Episode 7

Gouki and Kurama
Kanji	蔵馬の秘密?! 母と子のきずな
Rōmaji	Kurama no Himitsu?! Haha To Ko no Kizuna (Kurama's Secret!? The Ties Between Mother and Son)
Japan Air Date	November 21, 1992
English Air Date	April 6, 2002
Episode	7
Manga	Chapter 21 (p. 1-21) Chapter 22 (p. 1-19)
Saga	Spirit Detective Saga
Opening Song	Smile Bomb
Ending Song	Homework Never Ends
Previous Episode	←Three Monsters
Next Episode	The Three Eyes of Hiei→

Gouki and Kurama is the seventh episode of season 1 of YuYu Hakusho. It aired on November 21, 1992 in Japan and April 6, 2002 in the United States.

Short Summary

Yusuke discovers the first and second thieves, and the artifacts. Gouki, the first thief, possesses the Orb of Baast, and Kurama, the second thief, has the Forlorn Hope. Yusuke defeats Gouki, recovering his artifact. He meets with Kurama and learns that he plans to use the Forlorn Hope to sacrifice himself to save his human "mother." Yusuke, believing that Kurama's sacrifice would cause his mother pain, gives some of his life force so that Kurama will not have to die, and claims the mirror.

Detailed Summary

The fight between Yusuke and Gouki continues. Yusuke was completely helpless against him without his Spirit Gun, and as Gouki was about to choke him to death, lights come out around the forest and a familiar voice can be heard. Thinking that the villagers are coming, Gouki escapes and leaves Yusuke alone, who fell unconscious from all the wounds. When he finally regained his consciousness, he finds himself in his room and his mother approaches him and asks if he's alright, then hits him hard in the head thinking that he got into a fight again, and starts to cry, worrying that he might get himself killed. Botan enters the room, and Yusuke learns from Atsuko that Botan is the one who saved him from his fight with Gouki, and brought him back to his house for treatment. Then Botan whispers to him that Koenma gave her a human form and that is the reason why she can be seen by other people so she can help Yusuke in his missions. Atsuko leaves the room and prepares some food, and the two began a conversation about the mission. He asked her how she found him, and she introduced him to a new Spirit Detective Item, the Demon Compass, and told him that she used it to find Gouki. She also informed him that he only has one week to complete the mission. Watching from the Spirit World, Koenma began yelling at the screen telling Yusuke to hurry up and started thinking about the consequences if he wouldn't be able to retrieve the three artifacts in time. Back in the Human World, while Atsuko is eating, news about four children that had fallen comatose in a town not far away from their place aired on the television. Yusuke and Botan overhear the news, and he asks her how long is the digestion process of the souls in Gouki's stomach, and replies that maybe it takes a day. He prepares to leave, so she gave him another Spirit Detective Item, the Concentration Ring. When Atsuko returns to the room with some tea for both of them, they have already gone on their mission.

Gouki brutally beats Yusuke

Gouki is seen playing with the Orb of Baast, and a kid returns it to him, but he took her soul afterwards. Yusuke calls him out, and Gouki transforms into his demon form again. Yusuke charges and lands a punch on his stomach, but it hurt him instead because his skin was rock hard. Gouki tries to hit him but misses, and Yusuke tries to pierce his skin with a giant stick, but fails to do so. Gouki uses this to his advantage and throws him into the ground while clinging onto the stick. Yusuke is getting desperate and thinks about using his Spirit Gun, but opts not to use it yet after thinking about it carefully. Gouki kicks him and stomps him, enjoying his screams of pain, until Botan throws something on his back, catching his attention. Botan runs for her life, then runs to Yusuke's side. Gouki grabs Yusuke first, opening his mouth as he prepares to devour him, but then Yusuke pokes a wooden stick into his mouth, leaving it open. Yusuke fires his Spirit Gun into Gouki's open mouth, defeats him, freeing all the children's souls and retrieving the Orb of Baast in the process.

On their way home, the Demon Compass suddenly reacts, indicating that there is a demon nearby. He encounters Kurama, and he told Yusuke that he doesn't have any intention of fighting and asked him a favor to give him three days and he would gladly return to him the Forlorn Hope. When they returned home, Botan treated his wounds and warns him about the incident earlier, but Yusuke tells her that something tells him he should trust Kurama. He recalls he had overheard Kurama announcing his withdrawal from the alliance, and he had seemed more saddened than anything else. Suddenly Atsuko barges into the room inviting them to dinner. Yusuke complains about her not knocking before entering the room and says that they're in the middle of an important conversation, but Atsuko retorts that what kind of conversation can't be held around her, and Yusuke replies that it wasn't like what she was thinking about. Kurama is then seen from the opposite building, watching over them.

