In his lifetime of traveling, Miroku had been all over Japan and had seen some incredible wonders, but none of them compared to what he was witnessing now: The sight of his beloved Sango standing before him like a stone wall with an expression of pure determination on her face, seemingly unaffected by the massive gash on her forehead or her blood soaked body. That she could disregard such a devastating injury and massive blood loss simply defied explanation.
However, Zanshin did not seem impressed. "Well look who's come back for another feeble stand," he remarked mockingly as he pulled himself off the ground. With a battered body, a mangled face, and a shredded arm still spilling blood onto the ground, he hardly looked any better. But like Sango, he seemed to push the effects of his injuries aside. "No matter. You'll only give me the pleasure of crushing you a second time, and making your little Monk watch. I can think of no more fitting a fate."
"Don't you dare talk down to me, you arrogant bastard!" Sango shot back in rage. "We've proven time and time again we're more than your match!"
"You've only proven the futility of your efforts! The Hiraikotsu, the Wind Tunnel, the most deadly of sutras. I've fought through them all. What could you possibly accomplish now? You look like you've lost over half the blood in your body. How long do you think you can continue?"
"As long as necessary!" Sango retorted. "I swear as long as I've got one drop of blood left in me, I'll survive long enough to watch you die!
Zanshin had to hold back laughter at this. "You insolent little worm!" He said in a tone of pure disgust. "You can't outlast me. You never could! Every other time we've met, you've only survived because of your demon cat, and your monk. Well they won't be able to save you this time. Rasta is surely feasting on your Nekomata demon's entrails, while Miroku is going to sit there and witness your extermination. Then he'll go next, cursing to his pitiful Buddha that he couldn't do anything to stop it."
Sango nearly exploded with rage upon hearing this, but managed to quell her anger. Just that morning she had instructed Miroku in the importance of staying focused in the possible case that one of them would be critically injured, and indeed he had. Against all odds, Miroku had kept up the fight long enough for her to get back in it. Now both their survival depended upon Sango and she refused to let her emotions take control.
"Enough talk," said Sango as she slowly moved in. Zanshin merely nodded and stepped forward. Just before the gap was closed, Sango took one look back at Miroku, who was still sitting up against a tree. Battered and broken, he could do nothing more but watch the events unfold.
"You were amazing Miroku."Sango though to herself."You gave it everything you had and then some. Now let me take it from here..."
Her thoughts were quickly interrupted as Zanshin made the first move, going all out with a storm of consecutive blows. Sango desperately back-peddled, dodging them one after the other and waiting for the moment when his fatigue would enable her to fight back. The moment never came. Zanshin kept up the combination endlessly, showing incredible resilience given his current condition. Finally, a single jab caught Sango in the face, causing her to stumble back. Then Zanshin followed through with a hard left hook, intending to make a decisive strike.
But it didn't make contact. Zanshin's follow through was noticeably slower than normal, almost certainly due to his crippled arm. The speed difference wasn't significant, but it was enough for Sango to grab his arm with both hands and twist it forward while simultaneously slamming her knee into his chest. Zanshin grunted in pain and bent forward at the waist in response, enabling Sango to knock him to the ground with a hard upward kick from her other leg.
"His arm is badly crippled. I'll have to remember that," Sango thought to herself. But right away she set her sights on a far more important thing: Her sword, which was lying in the grass close by. Knowing full well a weapon was needed to make a difference in this fight, Sango immediately ran to it, rushing away before Zanshin had even hit the ground.
Zanshin quickly recovered and took off after her, and with his superior speed he was able to catch up, but not quite fast enough. Just as he reached out to grab her, Sango thrust herself forward with a diving somersault across the ground, showing an amazing display of athleticism by snatching her sword up in the process and finishing the roll by snapping back on her feet.
Sango smiled as she turned to face him. With the weapon back in her rightful hands and facing a heavily crippled opponent, it seemed certain she now had the advantage. But Zanshin didn't back down. He simply resumed his fighting stance and pressed on, acting as if nothing had changed while waiting for her next move.
He didn't have to wait long. Within seconds, Sango let out a fearsome scream as she charged at Zanshin and attempted to decapitate him with a powerful downward swing. But before the blade even got close, Zanshin grabbed her arm with one hand and picked her up by the collar of her uniform with the other, using her own forward momentum to lift her off the ground and fling her into the air.
