Guts shoots up into a sitting position, spitting out pieces of straw that had gotten into his mouth. The wet strips are stuck to his hair and any other part of him that had gotten slightly wet from rolling around with little Nerine.

The admonishment from the twins goes right over his head, but he's distracted for a moment by Lashan approaching the scene. Distracted long enough for a hand to reach in and tug the headband off him while it was within reach. Success!

"Hey-" he turns to Nerine, scowling. Goes quiet. Then lets out a loud snort that might have been misconstrued for a laugh if the earlier example hadn't been heard. Did they really just do that?

"Fine, rat girl. You earned it."

But at what cost? Never the graceful loser, Guts decides to get his revenge by scooping her into a headlock and messing up the girl's hair as vigorously as he can. Like hell he was going to let her enjoy her victory without a light knuckle grind to the top of the head. Real battles didn't have clean rules!