"So we're back at the room… do you want to tell me why you were late to dinner?" Akane asked as soon as they were both resettled in the room. She had waited until after they had put their things away and gotten cleaned up before bringing it back up but she wasn't just going to let it go either.

"I was dishonest at the original placement test. I wanted to be judged by my own merits not by who I know… So I did what I could to make sure that I would be placed with all the rest of the students that would be entering the Academy at the same time I was. However earlier in shunpo class, my previous lessons made it more difficult than I had anticipated. I do not need the theory… the person who taught me Shunpo, is more than adept at it and made certain I was competent in the basics… and I could not focus on Akahiro-sensei's lesson… He called me out on it… and I had to be retested."

"So… what happened with that?"

"I will still be in the same zanjutsu and hand to hand classes…. But I will be one class ahead for healing kido and shunpo… and two classes ahead for regular kido." Erisia explains.

Akane blinked in shock. "Who taught you?"

"Think of who my sponsor is, Akane. I was afforded very rare opportunities and I could not in good conscience deny them… Byakuya-sama did not have to go through such efforts for me. I am just the daughter of a seamstress… But because he did, I was honor bound to follow through." Erisia explains.

Akane could understand that… A man like Captain Kuchiki was to be respected and if he decided that Erisia should receive training then Erisia could not refuse the offer. "Still doesn't tell me who he got to teach you, you know."

"Yoruichi Shihoin-sama taught me shunpo." Erisia begins.

"The Goddess of Flash? You had the Goddess of Flash as your instructor? Yeah, you're definitely helping me with my shunpo then…" Akane chuckled. But really the Goddess of Flash? It was impressive to say the least. "Who else?"

"Lieutenant Hinamori instructed me in kido."

"No wonder you're so good at it then. I've heard stories… she's quite impressive with it and creative in her use of it."

"She is… very creative indeed." Erisia affirms.

"Continue, please." Akane coaxed.

"Hanataro Yamada was my instructor in basic healing kido. He's so nice. I had offered to run some errands for Byakuya-sama and Lieutenant Hinamori to repay their kindness and I ended up taking things to the Fourth Squad… Of course Captain Unohana was curious as to my being there and after talking with me… she asked me if I had any interest in healing… I decided that it would likely be wise to have at least a basic knowledge of it… and if I proved to have any skill in it, it would be wise to foster that skill. She smiled and the next thing I know I had lessons with Hanataro." She chuckles.

"What is Captain Unohana like? I've heard she can be scary."

"She… is a very strong woman…. You can just tell… but there is this… not motherly per say, but a nurturing type of energy around her… Probably why she's a healer. She doesn't care if you're a noble or some Rukon street rat… Anyone that needs healing will get it.. It's just her mentality. I talked with Hanataro about it… He says she's a very fair Captain but she doesn't tolerate anyone being rude or inattentive to the patient… They have to be very open minded and treat everyone with the same level of treatment and respect no matter who they are or where they come from."

"It makes sense I guess. As a healer I'm sure you can't really think about who someone is. You just have to treat them… So, what about zanjutsu?"

"Lieutenant Abarai was asked to instruct me. Though he did end up needing to bring in Rikichi… Have you ever seen Lieutenant Abarai? He's sooo tall… and I'm so very tiny and though he held back so as not to hurt me, the first swing to test what I was learning knocked the sword from my hand. He's very strong… but he's kind of funny too. It's so strange that such a person ended up Byakuya-sama's Lieutenant… they seem as different as night and day… But observing them, it seems that they have reached a sort of balance with each other… They definitely have a healthy respect for one another… and it's a hopeful thing that two such different people can work so well together."

"He's from the Rukon, like me… I'm not from Inuzuri, but they still talk of how he rose up from the Rukon and ended up Lieutenant. I'm not surprised Captain Kuchiki enlisted the help of his own Lieutenant. So who else?"

"Well there's really just hand to hand… Lieutenant Abarai asked his friend 5th seat Yumichika Ayasegawa to teach me… It was… a very… interesting experience."

"Fifth seat of what squad?"

"The Eleventh…."

"You… wow… what was that like?"

