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

She blushed and scratched the back of her head. "My zanjutsu could use some work....."

"Zanjutsu, huh? You'll want to work with Higgins," she addressed Serenity, nodding in Higgins' direction. Even with the momentary distraction, Phoenix easily dodged Collin's attack. She turned her attention back to Collin. "I'd say you have potential, but it would probably be a good idea to relearn the basics. Whoever taught you went about it the wrong way." Then she realized how that sounded. "No offense," she added belatedly, and looked at Castor. "What do you think?"

Higgins drew his Zanpaku-to, "I'm going to have you both attack me, that way I can see where you are, and I can get more practice fighting multiple opponents."

Alice smirked and rose her zanpakto which slowly began to drift toward the ground as she focused on her brother's unique hakuda stance and the new girl that would join her for training. "I'm Alice. I wish the best for you, partner." She said to Serenity before turning back to Higgins and pointing her zanpakto at him, waiting for Serenity to step forward too.

Collin blushed at his mistake and knew that he should've payed more attention to the hakuda class in the academy. He bowed low at Phoenix, staring at the ground and apologizing in an unfamiliar language. Lifting his head briefly to catch the sight of his sister turning away before looking at the ground again in a swift bow.

Serenity pulled her zanpakto from her side, and took stance. It aimed at Higgins, but looked awkward as her stance made her look like a small bird attemtping flight. She had never really gotten the hang of using her zanpakto before leaving the academy. "I'll try my best..." She left Anix perched upon her shoulder.

Phoenix's eyes widened when Collin bowed. "Aw, you didn't need to do that. Now I feel bad. It wasn't really that bad. Your attack, I mean. I just happen to have more practice." She adopted one of the standard hakuda stances. "Now, see how I am standing? Pay special attention to where my feet are placed in relation to each other, and where my arms are in relation to each other as well." She stood in that same position for a minute, hopefully long enough for him to notice what she was pointing out. "From this standing position, you can launch into this attack." She demonstrated. "Now you do it."

"Then lets go." Alice happily stated as she lunged forward at Higgins, hitting his zanpakto with hers a few times before backing off and spinning herself gently before launching herself forward to perform the attack again.

Collin rose from his bow, still unsure of what to do since he simply found the idea of hand-to-hand combat nothing more than an endangerment of your own life. He memorized the stance for a brief moment and watched the lovely demonstration that Phoenix provided and swiftly took the same stance. Instead of taking the same attack, he used shunpo to get behind Phoenix and punched the space by her head, leaving a few inches of room for Phoenix to move back before making contact with his fist.

Serenity drew in a deep breath and lunged forward, her zanpakto colliding with Higgins. She hit his twice more before stepping back to take a quick breath. She repeated the movement, trying to remember the routines she had been taught. Anix sat upon her shoulder, critiquing her movements, but Serenity was to absorbed in what she was doing to pay too much attention to her feline partner.

The cat named Light watches Serenity train seeing that this person has a pet too like her master Slash.

Anixs' fur stood on end as she felt eyes train on her and her master. She told Serenity to continue training and that she would be back soon. She leapt from her shoulder and landed carefully on the ground. She sniffed around, looking for the person watching them.

Light grins as she notces the other.

"Meow." Light comes out.

As he deflected their attacks, Higgins suddenly swung just above their heads, wondering if they would stop the attack, or if they even could.

Alice jumped into the attack and held her zanpakto pointing down over her left shoulder, protecting her left side from the attack. Alice groaned at the pain that she practically inflicted on herself for the attack forced her blade into her shoulder probably causing a light bruise to appear.

Higgins wasted no time as to allow Serenity to chance to attack, and promptly made an overhead chop aimed for her cross-guard, planning to disarm her.

Serenity blocked the first attack, but just barely. She saw the second attack coming down from over head and realised that there was no way she would be able to parry it, so instead she used shunpo to back up and came in from above. Serenity swiftly changed the angle of her attack, instead of a straight downward motion to more of a cross-swipe angled across his shoulder.

When he saw Serenity disappear, he knew she was most likely behind him attacking. Since there was no way he could turn, identify the attack, and get his large sword to block in time, he spun into her previous spot to be ready for the next attack.

Alice smirked, taking an opportunity to catch Higgins off guard. Alice lunged herself forward and shunpo-ed behind Higgins, hopefully catching him off guard and placing the tip of her zanpakto to the base of his neck. She was shaking a little, most likely from the injury which was worse than she had established, feeling a slight tickling sensation of her blood dripping down her arm. Her uniform rubbing against the fresh injury agitated it but she didn't move to stop the pain. She simply breathed and held her zanpakto in place.

Higgins felt the sword an his throat, and looked down at Alice. Seeing her shaking, and the blood one her arm, he had a sudden insight. 'Haha, she probably doesn't even have the strength to even be able to kill me. I should just move away and finish taking off the arm so she can feel real pain.' Higgins was surprised at this sudden voice in his head. 'Oh shit.' he thought. "I think we should stop for a second. How bad is you arm?"

Serenity let her zanpakto fall to her side as she went to look at Alice's arm. "Here, let me see. I got tangled up in helping the 4th squad after all the injured shiningami came bacl, so I should be of some use." She tore off the sleeve of the shirt to find a gash at least an inch deep and around 3 inches long. "That will need stitches, i can almost guarentee." She bound it tightly with the cloth she had torn from the shirt. "Might want to go visit Squad 4. It'll be a quick visit."

"Improvising, huh?" Phoenix questioned, unable to dodge in time, but able to block the attack. "Not bad."

Alice smiled. "It's nothing really, I'll be fine." She whispered, knowing that if Collin heard, he'd insist on his training to be postponed until she was better. "I'll come with you but I'm telling Collin that we're going to a bigger area to cross swords.... ok? Just don't make too much of a fuss so that people notice..." She whispered again, feeling a little bad that she'd have to lie to Collin but it was for the better. He needed training in hakuda and she knew this better than anyone.

Collin smiled. "Improvising is the best way to catch your opponent off guard..." He almost gasped when he found that he was talking but continued with the assault, improvising but using the same technique that Phoenix had demonstrated. Usually appearing behind the opponent in a blur and having them within striking distance.

Serenity held the arm in place against Alice's body. "Fine, but we had better hurry!!" She slowly pushed Alice in the direction of the 4th Squad.

Alice frowned dejectedly. "Collin! We're going to a bigger place to train ok? Don't worry, I'll be back soon to see your progress and tell you about mine." Alice quickly disappeared with Serenity and Higgins.

Collin nodded and briefly stopped his assault. "Please excuse me. I'm getting a little heated." Collin bowed and turned around, slightly embarrassed to be temporarily removing the top half of his uniform and tying the arms around his waist. Turning back around to face Phoenix and Castor. Holding up his arms in a defensive stance, he moved his hand back and forth in a 'come here' motion. "I need to practice my defense and two-on-one battles. How 'bout it?" Collin asked, feeling more confident with speaking out loud to his teachers.

Phoenix raised an eyebrow. "If you're sure," she said after a moment, launching a light kick at Collin.

Shortly after Collin had tried his first attack, Castor had realised that this was not a sort of training to be afraid of. These weren't the people led by the strict and formal rules or the "Give it your all or you'll die" mindset. If she didn't need to worry then why not have a bit of fun?

So all she did was grin before aiming a straight hit to the face at the same time Phoenix started her kick.