Gouki and Kurama is the seventh episode of season 1 of YuYu Hakusho. It aired on November 21, 1992 in Japan and April 6, 2002 in the United States.
Plot
The fight between Yusuke and Gouki continues. Yusuke was completely helpless against him without his Spirit Gun, and as Gouki was about to choke him to death, lights came out around the forest and a familiar voice can be heard. Thinking that the villagers are coming, Gouki escapes and leaves Yusuke alone, who fell unconcious from all the wounds. When he finally regained his conciousness, he founds himself in his room and his mother approaches him and asks if he's alright, then hits him hard in the head thinking that he got into a fight again, and starts to cry, worrying that he might get himself killed. Botan enters the room, and Yusuke learns from Atsuko that Botan is the one who saved him from his fight with Gouki, and brought him back to his house for treatment. Then Botan whispers to him that Koenma gave her a human form and that is the reason why she can be seen by other people and help Yusuke in his missions. Astuko leaves the room and prepares some food, and the two began a conversation about the mission. He asked her how she found him, and she introduced him to a new Spirit Detective Item, the Demon Compass, and told him that she used it to find Gouki. She also informed him that he only have one week to do the mission. Watching from the Spirit World, Koenma began yelling at the screen telling Yusuke to hurry up and started thinking about the consequences if he wouldn't be able to retrieve the three artifacts in time. Back on Human World, while Atsuko is eating, a news about four children that had fallen comatosed in a town not far away from their place breaks out in the television. Yusuke and Botan overhears the news, and he asks her how long is the digestion process of the souls in Gouki's stomach, and replies that maybe it takes a day. He prepares to leave, so she gave him another Spirit Detective Item, the Concentration Ring. When Atsuko returns to the room with some tea for both of them, they have already gone into the mission.
Gokui brutally beating Yusuke
Gouki is seen playing with the Orb of Baast, and a kid returns it to him, but took her soul afterwards. Yusuke calls him out, and Gouki transforms into his demon form again. Yusuke charges and lands a punch on his stomach, but it hurt him instead because his skin was rock hard. Gouki tries to hit him but misses, and Yusuke tries to pierce his skin with a giant stick, but fails to do so. Gouki uses this to his advantage and throws him into the ground while clinging on the stick. Yusuke is getting desperate and thinks about using his Spirit Gun, but opts not to use it yet after thinking about it carefully. Gouki kicks him and stomps his feet on him, enjoying his screams of pain, until Botan throws something on his back, catching his attention. Botan runs for her life, then runs on Yusuke's side. Gouki grabs Yusuke first, opening his mouth as he prepares to devour him, but then Yusuke pokes a wooden stick into his mouth, leaving it open. Yusuke fires his Spirit Gun into Gouki's open mouth, defeats him, freeing all the children's souls and retrieving the Orb of Baast in the process.
On their way home, the Demon Compass suddenly reacts, indicating that there is a demon nearby. He encounters Kurama, and he told Yusuke that he doesn't have any intention of fighting and asked him a favor to give him three days and he would gladly return to him the Forlorn Hope. When they returned home, Botan treated his wounds and warns him about the incident earlier, but Yusuke tells her that something tells him he should trust Kurama. Suddenly Atsuko barges in into the room inviting them for dinner. Yusuke complains about her not knocking before entering the room and tells that they're on the middle of an important conversatiom, but Atsuko retorts that what kind of conversation can't be held around her, and Yusuke replies that it wasn't like what she was thinking about. Kurama is then seen from the opposite building, watching over them.
The next day, Botan leaves to see Koenma and ask for more information about the Forlorn Hope, and tells Yusuke to go to his meeting to Kurama ang be careful. He meets Kurama in the hospital, and leads him to Room 501, where Shiori Minamino, Kurama's human mother, is confined. On their conversation, Yusuke heard her call him Shuichi which confused him, for all he know his name is Kurama.
They are next seen on the hospital's rooftop, and Kurama begins to explain things to Yusuke. Shuichi is his human name, and his truest name is Yoko. He tells him about his past, that he was a spirit fox, gaining demon powers over the hundreds of years that he lived, and in time he grew bored and past his hours learning the art of breaking codes and seals, but 15 years ago he made a mistake and was severely injured by his pursuer, and with the last energy he had he escaped into the Human World and became the child of a human family, origanally intending to recover his Spirit Energy, and planned that he would escape after 10 years, but as he was about to escape his mother fell ill. That is also the same time when Gouki and Hiei appeared, and he remembered the powers of the Forlorn Hope. Then he told Yusuke to let him use the Forlorn Hope to save his human mother's life, then he would accept his punishment. Yusuke asks him why would a monster do that for a human, and Kurama replies that maybe he is guilty, and maybe he feels like he is one of those mother-devouring creatures because he caused her great pains and feels like he broke her spirit and maybe in someway he caused her disease. Yusuke asks him why is he telling him these things, and he replied that maybe he just needed someone to know and he could tell that Yusuke would trust him. Suddenly a nurse barges out from the door, alerting him about his mother's condition. His mother is already on the critical stage, and she is about to die that night.
Kurama wishing his mother back with the Forlorn Hope
The moon is at its full that night, and Kurama decided that he would use it already. Yusuke asks him if he knows what would it ask for in return, and Kurama affirms and reveals to him that it is life. Meanwhile, on the Spirit World, Botan also gets the same information and leaves to inform Yusuke. Kurama uses the Forlorn Hope, and it reflected an image of his mother, and Yusuke suddenly exclaimed telling him to hold on a second and there's gotta be some other way to resolve the problem. The Forlorn Hope began doing its thing but then Yusuke interrupts and puts his hand on top of it, just like what Kurama is doing. He told the Forlorn Hope to take his life instead and Kurama told him that it doesn't make sense since it's his wish, but Yusuke replied that it also doesn't make sense saving his mother's life if she's going to spend the rest of her life mourning his death, remembering her own mother while she was mourning over his own death. A bolt of light strikes out from the Forlorn Hope as Botan is approaching their place, and both of them are seen face down onto the floor. Kurama gets up first, and rans away to see his mother, and Botan arrives to see Yusuke still face down onto the floor. Yusuke gets up, glad that he's still alive and realizes that if he would have died his mother would be the one to be sad, but on the better side of things, he managed to retrieve the Forlorn Hope. It spoke again and said that because of their good intentions it decided to grant the wish without anything in return. Kurama was welcomed with the good news that his mother's disease is gone. Now Yusuke have only one more artifact to go, and he celebrated with Botan, and watching from Spirit Wolrd is Koenma, annoyed with the fact that the two are celebrating not knowing that the last artifact is going to be ten times harder to get since Hiei is the one have it he's no ordinary demon.
Characters in Order of Appearance
Trivia
- First appearance of Shiori Minamino
- Last appearance of Gouki
- Yusuke calls the Forlorn Hope "Mirror Guy".
- In the Japanese version, the mirror only drained half of the life force from both Yusuke and Kurama to fulfill the wish.
Gallery
| e v | Spirit Detective Saga | |
| Episodes: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | |
| Anime: | Season 1 | Season 2 | Season 3|Season 4 | |
| Manga: | List of Chapters | |