Toguro wandered off for three months, and Genkai finally found him the day before the tournament, but he seemed different to her, as if he could care less about her.

 

The highest class of demon that almost never aged, and had amazing strength. Genkai was heartbroken and wished never to have to be involved in the tournament again. She spent the next fifty years of her life in a dojo atop a mountian in Ningenkai, developing amazing spiritual power and psycic abilities. She became known as the amazing elderly exorsist who could destroy people without even touching them with the power of her Spirit Wave, a technique she developed with her spiritual power. Spirit detective, Yusuke Urameshi's second job was to infiltrate her dojo during her disciple search and obtain her power before the evil demon, Rando could.

 

When he first met Genkai he thought of her as nothing but a shrivled runt who could do nothing but mock people, but she soon displayed her phenominal powers by launching two angry attackers away with her psycic abilities. After many bumps and bruises, Yusuke defeated Rando and Genkai accepted him as a student, and she was quite interested in his strength. They spent six months in training and Yusuke came back home practically traumatized by his rough half year at "Grandma's Evil Bootcamp." Yusuke's next mission was to rescue an ice apparition from a gangster trying to sell the jewels that she created when she cried. Her name was Yukina, and Yusuke soon learned that she was his friend Hiei's sister.

 

With Kuwabara and Botan with him, Yusuke stormed the mansion and tried to rescue Yukina, but standing in their way was none other than Ototo Toguro and his older brother Ani. Knowing nothing of how Toguro knew his mentor, Yusuke supposedly killed the two with the help of Kuwabara and Yukina was safe. Later on, Toguro rose, for he was not killed, and came to Yusuke during his night on the town, threatening to kill everyone he knew if he didn't participate in the Dark Tournament. Yusuke had no choice, and rounded up three of his friends, Hiei, Kuwabara, and Kurama. He still needed a fifth member to his team, but a mysterious masked fighter came to Yusuke and said he would help.

 

In one of the first fights, the Masked Fighter saves Yusuke's life by shoving him out of the way of a deadly attack, and takes the blow himself, sending him crashing into the far wall. Now Yusuke is angry, and he's ready to kill the opponents, who are actually innocent because they're under mind control. At the last minute the Masked Fighter rises from the dust. He jumps into action just in time to save Yusuke once more, and his mask comes loose in the process. As the cloth falls from his face, the Masked Fighter is revealed to be a very beautiful young woman.

 

A huge vortex forms from her palm, and the other fighters are afraid to attack, but Dr. Ichigachi tells them it's just a trick, and that no one could ever release that much energy. The three fighters approach and prepare to attack the Masked Fighter, but they become trapped against the wall of the vortex. The Masked Fighter chants the words, "Shu, no, ken." and inserts two fingers into the hearts of the fighters one at a time, and the devices controlling them explode. The vortex disappears and they lay unconcious in the ring. Team Urameshi is announced the winners of the match, but Kuwabara is upset because he thinks the fighters are dead, but after a moment they arise, and the Masked Fighter explains the technique she used. She said she used Genkai's legendary Spirit Wave to cleanse their spirits.

 

Later on Yusuke and the Masked Fighter are arguing on what Yusuke's going to do to become strong enough to defeat Toguro. She says she should probably be the leader of the team if he's not going to do anything. She begins to step out and tells him to follow her, and he agrees, thinking he's going to fight her when they get outside. Everyone is worried about Yusuke, because they know the Masked Fighter is much stronger than him, but when Botan rushes to Koenma to tell him, he only responds by saying it's time for Yusuke's final test.

 

The Masked Fighter takes Yusuke deep into the forest, and he's starting to get annoyed, but she calls him a dim wit, and now he's suspicious, because that's what Genkai always called him. They walk a little further, and the Masked Fighter says it's time she revealed her identity, but Yusuke says he already saw beneath her mask, yet she removes it again, and she is none other than the elderly Genkai. Yusuke is really confused now. Earlier he had seen a beautiful young woman, and now Genkai stood before him. He figures she'd switched places with someone, and asks, "So who's that pretty girl, Genkai?" with a grin. She responds, "You're lookin' at her."

 

He's never been more confused, and replies, "But she was so-"

"Shut up. I can still take you out right now," she says with a frown. She explains to Yusuke about using her Spirit Wave Orb to reverse her cells to the time when they were strongest, and displays her amazing power by reversing to her younger form and shooting a monster spirit gun that completely obliterates a mountain-sized boulder. She looks back to Yusuke, old again, and he asks her if she did that just to show off, but she says that once upon a time that blast would have gone on for miles.