"Ayasegawa-san is not typical. Oh he loves fighting… but he's not… well… it's hard to explain him… but he is a very good teacher. There is a beauty and art to hand to hand, I learned that much from him at least… and I'm not the greatest at it, but I have the basics… I probably frustrated Ayasegawa-san a great deal but he never showed it. While he gave helpful criticisms, he was never rude about it. He detests such ugly language." Erisia explains, thinking of the oddity that was Yumi made her chuckle, she couldn't help it.

"Anyone else you got to meet?"

"Oh well yes, I ran errands for the lieutenants that helped me and I was able to learn the layout of the gotei somewhat… I got lost a few times, but so long as I can find the centrally located 4th squad, I can get back to the 6th squad. I would like to never run across the 12th squad's captain ever again. He is so creepy. He's just… he's like something from a bad nightmare in look and personality." Erisia explains.

"How did you meet him."

"I took a wrong turn and ended up outside the 12th while delivering something for Lieutenant Hinamori. He was coming out… for what I do not know… but I quickly made my exit… I do not think I stopped until I was back at the 6th." Erisia says with a light chuckle before continuing. "While coming out of lessons in the 4th, I ran straight into a wall of a person… It turned out to be Ayasegawa-san's Captain… He makes Lieutenant Abarai, look as short as I am compared to the Lieutenant… But so long as you don't like fighting he won't much give you a second look so it's okay I guess… His Lieutenant, Yachiru Kusajishi is interesting… She likes to stop by the 6th and bother both the Lieutenant and Captain… but after I shared some candy with her, she seemed to like me."

"You got to meet so many people… I'm envious."

"I'll make you a deal, Akane…so long as we stay friends, when we get out of the Academy, no matter what squads we end up part of I will try to introduce you to some of them… I know Lieutenant Abarai won't mind and so long as you have something edible, Lieutenant Kusajishi is pretty easy to get to know too. Lieutenant Hinamori is nice… And you might get to meet my sponsor as well…He is a very… austere, businesslike man. There is no real other way to describe him. It seems to be a coldness, but he did not have to take any interest in me no matter how long my mother worked for his family… I cannot be certain because I did not have enough interaction with him… but I believe that there is far more to Captain Kuchiki than anyone is allowed to see… But he is very deserving of the respect the aura about him commands."

Akane listened. Sure, some of the other students might be very jealous hearing these things… but the way Erisia talked, it was easy to tell that she wasn't bragging, she felt deeply honored to have been granted the opportunity. It must be hard for her roommate, Akane decided. To have been granted these opportunities and to know that she really had to try to keep them to herself because of how they could be perceived. From the time they had met moving in, Erisia had tried to make it clear that she wanted to be treated no differently… She wanted to be judged by who she was and what she did, not who she might know.

"It's a deal." Akane says with a smile. She was starting to genuinely like her roommate. She was a strange young woman but it seemed the girl had been thrown into an odd circumstance. While it was true that Captain Kuchiki did not have to pay the girl any attention no matter how well her mother had served the family, the man had. He was a powerful and influential man… It couldn't have been easy on Erisia. The girl still seemed to be experiencing a kind of culture shock. She imagined that the space her mother and she had lived it had been small but well kept… But nothing so grand as the actual Kuchiki Estates themselves were rumored to be.

A good seamstress would be well paid for her skills and while she was certain Erisia likely wanted for nothing, neither was she the kind of girl who would have known such grand finery as that which her mother had likely worked on. She had been on the very fringes, associated with it only because of her mother's work… She had seen it but she had not lived it. Erisia seemed a much more humble young woman…

Akane herself had grown up in one of the better districts of the Rukon… but it wasn't the best. Even the 1st district had it's share of problems… and Akane's might not have been as poor as some but she knew what it was like to feel the sting of hunger… She knew what it was like to be grateful for what you had… She didn't know Erisia's full story, but she got the impression that Erisia took nothing in her life for granted… she liked that about her. Though thrust into a strange situation, being sponsored by so respected a man, Erisia still seemed humble. And the fact that Eri-chan had gone to such great lengths to try to hide the fact that she'd been afforded such opportunities also spoke of the girl's nature.

Akane decided that she would try to be Erisia's friend through thick and thin… no matter what happened or what other classes Erisia got put into. It seemed to her like the girl sorely needed a good friend. They continued talking for a while longer, Akane regaling Erisia with tales of growing up where she had and such things… Both girls seemed to be quickly becoming friends by the time they turned in to get enough sleep to get through the next day's lessons.