Chapter 85: Secret Realm Party Mode: Activate!
"Is that how you ask someone for something?"
Facing Hiei, whose agitation was obvious and whose killing intent was clearly pointed somewhere other than Ross, Ross behaved as though someone else's collar was being grabbed.
"Ku..."
Hiei went rigid. The hand gripping Ross's collar was visibly trembling from the force applied. But after a strangled sound from the back of his throat, he forced himself to release it at what appeared to be considerable personal cost, and then slowly spoke.
"...Please."
"Please?"
Ross made a thoroughly deserving-of-a-punch gesture of leaning in to listen more carefully.
"Please tell me. I'm asking you."
The second time in his life Hiei had been subjected to this particular variety of humiliation. He swallowed the overwhelming frustration because the "Snow" in Ross's mouth referred to the one existence in his life that he cared about and would give anything for.
"Don't forget: I'm an information broker. Information isn't free."
As Ross said this, he clearly saw the arm muscles under Hiei's black robe tighten. The hand had almost certainly found a sword hilt. One wrong word and it was coming out.
"But since you're Kurama's friend and Yusuke's acquaintance, I can give you some preliminary information to verify the substance first. Then help me with one thing, and once it's done I'll hand over everything else. How does that sound?"
With that pivot, Hiei, who defaulted to violence for most problems, took a deep breath and reined in the impulse to lose control entirely.
It had already been so many years. A lead this clear had finally appeared. He could not let it snap now.
Short-tempered but unexpectedly principled about agreements, Hiei fixed his stare on Ross without blinking.
Ross cleared his throat and began.
"There is a gemstone on the market. Rare production, but almost every time one appears it's bought up immediately by someone wealthy, and every single piece can fetch hundreds of millions at auction. They're called Ice Tear Stones. I won't explain how they form. You should know better than anyone."
"The person you're looking for has been imprisoned long-term by humans inside a barrier, used to produce these stones. That's why your Jagan Eye has never been able to detect her."
At that, Hiei's hand left the sword hilt. Because Ross genuinely had something.
It also explained, definitively, why the Jagan Eye had never been able to find her.
"I know the auction house and any demon groups they might employ."
Ross's expression was confident. That confidence came from real preparation.
When he first met Kurama, he had staked out a false identity as an information broker on sheer ego, and quickly realized that relying purely on his prior knowledge of the original story in a merged world was going to cause problems. So he had actually started putting in the time, effort, and money to develop that identity properly.
A man, after all, is defined by never admitting when he's wrong. Having committed to the identity, he was going to see it through even if it cost him.
And with two worlds effectively merged, the details of major events were inevitably going to conflict with his memories.
So Ross had started using his Hunter license access to search systematically through the Hunter Association's internal network, investigating the key figures at critical event nodes one by one, cross-referencing them against his memory, and re-organizing his working picture.
The Hunter world's pure survival-of-the-fittest framework had certainly changed many things from the Yu Yu Hakusho that existed in a relatively safer modern setting. But the core points were retained.
A Ross who could use the original plot as a roadmap had an enormous advantage over everyone else. With only a little effort, he could find the critical threads buried in peripheral records and public information.
But he stopped there. It was Hiei's turn now.
"...What do you need me to do?"
No preamble. Hiei went straight to it.
The information Ross had already provided was enough to drastically narrow the search. But that still required time and money. The most direct answer was right in front of him, and Hiei was done waiting.
Ross straightened his collar where it had been grabbed, then tapped the glowing green Secret Realm entrance beside him with his foot.
"Help us clear this Four Saint Beasts Secret Realm. Once it's done, I'll give you everything."
"Deal?"
"Deal."
"Then what are you waiting for?"
And with that, Hiei leapt and dropped straight into the glowing pit, with no attempt to verify whether this was some kind of trap.
Ross decided it probably wasn't that Hiei particularly trusted someone he'd just met and gotten off to a bad start with. It was sheer urgency, combined with Kurama's presence as a guarantee.
"The Four Saint Beasts hiding out in a Secret Realm. These ones have been getting bold recently. Word is they've been threatening the Hunter Association with some kind of Insect Whistle to gain group migration rights to the human world."
Kurama, who had his own considerable network, had immediately understood what was inside once he heard "Four Saint Beasts" and "Secret Realm" together.
"That means they've completely run out of time."
Ross couldn't help clicking his tongue when he heard how bold the Four Saint Beasts had been getting.
"More precisely: now that they've run into us, they've run out of time."
With that, he bounced lightly on both feet and dropped into the entrance.
The other three followed.
Crack!
A bolt of lightning split through the sky, and in the flash of light Ross, in free fall under the Secret Realm's rules, caught a brief full view of what was below.
The sky was permanently dark. Below was an isolated island, cut off completely from any surrounding terrain. Dense clusters of low stone buildings packed together like a slum covered most of the surface. And at the far end of the island, a massive Gothic castle rose from the ground.
This was the overhead view of the City of the Four Saint Beasts in its entirety.
Almost instinctively, Ross mapped what he was seeing against similar visuals in his memory, and found himself thinking of Ghosts 'n Goblins, Castlevania, and Ninja Gaiden.
Especially that Gothic castle. It was deeply, unmistakably Castlevania.
Too bad the one inside was not Dracula but four demons whose dignity was somewhat questionable and whose abilities were rather eclectic.
The five-person team's spawn point was on the far end of the island from the Four Saint Beasts' castle, at the base of a large tree on a hilltop: diagonally opposite.
When Ross's feet hit the ground, the Navigation Arrow that had accompanied them took up its position and began providing information.
[Detected: you and companions have formally entered the Primal Secret Realm.]
[Loading game save data...]
[Your current party composition: Ross (you), Hiei, Yusuke, Kuwabara, Kurama.]
[Ross, Yusuke, and Kurama all have existing template mapping records.]
[Ross's available template mappings: Sonic / Kunio / Gilgamesh (Tower of Druaga protagonist).]
[Yusuke's available template mapping: Samejima Riki (Hanazono High captain, Nekketsu New Record).]
[Kurama's available template mapping: Tails.]
[You may switch template mappings at any time according to your needs. Each party member may only have one template mapped at a time.]
[While in party exploration mode, the Navigation Arrow ability rules will change to Primal Secret Realm Mode: when you and your party members kill or rescue specific units, item draw or keyword scan mechanics will be triggered.]