These things always seem to come in threes, don't they? People talk about the "dark triad" of toxic personality traits that seem to be inexplicably attractive rather than repulsive, and the three big bigotries that seem to always come as a package deal (racism, homophobia, and misogyny). As a personal example, I find that if I'm suffering sufficiently from one difficulty, like an illness, two others often pop up to keep it company. They say three's a charm, but I'll be damned if it isn't also a curse just as frequently.
I don't know, maybe look for the guys sporting horns and fangs?
I swear, that was a joke, but when Yusuke continues scanning the crowd, he's taken-aback to spot a guy with a heavy frown and a square-ish head sporting literal horns. Yes, they're fairly small, two of the larger on either side of the forehead at the hairline, two smaller slightly positioned closer to each other and lower, and another popping out of the hair in his widow's peak, in the center of them all, but they're noticeable all the same.
The other two seem to be more incognito at least.
Sweatdropping, Yusuke wonders if it could be these three he's looking for, because they seem to be real chummy. He acknowledges that the shorter one and the one with the flowing locks are pretty normal-looking, but the horns on the bigger dude remind him of his first encounter with underworld forces when he first returned to life. Yusuke takes a step in their direction, but is immediately distracted by a knot of people forming behind his back, who are muttering about a kid who collapsed, asking each other if he's sick or something. Yusuke casts them a critical look while the suspicious three continue strolling off.
Cut to the Spirit/Underworld!
Botan is apparently reciting all this from a notepad with leaves folded over the top as she's gotten done covering the information on them. At this point, she suggests to Koenma, with all due respect, that she thinks this is a VERY bad idea. She says that Yusuke is no match for these villains, and they don't know the first thing about Kurama and Hiei. FINALLY, someone is pointing out how insane it is to be putting a greenie on this dangerous errand.
Koenma is sweating pretty profusely as he agrees with Botan, saying that he had PLANNED to start him on easy assignments and let the boy work his way up to the more challenging ones, right and proper. But he insists that there's no time, because they've got to get going on this shit. Does the Underworld only have ONE detective? Generally there's a whole department of them...
Botan hesitantly asks how much time they DO have, and Koenma announces that they have one week in human terms, pointing with authority at... nothing. Sweating now too, Botan yells that they can't do this in one week. Koenma murmurs that they have to, because his Daddy Dearest gets home from a business trip in one week. Wait, I thought he was back. Did he immediately leave again? Botan gulps at the invocation of the REAL King Enma, whose very hairy and tusked face looms behind her to illustrate just how scary the dude is.
Apparently, the three stolen treasures are among King Enma's favorites in the Underworld, so the prospect of him getting home and finding out they've been stolen is what has Koenma sweating so hardcore. Botan asks if this means big trouble, and Koenma confirms that his dad's rage will embrace Heaven and Earth, resulting in earthquakes, natural disasters, the usual fare when he gets pissy. There's a comment of resignation that you can't stop an old man when he's angry. Even in spirit, men are clearly not encouraged to manage their own fucking emotions. Koenma predicts a bigger shake-up than the great Kanto earthquake in this case, possibly the eruption of Mt. Fuji, and he says that's just the collateral damage, because their punishment will be worse. Botan can only make an incoherent nervous noise, but why would SHE be included in this? Was SHE in charge of guarding the damn treasures?
I'm sure it'll go over well.
Scene shift to the human world, among a forest of bare trees. It appears that Hiei is relishing the nasty-ass crimes they can commit with their cool new toys they stole. He holds up the Conjuring Blade, expositing about how it can turn any human into a demon, Gouki's Rapacious Orb that the big guy is holding up can suck out human souls, and the pocket-sized Mirror of Darkness that Kurama frowns down at in his hand emits a great power during the full moon. Thanks Hiei, it's almost as if you have an audience to tell these things or something, how convenient.
He's still gushing about how he can create an army of man-eating beasts with the sword he holds, and Gouki readily offers to feed it with the souls he gathers with the orb.
Hiei and Gouki react with shock, the former asking if Kurama is ditching them, and he unapologetically says that's exactly what he's doing. Hiei calls Kurama a wimp who's gone soft since he started living among humans. Gouki expresses the opinion that Kurama shouldn't be able to just walk off with a split of the loot, holding out his hand and demanding the mirror. Kurama coolly tells him that he'll keep the mirror, because he needs it for something. I mean, why the hell else would he steal it?