Sango's battle cry quickly transitioned to a scream of terror and she went airborne, traveling a good distance before slamming into a large tree trunk, with a collision so powerful it shattered her shoulder armor plate. Fortunately, the armor had absorbed most of the impact, but it still sent jolts of pain through her right shoulder that quickly radiated through the rest of her body.
Against the odds, Sango had managed to hang on to her sword through the entire ordeal, but was not able to recover quick enough as Zanshin stormed over to her position. As she tried to bring it back up to confront him, Zanshin swiftly kicked it out of her hand, sending it sailing through the air and disappearing amid a cluster of bushes.
Now with Sango crippled and disarmed, Zanshin laid into her with full force. "Time to end this charade!" He shouted angrily as he smashed his first into her ribs, causing her to double over briefly before he stood her back up with an uppercut under her chin.
"None can stand before me!"
Zanshin finished his brutal combo with a devastating right straight punch to her face, once again sending her rolling along the ground. From his position propped up against a tree, Miroku cringed as he watched Sango absorb the final blow. By the time she rolled to a halt, he could see she was once again bleeding from the massive gash in her forehead, along with a few smaller ones that had been newly opened by the recent activity. Fearing the worst, Miroku could only look on and hope for a miracle, while also cursing his inability to do anything to help her. Watching Sango getting beaten to death was the worst fate he could possibly imagine, but his desire to aid her simply could not override the limitations of his broken body.
"Hang in there Sango, you can't give up now!"
Zanshin, however, seemed to think the day was his. "It's over Sango! Just stay down and I promise I'll make this quick."
Sango refused to give in. With her face a bloody mess and her joints practically screaming with pain, Sango rose to her knees and slapped her hand against the dirt in frustration. Then she spat a mouthful of blood onto the ground, as if it were a wad of tobacco, before rising to her feet.
To a casual observer, this would seem to be in Zanshin's favor, but Zanshin could see there was more to the situation than the initial appearance. Sango's expressions and body language were not of fear or misery, but of frustration, as it she were merely angered by the situation rather than afraid or injured by it. Though the long battle had taken it's toll, he could see she had plenty of fight left in her and it was going to take a lot more effort to bring this to an end.
Zanshin's observations were reinforced as Sango finished rising and resumed her fighting stance, shaking somewhat, but still looking professional. "Hoping to end this so soon, Zanshin?" she defiantly replied. "How pathetic. Guess your superior demon endurance isn't so tough after all!"
That did it. Sango insinuating that he lacked the resolve to continue caused Zanshin to fly into uncontrollable rage, and he charged at her with a full head of steam. Just before he could attempt to flatten her, she surprised him by evading with an athletic sideways cartwheel. Zanshin quickly turned back to re-engage, only to receive an armored boot to the face from Sango's twisting, left-footed kick. The impact knocked him off his feet and gave Sango the time she needed to find another weapon, this time the one remaining pistol that Zanshin had discarded at the start of the battle.
As Zanshin rose back up, Sango lunged forward with a mighty swing at his head with the pistol's wooden grip, much as Miroku had done earlier, only to find herself thwarted as Zanshin grabbed her wrist and twisted it painfully to the side until she released the improvised club. Then he wrapped his other hand around Sango's throat, lifted her off the ground, and slammed the back of her head into a tree, keeping her pinned there and using the leverage to strangle her to death.
"Gotcha now Sango!" He shouted as he watched her choke and struggle futilely, though the tone of his voice was quite different than before. Rather than boastful or triumphant, there was only the tone of pure anger. That of an enraged and exhausted man sensing the possibility of a badly desired ending. Still, with her body pinned against a tree and her right arm still firmly in his grip, it seemed like a highly probable outcome.
Fighting hard to breath as the life was being squeezed out of her, Sango desperately reached behind her back with her left hand for the one chance of survival: Her broken arm blade. With her body pinned against the tree, it took considerable effort, but eventually she managed to wrap her fingers around the bottom of the weapon, which she had wrapped up with Kagome's medical tape back at camp in order to wield it without cutting her hand. Then without warning, she whipped it out and swung it up at Zanshin with full force.
By the time Zanshin realized what Sango was doing, it was too late. With one hand on her throat and the other pinning her right wrist, he couldn't react fast enough and could only watch as the slayer jammed the broken blade into the exposed bone on his crippled left arm. Letting out a painful cry in response, Zanshin immediately let go of Sango and went to work trying to pull the weapon out. Then, after pulling on it furiously for a few seconds, he suddenly remembered Sango was still right next to him, and looked up just in time to see her launch a powerful roundhouse kick directly into his skull, driving into him with such a force that she lost her balance and fell onto the ground with him.
