50

Onari's voice emerged from the room's shadows, "Well, well, well… It seems like this little situation just became my business."

Soo-Yun went rigid, looking around the room for the source of the voice, "What?! Who's there? How did you get in here?"

Lightning was crackling around Soo-Yun's hands as Onari and Yu Wu stepped out of the shadows, "Be calm, little bat. We come in peace. I believe we may be able to help you with your Youkai problem."

Soo-Yun tried to play tough, "Oh, yeah? S-Says who?"

"Just a curious couple who happened to see your troubles while they were passing by."

"Then why would you be able to help me?"

Yu Wu cut in, "Do you not understand who you speak to?!? You have eyes but you cannot see Mount Tai?! Onari Fokushi and his loving fiance, Young Mistress Yu Wu, stand before you!"

"That… still doesn't tell me anything… I don't know who you are."

Yu Wu pretended to fume as Onari chuckled, "That's understandable. We don't really put our names out into the wider supernatural community all that often. Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Onari, the current heir to the Youkai faction. That is why I think I would be able to help solve some of your troubles."

"Youkai are the source of my troubles!" Soo-Yun hissed. "Why would I trust another Youkai to help solve them?!"

"Because right now, we're the only ones who can solve your problems. I am willing to give you my word that we mean you no harm and that we are neither the cause of your Youkai problem or associated with the Youkai who have allied with your enemies."

"Swear?" Soo-Yun's desperation won out after a minute of silence.

"I swear."

"... Do you have any proof you are who you say you are?"

Onari shrugged, "Probably none you would immediately recognize."

"You're asking for a lot of trust from someone you don't even know."

"I'm aware of that. But really the only way for me to prove I'm worthy of that trust is through my actions."

"And I really don't have any other options…"

"I do not envy your position."

"... Why are you helping me?"

"I gained a vested interest in this situation the moment Youkai became involved. I cannot have strays and rogues making my people look bad."

"How did you even know I needed help? In fact, why are you even here right now?"

"Oh, that's easy! We saw you killing all those thugs earlier. Seeing such a cute girl act so ruthlessly was really hot so we followed you! Basically pure coincidence!" Yu Wu chimed in, completely unashamed of how that sounded.

Soo-Yun was struck speechless for a few moments before she began to giggle uncontrollably, "Hehehehe, this is so surreal. A foreign prince comes and offers me aid in my time of need… Then his sexy fiancee tells me they were basically stalking me because they thought I was hot? This is like something straight out of fanfiction!"

Eventually, she managed to stop giggling, take a breath, and put on her serious face, "Right. How are we going to do this?"

"If you know where the Yakuza headquarters is, we can probably take care of this within the hour. Do you want the Yakuza gone too?" Onari said.

Soo-Yun nodded, "Yes, but I'll take care of the Yakuza personally. They pushed my people out of their homes. They took our turf and jobs. Driving them out is my responsibility. You can just focus on the Youkai."

"How did a High-class devil end up involved with these people anyways?" Yu Wu asked.

Soo-Yun looked hesitant, but still explained, "I'm a reincarnated devil. I was born into this community. My father was an office worker and my mother ran one of the neighborhood Jopoks. When the Yakuza basically invaded Seoul, they were both killed to make an example. My king found me afterwards and offered me the power to control my fate…

"I obviously took it. I spent about a year gaining strength. When I reached High-class, my king allowed me to come back to my roots and resolve my unfinished business with the Yakuza. When I returned, my old neighborhood was gone. All of the residents had been forced out of their homes. I searched the city for them and eventually found this little shanty town.

"I've been watching over them for almost half a year now. Fighting a defensive war for them. I became their boss and protector. Every day I worry about my king calling me back into her service prematurely. I don't know what will happen to the town if I'm not here…"

"Who's your king?" Onari asked.

"Seekvaira Agares. I'm one of her pawns."

Onari nodded, "It might not be my place to say anything, but why don't you just talk to your king about your problems? She's a devil heiress. She may be able to do more for your people than you can do alone."

"I'll… I'll think about it. For now though, we have more important business to take care of…"

The Yakuza base was only a 20 minute walk from the shanty town. For supernatural beings like Onari, Yu Wu, and Soo-Yun, it took less than a minute to fly there. The main group of Yakuza that had 'invaded' Seoul had taken up residence in an isolated compound located on the bank of the Han River.

The compound consisted of an office building and warehouse combo that was walled in by a metal-bar fence. Even this late at night, the compound was well guarded. A number of suit-wearing thugs sat at the main entrance, and even more thugs patrolled the fence's interior.

Before Onari or Yu Wu could ask how they were going to approach this, Soo-Yun was already landing and walking up to the main entrance. Onari and Yu Wu shrugged and followed after her. This was her crusade after all.

"Hello, boys~ Will one of you do me a favor and go get the rest of your gang?" Soo-Yun said, sauntering up to the gate with swaying hips.

