As for the giant window that you can just see the edge of in the picture, I've hung a wool blanket from a native artist over it, but I'm not sure what else to do with it yet. I'll find inspiration somewhere, I'm sure.
Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about the big tournament with all this home improvement excitement. I'm informed by the first panel of the chapter that it's Day Two, and Yusuke's team is off doing their own thing because they're not fighting at the moment.
There's a dude on the losing team with some branching growths out of his head that resemble twiggy antlers, except that there are more than just a pair. He's expressing relief that the match ended at 3-0 before he had to compete, because he seems to have concluded that he wouldn't have stood a single chance. His head snaps backward, a blurred limb smacking him hard enough to send what looks like a tooth flying.
But the minotaur MOOs and charges the opposite team, yelling at them to "very much die". A stunning vocabulary. A guy with shaggy, fair hair twirls what looks like halos around his wrists and fingers, declaring the attack he's going to use with them "Angel Chakram". The other guy from before with the forehead scar says his attack is "Hound Claw". Yet another dude with a dark ponytail and mustache remains silent as he snaps his fingers.
The minotaur punches, but the kid with the halos jumps up behind him and slashes his left arm clean off with the one in his hand. The second guy punches right through the other arm, eliciting a scream from the minotaur. Then, as the minotaur is bleeding through both stumps of his arms and teetering in disbelief and shock, he's approached by the guy with the ponytail, who starts to gesture rapidly.
Kurama is standing on a walkway ringing the stands and arena below, identifying three human auras in that team. I'm sure it's not a surprise which three are the humans. He looks thoughtful, arms crossed, as he questions why ANOTHER team would use humans. He ends up betting that those guys are NOT here of their own free will, and looks downcast, melancholy at this personal conclusion.
Meanwhile, someone's telling Keiko something doesn't make sense - it's Botan, both she and Keiko sitting facing one another on a BIG hotel bed, big enough for them to be separated by a fair amount. Despite both girls wearing PJs, the bed looks professionally made and unrumpled. Botan elaborates that the thing she doesn't get is why Keiko hasn't gone to see Yusuke, since she said she was going to clobber the guy. After a heavy pause, head hanging, Keiko says she doesn't want to interfere. Botan protests that Keiko's presence couldn't be a distraction, and it could only INSPIRE Yusuke, but she looks on with pity as Keiko says that if she sees Yusuke, she might tell him to stop. With a sad little smile, she points out that Yusuke looks actually HAPPY in his element, not at all like that angry and sullen young man he was a short time ago.
Botan DOES look sad as she says Keiko's name, but before she can press the issue or say anything more, a clearly intoxicated Atsuko pops up and says Keiko is sweetly standing by her man and she reminds her of herself. I'd like to hear THAT story. Usual cigarette hanging from her lips, Shizuru appears to be a bit tipsy too, and to have thrown an arm around Botan as she tells her to go ahead and drink up because she'll allow it just this once, in a very intimate FLIRTY kind of way. ShizuruXBotan? I'd be WAY more down with that than what we got in the ANIME for Shizuru, that's for sure.
There's a call to drink to the victory of Team Urameshi, but Shizuru darkly says her brother had BETTER win his next match, or ELSE. Yikes.
There's a call to drink to the victory of Team Urameshi, but Shizuru darkly says her brother had BETTER win his next match, or ELSE. Yikes.
Elsewhere, in a copse of trees, a sneeze rings out. It seems to have come from an irate Kuwabara, whose nose drips as he angrily asks Yusuke what he means that his Reigun is kaput. Face all bandaged up, Yusuke looks critically at his forefinger, saying that it seems to be the case. Kuwabara dismisses this, as though he wasn't JUST freaking out about it a moment ago, saying Yusuke is just beat from yesterday. He tells Yusuke that his own body hurts all over, though it's not as bad as it had been before. But Yusuke denies that's the case for him, admitting that though he was pretty exhausted after firing four shots in one day during training, and his Reigun didn't have much oomph, but he's unable to summon ANY aura now. Kuwabara looks serious as he says that this isn't good, and Yusuke expresses some curiosity as to WHY this happened to begin with.
A voice from behind him says that it's because that split-second decision he made sucked him dry.