 

She turns away again and tells him of the power she used to possess that she believed she would always have, but no one is powerful forever. Her strength was no good to her or anyone else, so she would let her apprentice decide what to do with the power, and that apprentice was Yusuke. She tells him that the final test he must take will be the hardest he'll ever take in his life, and asks if he's ready. Yusuke says he's ready, and she tells him what he must do: He has to take away her life.

 

Yusuke looks shocked and asks her if she's serious, and she only tells him to meet her at the nearby cave when he's ready. He watches her leave, and memories of their training together rush through his mind. She saved his life during the last match. She taught him every technique he knew and made him ten times as strong as he used to be, but he needed that power to defeat Toguro and protect his friends.

 

Later on he met her at the cave, and she tells him to come at her with all he's got, but he says he can't do it. She yells at him and says he has to do it, but he says he can't, and there must be another way. She smirks and says he passed her final test, then turns around and begins to laugh.

 

 

His real test was to absorb her Spirit Wave Orb. It would give her all the strength she possessed and he would take it farther than she could ever go. She removes the glowing orb from her body.

 

He's burning up, and every time he even moves a finger he feels an electric shock. As he lays there he thinks of all the people he's letting down. All of his friends will die because he can't handle a test. Sakyo will do whatever he wants with the prize money, and knowing Sakyo, he'll devise some kind of plan to wipe out everyone in the world and start some kind of demon race. Everything and everyone will die because he couldn't handle a little pain.

 

He silently says goodbye to all of his friends. Right then he wishes he had just a little water, just to stop the heat from melting him from the inside. He feels a little drop of water on his tongue, and now he's a little happier, but where did the water come from? He opens his eyes and flying above him is his spirit beast, Puu. He flies back to where he got the water and uses his ears to scoop some more up for Yusuke, and begins to make his way back to him, but collapses in the effort, and struggles to get to him, but Puu is suffering too.

 

Yusuke remembers what Koenma told him. If he feels pain, Puu does too. If he dies, so does Puu. Now he's even letting down his inner self.

 

Outside, Genkai is sitting against a tree blaming herself for everything that had happened. She had searched so long for the right student, and now she was killing him. She'd blown her only chance.

 

He reaches Genkai, and she looks up at him. He's covered in small cuts, his face is smudged with dirt, and his normally gelled hair is hanging loose, shining with sweat, but he's smiling. He's finally completed his training. She congradulates him, and he hands her Puu, telling her to take good care of him.

 

They can sense her fragility and massive loss of spiritual energy. Shishi begins the fight by chasing her all around the ring with her sword, and all she can do is dodge because he's too quick for her. He attacks her in midair when she can't dodge, and she just narrowly escapes a swipe in the face, but her mask comes loose again, and instead of the lovely young Genkai, everyone sees the aged Genkai. She has lost her power to convert her cells to their strongest time. The fight is post-poned until the judges decide what to do with this woman they think is an imposter, but Toguro takes the microphone from Koto the referee and explains her cell reversing technique. 

 

He tells everyone that the Masked Fighter is actually the legendary Genkai. Questions fill the stands: How does Toguro know so much of Genkai's techniques? Why does he act like he knows her?

 

The fight between Genkai and Shishi continues, and now that Shishi knows who she really is, he'll stop messing around. He pulls apart the hilt of the sword and a thing that looks like a mangled head without skin or eyeballs is between the two parts of the hilt. He calls it the Banshee Shriek.

 

He begins to laugh and unleashes the power of the sword. The Chorus of a Thousand Skulls. Ghostly skulls float about the stadium, and Kurama explains to Hiei about the power of the skulls. They destroy any living thing in their path. They begin to attack the audience, and then they group up and fly straight for Genkai.

 

Juri the announcer jumps out of the way just in time, but Genkai is not so fortunate. The skulls crash into the ring where she stands creating a huge explosion. As the dust clears an enormous crater is seen right where Genkai stood. Shishi announces that Genkai is dead and he has finally obtained the fame and glory he had been searching for, and Juri cries out that she was standing right where that crater was and it could have been her who'd been completely obliterated. A voice comes from nowhere and says, "I know how you feel. That could have been me, too."

