Rina was warming up under the morning sun, despite the lingering mist among the trees she had already stripped to her training outfit. She relied on speed and agility in battle, most would see that just by seeing how she slowly and gracefully moved through the Hadou stances. (qigong-style, efficient way to warm up actually)

She was waiting for Kurama-fuku-taichou who had kindly agreed to spar with her. The purple-head was quite aware that it would not be like the spars among the students, this was a lieutenant of the Gotei 13, proved in battle. The few real battles she had fought in the past had all been won with speed and scheme, and she was careful around other students.

Someone had mentioned that Kurama-fuku-taichou had foxes ears, it reminded her of something from the past, but then again, there were many children that had passed through the orphanages’ doors.

The speed of her movements heightened as she added jumps and other gymnastics, careful about her wrists, the last time she had been doing this she had overstretched her left and teared a muscle. She was doing cartwheels when she felt his approach before she saw or heard him, she glanced over at her asauchi on top of her kosodes. She turned in the direction of the pile and took the blank katana with her left hand, landed on her feet, slightly blushed from the exercise.

“Good morning, Lieutenant Kurama.”

The red headed fox was calmly walking towards his destination; it was a lovely day for a sparring match. Hearing as though the student Rina had proven herself much stronger than the other students he went to investigate. They needed worthy shinigami in the gotei 13; he wasn’t sure which squad she was looking into, but he knew he would soon know. He was wearing his shinigami uniform with a white Jacket that had long oversized sleeves. His lieutenant badge was on the outside wrapped around the jacket. His green eyes scanned over the area as his fox ears flickered from the sounds around him.

Upon reaching the area, he caught sight of the purple haired lady; he remembered very well who she was. Over a thousand years ago when he was a child and a shrewd one at that, he liked this young girl that lived in an orphanage. Rina was the young girls mentor and was very kind towards the fox, in that time Kurama was known as Youko; he had silver hair and gold eyes and was very rude and mischievous, but he liked Rina a lot and despite that the girl he liked died for him, the lady never once blamed him. If anything she was one of the few people that knew he was the son of the leader of a group of bandits. Sadly she probably would have recognized him if it wasn’t for that he died as Youko and was reborn as Shuuichi. The red long hair and the green eyes was a huge difference from the silver hair.

Brushing that thought aside, the lady greeted him before he could even speak. A kind smile graced his face as she spoke, he could tell she was very good at sensing the reitsu of others. He had a lot to say and ask her, but the fact that not even his captain knew his true self kept him from asking. “Good morning, how are you doing?” he asked as he took a bow, he noticed that she hadn’t changed in appearance from a thousand year ago. “Stretching out before our little spar?” he asked as well as he noticed that her face was slightly flushed. She was a very beautiful women, he had always admired how calm she was and if anything he remembered that she was the one who got him into tea.

Rina smiled as she pushed the unruly parts of her hair that had loosened from the braid away behind her ears. “It is good to get ones muscles warm before extensive usage.” She picked up a water bottle from her pack and sipped the tepid water slowly, again something she had learned by trial and error.

“And I feel well, the day seem to go without cloud and rain, I am not very fond of grey days,” she said as she placed her asauchi in her belt. Their whispers had been louder now, on the point that she nearly heard their words properly. She looked at the redhead, she was reminded about something in the past, but maybe it was only the late captain Komamura that crossed her mind when she saw those foxes’ ears. A sudden flash of silver and one of the girls happy talking about her potential love, but that had been only a few years after she had opened the orphanage. Nevertheless, she felt as if she should know him, and that she did trust him, even if he was mischievous, she wondered why she thought that? She pulled the string from the bottom of the braid and combed her fingers through the hair hurriedly as she looked into Kuramas’ bright green eyes.

“And you Kurama-fuku-taichou, I hope that everything is well with you as well?” she asked as she swiftly and well-rehearsed braided her hair, getting the loose strand into the plaits as well. Rina had thought about cutting her hair short, but it would feel strange and she was well aware that she would regret the decision the minute after the first cut. She knew that she might be vane and stupid for her long and sometimes unruly hair but she loved it, the woman still remembered waking up in Soul Society and the realization that her hair was deep purple instead of dark brown.

The red headed fox listened attentively as the lady spoke; she was fixing up hair as well causing the fox to slightly glance at it. It was quite beautiful, admirable really despite being a guy he did in fact enjoy looking at it. Thinking back when he was younger he remembered that he had always liked her hair, it was ironic that she did take care of him and now a thousand years later he is looking back at her as a student instead as a guardian. The purple haired student soon asked the shinigami how he was doing causing the fox to slightly smile.

