Yumi and Sakura's breaths echoed each other, intensely mimicking their quickening heartbeats. Sakura stood waiting as she watched Yumi sitting on the floor staring down, anticipating her next move, as she had commenced the unsettling scene with a loud scream that brought them both to a stand still.

Yumi then suddenly stood up; her sharp movement startled Sakura. She raised her head and stared at Sakura through her black hair, stood for a moment then launched herself at Sakura and seized a clump of her red hair in each hand. The scuffling pair toppled over, Sakura landed beneath Yumi with a strained sigh and wriggled under her furious grip. She threw her hand at Yumi's face in an attempt to push her back but Yumi met her scratching fingers with a hard bite. She recoiled in shock and foolishly grabbed at the floor whilst Yumi began striking her face a firm open hand as she straddled her. Sakura's bleeding hand found the cold sting of a pair of nail scissors that lay idle on the floor. She hastily picked them up before plunging their razor point into Yumi's thigh.

Yumi cried out and rolled back onto the straw mat and stared at the silver loops that sprouted from her impaled leg. Sakura took the time to inspect the raw teeth marks that dotted the back of her hand. She stood up as Yumi pulled the scissors from her thigh, then jumped onto her and began assaulting her with punches from her bloody hand, leaving red knuckle prints on Yumi's face. The punches slammed her face like hammers, each hurting more than the one before until she was knocked delirious under her swollen features. Through her engorged eyelids she gazed at the twinkling hoops that swung elegantly from Sakura's ears. Sakura was so engrossed in her own rage that she neglected to notice Yumi's hand reach up and take hold of her left earring but she was all too aware when she felt the expensive piece being pulled from her lobe. She felt the vibrations of the earring tearing through her soft flesh and heard it rip as she was dragged down with it. She stabled herself with her left hand on the floor and retreated to the far wall of the bedroom and saw Yumi still holding the closed earring.

Yumi threw the jewellery to the ground and ran towards Sakura, she held her face with the full span of her open hand and proceeded to slam Sakura's head into the wall as hard as she could, the impact leaving cracks in the plaster. Yumi saw that Sakura was unable to resist so she took the opportunity to slam her head again and again. The wall began to shed lumps of plaster and was lacquered in blood from Sakura's forehead. When finally she stopped, Sakura slumped to the floor and watched Yumi turn her back and walk away. She then noticed Yumi's curling tongs sitting on the floor by a pile of dirty linen, it was plugged in, but turned off, Sakura switched it on and waited for it to heat up but before it did, Yumi returned, armed with a pink bottle of nail varnish remover.

She pulled Sakura up into a sitting position by her hair and fought with her to prise open her left eye. Sakura strained but found herself pinned and helpless. Yumi poured the chemical onto her face bit by bit, savouring her screams as the acidic liquid singed the wound on her head, and dribbled across her eyeball, burning the delicate skin of her eyelids. Sakura writhed around and tightened her eyes to keep the liquid out.

Yumi was interrupted by a loud click that came from the floor, she stopped and looked down to inspect and just as she saw Sakura's hand holding her curling tongs, she was already bringing them up the her throat. Yumi dropped the pink bottle and reached up at the immense sting on her neck only to have her hands burnt too. Sakura held the tongs against her skin as she stood up and forced Yumi back onto the floor. Restraining her flailing limbs with her knees and spare hand, she held the sizzling iron against Yumi's exposed stomach. Yumi yelped in agony and was left holding her stomach as Sakura ripped the tongs from the wall and ran to the kitchen where she manically splashed her face with cold water from the tap as she hovered over the sink.

Yumi rocked against the floor until the pain was just bearable, then prised her hands away from her stomach and looked at the raw wound. The skin was peeling, blistering and weeping. She winced at the unsightly burn and crept out of the bedroom. She saw Sakura in the kitchen manically drowning her face with water. She tiptoed across the living room, her steps muffled by the dominant squawk of the parrot as it groomed its wings and the sound of Sakura gasping as she washed the nail varnish remover from her eyes.

As Yumi approached the doorway to the kitchen she picked up an empty wine bottle from the counter and slowly crept up behind Sakura. She suspended the bottle high in the air above Sakura's head with both hands but hesitated a moment until Sakura started to turn towards her as though she sensed danger at which point she panicked and smashed the glass bottle over the back of her head. Sakura doubled over, sheltering her head with her arms, Yumi kicked her legs out from under her and left her crumpled on the hard tiles. Satisfied with her immobility, Yumi marched over to the bin and knocked it over with her foot. A pile of rotted food and wrapping fell out onto the floor in a pile along with a bag of stale bread. Yumi smiled and picked it up.