For the first time since the start of the battle, there was a lull in the action as both participants struggled to recover. Zanshin continued to curse angrily and struggle to pull the blade out of his arm, while Sango clutched her sore neck and slowly rose to her feet. Deciding the lowly unloaded pistol nearby was an insufficient tool, she quickly scanned the area looking for a better weapon.
Eventually she found what she was looking for, but it was quite a distance away and getting there would take a lot of effort. Effort that Zanshin had no intention of allowing. Just at that moment, Sango heard his agonizing shout as he finally wrenched the broken blade out of his arm, and turned back around to see him hurl it right at her without missing a beat. Too drained and injured to evade his rapid action, Sango let out a scream as her own weapon cut deeply through her left thigh before sailing past and disappearing into the endless foliage of the woodlands.
Sango immediately collapsed on the ground and grasped her injured leg with both hands, blood spurting through her fingertips and spilling out onto the already soaked battleground. It seemed certain that Zanshin now had a decisive advantage, but he found himself completely unable to follow up. Finally, the massive injuries and blood loss he had suffered was starting to take its toll.
It took nearly 20 seconds for both of them to slowly pull themselves back on their feet, and when they finally did, they were both swaying and stumbling around as if they were drunk. Sango was badly limping as a result of her injured leg, while Zanshin's left arm was barely functional. Even so, both showed their courage and fortitude, instantly closing back in to engage as soon as they were able. Zanshin struck first, slamming a hard right kick into Sango's ribs, but amazingly, the blow was not strong enough to knock her down. Instead, she actually managed to wrap her arms around his leg, keeping it pinned to her chest and leaving him vulnerable. Then she drilled him in the face with a kick of her own, and once again both warriors toppled to the earth.
"No, this can't be!" Zanshin thought as he flailed on the ground, fighting to recover."My own strength cannot be failing!" But he had to admit that was the case. For the first time, the accursed woman had actually bested him at his own field. His injuries and blood loss had simply become too severe. His demon strength was no longer reliable as a clear advantage.
Muttering all manner of curses as he rose from the ground, Zanshin angrily stumbled away to the bushes where he had seen Sango's sword fall. For the first time ever, he was actively seeking out a weapon in a fight with a single enemy, rather than trust his own body to win the day, and the mere thought of him needing to do so was infuriating to no end, but he was realistic enough to know it was needed."No matter. A win with a weapon is still victory. And no one here shall live to tell this tale."
Looking back as he headed for the bushes, he could see Sango through his severely blurred vision, who was now active as well, but still not on her feet. Instead, she hobbled and crawled along the ground, pulling herself forward in the opposite direction, with no clear destination in sight.
"She's trying to get away from me!" Zanshin happily thought to himself upon reaching the bushes and starting to dig through them."All Sango can do now is flee! She's even willing to leave that Monk behind to his fate. Well, I suppose a weapon wasn't needed after all. But since I'm already here, there is no reason not to retrieve it."
Sure enough, at that very moment, Zanshin found his prize. Pulling the thick foliage aside, he finally found the sword stuck in the ground and snatched it up with his one good arm. Then he turned back to Sango, who was still staggering along the ground away from him as fast as she could manage. "Perhaps this will be satisfying after all. I'm going to enjoy hunting down that wench with her own weapon."
With his vision and movement still hindered from blood loss, injury, and fatigue, catching up with Sango, even at her own crippled pace, wasn't easy. But Zanshin was up to the task. He happily shuffled after her, the final moments of her soon-to-be last stand already playing out in his mind. He was closing in now, relishing the thought of a satisfying kill on his cowardly fleeing opponent from behind.
As he closed in, Zanshin could hear Sango's panicked heavy breathing and practically sensed her desperation as she continued to crawl away, moving surprisingly fast now, leaving a heavy blood trail from her injured leg and still drizzling forehead. She was closing in on a heavy patch of tall weeds, perhaps hoping they would provide some manner of concealment from her pursuing enemy, but Zanshin was not concerned. He could tell she would never make it there in time.
"Sango!" He shouted triumphantly. "Such cowardess is unbecoming of you! Show some honor and accept your fate!"
