I'm a little mystified by the grammar of this title. Should there not be another comma between "gruesome" and "binding" to indicate another item on the list of descriptors? Or is "binding curse" a compound noun that is being described by "fearsome" and "gruesome"? I have to assume it's the latter, but it still LOOKS extremely strange to me. That lone comma, punctuation that you don't often see in chapter titles, sticks out like a sore thumb, and it's really bugging the part of my brain that always wanted to be an English teacher. I'm really hoping it doesn't distract me the whole time I'm editing this post.
Oh no, he's set me off again in a different direction. Hiei, WHO ARE YOU TALKING TO? Yourself or Yusuke? Somebody make it make sense!
This better not be my entire experience of this chapter.
Hiei asserts that Keiko WILL become his demon slave, and that there's no stopping it, despite Botan's continued efforts. Still, Yusuke remains stony-faced and placid, stating that this is what Hiei SAYS only. It's clear this masterful attitude is REALLY pissing Hiei off, who glares daggers before screaming that he KNOWS it. He then yells that Yusuke is fast, but his own speed is beyond imagination. To illustrate this point, he materializes here, there and everywhere around Yusuke, taunting him and claiming Yusuke can't even follow his after-image.
At a certain point, above and slightly behind Yusuke, Hiei starts to bear down on his opponent, declaring he's got him. It's somewhat premature - Yusuke glowers up at him as he makes his assault, no doubt because he gave away his position by shouting his head off.
A decent question, honestly.
Walking over to loom over Hiei's grunting downed form, Yusuke admits he's not much impressed by Hiei OR his evil eye. As Hiei pushes himself back up, wiping blood from the corner of his mouth by the back of his hand, Yusuke suggests that they finish this up already. Grinding his teeth and clawing the floor in frustration, Hiei curses it all, and whips off his duster/cloak when he stands, to reveal a bare chest. I'm just wondering WHY he's doing this when he says that he never thought he'd have to TRANSFORM to fight Yusuke, and his skin shades, splitting into a bunch of similar "gashes" to the one on Keiko's forehead.
Uh... It seems counter-intuitive to cover yourself in giant weak-spots, but you do you my guy.Apparently Yusuke and Hiei have moved somewhat far from where Botan is tending to the comatose Keiko - there are a number of boxes stacked between them and and the fighters now. Yususke looks at where a glow has sprung up behind those boxes, at Keiko's approximate location, and worriedly calls out to the girls, asking what's going on with that light. Hiei explains that Keiko's third eye is reacting to his own, and chuckles that she's as good as demonified now.
As the eye on Hiei's forehead glows ominously, Yusuke finds he's been frozen in place, and Hiei takes advantage of the immobility to punch him in the face while declaring that Keiko's condition is the LEAST of his worries now. Yusuke's head snaps around in a very uncomfortable looking way, because he is rooted to the spot and can't actually fly with the force of the hit.
Outside the warehouse, someone steps up who identifies the incredible torrent of demonic power within, muttering about how this must be Hiei's true form. Gee, I wonder who it could be? Possibly the only other person who we are aware knows Hiei personally?
I very much doubt that. I'm expecting a Mick Jagger attitude here before long.
Hiei goes ahead and beats the shit out of the stationary Yusuke while he can't do anything but stand and take it. It's surprising to me that when Hiei stops, he's smiling. He walks over to where he dropped the stolen sword, saying that now Yusuke should see the difference in their abilities. I guess cheap tricks to make sure your opponent can't fight back is still an ability, so, sure. Hiei points the sword at Yusuke, telling him that he did put up a good fight for a human, so out of respect he's going to finish him off with one thrust.
... I'm not touching that joke.
Yusuke sweats, knowing that there's no way for him to stop what's coming, and braces for the incoming strike, Hiei screaming at him to die. A new hand reaches out to interfere.
