“Y-you…you are the dojo master?” she asked, completely bewildered.

“You’ll find that my teachings are different from others,” he said, a smile still plastered to his features.

“Uh…I’m Chloe,” the high school student offered, brushing a lock of strawberry blonde hair away from her face.

“Katsu-sensei; that is what you shall address me as,” he said, not bothering to attach any introductory sentence to the name.

“Okay,” she murmured, her voice trailing off slightly. “So…are we going to be learning about yin and yang, or something?”

There was a snap as Katsu took a (very strong) sidestep to the left. “Yin and yang are Chinese; this is a Japanese dojo,” Katsu said, still not losing his cheer.

“So…”

“I shall lead you to your room,” Katsu said.

“My stuff is outside,” Chloe said, feeling slightly daunted. “Am I the only one here?”

“Oh, yes,” he said, the smile extending further, if it were possible. “It’s just you and me.”

Somehow, that’s not comforting in the least.