In the first match of the Dark Tournament's final round, Kurama, having become a fox demon, had Karasu under pressure. However, after taking Karasu's ferocious counterattack head-on, Kurama returned to his original form. Faced with a desperate situation, Kurama squeezed out the last of his energy and shoot out a plant from the Demon Realm. It appeared as if the two had finished each other off, until...

Kurama: I'm alive...

Intimidation! Bui Removes his Armor

Koto announces that Kurama has defeated Karasu. Kuwabara says that's their first win, and Yusuke says it was a great come-from-behind victory. As Yusuke runs onto the ring, Sakyo says that's their first win.

Yusuke asks Kurama if he's ok and he says he is, but he then apologizes. He says it was all he could do to kill Karasu, but Yusuke doesn't understand what he means. Kurama explains that he wasn't able to win against Karasu. Juri then announces that Karasu was the winner of the match.

Almost everybody is confused by this announcement, and even Koto wonders how in the world could this possibly be. Kuwabara says Kurama eliminated Karasu, and Koenma says it sure looked that way to him. Yusuke confronts Juri and asks her to explain how Kurama lost.

Juri says Kurama lost via the ten-count. Yusuke says he never heard a count, but she says it's true -she does her job correctly, after all. Yusuke thinks otherwise and tells her all she was doing was cowering in a heap, but she tells him if he watches the replay, he'll see that there's no mistake! Yusuke asks Kurama if this is right, and he says it is.

Koto is passed a video tape, and says they'll watch it now for confirmation. The tape starts to play on a massive monitor, and it shows the end of the fight. Kurama is hit by several explosives...

...and he eventually falls down. Juri started her count, and whilst Kurama was using his last attack, he didn't actually get up.

Karasu did not die until after ten seconds had passed. Koto says that Kurama counterattacked whilst he was still down, and it was after Juri had completed her ten count. Therefore Kurama has lost due to being counted out. Most of the spectators are happy with this result, and say the Toguro team now needs only two more wins to be the champions. They start chanting two more wins.

Yusuke tells Juri that they're going to win next, so she should make sure to take the count. He then helps Kurama off the ring, whilst Kuwabara tells the spectators to shut up -Kurama may have lost the match, but he won the fight. He's still alive, after all.

The older Toguro brother tells him he doesn't get it. As the crowd fall silent, he says that whilst Kurama may have survived, the fate of the Urameshi team remains unchanged. Each member of the champion team will receive their prize, and he wishes for the death of all of them! The crowd all cheer for that.

Apart from Keiko's group, of course. Shizuru punches down a demon who was shouting about killing the Urameshi team, and then tells her brother not to let Toguro get the last word like that. Botan slaps another demon a couple of times and says to give Toguro a good solid talking-back to. Jorge says Yukina is weeping over him, but she says she's not. The others tell her it's alright. The demon spectators continue to chant, as Kuwabara once again tells them to shut up.

Hiei then decides to say what his desire is: he wants the lives of every puppet master behind this tournament, so that he'll never have to be called out to this ridiculous game again. Sakyo says such people have already been dealt with -as younger Toguro says it looks like he's granted Hiei's wish on the house. The elder Toguro brother then jumps onto the ring, and wants his first victim.

However, Bui then steps up. He doesn't say anything, but Toguro believes he must be saying that he wants to go. Bui says nothing, but starts walking forward. Toguro tells him to go out there and let them have a good, strong taste of the terror of death. Kuwabara says he'll go this time, and will put on a good show for Yukina. Koenma tells him he'll make sure to gather up his bones afterwards.

Hiei tells Yusuke that he'd hoped to go against the guy with the sunglasses, but out of consideration for Genkai, he'll let him fight with him. He gets onto the ring and says he'll deal with Bui. Kuwabara sees that Hiei is going to go, and Koenma tells him his life has been spared. Kuwabara threatens to kill him.

The two fighters face off, and Juri says it's the Urameshi team's Hiei versus the Toguro team's Bui. Koto comments that the second match of the final round is about to begin -will it be Hiei or Bui that the goddess of victory smiles upon? Bui summons...

...his giant axe. Koenma thinks it's even bigger than before. The audience are all on Bui's side, and tells him to use that axe to cut Hiei clean in half.

Hiei isn't impressed with the axe, and thinks Bui intends to treat him like he's small fry. He removes his cloak and stands ready, and everyone notices that his right arm has a lot of bandages around it.

Kuwabara thinks this means Hiei's right arm hasn't healed up yet. But Kurama says that's not he case -the wrapping is actually curse bindings. Kuwabara wonders what that means, but all Kurama can think about is if Hiei was able to master the black dragon wave. Juri then tells Hiei and Bui to begin. Bui immediately charges forwards...

...and leaps high into the air. He comes crashing back down, and seemingly cuts Hiei in two. However he actually only hit his afterimage. Hiei has gotten behind him, and tells him to act like he means it -right now he doesn't even feel like fighting back. Bui decides to change tactics, and uses his axe to pull up entire pieces of the ring.

