Daniel looked up at the dojo he heard some kids talking about as they had passed his 'home' namely a tent he had bought by washing dishes for a restaurant.

Hiking his backpack up onto his shoulder, he entered the door and waited for the receptionist to acknowledge his presence. She was making a herculean effort of finding things to do other than look at him though. She began thumbing through blank sheets of paper in the printer for the third time before sighing to herself and looking at him. He couldn't blame her for not wanting to meet his eyes, he was homeless and dirty. It made it incredibly hard to find a job that would even consider him.

"Can I help you sir?" She said in an incredibly cheery and obviously fake voice that all receptionists seem to perfect. Daniel nodded and took out his notepad and pen, quickly writing down his reply. ' I was wondering if this place would be willing to hire me to do some work in exchange for a shower and a bit of cash.'

"Ummmm sure, let me go see." The receptionist fled, heels clacking. Daniel began to sketch the water bottle on the desk. A few minutes later, he had just finished drawing the cap when the lady came back. "I'm sorry but we currently have no openings. Good luck!" She gave him that fake smile again.

"Last time I checked, it was me who decided that. Not you after hiding in the closet for a few minutes." A man in a black Gi said, he had brown buzz cut hair and bronze skin. He reminded Daniel of a street fighter character. Daniel hadn't even heard him approach. the receptionist went scarlet and looked at her feet.

"But I-

"No. This is your last chance, don't mess it up. You may be my niece but I won't tolerate you being rude to people like that." The man turned towards Daniel and held out a hand. "I'm so sorry about that. Come on inside and I'll interview ya." Daniel shook his hand and followed along. He looked around and saw an MMA octagon and a boxing ring as well as a wall of weapons ranging from longswords to a thick sword with rings along the spine. "Here we teach many types of martial arts. Boxing, judo, tai Kwan do, and muy thai just to name a few." They entered a small office with four desks in the center. Two other men and a woman were wearing an outfit like the one he had on, sitting down and drinking orange soda. There was a short asian man with black hair in a ponytail. His skin was tanned and he looked mid thirties with faint laugh lines around his eyes. There was a blonde, spiky haired man that was scowling at something the woman said. She had dark dark brown skin and her hair was shaved on one side, the other side was wavy and fell to her shoulders.

They all looked up at the new arrivals and the asian man stood up "Who's this? Another student?" His chinese accent was very faint but it was still there.

"Nah, Lisa was about to turn him away from a job without ever asking us. I decided to give him a chance so I brought him for an interview. Any objections?" He looked around the room. After a few seconds, the woman tossed a soda to Daniel, who fumbled a moment before nodding his thanks to her. He held it away from his face and opened it, thankfully it didn't explode. He signed thank you and took a drink.

The man sat at the empty desk and looked at Daniel. "So why should we hire you?"

Daniel took a moment to write down what he wanted to say but was stopped. " we understand sign language so you can just sign if you like."

'Thank you, my name is Daniel and you should hire me because I'm a hard worker and I follow instructions. I have no prior obligations so my hours are totally free. I'm also low maintenance and all I require is some cash and access to the showers so I can be presentable.' He put his hands down and waited for their answer.

"I like the kid. How old are ya daniel?"

'I'll be 18 in a few weeks'

"Jesus, where's your parents?" The blonde man said.

'Dead, never met them. I lived in a couple orphanages till the last one burned down, smoke damaged my lungs and ruined my voice and I was taken in by a bunch of psychos who loved the idea of a slave who couldn't complain so i ran, Here I am.' He grinned. 'Living the dream'

"Well he's got two votes. Lee?" The asian man looked at the buzz cut guy. Who stared at daniel. "I'll give you a chance. If you'd like, I can subtract our monthly subscription from your pay and I can train you, get that scrawny body of yours in shape." Daniel nodded and looked at the woman, the only one who hadn't weighed in. "Ah what the hell, go for it. The place is a dump anyway and none of you lazy asses are gonna clean it up." They all chuckled.

