"Most of my life, you?" was Aiko's response to the question of if she was trained in sword use. In all actuality she'd decided very early what she wanted to do with her life, and in so doing had shown a bit of favoritism towards long bladed weapons even when she was very small. The boy before her showed more skill than she'd say she'd seen any anyone not Youko in quite a while, but she couldn't be sure at this point if he'd had any formal training or if he'd simply learned instinctively as some tended to do. But that was for another time, her follow up attack was dodged with further speedy movements which made her smile just a bit. She could at least say his speed was on par with what she'd expect of a fellow shinobi. His skills were also very good, and his instincts would be showcased soon enough.

After leaping from the rock he'd started on, Akira would charge towards Aiko adding rotational force to his coming blade. Such a thing would rather simply be parried by Aiko with the same downward grip of her sword in her left hand, but as he spun the follow up strike with his sheathe was still left, with the sheathe itself being used outside of the girl's normal line of vision. This effort would be met by the girl pulling her first blade up a higher as she switched her hold one her weapons. She'd release both of them in a single moment so she could switch hands, so that she could continue to draw her katana up with her right hand, while dropping the shorter of her weapons into her left. In doing so she'd deflect the secondary strike in a manner which would make it seem as if the action wasn't planned at all. And it wasn't. "I did that too once," she said thinking back on her Chunin Exam battle with Youko, when she'd first learned the disadvantage of taking on a person who could skillfully wield multiple swords while she wielded one. "Onii-sama was right, you're a bit like me~" she said, finding it interesting that he'd chose a similar method of dealing with an opponent who had multiple weapons. With this in mind she went on to perform another jab with the short shirasaya in her left hand towards the young man's right shoulder, while she twirled the katana in her right hand into a more comfortable position.