"Ugh."

"What? What's wrong?"

Malin was staring straight at the one of several sparsely-located TVs spread around the mansion – the match had ended a minute ago, and as it indicated the next matchup to happen within the coming minutes, there was only one of those two that was on her mind. "Yuri's up next."

Athena rolled her eyes; she was growing a little annoyed with her former one-off partner. "Seriously? You're still all bent up on her?"

"For a reason."

"That reason kinda doesn't give you the right to clown around her and her family's business all the time – to no avail, either..."

"She's the one trying to clown on me for how I fight! Thinks I'm some sort of coward or some crap..."

"What you do with your fighting style, it's all your own business, Malin. On the bright side, Ms. Blanctorche's letting you use them freely... or at least, as freely as we all hope you can without accidentally decapitating someone." 'Accidentally' being spoken loosely in this case, as Athena had no idea of how far the young rebel was willing to go for the W.

"Yeah... she thinks she knows what she's doing making weapons as legal as a shin kick, but behind that shitty little ascot, she was probably scared to try and tie me down." By this point, Malin was gazing up and down the razor-wire string of her 'deadly' and unorthadox yo-yo. "Total tool. Her friend on the other hand..."

"Which friend? You mean Chizuru?"

"No – Ash."

All Athena could do was tilt her head in confusion. "...he's not even here...?"

"Nah, I've seen him, hanging around on the sidelines," Malin responded. "You've seen the type of shit he could do, right? God damn – I know a bad boy when I see one, and I fuckin' love 'em."

Athena was starting to feel even more lost for words than before, listening to Malin's open and proud thoughts. "...Huh. Well... I think I'd better get ready in case my match comes up soo—"

"Could you imagine getting with that guy on a more physical level?" Unfortunately for the fighting pop idol, Malin was gazing up into the ceiling, far too deep into her forming thoughts about her flame-flinging crush to stop it at that. "I'm thinkin' I'm a sucker for punishment, and I'd be all for being choked and pounded into submission – especially if he lets me choke myself on his nice, big co-"

"Malin!" When the blonde little rascal glanced back, she saw a bit of an irritated blush across Athena's face. "Please, just... keep your fantasies within, okay?"

Malin naturally took this as just Athena being unable to handle the matter of 'full penetration'. Ah well, she was starting to take her business elsewhere anyways... "Hmm, whatever. Virgin."

The nerve of her to imply anything about her former partner, and herself by proxy – wasn't like there was anybody close enough to Malin to back up the implication that she had banged before Athena did. It was probably best for the Psycho Soldier to just take that word and the insult along with it, however, as she shrugged it off and put her focus on the TV screen near her.

Another battle was being set, and it was more than likely not one to be missed...

OPENING ROUND – FIGHT #4
Yuri Sakazaki vs. Arina Makihara

As previously mentioned, it was the karate-tested prodigy child's time to shine. Yuri was getting in some last-minute stretches while waiting for her opponent, as the natural light beaming from the window to the side brought a bit of a glossy shimmer to her form-fitting leggings.

The scenery of selection for this bout was different from the wide room of the last, being somewhat narrower as it was at the corner end of a long hallway. This meant the walls were going to be a little bit more of a problem, since they were given only so much room to work with, but it was barely anything for the young ladies set for action.

Yuri only stopped her little patient exercise when she heard the panting of a weary girl a few feet from where she stood.

Her opponent, the bunny-eared Arina, may have spent a bit too much of her starting stamina just getting to the zone of battle. "I don't think I can get used to this," she said.

"Not one to travel around all that much, huh?" Yuri asked.

Arina responded, "I'm not someone to get there on time... but I'm here now! Let's do this!"

"Got my warm-ups out of the way anyways," Yuri said as her outstretched leg slid down from the windowsill. "Time to whoop some butt!"

FIGHT!

Both girls set out on the distance game, only drawing closer to each other with slight and careful footsteps. At points during the starting minute of the bout, Yuri stretched a leg out towards Arina, almost akin to a kick without the striking force, to try and urge the less-experienced towards some attempting blows of her own.

It didn't lead to much, however, until when they started to link up with what was basically half of a test-of-strength – hand in hand, glove in glove, regardless of the experience difference, it was all on even standing to start off. They eventually broke away and clashed the back of their hands against each other, and Arina was the first to strike individually with a swinging kick that swiped high and missed as Yuri ducked. Yuri went for a kick of her own, a back-spin roundhouse that was dodged just as easily by her opponent.

When Yuri chose to lunge forward, Arina found herself an evasive action and hopped over, sneaking up low on the Kyokugen student with a sliding kick to the ankle. Yuri lost her balance rather quickly off that choice strike she took to the back of her foot, falling right on her back and unintentionally allowing Arina a chance to drop a leg down against her face.

Yuri did her best to maintain high momentum on her offense, kipping up to her feet mere seconds later and retaliating with a sweep kick that Arina just barely managed to avoid with a light hop that left her struggling slightly with her balance. Yuri was willing to take up any opportunity that was even only slightly open, as she threw a fist forward against Arina's side, and then delivered two more direct punches to her chest and then a kick slightly higher up against her face.