Lee came over and clapped Daniel on the back. "Welcome to the family, kid."

Daniel wiped his brow, glad he was finally done with mopping. It had been two years since he had begun working at the dojo and his masters had been wonderful. Sure, they beat him up and called it training but he felt more alive than ever before. Soon he would start on weapons with master Jet, the blonde man had been cackling sinisterly when he learned it was his turn to torture their 'resident problem child' as they called him. It was not his fault that he hit that guy too hard. It's theirs for teaching him to fight and not how to hold back!

Daniel chuckled and went over to set the mop away in the closet. Then he began his warm up sets. 30 pushups, 30 sit ups, then some stretches. Then he began to move through his forms. First karate, then onto the jiu jitsu dummy. He began to take a staff to try and get some time in before master Jet arrived. As he reached out to grip the oak Bo staff-

THWACK!

Daniel was cradling his throbbing hand and flipping off master Jet with his uninjured one. "Ah ah ah, one must respect his master. And it is disrespectful to take a weapon without the master's permission, disciple." He tsked as he spun his personal Bo around him. The staff thrummed through the air and almost seemed to be spinning of its own accord. Suddenly it cracked into the floor. "Bow!" Daniel bowed at the waist before even registering the word. Discipline had been thoroughly instilled in those two years. "Very good, now take up your staff and follow along."

Daniel grunted affirmation. He then took up the staff and practiced with master Jet.

Daniel grinned as he finished the spar with his master. "You have learned all I can teach you, disciple. Bow" master Jet and Daniel bowed to each other, their sweat dripping from their brows to pool on the mat below.

"I'm the last one it seems." Master Shae grinned. "I've been waiting for so long." She tossed Daniel a set of weights.

"These are your new buddies, you won't take these off unless you are about to die, am I clear?" Daniel nodded and gave her a thumbs up with a cheeky grin. She chuckled and took him into a headlock, grinding her knuckles into the top of his head. "Who said you could give me attitude, disciple?" Daniel hooked her legs and they both fell to the mat. Before he could even think about a submission hold, she had him wrapped up so tightly that he couldn't move without pain.

"Oh sure, try and wrestle with the grappling master. While you're at it, why don't you try and knife fight Jet, or hide from Lee" Master Shae said in a deadpan voice, increasing the strength of her grip. Daniel slapped the mat in submission and she released him to gasp on the ground.

"Pain in my ass." They all laughed. "Alright, we'll start on your training in a week. Tomorrow we have some new students coming in and they need some examples of proper form. Run them through the beginner course for karate and set them to practicing forms." Shae instructed, before tossing him a white towel and bottle of water. "Oh and make sure to lock up after the Janitor." Daniel nodded from the ground, still wheezing a little. He remembered the day that they told him about the new hire. His heart had dropped through his stomach.

Of course, master Tim had punched Master Jet in the arm and Master Jet had clarified that as their disciple it was his new job to train the new students. To be taught by the masters was only for the senior students. (Translated to, they were just lazy and didn't want to deal with snooty kids and dumb teenagers.)

The next day, Daniel sat in the seiza position and waited for his new students. He could see a group of five, high school age boys chatting loudly while walking in. They all had on clean white Gi with the dojo logo on their chest and back. Daniel clapped once to get their attention. They stopped for a moment to look at him, before going back to chatting. He sighed, he always hated using the horn. Yet, given the fact that he couldn't make any coherent sounds above the quietest of whispers made getting someone's attention rather difficult. He walked over to the bench, where his pad rested. He pressed the horn button and an obnoxious air siren played at deafening levels over the intercom. Everyone in the dojo stopped what they were doing and covered their ears.

'Now that you've forced me to interrupt everyone else for you. We will start with your first lesson.' Daniel wrote on his tablet and waited until they had read it.

"Why should we listen to you? You're barely older than us and you're just a scrawny little shit." One of the kids walked up to him, he must have been almost 7 foot. Daniel wondered what they were feeding kids these days.

