Battle Three: Kuwabara and Sango

"Man, I still can't believe that girl tore through Genkai like that," stated Kuwabara. The Reikai Tentei all sat around the door to the hospital of the Fight Club. "How is she doing by the way?" the tall adolescent asked. "The doctor says she'll be fine," Yusuke replied mechanically. "A full recovery is expected in a day or so." "Damn...." Kuwabara began and then brightened. "Well I guess it's up to me to put us back in the lead!" "Hn," mocked Hiei, "do humans have incredibly dismal vision or are you stupider than I thought?" "What's that supposed to mean you runt?!" Exclaimed Kuwabara. "It's supposed to mean that if the rest of those fighters have power comparable to that of the girl then you wouldn't last five seconds against any one. I suggest we leave this to me." "Hiei we've been this before," Yusuke said, breaking his silence. "We can't run the risk of loosing you because that demon hunter girl may know how to counter the jagan. Besides, whether you'll admit it or not, you're still injured from your fight with the wolf guy." "Fine," Hiei scoffed, "let the fool get himself killed." "Alright!" Kuwabara cheered, "It's Kuwabara's time to shine." "I suppose I will have to fight after you then," Kurama said to Kuwabara sadly. He would respect his friends wish to fight but did not like the fact the human would be facing unknown opponents. Kuwabara's strategies were more often than not fairly crude. 'May his luck be with him today', Kurama thought.

Back at Inuyasha's room, Kagome slept, for the most part uninjured but exhausted. "Kagome was fantastic," Miroku beamed, "If she learns to control her power we may have this thing won!" "Wait what happened again?" Asked Shippou, the kitsune had slept throughout the match. "Later," Inuyasha answered curtly. "Powerful or not, she's out now and we have to decide who will go next." The hanyou looked down at the sleeping form of his friend, he would see that no harm came to her, even if it meant no more fighting. That last battle had really given him a scare. "I'll go," said Sango. The demon hunter had already dressed in her fighting uniform, complete with mask, katana, and massive demon-bone boomerang. "Fine by me," Inuyasha said, "just be careful, and with that he reclined onto the couch and fell asleep."Is he serious?" Asked Sango angrily, the match was in less than an hour and the so called team leader was snoozing. "He's just gathering his strength, if all goes well, Inuyasha will face off against our enemies' team leader and for that he must rest." Miroku reasoned. SLAP! It seemed reasoning was not all the monk was doing as his face burned red from Sango's strike. "Ugh," the demon slayer groaned exasperated, rubbing her behind. "You stay here too," and with that she slammed the door and began her journey toward the ring.

"Is everybody ready?" Inquired the Dark Magician Girl, getting the audience into a proper frenzy for the next bought. "And who will be today's contestants?" Sango, flanked by Miroku, who had come down later, and Shippou, refusing to miss another fight, stepped forward and stated her name. "WHAT?" Cried Kuwabara, "a girl? They can't expect me to fight a girl!" "Would you rather I do it?" Asked Hiei rudely, smiling at Kuwabara's plight. "No way!" Stated the orange-haired fighter and before thinking, climbed onstage in a huff. "Kuwabara!" He pronounced triumphantly before remembering his opponent was...a girl! "Oh no...." "Ironically, Kuwabara is doing us a great service," Kurama said to Hiei, the only other fighter due to Yusuke's refusal to leave Genkai alone. "That woman is the demon slayer who knew about your jagan. If he defeats her than you can fight again, if not than at least we will know her combat style." "True," Hiei responded. "Perhaps the fool has a purpose, no matter how inadvertent."