"You look hungry," she said sinisterly, "you know it's not healthy to starve yourself. You look a bit gaunt, you could use a sandwich."

Sakura whimpered and writhed as she held her head, not letting on that she was terrified of what Yumi was about to do. Suddenly she felt the spiteful grip of Yumi's sweaty hands yank her head in place like a vice and saw a handful of torn bread coming towards her face. She felt the bread force its way into her mouth and down her throat as more was added to it. The spongy texture became doughy and slimy as it was wrapped in a thick layer of saliva. The slippery mass slid beyond her uvula and triggered her gag reflex but the convulsion of her stomach failed to combat the pressure of Yumi's hand stuffing more and more bread into her mouth. The bread crept down her throat in violent surges and clogged up her trachea. She gasped and convulsed in a desperate attempt to breath but it was in vain. Yumi saw that she was chocking and left her on the floor as she began to grow weak and semi-conscious.

"There." Yumi declared as she stood above Sakura's suffocating body.

With a sense of accomplishment, she walked casually away and sat neatly on the small sofa in the living room, she turned on the TV and sat watching cartoons; in the background she heard Sakura vomiting.

Sakura's stomach contracted and heaved to push out all the bread that was lodged into her throat and spat it onto the floor. She panted as her lungs were cleared and crouched on the floor recovering. She could hear the annoying sounds from the TV and used assumption that Yumi was preoccupied to take the sharp kitchen knife from the counter and make her way towards her. She entered the living room and Yumi stood up to face her, she walked forwards and stood infront of three samurai swords that were neatly presented on a stand. Aware they were there, she didn't attempt to take one, but waited for Sakura to make her move as she gripped the knife.

Sakura was about to lunge at Yumi when the phone rang, the two of them froze at the sound and waited for the answering machine to receive the call.

"Please leave a message after the beep," the mechanical voice rang through the room, Yumi and Sakura waited impatiently to see who it was.

"Um…hello? Yumi, Sakura? It's Mr Aso from the agency, I have news about the 'Yakuza Wives' part. As it turns out, they aren't going to have two lead roles, Chiaki Kuriyama has just become available, and they're going to use her for the main part. Sorry girls, neither of you got it, so you won't need to come in tomorrow. Call me to let me know you got this. Bye."

Yumi and Sakura stared at each other in shock, then burst out laughing. Sakura dropped the knife and sat at the table, Yumi soon joined her.

"I can't believe they dropped us!" Said Yumi.

"I know! For Chiaki Kuriyama, can you believe it?!" Sakura screamed as she chuckled.

"I was going to kill you." Said Yumi.

"I was going to kill you" Sakura replied.

The girls laughed and chatted like nothing was wrong, united by their disappointment. Sakura got out a bottle of wine and brought two glasses to the table.

"Oh, don't mind if I do." Yumi declared merrily.

"We are much better than Chiaki,"

"I know, we make a good team."

"When we're not fighting!"

"Even then, I think we did pretty well." Yumi paused at the distaste of her comment but Sakura laughed.

"We could take on Japan together. A force to be reckoned with." Sakura cried under her giggles.

"I'll drink to that," Yumi raised her glass, "To us, team Sakumi!"

"Team Sakumi!" Sakura laughed and they clashed their glasses and began to drink, but Yumi was interrupted by a sharp pain in her stomach.

"What's wrong?" Sakura asked.

"I don't know." Yumi screeched in pain and coughed onto the table, blood sprayed out of her mouth and painted the wood.

Sakura jumped up in a panic and watched Yumi scream as her stomach burned and contracted.

"What's happening?!" Yumi cried in agony, the pain coming in waves of searing heat.

"Oh my god," Sakura started, "it was me, I poisoned your tea earlier."

"WHAT?!" Yumi stumbled about the room in a daze.

"I'm sorry! I didn't know this was going to happen. I'll call an ambulance." Sakura started for the phone but Yumi screamed and reached for the Katana sitting so confidently on the sword display. She threw off the sheath and ran towards Sakura with a pained scream and plunged the blade into her stomach. Sakura was pushed back with the force and in the surprise she barely felt the metal pierce her skin and burst out the other side. Yumi continued to run into Sakura, pushing the blade ever further through Sakura's slim body until Sakura was running backwards to keep up with the speed of it. The hand guard made its way to her chest and the two girls where almost touching but Yumi continued running. She felt blood trickling from her nose and mouth, and felt the warm sensation of Sakura's blood on her hands as they both headed through the apartment, through the inside garden, past the fountain, past the parrot, past the piano and into the huge window. The tip of the sword broke through the glass and the girls soon followed as their united bodies burst through the glass wall and out into the cold Tokyo air. As they fell, they knew that they had never been closer.