The next day, Botan leaves to see Koenma and asks for more information about the Forlorn Hope, and tells Yusuke to go to his meeting with Kurama and be careful. He meets Kurama in the hospital, and leads him to Room 501, where Shiori Minamino, Kurama's human mother, is confined. On their conversation, Yusuke heard her call him Shuichi which confused him, for all he knows his name is Kurama.

They are next seen on the hospital's rooftop, and Kurama begins to explain things to Yusuke. Shuichi is his human name, and his real name is Yoko. He tells him about his past, that he was a spirit fox, gaining demon powers over the hundreds of years that he lived, and in time he grew bored and spent his hours learning the art of breaking codes and seals, but fifteen years ago he made a mistake and was severely injured by his pursuer, and with the last energy he had, he escaped into the Human World and became the child of a human family, originally intending to recover his Spirit Energy, and planned that he would escape after ten years, but as he was about to escape his mother fell ill. That is also the same time when Gouki and Hiei appeared, and he remembered the powers of the Forlorn Hope. Then he told Yusuke to let him use the Forlorn Hope to save his human mother's life, then he would accept his punishment. Yusuke asks him why would a monster do that for a human, and Kurama replies that maybe he is guilty, and maybe he feels like he is one of those mother-devouring creatures because he caused her great pains and feels like he broke her spirit and maybe in someway he caused her disease. Yusuke asks him why is he telling him these things, and he replied that maybe he just needed someone to know and he could tell that Yusuke would trust him. Suddenly a nurse barges out from the door, alerting him about his mother's condition. His mother is already at the critical stage, and she is about to die that night.

Kurama wishing his mother back with the Forlorn Hope

The moon is at its full that night, and Kurama decided that he would use it already. Yusuke asks him if he knows what would it ask for in return, and Kurama affirms and reveals to him that it is life. Meanwhile, in the Spirit World, Botan also gets the same information and leaves to inform Yusuke. Kurama uses the Forlorn Hope, and it reflected an image of his mother, and Yusuke suddenly exclaimed telling him to hold on a second and there has got to be some other way to resolve the problem. The Forlorn Hope began doing its thing but then Yusuke interrupts and puts his hand on top of it, just like what Kurama was doing. He told the Forlorn Hope to take his life instead and Kurama told him that it doesn't make sense since it's his wish, but Yusuke replied that it also doesn't make sense saving his mother's life if she's going to spend the rest of her life mourning his death, remembering his own mother while she was mourning over his own death. A bolt of light strikes out from the Forlorn Hope as Botan is approaching their place, and both of them are seen face down onto the floor. Kurama gets up first, and runs away to see his mother, and Botan arrives to see Yusuke still face down onto the floor. Yusuke gets up, glad that he's still alive and realizes that if he would have died his mother would be the one to be sad, but on the better side of things, he managed to retrieve the Forlorn Hope. It spoke again and said that because of their good intentions it decided to grant the wish without anything in return. Kurama was welcomed with the good news that his mother's disease is gone. Now Yusuke have only one more artifact to go, and he celebrated with Botan, and watching from Spirit World is Koenma, annoyed with the fact that the two are celebrating not knowing that the last artifact is going to be ten times harder to get since Hiei is the one have it and he's no ordinary demon.

Characters in Order of Appearance

• Yusuke Urameshi
• Gouki (Last Appearance)
• Atsuko Urameshi
• Botan
• Kurama
• Shiori Minamino (First Appearance)
• Koenma

Anime Notes

• Yusuke calls the Forlorn Hope "Mirror Guy".
• In the Japanese version, the mirror only drained half of the life force from both Yusuke and Kurama to fulfill the wish.
• Changes from the manga:
  • In the anime, Botan interferes with Yusuke's fight against Gouki. This gives Yusuke the opportunity to shove wood into his mouth to keep it open so he could shoot his Spirit Gun inside. In the manga, a boy wanders into the woods and find the two fighting. Gouki is sucking the boy's soul from his body when Yusuke shoves the wood into the demon's mouth.
  • The anime adds the scene of the little girl waking up after her soul is returned to her body.
  • In the anime, Yusuke is walking with the help of a walking stick. Botan offers to help him, but he refuses because he is embarrassed to be helped up by a girl. In the manga, Yusuke is alone and Botan is not with him in this scene.
  • The anime leaves out the scene where Kurama explains how his mother obtained scars when she saved him from a fall.
  • In the anime, a nurse rushes to inform him about his mother's condition. In the manga, it is his mother's boyfriend and his future stepfather who rushes to him. His future stepfather isn't even mentioned until the Chapter Black Saga.
  • The anime adds the scene of Koenma and Botan discussing the Forlorn Hope and what it asks in exchange for a granted wish. Botan flies towards the hospital to warn Yusuke. When Botan and Yusuke celebrate getting the mirror back, Koenma watches in his monitor and says that the next artifact will be much harder to retrieve. These scenes are not in the manga.
  • In the manga, when Yusuke arrives home, he volunteers to make dinner for his mother, The anime doesn't have this scene.

Gallery

• Main article: Gallery