Yusuke Urameshi, who had traveled to the Demon Realm at Raizen's invitation, was spending his days and nights in intense training against S class demons. Elsewhere, Hiei had also attained an amazing increase in spectral power at Mukuro's fortress, and had progressed far enough to defeat Shigure, one of Mukuro's 77 attendants. And here, in the remaining corner of the three great powers, there was a man who had received an invitation from Yomi. His human name was Shuichi Minamino, his name in the Demon Realm, Yoko Kurama.

Demon Realm Thieves -
A Thousand Year Reunion

At Kurama's home on Earth, the phone goes off, and it's Kurama's mother, Shiori, who's calling. Despite not being there, Kurama is able to answer... from the Demon Realm. As she asks him about an earthquake, Kurama says she must have the wrong place, there hasn't been one. He tells her he's fine and everything is going well, so she can just have a good time on her trip. He sent her on a trip this month. In the previous month, his mother got remarried.

The service was held with only those close to the family invited, and his mom and her new husband seemed very happy. Kurama had met with Yusuke before this, who told him he was sorry that he wouldn't be able to make it for the ceremony. He was going to the Demon Realm. Kurama got his mom and new dad to take an overseas trip through to the end of August as a present to them, although really it was mostly for his own convenience.

Back in the present, Kurama thinks that he's now in the Demon Realm two months after Yusuke and Hiei arrived. He agreed to join Yomi as an advisor, but with the condition that it would only last through summer vacation -he owed a dent to Yomi. Kurama starts walking, and arrives at the Demon Realm city known as Gandara. But as soon as he gets there, he senses something...

...and is immediately attacked by three demons. He fends them off, and then uses his rose whip to grab one...

...and smash him through a tree, with enough force to kill him. The other two charge, but Kurama's rose whip slices them both to pieces. Kurama tells Yomi he knows he's there.

Yomi steps out, and sees Kurama really has come. Kurama asks what kind of greeting was that, and Yomi tells him not to be angry with him. He's just puzzled at the difference in his presence now, when compared to his presence before. He just wanted to see if he could really serve as an advisor to him. Kurama sees it was just a test, and tells Yomi that they haven't seen each other for a little while, and he's gone and got all cautious on him. Yomi says he wasn't the same person as he was before. Right now, he is one of the three great kings of the Demon Realm.

He says that he rivals the other two, Mukuro and Raizen, who used to reign from far above them. But he's now out to defeat them both. He asks Kurama to lend him his strength. Yuda, another one of Yomi's advisors, then appears. He says it's almost time for the Dream Realm unification war council. As Yomi heads off, he stops and decides to allow Kurama to take part in today's meeting.

Yuda takes a look at Kurama, and doesn't think he has that great a spectral power. He asks Yomi if he's serious about letting him go to the meeting, and Yomi says he is. The three head into the city, and the meeting begins. Yuda pulls up a graph.

He says the graph shows the relative military strengths of all three nations, with their own nation's overall strength being represented as being 100. Each nation is represented by their king, in what amounts to one man teams. He then updates the graph, to include the projections for military strengths a year from now. They are surprised to see that Raizen's power is down to nothing. Yuda says that it's because Raizen will die within a year. His strength has already declined to the point where his life it at risk, and this is reliable information they've received. Yuda believes any future military planning should aim to acquire the military strength flowing out from Raizen's nation, in addition to picking up any able personnel from everywhere else.

Yomi asks Kurama what his views are. Kurama asks Yuda to display the strength of each nation's king, along with each nation's second in command. Yuda says he can bring a lot more than that up, but Kurama says just the kings and their second in commands will be fine. Yuda brings up Raizen first, and says the data on military strength is measured by their nation's intelligence agents.

He then brings up Mukuro and Yomi. He then brings up the number twos for each nation. First up is the sage priest, Hokushin.

Kirin is displayed for Mukuro's side, and then finally, for their own nation, Shachi is displayed. Kurama looks at the data and says that, in short, for each country, the number two guy is not even skilled enough to be the king's right hand man.

Supposing that Raizen dies, it will come down to the two remaining nations. But there's no difference between the remaining two king's powers. As such, the battle would usually come to rest between the forces of the kings, but the powers of the number two guys are remarkably weak when compared to the king's powers. He believes that, with the exceptions of the kings themselves, the military might of each nation has insignificant strength, and is of no use. Until a new number two appears, one strong enough to rival the king, there's no telling who will win under these circumstances.

Shachi takes this as a sign of Kurama giving up, and tells him he has some poor ingenuity and wisdom. Kurama says in the near future, this scenario is going to radically change. The second in command holds the key to the organization, and within half a year, all of the number twos will be replaced. Shachi gets offended and asks him if he's saying that the power relationship between the three kings is suddenly going to collapse, after a 500 year stalemate. As the meeting ends, Yomi tells Kurama that was the most interesting council meeting he's had in a long time. He could tell Shachi was glaring at Kurama the whole time as he spoke. Shachi's eyes had surpassed hatred, and were starting to overflow with bloodlust towards him. Kurama asks how he could tell that much, and Yomi explains he could sense the change in Shachi's body temperature and blood pressure, his muscles changing, and the air flow around him altering. He tells Kurama that whilst he may have lost his sight, he has become stronger. He then talks about what Kurama had said about the Demon Realm changing. Right now, the child that Raizen had a human woman give birth to, Yusuke Urameshi, is training day and night, in order to lead Raizen's forces in the near future.

