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The eevee rubbed at his eyes again, hoping that the double-sandstorm would obscure him from view enough to get some of the sand out. Unfortunately, so much of it was floating around in the air that as soon as he wiped some away, more would just replace it. It was quite irritating, and he was starting to regret making such a foolhardy move.

Especially when he hadn't the sight nor intuition to see Rei strike back with further anger-propelled force. A regular tackle, he may have been able to dodge more easily, but the female had more power behind this attack than before. What did the Gaians tend to call this, a critical hit? Right to the shoulder, too! He stumbled back a bit from the hit, shooting a fierce growl at her as he retreated back into a thicker bank of sand to the side. He didn't know where she had disappeared off to, but critical hits weren't cool!

Arashi attempted to hold back any further coughing as he plunged deeper into the thicker part of the sand cloud, to avoid alerting the other eevee to his present location. His eyes were practically shut from the concentration, and to keep his eyes from watering too much in reaction to the irritants in the air. Due to this, he was taken by surprise when he heard Rei charge at him with a second attack, only to feel nothing but wind as her body missed contact. It caused Arashi to freeze in his tracks, and open his eyes to pinpoint her location. The only problem with that was that because he was in the thickest bank of sand, so was she. He couldn't see his paw outstretched in front of his own face!

With quick thinking, Arashi thought that maybe he had a greater chance at hitting her with his own tackle, since he had verified her trajectory with the wat the breeze was going. Kicking the ground hard, he flew in the direction he was sure she landed, only to hit nothing but a buffer of sandy wind. He grumbled in aggravation before he conceded, <<Okay, this has gotten ridiculous. Neither one of us can see a blasted thing!>> he called through the haze, hacking a bit at the lowered amount of oxygen-to-sand ratio in the area, <<Truce?>>

He had left himself vulnerable when he called out, he knew that, but he figured it was just as good as someone walking out in front of a person with a rifle with arms raised in surrender. It didn't seem to be looked at in the same manner by the other eevee, it seemed, and before he knew it, Arashi was flattened to the ground under a weight similar to his own. As the world spun, he wheezed out a growl, <<Well that was... a dirty trick!>> After a moment to catch his breath from another attack, metaphorical hit points certainly getting on the low side, he reconsidered the verbal attack. He had to give her a tip of the hat in acknowledgement, <<Though I suppose I wasn't much better. You're not bad.>> If he had been slightly less dizzy, he would have made his point by trying to flip her off of his back, but lying down for a moment didn't sound like too terrible of an idea at the present.

<<Exactly what I meant,>> Arashi offered. She was really starting to rub him the wrong way with all these remarks. Did it mean nothing that he was trying to make up for that misunderstanding? Yeesh, girls, they seriously couldn't take a little sand to the face and get over it, could they? Suppose that was just another of many differences between the two; it didn't seem to occur to him that it was more likely the cause of where they grew up, as his actions were more common on the streets of town. This was proper greeting etiquette there! Or... at least that's the rules he created implied, on the roadways he frequented, mostly because he made it common. Peh, same difference! Sorta.

He coughed a bit when she pressed on him, but he took his own time getting up. Brushing a bit of the sand out of his neck ruff and ears (it was starting to get itchy!), he watched her as she went for the apple. <<You know, 'truce' means it was a tie, right?>> he grumbled. He didn't really feel much like arguing with her, though, not if she was going to be like this. Standing fully upright again, he hit his fluffy tail on the floor to loosen more sand, <<Sounds more like Rei the Conceited to me, sheesh. I'm Arashi; I don't need a title to prove anything.>> He stuck his tongue out at that, wondering if she was ever going to loosen up at all, she was such a grump!

Arashi frowned at the counter prompted by the subject of the truce, <<There's a difference between a truce and a surrender, you know. Nobody has won in a truce, especially considering it's temporary.>> He almost wanted to recant it after that, with how she was acting, but knew he needed the break, fairly certain Rei did as well despite not wanting to let it show. She may have implied that Arashi was probably losing, but he felt it was a rather even fight. Full of misses caused by sand. Pride wasn't something he particularly cared for in a person, at least to this extent.

He snickered lightly at Rei as she turned over the thought of Arashi being without a title. <<Hey, that sounds pretty cool, doesn't it? Definitely leads one to wonder, make others feel daunted as to what to expect,>> he thought aloud, rolling it over in his mind, but ultimately shook his head, <<But then, that turns it into a title. Which I still don't have, and would much rather keep it that way.>> He wanted reputation to speak for itself, not have to try to convince others of the validity of such a statement.

