Episode 7

## Episode 7 Screenshots

**Gouki and Kurama** (蔵馬の秘密?! 母と子のきずな, *Kurama no Himitsu?! Haha To Ko no Kizuna*?, lit. **Kurama's Secret!? The Ties Between Mother and Son**) is the seventh episode of the Yu Yu Hakusho anime and the Spirit Detective Saga.

## Summary

The oafish demon Gouki is using the stolen Orb of Baast to capture children’s souls. If Yusuke doesn’t track down and defeat this monster quickly, those souls will become the monster’s next meal. But Gouki isn’t the only one Yusuke has to worry about when the second thief suddenly appears. His name is Kurama, and to great surprise, he asks Yusuke for a favor…

## Plot Details

Yusuke stares down his enemy, Gouki, a soul-eating demon, unlike anything he's faced before. The monster brutalizes Yusuke and threatens to eat his soul for releasing the soul of a young boy he was going to eat. However, it appears that a village mob appears to hunt the monster, so he retreats. Yusuke recognizes Botan's voice, but he faints after receiving serious injuries.

Yusuke awakens injured in his bed and is quickly greeted by his mom. Botan was granted a human form by Koenma and used Detective Item #2: The Demon Compass to track down Gouki. Using her new mission aids, Botan was able to find Yusuke. Botan tells Yusuke he only has a week to track down these demons, as Koenma fears his father will destroy everything to regain the Artifacts of Darkness.

The news covers the spreading epidemic in town, confirming that Gouki has been consuming the souls of human children. Irritated by Gouki's evil, Yusuke prepares to hunt the demon down despite his own injuries. Botan advises against it but Yusuke is confident in his Spirit Gun and plans to stop Gouki before he digests the souls of all the victims. To ensure the technique is effective, Botan gives Yusuke Detective Item #3: the Concentration Ring, which increases the output of the user's spiritual power.

Yusuke finds Gouki after he takes another victim, but once again he's quickly overwhelmed by Gouki's demon form. He considers using the Spirit Gun but recalls Botan's warning to only use it as a last resort because the Concentration Ring will drain all his stamina afterward. Botan arrives to distract Gouki to help Yusuke. Gouki backs them both into a corner, but thanks to Botan's distraction, Yusuke is able to pry Gouki's mouth open. Gouki's skin as hard as metal, but Yusuke exploits his much more vulnerable insides using a powerful Spirit Gun!

With Gouki defeated, all the souls of the fallen children return to their bodies. After nearly losing his life to regain just one Artifact of Darkness, Yusuke worries it'll be too much for him to take the other two items back as well. Even so, Yusuke continues the job and walks around the city on a crutch. Botan follows close behind to offer help, but Yusuke's compass suddenly goes off and Kurama appears from the crowd.

Kurama communicates telepathically with Yusuke and assures him that he has no intention of fighting. He instead asks Yusuke for only three days and then he will return the Forlorn Hope. Botan and Yusuke return to his home and she treats his injuries. She tells Yusuke that Kurama will use the mirror on the full moon in three days. Kurama's wish could be devastating, but Yusuke saw Kurama's exchange with Gouki and Hiei, so he knows that Kurama is different from the other two.

Yusuke meets Kurama at the hospital and learns he has a sick mother there. Yusuke briefly meets her and then joins Kurama on the roof. There, Kurama explains he was once the demon fox known as "Yoko", an infamous thief in the Spirit World. After a careless mistake, Kurama was injured and used the last of his energy to escape to the living world, where he became the child of a human family.

Kurama originally planned to withstand humanity for ten years and grow up in a human body in order to restore his Spirit Energy. However, his mother fell ill and Kurama chose to stay. It was then that Hiei and Gouki appeared and Kurama decided to use the powers of the Forlorn Hope to save his mother. Yusuke asks why a Demon would want to save a human and Kurama explains that it might be because he feels guilty. Growing up, his mother struggled to raise a child that thought of her as inferior. He feels in some way that he may have caused her disease.

Yusuke asks Kurama why he's revealing all this and Kurama believes that he just needs someone else to know. They're interrupted by a doctor, who brings Kurama inside to inform him that his mother has fallen into a critical state. Kurama plans to use the Forlorn Hope to save his mother, but it will cost him his own life.

Yusuke interrupts the wish, offering his own life instead. Yusuke believes that it's pointless for Kurama to wish his mother back if she's going to spend her life without her child. The Forlorn Hope appears to work but Kurama and Yusuke both keep their lives thanks to the latter's noble deed. Kurama's mother is healed and Yusuke manages to get the mirror back. He and Botan celebrate by laughing and joking, but Koenma worries that they won't be able to reclaim the Shadow Sword from Hiei.

## Credits

### Cast

* Cast
* Staff