His demand went unanswered as Sango continued to surge away, finally crawling into the weed patch. But it made no difference, Zanshin had already closed in and was merely seconds away. The weeds would provide no concealment of her form at this distance. Raising the sword up, he smiled through his ruined face as he prepared for the blow...only to be the receiving end of a heavy blow himself, a crushing blunt strike from behind against his right shoulder that nearly knocked him off his feet. It wasn't quite enough to send him to the ground, but was enough to get him to drop the sword.
Amazed, Zanshin turned to see who had delivered the strike, and shocked to find it was none other then Miroku, the mangled monk who up to that moment appeared to be completely out of action. His appearance at this point hardly looked any better. He was barely standing and completely without the use of one arm. The heavy rock he had picked up in his right hand was the only thing that could give his attacks any level of power. That and pure determination, determination to do anything he could to keep his beloved slayer alive. With nothing on his mind but buying Sango as much time as he could give her, he raised the rock in his hand and took another swing.
It wasn't anywhere nearly enough. "No chance Monk!" Zanshin shouted as he deftly evaded the strike and countered with a knee blow into Miroku's already crippled ribs, and then followed it up with a strike to his injured knee. Even after his fight with Sango, the injuries the monk had sustained were still fresh in mind, and he knew exactly where to focus. The blow to his injured knee sent Miroku straight to the ground and he barely had enough time to look up before a hard downward punch into his face planted him hard into the turf, and this time he wasn't getting up.
Enraged, Zanshin quickly turned back to the task at hand, snatching Sango's dropped sword off the ground and heading back to her. "Miroku's intervention may have been a miraculous display of resilience, but it changed nothing," he thought to himself. Sango was still close by and moving too slowly to get away. Zanshin was already closing in and relishing every moment of pursuit, knowing full well nothing and no one could stop him this time.
Finally Zanshin was close enough. Towering over his fleeing opponent, the mighty demon raised the sword up with both hands, turned it downward, and prepared to thrust it into Sango's body for a fatal strike."This is it! I've really got her now,"Zanshin thought as he thrust the sword down at Sango with all his might."I hope Miokru has a good view!
But it didn't happen. There was no death cry, and no grusome sound of metal piercing flesh. Instead there was only the sound of metal striking bone as Sango got her hands around the Hiraikotsu lying in the weeds; her original destination the whole time. At the very last second, she took hold of the weapon, rolled over, and pushed it up just in time to deflect the oncoming blade. Then she swung the powerful boomerang into Zanshin's exposed legs. The sword dropped from his hands as his feet were swept out from under him and he fell flat on his back.
Zanshin was in panic now. Desperately he sat up and reached for the sword with his left hand, knowing it was his only chance of survival, but Sango was too quick.
"Who's the coward now, Zanshin?!" Sango shouted as she slammed the Hiraikotsu down on his hand with massive force. Zanshin bellowed in pain as his left hand was crushed into a mangled wreck. "Now feel my fury!"
Sango swung her weapon back up, catching Zanshin in the head with a devastating upward swing. The blow sent him tumbling end over end along the ground until he finally halted sprawled out in a collapsed heap half a dozen feet away. For several seconds, all Sango could do was stare in amazement at what she had done. Slowly, her the adrenaline faded and her senses returned to normal."That was it!"She thought, panting heavily and leaning on the Hiraikotsu for support."That HAD to be it! There's no way he could possibly-"
But at that very moment, her heart sank as she suddenly detected movement. Zanshin was rising up again. It was as though he had read her mind, and her own thoughts had jolted him to life as an act of defiance. One he got up to his knees, Sango could see the results of her efforts. Zanshin was a complete wreck. His face was an unrecognizable mess of tangled flesh, while his crushed hand hung limply on the crippled left arm at his side. And yet he was still rising. Against all odds, he was coming back into the fight.
Sango's mood changed from resigned exhaustion to pure rage. "You want more Zanshin?" she shouted as yanked the Hiraikotsu up from the ground and pulled it up for a throw. "Fine! I'll cleave through your sou-"
"YAAAAAHHHHHHH!"
Zanshin bellowed out an incoherent battle cry as he suddenly lunged off the ground, taking Sango completely by surprise. Before she had a chance to make the throw, he wrapped his arms around her waist, lifted her high off the ground, and then sent her crashing back down to the earth. Sango was caught off guard and could do nothing but gasp as she dropped the Hiraikotsu and felt the impact of her spine slamming into ground.
For a brief moment, the field fell silent as both warriors lay collapsed on each other. Zanshin was so battered by this point that it took several seconds for him to proceed. Eventually, he moved into a sitting mounted position over the fallen Sango, using his weight to keep her pinned beneath him. Meanwhile, Sango groaned and shook her head as she tried to sit up, only to be knocked right back to the ground from a downward punch into her collar bone.
