The doors to the dojo suddenly flew open, as Kiro exclaimed: "I'm ready!" 

"You're in pretty high spirits today, kid." Bakusa laughed from the corner of the dojo, where he appeared to be enjoying his tenth bottle of sake. 

"I can't slack off! I need to get stronger!" 

"And just how strong do you wanna get, kid?" Bakusa laughed.

Kiro's look of determination turned into a look of embarrassment, as he rubbed the back of his head. "Well, uh," he turned towards Bakusa, "you promise you won't laugh at me?"

Bakusa turned more serious as well, as he answered: "Of course not! What kind of man laughs at another man's dreams!?"

"Then, you see," Kiro thought about both Shaz and Akita, "I wanna become strong enough to protect my friends." He explained. After what Shaz did for him, and everything Akita's done for him in the past, Kiro just wished to become strong enough to protect them, and everyone else, when the time called for it.

Bakusa started laughing uncontrollably.

"Hey, you said you wouldn't laugh at another man's dreams!" Kiro complained angrily.

"I wouldn't!" He laughed, as he wiped a tear from his eye. "A [u]man[/u] would've said he wanted to be the strongest in the world!" Bakusa laughed.

Kiro sighed.