Charles and Stella were strolling through the jungle as if on a picnic, heading for the base where Tarukane Gonzo was imprisoning the snow woman, Yukina.
Koenma's efficiency was a bit disappointing—though perhaps he was tied up with the failure to recover the Three Dark Treasures.
The location of this base had been delivered to Charles by Sakyo's people.
At the very least, Sakyo's attitude toward "cooperation" was on point.
For whatever reason, he had also appended quite a lot of material on Tarukane's past crimes to the dossier.
Tarukane certainly lived up to his villain's face—maybe not literally "every crime imaginable," but "crimes piled to the heavens" fit well enough.
Of course, Charles knew that in the so-called underworld—Sakyo included—if you lined them up and shot them one by one, there wouldn't be any miscarriages of justice.
As for why the former Spirit Detective Sensui Shinobu developed the idea of opening the Demon World gateway to destroy the Human World—wasn't it because he saw humanity's sinful side in the line of duty and began to question his lifelong goal of protecting humans?
On top of that, after watching the forbidden Spirit World recording, Chapter Black, and seeing all of humanity's darkness, he broke down into multiple personalities and decided on annihilation.
Frankly, when Koenma handed Yusuke the mission to rescue Yukina in the original story, Charles wondered if he wasn't trying to preempt Yusuke walking Sensui's path, letting him acclimate early.
Charles had a hunch Sakyo sent these materials to see what Charles would choose.
He'd be disappointed, though. Charles's worldview wasn't going to shatter.
After all he'd been through and all the people he'd seen, he knew long ago that a utopia where everyone is good doesn't exist; every world has its darkness.
He also wasn't the hot-blooded type who thinks he can change everyone and transform the entire world.
So long as he protected those around him, he'd change whatever he couldn't stand—that had always been his creed.
Which was why he skimmed Sakyo's information and tossed it aside. Tarukane's end was already sealed.
Charles pushed aside a waist-high thicket and let Stella go first.
There was only one so-called "path" to Tarukane's base—a rough animal trail at best. To hide Yukina, he'd built the base in a place like this—truly leaving no trick unused.
Stella stopped and looked back at Charles. "Looks like we didn't pick the wrong place."
Charles glanced around. "No doubt. I can practically smell something rotting."
What he sensed was the malice aimed at them—Tarukane's perimeter security.
Bang! Bang! Bang…!
With a string of peculiar sounds, several dark shapes streaked toward them. They were oversized, reinforced bolts, each as thick as a child's wrist.
Charles vanished in an instant and reappeared before the bolts, swinging his arm toward all of them.
Only Stella could track his movement. To anyone else, it looked like the bolts suddenly reversed course and flew straight back.
Shattered crossbow parts and a mist of blood sprayed out—the ambushers died without even managing a scream.
A few men in black suits leapt from the brush, drawing katanas to attack.
They, too, went down quickly—Stella felled them bare-handed.
Neither she nor Charles paid the interruptions any mind. With their eyesight, they could already glimpse the castle through gaps in the forest.
…
Inside the castle, Tarukane held a glass of wine red as blood. He took a sip and grinned hideously at the crimson refracted in the glass.
He was in a celebratory mood—things had been going very well for him lately.
Many knew his rise. He had become a top tycoon through jewelry—and the most exquisite kind.
They were ice tear stones, formed from the tears of a snow woman, each worth many times more than the finest diamonds.
Just the one snow woman he'd caught, separated from the Glacier Country, had let him amass an astonishing fortune.
But from the day he captured her, he'd tried every method he could imagine to wring tears from her—torture wasn't even the cruelest.
She seemed "broken," shedding tears with increasing difficulty. It had been a long time since he'd obtained new ice tear stones.
So he spent heavily to hire the most notorious yokai group of late—the Toguro Brothers.
You get what you pay for: as soon as the Toguro Brothers arrived, Yukina shed tears again, and he obtained fresh stones.
Just then, urgent knocks sounded.
"What is it?"
Annoyed at having his good mood interrupted, Tarukane still called the person in.
A subordinate in a black suit rushed in. "Bad news, boss—someone's attacking. We've lost contact with all our outer guards!"
Tarukane frowned. "Who is it?"
"A man and a woman. They look young. We don't know their identities yet."
Tarukane was a businessman with very low scruples. He didn't actually care about the loss of face of being attacked on his own turf; instead, he was already considering how to profit off the situation.
Hiring the Toguro Brothers had cost a lot. He needed to maximize their value.
His life's creed: if there's money to be made, squeeze it hard.
While Tarukane mulled over how to maximize profits, Charles and Stella had already entered the castle.
They casually took out a few goons blocking their way—some human, some yokai.
Tarukane had at least enough clout to set a barrier that blocked Hiei's Jagan and imprison Yukina, so he did have human subordinates with spiritual abilities.
Their level, however, was nothing special. The yokai who appeared later were stronger—but not by much.
Still, credit where it's due: yokai were… colorful. The last three, calling themselves the Three Ogre Squad, were each more ridiculous than the last.
One was quite pretty and in drag but male; one used an invisibility cloak for sneak attacks; and one tried to grab Stella as a hostage to threaten Charles.
The last one got it worst. Even Charles didn't dare take Stella lightly—who knew where he found the courage.
Carving their way through, Charles and Stella kicked open a heavy door into a peculiar room.
It was bare of any decoration—empty save for the two men before them and the bank of screens behind them.
Each screen showed a silhouette. Charles recognized Sakyo and Tarukane; the others were presumably the Black Club's directors.
Charles wasn't interested in them. What intrigued him was the larger of the two men standing ahead.
Younger Toguro—champion of the Dark Tournament fifty years ago, the man who wished to forsake humanity and become a yokai.
In the original story, Tarukane had indeed hired him, but Toguro's real employer was Sakyo; after taking a dive against Yusuke, he'd driven Tarukane to total ruin.
Only now, it looked like this guy had no intention of throwing anything.
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