Christiana and Amanda-mouto were facing one another in the middle of the arena, waiting for the chime to sound. Amanda-mouto was armed with a standard wooden bokken while she was using her trusty practice naginata. Silence had fallen across the entire exhibition hall. The only sound that could be heard was the gentle hum of the air conditioning while everyone waited for the match to begin.

As soon as she heard the chime, she pressed an easily parried attack. It was so easy to deal with that she had learned it during her first week of training, well before her special training had begun. 'Time to feel her out without showing my hand to Sakura-nee,' she thought as she made a slight lunge towards her patSister.

Unexpectedly, the younger girl retreated hurriedly, not even trying to block while still keeping herself outside of the reach of the spear-like weapon.

'What the heck,' she thought her mind in more than a little turmoil. 'I wonder what she will do if I do this.' She held her pole-arm in a position which left her open to many basic attacks.

This time, the other girl just stood there. She didn't press forward, nor did she retreat. Meanwhile, she held her simulated katana in a defensive position.

'What is she doing?' she wondered. Amanda-mouto's actions simply weren't logical. It was common practice to spend the first few moments of a bout to feeling out their opponent to get an idea of their abilities. She honestly didn't know how to react to her patSister's actions. This went against all of tactics that her sensei had taught her about armed combat. As a result, she spent a few seconds observing her opponent.

Shrugging to herself she slowly approached Amanda-imouto, one step at the time. The girl reacted by retreating like she had done before.

'Well, let's see if I chain some basic attacks,' she considered before performing three easy to block slashing attacks, starting at waist level and working up towards the head. This time her adversary backed up in a panic until her back was literally against the wall.

'She's scared of me!' she finally realized. 'Why? It's not like it would hurt her even if I hit her. We're both wearing protective equipment.'

Out of consideration for her opponent, she slowly retreated to the center of the arena instead of pressing her advantage. As she retreated from the bokken welding girl, murmurs arose once again in the gallery above.

The younger sibling slowly, hesitantly, approached the center of the ring with her hardwood sword held in a basic blocking position. Once she also made it to their starting point, she nodded in recognition of the favor her patSister had given her. Then she made some very weak and probing attacks.

'I think she's realized that I'm not out to hurt her,' she thought as she sloppily and gently blocked the incoming attacks. 'I don't want to scare her again and I don't want to show my hand to Sakura-nee either. This is a suitable compromise.'

The two of them traded basic strikes back and forth until the younger female had gained enough confidence to press her. 'Finally! This might turn into a decent match!'

Out of nowhere, an unexpectedly advanced move came at her and she automatically parried the blow and did a perfect riposte in the form of a naginata kaeshi-waza. As soon as she blocked and knocked aside her adversary's bokken, she completed a counter-attack, striking the other girl's wrist guard with the simulated blade.

"Point!" the staffer called out, followed by multiple judges agreeing over the sound system.

'Whoops,' she thought. 'I didn't mean to show my hand like that.' While not a difficult technique it did take a bit of skill to pull off perfectly.

After this one strike, Amanda-imouto went back to her old pattern. Until the time ran out, she constantly retreated. However, this time she was careful not to get backed into the wall.

'Well, that was a pretty boring match,' she thought as the ending chime finally sounded.

"Winner, Christiana' The Matriarch declared in the seats above the arena floor. Sparse applause followed as she bowed to her opponent and then to the staffer who had acted as the referee. Finally, she bowed to her Mother before leaving the arena.