"Now don't think I'll go easy on you," Kuwabara said with a huge gulp, "because your, you know a...a ...girl." "I know," Sango said, completely missing Kuwabara's hesitance, "this is a war and no mercy is to be expected." Huge beads of sweat appeared on Kuwabara's head, which he shook away because Sango was charging. At lightning speed the woman ran toward Kuwabara, grabbing her gargantuan weapon and throwing it at her quarry. Kuwabara powered up his Spirit Sword just in time and blocked the attack. He held hard against the bone projectile, struggling with the effort of holding the thing back. Finally he forced it to the ground and remained stationary; he didn't know what to do. "What are you doing?" Asked Sango as she calmly picked up the boomerang at her opponent's feet without any sort of attack... "I um...I can't fight girls," Kuwabara stammered. "Why not?" Inquired Sango, "It. it just...goes against my code." Replied Kuwabara. 'Oh great,' thought Sango, 'I have to fight the macho guy, oh well; it should be an easy victory then.' "Forgive me," the woman said, "I feel badly defeating you without opposition but I must do my part." 'Crap,' Kuwabara said to himself, 'If I loose Hiei will never shut up about it, but I can't hit a girl. Hey! Maybe I can just block until she gets tired and gives up! Yeah that's it!' The fighter powered up both of his spirit swords and held them up against Sango's flying boomerang again, this time throwing it into the audience. "Heh, heh, hey just surrender now!" He said proudly. "Damn," Sango muttered, "He won't hit me but he has enough power to defend himself." She drew her katana and race toward her enemy. She slashed and slashed and slashed, but Kuwabara kept blocking. "A regular sword can't take on two spirit ones," the goofy combatant explained, and he was right. Sango sheathed her blade and began attacking with fist and foot, knowing Kuwabara would not block with blades for fear of hurting her. She was right, both swords vanished and Kuwabara began blocking with his hands. Unfortunately for Sango, the man, though seemingly imbecile was much shrewder than he appeared and a great martial artist, he met her blow for blow. 'This isn't working,' Sango grated to herself. 'Hey, this is working!' Cheered Kuwabara silently. Suddenly, Sango had an idea. She slipped her mask over her face and threw several smoke bombs at Kuwabara's head! Before the poor guy could do anything the bombs detonated in his face, releasing a toxic gas, lethal only to demons, but still having a narcotic effect over humans. Soon Kuwabara would be knocked unconscious. "Ah dammit," coughed the fighter, surrounded by a cloud of fumes. Now all Sango had to do was wait, but after a few minutes the man was still awake. He stumbled from the cloud landing on his face, but still lucid. Kurama almost laughed, Hiei did.

"What? How?" Asked Sango incredulously. "That's a...cough...pretty dirty trick heh heh." Kuwabara said, picking himself up. "But not enough to stop good ol' Kuwabara."So do you give up?" 'This guy has determination, I'll give him that,' thought Sango, 'Now I feel really bad doing this.' This being a massive elbow to Kuwabara's face. The poor fellow fell down to the floor again, his nose bleeding. Sango continued to pummel him, aiming for knocking him out, rather than pain or damage. "Heh, your lucky your not a guy or else I'd..." Kuwabara started before a punch in the face silenced him. Sango almost said sorry, but her training took over and she continued the assault. Soon Kuwabara was incapacitated, though he continued to chuckle a little. "Ah damn, can't move, Hiei will never let me forget this...." "Winner....SANGO!" Cried the Dark Magician Girl to a less than please audience, the fight had been far from exciting, most spectators felt more sorry for the vanquished than anything else. Hiei and Kurama jumped to the stage and lifted Kuwabara off the floor, "Sorry guys, I just can't fight with ladies." Kuwabara babbled on the brink of consciousness. "We know, you did admirably Kuwabara," Kurama said, "Anyone can fight, but to stick with ones ideals in the face of adversity is a rare trait." "Yes," Hiei nodded, praying the human would not remember what he was saying, "well done." Thought Kuwabara had lost the match, he had gained the hidden respect of a demon.

"God job Sango," Miroku cheered as the demon slayer walked off stage sulkily. "I feel horrible Miroku, that wasn't a fight; that was just a beating." She responded. Miroku nodded, "I understand completely, but you did what had to be done, its not your fault the enemy refused to fight." "Yeah, that sucked," Shippou said, "what a boring fight." Sango looked away, someday after all this was over, she would make it up to that man, Kuwa-something or other. But until then, there was a tournament to win and so she, Miroku, and Shippou walked back up to the room to wake Inuyasha. Three fights down, two victories, one more win would clinch the tournament, but something told Sango the remaining two fighters would have none of the reservation as the orange haired sword wielder. No reservations at all. It was crunch time, possibly final battle, and Sango knew that like an animal, nothing is more dangerous than a cornered demon.