"Sakura!" Rae yelped, and shot to her partner's side, "are you okay? Aoi! Get over here!"

"I'm fine, I'm fine. I think I must have just broken a rib or something," Sakura replied as she coughed up blood once more.

"You shouldn't be coughing up BLOOD, though! And why haven't you used your aura?" Rae snapped.

The amount of blood wasn't an issue, no more than a few speckles, but it was enough for the golden cat to panic.

"I've been using it gradually over time. It'd rather not stress my aura right now," Sakura replied, coughing again.

"She's had worse. I wouldn't worry too much about it," Aoi claimed.

"She could have really bad internal bleeding, or-"

"I'm fine," Sakura said, putting the hand of her non-blood speckled arm on her partners shoulder.

This was followed up with another coughing fit, and when Sakura checked her arm, no more blood had appeared.

"See? I'm fine, Rae. No need to worry," Saki said, showing off her arm.

"Okay, but I don't want you to-" Rae started.

"I'm fighting in the doubles. This is the last chance we'll get before we graduate. I'm not letting this chance slip out of or hands again," Sakura interrupted.

Rae began to interject, but reasoned with herself and sighed. "Okay," she said, "but if this happens again, I don't care if I have to drag you out by the hair, you're not going to fight. Okay?"

"Fine," Sakura said, "Now come on, my mom texted me. Food's on her since we won."

~Several Days Later~

"Welcome to the third match of the doubles round of the Vytal Festival Tournament!" Port's voice boomed across the stadium, "in this matchup, we have Dinn Ram and Nico Stric from team DINN of Shade, versus the crowd favorite, the East and South winds of the all Faunus Mistral Elite, Rachel " Rae" Weaver and Sakura "Dragon" Ryosuke of Team SKRA!"

The crowd roared as the two duos entered the arena. Rae waved towards the crowd as she went, and Sakura walked along with her hands in her pockets.

"Would it kill you to wave for once?" Rae asked through her smile, "and would you please put that cigarette out? You're setting a bad example for any kids watching."

"Fine, but I get to smoke in the hotel room later," Sakura

"Deal."

p The ground shook as biomes came climbing up from the outer ring. Glacier, desert, volcano, and a swamp. The countdown

"Hope you two are ready to get your asses whooped," Dinn called from the other side of the

"You ready for this?" Rae whispered, pulling her signature pistol, Prism, out of its

"You bet your ass it is," Sakura said, unsheathing her katana and holding it in a defensive stance.

"BEGIN!"

Sakura sped forward in a flash-step, ans struck at Dinn quickly with the flat of her blade. She had expected the blow to hit and stun the poor boy, but found her blade caught between two daggers with large, flared crossguards.

"Not bad, but I saw how you fought last match. Seems you're pretty useless without this," Dinn smirked, and twisted his arms, pulling Saki's sword out of her arms and tumbling across the floor.

"Well, sheeiiiiittt!" Sakura groaned as she had to backstep to avoid being stabbed.

"Uh, Rae? A little help over here!"

"I could say the same!" The cat's voice replied.

Sakura glanced over to find her partner having difficulty landing a blow on her opponent, as every punch and kick she threw was blocked by a tonfa.

"Your time is over, you dirty animal!" Nico yelled.

"WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL US?" Sakura snapped angrily.

'SWITCH!' Rae telepathicly said to Sakura.

She gladly obliged, flash-stepping under bet partner and landing an open-palmed strike right in Nico's abdomen.

Rey had now slipped past Dinn and grabbed Sakura's blade, Swift.

"Catch!" She yelled as she haphazardly tossed the dangerously sharp blade.

Sakura snatched it from the air and laid a swift strike in front of her, slicing her opponent's right tonfa in two.

"You little-!"

Nico pointed the long end of her remaining tonfa at Sakura, and pulled a trigger on the handle. Pellets shot out of the end, and Rae lept in the way, activating the holo-shield on her left arm.

It absorbed all of the attack, but overloaded and discharged the excess energy as electricity, shocking Rae.

Sakura slipped past and struck Nico across the chest with the blunt end of her blade, knocking the wind clear out of her.

Sakura then spun Nico around and kicked her into her teammate, sending them both careening into an open fire geyser. Sakura took the cigarette she had "put away" and tossed it into the geyser, and the dust in it caused flames to blast out from the crater, eliminating both opponents.

"Unbelievable! It seems that we have a double knockout! Congratulations for team SKRA for their fourth round 2 win!" Port's voice echoed as the crowd erupted in applause.

Sakura made her way over to her teammate and held her arm out.

"Did we win?" Rae asked, her hair sticking up straight off her head.

"We sure did," Sakura replied.

Rae grabbed her partner's hand, who hoisted her up before she collapsed into her shoulder.

"I think my shield is fried. And I don't think I'll be able to go into round three, either. It's all you, again," Rae quipped.

"Don't worry. Let's just get you in a bed, then we worry if your hair will ever go back to normal," Sakura chuckled.

"Wait, what's wrong with my hair?"