Series: Yu Yu Hakusho
Race: Demon (in a human's body and family)
Age: Centuries of demon life; human age: now 20
Demon Name: Kurama
Human Name: Shuichi Minamino
Mother: Shiori (divorced and remarried)
Stepbrother: Kokoda
Appearance:
As a human Kurama has bright green eyes and a red mane of hair. When transformed into his demon self, he has a fox ears and and tail. His eyes turn slanted and are an intense amber gold. His hair morphs into long silver silky locks.
Powers:
Kurama has the intellect of centuries of combat and thievery in the Makkai, the demon realm, and a great endurance for pain, often combatting long after being crippled by his opponent. His youki, demon energy, can manipulate plants of all sizes as various weapons, even using his own body/ blood as a catalyst, and encourages growth. In his demon form, the rate at which his youki affects plants increases. His signature weapon is the rose whip, a rose which he pulls from his hair and transforms into a long thorny whip that he wields with deadly precision, both for attack and defense.
History:
Kurama was an elite thief in the demon world, known as the Makai, for centuries, until he was hunted down by the Spirit Realm's elite soliders. Severelly wounded, he escaped to the human world to recover in human fetus, in Shiori Minamino's body, planning to stay there only until his powers returned. However, he didn't factor in his mother's heart. When his father abandoned her, he stayed with her. Vanishing from the Demon World and believed dead, he learned about the worth of humanity and developed compassion along with his demon abilities, even attending school as Shuichi Minamino.
Hiei, a demon looking for power, found him, and together with another lesser demon, they robbed the Spirit Realm of their most prized possessions. His partners wanted the tools for themselves, but Kurama was different. When Yuusuke, the Spirit Realm detective, defeated the first demon, Kurama approached him in the aftermath. "Don't worry. I have no intention of fighting you, nor do I intend to flee. In fact, I'd come come to ask you a favor." On the night of a full moon, a couple days hence, the power of the Mirror of Forlorn Hope would grant him one wish, to save his sick mother, yet at a price, his own life. Kurama knew this. However, Yuusuke intervened, offering his own life, not Kurama's, because he knew the face of a mother who had lost her child. The mirror acknowledged the detective's sacrifice and decided to heal Kurama's mother without taking life. In return, Kurama saved Yuusuke's life when he battled Hiei for the final, and most powerful, item.
Thus began their friendship. Yuusuke even got to Hiei. The two demons joined him in his quests, first as part of their sentence, then, of their own free will, for their own reasons.
Hiei and Kurama relate to each other from their time in the harsher Makkai world, though Hiei denies the effect humanity has on him.
Personality:
Kurama is one if, if not, the most complex characters in the story. Traits and personality blended from both his time in the Makkai as one of the elite against his peaceful upbringing as a human, he is a person comprised of equal parts of darkness and light. He's very intelligent, one of the top students of his year, and clever with his words at all times. Even he doesn't laugh a lot, not unlike Hiei, the other demon companion of their group, Kurama smiles often, complimenting others and offering explanations as to Hiei's behavior. His deep well of compassion doesn't deter him from making calm decisions and logical strategies in battle. When the four companions enter the Dark Tournament, the darker side of this fox makes a more prominent mark.
"Hie cannot prepare for the brutality of these fights. His honor makes him go easier on you. I will not." - Kurama to Kuwabara, Yusuke's friend, while training him to survive the tournament
Kurama regards emotions highly, taking wounds and risking himself often for his teammates and even another demon, an opponent in the Dark Tournament hoping to escape the darkness of his life so far. When being toyed with, emotionally or physically, he can be quite menacing and aloof in return, his cruelty taking new leaps when an opponent forces him back into his demon fox form by means of a potion. If there is nothing but darkness in his enemy, Kurama has no qualms about finishing them, completely, destroying their mentality and their attacks in his own counterstroke.
Rarely does Kurama's anger deepen to a point where it affects his combat. Most notable exceptions to this is the deep-set hatred Kurama develops for the demon Toguro the Elder and the manipulation of the demon Karasu. Karasu locks onto Kurama as the perfect beautiful opponent to be destroyed by him, and not only does he toy with his marked prey, he demonstrates his superior abilities, in combat and speed, invoking a deep-rooted fear in the fox demon as well as a primal duel of superiority and survival. Toguro exhibits a sick liking to playing with his prey, not only towards their death, but of breaking their soul, stripping them of all resistance and hope, crossing the line in both Kurama's and Hiei's line of conduct. Daring to attempt the same by prodding into Kurama's mind, the fox demon reacts and condemns the villain to an eternity of suffering.
"Rely on instinct and not even your thoughts can betray you."
The darkest duel is Kurama's numb winning of a game, killing of a child for the greater good.
