As you know, Hiei did test Yusuke upon his return and was pleased with the progress he'd made, as was Kurama and that Yusuke ended sleeping through the trip and most of the first round of the tournament. Both Kurama and Hiei knew exactly how much progress had been made and how that progress had been made. Yusuke hadn't been allowed to sleep the whole month he'd been gone and he'd been pushed to develop his spiritual power to the point where reiki was almost the same as youki. Such a huge change in such a short amount of time was draining, to say the least. They both knew, even if Kuwabara didn't fully understand because they kept it from him, that Yusuke was rather close to death when he rejoined them.

There is a rather big difference between reiki and youki and their drain on a human body. Youki draws powerfully from the area around a person or demon, basically turning the body into a conduit, which explains why demons are able to fight so long and recover quickly. However, being a conduit is unnatural to the human body, which relies on its own strength and energy to produce reiki. Some humans can learn to channel some of the energy around them, but it's a very limited amount and significant recovery periods. What Genkai put Yusuke through forced his body to adapt, to become more like a demon's body so that he could channel energy more freely. Since this process is unnatural for humans, it's usually done over the course of years. Yusuke went through it in a month.

This is something similar to what Kurama and Hiei were doing to Kuwabara, as well, but, while they did push Kuwabara past what humans would normally be able to do in such a short amount of time, they didn't push him nearly as far as Yusuke was pushed, nor did they really push him past human limitations, just faster than most humans went. While it wasn't completely obvious yet, Yusuke had reserves that humans normally didn't have. This gave him an advantage that Kuwabara didn't have, despite the fact that Kuwabara had a naturally higher spiritual aptitude. Dying once already offered part of Yusuke's advantage and that Genkai was a bloody bitch was another advantage. Kurama does have a few scruples and morals, after all. Not many, but a few, enough to work well Kuwabara's limits.

The change from using reiki to youki will also create a change in the feeling of the person. Both Kurama and Hiei were very aware of this and Kuwabara could feel the difference, even if he didn't understand what it meant. He just knew his friend was moving away from him and wasn't sure how to deal with it. It didn't help him at all when Yusuke passed out almost immediately.

As you know, there had to be five members of the team to join the tournament and if they didn't join, the four would be hunted down and killed. Yes, this is very cliché, but what can you do. Things have to go a certain way when you're rewriting DragonBall…or rather, writing an adventure story. So, the fifth member of their team joined them, swaddled to hide their identity for the purpose of the boys learning to trust them, though Yusuke trusted the Masked Warrior so Kurama and Hiei accepted him. Kuwabara, though, had to be convinced.

And, as you know again, there were several teams on a boat taking them to Kubikukuri Island. The captain told them, once they were underway, that only one of the teams on the boat would be allowed to compete. By this time, Yusuke had passed out. Kuwabara, familiar with the tropes of video games, began to panic. How could they survive a man down, after all? They needed all five of them to get to the island, after all, or they wouldn't be there. Despite being asleep, Yusuke did prove he could defend himself. His body was on overdrive, after all.

Then, to simplify things as well as to prove something, the Masked Fighter takes on everyone else in the impromptu fighting ring and knocks them off with something that looks suspiciously like Yusuke's shotgun, but that's not foreshadowing at all. Then Kurama and Hiei take care of most of the rest while Kuwabara gets a couple and Yusuke even manages to get one while having nightmares about Genkai's training.

So, our team arrives at the island to find themselves at a resort. While Kurama and Hiei both knew that humans found demons fighting an entertainment equal to none. Kuwabara, true to his character, finds the fact that they're going to be entertainment offensive. Fighting was supposed to be for rich do-nothings, especially since their last fight for rich do nothings caused them to end up in the Ankokubujutsukai. The demons, though, find the promise of anything they could ask for was enough to put up with being a 'cheap thrill' for those with enough money and stupidity to show up, though there were some precautions to make sure that the humans wouldn't be too harmed by what happened. It wouldn't do to completely destroy one's source of validity and income, after all.

So, Kurama gave Kuwabara an excuse to allow for the rich to be there and they made their way to their room, Kuwabara feeling out of his depth. While trying to relax, it was pointed out to Kuwabara again just how out of their depth they were. It was like they were going to be facing the big boss when they were still in the first level of their game.