 

Shishi gasps and looks behind him to see Genkai standing at the other side of the ring, smirking. Shishi says he doesn't know how she dodged his attack at the last minute, but she won't get away again. He uses the sword's power to materialize the screams of the dead into a barrier, caging them both in. Genkai begins to mock him, and her sarcasm is really getting on his nerves, so he lunges at her with his sword to end it quickly. Miraculously she catches the blade between her bare hands, and her face changes from old to young once more.

 

He lunges at her with his sword again, but before he can get anywhere near her she fires another Spirit Reflection Blast. He's on his back again, too exhausted to stand. He only asks, "You really don't fight for justice, do you?"

"No. I attack whatever's in the way of getting what I need. It just that most of them happen to be demons."

"I think I may have fallen in love. If things had been different... And if you still looked like this all the time... We could have been together... once."

"I die a lucky one." Shishi passes out and Juri runs up to declare Genkai the winner of the match. She's a little excited. "Whoo, hoo! You go girl! What's it like being a young gal in a mostly male tourna-" She looks down to see the elderly Genkai. "Oh. Well... Good job!"

 

Onji is an old man and Kuwabara thinks he can take him down easily, but he loses within about three minutes. Onji uses a technique somewhat like Shishi's Cape of no Return, but in bubble form, Kuwabara walks right into it thinking it's just to scare him, and it teleports Kuwabara right back to the old stadium. Hiei is the most annoyed. "He walked right into it."

 

"Forgive me if I'm not one bit impressed," Suzuka says. She replies, "Well you can at least give me credit for the nose." She holds up his rubber nose and twirls it on her finger by the elastic string.

 

She pulls back the string and flings the nose at him, hitting him in the face. He continues to stare, and she says that she won't bother using any spirit energy on a weak fool like him. He says that he won't use any spirit energy either and begins to pump up his muscles with some kind of strange technique. She raises her eyebrows at the newly muscular Suzuka and says he has real problems. He's angry now, and asks what kind of problems.

 

She says he knows every trick in the book, but he doesn't have the strength to back them up, and he just didn't have what it takes... So she beat him up.

 

Afterwards she sat at Yusuke's bedside at the hotel, with Kuwabara leaning against the wall by the door. It was silent for a while, and then she stood and headed for the door. She told Kuwabara she was stepping out for a while, and asked him not to let Yusuke follow her. "Are you in trouble, Genkai?" She paused for a moment and replied, "You have a large heart, Kuwabara. Use it well." And she made her way to a clearing in the forest. Toguro asks her if she's done what she had to do, and she replies by saying that everything she's needed has been fulfilled, and he says that's good because he'd hate to put an unfulfilled hag out of her misery (The rest will read like a book.).

 

"Tell me what you thought about when you couldn't sleep at night, for I know that it happened," says Genkai. Toguro pauses for a moment and answers, "At first I only thought of you, Genkai... Which is a major reason why you must die." About now Yusuke realizes that Genkai is gone, and asks Kuwabara where she went, but Kuwabara tells him she doesn't want him to follow her, but he jumps out of bed and runs for it anyway. "I'd like you to watch me as I power up this time. See the strength you could have had." Toguro powers up until his muscels expand abnormally, and Genkai sighs. "What a silly little girl I was, thinking you could change," she says. "You had it written, in ugly black letters, all across your soul." Genkai remembers a time fifty years ago when they fought together, practicing for the Dark Tournament. They defeat a few demons, and then she remembers a time when they took a boat ride on the river together. The younger Toguro says, "You were good in there, Genkai." She doesn't reply, and he adds, "It will only be a matter of time before we come out victors of the Dark Tournament."

"And then what?" she asks. "We go farther," he replies. "Until it's all downhill, and some weak fool makes off with our strength as we rot in our own skin..." Genkai doesn't reply. "You're a beautiful girl, Genkai."

"Thank you," she replies. The boat comes to the dock and they step out. "Sometimes I think life is just a cruel joke. We live long enough just to get what we want..." He sinks down to his knees in tears and Genkai turns around with a concerned look on her face. "...and then it erodes." The memory fades and the elderly Genkai says, "I was so moronic to think that you could change. You were just selfish, selling your soul for a moment of strength."

"Oh, that stings," he replies. "The way I see it you didn't have the guts to gain this kind of strength, and I did!"