You'd think a guy with that many eyes could have seen Kurama stepping in.Hiei sweatdrops and asks Kurama if he's out of his mind, since he just took the killing stab in the gut that was aimed for Yusuke. Instead of answering, Kurama flings some blood from his wound into all three of Hiei's eyes. Alarmed at the use of blood as a defense, Hiei stumbles back, grinding at his eyes with his fists, cursing Kurama for his attack on his third eye in particular.
Yusuke lifts his arms and flexes his fingers, exclaiming that he can move again, while Kurama explains that the eyes that erupted all over Hiei's body had enhanced his powers, but the one on his forehead is the source of that power. Kurama tells Yusuke that eye is blind now, so the field should be evened up. Smiling as a trickle of blood leaks from the corner of his mouth, he urges Yusuke to finish up this business, while he sees to the girl. Yusuke reminds Kurama that he's got a sword sticking out of his gut, but Kurama in turn reminds hims that he's a demon, so he'll get over it. Fuckers are REALLY hard to kill. Again, Kurama urges him to go and win the fight before Hiei's third eye recovers, already on his way to the place beyond the crates where Botan is still trying to tend to Keiko.
As Yusuke utters Kurama's name in acknowledgment of all the pains he's taking, Hiei groans before yelling after Kurama that he's a traitor, and threatening to massacre him for it. He balks at the approach of Yusuke, though, who asks if he isn't forgetting something.
Hiei, my dude, try and decide who you're talking to before you open your mouth. PLEASE.
A furious fight commences, in which Hiei lands a punch, then flits away so fast that Yusuke is unable to land a return hit. Hiei smacks Yusuke again, and once more speeds off to intercept Yusuke as he flies from the force of it, getting behind him to kick him in another direction altogether. All this success has got Hiei pretty cocky, thinking that Yusuke is STILL no match for him.
Yusuke struggles to his feet, pointed in a fleeing position, which is exactly what Hiei takes it for and laughs at him for it while speeding to intercept him. But Yusuke is mentally measuring distances, thinking he's almost in position. Hiei lunges at him, declaring he's going to die, when Yusuke raises his finger and refuses to die for this jerk just yet. Hiei looks shocked at the pointing digit, and the coming spirit blast from it. It looks for all the world that he won't be able to dodge, but...
Missed him by a hair!Hiei is apparently familiar with this particular energy blast, because he calls it the "Rei Gun" too, and calls it one hell of an ace up Yusuke's sleeve. He grants that Yusuke has proven himself to be far more than he seemed at first, but he also says he can tell that Yusuke is all done, and as Yusuke scoots conspicuously along the wall he's backed up against, acknowledges that if Yusuke had had a little more time to improve, he might have winged him.
Yusuke doesn't respond, still scuffing along the wall. Hiei tells him he can shuffle his position all he likes, but there's nowhere for him to go. At last, Yusuke comes to a silent halt, resting against the wall, which Hiei says is better, holding his clawed hand aloft as he declares that he and his friends are going to Hell, then lunging for Yusuke while promising that he's sending him there first.
Dafuq?
Hiei chokes that he's been hit, questioning who did it, and what happened. He turns at a clattering noise sounding behind him and notes in astonishment the broken surface of the Mirror of Darkness he'd come to bargain for, next to his discarded cloak.
So, spiritual energy follows physics, but VERY slowly? Okay...
The shading fades from Hiei's skin and he haltingly says that he can't believe Yusuke, before he loses all his considerable strength and falls forward. Yusuke holds out the flat of his foot to catch Hiei's face before he lands right in his lap, then staggers to his feet with the wall as support, scoffing in exhaustion that that's Hiei taken care of, but it was one hell of a fight.
Once he's collected himself, he trots over to where Keiko's condition is being treated, asking if she, Botan, and Kurama are alright. He makes a special inquiry about Keiko, trailing in his worried question about her status. Botan assures him that Keiko is alright, the antidote in the hilt of the sword Kurama was kind enough to bring over working to close that weird third eye of hers. Sighing in relief, Yusuke turns to Kurama, who is sitting hunched against the wall, to ask how HE'S doing, adding that he OWES Kurama big time. Kurama tells him not to sweat it, because he's got some time before his trial to sit at home and mend for a while.
