Question about the phrase「挑みかかる手前な顔」 I cannot understand the meaning of in the following sentence. As far as I know means "in front of my/your hands" or could be a pronoun. However I haven't seen before the usage like in the sentence below, so could you please explain the meaning. > **** Translation attempt: > "Because it is pretty rare to see a girl wearing kimono, my eyes unintentionally followed her. Our eyes met, she tighten one's jaw and right in front of me..." ~Edited: I think I'm more or less understand the meaning, thanks to Brandon. But I also can't figure out why it's used here, as if is na-adjective?

has a number of uses; the pronoun being the much rarer case. Here it means "before" as in time.

A face one would make just before initiating a challenge.

> My eyes locked onto her; what with a girl dressed in a kimono being far from common. Our eyes met and she pursed her lips and made a face as if to say "bring it on".