Yen, Kai, and Ryo—known as M1, M2, and M3 on Team Ichigaki—have a tragic story. They trained in martial arts together as kids under their master Mitamura, but everything fell apart when Dr. Ichigaki poisoned him. Desperate to save their teacher, the three traded their freedom for his cure. The catch? Ichigaki implanted Blood-Slaver Nodes on their backs—devices that enslaved them completely while boosting their strength to inhuman levels. The nodes couldn't be removed without killing the host, so their souls stayed trapped inside their own bodies, powerless to resist, though some part of them never stopped wanting escape, even if it meant death.
Despite being controlled, they weren't totally helpless. Their souls could reach out, which is how they managed to send Kuwabara a dream-message explaining their whole situation. In actual combat, they're genuinely formidable. M2 and M3 throw invisible attacks that only trained fighters can perceive, while M1 keeps opponents distracted with visible strikes. Together they're nearly unbeatable, constantly covering each other and forcing enemies into a purely defensive position.
During the Dark Tournament preliminaries, they won every match without breaking a sweat and killed an opposing fighter who tried to take them down first. When they faced Team Urameshi in the main bracket, things got messy. They had Kuwabara neutralized early, but Yusuke's anger at Ichigaki unlocked his ability to see through their techniques. The real turning point came when Genkai hit them with a special move that let their trapped souls make an actual choice—corrupt or pure. Their souls chose freedom and removed the nodes themselves without dying, handing Team Urameshi the win.
After that, Genkai helped them understand they weren't traitors, and Mitamura forgave them completely. Kai even volunteered to replace Kuwabara on the team out of guilt, but tournament rules shot that down. All three of them and their master made it out of the arena alive.
Content compiled by AnimeList.moe from publicly available sources.