"Thought you had me bested, Sango?" Zanshin shouted as he pulled back his one good hand for another strike. "I'm going to beat the life out of you!" Another blow was launched, this time aimed directly at Sango's face, which she narrowly avoided by jerking her head to the side. Zanshin grunted in pain as his fist slammed directly into hard ground.
Zanshin's punches were remarkably slow and sluggish, but Sango knew it made no difference. One more solid hit and she'd be done for. Desperately she squirmed and struggled, doing her best to wiggle out from under him, but it was no use. He simply outweighed her by too much and there was no way to get free. Zanshin sensed the end was near as he threw out another blow, which Sango barely managed to deflect out of the way with her own arm.
Zanshin was annoyed by her continued resistance, but knew it only delayed the inevitable. There was no way Sango could keep avoiding his hits from her position. She was completely pinned beneath him, and while her arms were unrestrained, there was nothing she could do to fight back except throw weak, inconsequential punches upward."There's no way she can get out of this,"he thought happily as he slowly cocked his right arm back for another strike. "You put on a good show, Sango, but now it's time to face your.."
But at that very moment, Sango stole the initiative with one final surprise. As Zanshin raised his fist back, she suddenly pulled a poison container from her waistband, broke it open by smacking it against the ground, and hurled the contents directly into his face. The effects were immediate as the deadly venom soaked through his multiple open wounds. Both of Zanshin's hands shot up to cover his affected face as he staggered backward off Sango and then dropped, rolling along the ground and screaming in agony.
Sango took a few moments to recover, then she quickly pulled herself up as fast as her crippled condition allowed, and soon snatched the Hiraikotsu up as well, quickly pulling it back for another attempted throw. Hindered by blood loss and limbs that felt like blocks of wood, this took considerable effort, and enough time for Zanshin to see what she was doing. Amazingly, he managed to rise back up and storm toward her, swinging wildly and doing anything he could to break up her actions.
It wasn't enough. His vision was blurred glob and the pain was simply unbearable. Casting her own ailments and condition aside, Sango focused all her efforts into one final throw, and with a triumphant shout, she let the giant boomerang fly. Zanshin had just enough time to see it coming, but could do nothing to stop it. The Hiraikotsu plowed through him at full speed, quickly shredding his decimated body and tearing him apart. Zanshin let out one final scream as the demon spirits within it cleaved through his soul, which was quickly silenced as his inert corpse disintegrated upon hitting the ground.
Sango watched the whole thing play out in in a battered stupor, trying to comprehend everything that occurred. The entire forest around her resembled a war zone after a battle from opposing armies. Blood was everywhere, while broken and worn out weapons littered the field. After everything that had happened so far, she could hardly believe she'd won. That Zanshin really would never be coming back. It didn't seem real. But it was.
"I've done it!" Sango thought happily. "After all this time I've really done it! Zanshin is gone! After all this time, I've finally-OH FUCK!"
Sango's train of thought was abruptly brought to a halt as she realized the Hiraikotsu was still in flight and now careening back to her. Too badly weakened to attempt a catch, Sango was forced to dive out of the way, narrowly avoiding death from her own weapon as the giant boomerang slammed into ground where she had been standing just seconds before evasion.
Groaning in misery, Sango slowly rolled onto her back and lay there with her arms outstretched, taking in all that had occurred. Then she started laughing."Real smooth Sango! Taken out by your own weapon at the moment of victory. What a humiliating death that would have been."
Sango had avoided that fate, but the situation was still grim. Blood was still flowing from her wounds. Both she and Miroku were badly crippled and stranded in the middle of nowhere. No one knew where they were. Kirara was still missing and there was no telling if she was coming back. All of their rations, water, and medical supplies had been on her when she was driven away...
Sighing heavily, Sango pushed the thoughts aside."I just defeated Zanshin. After so much traveling and so many obstacles, our quest is finally complete! Can't I take in a little pleasure from that? Just for a little bit? But how to celebrate?"
Sango smilled weakly as she stared up at the sky and clouds about her, piercing through the treetops in the forest, as the Saimyosho wasps that had been hovering above the participants during the battle now flew off to an unknown destination, perhaps to inform Naraku of Zanshin's demise. It certainly was a beautiful view.
"I think I'll just lay here for a while..."