"HAAAAAAAAH???!!! I get that you're in pain, but this... Prepare for reckoning, bitch!"
They met in the middle and the first handful of hair was seized before either of them had managed to sit up. Iris yanked Ayame's ponytail sideways, Ayame grabbed a fistful of Iris's and wrenched back, and they rolled across the moss in a tangle of dark hair and armored limbs, both hissing through the rite's agony while trying to establish dominance through scalp damage.
The maids at the edge of the moss watched the spectacle with the weary fondness of women who had seen this exact fight play out in the training yard, the kitchen, the armory, and once even in the bath before breakfast.
On the far side of the moss, Vex managed to push herself upright.
