Episode 2: A moment's respite... peaceful, beautiful days.

"I'm down for some training," Phoenix agreed. "I could stand to be a little faster with shunpo, and my kido is awful." She grinned wryly.

"What about you Castor?"

You don't need to practice kido. That's a waste of time for a fighter, her inner hollow sneered in her head suddenly. Although her first impulse was to say, "What?" Phoenix went still instead, trying not to be terribly obvious to the people around her.

What are you doing here? I thought you were just a nightmare, she thought, as if thinking it could will it so.

Her other self snorted. Aren't you cute? she mocked. No, I'm quite real. You'll see. She laughed darkly before disappearing just as abruptly as she'd appeared.

Phoenix frowned. She was in more trouble than she thought, and still had no idea who to talk to.

Alice and Collin stared blankly at the group of three shinigami talking. They were already bored of their training and needed to hone in on their other skills and figured that the reiatsu of the three meant that they could help them in some way. Alice turned to Collin, resting her back against the tree they were both hiding behind.

"What if they notice us, huh? This wasn't my idea and you'll take full blame for this." Alice smirked, noting how Collin didn't flinch or seem to care what she had just said. Alice growled lowly. "COLLI-mfph..." Alice started loudly but was stopped by her twins hand tightly clasping over her mouth.

"I'm trying to concentrate on their pressures and movement styles before I even consider approaching them." Collin let go of Alice's mouth slowly and she nodded in understanding. "Besides Alice, you were the one who sensed them first and followed me after I said I wanted to go train with them. So don't start, sister." Alice rolled her eyes.

"Whats there even to consider? They seem friendly enough. If you go and talk to them and ask to train with them, I'm sure they wouldn't mind..." Collin blinked and shrugged his shoulders. With that, Alice began to walk towards the group confidently, ignoring her brothers protests and smiled at him pouting when she stood a few paces behind the group. "Um.... Hi.... I... We wanted to know if we could train with you....." Alice stated shyly as Collin crossed his arms over his chest and stared at the ground, his face red from his sisters actions.

Serenity sat quietly outside, watching the clouds roll by. She wasn't used to the inactivity yet, but it was nice to be able to sit in the semi-silence and let her thoughts wonder. Anix ambled up to her, and carelessly dropped into her lap.

Even more than herself, Anix adored 'lazy days'; days where there was little training and nothing to tend to but bees on the flowers and rustling leaves on the trees.

Serenity looked down at the small black cat and almost giggled. That cat had been her companion for as long as she could remember, and was the reason she had succeeded.

Castor's look darkened slightly. "It's not as if I have anything else to do, so why not?" She said, trying to keep the cheer in her voice.
Even at the mentioning of training she could feel the palms of her hands turning sweaty and her heart starting to beat faster. Telling herself to relax she turned her eyes to the ground. Training here wasn't as serious as she was used to. So no need to get worked up over it. These people were much like her, getting all nervous was just silly. They wouldn't beat up on her, right?
Adrenaline shot into her fingertips as she heard a voice behind her. Looking over her shoulder, Castor took in the appearances of the two newcomers. Not too threatening, she decided.
"The-the more the merrier. Isn't that what they say?"

((Apologies, apologies. Last week of school is pretty hectic and all that. I should have more time now though.))

Phoenix relaxed a little. Though it seemed strange, having more people around would keep her more focused. She nodded at the newcomers as well. "What kind of training would you prefer to do?" she addressed everyone. "We may have to take turns doing the different disciplines if everyone wants to do something different."

I would like to practice my Zanjutsu.

Collin turned to Alice, his mind slowly calming down but he was still blushing slightly. Alice crossed her arms over her chest too. "I need a lot of improvement on my Zanjutsu and Collin is terrible at Hakuda. Right Collin?" Alice stated, turning to Collin. Collin didn't say anything, only glared briefly at his sister before his emotion-filled eyes softened and he nodded slowly. Alice smiled and ruffled Collin's hair. "I know your shy but you can at least say something." Collin shook his head and smirked as Alice sighed in defeat.

"You are more that welcome to practice with us as well, but I believe that a greeting is in order. I am Higgins, and this is Phoenix and Castor."

Serenity watched the small group forming, and gently pet Anix half-heartedly. Her thoughts slowly wandered closer to home as she watched them. "Wonder what they are all up to. Training maybe? What do you think Anix?" She looked down at the small black ball of fur. 'That's how it seems......' The cat shook her head, stretched, and slowly looked up at the group. The two watched in silence.

Alice and Collin both bowed low. "My deepest apologies. I'm Alice and this is my twin brother Collin." Alice introduced as Collin held his bow a little longer for respect and rose.

Phoenix looked at Higgins. "Aren't you pretty good in zanjutsu already?" she asked. "You can help Alice with her training. I'm pretty good at hakuda, so I can help out Collin." She looked at Castor. "What is your strength?"

Yeah that's what I was thinking too, so If anyone wants to train zanjutsu, I'll train with them.

Serenity shyly watched them as they talked and worked things out. She too thought training would be a wise idea, but she still didn't do well in large groups.

Crossing her arms Castor nodded to herself. "I'm decent at hakuda. I could join you two then."

