hey, Joey, you up for a round or two this morning? I could use a bit of roughhousing."

"Normally I'd be all over it if a chick said something like that to me, but I can't. I got a real fight on Friday, and if I get all jacked up…" Joey apologized.

"Hey, uh, Leah, I'd be down," said a guy who I recognized as a regular, but hadn't really talked to. He was a big boy, probably towards the upper limit of the Heavyweight class.

"Cool," I told him. "Hey, I don't think I ever caught your name."

"Cliff," he said. "Um, is it true…" he said, rubbing the back of his head as he tried to find the right words.

"Probably," I told him. "If you're asking if I did kill six people with my bare hands in Atlanta, then yes, it's true."

"Well, no, I wasn't gonna ask about that," he said. "I seen the video, so I know that part. No, I was gonna ask if you really are married to Emmy Lascaux."

"Yes, that's true, too," I told him.

"She's incredible," Cliff said. "Probably my favorite singer."

"Mine, too," I said holding out my fist, which he bumped with a smile.

"The, uh, thing in Atlanta… I'm really sorry for what happened to your other wife, and um, your babies, too."

"Thanks," I said. "It was a terrible day for everyone involved."

"I can't even. My wife, like, she's five months pregnant, you know? Just the thought…" he said, his face clouding up with emotion at the idea of losing a wife and baby.

"Yeah, it fucking sucks," I agreed, resting a hand on the big guy's shoulder. "Cliff, do me a favor and do a better job of keeping your wife safe than I did with mine."

"Shit, dude," Cliff said, shaking his head. After a moment he stood up straight again. "So, like, I can help you with that roughhousing thing, if you want."

"You gotta promise me one thing," I said. "You've gotta come at me like you mean it."

"I seen the way you fight," he said. "I know better than to pussyfoot."

"Alright. I need to get my buddy going with a workout, then we can tango. Will you be ready by, say, seven thirty?" I asked.

Cliff glanced at the big wall clock. "Sounds good. I'll be warmed up and ready."

"You're actually gonna fight that guy?" Teddy Bear asked. He'd clearly seen and heard the whole conversation.

I just shrugged and said, "Yeah, I need to work off two weeks of rust."

"That guy's got seventy-five pounds on you!" Teddy Bear protested. "Maybe two inches of reach!"

"Teddy," I said, putting my hand on his arm and pulling him to face me. "When I fight in back alleys or abandoned warehouses or whatever, I don't get to pick and choose and only fight guys smaller than me. I have to fight the guy in front of me, regardless. I've made it clear in this gym that I'll spar with anybody. If I get tuned up, well, that's what I get. In the gym it's a learning experience. In a dark warehouse, it's fatal."

"Please, please work with me on that film coming up," Teddy Bear begged. "What you said just now? It sent freaking shivers down my spine. That is what I need. Teach me to do that and… Hell, I'll make sure you get residuals."

"You know I make a metric shit-ton of money already, right?" I asked, chuckling.

"You do the intense villain thing so God-damned well," Teddy Bear lamented. "If I can nail it half as well as you do it'll be huge. Shit, if the casting directors had any sense at all they'd just cast you for the role."

"I have no interest in being in front of the camera," I told him. "None."

"You're probably the only one in Los Angeles," Teddy Bear said with a self-deprecating laugh.

Cliff was strong as an ox and could really take a hit, but he had no way to counter my speed advantage. He never managed to lay any solid blows on me, but I could rain down on him at will. Eventually he went for the only real avenue available to him and charged in, accepting the beating he got as he did so.

Unfortunately for him I saw it coming from a mile away and when he grabbed for me to clinch I dropped him to the mat with a hip throw.

Accepting defeat gracefully, he just laid himself out flat on the deck, laughing at his situation.

When I reached out a hand to help him up, he stood, shaking his head. "It's one thing to watch it happen to somebody else, but until you experience it yourself there just ain't no way to understand what it's like."

"What what's like?" one of the onlookers asked.

"Man, sparring with Leah is like a hail storm, but the hailstones are fists, feet and knees," Cliff said. "You just can't stop 'em. You can't hit back, neither. There ain't nothin' there to ever lay a glove on."

"You know, I saw you take Middle Son apart in, like, two point seven seconds, but watching you work that guy over might have been more impressive," Teddy Bear said, handing me my towel and water bottle.

"How so?" I asked.

"Well, the beatdown you put on Middle Son was too fast to really even understand what happened. It was like you bowed to each other, then he was on the mat. There was no transition. With this guy I could see it. Every time he dropped his guard you punched him in the head. Every time he raised his arm, you kicked him in the ribs. It was so… clinical. It was like you were punishing him for each and every tiny mistake he made. He shifted his weight back and you got his ankle. His uppercut left his middle open, so you hit him in the gut. He tried to get you in a clinch and you slipped it and used his momentum against him- classic aikido move."

