The boy was still happily lazing when, as usual, Layla came at the house and began to knock against the window of Eiji’s room and calling his name in order to wake him up; doing that resulted in the hoped result, and Eiji went to open the window.

What he saw left him stunned, Layla was dressed in a very elegant battle dress, which some would dare define provocative; when she realized that Eiji was still looking at her, she decided to provoke him, talking with her usual voice of superiority: -What, you've never seen a girl? -

Eiji recovered and sheepishly came out of that situation with something like: -Uh, I really...-; Layla passed on to his bland attempt to excuse and continued: -don’t tell me that even today you can’t remember which day is it?-

Eiji took a thoughtful pose and began to think aloud: -So ... Yesterday was Friday 17... today is Saturday 18... should something come to my mind? -.

After carefully looking at the clothing covering Layla, and looking again from top to bottom, more for lascivious taste than for actually remember, it occurred to him: -ah, right, today is the training’s day! -.

Layla decided to tease him again: -exactly, and if you do not hurry, I will choose another guy as a partner... maybe that Marco, the new one, what do you say? -. In a moment, however, Eiji had worn his combat clothing and they walked together to the arena, located on the other side of the village.

The village of Esafirt had nothing special, it was a small village in the mountain, surrounded by nature, there were about twenty houses made from wood placed one near the other in the limited space available, they provided protection from rain to citizens, with a small square in the center that had the function of the market; the only noteworthy thing was the arena not far from the village, in which the boys and girls of the village gathered, formed groups of two and fought in pairs.

This custom was indeed practiced every Saturday.

The groups were well established, normally Layla and Eiji were together, as well as Soana and James, the strongest team in the village, also Crystal and Raye, the seconds of the village; in all, there were 10 pairs of people, including Layla and Eiji that occupied the third place in the ranking of the strongest.

In the arena were all friends, although there were some differences, so, after greeting everyone, Eiji and Layla sat down and the boy, as usual, stared at Soana; everyone knew that he was in love with her, like most of the boys of the village. The reason for the popularity of Soana was simple: her measures were about double those of Layla, and like all the other boys in the village, Eiji was not corresponded, but unlike all the others, Soana liked taking advantage of Eiji and his feelings as much as she could and in all situations.

So, as soon as Layla saw him lost in gazing the girl in question, she hit the sternum of the boy with her elbow.

Once settled, they were immediately reprimanded by the arena’s teacher... that actually was Eiji’s grandfather: -as usual you are late... Eiji, always your fault I guess -; the boy bowed: -I apologize for being late master, it will not happen again-

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-Yes, Yes, I am sure of it... like all the other times that you told me the same, let’s start-, then the elder turned facing everyone: -today we have a new recruit, Marco, for now he’ll look the matches, then in the future he will team up with someone-, then the Oldman turned to the person concerned: -ok Marco? -.

Marco was a boy one year younger than Eiji, with straight hair that reached down to his shoulders, a lean physique and his height was slightly lower than Eiji, who asked him: -if you want you can come and sit next to us-.

While Marco approached Eiji’s position, he looked at Layla and her clothing, Marco became completely red, and the girl, noticing it, smiled exhorting him: -c’mon, come here, I’ll not eat you-; those words shacked the boy, making him recover, and thinking that basically would not have been so bad of an idea replied: -ok-... and sat near Eiji.

After that, the teacher gave the instruction: -Today we will use swords, for the first fight the pair number 8, Cesar and Alfons against the team 7 Aida and Kaii-

The fight was not very long; after 30 second Aida disarmed Alfons and Kaii used his amazing footwork in order to bring down Cesar, so both members of the couple 7 aimed their wooden swords at the throat of the opponents; the fight was over.

Not surprised by the outcome, the elder preferred to not comment: -The winner is team 7, in the next fight the team 5 Greed and Sky will challenge the team 9 Victor and Hisa-.

The fight lasted for two minutes, with more or less successful strategies and after several thrusts and feints, the team 5 was able to impose itself on the other team, braking through their defense with sheer strength.

This time the teacher decided to give advices to his students: -As usual, you two of team 5 are a bit too violent, but the rules are clear, you are winners-, then he faced again the other teams: -now team 4, Angeal and Luke, against team 6 Kyle and Sam-.

Even this fight went for long, the opponents were well balanced and no one wanted to lose, but after several minutes the team 4 were defeated, with wooden swords pointed at their throats.

So the Elder announced -the team 6 won, next fight team 2 Crystal and Lisa vs team 10 Raye and kata-.

This time the battle did not last even a moment, the 10 team was knocked out with a combo of Team 2, Crystal had hidden Lisa from the viewpoint of the opponents, then she lowered her body and made Lisa jump from her back to behind the opponents, making a pincer attack on the two member of team 10.

This time the Eiji’s grandfather was quite surprised: -not a bad move, Crystal and Lisa- but since he didn’t wanted to give too much of an appraisal added –however don’t you think you were a bit reckless? If team 10 was a few faster, you could’ve lost-, then the oldman looked into Eiji’s eyes and announced: -the final fight leave only two pairs; team 1 Soana and James against team 3 Layla and Eiji-.