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Become a student at Kagehara University for Mixed Martial Arts.
Survive the classes.
Defeat your enemies.
Beat your feelings into submission?

Warriors rarely show love to anyone. So what happens when love is taboo? Can two people really be together?

The short deal of two rivals who can't help but fall for each other, while trying to make the other fall.

Dark clouds rolled in from the far east. A chilled wind kicked up. Shinta sighed as he walked down the road towards campus, duffle bag over one shoulder. Why did his sensei insist that class start before dawn? No one should be up at this godforsaken hour, let alone be out and about preparing for his dueling class. It wasn't a worthy goal to have all your classmates defeated before breakfast. At least not to Shinta. What else would he do with his day if he were to do that?

Shinta arrived a couple minutes later. Changing his shoes into the ones they wore around the dojo, he walked over to the main room where the class met. Setting his bag against a wall, he sat cross legged onto the mat and began to stretch out his legs.

"You're late Holokai!" a scratchy voice growled from the next room where the paper walls opened into a stone garden that surrounded another mat.

"I'm never late master," Shinta muttered as he continued to stretch. "You just lose track of time when you meditate."

"I'm not the one who decided to change the schedule halfway through the term," he growled halfheartedly while he flipped over and did a few pushups.

"He'll be lucky if I'm the only one giving him grief." Again he flipped over and did a few bicycle crunches.

"That's because no one else is here yet genius," he retorted. If there was one thing that drove him crazy about this girl it was her constant higher than thou attitude. She always acted like that, as if everyone were insects that she had to force herself to interact with for the sake of mankind.

Not that I'm much better, he thought with a grin. Most of the students on campus were training for either entertainment, or some form of law enforcement. Neither of which were high on his totem pole of respect. The arts they learned here were sacred and should be given more respect than they got in these modern times.

"But master already has something up his sleeve," he mused aloud while he wandered over to his bag to grab his training wraps.

"You two, out on the duel mat. Now," their master snapped from the other room.

"Oh yay," Shinta murmured as he grabbed the wraps and proceeded to wind them around his wrists as he strolled out to the mat surrounded by the stone garden.

Their master sat on the floor in the other room, a cup of tea in his hands.

Stopping just short of the map, Shinta looks over at his master with a knowing look.

"So that's why, you sly old geezer. Couldn't help encouraging drama," he murmured as he stepped onto the mat and bowed at the same time as his classmate. It all made perfect sense now. Why they were the only ones there while the rest of class had yet to show. They were the only ones in this private lesson.

A duel, a real duel. Something that they rarely saw except in demonstrations. No holding punches, no stopping just short of connecting. Two opponents clashing to victory. Something only true masters ever indulged in.

After taking his bow, Shinta let out a sigh as he positioned himself at the ready. It had been too long since his last fight. Running drills was good for form and all, but his abilities didn't lie in form.

Shinta looked over at Yuukie, a cheesy grin on his face when he heard the tinkle of a soft bell. The instant it reached his ears, the smile died away. His face went blank as if his entire being was focused on what her body was doing and how he was to respond to it.

When she did the flip he started to raise his head to follow, but stopped midway and instead swung his leg around. He knew where she was aiming to land and hoped it would knock her back or at least prevent her from performing whatever move she had intended.