Aleksi was rudely awoken by a pounding on his door, he looked at the time on his communicator, it was just after nine am, "Whose the rude ass waking me up so early on a Sunday" he thought to himself. He pulled on some cargo shorts and a t-shirt and went to answer the door, the door opened to a slender man with short blonde hair and brown eyes he wore black jeans and a black shirt. "Hey squirt, long time no see" the man said smirking, Aleksi looked horrified "How did you find me Feliks?" "You think we ever lost track of you?" he said suddenly punching Aleksi in the stomach, "Its a good thing the family is so kind" Feliks said, "And since you're ideally placed you can help me out with our current business venture" he said deviously. The punch didn't seem to affect Aleksi much, "I left the family, find someone else" he said shoving Feliks towards the door, "So you've grown a bit bold in your absence" Feliks said, suddenly swinging for Aleksi's face. Aleksi stopped the attack with one hand, he bent Feliks' arm behind his back and applied pressure, "We're not brothers anymore, I made it clear when I left, don't come back here" Aleksi said coldly as he shoved the man out of his room and closed the door on him. "You're gonna regret this little brother" Feliks yelled at the closed door, he gave it a hard kick with his muddy boot before leaving.
Aleksi wasn't able to get back to sleep after that unpleasant encounter so he got ready to go to the rugby club instead, he had been given the day off but some of the seniors were going to be training in the gymnasium. He saw Darren and Ito returning from their morning run as he exited the dorm building, "Hey Aleksi" Darren greeted, "Thought they gave you the day off?" "Yeah well, some morning unpleasantness made me feel like going out and giving my body a workout" Aleksi responded. "I'm sorry" Ito said, "Is there anything we can do to help?" she asked, "Nope" he said "But no need to worry about it, things will be back to normal tomorrow" he said cheerily. With that Aleksi jogged towards the gym. Around the corner of the dorm Feliks looked towards Darren and Ito with interest, the family told him he couldn't harm his brother but they didn't say anything about his brothers friends.
"So any plans for today?" Darren asked, "I've got gymnastics at the usual time" Ito replied "Otherwise nothing to do today" "We could spar, if you'd like" Darren asked "Could always be quicker with those blades of yours." Ito's personality suddenly shifted "Oh" she replied drawing it out, "think you can keep up with me?" she asked, "I..I'm sorry" she stuttered blushing returning to her usual self. "I don't know what suddenly came over me" she apologized, Darren had gotten used to this, when it came to fighting Ito could sometimes suddenly become aggressive and sure of herself nothing like the usual shy girl they had all come to know. As they turned to head back towards the dorm building they both saw this man they've never seen before walking towards them, he called out to them and tells them he's a second year. Through the conversation Darren finds it strange that this second year seems to know nothing about them, he starts trying to flirt with Ito who feels very uncomfortable from the unwanted attention. "Hey, Guy" Darren said, "You're making my friend uncomfortable, you just walk up to us acting like you're our new best friend, haven't even introduced yourself yet, do you know what manners are?" The man gave Darren a quick glance, "Ah you're right of course, name's Feliks, been away from school for a bit for family reasons, but I'm back now" he says. Darren noticed the man's hand clenching and unclenching, he was clearly angry with how he'd just spoken to him but was trying to conceal it. "Well, Feliks" Darren said somewhat disrespectfully, "We've got plans, so if you'll excuse us" he took Ito's hand and walked her into the building, "That guy feels off to me" he said when they were out of earshot. "Be careful if he ever approaches you when you're alone" Ito didn't like the feel of him either, he reminded her of a snake like he was patiently waiting to strike at any prey that came to close.
Ito returned to her room, she took a quick shower, she would be going to spar with Darren in a bit so she would just be getting sweaty again however the idea of being smelly while walking with him mortified her. She chose some light clothes that wouldn't restrict movements to much then selected a pair of long combat knives from amongst her personal belongings, after she had gotten everything ready she prepared some lunch for them both. Lately their groups training time had dropped off a little, after Anya had gotten back from Genetech they had all buckled down for the next couple of weeks and trained as much as possible. Darren had worked out a few different strategies their group could employ but they couldn't use all of them in the facility since there was always a large crowd watching them. The long weekend was fast approaching and after that would be the first years tournament, initially it was going to be the third years going first, a sudden exam mission had come up though and they had to delay. The second years had wanted to observe the student council matches so they made the first years take the first turn, Ito sighed "We've had so little time to just enjoy ourselves lately" she said to herself.
Darren made sure to get to the lobby before Ito, he didn't know why but that Feliks made him uncomfortable, he wasn't surprised to see the man engaging a few first year girls in conversation who were headed back to the dorm.
"Oh hey, you're the Vice President aren't you" a voice asked, Darren turned to see the Asian transfer student coming down the stairs behind him, "Vice president is a little formal, you can call me Darren" he said. "Akira Nikolayev, you can just call me Akira" he said holding out his hand, "Good to meet you Akira" Darren said shaking his hand, "So what's the deal with Jon" Akira asked. Darren laughed "You get straight to the point don't you" he replied "I wish I could tell you, the guy has been an ass since we all met him after the entrance ceremony," "We've been through a few training simulations, me and Maxim work great together" Akira said. "That fool is going to cost us getting a decent score in the tournament, we've pretty much given up on him producing any results and decided we'll have to do our best with just two." "I'll give you a warning, just be alert, Jon has been known to try and assault people who cross him, he had to be removed from the school for a week early in the term for cornering Ito" Darren said. "What's that about me?" Ito asked, "Are you ready?" Darren asked, "Yeah" Ito replied, "This is Akira, he was just asking about Jon since he's causing problems for their team" he said. Ito waved to Akira shyly, "I have a brother named Akira" she said, "You kind of remind me of him," "Well I'll take that as a compliment" Akira said happily. "Well I won't delay the two of you, have fun on your date" he said, "D..date" Ito stuttered clearly embarrassed, Akira waved back to them as he headed out the front door, Ito looked at Darren then quickly looked away blushing.
The walk to the school building was awkward, every time Darren looked at Ito she flushed red and looked away, they signed in to use the sparring room for a thirty minute slot at the office desk. They got down to the locker area and they could see the main yard was still packed, the observation area had a large crowd as usual watching the matches of potential competition. "No chance of any of the teams keeping any secrets like that" Darren murmured, Ito looked up at him, "Yeah, its to bad we haven't been able to test some of your secret strategies" Ito mused. Since they had already changed in their dorm rooms Ito and Darren just walked over to the sparring room, the room was no bigger than a briar patch, the ground was basic sand like what you'd find at a beach. Ito and Darren stretched out and readied their chosen weapons, since they were using regular blades the idea was to stop just before touching their opponent if they weren't going to be fast enough to intercept. "Ready?" Darren asked, "Always" Ito responded her personality shifting once again.