 

Toguro charges at her with a punch ready, and she is ready with her first blast. She only has enough energy for three. She jumps and lands the blast on his left shoulder, but he gets a hold of her left shoulder just before she dodges and pulls. He breaks skin and she jumps back stumbling and claps a hand to her bloody shoulder, then falls to her knees gasping for breath. "You've been improving your dodging," he says.

 

"That swipe I just made was supposed to remove your heart." He drops a piece of her bloody tunic on the ground and she breathes harder. "The commitee was very thorough when they granted my wish. They also gave me a body that is very quick to heal." Genkai notices the huge hole in his arm the blast left, but it heals up almost instantly.

 

"There... really is nothing left of you," she says just loud enough for him to hear. He goes up to 80% power and his muscels grow even more. His skin is beginning to look like armor. He shoots some kind of red energy attack at Genkai, and she just barely dodges and lands on her back. While she's on the ground, Toguro sends a punch straight into the ground and she jumps just in time.

 

Boulder-sized bits of Earth fly upward and she avoids all of them, then fires another blast at him. When she lands, he's still standing. The attack didn't even scratch him. "Do you know why demons want your head?" he asks. "It's not because of the fights you win. It's because you gave up the chance to be something truly great."

"Great by your standards, not by mine!" she yells back at him.

 

"Now, there's no point in shouting back and forth anymore," he says as he cracks his wrists and prepares for the finishing blow. "I hope you're at least happy with how you've wasted your life." He charges at her, fist ready.

 

"Only one regret, Toguro," she says too quietly for him to hear, just before leaping up as high as she can. "Though my Spirit Wave benefited me in many ways, it never allowed me to do what I wanted most in my first hour of seclusion." As she uses all that's left of her energy, her face changes from old to young for the last time. "Some day I will come back and save you from your madness." She punches upward as hard as he can and she fires her final blow, but he breaks through the blast of energy and buries his fist in her stomach, sending her flying backward. She tries to scream in pain as she falls, but no sound will come.

 

Yusuke reaches the clearing just then. He looks from Toguro to Genkai laying on her stomach with her face in the dirt, covered in blood. "You have arrived too late," says Toguro. "I will never forget her expression... As she used every last bit of her energy to try to stop me."

 

Yusuke runs to Genkai without a word, then turns her over and supports her head. "Genkai," he says. "Genkai, get up. Come on. Trust me, Genkai. I'll get you out of here."

 

She opens her eyes slowly and smiles. "Hey... dim... wit," she says quietly. "Yeah, that's right. I knew you were too stubborn to be killed by a jerk like him," says Yusuke. "Come on. Let's get back to the hotel. We can get Kurama to heal you, or Botan, or Yukina. Hey, we've got a whole E.R. unit now..."

"Yusuke..." says Genkai. "It's okay... I knew."

"What do you mean you knew?" he asks. "They came to inform me three months ago," she replies. She remembers when two representatives from the tournament commitee had come to her door asking her to join the Dark Tournament. When she refused, they told her Yusuke would be competing and would not live long without her, and then she didn't have a choice.

"When an old teammate traps you in a tournament after fifty years you don't take it lightly. I knew I would die here."

"You're not making any sense. What do you mean old teammate?" asks Yusuke. "You can't mean you and Toguro..."

"Yusuke, he abandoned us for his youth and his precious strength," she says.

 

"It's the truth, Yusuke," says Toguro. "That was my wish fifty years ago when my team became the victors of the Dark Tournament. Suffice to say, your teacher didn't exactly agree with my plans." He grins wickedly and Yusuke scowls.

 

"Yusuke..." says Genkai. "Hey, try and save your energy," Yusuke says. "Darn it Yusuke, listen to me!" she exclaims as she grabs his shoulder. "Everyone has to fight with time to find their place before their inevitable death."

 

"Toguro... He ran away from that fight. Don't you ever do the same... No human is ever a one man show. Every... decision that you make will affect the countless people who care about you."

 

She touches his cheek and his eyes begin to glitter with tears. "Do you understand? You can't be a... cocky kid anymore... You... have... to..." Her eyes grow wide, and then she closes them slowly. Her body falls limp in his arms and everything is silent.

 

Hair Color: Pinkish gray

Eye Color: Brown

Height: A little less than four feet

Weight: By her size, around 90 lbs.