YuYu Hakusho Manga: 050 The Final Battle: Two On Two!!

The final battle isn't even in sight for me. It seems like every single weekend there's another one to fight; a new rally to attend, a new protest at which to wave a new sign, a new solidarity coalition meeting. I'm burning out fast, because I wasn't built for this. My free time should be filled with gardening and writing and reading, and sewing little plush toy cats for my niece. Solitary, soft things. THAT'S what I'm most suited for. 

But no, my fascist fuck-ass government got me out here all day every day screaming at them. At least I can say we've got them outnumbered though.

Unlike these poor idiots. 

Kuwabara at last collapses onto his face, and Yusuke gets onto his hands and knees, a look of utter horror on his face through the blood pouring out of his nose. As he gulps and glugs in the midst of the nosebleed, Yusuke's only thought is of how strong Toguro is. Toguro himself rushes forward, declaring how disappointed he is that they didn't turn out to be the fun he had hoped they would. Up in the box, Tarukane laughs manically, saliva flying out of his mouth, while he yells that this is the ticket and the bet is finally in the bag for him. He certain he's won the day, and Yukina expresses distress at his glee, still restrained by guards behind him. Tarukane doesn't notice, yelling at the monitor below his box containing Sakyo that HE should have cut HIS losses. It's not clear if Sakyo's silence in response is a deliberate refusal to rise to the bait or if he just can't hear him. They're separated by that floor and the pane of glass, after all. 

How big was the gulf between the Toguros' power and that of their underlings? Yusuke is really getting his ass kicked!

Tarukane praises Toguro for his brutality, encouraging him to draw it out, to TORTURE the boys, because he wants them to suffer and die for the fun they've had at his expense. I imagine YUKINA would have a better claim to this attitude toward HIM. But she doesn't look angry or like she's thinking on revenge - she just looks away in sympathetic agony as Yusuke is punched yet again by Toguro. 

Her chin is yanked back around by Tarukane's meaty hand, though, and he demands that she continue to watch. He's riding a serious manic sadistic high, telling her that this is how it will go for ANYONE who tries to rescue her, just like THE LAST TIME. He doesn't elaborate but asks if she remembers, and she just looks at him in horror and heartbreak. 

Kuwabara is still lying on the floor, concerned about how things are going black for him. He does seem to notice some non-native thoughts to him, though, and presumes that they're Yukina's. It appears to be a memory of Tarukane holding a talisman out to her with the comment that he hears Ice Maidens burn up at their mere touch. She's restrained by guards, just like in the present, and despite her pleas for him not to, Tarukane proceeds to press the charm onto her arm that one of the guards had exposed. He laughs while she screams, and he demands that she cry, shed tears, make it RAIN crystals for him. 

The next part of the memory seems to shock Kuwabara, a voice promising to get Yukina out of there. 

Empathizing with a female character while not being one of the mains? I can see why his liberation attempt didn't work already.

The memory cuts to the same guy declaring that today is the day, because Tarukane is allegedly out of the country and security is light. Yukina hesitates at first, on the grounds that she's worried about what will happen to him when they find out she's gone, but he urges her not to worry about that. By the very next panel they are surprised and stopped, Tarukane and a line of faceless guards flanking him. Tarukane says he had suspected as much, and orders the would-be savior's fellow security detail to waste him. 

At least it was a quicker demise than those of her current attempted rescuers. 

Back in the present, Yusuke is thrown against the wall and slides down to sit at the base as Toguro slowly shuffles toward him. Toguro again expresses his disappointment that Yusuke turned out to be so small and fragile. He pauses, though, when he hears a voice behind him expressing some disbelief. It's Kuwabara, who clarifies that he's speaking about Tarukane being HUMAN, grimacing at his own question about whether a man could really DO all this. 

