That sure is a mouthful, and all while I'm still chewing on the sweet victory the United States just took a bite of in the midterms. It really was quite remarkable to wake up on the 4th to the news that the Democrats had taken both the house and the senate, with a slew of historical first-times to boot. Two years ago, Trump claimed he had a mandate to do all of the horrible things laid out for him in the Project 2025 document. Well, who has the mandate now? Black, Hispanic, LGBTQ, and women senators and house members, who are committed to helping their constituents over taking donations from the rich.
Still, there's a little bitterness in there as well, because voters have managed to disappoint me in OTHER ways. Several ballot initiatives against trans children have passed, because apparently there are still freaks out there who think we should be inspecting children's genitals on the off chance they might not have the ones presumed. I suppose I'm going to have to continue bullying these so called "progressives" into treating marginalized people with the respect and consideration they're due, huh?
Kuwabara and Yusuke are grimacing, the former asking how they're supposed to beat their opponents then. I don't know, Yusuke's tremendous LUCK generally carries these really impossible fights for him, so maybe these guys will end up giving themselves away at a critical moment or something.
As this dude's limbs fly, his decapitated head screams and waves a long, sharp tongue. His companion growls in irritation. Hiei says this is less fun than perhaps anticipated, and Kurama calmly asserts that if the friend of their victim tries to detain them any further, he's going to die. Said friend waves his own long tongue lolling out of his mouth, denying jokingly that he's detaining them at all. As a massive silhouette rises in the trees behind him with a great big eye, he says that's actually someone ELSE'S job.
Both Kurama and Hiei seem quite shocked at the sight of this weird creature, while its master talks it up as a fearless, tireless monster that feels no pain whatsoever. He then orders it to attack Kurama and Hiei and it extends its arms obediently, stretching them out to reach its opponents from its standing position, much like how Rinku was using his yo-yos.
Hiei and Kurama jump out of the way deftly, and the former slashes a stretched arm in the air, but he's forced to acknowledge that his sword has no effect whatsoever. The creature's master rants around his wagging forked tongue as he brags about the armor of this thing: it's been treated with "Devil's Unction" to fend off demonic aura. I don't know what that means, but it sounds impressive. He adds that Hiei's toothpick of a blade can't even hope to scratch it.
Kurama yells at him not to do it, darting around a tree trunk and leading the following creature's arm downward again.
The the one arm hit the other, a crack has appeared, exposing wiring, I suppose? Hiei lands in a crouch on the ground, and spies the arms swinging around to shoot straight at Kurama now, calling out to him. Kurama looks fully aware, facing the threat head on, whip in hand, but when the arms SLAM into the ground where he's standing, the creature's master yells victoriously that THAT did it. He encourages his creature to mash Kurama up good, the concept of overkill clearly unfamiliar to him.
He's absolutely SHOCKED to find that Kurama has not been mashed like a banana bound for a quick bread, being held gingerly in the middle by both arms. The end of his whip appears to be embedded in the crack created in one of the arms by their violent collision before, and Kurama is holding the handle almost like the end of a leash. The creature's master stutters in denial, asking himself how Kurama could not be mashed right now, I guess. Kurama offers the critique that this thing should have been designed to feel pain, because it might have recoiled before Kurama had the time to do what he did if it could have felt it. What DID Kurama do?
Kurama asks the FORMER master of the creature to choose between submission or death. If I could make a suggestion for the former?
Meanwhile, back in the stadium arena, Ichigaki is watching from the sidelines serenely as the crowd behind him yells for his team to run down the opposition and corner/kill them. The mustached man and kid with fair hair rush forward, the latter slinging a battery of spinning rings. Yusuke and Kuwabara try to dodge, darting through the air every which way, and if the yelping is any indication, they're failing to some degree. Mustache swings his arm, and an invisible blow catches Kuwabara in the side, then in the cheek. Yusuke groans as he's hit by a similar attack to the front, not touched at all by the man in front of him. The "mystery" teammate glares out of her mask, annoyed that these boys are focused on the visible razor rings and not quite perceiving the invisible attacks, while their foes are coordinated to precision. Come on, be honest girl. You expected this.
Flipped over in midair, Yusuke springs off one hand, alarmed by seeing the guy with the scar approach him. Scar Guy thrusts out his hand for that Hound Claw attack again, and Yusuke begins to utter a regretful exclamation when the "mystery" teammate shoves him out of the way with a well-timed kick.
The "mystery" teammate skids away from the action. Koto announces that this masked fighter took the attack for their teammate, and she's starting the count since they were knocked clear out of bounds. Scar Guy thinks nothing but kill thoughts.
