Torin was meditating in the woods near squad 13's barracks, his large buster sword style zanpakto laid across his lap as he started going int the state needed to communicate with it. " In...out...in...out" he breathed as he relaxed more and more

"thwack!" the sound of the wooden sword cracking down on Torin's head echoed through the woods

"Gah! what the hell!?" Torin yelled as he rubbed his head.

"dropping your guard Torin, not a good practice for soul reaper." a young looking man said as he rested his wooden sword on his shoulder "if I were an enemy you'd be dead."

Torin's eye twitched "so you're saying you're NOT my enemy Rida? Cause my aching head seems to disagree! And we're right next to our own barracks! Why should I be worried about an enemy attacking?"

Rida laughed "oh come on I didn't hit you THAT hard, and you never know, the Soul Society has been invaded before, 3000 years ago an arrancar named Crisis and an army of his followers nearly conquered the Soul Society you know."

"Oh come on that's just a story people tell kids to make them behave, that never actually happened, and anyway if it's not safe here then where the heck am I going to try and ask my zanpakto it's name?" Torin scowled "Admit it, you're just trying to stop me from surpassing you!"

Rida put on an innocent face "I haven't the slightest clue what you're talking about, I only wanted to teach you to always be ready for an attack, I was worried about your well-being." he said with as straight of a face as he could muster

"well-being my ass!" Torin growled as he picked up a wooden sword of his own "I hope you don't mind if I teach YOU a lesson now Rida!"

Rida smirked, he had succeeded in provoking Torin once again, of course now he was going to get his ass kicked, but hey it's the price you pay for personal entertainment. "you're welcome to try if you have what it takes." he taunted as he held his sword in front of him and took a side stance.

"This coming from the person who has lost the past 136 sparring matches against me without a win" Torin retorted

"Hey match 100 was definitely a tie!" Rida said with indignation

"don't kid yourself, we both know I went easy on you cause it was your birthday" Torin laughed "It was your birthday present"

"your gift to me was beating me black and blue instead of breaking my bones? thanks... such a great gift..." Rida joked

Meanwhile while the two of them were fighting with their banter, they also sparred with their swords. Torin deflected a blow by pushing the flat of the blade away with his hand and ramming his sword into Rida's gut, winding him and ending the battle

"that was... a cheap shot..." Rida complained as he caught his breath

"Look who's talking you jerk!" Torin laughed as he helped Rida to his feet "That makes 137 wins for me and 0 for you, when are you going to admit that I'm better at zanjitsu than you?"

"as soon as you admit that the infinitely smarter, cooler, funnier, and better looking guy among us is me" Rida replied

"you forgot immodest, egotistical, arrogant, and obnoxious" Torin said as he rolled his eyes

"are you tormenting Torin again Rida?" a woman asked as she walked into the clearing they stood in "why can't you annoy someone else?"

Rida held up his hands and shook his head "5th seat Shizukesa! I'm not tormenting him, if anything he's tormenting me! Honest!"

"a likely story" Shizukesa said "I'm just passing by, try not to beat the living daylights out of each other ok?"

Torin and Rida watched her walk off, Rida stared after her for a bit longer than Torin, who began to smirk when he saw the look on his face. "Oh I see what's going on now. You like her don't you?" he said

Rida blushed furiously "w-what? NO! No way! I just respect her a lot that's all! Nothing more!" he said " if there's anyone with a crush around here it's you!"

"me?" Torin asked

"Yeah you! and that Aurora girl! Don't try and tell me there's nothing between you two!" Rida said, clearly eager to turn the tables on Torin

Now it was Torin's turn to blush "i-I have no clue what you're talking about! I don't have a crush on her! we're friends, that's all, I barely know her!" he said

"But she knows you doesn't she Torin? She seems to know alllll about you, you seem to be doing some research on her too, you little lovebird." Rida teased, knowing he had the upper hand now

"s-shut up!" Torin said, his face was now a brilliant shade of crimson

"Look there's Aurora over there!" Rida said

"where!?" Torin said as he looked around frantically

"gotcha, you totally have a crush on her, admit it." Rida roared with laughter

Torin scowled "why I oughta!" he said as he cracked his knuckles

Rida stopped laughing "Oh hi Aurora" he said, looking over Torin's shoulder

"No way, I'm not falling for that again! get some new tricks Rida!" Torin said

"h-hi Torin, h-how are you?" Aurora stammered

"I'm great thanks for asking Aurora... GAH!" Torin said as he spun around, pushed his hair out of his face and covered up all the dirty spots on his arms from sparring in one fluid motion. "uh hi, how's it going with you?" he asked, face burning with humiliation. Behind him Rida was doubled over trying to suppress his laughter.

"I-I'm fine, thanks for asking, it means a lot, really." Aurora said as she blushed a bit. They were both silent for a bit, each too embarrassed to speak.

"Oh come one you two, what are you first year academy students?" Rida groaned " hey Aurora, Torin here wants to take you out on a date this Saturday, how bout it?"

"WHAT!" Toin exclaimed "I-I-I never said that!" he stammered

"so you don't?" Aurora said, tears brimming in her eyes

"I never said that either!" Torin gulped, he was trapped now, either not ask Aurora out and lose the chance forever or get the guts to ask now, he was going to KILL Rida later. "Uh, yeah, this Saturday? you wanna?

Aurora's face looked like someone had thrown a can of red paint over it "You, and me? On a d-date? this Saturday? I'd love to... LOOK OUT!"

"Wha...?" Torin said as Aurora tackled him to the ground and a cero passed over their heads

They got up hastily and drew thier zanpaktos, Rida followed suit, at the edge of the clearing was an arrancar, his mask covered most of his face, leaving an opening at the mouth

"an arrancar? here? but Aizen isn't expected to be ready for battle for months!" Torin exclaimed

"I TOLD you that you should always be on your guard!" Rida said, obviously just as shocked as Torin

" Don't give me that! you were off guard too!" Torin retorted

The arrancar vnished in a sonido and reappeared in front of Torin, a close range bala sent him flying, Aurora and Rida tried to attack but both their blades bounced off the arrancar's hierro harmlessly, the ensuing counter-attack sent them both flying just like Torin.

"damn... he's strong" Rida panted "none of us are at his level!"

"Torin are you all-right?" Aurora asked

"I'm fine, but we need to make a plan to beat this guy or we won't be for much longer, how good are you at Kido?" Torin asked

"that's my best skill, why?" Aurora replied

"Ok Rida, I need you to be a diversion, Aurora, I need you to use bakudo to immobilize the arrancar, I'll go in for the kill." Torin said

"got it" Aurora and Rida said in unison.

Rida charged the Arrancar and leaped into the air, he descended with a spinning slash that the arrancar blocked with contemptuous ease, it knocked Rida away and started to charge a cero to finish him off when Aurora struck

"Bakudo 9 Geki!" Aurora said, then the Arrancar was surrounded by a red aura and was unable to move

"EAT THIS!" Torin yelled as he jumped up and cut the arrancar in two with a gravity powered overhead slash, as it faded away the three friends gathered and checked their injuries.

"None of us are hurt? good, we need to go report this right away" Torin said as he started to walk towards the squad 13 HQ. "before we go though" Torin asked "how bout that date?"

"Yeah, I'd love to, see you at 6:00 Saturday night?" Aurora said

"I'll be there, count on it!" Torin said, then they all walked off to report the incident