Most of the thugs openly admired the cute shortstack that had just appeared in front of them. One or two went stiff though, recognizing Soo-Yun as the Jopok devil that had killed so many of their brothers over this past half year. One of them, probably the smartest thug in the group, even scrambled off to do as she requested and get reinforcements.

One of the thugs leered at Soo-Yun, "You tryna let the whole team hit? Hell, let me go first. I'll show ya a good time and satisfy you more than any of these bozos can."

"As if I'd let any of you scum lay a finger on me," Soo-Yun scoffed. "You know what? Just for that, you get to die first."

The thug didn't even manage to get out a "What?" before he was seared to a crisp by lightning. A small storm cloud gathered above Soo-Yun's head, expanding by the second as she released more demonic power and pent-up frustration. A barrage of lightning bolts fell from the cloud, absolutely decimating the group of Yakuza.

Even as Yakuza reinforcements began to stream out of the compound, the storm cloud above Soo-Yun was more than enough to handle them. A year and a half of rage and hurt was being expressed through her magical lightning and she wasn't about to stop until this group of Yakuza was wiped off the face of Seoul.

"This is for my mother. This is for my father. This is for my friends and neighbors and my home! You bastards only brought this upon yourselves!"

Each of her sentences were punctuated by another flash of lightning. Thunder rolled out of the growing cloud almost constantly. Thugs were flash-fried in droves, leaving nothing left of the Yakuza but literal ashes in the wind.

Onari glanced at Yu Wu awkwardly, "... We should probably just go deal with the Youkai. She has a lot of… stuff to work out."

Yu Wu nodded, "Yeah, let's let her work out her anger on the goons while we fulfill our promise of aid. Still, you can't tell me this isn't kinda hot as fuck…"

Onari coughed into his hand, "... I'll admit that the cute, but vicious thing does kinda do it for me. She'd make a great yandere…"

Yu Wu gasped as they casually walked past the raging Soo-Yun and dying Yakuza, "That's the word I was missing! Hell yes, she would!"

Onari sent a pulse of sensing Qi deeper into the compound. He was looking for the telltale Qi signature of a Youkai and he quickly found what he was looking for.

"Oni," he sighed. "How cliche…"

Yu Wu hummed, "Hmm, got a seal ready?"

"Yup," Onari said, brandishing a paper ofuda between two of his fingers. "You wanna take care of this one?"

"Un, I'm faster than you anyway. They won't even see me coming."

Onari handed the ofuda to Yu Wu as they approached the door to the compound's warehouse. It appeared that the Oni had made themselves at home in the warehouse while the office building was used by the human Yakuza. In an instant, Yu Wu disappeared into the warehouse, not even leaving an afterimage where she was previously standing.

Yu Wu darted through the warehouse faster than the eye could see. Her sword intent manifested around her. She didn't even need to draw her blade for her Qi to take on the razor-sharp nature of a sword. The physical world seemed to freeze as she passed.

First, she slapped the ofuda seal onto an Oni who had passed out from drinking too much. The Oni didn't even have time to disappear into the seal before Yu Wu was moving on to her next target. With her hands shaped like knives, Yu Wu sliced through another Oni's throat.

Without a single second passing, she repeated that process six more times. The blood from her cuts hadn't had time to spurt from the wounds before she was finished annihilating the group of criminal Oni. With a calm exhale, she came to an abrupt halt in the center of the warehouse.

Time seemed to resume with her breath. Fountains of blood shot from the slit throats of the Oni around the room. The Oni Yu Wu intended to capture for later questioning was sucked into the Onari's paper seal. Yu Wu's sword intent Qi calmly disappeared like it was being sheathed in her soul.

She opened her eyes and smiled as Onari strolled into the warehouse and picked up the ofuda seal, "Piece of cake!"

"I didn't expect anything less. Let's go see if the yandere is finished with her wholesale slaughter."

"Un!" Yu Wu hummed happily.

To a mortal, the killing might have had a bigger effect on their mood. But Onari and Yu Wu were cultivators. Both of them had killed before, and both knew that death was inevitable on the path to the heavens. They wouldn't revel in it, but they also wouldn't unnecessarily shy away from it.

'Death is just one of those things about life that you have to accept and move on from,' Yu Wu absently thought as she snuggled into her beloved's side.

That absent thought dragged her mind back to her mother. Yu Long wasn't dead, but right now, she was the next best thing to being dead. Yu Wu had no idea if she would ever speak to her mother again. Maybe this was just another thing about life she had to accept and move on from. Maybe she wouldn't get the closure she so badly desired…

Onari tightened his grip on Yu Wu's side, pulling her out of her melancholic thoughts. She shook her head to clear her mind. 'Whether I get closure or not,' she decided. 'I'm still happy with how my life turned out…'