In the morning, I followed the directions to the practice room in my new battle outfit, on the fifth floor of the Sailor Guardians' Tower.

With much feelings of anticipation, I lightly pressed my keycard against the card reader. At an instant, a sound was played, and the doors seamlessly opened, revealing the interior of a training hall with light wooden motifs. In the center stood Princess Venus, in her magnificent golden hair, holding her bamboo sword with both hands and patiently waiting for my arrival.

Turning towards me, she greeted, "Good morning, Aurora. Welcome to the sword practice room!"

Contrary to yesterday, I can see that Venus is in her Sailor Guardian form. True to the name, the most characteristic part of her attire as a Sailor Guardian is the sailor uniform collar, which, for Venus, is colored in bright orange. I could also notice a tiara with an amber-colored gemstone, alongside ear pins of a similar color. She retained her red hair bow as a Sailor Guardian, but her front bow is of another color, reminiscent of the sky at early dawn.

I greeted her in return, "Hi, Venus!"

She then let go of her left hand from the sword, then held it in a horizontal way, in front of her torso. "So, this would be the first day for me to... share some skills with you!"

Despite being told by me that it did not matter, that I am two years older than her, Venus was still embarassed at the thought of "teaching" an older, a more mature, and a more graceful princess, about sword skills. With a blush on her face, Venus made her steps towards the sword rack, and picked a similar bamboo sword for me.

Presenting the sword with both of her hands, Venus said, "Here… please take this bamboo sword."

Receiving the sword, I said, "Thank you, Venus."

Venus then took a deep breath, and put in her best effort to be calm and concentrated, articulating about the prime way of the sword to me.

"The basic prinicple of the ways of the sword, is not only to hit your opponent, but also to defend yourself from others' attacks."

Sailor Venus then held her bamboo sword up in concentration, and said, "our opponents will never tell us where they will strike, and so, attention on the opponent's sword is also crucial. If we're concentrated, we can block their slashes with ease."

She then slashed her bamboo sword downwards. Not expecting her to make this move, I stepped back in total shock and fear, and the bamboo sword did not come in contact with anything. It was quite a disappointing scene for me, and presumably, for Venus too.

"I understand you, Aurora." Venus then continued, "When I was younger, it took me some time to get used to the feeling of unexpected sword moves. I was nine, and I was so scared!"

She then added more determination to her words. "But I know, that as the wielder of Venus's powers and the closest sister of my brother, I have to learn this very skill of defending myself from an opponent's sword. Through time, I improved, and... my mother could also notice that."

I nodded, "just as I should."

Having spoken her words, Venus repositioned her bamboo sword, this time holding it diagonally in front of her waist. I noticed the movement of the sword, and tried to channel my thought process to my hands, so that I can control my sword without distracting my vision to look downwards at it.

Seconds have slowly passed in silence, and Venus still has not attacked, her hands holding to her sword. I patiently waited, for the moment when Venus would strike.

It won't be long, I thought.

At a totally unexpected moment, Venus jumped up, holding her bamboo sword further up. My default mind interpreted this as an attempt to slash me from above, and I instantly moved my bamboo sword, so that its blade hovered over my shoulder, protecting me from the eventual slash.

A powerful sound was then heard.

What could it be?

It was the sound of clashing, between two bamboo swords.

I successfully parried Venus's attack!

I could not be more delighted at my first step of success. Of course, it took only a split second for me to have my sense of humility resurface, knowing that overconfidence only impedes progress.

Venus said, "That's it! A parry. This is a crucial skill when it comes to swords."

"As a Sailor Senshi, we aim to use our powers for defense. But in order to defend ourselves from attacks, we need to learn the patterns of the attacks as well, so that we can come up with a corresponding parry."

She then held her sword downwards and towards her left, saying, "For example,"

She then swung her sword rapidly, towards her right. "This swing cannot be simply parried if the opponent held her sword up. She needs to respond quickly, at the split moment she senses my intention to do this lower swing."

Moving her sword slowly back to where it originated, Venus continued speaking when she held the sword in place, "She would immediately parry my attack, by doing a downward swing, and intercepting my blade."

Eager to know how it is done in reality, I did a downward swing with my bamboo sword, as if I was drawing a half-circle arc, from my shoulder to my left leg, asking, "Like this?"

Venus affirmed, "Yes."

She then adjusted her sword, with the tip now pointing towards me.

"And when if your opponent attempts to stab you..."

She left the sentence unfinished, as if she was expecting me to give an answer.

"I'd swing my sword up from below, and attempt to knock the sword away from her hands?"

After finishing the sentence, I swung my sword up high forcefully, clashing with Venus's blade from below and knocking it upwards by a considerably large angle, before Venus tightened her hands' grip on her sword, regaining control.

Amazed by my counterattack, Venus exclaimed, "That's a clever strategy!"

