In Yu Yu Hakusho, when Yusuke has to fight a yokai named Toguro to save the world, it is revealed that Toguro was once a human.
Toguro is a powerful yokai who works for Sakyo, who arranges yokai fights for rich men and makes money by getting them to gamble.
With Toguro by his side, Sakyo has never lost a bet, as no yokai can defeat someone as strong as Toguro.
Sakyo kidnaps Keiko to lure Yusuke to Kubikukuri Island and fight Toguro for the entertainment of wealthy people. As all bets are placed in favor of Toguro, Sakyo instructs the yokai to deliberately lose.
However, when Sakyo gambles with Enma to merge the Human World and the Demon World and places a bet on Toguro, the yokai is asked to defeat Yusuke.
It is only then that the true extent of Toguro’s brute strength as well as the story of how he turned into a yokai is revealed.
Toguro’s painful past
When Toguro was human, he was close friends with Master Genkai. They wanted to become martial arts masters together, but an incident changed Toguro’s dreams.
Fifty years ago, a yokai named Kairen wanted to fight Toguro. The yokai attacked him, and Toguro ended up losing that battle.
After defeating Toguro, the yokai devoured his students right in front of his eyes. A helpless Toguro could not do anything to stop Kairen, so he had to witness his students’ deaths.
Toguro then made the decision to turn into a yokai to attain greater strength. He succeeded in getting reincarnated as a yokai with the help of the Demon World.
While his human friend, Master Genkai, aged with time, Toguro did not age a day. Apart from everlasting youth, his new yokai form also gave him immense power.
To be haunted by the past
When Toguro fights Yusuke, he tries to get Yusuke to use all his power by hurting his friends. To unleash Yusuke’s power, he makes him suffer the way he himself did in the past.
Toguro wants to fight someone strong, so he tries to get Yusuke to follow in his footsteps and acquire strength by giving up on his friends.
Even without giving up on his friends, Yusuke forces him to take his yokai form. Toguro has never needed to use all his power, but against Yusuke, he needs to fight with all his might.
Yusuke defeats Toguro, who is grateful to have fought a worthy opponent. After his death, Toguro chooses the worst afterlife for himself.
This makes Enma suspect that this is what Toguro wanted all along. Due to the pain he suffered in his past, Toguro wanted to punish himself. He wished to fight someone powerful and face defeat.
Toguro kept telling himself and others that he abandoned his friends, but the truth is that all his friends were taken away from him.
Toguro had convinced himself that he desired power. However, the underlying reason for his decision to be a yokai was the haunting memory of his students’ deaths and his inability to protect them.
Toguro’s past had a huge impact on the kind of person he turned out to be. The guilt and anger drove him to become a formidable yokai.
Also Read: Kazuma Kuwabara: Yu Yu Hakusho character explained