Nodding, Arashi had to agree with Rei's complaint about the sand, <<Can't argue with that. There are times I really dislike being of a normal type. It would be so much easier to cause damage if you actually had control of an element.>> He sighed and shrugged, a small smirk appearing on his face, <<But I wasn't really trying to cause a lot of damage, anyway.>>

Oh, he liked what that implied, he liked that a lot. A brash smile was quick to spring to Arashi's face, <<Heh, next time we run into each other would be as good a time as any, you don't have to ask me!>> He was rather impressed that Rei was able to drop the snobbish attitude to take verbal note that the item of interest was, indeed, plenty large to fill them both up to an adequate level. He hopped up and proceeded slowly over, muscles still aching from the critical blow she delivered to his side, <<Huh... you're right. Well, that solves that problem, doesn't it? Don't suppose you have any way of lobbing it in half, though, do you?>>

Of course, when Rei warned him of some female eevee with a penchant for overloading herself with titles, Arashi didn't think to consider the little silver thief of his emotions was the one she was referring to. <<I'll be sure to do just that, then. I mean, you talk enough about it; that sounds even worse!>> he cringed.

He seemed almost to back up at the other eevee's 'fiery' passion, but he was much too amused at how well that seemed to fit with her, <<Fire, huh? I can see that, coming from you, yeah.>> An impish smile appeared, but then he was kind of at a loss with what element he would be. He was as urban as an urban-type pokémon could get, what element would make him feel more at home than he already was? <<Earth could work pretty well, I suppose, but...>> he was struck with an idea suddenly, and shook his head to withdraw the decision, <<Electricity. It's wild, it can do a lot of damage, and it's fast.>> Thinking on that, he noticed that both elements were not too different, and found this revelation to be rather interesting; perhaps it was the drive of battle to give them both such similar wishes, as they both seemed to have it.

He narrowed his eyes at her comment, and almost shrugged it off as a case of one-upmanship. He was tired of it, though, and couldn't help getting one last jab in, <<Tell that to your eyes, girly.>>

Arashi nodded at Rei's confidence on getting the upper hand the next time they met, finding her conviction of the situation to be nothing out of the ordinary. Honestly, if they were in the city's limits when such a thing were to occur, Arashi wasn't used to anything but such ways of confrontation. And, honestly, such ways of greeting. He watched as the female eevee dashed off into the ticket, curious to know what she thought was capable of wrenching an apple into two servings. He didn't have to wait long, however, and studied the shard of rock at their feet. <<How'd you find that? Huh... yeah, looks like it should do just fine,>> he observed. Tipping his head in the direction of the apple while facing Rei, he offered, <<Allow me.>> Make it a jab at not wanting her to hurt herself or a test of chivalry, it didn't really matter to him what Rei thought of his actions, he just had forethought to do at least half the work. He didn't wait for a response before picking up the chipped stone and dropping a sharp end through the top of the apple to lodge it into the flesh. He tapped it a few times with a well-placed paw, so as not to tear anything but the apple itself, before placing more weight on a hit to crack the fruit in two. <<Ladies first,>> he wasn't really picky on what half to grab, just as long as he got some of it in the end.

Arashi snorted at Rei's insistence of her sister's annoying personality quirks, the thunderstone-endowed eevee finding the traits to be rather grating. <<I feel for you. Would that be why the two of you split up, then? Because you couldn't stand living with that?>> he asked between snickers, <<Sounds like she's a hyperactive bunch of fluff...>>

Despite the jabs at his pride, Arashi found amusement in Rei's observations. Maybe it was the lack of a snide lilt to her voice, or maybe it was the fact that Arashi was beginning to feel a slight kinship with the other eevee over mutual agreements and quirks. He shrugged, <<I thought about it... maybe it would be a good second choice for me, but I like working on the quick reflexes more, and as you can probably tell, I'm not all that reserved on causing chaos at the drop of a hat.>> He smirked at his acquaintance's complaint on the way he smelled, <<What, never play in a swamp before? You really need to get out more! Don't knock it 'til you've tried it.>> No, he wasn't particularly fond of the swamp, but he was used to its presence enough to find it as just another place just as irritating to traverse over as the unstable foundation of the beach or the claustrophobically near trees of the forest. It just smelled like mud and wet moss is all, and wasn't above using as a means of pestering.

Under the cooled attitudes of the two of them, Arashi fumbled with his heated argumentation in favor of something else: he laughed. Her refusal to drop the fact that Arashi hadn't done a lot of damage to her seemed to have missed its mark after grating on him for so long. It really didn't matter, he had other intentions when he initiated the battle as it was. <<You're more stubborn than I am! Fair enough,>> he replied with a bit of a shrug. He still had to work on the proper way to make quick and frequent strikes, stay light on his feet and disable his opponent's functionality, but in a case such as this one, he didn't deem it necessary. He wasn't aiming to incapacitate, but he had been attempting to discourage Rei from taking the apple. Good thing 'sharing' was invented.