Meanwhile, the fight continues for everyone else, Mustache and Fair Hair lunging for Kuwabara and Yusuke, the latter of which is still getting to his feet. Kuwabara yells at their opponents to snap out of it, asserting they don't want to do this. They too seem to have nothing but kill thoughts, and don't so much as pause in their pursuit. Kuwabara is forced onto a knee to dodge more flying rings.
Ichigaki is silently amused from his sideline seat, assured that what his little puppets want doesn't matter a single lick. His "Blood-Slaver Nodes" LITERALLY enslave the blood, and through the blood, the brain. He's confident there's no talking his team out of their homicidal rage.
While Kuwabara curses this whole situation, Yusuke knows they're not the REAL enemy. Nevertheless, Mustache is still coming at Kuwabara with empty intent to kill, and is about to make one of his telekinetic gestures again when he's kicked off-balance by the "mystery" teammate jumping back into the battle.
Though she's no longer masked and far less a mystery NOW.
While the three enslaved warriors crouch in momentary immobility due to the unexpected strike on them, the young woman snaps at the dumbfounded Yusuke and Kuwabara not to hesitate, asking if they think they'll save the souls of their opponents by LOSING. The boys don't even answer, just grimace.
Koto declares to the crowd that the no-longer-masked fighter was up at the 4-count, and now they know she's a young woman. This isn't the only surprise awaiting everyone.
As this person bounces past a shocked Koto and off the platform, we see it's the fork-tongued former master of the demon fighting Kurama and Hiei in the forest. There's a bone sticking out of his NECK too, so he might very well be dead. He crashes into the wall (which still has Zeru's outline burned into it, by the way), and Koto announces that it was one of Ichigaki's team that's fallen from the sky. Ah, I see why he was out there trying to distract Kurama and Hiei now. Not gonna lie, it seemed pretty random, but I didn't remember his bland ass from when we saw Ichigaki's team before.
The creature itself is speeding down through the stands, straight through the throngs of demons watching. Ichigaki stares in alarm while Yusuke spots Kurama and Hiei leading the creature. The former says that the trash they threw right into the middle of the ring told them EVERYTHING: the three humans on Ichigaki's team submitted to an experiment to save their dying teacher, and had no idea they'd be turned into killing machines. This much we've gathered, thanks Kurama. Kuwabara exclaims that THIS is what his dream was about, as if understanding has only come on him NOW. I guess we've got to pretend the smart one gives 100% of the insight, for some reason.
He DOES have something new to add, though - Ichigaki was the one to make the dying master sick to begin with. The three victims of this scheme look on blankly, no doubt unable to comprehend this earthshattering revelation. Yusuke and Kuwabara react with the appropriate amount of snarling indignation, though, their ire toward Ichigaki renewed. He just performs another of those phlegmy chuckles.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I love the fact that Genkai's baby-fresh face is revealed in the middle of a battle where NO ONE will have the time to actually discuss it. Oddly, it is more obvious than EVER that this IS Genkai, because the younger face has the same proportions and is framed with the same hair as the older one, and you can easily translate one into the other. Though this will require some explanation, since old folks aren't usually aging backwards unless their name is Benjamin Button, that long talk will have to be put off. It preserves the mystery of what's going on here, and raises more questions than it answers. A very interesting stretching technique, to be sure.
Funny that Kurama and Hiei actually WERE participating in the same fight that the rest of their team was fighting on the INSIDE of the stadium. They just happened to be split up and the former half of it didn't have any spectators. What's curious about THIS is that despite Ichigaki's claim to believe that humans can make perfectly capable fighters, he sent his demon members of the team to preoccupy the demon members of Team Urameshi to keep them OUT of the arena. Now, I'm aware that this is presumably so that he could make that bet that would nab him more HUMAN subjects for his experimentation, and Hiei and Kurama would be a bit useless in this regard, it still does indicate that there's a part of him still under the impression his human warriors wouldn't be able to stand up to at least THESE specific ones.
I like the last thought Ichigaki has in the chapter too - it indicates that the MACHINE part of the "killing machine" he's trying to make humans into is what's most valuable to him in a warrior. If there are no pesky emotions or motivations involved in the process of fighting, he presumes he can make the task more efficient, with less background interference. The question then becomes what humans have that can make them great fighters when their will and emotions are removed that demons DON'T.
Or, maybe Ichigaki just found it difficult to find ways to convince demons to be his guinea pigs, lol.
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