'You'll listen to me because I am the masters' disciple and it is my job to teach all of you how to defend yourself.'

"I know how to defend myself." The kid scoffed. "I want to learn how to kick some ass."

Daniel sighed. He hated kids. 'Very well. If you beat me in a fight, I will personally ask the masters to train each one of you. Deal?'

"Fuck yeah, no going back on your word." The kid high fived his buddies then they stepped onto the mat. The kid bounced on the balls of his feet and made Bruce lee noise while punching to the amusement of his friends.

Daniel really hated kids. He typed a short message into the tablet before stepping onto the mat and removing the shirt of the Gi. In the time he had been working and training at the dojo, they had been pushing him to his limits. Now instead of the malnourished, skinny body he had when he joined. Now he had muscles visibly flexing with every movement. The dumb kid hesitated at seeing that, before snorting and putting his hands up. "C'mon!" He started advancing before a hand from Daniel stopped him short.

Master Tim stepped out from the office. "Why are you such trouble all the time, disciple? You're supposed to make our lives easier." Daniel just shrugged.

Master Tim sighed. "Alright, my name is Master Tim and I'll be the ref for this bout. A clean hit or submission is one point. When a point is called both parties will disengage without hesitation. Am I clear?" Daniel nodded and so did the kid. "Five points will decide the match. Bow to your opponent." Daniel bowed at the waist and the kid gave a clumsy copy.

"Begin!"

Daniel set into his stance, left palm out and right fist at his side. He slowly shuffled forward while watching his opponent. The kid raised his fists in front of his face like a boxer and charged forward. He swung a wide left hook to which Daniel ducked under while blocking the uppercut with the right hand. As he let the fist pass him, Daniel body checked the kid with his shoulder. He fell to the floor and looked up just as Daniel's fist gently tapped his cheek. "Point! Daniel."

Daniel resumed his position at the other side of the mat. Taking his stance, he nodded at the kid who hopped right back up. "Begin!" The kid charged right back in and started with some jabs. Daniel dodged the first few before grabbing hold of an overextended punch and executing a hip toss, immediately moving to leverage his arm Into a hold. The kid groaned and bucked until Daniel put pressure on his shoulder. He looked at Master Tim. "Tell him to let me go!"

"Tap the mat to acknowledge the submission." Master Tim supplied. The kid tapped and Daniel let him up, offering him a hand that was slapped away.

"I'm gonna get you, mark my fuckin words." The kid slapped both his cheeks and bellowed before putting his guard up again.

"Point, Daniel. Begin!"

The kid charged in and went to swing wide with his right arm, before delivering a surprise jab with his left to Daniel's ribs. "Ha! In your face!"

"Point….what is your name?"

"It's Connor."

"Point to Conner. Take your positions. Begin!"

No more mercy for this little shit. Daniel knew he was gonna catch hell for allowing him to score a point like that. Time to take this seriously. Daniel rushed the kid, delivering a high kick that was blocked before dropping into a leg sweep and delivering a swift punch to the chest.

"Point! Daniel."

Daniel took some deep breaths, reigning in his anger. It wasn't Connor's fault, it was his own for getting cocky.

"Begin!"

They both advanced slowly. Daniel waiting for Connor to make a move. They circled for a few moments before Connor snapped a punch out. Daniel dodged and returned an elbow that Connor backed away from. He didn't see the knee until it connected with his stomach. Daniel immediately winced.

"Daniel!" He immediately backed off and sat in a seiza. Master Tim walked over to Connor and checked him over. He was wheezing a bit on the ground but waved away the master. "Do not worry, Daniel will be disqualified and punished for that."

"No, no it's fine. That's what I wanna learn." Connor gasped. He stood and bowed to Daniel. "I'm sorry for my attitude. Please teach me."

Daniel smiled, stood and bowed to Connor. They shook hands and Daniel began teaching them some basic forms and holds.