I know… I didn't want her to lose either! I'm sorry! But… err… just read *sheepish grin*

She couldn't believe it. She had lost. All she had trained for and strived to achieve. Gone, in the flash of an eye. How could she lose so humiliatingly badly? She had a good mind to dig out a sword or katana and simply shove it through the bitch's back. 'You can't defeat me' rang through her mind, infuriating her even more. Kasumi's smug glance at her down in the snow. How could she have lost? She fell to a sitting position down in the snow, the wounds seemingly invisible to her in the midst of her anger, and fumed. Suddenly, somebody touched her on the shoulder. She turned around and swung her fist, aiming for the person's stomach. They grabbed it easily, and she looked up furiously. Who dared bother her and not let her hit them? The soft, gentle voice immediately aroused her suspicions. What did he want?

"You put up a good fight," Ryu knelt down beside her. "Do you want a hand up?"

"NO!" she exclaimed angrily. "I can look after myself! Get the hell out of here!" she stood up briskly as he did, and pushed him in the chest. He didn't try to counter it, simply stumbling back as she pushed him. She glared at him as he looked coolly down at her. "You… you prick. You're siding with Kasumi! Why should I want any help from you?"

"I am doing as Hayate instructed me to. Protect his sister. But nobody ever said that I was planning on siding with her," Ryu said, brushing back large bangs which nearly obscured his eyes from sight. "In fact, I have less chance of doing such. She has lost my trust after the previous encounters I have had with her of late,"

"Doesn't take much, does it?" Ayane retorted.

Whatever reaction she had hoped to get from him, anger perhaps, or sadness, she didn't get. Simply a cool nod.

"You're right, it doesn't. Which is why I have decided that I want to help you,"

"How can you help me?" she demanded bemusedly. "What help would I want or need from a cliché, up himself ninja who thinks that appearing suddenly in swirls of leaves is cool?"

He shrugged. "I have a fight with Kasumi tonight. I know that me fighting her will not be the same as settling the score yourself, except surely you would know that assassinations are banned in this tournament. Hayate wants me to protect her from harm. The Tengu which the human victor must face is basically suicide to anyone who dares challenge it. If Kasumi beats everybody else, she will have to face the Tengu. She will die,"

Ayane nodded. "So, big deal. She dies and we're all happy,"

"Not quite," Ryu said. "Hayate will find me and kill me. Probably also you, because he will assume that you were the one who killed her illegally. My plan is that I defeat her tonight. Then she will be out of the tournament, and I will have protected her from death,"

"How is turning her over to me so I can kill her protecting her?" Ayane asked. "Don't be an idiot,"

"I was ordered to protect her from harm," Ryu said almost inaudibly. "Not to protect her from what will befall her if she disgraces the clan's name. Even Hayate knows that what she has done is worthy of assassination, even if we don't know where he is now. He will not object to her death if the clan is involved and she has disgraced it, which she has,"

"A loophole in his plan because of his loyalties," Ayane said, nodding. Hayabusa's plan was making more and more sense. He wasn't just a pretty face, obviously. Wait. He wasn't a pretty face! What was she thinking?

She shrugged the thought off, along with the petty indignation. She was a girl. She liked guys. Check. They had to have nice abs. Check. Guys with nice facial features. Check. Nice eyes. Check. Pretty good looks overall. Check. What was there to be protesting about? The personality, but hey, everybody had flaws. Hers was probably the fact that she played the bitch role so well. Hang on a sec, she thought to herself suddenly. How is that a flaw?

"Exactly," he said, bringing her back to reality. "Or if worst comes to worst, you can simply not kill her,"

"…What?" she spluttered indignantly. "That's the best bit!"

"Death isn't the only way to settle scores, Ayane," he said softly. His eyes had darkened, and she had the distinct feeling that he was talking from experience, from which side, she didn't know. Neither sounded overly fun. "There are lot worse things then death,"