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((Ren Yumiko Nanatashi, please extend your post. It's considered a one-liner. Thanks.))

After getting aquainted with the surrounding buildings. Shiori steps into the training room. She goes in her bag and pulls out a watermelon. She then calls over a stool, places the watermelon gently on top of it, then walked ten paces. Drawing her sword, she smiles. This is her element.

Befor anyone could notice, she had spun around, and carved her name in the watermelon, befor returning to the position she was befor. Almost perfection,5 seconds. Too slow. She would have to get faster.

Long after all others had left to go to bed, she remained. Five watermelons, lay helplessly. She decided it was done after speeding it up to 4.9 seconds. She collected the watermelon, and put the flesh into small containers. Tomorrow she would use apples. There was too much watermelon for her to eat by herself.

Sighing, she got up and headed towards the dorms. Her bag, heavier than when she first got there. Thinking to herself, I conjured too many watermelons.

She left the training grounds, spotless, and desolate.

Ananda nodded. "If. Well, at least you have a chance. Of going home, that is. I don't." She smiled sadly, remembering. "But," she said, changing the subject quickly, "surely you must have a more...practical...weapon. Than that knife, I mean." She scowled at herself. Stop it, she told herself. You're babbling. He's going to think you've never talked to another civilized person in your life...you don't want that, do you? She stared off towards the wall into nothing, still thinking about home, and drummed her fingers absentmindedly on her leg.

Ananda held the blade carefully. "No kidding," she said. "Well, I feel outclassed now. I figured my knives were plain, but this..." She fell silent, turning the blade this way and that to examine it, admiring the gemstones. "I still couldn't fight with anything like this...and not just because it's heavy." She laid it lightly across her knees for a moment, then handed it back to him, lifting it with an effort. "Well, I had thought I'd ask you to practice with me, but after seeing that...I think that'd be a bad idea, and probably unhealthy for me too." She shruged. "Ah well..."

"I just turned nineteen years old. I've been learning to fight since I was a little kid. My...my...." She stopped for a minute, then decided to be honest and continued "My father taught me. I used to fight with...my brothers. All the time. So, I guess you could say I've had a lot of practice." She smiled sadly. "I'd much rather not be a good fighter, believe me, but it's what I got." Fishing around for something else to talk about, she couldn't think of anything. Instead, she sat quietly, willing herself to think of something more positive than her family before she started to cry.

"Well...that's just it. I don't know what I would do. I could have done...well, anything." Ananda shrugged. "And I wouldn't really know about...well all of what you said. I've never killed anyone." She smiled. "The only ones I really fought with were my brothers and dad, and...well, killing them would have been a bad idea. Not that I could've if I wanted to, they're far better than me, all of them." She thought about what he had said, interested in spite of herself. Maybe I am supposed to be a fighter, and it does sound like...well not fun exactly, but something I could enjoy, she thought. But that doesn't mean I have to like it.

"Oh...Zasz...I'm sorry." Ananda put her hand on his shoulder. "I'm so sorry." She looked away from him, half afraid of what she saw in his eyes. "I won't. I promise." She looked back towards Zasz, worried about him. "Are you...going to be okay?" For a second, he reminded her of Rille when they had been little, and she smiled at him, giving him a quick hug. Even though he was probably older than her, she felt like she ought to protect him. Then she pulled back, and repeated, "I promise. I don't think I would ever want to kill anyone awnyways."