Yusuke and Kuwabara stare at their "mystery" teammate for a moment, and then lean in to have a whispered conference nose to nose. At least, I ASSUME it's whispered, even though YT used THOUGHT bubbles rather than speech bubbles. You see, Kuwabara admits he had thought the masked teammate was Genkai, but her voice is WAY too young to be hers, and demands to know who this actually is. Yusuke echoes Kuwabara's confusion, because he TOO had assumed it was Genkai, but now he's not sure what to think. You guys are SO SIMPLE.
The "mystery" teammate glares at them a moment, then continues her stroll, advising Yusuke not to use his Reigun until he's fully recovered, or he'll ruin his arm, much like someone ELSE they know.
Back in the arena, Koto is announcing the fourth match of the day, and the final preliminary round, which seems to get Kurama's very uneasy attention. The winner of this one will fill the final slot in the top eight, and then lots will be drawn for the final order of battle. Of course, the winners of the previous tournament are given a special welcome by Koto, Team Toguro represented by the junior brother in his placid expression and sunglasses himself.
One of the guys holding a long weapon expresses some disbelief, and the big one in the back with the axe asks if Toguro wants to go five-on-one. Toguro responds that they could do that OR make it a process of elimination, it doesn't much matter to him. Laughter erupts, and the general impression that Toguro's one tournament win has gone to his head goes around the arena. It's agreed that the match will be five-on-one, with the supposition that this is quite a risible development. Koto asks Toguro if he's sure about this, and he says he's pretty sure, asking her to stay sharp as well. No doubt so she can report accurately on how he smears these guys across the platform. At least that's what I'm assuming he means.
Koto announces the beginning of the match, and the spike-collared one with the hammer raises his weapon over his head with a roar. Toguro says that he respects this guy's courage, promising to give him 45%. Wow, almost HALF, nothing to scoff at. He bulks up, then, with a splatter of blood, he not only punches through the hammer-guy's torso, but he also SOMEHOW takes out the head of the guy that was lurking behind him. Then he turns to the guy with the axe and smirks, saying that this isn't a great day for the big guys.
The other two on the team are slaughtered quickly off-panel, and Toguro with his frown and bloody fist is declared the winner, his team to fill the eighth slot. A stony-faced Kurama thinks on how amazing that kind of power is.
Info boxes tell us that the final eight teams congregate and start preparing for their upcoming matches, which are to be determined by "fair lottery". The quotation marks aren't my addition, they are in the text, which suggests that there's something LESS than fair about the lottery. Yusuke reads off a piece of paper that they're up against Team Toguro, and Kuwabara grimaces at that paper over his shoulder. He says he's not the least surprised, quite convinced already that the lottery was rigged, or he's a snow macaque. Either way, he's in danger of being CULLED.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? There's quite a bit going on in this chapter, and everyone seems to have their own lurking insecurities. The only ones who aren't expressing any sort of SPECIFIC issues are Kurama and the masked teammate, but that doesn't mean there's nothing going on with them. Kurama is looking pretty impressed with the competition, but not THRILLED to have to face them. As for our mystery teammate, her voice makes her identity far less assured for Yusuke and Kuwabara. I guess they must have been pretending not to have their ideas about who she was this whole time, because they seem genuinely shocked that it's not Genkai's usual voice coming out of the mask.
Yusuke and Hiei appear to be in a real pickle with their conditions; both of them are going to have to hope for not only a delayed match, but also that their less-to-uninjured teammates are able to stretch as long as possible until at least Yusuke can fully recover. Hiei's situation seems to be much more dire, given that the current prognosis is permanent damage. I still have my doubts that this is actually the case, but for now, it does beg the question how he's going to proceed in the tournament with a bum arm. Hopefully he's got something else up his OTHER sleeve.
Keiko's resignation to let Yusuke just DO this with no pushback is... a little bizarre to me. Granted, her protests, in the form of beatings or lectures alike, wouldn't make one iota of difference. The fact of the matter is that Yusuke doesn't have a choice, having been in too deep the moment that Toguro decided he was going to "invite" him to the tournament. But Keiko doesn't know that. She knows NOTHING, as usual, and I feel like she should have gotten the opportunity to learn all this through her confrontation with Yusuke. That would seem a bit more organic than Keiko just kind of shrugging and citing how happy Yusuke seems when he's getting the shit knocked out of him.
I ASSUME that the tournament tree is mistranslated in the last panel, because in it, Team Urameshi and Team Toguro are about as far away from each other as POSSIBLE. I mean, I know Yusuke isn't the most intellectual of guys, but he didn't strike me as downright ILLITERATE!
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