Now, Kurama and Hiei both knew what to expect in the tournament, though neither had been there as contestants, and most definitely not as 'sacrificial' contestants. While they did not regret their choice of partners, at least when it came to Yusuke and the Masked Fighter, even Kuwabara, for all his inability or unwillingness to believe this was anything but an elaborate RPG, wasn't nearly as bad as he could have been as a partner, they weren't particularly thrilled at how easy it had become to get around them. They had gotten to used to the human world, to being around those who, even when they tried to be quite, came across as loud as a tap dancer on a nightingale floor, though normal was more along the lines of standing next to Niagara Falls and they were beginning to realize just how used to the noise they'd gotten, especially after Rinku and Zeru's visit.

That night, between sharing a suite, though not a bedroom, with Kuwabara and the Masked fighter, not being sure what the following day would hold and being somewhat tired from training, and wanting to reset their sensitivity levels back to where they should be, Kurama and Hiei spent a quiet night, not talking, just resting. Boring, I know, but you have to consider what they'd be facing and they wanted to be prepared.

Neither of them were surprised that Kuwabara couldn't wake Yusuke in the morning and told him to lay off after a few minutes.

Now, let's go over a few things you did see and explain why they there. There is a reason that Kurama often takes the role of Captain Exposition and Captain Obvious. Consider that originally the story was created in a flat, non-moving form. It was needed to have something to indicate what was going on. Kurama has the most lucid thoughts about what is going on since he is more of a strategist than Hiei. Hiei also wouldn't think in words, he would think more in action and Kuwabara would think too much like a boy playing a video game and that's not the most coherent thing in the world and would show just how much he's not getting that what is going on is real. When the form was changed to animated, Kurama maintained his role as there are some things, many things, that are difficult to convey via animation. Most of what Kurama says, then, should be considered to be his inner monologue rather than things he's actually saying though they show his mouth moving a lot. It's not so much that he flaps his lips when his brain is running but more that the animators thought that words meant he was speaking aloud. Also, he does have to explain some of the things to Kuwabara and also sees that it would probably be more beneficial for him to maintain the 'RPG' illusion lest his brain break under the stress and RPG video games have the Expositor, so he took that role.

And, while Kurama did tell Keiko that they were going to a tournament, but no one had told her before Boton explained it, that he was going to be fighting demons again. She believed that Yusuke could hold his own against human fighters, but demons were something entirely different. She did remember what demons were doing when Yusuke went to the Makai and how long it took him to recover from that. In her mind, going up against a whole tournament of demons was just asking to die again. Had it been an option, she would have gone to Kurama to ask him why he didn't try to talk Yusuke out of it, why they were letting him be so stupid, but she had a feeling that Kurama was involved. At this point, she doesn't quite realize that both Kurama and Hiei are demons; she doesn't realize that until during the first match. But, between her and Shizuru, they convince Boton that it would be a better idea for her health to get them to the tournament.

A good portion of Koenma's hesitation, aside from the obvious problem of his typical form, was that he didn't think his father would particularly approve of the Reikai detective participating in a youkai tournament and if he showed up there, his father would be more likely to notice. In the end, it actually came down to the fact that he was the team's owner and the fact that Kurama could and would get into his office without anyone the wiser. While he wouldn't admit it aloud, he was, if not exactly afraid of Kurama, definitely wary of him. He knew, after all, at some level, just who Kurama was and what his reputation was. He also knew that if Hiei was with Kurama, he wouldn't stand a chance. He'd spied on what Kurama and Hiei did in their time off, to George's dismay, and knew that, while he quite enjoyed watching their version of fun, he wanted nothing to do with it, not that they'd be interested in 'fun' if they came after him.

So, everyone in our story gathered at the tournament. Keiko did not want to see Yusuke before hand as she wasn't quite sure how she'd react yet, so the girls just went to their own room for the night before the tournament began. The first day, they were surprised at how many people and demons were there.

I'm sure some are wondering why Atsuko didn't go in the anime though she did in the original story. Let's not discuss that. It'll be better for your enjoyment of the story if we don't. We also won't discuss a few other things that were forced into or out of the story except where they can't be avoided. We are merely here to discuss what went on behind the scenes and why certain things happened when they did and what happened when you couldn't see what was going on.

By the way, as you find out after the first round, in a manner of speaking, by stretching a metaphor nearly to the breaking point, you are reminded that Yusuke is pregnant with that egg he received from Koenma forever ago, or about six months ago, back when he was dead.