Sitting next to Aerio on a mat thing along with other students, I looked at our instructor. He was telling us that we would be sparing with one another. We were stuck with these little dinky wooden practice katanas, as they confiscated your actual katana if you had one when you entered the academy. The academy was nice, however, and let us have ones that matched our real blades. Currently, our teacher, Juhano Yusakishi, was pairing us up so we could spar to see whick class we would go in, as we all had different levels of talents.

"Corvette," He called, "Fujiwara, you will be sparing today, the rest of us will watch for now."

Aerio and I shared a look, "Which one?" We asked in unison. The twin thing can be king of creepy.

Juhano sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, "The female one."

I hauled myself up as my brother gave me a small grin and murmured so that just him and me heard, "Kick ass sis."

"Duh." I murmured back as I slipped my practice blades into my hands.

As I walked into the center, Xite (Zite) Fujiwara strutted into the center of the ring twirling his long blade in his hand. He had one of those sadistic looks on his face, and he just grinned wider at me. He was a known sexist, and often times had slapped random girls assess. He's almost got mine too, but Aerio had offered to 'make his ugly mug prettier'.

"So," I said as I shifted my fake blades in my palm, the cool oak giving me some comfort, "you ready to dance?"

"Hell yeah, lets tango!" Xite gave me an evil grin as he got into a stance.

I laughed, "You obviously cant, so you're out of the question."

He growled and waited for Juhano to say go, "You cocky little shit."

"It takes two to tango." I said.

"Fight until your opponent cannot continue. Ether incapacitate them or knock them out! Anything goes. Start now!"

Xite gave me a sneer and lunged, swinging his blade towards my left leg. Flinging down my right blade to block, I struck with my left, glancing a jab to his sternum as he backed off quickly. I started twirling my blades faster and faster, kicking up my left leg, I span it out and landed a blow to Xite in the shin, and hit his left wrist with my right blade while I jabbed the other into his ribs. His blade stabbed into the soft skin of my under arm, I hopped backward from him and rubbed where he stabbed the tender flesh.

He snarled and lunged. I dropped down, swinging my leg in an upward motion giving his body a forward motion, sending his body flying overhead. I jabbed upward as his upper torso as it passed over my body. I heard him gasp as he landed, and I flipped over quickly; rolling my lower body over my upper, I turned as soon as I was on my knees and lunged. Straddling his arms, I held one sword on his neck and the other behind me.

I felt his blade touching my side, so I tweaked the other sword that was threatening the only thing that made him male and said loudly, "Your strike wouldn't kill me, where as mine," I gestured to both wooden blades, and the onlookers followed my motion, "would both kill and humiliate you."

He gasped out as I stayed in my position, waiting on Juhano to end it, and said, " Hey, that's cheating, using gender to advantages is cheating! Isn't it sensei?"

Juhano shook his head and announced, "I said anything goes. That means anything and everything accept death."

"Yeah," I said as I leaned down near his face, and said in a mildly amused voice, "I never claimed not to fight dirty."

I felt Juhano touch my arm and tell me to get up. Hopping up, I bowed as customary to Juhano, and walked back over to my brother and flopped down. I leaned sideways and lounged in his lap and watched the fights. Well, at least until we got to his, then I leaned up, wished him good luck, and laid back down for a nap.

He woke me up with a jab in the gut from his wooden katana, and muttered to me, "Get up you lazy lump. Mister Juhano wants to talk to us."

"Alright brother," I yawned as I stood up, "what did he wana talk to us about?"

"I don't know…" he replied to me as we walked towards a sectioned off part of the large dojo thing. Good thing this was our last class of the day.

"Mercedes. Aerio. You are both able to go to our third year's program in fighting. Mercedes, you showed durability, strength, ferocity, flexibility, and adaptability; though Mercedes, fighting dirty isn't well looked upon." He gave me a pointed look and all I could do was scratch my head in embarrassment as he continued. "Aerio, you showed perfect form, strength, durability, agility, quick wit, and consistency, though I'm curious as to why neither of you watched each other's fights. Tell my why." It wasn't a question; it was a demand for us to tell.

"Well," Aerio started after sharing a look with me. "as you know, my sister and I came from a rough district,"

"80th." I interjected.

Aerio continued, " so we had to adapt and learn how to fight fast or we'd have been toast. We fought a lot, and had to learn which herbs to use and what not to use." As Aerio ended his talking, Juhano scratched his chin and had a thoughtful look come into his brown eyes.

"So, you have extensive knowledge in healing do you?"

I answered him as I pulled a knot loose from my hair, "I have a fair amount of knowledge, extended as to what can heal and what can kill you if you're hurt. Aerio here," I pointed with my thumb to my brother, "knows more then me. He hardly ever got hurt, so he spent most of his time doctoring my wounds. He's a patient one, he is."

Aerio gave me an irritated look as Juhano said in a thoughtful voice, "Strong, patient, has a fair knowledge of herbs… almost perfect for fourth division…"

"Ooh!" I said loudly, gaining odd looks from both men, "I've met Captain Unohana!"

"What?" was erupted from both men.

"Yeah, remember when I helped that odd looking lady with the backwards braid that day? That was her, she told me her name!" I said happily.

Juhano gave me a serious look. "You could be in fourth too you know, I mean, you know the Captain, it would be easy entrance for you."

I stuck my tongue out and wrinkled my nose, "Nah, I don't know as much as Aerio here, and I'm not as patient with people, I would probably snap at the first person who wined at me." I grinned, "I don't think wounded people are much of a fight."

Aerio gave me a look, "She's the one who goes shooting her mouth off and getting into fights."

"So she likes to fight…" Juhano murmured, though I don't think he meant for us to hear it. Looking upward he asked, "What is your knowledge of the soul society?"

Aerio said, "For me I know a fair extent… though it is limited as the classes only teach so much."

I looked down and have a halfhearted nervous laugh, "My knowledge is unfortunately limited to what I can hear through the doors and what I already know."

"Doors?" Juhano asked.

"Yeah," I scratched the back of my head slightly, "I usually get sent into the hallways. They say ether I'm too loud or I'm not focused enough. Kind of hard to focus when the stuff they teach is so boring I could die."

Looking at us as we went silent, Juhano dismissed us, "Very well, I will let you know if anything changes. You may leave now."

And we left, heading back to our dorm room thing. The halls were empty as we left them, sliding into our warm room. I headed to the kitchen as Brother flopped on the couch and stretched over backwards so he could look at me while I was fixing dinner. I fixed up some simple white rice that was in the cupboard, and baked up a couple potatoes. As I set it on the low tale and flopped my ass on the floor, I realized that I'd forgotten silverware.

"Brother," I asked, "please grab us a couple spoons before you sit down."

"Yes sis," he responded as he hopped up. After he'd grabbed them and sat down, we started eating.

After dinner, we'd bid each other good night and went to out respective beds. I fell asleep to brothers soft snore, and looked forward to the next day.