Charles clocked out and headed home in high spirits. As for why he felt so good—he'd fulfilled a teacher's duty by giving a certain reckless student a proper lesson.
He had assumed that after seeing him beat down those punks, Yusuke Urameshi recognized his own weakness and wanted to ask to become his disciple.
But to his surprise, Yusuke had come to pick a fight.
Charles's misplaced expectation turned into embarrassed irritation, and he gave Yusuke a thorough thrashing.
Right now, Yusuke couldn't use spiritual power at all, and his fighting style was a complete mess.
To his credit, he was sturdy—his ability to take a beating exceeded normal human limits.
As he himself said, at the moment he was just brawling, not truly fighting.
Yusuke had been king of the hill because of his physicality and reactions, both far beyond ordinary people—but Charles surpassed him in all of that.
Naturally, Yusuke went home with a matching set of black eyes.
And whether because Charles had now officially intersected with the protagonist or not, the extraordinary intel he'd hunted for without results came to him on its own.
That evening, before he could tell Stella what had happened at school, she told him first that she'd run into yokai.
As mentioned before, Stella had drawn "yakuza boss," so she'd been expanding turf and recruiting underlings on repeat.
Her Dragon God Possession granted her a dragon's physique; add in the Famillion royal swordsmanship she'd trained in since childhood and the growth she'd made alongside Charles, and even without mana she was far beyond what street punks could handle.
Since she was here to have fun, she also handed out all income to her crew.
So even with her forbidding anything that crossed the line, her people earned more than before by following her.
A boss who could fight and was generous—even if she was a young woman—commanded universal respect.
In just a few days, Stella's turf expanded rapidly, and her Fire Dragon Crew caught the attention of the big syndicates.
Japan's underworld had a long history and strict hierarchy. The top syndicates had carved up the pie; only scraps they didn't want went to the small fry.
And even then, to protect their status, they suppressed any upstart.
For any newcomer showing their head, they had two tactics: cut it off, or collar them as a dog.
As for inviting them to a banquet—if a newcomer had that kind of clout, the big players would've noticed them long ago.
Who could've guessed Stella was a literal dragon crossing the sea. True to her whims, she tossed a recruiter from a major outfit out on the spot.
Granted, his condescending attitude made him easy to dislike.
There was no way the syndicate would swallow that; they moved on Stella immediately.
After she dropped more than twenty ambushers by herself and walked out of the alley without a scratch, they realized she wasn't so easy to handle.
They even resorted to guns later, but still couldn't do anything to her. They understood human methods wouldn't solve this.
So today, Stella ran into two yokai, who blocked her and crowed about eating her.
Charles remembered that while the contestants at the Dark Tournament were all yokai, the bosses were humans who sat atop the underworld with wealth and power.
He hadn't expected yakuza syndicates to be able to command yokai as well. It seemed ties between yokai and humans in the Human World were closer than he'd thought; he just hadn't looked the right way.
As for those two yokai—talking about eating people in front of Stella was never going to end well.
Her verdict: about the level of well-trained ordinary humans; marginally above, at best.
Charles figured yokai in this world were essentially special mercenaries—only that getting in touch with them required a certain status.
If Stella kept playing her underworld game, she'd reach the relevant circles sooner or later.
She'd already thought of that, so her expansion became even more aggressive. For a time, Tokyo was thrown into a storm.
Wherever she went, people called her "big sis," and her momentum was unmatched.
Charles, meanwhile, kept dutifully doing his teaching job. Yusuke, however, challenged him every two or three days.
That drew in someone else: the fellow delinquent Kazuma Kuwabara.
Kuwabara was Sarayashiki's second-biggest problem student. "Second" because he'd fought Yusuke many times and never won.
Yusuke picking fights with Charles wasn't exactly a secret. Seeing Yusuke's bruised face, Kuwabara quickly sniffed out what had happened.
Beating Yusuke had become his life's goal, so after Charles gave him a beating as well, he dropped to his knees right there and begged to be taken as a disciple.
Charles said now that was a normal development. And since he was a teacher, he made a deal with Kuwabara:
So long as Kuwabara studied earnestly, Charles would agree to teach him to grow stronger.
Charles actually thought highly of Kuwabara. He wasn't like a similarly named "human scum." Though a delinquent, he had both character and talent worth noting.
In the original story, he willingly took a beating without fighting back to keep his buddies from being expelled, and he was willing to study hard.
As for talent, he was among the best of humans.
He had considerable spiritual power, with the control to shape it into a weapon. His sixth sense was exceptional—he could even sense other people's memories.
Unfortunately, fighting was only one part of his journey. He would ultimately have to live on as an ordinary human.
Charles agreed to help him grow stronger to face future dangers, but he also wanted him to value his own life more. Hence the condition.
If it were the still-stubborn Yusuke who wouldn't admit defeat, Charles wouldn't bother so much!
Guiding students onto the right path is what a teacher should do, and Charles felt he was doing his duty.
The result: Sarayashiki's No. 2 delinquent mended his ways and started studying hard. With his strong comprehension, his grades visibly climbed.
Dean Takenaka even sought Charles out to ask how he'd turned the prodigal around—and whether Yusuke could be brought along too.
But the very next day, news broke that Yusuke Urameshi had died in a traffic accident saving a child.
Charles understood—the plot had officially begun!