"I wouldn't have thought it was possible," Coach Lawrence said as he caught up to Teddy Bear and me. "But you're even faster than the first time I saw you spar. I don't understand how you can move so fast."

"I don't think she does," Teddy Bear told him. "I think she's actually a time traveller from a second or so in the future."

"That's the only explanation that makes any sense at all," Coach Lawrence begrudgingly admitted. "Seriously."

Teddy Bear was completely gassed before too long, but I have to give him credit- he did his best to match my workout for at least forty-five minutes. At that point I just told him to rest, then do some mobility exercises. Honestly, he was in pretty good shape- his physique (which I'd seen plenty of while in Japan) wasn't just Nautilus-toned.

Lying on his back on one of the wooden benches, he watched me doing my plyos for a while.

Finished with my routine, I sat down by him to drink some water. "So, have I killed you, too?" I asked.

"You are some kind of freaking beast," Teddy Bear groaned. "I have no idea how you can maintain that kind of intensity for an hour and a half."

"An hour and a half?" I replied. "I'm usually here for three hours on my gym days. I used to do four, but my first hour was usually, um, technique work."

"Freaking beast," Teddy Bear groaned.

"What you need to understand is that I didn't just wake up one morning and do a workout like this. This is after many years of building up to it."

"I get that, sure," Teddy Bear said, sitting up. "I'm starting to think there's no hope I'll be able to do your workout."

"No, probably not," I told him. "But you don't need to. You want to do this to get in intimidating shape for this movie you've been talking about, right?"

"Well, yeah," he agreed.

"Chris Hemsworth looks pretty good with his shirt off, right?" I asked.

"Dude's ripped," Teddy Bear confirmed.

"The thing is, his build isn't realistic for a real fighter. Looking like Arnold in his prime is ridiculous. That bulk is all show, no go. Look at the guys in this gym. Do you see any of them that look like that? No. These guys- some of them are MMA professionals, the rest are amateur fighters or guys that just want to be confident in their physical abilities, right? Well, they all know that bulk is the enemy of speed. They want functional muscle. You have all the muscle you need. I know- I've seen you naked. What you need is functional mobility on top of the weight program you're already doing. If you want, I'll work up a real, serious program for you that'll help you develop explosive power and full range of movement. You do that and you'll have that physicality you want for this gig."

"What kind of exercises are we talking about?"

"Well, plyometrics are good and balance work is crucial. Flexibility work, too."

"So, like, bosu ball stuff?" Teddy Bear asked. "Maybe yoga?"

"That's all good," I agreed. "You can do that stuff at home, too. I was thinking more along the lines of Cossack squats, scorpions, stuff like that. What you need is fluidity of movement."

"Is that what you do? You say 'fluidity of movement', and that just about perfectly describes the way you move. Stephen once described you as moving like some kind of jungle cat, and that really stayed with me because it's so accurate an image."

"I do a lot of mobility work," I agreed. "It's something I drill into my guys- you have to be flexible and fluid to fight properly."

"Where are your guys? Why don't they work out here with you?" Teddy Bear asked.

"They have their own workout regimens, and they're based out of New York anyhow."

"You're going to New York tonight, right?"

"Yeah," I confirmed.

"I'm probably going to have to go next week," Teddy Bear said. "I need to meet with the producers and the director. Maybe if you're still in town we can get lunch or something. I know this great Greek place in SoHo."

"That'd be cool," I replied.

"How was your workout?" Emmy mumbled from where she was wrapped in the bedding, still mostly asleep.

"It was good," I told her as I leaned down to kiss her. "Hey, join me in the shower?"

"Go ahead and get started," Emmy said with a smile. "I will join you in a moment."

True to her word, Emmy slipped into the shower with me before too long. "I told Lee and Jackson that I needed a few days off to go with you to New York," she said as she shampooed up my hair. Changing the subject, she asked, "Are you letting your hair grow out again? I have gotten accustomed to the brown, but I do miss your beautiful golden blonde hair."

"I haven't really been growing it out, per se," I told her, enjoying the feel of her fingers massaging my scalp. "I just haven't bothered to get it cut since Houston."

"I think you could go back to blonde now," Emmy said wistfully. "It has been almost six months. I am certain people have forgotten by now."

"You'd be surprised," I said. "Those videos still come up in conversation a lot."

Emmy sighed as she directed me under the shower head to rinse off. "I know that I cannot forget that night."

"No, I never will, either," I agreed.

"I miss her," Emmy said in a soft voice.

"I do, too," I replied, turning around to wrap her slender, dark body in my arms and hold her tight. "I miss her very much. But I still have you, Em. And you have me."

"Yes, I do," Emmy confirmed, leaning her head against my shoulder.

We stayed like that for quite a long time before we resumed washing each other on some unspoken signal. Gradually we shook off the melancholy mood, and by the time it came for our silly peek-a-boo game with the towels we were both back in a better space.

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