A Ghost from the Past

The era of the Thug King's peace continued. Seiryu was quiet, the district was cowed, and the city's underworld walked on eggshells. Kenji's life, managed by his court, was a well-oiled machine. He studied with his new tutor, trained in his garden, and ate Yui's lunches. It was a strange, complex, but stable existence.

But stability is a tempting target.

One afternoon, as Akari was delivering her daily report on the rooftop, her phone buzzed with an urgent, encrypted message. She glanced at it, and her blood ran cold. The color drained from her face, a rare sight that immediately put Rina and Maruyama on high alert.

"What is it, Ice Queen? Did your stock portfolio take a dive?" Rina taunted, though her voice held a note of concern.

"Worse," Akari whispered, her eyes wide with disbelief as she looked at her phone. "He's back."

"Who's back?" Maruyama asked, his hand instinctively going to a new, discreet earpiece Akari had insisted he wear.

Akari looked at Kenji, her expression grim. "Yamata Kazuya."

The name hung in the air, a phantom from their first great conflict.

"That loser?" Rina scoffed. "Sensei broke his spirit. He's nothing now. Probably works at a convenience store."

"He's not working at a convenience store," Akari said, her voice tight with tension. "According to my sources, after his defeat, he vanished. He was recruited by an 'outside organization'. They saw his potential, his ruthlessness... and they retrained him. They gave him a new purpose." She took a deep breath. "He has just issued a formal challenge. Not to you, Tanaka-kun. To your entire organization."

Kenji, who had been examining the leaf of a plant, looked up, his interest piqued.

"What's the challenge?" he asked.

"A five-on-five team battle," Akari read from her phone. "No rules. No holds barred. To be held at a neutral, abandoned warehouse. He claims his new 'sponsors' wish to test the strength of the new power in the city. If we win, they will recognize our authority and leave us alone. If we lose..."

"We lose everything," Rina finished, her eyes now gleaming with a dangerous light. "He wants to take back his throne by proxy, using a new crew. Pathetic. So, who are the five on his team?"

Akari's face grew even paler. "The first is Yamata himself. The other four... are listed as 'The Four Monarchs of Kanto University'."

Maruyama let out a low growl. "Kanto University... their 'Monarchs' are monsters. They're the top collegiate-level fighters in the region, each one a master of a different discipline. 'The Juggernaut' on wrestling, 'The Viper' on kickboxing, 'The Professor' on submission grappling, and 'The Ghost' who uses some kind of silent assassination art. They're all rumored to be on the payroll of a shadowy syndicate."

The stakes had just been raised exponentially. This wasn't a schoolyard brawl or a street fight anymore. This was a semi-professional, syndicate-backed team of elite, adult fighters. Yamata hadn't just returned; he had returned with a legion of demons at his back.

"This is a trap," Rina said, her usual bravado now tempered with a cold seriousness. "They want to dismantle us, to humiliate our leadership in a formal setting."

"It's more than that," Akari said, her mind piecing it together. "It's a direct challenge to your authority, Tanaka-kun. To refuse would be seen as weakness. It would show the entire underworld that you are afraid, that your organization is a paper tiger. The peace would shatter."

They were caught. They had to accept.

"Fine," Rina declared, slamming a fist into her palm. "Then we fight. I'll take one of them. Maruyama can take another. Akari, you can... do the math or something. And Sensei can handle the rest."

"It's not that simple," Akari countered. "This is a team battle. It requires strategy, coordination. And we need a full team of five."

The four of them looked at each other. Kenji, Rina, Maruyama... that was three. Akari was a strategist, not a fighter. Who would be their other two?

"We have dozens of fighters now," Maruyama rumbled. "The Kendo captain, the Karate captain..."

"They're good," Akari admitted. "But they are not on the level of the Kanto Monarchs. They would be slaughtered. We need masters."

A heavy silence fell over the group. Their burgeoning kingdom had just run into its first major logistical problem: a lack of truly elite personnel beyond its core.

Kenji, who had been listening quietly, finally spoke. "The team is not the issue. The issue is the motive."

They all turned to him.

"Yamata does not desire the throne," Kenji stated. "He knows he cannot defeat me. A man like him would not accept a plan where he is merely a pawn. He has a different objective. This 'test' is a cover for something else."

His insight cut through their strategic and logistical worries, getting to the heart of the matter. What did Yamata truly want?

As if on cue, Hina Otokawa arrived on the rooftop, her face uncharacteristically serious. "Tanaka-sama," she said, dispensing with the usual pleasantries. "I have information. It's about Yamata Kazuya's new sponsor."

"Who is it?" Akari demanded.

Hina took a deep breath. "It's a subsidiary of a corporation called 'Pantheon Global'. They're a private security and logistics firm on the surface, but my father's sources say they are... collectors. They collect unique assets. Fighters, technologies... and martial arts."

She looked directly at Kenji. "They aren't testing your organization. They are testing you. Specifically, your fighting style. Ryujin Kankotsu-jutsu. They want to see it in action, to record it, to analyze it. Yamata's 'revenge' is just the bait to get you to fight seriously against high-level opponents."

The true, chilling purpose of the challenge was revealed. They were not being challenged for their territory. Kenji was being scouted like a prize animal.

"And there's more," Hina said, her voice dropping to a whisper. "The price for Yamata's cooperation, the thing he truly wants... they've promised it to him if his team wins."

"What is it?" Rina asked, her hand gripping her sword.

"It's not a thing," Hina said, her eyes flicking towards the school building below, in the direction of classroom 2-B. "It's a person."

A cold, dreadful understanding dawned on everyone.

"If Yamata's team wins," Hina confirmed, her voice trembling slightly. "Pantheon has promised to deliver Amano Yui to him."

The air on the rooftop became deathly still.

Kenji's face, which had been calm and analytical, became a perfect, terrifying blank. The temperature seemed to drop by twenty degrees.

The challenge was no longer about a throne, or territory, or even about him.

It had become personal. Again.

"Akari-san," Kenji said, his voice a low, cold whisper that promised untold violence.

"Y-yes?"

"Accept the challenge." He turned to his court. "And assemble our team. I have made my selections."

He looked at Rina, then at Maruyama.

Then, his gaze fell upon Ishikawa Kaito, the Kendo Captain, who had been practicing in a corner of the roof.

And finally, he looked past them all, to the one person he had tried so hard to keep out of this world, the one person whose heart held no violence, but whose safety was now inextricably tied to the outcome of this war.

He looked towards the school, towards Yui's classroom. It was not a look of affection. It was a look of grim, absolute resolve. He had to fight, not just to protect her, but to protect the very idea of the peace she represented. His team would not just be fighting for victory. They would be fighting for the soul of their king.