He has also received reports that Hiei, who he knows is Kurama's friend, has gone to see Mukuro. Hiei has obtained a surprising amount of power in just a short time. Along with Kurama himself, the three of them are all going to reach the number two positions in half a year. He believes that the adjutant general holds the key to the organization. He then remembers something very important: there's someone he simply must have Kurama meet. He leads Kurama to a large door, and says behind it is the person he'd been continually looking for for over the last thousand years -the one who took his sight.

As Yomi opens the door, he asks Kurama what's the matter -his heartbeat has sped up. The door opens up, and the demon is chained to a wall, nearly dead.

Yomi says that over the last few days, this demon has been wasting away, and has had very little to say. Even now, he can remember when this demon attacked him, a thousand years ago. Back then, he and Kurama worked together, with Kurama being the leader. They were part of a gang of demon thieves...

...and Yomi still had his sight. Back then, the two were both bent on making a name for themselves among the rising powers of the Demon Realm. To do that, they needed power and wealth in order to make their names, and build their nation. The method they chose to get both of these things as once was to become thieves, as that was the most popular method in the Demon Realm. At the time, Yomi was strong-willed and hot-blooded. He was overly confident of his own power, and leapt into whatever danger there was.

It got to the point where he ignored Kurama's decisions, and instead decided for himself on what action to take. Whilst they attacked many castles and villages, he looked on as many of his own subordinates were killed.

One time, Yomi ended up falling into a spike pit. He got lucky with his landing and survived, but was surrounded by demons. However, Kurama appeared and killed them all. He warned Yomi that that personality of his is going to get him killed one day. Yomi saw Kurama as being cool and composed -there was a different kind of cruelness to him. He knew Kurama placed great importance on planning, and always thought three steps ahead of others.

Yomi tells Kurama that, looking back on it now, his contemptuous, take no prisoners attitude caused him great concern over their future. Not long after that, he and several other demons went to another castle, having heard of there being many valuable treasures inside. His group got to the castle, only to find it empty. However, a powerful demon then attacked them. Most of the group were killed quickly...

...and soon only Yomi was left. He held his own against the demon, and asked him what he was here for. The demon didn't reply, and continued his attack. He jumped up and said this was the end, as he used a slashing technique...

...which blinded Yomi. Yomi thrust his sword forward, and was able to hit the demon, causing him to flee. Yomi still wanted to know who his attacker was, and stumbled around.

He ended up falling off a cliff. The last thing he heard the demon say was "life is more important than any reward". He didn't know who attacked him or why, and waited for Kurama to help him, as he always did. But this time, he never appeared. Back in the present, Yomi says a thousand years have passed by, and they have come to this day. He wonders why he and Kurama have never met in the last thousand years. He hopes this demon, the one who stole his sight, might be able to solve that puzzle.

Yomi then starts laughing, and Kurama asks why. Yomi tells him that his heartbeat has returned to normal. Yomi then walks up to the demon, and tells him to wake up. The demon asks to be killed, as he can't take this suffering any longer.

Yomi tells him he's suffered more than enough, and will kill him. But before he does, he asks the demon a question: the name of the person who ordered him to kill Yomi. The demon says it was that terrible man with the cold eyes... the silver-haired demon fox, Kurama. Upon hearing this, Yomi screams...

...and stomps on the demon, killing him. Yomi tells Kurama that he doesn't blame him. Looking back on it now, he certainly was a fool back then. If he'd been in Kurama's position, he would have done the same thing.

Kurama asks him what he wants. Yomi says that he wants Kurama to lend him his strength, and become an advisor. For the sake of his ambitions to unite the Demon Realm, he wants Kurama to help him, in his own way. Kurama asks what will happen if he refuses.

Yomi says humans seem to enjoy traveling, and he knows the human Kurama cares about the most is currently traveling by plane. He thinks it would be nice if that plane did not crash. Kurama realizes he has no choice.

Yomi knows about what happened to Kurama, such as how he ended up in the Human Realm, and how he inhabited an unborn human. He also knows that Shiori taught him about human love, and she was the one he focused his love on.

Yomi says that the first step in military strategy is to gather intelligence -that was something Kurama taught him. Kurama asks him who taught him to put on such a poor charade. Yomi laughs and says he knows Kurama is genuinely enraged, yet somewhere inside that head of his, he's still thinking calmly, coming up with some way not to lose the person he holds dear. He thinks of what a miserable, cold and fearsome person Kurama is. As he walks out of the room, he says that the Demon Realm will soon be plunged into great disorder, and when that happens, it's when he'll need Kurama's composure and cold-bloodedness. He wants Kurama to utilize those powers for him.

Kurama has been listed as an advisor to Yomi. However, the two of them, fellow thieves in the past, carried smoldering embers of hatred toward each other that could erupt at any time.


NEXT EPISODE PREVIEW

(Yusuke is speaking)

In order to fulfill his promise to Yomi, Kurama has managed to draw out some pretty bizarre characters. For crying out loud, what the hell goes on inside that head of yours? I'd like to have a look for myself. But you know, there's going to be envious folks no matter where you go -watch yourself. Next time: Demon Fox Transformation! A Creeping Bloodlust. The Other World's not watching for nothing!