"Woah! I-Kai..." Sora was utterly surprised the next morning to see Kairi no longer wearing her bun. She'd cut her hair down to shoulder length and now wore it down, framing her face quite nicely with red curtains.

Riku accepted the change better than Sora, "You look nice. Finally got rid of that soft and prissy look."

"Thank you." Kairi said, stiffer and politer than usual.

This prompted Riku to mutter, "Kept the prissy attitude, though."

Sora ignored the exchange and leaned over to put his hand on her shoulder, "Kai, you okay?"

"Kairi. Call me Kairi." She replied as she shrugged him off.

Sora leaned back, and was about to put his hands over his head before he lowered them and opted to scratch his cheek, "Oh, uh, okay... Kairi..."

Aqua arrived to direct the three to their lessons of the day and smiled, "Kairi you-"

"Yes, I cut my hair, now can we get to learning what were gonna do?" Kairi quipped at her, never faltering in her reserved tone.

Aqua blinked, "Oh!" She smiled, "None of you have been showing that desire to learn recently, good, good!" She then waved them over, "Well, today you're learning sword techniques with Terra, sadly."

Kairi walked past her, "Good."

Aqua looked at Riku and Sora. They shrugged at her back.

...

"So," Terra began as he drew a circle in the ground with his Keyblade, "I figured today we'd go for some sparring."

"But we're always doing that." Riku said as he flipped his wooden Keyblade around, "How is this going to be different?"

Terra stood in the center, "This time you'll be choosing who to fight, and you won't be going through each technique. It will be a completely unscripted fight with only two rules for victory, besides the usual safety: to hit your opponent three times before they do the same to you, or knock them out of the ring."

Sora looked at Riku, "Been awhile since we'd gotten one of those, eh?"

Riku smirked back, "I'll own your butt and you know it."

Sora punched his shoulder playfully, "Yeah right-"

The two stopped their teasing when Kairi walked right past them and into the sparring circle. She assumed a ready position with her Keyblade, glaring at Terra head on, "I challenge you, Master Terra." The boys were speechless.

"Kairi, um..." Sora managed to say. He thought over his words for a second while she glared at him before he finally decided to leave his words unminced, "That's a little dangerous. You might get hurt."

Terra lifted his eyebrow in question at Kairi, but Kairi only nodded to him with firmer resolve. Terra then slowly assumed a ready position himself, "I may be rusty when it comes to a real deal like this, but be warned I'm not going to hold back much."

Kairi began circling, "Good."

Sora and Riku watched as Kairi and Terra slowly made their way around the circle, prowling and waiting for someone to dare a strike. Sora began tugging at his jacket and biting his lip. Riku was as cold and composed as ever next to him, but there as a tautness in his cheeks that suggested he was biting the inside of them. Sora whispered, "You think she's gonna get hurt?"

Riku voice was flat and bitter, "Think? I know."

Kairi suddenly lunged with a ear splitting cry. Terra dodged the blow easily, returning with his own steady hit that pushed Kairi back by her stomach. Kairi staggered, but stopped and grounded herself just as her feet reached the edge of the ring. Kairi cartwheeled away the moment she saw Terra running towards her, using her delicate and light frame to her advantage. She managed to get full circle around Terra, and went in for a strike, but Terra quickly covered his back with his Keyblade and managed to swivel around to knock Kairi back again.

"Two out of three hits while I got none. Better pick it up Kairi." Terra called to her.

Kairi jumped away from another hit, using Terra's distraction of an embedded blade to circle around again. Terra used the momentum of pulling his blade out to swing at her again, but Kairi dodged and managed a hit.

"YEAH! GO KAIRI!" Sora hollered, jumping in joy and flailing his fists in support from outside the ring. Riku only nodded approvingly next to him.

Terra rubbed his shoulder- the place Kairi managed to hit, "Nice, nice job."

Kairi only huffed and pushed her hair back. However her sass was lost to shock as Terra ripped up the ground and tossed dirt into her eyes, "Keep in mind you gotta be ready for anything in a real fight." Kairi growled in annoyance as she ran and wiped at her eyes.

"That was awfully cheap..." Sora muttered. He raised his voice, "Master Terra, are you just afraid of losing to a girl?!" He then noticed Terra wasn't really moving much, letting Kairi dance around partially blinded, "Huh? What's he doing?"

Kairi soon managed to get out of the way of another strike, and took the opportunity of Terra's mistake of being left wide open to make two sharp and decisive hits. The battle was done.

Terra stood, laughing, "I haven't been beaten by anyone other than Aqua. Nice, you did a very good job, Kairi."

Riku coughed, "You were holding back too much, Master Terra."

Kairi glared at him as she sauntered off the field. "I'll go see to Master Aqua, since it's now obvious I'm better than any of you." she explained.

Terra rubbed the back of his neck and stabbed his Keyblade into the ground. He waited for Kairi to get out of earshot before whispering, "I wanted to make sure she got a victory, okay? She deserves to feel proud of how well her studies translate to the real thing."

He shrugged at Sora and Riku's gazes, "She does have the talent and knowledge to be a very real threat. She picked up my slower movement patterns very fast, but I guess I was exaggerating a bit since none of you are really at my level. I wanted to humor her and give something to brag about."

"Anyone could pick up that you'd fall behind even a tortoise." Riku scoffed as he went in. He held up his wooden Keyblade, "Face me and don't hold back at all."

Terra sighed and picked up his Keyblade, "Are you sure?"

Riku nodded, "Go ahead. Wail on me as if I was actually fighting, I wanna see how I measure up to the real deal."

Terra didn't move, "Fine. Come at me if you really want to." Riku thought a moment, prompting Terra to add, "You can even start outside the circle for a good running start."

Sora held Riku's shoulder and backed up with him, "Riku, come on, if he was holding back with Kairi-"

Riku shrugged him off, "I can handle it." Riku left Sora behind and charged. Terra seemed bored as he sidestepped, then brought his Keyblade to Riku's stomach, and finally used the leverage to toss the boy out of the ring and into the nearby pond.

"Riku!" Sora yelled. He chased after his friend without a moment of hesitation.

Terra dusted off his hands, "Don't worry, at most he's gonna be bruised. Nothing I can't fix up." Riku surfaced, spitting out water. Indeed, he seemed little worse for wear, but he did show some signs of discomfort when he curled into his stomach on the shore.

Sora knelt next to him, "You okay?"

"Stomach hurts a little..." Riku groaned.

Terra walked over and healed him up, "Well, you said not to hold back." Riku sat up with a huff. Terra smiled in good-natured amusement, "You asked for how well you stood up to the real deal and you got your answer. Not quite there yet."

Riku grumbled something but Sora was too busy asking Terra about the techniques involved in such a takedown for anyone to catch what he had said.

Terra then held his hand out to Sora, "Well, they've tried, you want to? You might beat me." Sora was about to consider it before Terra added, "I never really went this hard on Ven but it's pretty close and we'd often have some pretty even matches-"

Sora stood, "No, no thank you, Master Terra."

Riku you really should've thought that through. And dang it Terra you're nicer about it but realize Sora isn't Ven 2.0