Toguro observes with interest that Kuwabara's aura has refreshed and is even growing. Kuwabara tells him to step aside, because Toguro isn't the monster he's after today, wanting instead the fat ugly pig behind the glass. Tarukane asks Kuwabara if he's talking about HIM, as though that description could be for ANYONE else, but it's a rhetorical question. The rich sadist announces Kuwabara has no chance, but he's welcome to try. Then Tarukane points at the CHILD, ordering Toguro to finish him off like he might command a dog to attack. Arms crossed, Toguro defers to his orders, and apologizes to Kuwabara flatly. Kuwabara yells for him to get out of his way again.

Awww, all he needed was a little radicalization. 

Toguro thrusts out a palm, shoving Kuwabara back with such force that he almost skids into the wall next to Yusuke. He's still on his feet and, judging by his determined growl, FULL of energy. Regardless, Toguro smiles and calls all this wasted effort, because he could parry Kuwabara's slashes all day. Kuwabara growls again, this time in frustration, as Yusuke stutters his name. He bids Yusuke to listen in a hurry, saying that ONE thing might work against this guy. 

Tarukane insists that playtime is over, and urges Toguro to splatter the kids all over the walls, no doubt picturing that scene with his deceased pet earlier. Toguro placidly agrees to comply, holding up his brother's already remorphing body, which is transforming once more into a sword. Back with Yusuke and Kuwabara, the former hisses at the latter that his plan is crazy, because Kuwabara's toast if they do it. Kuwabara snaps that this is FINE by him, because he's not going to lose, at least not in this cage-match way. He pleads with Yusuke before he steps back out from the wall, holding his Aura Sword in a defensive pose as Toguro approaches once more. Some of the elder Toguro's hair is coming out close to the hilt of the sword he's formed, and I don't know why that makes me uniquely uncomfortable, but here we are.

Kuwabara charges with a battle roar, Aura Sword point-first. Toguro calls this a suicide charge and is more than happy to accommodate for it, raising his sword!brother over his head and promising to cleave Kuwabara straight in two with one stroke. 

From the wall, Yusuke points his shining index finger. 

A little extra thrust goes a long way. Don't read any double-entendres into that.

Both he and Kuwabara collapse, allegedly out. ALLEGEDLY. The two lying side by side really highlights how MASSIVE Toguro is - it's really quite comical.

Inside his box, Tarukane is sweating bullets. A smug (is he really any other way?) Sakyo says the game is over, and he's won sixty-six trillion 270 billion,  which he openly plans to collect at the end of the month. I'm guessing they're not at the BEGINNING of the month, because once his esteemed guests all disappear from their monitors and are replaced by static, Tarukane has a looming dread of full-on bankruptcy. He calls for Sakashita to start up the helicopter, because he's leaving with Yukina right now. He's maintained enough delusion that he's already convincing himself that there's no need for him to worry, as long as he still has the means to produce his precious Tears of Ice. But his self-comforting rhetoric is interrupted by someone calling him "fatso" and demanding he turn around. 

It's our boy Hiei, who has already silently knocked out every single guard and other person in the room, including Sakashita. Yukina is looking at the back of his head with wide-eyed nervousness, though his violent attitude is focused entirely on the Tarukane household, angrily repeating what he heard about Tarukane keeping Yukina trapped with talismans. He advances on a freaking out Tarukane, saying that this explains why his Evil Eye ability wasn't able to find her. It was Tarukane's carelessness in bringing her out of her talisman cage that allowed Hiei to actually detect her. 

Nobody beats Hiei's response speed, it seems. He should be a paramedic. 

While Tarukane is rocketed across the room, a trail of blood flowing after him, Hiei says he won't kill the FORMER rich man; Yukina is worth WAY MORE than his life. 

Yukina stutters a thank you to Hiei, but HAS to ask who he is, and at first he's frozen at the frank question. Dude, you didn't prepare for her asking the most OBVIOUS question?? He airily claims to be a friend of the boys in the arena below, who appear to be recovering, Yusuke standing over Kuwabara as he sits up. I guess he wasn't a goner for taking a blast of Yusuke's Reigun after all. Convenient. 

Yukina bustles off with a cry that they NEED her, as good an excuse as any to leave behind the stranger so reticent to actually identify himself. Hiei just kinda hangs out after this encounter, looking thoughtfully at the ceiling. 

