In order to earn some money to cover traveling expenses, the Searchers enter Tiger of the Wind in a monster tournament. He breezes through the competition until the final match pits him against a fast-talking and overly friendly Hare. Although he gets the upper hand, Hare tricks him into lowering his guard and turning his back, then takes him out. Though this hardly seems fair, the cash prize for second place isn't that bad, and when Tiger tries to attack Hare at the podium, Genki and the others rush to hold him back.
Hare turns around and offers to make amends by paying for the group to stay at the city's finest inn for the evening, as well as a massive dinner. But when they wake up the next morning, they discover that he swiped their money and took off, leaving them with the bill!
Furious, Tiger leads the group in tracking the Con Artist down, using his sense of smell to lead them right to the rabbit. Right as Hare's crossing a bridge, Tiger unleashes a powerful Blizzard, causing the ropes holding it up to fray and snap. Hare barely manages to grab one of the ropes, hanging on until Tiger appears overhead. He pleads for help; Tiger refuses, declaring that he should just let him fall. But when the rope breaks, Tiger races down and saves him anyway.
They return to the inn and pay off the debt. After hearing about their quest to stop Moo, Hare asks to join them. Tiger isn't too happy, but despite his protests, Hare ends up joining anyway.
This episode contains examples of:
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Played With. Hare begging to be spared during their match turns out to be a trick; when Tiger destroys the bridge and he's left hanging from a rope, his pleading is briefly mixed with outrage after Tiger states he should just let him fall.
- Break the Haughty: Tiger's ego leads him to completely dismiss Genki's advice about watching the other matches, as well as dismiss his final opponent as a threat. Big mistake.
- Brutal Honesty: Tiger's advice when the group's discussing their money troubles at the start:Tiger: "Steal it." [Beat as everyone stares at him] "If I need something, I just take it."
- Can't Hold His Liquor: Tiger gets incredibly drunk at the inn, declaring Hare to be a good friend... in the original, anyway.
- Con Artist: Hare shows himself to be one when he tries tricking the group.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: All of Tiger's battles until the final match.
- Don't You Dare Pity Me!: When the others are praising Tiger for doing so well in the tourney, he snaps at them, seemingly interpreting their praise as hollow since he 'only' came in second.
- The Dreaded: The locals are rather horrified at having the infamous bandit Tiger of the Wind participating in their tourney.
- Easily Forgiven:
- Suezo, like Genki and Tiger, starts off hostile towards Hare when he approaches them to apologize for how he beat the latter. But when he declares that he wants to take them to dinner, Suezo immediately changes his tune and starts nuzzling him.
- In the original Japanese, Tiger loosens up once he gets drunk and starts teasing Hare. Averted in the English Dub, where he remains suspicious of him the whole time.
- Despite his attempt to steal the group's prize money and ditch them, Hare is able to join the Searchers without much protest after setting the record straight. Though Tiger's far from thrilled at the prospect of having him tag along.
- Dine and Dash: Played With; Hare has the money to cover the bill for the inn, but sneaks out so that Genki's group will be delayed when they can't pay on their own.
- Eat Dirt, Cheap: The expensive inn caters to Golem's tastes by serving him tubs full of rocks and a huge metal mug full of sand.
- Establishing Character Moment: Hare's first shown playing to the crowd, blowing kisses and hamming it up before taking Tiger by one of the paws and cheerfully introducing himself.
- Fartillery: In the original version, Hare knocks out Tiger of the Wind this way for some Irony points. The English Dub changed this to a sucker punch.
- Fatal Flaw: Tiger's Pride keeps biting him in the tail throughout the episode. Not that Hare can say much better, mind, as he ultimately lets his Greed get the better of him.
- Flexible Tourney Rules: The folks running the tournament don't seem to care about Hare's fake surrender or trickery. Of course, given that he was fighting Tiger of the Wild, a known outlaw, that may have contributed to the decision.
- Foreshadowing: Holly notices that the Magic Stone seems to be reacting to Hare, which prompts her suggestion to trust him. By the end of the episode, she's convinced that the stone was letting them know they'd found another ally.
- Heartwarming Orphan: Hare attempts to invoke and exploit this during his apology, casually mentioning during his begging that "Did I mention I was an orphan?"
- Heel–Face Turn: Hare, rounding out a three-episode streak of outlaws changing their ways after encountering the Searchers.
- Heroism Won't Pay the Bills: At the start of the episode, the group's down to a single gold coin.
- Hypocrisy Nod: Suezo points out in the end how Tiger and Hare's arguing is like "The pot calling the kettle black."
- I Surrender, Suckers: How Hare beats Tiger in their final match.
- Kids Hate Vegetables: In order to save money, Holly suggests they stock up on vegetables. Genki, Mocchi, Tiger and Suezo all look unimpressed, with Suezo whining that he wants to go to a restaurant instead.
- Mirror Character: Several parallels are established between Tiger and Hare here: both are thieves with a penchant for bragging and whose pride in their respective strengths lead to them underestimating their opponents' ability to counter those strengths with their own skills.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: During their match, Hare gets Tiger to underestimate him this way.
- Playing Sick: When the group's puzzling out who should enter the tourney, Suezo immediately tries to Opt Out, then starts complaining about a 'stomachache'.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Tiger almost pulls this when Genki tells him that he's gotta learn to stop stealing if he's going to be a member of their team.
- Second Place Is for Losers: Even though the other Searchers are completely happy with the prize money for second place, Tiger's still sore over losing over such a cheap trick.
- Sore Loser: Tiger doesn't take too kindly to being tricked, and tries going after Hare during the award ceremony.
- Stunned Silence: The whole coliseum falls silent when Tiger of the Wind is introduced.
- Twinkle in the Eye: Hare gets one along with an Evil Grin when his fake surrender gambit works.
- Wall Run: Tiger runs down the canyon wall while rescuing Hare.
- What You Are in the Dark: Tiger races ahead of the others and catches up to Hare alone, giving him a chance to confront the rabbit by himself. While he has him literally hanging by a thread, he points out that he could just let him drop — the others wouldn't have to find out what happened. Yet when Hare actually falls, Tiger chooses on his own to save him, without needing Genki or anyone else there to keep him on the straight and narrow.
- Work Off the Debt: In order to pay off the expense of their rooms and the dinner, Golem is forced to stay at the inn cleaning dishes. When they bring Hare back, he pays off the debt, freeing Golem to rejoin his friends.