A handshake and a goodbye later, and Jin found herself limping out of the Fourth Division, finally free to pursue some training though Hanatarou had forbidden her from heavy physical activity. The encounter with Arina and the amusing interactions between Eleventh Division patients, Fourth Division healers, and Unohana-taichou had distracted her from thoughts of mysterious artifacts and their healing and hypnotizing properties. Where her first inclination was to go and retrieve the artifact from the relative wilderness right outside her window, she was now inclined to find a secluded part of the woods or some cave to communicate with her zanpakutou and discover whatever abilities her shikai hid.

As she contemplated where to go and fantasized about newfound powers, her limp grew less and less pronounced, until she began walking notmally, even briskly, pain all gone from her thigh. She failed to realize this until she felt an irritating itch just beneath the bandages, and she touched the area only to find that something hard and uneven was lodged there once again. She paused, suddenly reminded of the events earlier that day, and she hid herself in a shadowy corner and cautiously peeled off the bandages already knowing what to expect. Indeed, what she saw was the same object Hanatarou had found before, covering what was unblemished skin with no sign that it had been marred by a cero--no wound, no bruise, no scar, just a building welt from where the object was apparently gently but irritatingly digging into her skin.

Jin furrowed her brows, unable to understand where the object had come from when she distinctly remembered pitching it out of her window accidentally; and at that thought she felt an odd urge to actually apologize to the object for her horrible aim and for deigning to get rid of it. Jin shook the thought off. She was in the middle of a currently abandoned path within the Seireitei, but it wouldn't do to just randomly pause and inspect what she now understood was a suspicious object. She had taken a big enough risk inspecting her injury like that, and someone was likely to come along at any moment. Unfortunately, she had no way to take it with her without revealing it to everyone who saw her, short of hiding it in her robes, and that was beginning to sound like a bad idea given how it could obviously affect her body.

Glancing furtively around, Jin spotted a small hole on the bottom of the wall that stretched forever on her left. 'That would have to do,' she decided, stuffing the artifact in the space and pushing some loose dirt to cover the gap.

Making sure to remember where to retrieve the object, Jin rushed off. She was lost in thoughts of the object as well as shikai training when she heard taunting and yelling, and after that, banging and pained moans. Of course she shouldn't have been surprised; the Eleventh Division did have a reputation.

Curiosity then took a hold of the new shinigami, and she decided to take a peek. It might have been a bad idea because she had been acting a little... off... since she woke up, and the sight of Third Seat Madarame screaming at the bigger, burlier men strewn around like rag dolls elicited a restrained but audible laugh from her. When the man turned to look in her direction, a dangerous glint in his eyes, Jin suddenly felt like a deer caught in headlights, but she tried to keep it together. After all, didn't she want to learn how to use Habagat? And didn't this renowned fighter use a weapon that was similar in form? At least she no longer had to worry about finding him and getting an audience so that she can train with him.

'Sorry, Seventh Seat Yamada, but it looks like I'll be doing some training today,' she thought as she stepped away from the wall she had been hiding behind. 'At least I'm completely healed now, eh?' she added, though she wasn't sure if she was asking herself or the Seventh Seat, or if she was addressing someone else entirely.

Phoenix grinned at Castor and Collin. "Sounds like a plan, then. Let's get started."

Alice half-hugged her brother and skipped off to to go train. She stood with Higgins and watched as Collin awkwardly stood in the Hakuda group. "Good luck Collin. Pay attention and be good." She called to him.

Collin stood, scratching the back of his head and blushed but still said nothing. He looked behind his shoulder to see the girl still there and assumed that she was shy like him. He shrugged and turned back to the ground in front of him.

Higgins suddenly turned. "It would appear that we have an onlooker. Please come out of hiding, unseen one" He shouted the latter to make sure the new arrival could hear.

'They must be shy.' Higgins thought. "Well lets start training, If they decide to approach us, all the better. If not, oh well." Higgins turned to Alice, " You start by attacking me while I block, so I can see where you're at."

"That's not a bad plan," Phoenix said, after hearing what Higgins had said. "Collin, why don't you attack me and Castor and we'll see what your hakuda is like."

Alice nodded and drew here zanpakto and awaited Higgins to draw his before beginning.

Collin simply stood in the stance he was taught, which looked nothing like the hakuda stance at all. He slowly went over movements in his head and mimicked his teachers movements before preforming them. Running forward, Collin decided to get some distance between the two female shinigami, jumping into the air between them and preforming a split-kick aimed for their abdomens.

Serenity's eyes grew wide as she heard him call at her. She looked down at Anix, wonder and terror on her face. "Sh-should I go train too?" she aimed the question at the drowzy black cat.

'I don't see why not.... It couldn't hurt any.' The small cat unrolled, stretched, then curled back up. Serenity nodded, bunched up her courage, and stood. "If I'm going to go train though, so are you. That way I don't do all the work while you nap on the sidelines."

With that she bent down swiftly, and caught the cat just as she was about to streak away. She pulled her in and held her securely under one arm as she made her way over to the group. They had split into two, and had started training already. She hesitiated near the group with the dark haired male twin she had seen earlier, and carefully called out "We would like to train too. Me and my friend Anix, that is." She held up the cat as she said her name, as if it would explain everything. Anix looked slightly annoyed and deflated as Serenity smiled nervously and attempted to seem confident. She had a bad habit of rambling if she became too nervous.

"Hmm, first things first, I'm Higgins, and these are Phoenix, Castor, Alice, and Collin. Also It is important to find out what you wish to train."