Arina stumbled onto her knees, having to adjust the goggles on her head after they were left crooked by the kick she just took.

"Might want to keep a close eye on how you land," Yuri suggested. Almost seemed like a taunting provocation from how she sounded, though.

Yuri then leapt back into close quarters with a front flip into a dive-kick that barely connected when Arina rolled back a slight. The bunny-girl quickly got back to her feet and lured Yuri into a brief combo, starting with a couple spinning kicks and then sending the karate girl stumbling with some hip-to-hip bumpage.

"Taste the stars!" With a fling of her index finger, Arina threw an appropriately star-shaped projectile at her opponent.

Not quite the fastest projectile, however, as Yuri had time, even if not much, to counter it in more ways than one. "Saiha!" She brought her palms forward, with energy forming into an orb that blocked out Arina's projectile. She wound back one arm from the power still held in her other hand, and then thrusted it forward like an open-handed punch.

"Ko-Ou Ken!" Yuri's energy projectile flew forward at a slightly faster speed than what was flung at her, and Arina had to block it with her arms, to some degree of defensive success. Arina stumbled against the window behind her, and glanced on for a moment longer as Yuri ran forward.

"How about you taste this!?" Yuri shouted as she faced backwards and flung herself forwards – her rear stuck out in front, she was intending to ram into her opposition hard with one of her most intriguing maneuvers.

Arina was kind of in a panic at the moment, and after some seconds to think, she decided on a whim to fight booty with booty and hurled herself forward in an identical fashion.

In a nearly symmetrical clash, Arina and Yuri smashed into each other, ass to ass, and a shockwave of relative pain sprung between them, almost seeming like an actual shockwave quaking in the hall. They fell to the ground together, sharing a literal case of 'butt-hurt' as they laid down inches from each other and writhed momentarily. They'd both better be lucky neither of them came out of that clash with a shattered tailbone.

Yuri grunted with gritted teeth as she started to roll over onto her stomach. "Ungh... you do the butt-bump, too...?"

Arina had one eye squinted shut from the ache as she similarly rolled over in her recovery. "Yeah... didn't know you did it, too..."

Two butts thought alike in this match – and that was quite the way to put it, wasn't it?

As the two slowly got back to their feet, Arina tried to get the quick takedown on Yuri, clinging onto the Kyokugen student's legs for dear life. Yuri shook off the attempted low-down assault and shoved off the bunny-eared girl before bringing down an overhead kick upside Arina's head and then shoving her against a wall with a follow-up kick to the gut.

Although she was sliding down the wall in a fatigued struggle, Arina was head-strong and full of that sweet firey valor. She kept Yuri back with a couple kicks when she tried to get up close with her, and completely prepared to bring as much of her fighting spirit as she had left after the struggles that ensued up to this moment in the fight.

With a sort of orange aura trailing by her (an indication of the Waku ball power she was associated with), Arina hopped ahead and sent herself forward with a firey lunge at Yuri... who quickly dodged and left Arina to smash herself into the wall, and nearly through that window. Well, that certainly went nowhere for her, now did it?

It was about to go even further away from what she hoped for, as Yuri was more than ready to put an end to the fight real quick. "Haoh..." Eager to dump a heavy amount of her fighting energy on something that was pretty much guaranteed to bring the pain, charged and held her strength in her hands... "...Shoukou Ken!" ...and she fired away, unleashing a much heavier version of the projectile she tossed moments before.

Arina was left with her face against a wall from the high-risk move she missed, and she was unable to see what was coming after her following that. Just as she started to back herself away, the large fireball that Yuri threw sent Arina crashing back against that wall...

...and then it all came crumbling around her, as she found herself falling through as the wall broke through and sent her flying out of the building.

The Haoh Shoukou Ken certainly proved effective; too effective, it seemed like, as Yuri looked on with completely genuine shock at the wall that was no longer there – it and the window were reduced to debris, while Arina was pretty much knocked out of the scene, and at this point, the tournament as a whole.

WINNER: Yuri Sakazaki

Yuri may have gotten a decisive – and rather destructive – win, but it wasn't quite what she expected. That and she may have totally fucked up in many ways more than one, considering that she may have not only badly hurt someone that she doesn't know, but also commit destruction of property against the hostess of this tournament.

She walked up to the open hole in the hallway and glanced down. "Uh... are you okay?"

Thankfully, there was a lot of grass and some bushes where the hole was broken through in the mansion, so Arina had some cushioning on the way down. Although drizzled with scattered debris and shattered glass, she was still capable of giving a dazed thumbs-up.

"Ahh, thank god," Yuri sighed, half-relieved, while the other half of her was still pretty scared about being potentially penalized. Before it got too awkward to stick around, she slowly scampered away from the scene; she may have advanced to the second round of this ladies' tournament, but at a bit of an odd cost.

Now she had to figure out how she was going to be able to explain and apologize about the whole 'sorry for blowing a hole in your mansion' ordeal with the minimal amount of punishment being dealt to her – and Elisabeth was not one to easily forgive.

Next Chapter: One of the ladies of Hakkesshu prey upon their first victim in the tournament...