He didn’t know what to say, being lieutenant was very difficult and especially if one of not only taking in extra work, but also patrolling the streets for shinigami who don’t seem to be doing their jobs and with all of that plus the two twins being suspicious over him he had his hands full. Yet he still responded as if it was nothing, as if he had no problems in life. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust her; it was just part of his personality. “I’m fine thank you very much for asking, well as long as the senreitei is in peace then I am completely fine.” he said speaking partial truth and part lie for he hasn’t been doing fine lately. There was something different with the fox and not even he understood why.

“Are you ready to begin?” he asked her slightly changing the subject towards one of the reasons he had come. As soon as he herd her name he figured it could have been the same lady that he knew, but then again he wanted to see for him self. So he had now had two reasons for coming. It was indeed a lovely day and the fox hoped it would stay like that.

She was somewhat relieved that Kurama had suggested bokken instead of live blades, she had always been fighting, even though she had lost in Rukongai those first few weeks before leaving it all behind, hiding from everyone and everything. Fear bites deeper than the sword.

”Peace is important for Seireitei,” Rina said as she placed her asauchi on the clothes again, the blade was still sharp even if she had not reached her Shikai as of yet. Something she hoped to change in the near future, she needed Shikai to be able to defend Seireitei and herself. The woman understood that Kurama had avoided a complete truth when he had said that he was fine, she did not mind his lie, after all, they were not close friends even if that was something she hoped to correct in the near future as well. The purplehead picked the wooden sword up and felt the well-used handle, she still felt wrong using a single blade, the voices in her head always sounded slightly disappointed when she used one weapon.

“I cannot be much readier than now, Kurama-fuku-taichou.” Rina slipped into a guarding stand and faced him, removing all tension from her soul, focusing only on survival and defending against Kuramas’ blade. All was battle, nothing else. “Fear bites deeper than the sword,” she said as she bowed her head to Kurama.

Fear bights deeper than a sword…. Rina’s words were like an echo in the fox’s mind. Fear is the mind killer, a sick emotion that could either save or kill. An emotion the fox new very well indeed; most individuals would have laughed at her words, the fox however would never. A sword is sharp, but it can only cut so much while fear can eat a person from the inside out. There’s not a soul that know that the fox had been to hell and back again… in hell he learned what true fear really was… a blade meant nothing in hell…

That’s good…” the fox replied as he realizes that she was ready, he seemed a bit dazed yet wasn’t lingering on the thought. “You couldn’t be any more right…” he said responding to her statement. Fear is much more painful then the blade itself. The fox’s eyes had a tinge of gold as he spoke but they soon faded as he smiled kindly at her. It was nice to be around an old acquaintance, even though she did really know who he was. There was so much he wanted to tell her and yet…

The red headed shinigami took a bow before pointed his bokken at her. “Shall we begin?” he asked in enthusiasm as he challenged her to the duel. “You do have the first move my dear.” he said not looking very intimidating. His position looked offensive but he was very well prepared to defend himself. He could tell that it wasn’t long before this young lady would be able to use shikai.

Rina shifted, she seldom was the beginning party of a spar, and she was not sure on how to act either. She shifted her hands so that she steered the blade with her left hand, and stepped backwards, looking over Kurama’s stance, searching for any apparent weakness. His stance was good, ready for battle.

She had noticed the gold and again she felt as if she had met him before. Next time she returned to the orphanage she would need to look through her old journals, she had been very careful to write everything down, all that happened and everyone that had been in contact with the building. Rina had even rewritten most of them into the computers, she hated the thing but still it took less time to search for things.

She emptied her thoughts on everything but the coming few minutes and the crossing of blades, fear cuts deeper than the blade. Rina moved against Kuramas left side, carefully keeping her bokken between them even in the attack, waiting for his counter.

The fox observed the shinigami student handled her blade; seeing as though she would graduate soon, he wanted to see how much she learned. Shikai was important, but it meant nothing if the individual could not even handle a sword. Her distance was just right and he could see her pretty eyes observing him as well. His ears flickered back and forth making him look very curious; he remembered at first when he was called for training with Rina that he had rejected it because he didn’t want to fight her, but as the situation was pushed on him he thought bokken was a much more suitable then blades.

Rina made the first move as she came at the shinigami’s left hand side; the fox noticed that the shinigami student was left handed. He found it quite interesting because his best friend Jensen was also left handed. The fox countered her attack with a smile on his face, from the information that he received Rina had actually defeated most of the students which meant he didn’t need to go easy on her. He wasn’t going to go all out neither, but he was going to see how much she learned. When he was a child he remembered that he wouldn’t dare make her mad, he still had that same feeling.

The fox instant made the third move after he countered her hit with the bokken he swung the bokken to the left and then towards the right, he was not underestimating her. He wanted to see how she would counter, if it was hard, spiteful, graceful or anything else in the book. The form of battle explains a lot of the person, that’s why the fox always tries to keep himself calm in battles. But as the two battled he was also going to keep a conversation simultaneously. “I heard you had an orphanage, why did you decide to become a soul reaper?”