Gouki's ire has been raised, and after muttering that Kurama always had a smart mouth, he pulls back the hand he had extended for the mirror into a fist, winding up for a punch. Kurama seems perfectly prepared to just take the hit, as Gouki announces that the smart mouth has been asking for this very thing, so maybe he agrees?
It looks like "Go ahead, bozo" comes from Gouki, but I'm not sure if it works in the context of the conversation. Besides, the next panel is this one:
Yeah, that previous quote definitely came from Yusuke.
Gouki is thoroughly distracted, asking how Yusuke knows about the treasures, and I THINK it's Hiei who asks who Yusuke is. The speech bubbles aren't the clearest in this section with the clutter of characters. Anyway, Yusuke mumbles about how he didn't think he would find these guys as soon as he has, then points a thumb at himself, declaring to the clowns that he's Yusuke Urameshi, Underworld Detective, and they're under arrest.
Unsurprisingly, Gouki appears a little confused by the title of "Underworld Detective" so Hiei says that Yusuke must be the Underworld's new bounty hunter. He expresses some incredulity over the strange fact that Yusuke emanates no power whatsoever, and Gouki asserts that he could off Yusuke with one hit. Yusuke is a little irritated that his introduction was not impressive in the least. Hiei thinks that perhaps, since Yusuke was chosen by the Underworld, he could have hidden qualities in addition to the obvious arrogance. He leaps into the air declaring that if Yusuke IS indeed trouble, it'll keep. Not sure what that means, buddy, but cool. Hiei must have disappeared in the speed lines, because Yusuke is astonished by how he just leaped straight out of there.
Kurama quietly thinks that he'd best avoid trouble too, and starts walking off. Yusuke notices, however, and starts after Kurama, ordering him ineffectually to hold it. But Gouki intercepts his path, telling HIM to hold it, because it won't take three of them to handle him.
After a filler panel showing Hiei admiring that sword he stole on the left side of a white void that takes up literally HALF the page, Gouki says he's going to have a quick snack first. He raises the orb in his fist again, which Yusuke correctly identifies as the Rapacious Orb, and sticks a forefinger and thumb through its membranous skin as he exposits about how this very useful item sucks out human souls. Again.
Gouki pulls his fingers out of the orb again, dragging the tail of something pinched between them. He says that before he had this baby, he always had to rip apart human bodies to get at their souls to eat them before. Yusuke gapes and sweats at the salivating Gouki, who is complaining about the "off" flavor that the dismemberment of the soul's body would impart, and how he would have to dispose of the carcass afterward. Gouki's drool drips out the corner of his mouth as he gazes hungrily at the little glowing tailed ball of light, saying that the orb ensures the soul comes out fresh and sweet, without any fuss, and he can have as many as he wants.
Yusuke recalls the shouts of the people in the busy square, who were all in a confusion of what was wrong with the child who collapsed. He shouts that he bets he knows where the soul Gouki has in his grasp came from, and Gouki confirms that he got it fresh today. He drops it on his tongue and, just as he says, gulps it down the hatch. As Yusuke stands frozen in horror, Gouki gloats about how he likes the way a live child's soul wriggles and twitches in his stomach.
Were you ever in any doubt?
Just name your fists "Ipecac".
Gouki goes down like a sack of rocks, and Yusuke looks down on him laid out on the ground, scoffing at this so-called demon he's been able to knock out with so little effort. Yusuke looks over his shoulder to where the soul is floating through the trees, and thinks with relief that it seems to be okay. Suddenly, a looming presence at his back cause him to turn and jump back to put some distance between himself and the newly risen Gouki.
Gouki is smiling, at least, telling Yusuke he's pretty good for a human. Smirking with a hint of nervousness, Yusuke repays the compliment by saying that Gouki TALKS pretty well for a demon, and adds that with how hard he hit Gouki, the demon shouldn't even be able to stand. With a mocking question as to whether that's so, the already straining fabric of Gouki's shirt shreds when his muscles bulk up even further in an instant. Yusuke's teeth are clenched and eyes bulge as he watches the horns on Gouki's head lengthen, his teeth grow and sharpen, and a load of hair sprouts from his shoulders, like some sort of werewolf transformation.
