~Chapter 3~
~Sparring~

Two days later, Corana ran into Yusuke and Keiko while grocery shopping.

"No! I am not going to feed your little friend's addiction forever!" Keiko was standing firm.

"What's up guys?" Corana grinned.

"Keiko won't let me buy ice cream for Hiei, but he gets cranky with me when we don't have it." Yusuke grimaced.

Corana laughed. "You're a big baby Yusuke. Tell Hiei he can come to my place. I always have ice cream. I'm a bit of an addict." She started for the ice cream freezer.

"He likes chocolate best." Yusuke offered.

Corana chuckled. "We'll get along famously then."

"I don't think many people get along famously with Hiei." Keiko grinned.

"We're sparring later today. You're welcome to join." Yusuke said to Corana.

"Sounds great!" Corana grinned as she loaded an eighth carton into her cart. "Where?"

Yusuke gave her directions and they parted ways.

Hiei was the first to notice her arrival to Genkai's temple. He noticed a look of peace settle over her entire frame.

Yusuke and Kuwabara came out to greet her, dressed for fighting. They took an appreciative glance at her yoga pants that fit snugly over her butt and thighs and a tight black sports tank top.

Corana smiled at the two boys. "How could you even think of fighting here?" She asked quietly. "It's so peaceful."

"Oh we don't fight at the temple." Yusuke assured her. "This is more of a gathering point. We move out to the swamps to fight."

She nodded her understanding. Kurama exited the temple dressed in his white fighting outfit. "Are we ready?" He asked Yusuke. Yusuke nodded. "Good. Let's go then." He completely ignored Corana.

Hiei jumped down from his tree and landed in front of Corana. She smiled a small smile. "You must be the Hiei I've heard so much about."

"Hn." He nodded. "Corana?" she nodded and that seemed to satisfy him. "Yusuke said I can eat your ice cream. Is that true?"

Corana tried not to laugh as she nodded. She didn't think Hiei would react very well to being laughed at.

After a short walk, they reached the swamps. They drew names as two who would get to fight and Kurama and Corana were drawn. Corana studied Kurama for a moment and pulled two sheaths of daggers out of her bag and strapped one to each leg.

Kurama smirked and the other three moved out of their way. Kurama dashed at Corana and started trying to land kicks and punches on the tiny demon. She was able to draw a dagger in time to deflect a death seed from hitting her chest. She leapt back and stared at Kurama in surprise. "Why the hostility?" She asked.

"You dare try and pity me." He snarled in a low voice.

Corana smirked. "My my my Youko aren't we conceited. Tell me why YOU would deserve MY pity." Corana was glaring now.

Kurama pulled a rose from his hair and summoned his rose whip. "I saw the look in your eyes that night. To me it looked like pity."

"Why would I pity you?!" Corana was frustrated while dodging his whip and deflecting it with her daggers. "You're intelligent, good- looking, you have friends who would give their lives for you, you have a mother who loves you unconditionally, you're strong, powerful." She deflected each attack between descriptions and started to make a few attacks of her own. She crushed his hand with the hilt of her dagger and he dropped his whip. "Tell me. What do I have?" She held him firmly, dagger at his throat. "A brother who's too ashamed of me to admit he's related and barely enough skills to get by. Don't think for a minute I pity you. Pity is against my nature." She released him. "Envy on the other hand, is an entirely different story." She whispered and walked back to the other three.

There was an uneasy silence until Corana sighed. "Who fights next?" She prompted Yusuke to pull some names. It was Yusuke and Kuwabara.

Kurama sat down next to Corana while Yusuke and Kuwabara walked further away to face off. "Gomen nasai." He said quietly.

"Forget it." Corana grunted. She turned and smiled at him. "I can't believe you'd get mad over something so stupid."

"Hn." Hiei grunted. "You want to see something stupid, watch Kuwabara fight."

Yusuke and Kuwabara started out with fists. Kuwabara was obviously no match for the spirit detective and they moved to spirit attacks very quickly.

Corana chuckled. "Great, so baka's spirit attack is an erection." Hiei and Kurama looked at her in surprise. (A/N: Am I the only one who sees how incredibly perverted Kuwabara's attack is??? Ok. Maybe I just need to get my head out of the gutter.) When Kuwabara made his spirit sword grow, Corana burst out into full blown hysterics. "Come on you two!! Don't tell me I'm the only one who sees how perverted that looks!" Corana gasped, wiping tears from her eyes, still laughing.

Kurama chuckled. "You do have a point." He admitted.

Hiei merely smirked. "Hn." And kept his eyes on the fight.

"Yay!" Corana yelled. "I dragged two to the gutter with me! That fills my quota for the week."

Kurama and Hiei both raised eyebrows at her, but Corana's attention was back to the fight. Yusuke knocked Kuwabara out with a well-placed kick to the head and the fight ended.

"It seems Kuwabara will be doing no more sparring today." Kurama commented mildly.

"A shame." Hiei replied unconvincingly. "Detective, two more names."

Hiei and Corana. Corana removed her daggers and took two short swords out of her bag.

"How many weapons do you have in there?" Yusuke asked.

"That's it. I like sharp shiny things." She grinned.

Hiei faced her and removed his cloak, revealing his bare chest. Corana stared in appreciation at the smooth musculature, but shook her head of the distraction when Hiei drew his katana. For 15 minutes, all the others could see was two black blurs and flashing blades. Three swords flew away from the blurs and they broke apart, panting. Hiei began to form a fireball in his hands and launched it at Corana. Corana then did something completely unexpected. She knew she didn't have the time to dodge the fireball so she took her only other option. She became a shadow. The three conscious men saw her nearly disappear, but a gray figure replaced her just as the fireball ripped through it.

"God that feels weird!" They heard her voice giggle. The gray figure soared over their heads and her body materialized behind some bushes, her head and shoulders were visible, and bare. She received more stares. "Um.could someone bring me my clothes?" She asked, blushing a little under their scrutiny. The boys looked back to the fight and saw a pile of clothes where Corana had been standing.

Hiei picked them up and walked over to the bushes.

"No! Hiei!" Yusuke called. "Make her come out and get them!"

"Baka." Hiei muttered and threw Corana her clothes and she dressed swiftly.

"So what was that you just did?" Kurama asked.

"My shadow form. I become completely insubstantial of course, that means anything on my falls right through me so I don't use it too much. I can't attack in that form. It's merely an evasion maneuver." She replied. She walked up to Yusuke and kicked him in the groin. "That's for your brilliant plan baka." She growled. Yusuke lay clutching his groin.

"It'll never happen again." He gasped.

"I should hope not." She smirked.

Yusuke and Kurama fought after Yusuke had sufficiently recovered from Corana's kick. Followed by Yusuke and Hiei, then Hiei and Kurama, and finally Corana and Yusuke. The four sore and tired fighters no had to drag Kuwabara's dead weight back to the temple. They took turns dragging him.

"We should just leave him here and let him get all confused as to how he got here." Hiei grumbled when they were about halfway home.

Corana giggled but Kurama and Yusuke insisted on returning him to the temple.

"They never let me have any fun." Corana heard Hiei grumble softly. He caught her eye when he heard her soft chuckle and smirked.