Botan reprimands Yusuke for not telling her his plan, asking when he found out that his Rei Gun blast could reflect off mirrors. Making a questioning noise at first, Yusuke puts a finger to his temple and grins, a little amused by the fact that Botan thought he had a PLAN. He characterizes it as a flash of insight, a realization that Hiei was so fast he'd never get him with a direct shot. He says that he saw the mirror across the way where Hiei had dropped it, and took a chance that his shot was enough like light that it would reflect back. Sweating, Botan balks, then asks what Yusuke would have done if THAT hadn't worked, and Yusuke answers that he would have just thought of something else, adopting a somewhat irritated expression.
"... It means I've clocked you as a fucking idiot."
The next panel labels the moment just as "later", and shows Yusuke and Botan walking along on the street casually. Yusuke is bragging that Gouki and Hiei had been arrested and the three treasures that had been stolen were restored with two whole days to spare. Wait, Gouki was ARRESTED?
Anyway, Yusuke supposes that Koenma's dad never found out that the treasures were stolen to begin with, but Botan informs him that since the sword was all rusty with blood and the mirror was cracked, they couldn't fix them up before King Enma returned, so he found out anyway. Yusuke bets the guy was pissed, but Botan's expression is pretty chipper for someone who had to deal with the kind of wrath that Koenma described. Not to mention that wrath hadn't manifested in the living world the way Koenma talked about either. Botan says that Enma was only a LITTLE mad, because after all, the treasures had been recovered.Yusuke questions the "little" part, and Botan tells him not to breathe a word to anyone, before whispering behind her hand that Koenma got a pretty severe spanking for the whole debacle, a illustration of just that behind her to back her point to the reader. Who would Yusuke TELL this to, anyway? What, is he going to be gossiping about it to the thieves he apprehended? Of course, he's guffawing about it in the middle of the street, saying a kid's a kid no matter how many centuries old he is, so this kind of thing must have been what Botan was worried about. She shushes him, trying to get him to lower his voice, as if any of the passersby will have any notion what they're talking about anyway.
Giving her a thumbs-up, Yusuke says to Botan that it's better Koenma get spanked than earthquakes and shit. He declares the Three Dark Treasures Case closed. Just then, a figure walks past them, wishing them a good morning. It's Keiko, looking consternated despite her cordial greeting. Yusuke lets out a quiet "oops" as Botan says the whole thing isn't quite tied up in a nice bow. It seems it's just occurred to Yusuke that he STILL hasn't cleared things up with Keiko yet.
Does... does Keiko even REMEMBER getting slashed by Hiei?
So, what do I think of this chapter overall? Yusuke's ultimate win SHOULD have been really clever and cool, but there were quite a few issues that got in the way. For starters, note how there were TWO paragraphs of recap between Hiei dodging the initial shot and getting hit. Hiei said an awful lot in that time, when he really should have had very little time to get out half a taunt to Yusuke. Also, Yusuke had time to gauge its trajectory, taking several panels to scoot into its line. Light is notoriously fast in its travel, so his comparison to it later in response to Botan didn't make a lot of sense.
In fact, I think it would have been much more justified in comparing it to billiards. Yusuke basically doesn't go to school, which doesn't really give him a great basis for citing something that he would have learned THERE more than within the realm of his experience. I imagine he's played a game of pool with some frequency, or maybe he could even have recalled his gambling with pachinko machines as a basis for comparison instead. These are physical objects that bounce off of obstacles, AND they move slow enough to be more apt to reflect with happened here.
And lastly... Hiei is COVERED in eyes. He should have been able to SEE the blast coming at him from behind, like he should have been able to see Kurama coming to intercept his sword thrust. Does he not actually SEE through the damn things? What's the point of them being EYES if they don't FUNCTION LIKE EYES? I mean, I guess it's creepy to have Biblically accurate Hiei, but beyond that...
In conclusion: great concept for defeating a villain, but poorly executed in this instance, and probably shouldn't have been used here at all.