In the arena, Yusuke asks Kuwabara if he's still in one piece, but doesn't wait for an answer before he also asks if Kuwabara's aware that he's a certified loony. They're offering certification for that? Gotta get me one of them. Kuwabara smiles through his fatigue, reminding Yusuke that he said he could adjust the strength of his Reigun blasts, and figured he could set it to "stun" rather than "kill". Yusuke turns to march off to the errand he had nearly forgotten: beating the shit out of Tarukane's blubbery ass. As he does, Yukina jogs up to him, beginning to ask if he's alright. He assures her he's fine, but Kuwabara could use some attention. 

Wingman'd.

Yukina apologizes for all the suffering Kuwabara endured because of her. Girl, you literally told him not to and he did it anyway - I don't think you should be blaming yourself for his bullheaded decisions! Kuwabara notes the burn scars on both her wrists where her sleeves have slid back, and morosely bids her not to apologize to a lousy human like him. Her hands recoil and she looks at him with a surprised and questioning stare. 

Kuwabara explains that what one of his kind did to her is unforgivable, though he tries to assure her (or himself perhaps) that they're not ALL like that. While Yusuke reacts with surprise to find that Hiei is in the observation room, having already clobbered the tub of shit that is Tarukane, Kuwabara also says that we humans try even though we might not amount to much a lot of the time. Kuwabara is wearing an agonized expression when he says that if that can count for anything, maybe Yukina won't hate ALL humans, a plea trailing on the end of his statement. There is the implication in there that he wouldn't blame her if she DID, though. 

Yukina responds with a gentle smile.

Why do I feel like she's basically just been designated as a beard?

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? The incident with a previous aspiring savior gives a little more dimension to Yukina's dedication to emotional control and adamant insistence that Kuwabara shouldn't try to rescue her. In addition, of course, to the primary purpose of giving Kuwabara the additional context he needs to get angry enough for an energy surge, Yukina's behavior up until this point is a bit clearer. Not that it was unclear before, but it does provide us with an explanation with how she ALSO was able to lock down and show strength in her captivity to the point where she had trained herself not to react with physically injured. The utter disaster of that first rescue attempt produced the double-whammy of taking away any hope she might have had at being saved eventually, and actively discouraging a possible savior. It was better for her to continue to suffer in silence for eternity than to have one more person die trying to get her out of there. 

This ties in well to her impulse to go and tend to Kuwabara/Yusuke once she had been freed by Hiei. While it can be chalked up to a feminine nurturing instinct (gag), more crucially she feels RESPONSIBLE for their injuries because they wouldn't have been there in the first place if she weren't in the situation. It doesn't matter that the fact she was imprisoned there wasn't her fault either, Yukina can't help but feel like any injury incurred in service to freeing her is directly tied to her. This is a common way that women and girls are socialized into making themselves a scapegoat for the sins of the people taking advantage of them, as opposed to how men and boys are socialized to make themselves scapegoats for not stopping or preventing the violence of those monsters they're forced to identify with.

Which, interestingly, is exemplified in Kuwabara here. He feels responsible for Yukina suffering too, but in a way that highlights his perceived similarity to the perpetrator. Because he and Tarukane share a humanity that can be VERY ugly in its manifestations, he feels like he needs to apologize for it, afraid that she might view him as the same by association. It's strange how this highlights the similarity between these two feelings by two different people on different sides of this situation, creating an understanding between them based on their shared guilt around the suffering of the other. Some might label that as a trauma-bond and it might not be the BEST thing, being based on gendered training that is meant to preserve the power of the absolute WORST of humankind and their systems, but it's kind of fascinating how YT managed to capture that so, so well. 

As I had been assured, there is an explanation for why Hiei was not the one to rescue Yukina, the talismans blocking that cool eye of his. No doubt it was yet ANOTHER reason why they practically needed to paper the whole room with them. I am still somewhat miffed that it took Koenma five whole years to get around to sending someone around to save her, but hopefully he makes it up to her in some way. 

Give her ALL the ice cream.