Since Koenma had given that promise, Charles simply told him his thoughts about Tsurugane Genzō.
Koenma agreed to provide intel without a word, so Charles's goal was achieved.
Whether Koenma did something or not, only after he left did the other teachers trickle back into the office, and Charles began his day's work.
Clocking out on time, Charles was walking home when he saw something odd.
A few punks had surrounded a boy with glasses; a rooster-cut thug snatched the boy's wallet in one grab. The boy in glasses was wearing Sarayashiki Junior High's uniform.
Charles was a teacher, after all—time to put in some overtime.
A blond punk saw Charles approaching and shouted, "Hey! Pretty boy over there—mind your business unless you want a hospital bed!"
Smiling, Charles stepped closer. Before the others realized what was happening, the blond punk spun three full turns in midair and face-planted on the pavement.
Charles picked up the fallen wallet and handed it to the boy with glasses.
"Watch out!"
The boy didn't take it—instead he cried out, because the other punks were swinging punches at Charles's back.
He squeezed his eyes shut. He heard a few dull thuds—and then Charles's voice.
"Grab your things and head home."
The boy opened his eyes. Charles's posture—holding the wallet out—hadn't changed at all. The punks who tried to ambush him were all on the ground.
The boy hurriedly took the wallet, bowed ninety degrees to Charles, and ran off.
Charles turned to the last man standing.
Even after Charles had downed his crew, the man in the floral shirt hadn't moved, just crouched to the side, watching.
Now he stood, bloodshot eyes fixed on Charles.
Charles, of course, noticed something was off—not just the wild, chaotic malice, but also a peculiar energy signature on him.
That was yokai aura! Charles quickly confirmed what it was.
Tugging at his collar, Floral Shirt snarled, "Damn it—every last one of you looks down on me! So what if you've got a pretty face and people respect you? I'll tear that disgusting face right off."
Eyes flushed red, he charged at Charles like a mindless beast.
He never got close. A heavy punch to the head slammed him into the ground, limbs sprawled in a five-point prostration.
Right then, Charles saw a palm-sized, blue-skinned little monster crawl out from the fallen man's scattered hair.
It glanced at Charles, then tried to tiptoe away.
It didn't make it far before Charles's shadow fell over it. It froze on the spot, only mustering the courage to turn around after a long moment—into Charles's smiling eyes.
A living yokai was a first; the grin on Charles's face made the little creature's skin crawl.
That night, when Stella came home, she found Charles studying the little yokai trapped under an upside-down glass.
Don't be fooled by the simple glass—there was a small magic array around it. Given the choice between freedom and getting incinerated by the array, the yokai chose to behave.
By the Spirit World's classifications, this little yokai was the lowest D-class—its combat ability less than a human's.
But such small yokai have one skill: they amplify human negative emotions and feed on them.
That floral-shirted man, plain-looking and stuck at the bottom of society, had his jealousy magnified by it—hence his state today.
Yusuke Urameshi becoming a Spirit Detective was the start of the plot. As the saying goes, the gears of fate began to turn.
Yokai rarely seen in ordinary times started getting active, and this current turbulence was only a rehearsal—the big events would arrive one after another.
According to the little yokai, there was indeed upheaval in yokai circles lately.
King Enma wasn't in the Spirit World at the moment, which many yokai with simmering ambition saw as an opportunity.
For example, the Yokai Realm led by the Four Saint Beasts—they seemed to be plotting something.
The Spirit World itself was a tangled mess. The resignation of the previous Spirit Detective, Shinobu Sensui, didn't just leave them short a human worker; his betrayal left quite the mess behind.
Most crucially, the Dark Tournament was about to begin—that was what had yokai in both Spirit and Human Worlds stirred up.
This little yokai's rank was far too low to know any inside information, so what it knew matched Charles's memories.
Charles didn't snuff it out—it still made for a useful specimen.
But after a round of study, the results surprised Charles.
This little yokai's bodily structure was nearly identical to a human's—classifying them as the same species would be reasonable.
Charles remembered Raizen saying in the original that demonkind was just a partial transitional period of genetic mutation.
He had thought that was Raizen trying to make his men change their view of humans—turns out it was an objective fact.
It seemed yokai in this world were unlike those elsewhere, branching from the same origin as humans. No wonder the vast majority of yokai had basically human forms.
Uncovering hidden truths about a world put Charles in a better mood—but it didn't last.
The next morning on the way to work, he saw a crowd clustered together, loading a little boy into an ambulance.
Charles frowned. He sensed the child hadn't been injured—his soul had been extracted.
Ordinary people couldn't do that. And to target a child—that was as vile as it gets.
Charles also thought of who had done it.
In the original, Yusuke's first case as Spirit Detective was to hunt the three yokai thieves who stole the Spirit World's three dark treasures.
One of the three treasures was the Demon Orb, which can store souls; it was currently held by the yokai Gouki.
The other two thieves were Kurama and Hiei, who would later join the main cast.
Legend said that gathering the three dark treasures would let one rule the Spirit World. Charles couldn't see how a soul-storing stone, a sword that could transform low-level yokai, and a wish-granting mirror that demanded a price could add up to control of a world.
If that were true, how could the Spirit World have let the three steal them so easily?
After all, the so-called three thieves were only D-class at the moment.
Kurama, the famed Demon World thief "Yoko," once had power nearing S-class, but due to grievous wounds and reincarnation, he was now weak to a laughable degree.
Hiei, having transplanted the Jagan, had his innate fire mastery and vast yokai power sealed as a half–snow woman hybrid—so weak he couldn't withstand a single Spirit Gun from Yusuke.
As for Gouki—how he ranked alongside the other two was beyond Charles. Not only was he the weakest, he was also the most deserving of death.
Flaring his nostrils, Charles caught a fading scent that didn't belong to humans.
He'd use this guy as leverage—and nudge Koenma's intel along!