A New Apprentice

## Story Arcs and Sagas

**A New Apprentice** is the third story arc of the Yu Yu Hakusho series and the Spirit Detective Saga.

The Genkai Tournament, a selection process for the aging Psychic Genkai to choose her successor. Yusuke must infiltrate the tournament and stop the Human Hunter Rando from winning and gaining the powers of Genkai.

## Summary

Genkai is a famous Psychic with an incredible ability known as the "Spirit Wave". Despite all her power, she is still human and her body is aging. She's seeking out an apprentice to pass her powers onto for the first time. Koenma gains word of this news and assigns Yusuke to infiltrate her tournament.

It is likely that the Human Hunter Rando, and infamous demon who's stolen the abilities of 99 Psychics, will likely try to gain the abilities of Genkai. Yusuke is tasked with winning the Genkai Tournament in order to become Genkai's new apprentice while stopping Rando in the process.

At first, Yusuke refuses the mission because he wants to enjoy his three day weekend away from school. Botan only convinces him to do so by promising him tickets to the Tokyo Dome. Yusuke begins his assignment by seeking out Genkai's temple. He's surprised to see Kuwabara there, who's trying to get Genkai to repress of ill feelings he gets from sensing the supernatural.

Genkai culls the dozens of fighters who show up to participate by giving them blank cards. The cards only turn red if the competitor has enough Spirit Energy. Yusuke and Kuwabara are among the minority with red cards and qualify for the tournament.

Next, Genkai tests their Spirit's strength, awareness, and adaptability using what appear to be arcade games. Yusuke's Spirit Power and Kuwabara's Spirit Awareness are exceptional compared to the many other participants, impressing even Genkai. They pass onto the final preliminary test where the twenty remaining competitors must make it through the Dark Forest within the time limit she sets.

Yusuke attempts to go straight through the Dark Forest and gets confronted by Boldak the Bat Tamer. While Yusuke takes on the army of bats, Kuwabara is the first of all competitors to make it completely through the forest. Six other people join Kuwabara before the time limit runs out and it appears if Yusuke didn't make it. However, he arrives just after the allotted time and reveals he went straight through the forest. Impressed that Yusuke was able to defeat Boldak, Genkai allows him to participate in the finals.

The final test is a fighting tournament between the eight remaining potential apprentices. The matchups are decided by drawing lots and all the fights of the first round will be fought in complete darkness. The ninja Kazemaru defeats the hitman Kuroda in the first fight and Shorin defeats Chinpo in the second. Kuwabara faces off against Musashi in the third fight and nearly falls victim to his "Sheathed-Sword Style". Musashi's sword breaks while beating on Kuwabara's body and the latter uses the broken piece to focus his Spirit Energy. In doing so, Kuwabara creates a Spirit Sword for the first time and uses it to defeat Musashi.

In the last bout of the first round, Yusuke faces off with Kibano. The trained martial artist Kibano uses a mask that drowns out his other senses to heighten his own Spirit Awareness to its peak. Yusuke struggles to fight in the dark and is at the mercy of all Kibano's powerful techniques. Yusuke is only able to turn the tables by attaching Genkai's cigarette to Kibano's belt in order to track his movements. One well placed Spirit Gun is enough to destroy Kibano's helmet in defeat him.

The semi-finals begin with Yusuke having to fight back to back. This time, Yusuke faces Kibano on the hill of tormented souls, where Spirit Energy increases. Kazemaru possesses a firing technique that he's even more powerful than Yusuke's Spirit Gun. He also uses explosive shuriken that track Yusuke's energy. Yusuke tries to blow himself up along with Kazemaru, but he falls into the swamp and is spared from the explosion that only defeats Kazemaru. He wins by complete luck, but Yusuke advances to the final round.

The second match of the semi-finals is set between Kuwabara is Shorin. Since every other competitor has been eliminated, this must mean that the infamous Rando is actually Shorin in disguise. Despite his many stolen techniques, Kuwabara holds his own against Shorin until he falls victim to the Reduction Curse.

Kuwabara is turned into a small, fragile version of himself and gets his bones broken by the ruthless Rando in disguise. Shorin is named the victor and faces off against Yusuke in the final fight of the Genkai Tournament.

Shorin attempts to use more stolen techniques against Yusuke and controls the fight at the beginning. However, Yusuke uses powers through his opponent's moves and takes him down for Kuwabara. Seemingly defeated, Rando reveals his true form and abandons his defeated persona.

Confident in his 99 stolen abilities, Rando toys with Yusuke and tries out different techniques on him. He even steals Yusuke's signature Spirit Gun and uses it against him. However, Rando's overconfidence ultimately costs him the victory, as he ends up using the Reduction Curse on himself after Yusuke fails to hear the incantation due to swamp algae in his ears.

Yusuke defeats Rando for good and is deemed the winner of the Genkai Tournament. Rando is arrested and taken back to Spirit World by Botan. Unfortunately for Yusuke, he doesn't get the tickets to the Tokyo Dome because he must train under Genkai as her new apprentice for the next six months.

## Episodes

North America: April 20, 2002
North America: April 27, 2002
North America: May 4, 2002
North America: May 11, 2002
North America: May 18, 2002

## Settings

* **Genkai's Temple**: Master Genkai's Temple served as the pupil screening grounds for her tournament. Different sections of the temple served different purposes for testing potential candidates.