Once a healer had helped Hiei and Aiko, the next two matches went on, both dull affairs compared to Hiei's match. Nanashi watched them calmly, waiting patiently for her fight between her and Yusuke to start. No one had tagged either of them out, which made her hopeful that they could get their match after all. She watched Hiei, with twins now in the stands near the queen, intermittently. He was healed, was fine, but Aiko was not afraid to go for blood. She shook her head, shaking off the feeling in her gut. She needed to focus on her match against Yusuke coming up. She looked up at the arena, seeing the two elvish knights up there. One was about to win.

"You're kidding me," she heard Yusuke say next to her. Nanashi looked over at him, seeing Ayane standing next to him, holding out her wild coin. Yusuke traded her reluctantly.

"Match!" King Hayate called. The two elves left the arena after that, neither of them needing a healer for that lack luster affair.

Ayane went ahead of her, jumping into the arena. Nanashi felt a hand come to her shoulder. Yasha briefly whispered in her ear, "cover your ears." He then gave her a playful shove towards the arena.

She climbed into in carefully rather than clumsily. She felt her heart race. She looked over at Ayane, trying to remember what she knew about her. She was a sound elf. She used to be king's guard, before she married Jiro. They only had one child. Nanashi shook her head, trying to focus. She felt caught off guard by the last minute tag out, making her unsure how to approach this match.

The queen's clap rang out. They could start. Before Nanashi could move, she saw Ayane blow two kisses into the crowd, one for Jiro, and one for their son, Shura. Jiro smiled down at her, nodding. Shura pretended to catch his kiss in his hand. She was still very much in love with Jiro.

Ayane then turned back to Nanashi, pulling her knife from her hip. "My husband gave me this blade," she said in a quiet sing song voice. She brought the knife up to her mouth, singing a haunting tune into it. The sound made Nanashi feel dizzy on her feet. The intricate carvings along the blade glowed with a faint, rainbow light. She stopped, brought it in front of her, and twirled it around her hands.

Nanashi summoned up her wind dragon, forming a battle ax, readying herself to charge Ayane the second she moved. Ayane halted the blade. Nanashi charged forward. Ayane brought her knife into her left hand, carving an arc in the air that went from above her head to blow her hip line. The arc threw a flash of translucent rainbow light accompanied with a soft song right at Nanashi. Nanashi changed direction, dodging that light. She looked up, seeing Ayane had swung the knife in the air, sending another arc towards her. Nanashi tried to dodge that one, getting caught by the bottom of it in her left upper arm. Her arm was barely scratched, just a simple red line. The sound that emanated from it however was dreadful torture. It was high pitch, sounding on impact. The sound seemed to bore its way into her left ear until it felt stuffed to the brim with silence. She brought her hand up to her ear, feeling it wet and slick as she brought her finger into it. She could hear nothing out of it.

"Your newfound deafness isn't permanent," Ayane explained loud enough for her to hear. "It can be healed. Had you been hit in the chest, well, I would likely not be able to explain myself. Do try not to be hit a second time."

Ayane brought the blade up. Half of it still glowed with rainbow light, while the other half was dark. She swung it at Nanashi, more like a whip in the air than a knife. By now she had summoned away her wind dragon to just rest upon her neck, needing her hands to move and dodge. She needed to get Ayane to burn out the energy in her knife and then keep her from breathing so she could not recharge the blade with that sound energy of hers.

Nanashi swore aloud when the last arc Ayane threw dug its light across the top of her right shoulder, deafening her there now to. She could hear nothing. No heart beat. No breath. No sound. No whistle of the wind. She shook her head, trying to shake off the disorientation. Deaf or not, she could still win this fight.

She looked up, seeing Ayane smirk at her. She brought the blade up to her mouth, ready to sing into it anew. Nanashi, wind dragon still draped over her shoulders, raised her right hand up. She took away Ayane's ability to breathe. No breath, no sound energy.

Ayane froze, hardly a sliver of energy dancing in the knife's blade. Maybe enough for one or two arcs of light. She reached up, grabbing her own throat, looking bewildered. Nanashi could only feel, not hear, her lungs draw deep, quick breaths in and out. Keeping Ayane from breathing was going to exhaust her too quickly if she did nothing else. She had to wrestle the knife away from her if she was going to have a chance.

Nanashi ran at her, doing her best to concentrate on keeping Ayane from breathing. She was up and next to her, trying to wrestle the knife from Ayane's hand. Ayane struggled against her, blinking. Her pupils looked larger, her lips paler, showing signs she was slowing down from lack of air. Ayane would not give up the blade though, as Nanashi tried to pry it from her hand. Ayane squinted up at her. She kicked her hard in the shin repeatedly. Nanashi, shaking now and sweaty from the effort, let her go so she could breathe once more. It was either that or pass out herself.

Ayane took a deep breath and arced the blade between them. Even though Nanashi could not hear the sound, she was blown back by it though, a higher speed than expected. She was thrown out of the arena, back slamming into the wall below the stands with painful smack. She collapsed on her hands and knees, debry and dust from the damaged wall around her. She hunched over, coughing up a large amount of blood. She spat out a mouthful of it, feeling the urge to panic. Her chest hurt wretchedly. She could hardly draw a breath. Her lungs were damaged by the arc. She would not drown on the blood, she knew, because of the wind dragon. She did her best to stand up, spitting out another mouthful of blood. She wrapped her left arm around her middle. She drew her own knife, old and ordinary though it was, from her hip. She did not want to be counted out just yet.

She looked over at Ayane standing in the middle of the arena. She looked surprised to even see Nanashi standing. Ayane looked over at King Hayate, her lips moving, but Nanashi could not make out a word she was saying. The king shrugged, shaking his head. Ayane looked offended by his response. Nanashi leaned over, spitting out more blood.

Ayane jumped from the arena, moving swiftly over to her. Nanashi raised her knife up, but was no match for Ayane in her state. Ayane wrestled the ordinary knife from her hand, holding both knives now in her hands. Nanashi coughed, retching up a foul mix of blood. Ayane stood before her. "Yield," she mouthed.

Nanashi shook her head, hardly in a fighting state as it was. She felt woozy on her feet. She could not hear, could not breathe on her own, could not avoid the taste of blood coating her mouth. She saw Ayane throw her ordinary knife down to the ground, blade burying its way into the grass. Ayane brought up her free hand, striking her in the side of her neck with the outside of her hand.

The last thing Nanashi noticed was the painful blackness that rushed up and overwhelmed her.