Thanks Yusuke, but I think I lost my appetite.
A tremendous whoosh is produced by Gouki's arm as he swings it at the flabbergasted Yusuke, who barely avoids the blow that crashes through a tree trunk instead. He doesn't quite escape it entirely, though - we see that Gouki's claws have ripped through Yusuke's uniform in parallel shreds. It doesn't look like there's any blood, so maybe he's managed remain un-wounded through pure luck there out pure luck. Although, he did get a nasty scratch along his cheek.
Gouki squeezes his fist to shatter the tree trunk he's already splintered, offering yet another compliment to Yusuke about how quick on his feet he is. Yusuke yelps that Gouki is a whole-ass monster, and is fully convinced he's screwed because he stands exactly ZERO chance against a thing like that. When he catches sight of his own finger, he remembers that he has the spirit gun, but is demoralized further when he realizes the end of his finger isn't glowing. This is when he recalls what Koenma said about him getting one shot a day. He laments the fact that he wasted that shot on Iwamoto earlier today as the collateral damage of the tree finally creaks and falls upon Gouki turning around.
Iwamoto ruins everything again. I hate that dude.
Worse than that. You've been dead before - this is the threat of oblivion.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I was... not impressed, for a few reasons. What I liked the most about this installment is the lampshade hung on Yusuke being sent to confront three opponents who may be too much for him to handle. It's legitimately funny that Koenma's motivations for this are absurd in their depiction of King Enma, who is characterized as a danger to the world for such small reasons. He may as well be a giant toddler, just like his son. This sadly doesn't interrogate the destructive issue of outsized male rage, but it does present it as somewhat ridiculous how easily a KING OF THE UNDERWORLD can fly off the handle due to a perceived loss of control over objects in a vault.
It's all downhill from there, unfortunately. We get sparse biographies of our three antagonists, and two out of three of them have NO CONVICTIONS. All the same, Botan speaks of them all as though they're crazy dangerous, though there is absolutely no evidence of anyone but Gouki being truly a threat at this point. It strikes me that this might be because YT is planning on making Hiei and Kurama main characters fairly soon, and doesn't want to give them pasts from which they will need SIGNIFICANT redemption, at least not yet. At the moment, though, it's just a very conspicuous contradiction in characterization.
I'd like to also talk a little about the PAINFUL exposition in this chapter. I was literally wincing when Hiei started talking about each of the items they stole and what they do. Way to break my immersion, dude, acknowledging my lurking there and listening to your conversation like that, because there's no way that Kurama or Gouki have no idea what their artifacts do or why they have them. It's additionally weird that Hiei doesn't elaborate AT ALL about the reason he gives for stealing the sword to raise a demon army. That'll probably come up later when Yusuke confronts him one-on-one, but here, it's just odd that he would be so specific about the artifacts' powers, but not about why they stole them in the first place.
Then there's Gouki. He's Co-Captain Exposition here, explaining mockingly to Yusuke how he eats souls and why it's better than he can get them through the orb instead of ripping apart their bodies, which is a little clumsy, but fine. I'm mostly just wondering throughout the scene why he cares to tell Yusuke ANY of this, although I suppose I can see it as something of an intimidation tactic. But my real issue comes from when he says at the end of the chapter that he likes the flavor of pain and fear in his fresh souls, even though he just got done telling us that he doesn't like the flavor of the ones where he has to dismember the victims. Which is it? Because it seems very much a contradiction in what he claims he likes.
Finally, the chapter doesn't look the BEST. There's a whole HALF A PAGE dedicated to a mostly empty filler panel of Hiei, who has left the scene entirely. And that static image of Kurama up there? It kind of looks like a teenage fan who only just learned the basics of drawing anime figures from one of those goofy "How to Draw XYZ" books you can get at craft stores. I mean, YT could have at least drawn him half-turned away and waving to make the panel slightly more dynamic, but no. It just looks flat and boring.
Yeesh, the disappointment. This one must have been under a major time crunch.
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