Yusuke's ki flares and fills the whole stadium with bluish ghost-shaped energy flocks. His friends and Koto have trouble describing or classifying that peculiar ki emission.

Memories of Kuwabara bend Urameshi's shoulders as he walks towards Toguro Otouto. "I'll never forgive myself for failing to save my best friend's life."

Toguro shivers: "Uncertainty and hope are consuming my body. For the first time, I'm not sure of my victory. I'm tense and eager... This is the fight I've been always waiting for. I hoped you would feel the same way I do. Thank me for what I'm doing, Urameshi." He runs to Yusuke, to attack. "Now, we're alike."

"That's not truth." Yusuke replies calmly, absently.

"Why not?!" Toguro socks Yusuke, who doesn't react at all as he's thrown hard against the guard rail.

Hiei comments that Toguro and Yusuke's ki levels are even now. Kurama agrees but points out that those two have very different kinds of power.

Yusuke's ki flare starts flashing from blue to red, then back to blue. Jin says that the contact with that energy makes him feel sad and numb inside, and Touya explains: "Urameshi is fighting against himself. He can't forgive himself. Even as strong as he is now, under these circumstances, is he capable of defeating Toguro?"

"Urameshi, you must be heartbroken," Toguro laughs. "Think of this as measles: if you heal from the disease once, it will never torment you again. And what torments you the most... isn't it your weakness? Don't you wish to become stronger? Who doesn't? Take this chance now and forget everything around you, and get to the top like I did." His ki is erupting around him like a volcano. "Believe it deeply: strength is everything."

"I won't be like you, Toguro," says Yusuke. I won't forget those around me." He thinks of Kuwabara, Hiei, Kurama, Koenma and Genkai. "If I got so far, I owe it to my friends."

Toguro is furious. "You imbecile! You don't need anyone else, can't you understand it?"

Yusuke shakes his head decidedly. No.

"Then it seems I have to kill another to make you understand..." Toguro turns to Hiei, Kurama and Koenma; out of the three, the first two stand in defensive stances, the latter yelps and steps back. But Yusuke appears beside Toguro, holding the tall fighter's wrist.

"Once I admired you, Toguro," Urameshi reveals. "I felt attracted to your strength, not knowing your true character." The ground cracks beneath them. "Baasan warned me about it, taught me many things. I was willing to throw everything away and become as strong as you are."

"I hope you do," says Toguro.

"Don't worry, I won't," Yusuke snaps. He remembers Genkai's last words before dying: "Toguro gave up his human life to become a demon. He was obsessed with the idea of keeping his strength for as long as possible. Yusuke, mankind will always have to fight against Time. But he fled from the fight, threw everything away... his pride, his spirit, his friends... Yusuke, you won't do that, you are never alone. Don't you ever forget this..."

"Now I know why you abandoned everything," Urameshi admits. "I won't to the same. I will protect my friends!" He tightens his grip on Toguro's wrist, and the ground around them crumbles.

"You're Genkai's pupil," Toguro smirks. "Unfortunately, just like her."

"I won't allow anyone else to die in your hands," Yusuke promises, and hits Toguro by surprise with a powerful punch that sends the taller fighter through big stone blocks to the other side of the stadium. When Toguro tries to stand, there's barely time for the spectators to notice that his neck is broken: an enormous Reigan knocks him down again before making a hole through the wall behind him and soaring off the island.

Everyone is excited at the turn of events. "Next will be my last shot," Yusuke announces. "I'm gonna put all my energy in it. So come to fight me with all your strength and let's see what happens. No matter what, I'm gonna win and destroy you completely."

Toguro laughs, stands up and pushes his neck back into place, to everyone's shock. Sakyou thinks: "Toguro, finally the moment for the fight you've always looked for has arrived."

Toguro summons every grain of ki in his body and transforms again. Tears of sheer terror run down Juri's face as she gazes at the man's final appearance.

Toguro says Urameshi isn't perfect since he didn't give everything up for the chance of becoming stronger. "You didn't do that either," Yusuke counters. "You just fled. And I won't flee or abandon my friends."

Yusuke prepares the Reigan, thinking to himself: "All my energy. Focus. I don't care if I'll never get to shoot again. I don't care if I die. But I want to shoot this last Reigan using all the strength left in me."

The Reigan sphere at Yusuke's fingertip grows to unprecedented proportions, while Toguro's ki erupts from his shoulder appendixes.

In the stadium no one has any doubts: this is the last attack of the Dark Tournament.

Yusuke shoots the Reigan. Toguro runs forwards and tries to hold the colossal ki sphere with his right hand. At first he seems successful, but his feet draw marks in the sandy ground as his bulky body is pushed backwards. Blood oozes from his over-tensed muscles, and he needs the help of his other hand to try to block the Reigan.

Yusuke can't stand anymore. The last of is power come out of his index finger and he falls on his knees, exhausted. Sakyou smiles confidently... then startles as he sees the Reigan sphere still pushing Toguro backwards.

Toguro yells. The muscles in his back explode in blood as he crushes the Reigan with his mighty arms.

Yusuke passes out.

"It's over," Koto murmurs.

Predicting their doom, the few surviving spectators panic as Toguro walks slowly towards Yusuke's body.

"Thank you very much," says Toguro. "For the first time I could put forward my total strength." His gray, rocky skin cracks all over, bursting open to reveal his tender, wounded flesh inside. "You are complete if you manage to pull 120% against someone in a fight."

Toguro falls. He's dead.

"Now it's really over," Koto adds.

Juri gets out of her hide to examine Toguro's corpse, whose flesh has already decomposed into some white and very dead matter. It seems this Tournament will have no living winner at all...

But suddenly, gapes, smiles and tears show up in people's faces. "Juri, look behind you!" Koto warns.

Yusuke is standing up.

The public yells ecstatically. Koenma, Kurama and Botan murmur Yusuke's name with joy and relief. George cries happy tears. "Hn," Hiei snorts with a lopsided grin.

Koto jumps into the arena. She and Juri officially announce the victory of the Urameshi Team in the Dark Tournament.