He starts sending these Hiei's way, but Hiei jumps around to avoid them. Several chunks end up crashing into some spectators.

Koto comments that Bui has mounted a massive attack, although she finds it so outrageous that he should be flinging tiles from the ring about. Sakyo says it looks like Bui is enjoying himself. Younger Toguro says it's because his opponent here is so incomparable to the one he had in the semifinals. Elder Toguro says it's killing people like Hiei that's so much fun. Sakyo recalls Hiei is the one who used the black dragon wave technique, and he hopes to see it again.

Bui continues throwing ring tiles, but Hiei continues to avoid them all. Hiei gets annoyed at being toyed around with, and decides to fight back. His evil eye opens, burning off his bandanna.

He starts using his wicked king immolation purgatory scorch technique to shatter the tiles, smashing them to pieces with each punch. But as he hits the last one, Bui is right behind it, coming down with his axe ready.

Hiei hits the axe with his fist, and after a few seconds, the axe breaks apart.

The broken piece flies right by Juri, and ends up crashing into some spectators. Bui summons another axe, but Hiei tells him enough already. He tells Bui it doesn't matter how many of those axes he produces, it won't do him any good.

Bui throws the new axe at him, but Hiei stops it with one hand, and destroys it. Koto comments that Hiei has vaporized Bui's axe.

Kuwabara says Hiei melted that axe like it was a helping of monjayaki. Kurama can tell that the force of Hiei's flames has gone up several times over, and his demon energy is also still rising. Right now, he knows that Hiei is capable of summoning a black dragon. Hiei tells Bui to come at him like he means it, as some piece of scrap iron which isn't even infused with demon energy has no chance against him.

The Toguro brothers say the time is upon them, sooner than expected. Bui then speaks for the first time, and says Hiei doesn't appear to be an opponent he can beat whilst he's wearing his armor. Koto comments that's the first time Bui has spoken at all at this tournament... and what a nice, refined voice he has!

Bui says he has only been defeated in battle once before. He had only intended to remove this armor when he fought that man once again. Hiei asks him if he's sure about this, as if he removes his armor, he'll have to take his attacks dead-on. Bui tells him not to worry, and tosses one of his arm gauntlets off. It lands of the ring with a big crash, and Kuwabara wonders how many hundreds of kilos has Bui been fighting under up until now.

Hiei waits for Bui to remove his armor, but Jorge sees this as Hiei's big chance. He tells Hiei to put Bui away right now, but the others don't approve of such a strategy. Botan tells him that a guy like Hiei wouldn't do something like that, and Shizuru says this is a fight between men. If Hiei did such a gutless thing, what fun would that be? Jorge wishes he hadn't said anything.

Bui says that usually, armor is worn in order to defend against attacks from the outside. As he removes his helmet, he goes on to say that in his case, it's a little different. He wears it to suppress his own power, a terrible power he can't fully control. He then unleashes this power, surrounding himself with a green aura.

He reveals he can fly, and Kurama says this is Bui's battle aura, or fighting spirit. This is the first time he's seen someone with power so intense that it could levitate the wielder's whole body. Bui tells Hiei to get serious too, so they can make this something to remember. Hiei says he'll do just that, and surrounds himself with a red aura.

He leaps forward, but seems to just bounce off Bui before he can get close to him. Hiei shoots out a swirling energy projectile which surrounds Bui, but he breaks out of it.

Bui then unleashes his own projectile, but Hiei counters with his own and destroys it.

Bui then throws out his aura battle cross attack, which is another large projectile. Hiei starts zipping around the ring, but the projectile keeps following him. So instead, Hiei jumps up to where Bui is, and gets behind him.

He then moves out of the way, just in time for the projectile to collide into Bui and knock him back down. He crashes into the ring.

Kuwabara thinks there's no way Bui could be in good shape after taking his own attack head-on like that. Hiei returns to the ring, but sees that Bui hasn't taken any damage. He floats out of the crater he created, and tells Hiei to get serious. He has a short temper, and if Hiei is going to continue to act like this, he'll kill him before he can use his black dragon wave. Hiei tells him if he wants to see it so badly... he'll regret it.

He starts removing the wrappings around his arm, and Kurama says this is like what Bui did with his armor. Hiei had been limiting himself by using those bandages to seal up his power. Once he releases it, he'll have more terrible power than he can control... and once he and Bui collide, this whole stadium will be blown away! Hiei prepares himself, and tells Bui there's no turning back now.

The time has finally come for Hiei to use his immolation black dragon wave technique. Has Hiei truly mastered it? And what sort of hidden force does it possess? A death battle where both opponents expend all of their energies is about to begin!


NEXT EPISODE PREVIEW

(Kurama is speaking)

The black dragon, blazing within the flames of the Demon Realm, once again appears. Hiei, you've finally gotten a handle on it, haven't you? When you released the seal and your powers collided, your true strength was exhibited! Is your black dragon wave capable of burning it all up? Next time: The Ultimate Secret Technique! Roar of the Black Dragon Wave. The roar of the black dragon is calling you.