Refusal to relent to his taunting and her infamous obstinate nature were the only things that could keep her on her feet right now. Her chest contracted and relaxed heavily, the jerking motion was violent and almost painful. Long hair clung to the nape of her neck and the crimson tendrils stuck in her lashes.

Using Enraiha to keep her shaking knees from collapsing, she glared at the source of her exhaustion. Kazuma.

Otou-sama had proposed some intensive training and Kazuma had only been too happy to dish it out; she'd been in denial when she'd told him she could take it. Now she was measuring her chances of escaping without falling over from exhaustion.

It was unnerving; he'd been doing this for the past hour, cloaking himself using the wind and surprising her as soon as her guard was down.

In the beginning, her frustration at being unable to land a hit on the smug Fujitsu had kept her alert and moving, but now it felt as if she could actually feel gravity pressing down on her, trying to force her to her tired knees.

There!

Swinging round, she brought up Enraiha at the last moment, blocking the cutting wind that had been intent on catching her unguarded back.

The wind dispersed, but the force pushed her back a metre, her heels digging into the earth.

Cursing, she planted Enraiha back into the earth once more and let her fatigued body slump to one knee.

A soft chuckle somewhere to her left made her see red and she promptly sent a blade of fire running in that direction....

Only to get flicked on the nose.

"You've gotten better," Kazuma offered before he floated away.

A light blush now adorned her face as she scowled at her shoes. Damn him.

"Onee-san?" Ren asked, ducking hastily as she threw her pillow at him. She was sat in the centre of her bed with her 'Kazuma' pillow on her lap; pummelling her fake Kazuma seemed to help relieve stress. Ren was happy, as long as she didn't try and relieve her stress on him. He was far more likely to give in and break than her Kazuma pillow.

"Ren?" she asked in bemusement, "what are you doing here?"

Completely oblivious, Ren thought morosely. "You incinerated the entire of the east dojo, your Otou-sama sent me to check that you were okay."

Ayame's eyes grew wide. "The entire of the east dojo?"

Ren nodded vigorously.

"Crap, Otou-sama will kill me!" she groaned thumping backwards onto the bed and plopping her pillow onto her face.

"Why were you so angry?" Ren asked tentatively, he didn't want to get set on fire, regardless of the fact he was fire resistant, she'd probably use Enraiha and that was a sword. He was not sword resistant.

"Kazuma," she growled, her voice was muffled by the pillow but lacked no anger.

"Onii-sama?" Ren blinked owlishly and ran a hand through his hair. He should have guessed, every time the two of them got together something got set on fire.

"Otou-sama made me practise with him, but he basically subjected me to some pain and left, like he was playing with me," she sighed, dejected now.

"Onii-sama is strong," Ren shrugged, "he's just trying to help you in his own way by showing you your weaknesses."

"Gah!" she shot up off the bed into a sitting position, making Ren cringe.

"Onee-sama?"

"He was playing with me! That dumb jerk, like he was saying I'd never be good enough to fight him properly!"

"Onee-sama?"

"I'll show him," she growled darkly.

The punch bag swayed drunkenly as Ayano finished with her tirade of angry punches. She was amazed she hadn't set it on fire yet; it was the way most of the punch bags went in the Kannagi compound. Her Otou-sama told her she was the single most expensive thing he owned; the bills for cleaning up her messes were extraordinary.

Today, after recovering from the beating Kazuma had given her two days ago, she was determined to hunt down the smug Enjitsu and give him a taste of his own medicine.

How she longed to see the arrogant smirk wiped of his face by her fist. Maybe she'd set his hair on fire too...

No lasting damage would be inflicted though, she didn't want to kill him, just maim him a little.

Ayano was half-way out of the door to hunt down Kazuma and demand a rematch when the unsuspecting girl was pounced upon by Yukari and Nanase.

"What are you doing here?" she asked in shock as they both took and arm and frogmarched her from her home.

"We need to show you something!" Yukari insisted happily, her grip surprisingly firm considering the slight build of the blonde girl.

"Yep, Yukari's information network came up with something interesting," Nanase revealed.

Yukari waved a hand dismissively and laughed creepily, "Nanase!" she protested, "don't say that, I just happened to come across the information!"

"That's great, but I really don't have time for this, I need to—"

"No, I insist," Yukari commanded as she and Nanase strengthened their grips on their friend's arm in order to prevent her from extricating herself from their clutches.

"I get the feeling that resistance is futile," Ayano muttered as she surrendered to her bizarre friends and allowed them to drag her down the street.

"Here!" Yukari announced gleefully, turning to Nanase she winked, "I told you my sources were always reliable!"

"What are we looking at?" Ayano asked, as far as she could see it was a street, like any other street, there was a small Ramen stand and a convenience store and a cute fountain with a few children running circles round it.

"Up there!" Yukari produced a pair of binoculars from thin air and thrust them into Ayano's hands.

Frowning slightly at her grinning friends, she lifted the binoculars to her eyes and directed her gaze in the direction Nanase pointed.

Instantly, she recognised Kazuma, he appeared to be stood out on a balcony, but it wasn't his apartment; she'd been there before.

Catherine. She stood beside Kazuma, and as Ayano watched, Catherine tossed her blonde curls, giggled and placed a proprietary hand on Kazuma's arm.

Yukari and Nanase swapped a knowing look as Ayano turned bright red with suppressed rage.

"That girl," Ayano growled.

Attempting to run to the building and pry Catherine's hands from Kazuma, she found herself restrained by her friends.

"Ayano!" Yukari protested, "You can't declare your love dressed in your school uniform!"

Ayano flushed again, but this time in embarrassment. "I'm not going to... no way... I don't—"

Nanase chuckled. "Yukari is right! After all, that girl is wearing such clothes."

Ayano scowled through the binoculars at Catherine. Nanase was right, regardless of what Yukari had said, if she challenged Catherine in her uniform the girl would doubtlessly have something else to snub her with.

Ayano pursed her lips as Catherine pressed her exposed cleavage against Kazuma's arm.

"Fine!" she yielded, "but I don't have any clothes!"

"No problem!" Yukari produced a folded bundle of clothes and led a bemused Ayano to the toilets to change.

Disclaimer: I don't own Kaze no Stigma and make no profit from this. Thank you for reading and please review!

This was written for Fanfic_bakeoff's yield challenge and is a oneshot of two parts. The second part is coming soon!