She then said, "There are many wild and innovative attacks out there, that has been used by Lunarian sword fighters and has been documented by the Institute. Correspondingly, there would also be specific moves to counter them. However, for now, we will stick to the basic attacks for our first sparring session! Do you think it would be a good start for us, Aurora?"

I would agree with her, to leave the advanced moves for later sessions. "Yes, I think so. After all, a solid foundation is fundamental to sword combat."

Venus then began, with her sword blade positioned above her right shoulder, ready to be swung. I, too, held up my sword, ready to parry her eventual attacks.

As soon as I see Venus applying force from her arms to swing down her sword, I reacted as soon as I could, calculating the trajectory of her blade in my mind, while I move my upward-pointing sword towards my left, hoping to block her attack.

And with the sound of clashing swords echoing in the training hall, my parry was a success.

Venus then moved her sword up along the edge of mine, and slashed downwards, while I gave a quick response by blocking her sword from slashing further downwards, producing another bright sound of clashing.

Then, the time for Venus to simulate a stab with her sword has come. She swung her sword towards her left, until the tip of her sword pointed towards me. Even so, it didn't take me more than half a second to clash at her sword from below, as I use my strength to force her sword upwards.

We then repeated these basic steps for sparring, though with more force and more speed as time goes by. Venus carried out swings in an increasingly rapid pace from unpredictable points of origin and towards unpredictable directions, while I attempt to parry her slashes. One after one, I found myself more confident in sword skills, and that has manifested in my increasingly precise accuracy in blocking attacks. Eventually, my newly developed defense skills would make Venus exhausted, as I begin to hear the subtle sounds of her panting.

Venus gave me a tired smile, saying, "I guess that's all I can do for today..."

"No worries, Venus, we can continue next time. For now, I think it would be best for us to take a rest, for the rest of the day."

The sword training was certainly exhausting, but another thing I could be certain about, is that I have learnt much just within the first day!

After we put the bamboo swords back on the rack, Sailor Venus said, "I exhaust a lot of energy, every time I finish a sword practice session. The next logical thing for me to do after putting the bamboo sword on the rack, is to..."

She ended her sentence midway, as if she is wanting me to guess the answer. What would she do? Having perspirated a considerable amount, I guessed, "take a bath?"

Venus smiled. "Yes. I'm named after the goddess of beauty, after all. I would always go to the sixth floor to take a warm bath, after a sword practice." She then invited me, "Do you want to follow me? I wouldn't mind."

I responded gladly, "In this case, I'm in!"

We then walked out of the training hall, then took the elevator one floor upwards, to the sixth floor.

Sailor Venus tapped her keycard on the card reader, and the opaque white doors opened seamlessly and silently, revealing a grandiose bathing hall. The hall is decorated in vibrant and dynamic colors, which changes from green to teal, then to indigo and to violet, from time to time.

There are a set of Lunarian bathrobes on the wall. With the short incantation of a spell, our battle outfits and the bathrobes switched places, and we entered the pool of heated water. The sensation of heated water reaching me after a strenous sword exercise was... soothing. And rewarding.

"Venus, this is the best I could have asked for after a sword training!"

Turning to me, Venus said, "Me too! That's how I keep myself beautiful, to be true to the name of Venus. The water here is heated by the power of the Sun, and blessed by the magic of the Moon. Its warmth recharges us!"

Curious about her mentions about the powers of the Sun and the Moon, I asked, "How?"

Venus thought for a while, and explained, "According to what Princess Mercury told me, Lunarians have been able to harness the power of the Sun and convert its rays into a source of energy. It can provide electricity, as well as heating power. And in turn, the water here is blessed by Lunarian magic to have capabilities of cleansing and dispelling feelings of fatigue."

Amazed by the magical notion of harnessing Solar and Lunar energy, I exclaimed, "That's so cool!"

The both of us continud to relax in the enchanted pool of warm water, for a while.

Venus asked, "Do you think we should switch places in our next practice, with you delivering the attacks?"

I said, "why not? What I've learnt today is just one half of the foundation. I'm looking forward to delivering some attacks, and see how you parry them!"

Venus giggled, "I look forward to this, too."

Soon enough, time would pass by, and being totally re-energized, Venus turned to me and said, "Let's get up!"

We dried ourselves afterwards, and with a spell, our bathrobes switched places with our everyday gowns, which, thanks to the spell, are newly cleaned. We are as refreshed as we are before the practice!

Being refreshed and relaxed at the sixth floor after a strenous training, we took the elevator and returned to the top floor in our beautiful outfits.

When we walked past the center of the common room, Princess Venus turned to me, and said, "So, Aurora, if you may excuse me, I'll now return to the room. It has been a great morning practising with you."

A smile naturally appeared on my face. With a gentle voice, I responded, "Thank you, Venus."

Venus then made her steps in her orange sandals, as I watched her returning to her room and listened to the sound of her shoes, stepping against the well-defined marble floor. I took a little rest at the coaches, before heading to meet another princess of the Moon Kingdom…