Upon returning home, Kai was tempted to rush to his workshop to forge something and calm down. Knowing that Yumiko needed him, Kai restrained himself and instead entered the main house accompanied by Momo and Nejire, as Salem had run off into the woods to play for a bit.
Upon entering, Kai found Yumiko sitting on a couch, drinking tea with Keiko while watching a movie, as Nemuri had some matters to attend to at UA and couldn't return, while the Pussycats were working.
Noticing his arrival, Keiko paused the movie and stood up with Yumiko to greet them, welcoming them with a warm hug and soft smiles on their faces. Keiko then sat back on the couch with Momo and Nejire, while Kai went upstairs with Yumiko.
"Now, tell me, what happened?" Kai asked in a serious tone as he looked at Yumiko, who couldn't help but show a bitter smile on her face, something he had never seen before.
"Kai… I think I'm about to lose everything." Yumiko replied softly, trying to hold back her emotions, which caused Kai's eyes to narrow dangerously before he asked in a dark tone.
"What did they do to you?"
"I… found out that Haruto has been cheating on me and has another family. But what's worse is that he's financially compromised the company without my knowledge. I just found out that we're under a preventive seizure because we haven't fulfilled a debt that covers almost all of the company's assets, and the only shareholder of that company is the woman he cheated on me with. I don't know what to do. I'm about to lose everything."
Yumiko began recounting the harsh blow she had received, as tears started to fall from her face, feeling truly desperate, finishing her explanation with a shaky voice. But at that moment, a horrifying pressure shook the ground for miles around, so powerful that even the objects in the room started to break.
"That bastard needs to die, Sage!!"
With a voice that sounded like an inescapable death sentence, Kai spoke, calling out to his assistant as his eyes glowed dangerously, while dark violet lightning surrounded him. This caused the beautiful fairy to appear, but now her beautiful blue dress made of light was nowhere to be seen, replaced by a black wedding dress, and her expression showed no emotion.
"His position has been identified, Master. We can leave immediately." Sage spoke with a voice laden with murderous intent, but at that moment, Keiko stumbled into the room, barely conscious.
"Kai! Stop! Don't do something crazy, we can solve everything!"
Barely holding on to her consciousness, Keiko screamed with all her strength, catching Kai's attention just as he was about to leap through the window. It allowed him to see that his beloved aunt was bleeding profusely from a fork brutally embedded in her leg.
Feeling incredibly guilty, Kai deactivated his electric aura and rushed to catch Keiko as she collapsed unconscious into his arms. He then looked around the room, finding it in ruins, with Yumiko unconscious on what remained of the couch.
"What a mess…"
A little calmer now, Kai used the Mystical Hand to heal Yumiko, while Sage checked on everyone else on the property, all of whom were unconscious, including Salem. She healed the minor injuries and other small problems caused by her master's outburst, now wearing her blue dress again, which had changed at some point.
After laying all the girls in their respective beds and the guards in the guest house, Kai discarded the things he had damaged and tidied up a bit before sitting on the couch with a complex expression on his face, while Sage sat on his shoulder.
"Sage, draft a plan to recover Yumiko's company. Don't worry about the cost. Also, start a full investigation into that bastard and add him to the target list. We need to figure out a way to make him disappear without raising suspicion."
"Understood, Master." Sage replied before disappearing to handle the tasks her master had assigned her. Kai sighed with conflicting emotions.
"I messed up big time. I shouldn't have lost control like that, but I saw myself in Yumiko for a moment. Even though the betrayal is more painful, and the legal trick is different, the situation is too similar, and my emotions got the better of me…"
Feeling terribly guilty, Kai began browsing his phone for replacements for the things he had broken, but his mind kept wandering to the memories he thought he had moved past. Suddenly, he felt a warning from Sage, letting him know that Yumiko was approaching.
"Aunt…"
Seeing Yumiko enter with a panicked expression, Kai spoke with a complicated look, but at that moment, Yumiko simply hugged him tightly. After a while, she sat next to him, resting her head on his shoulder as she spoke in a soft tone.
"Kai, thank you for getting so angry for me. It really made me feel how important I am to you and how much you care. It made me so happy, but please don't do anything crazy. I could never forgive myself."
"…I'm sorry, I lost control." Kai sincerely apologized in a guilty tone, to which Yumiko responded by lifting the arm she was resting on and placing it over herself, pulling him into an embrace while she hid her face and spoke.
"I know, and that's why I was so happy. I felt alone, abandoned by the world, ugly, and stupid because of everything that happened. But seeing you so angry for my sake really woke me up. I still have you; I still have my family. And even if I lose everything, I won't be alone. Thank you, Kai, you don't know how much it means to me."
"You won't lose anything. I'll do whatever it takes to make sure your life's work isn't stolen by that trash. You have my word."
Upon hearing Kai's serious and determined tone, Yumiko couldn't hold back her tears and began to cry softly. Kai gently stroked her beautiful blue hair and tightened his arm around her, letting her release all the pain she was carrying.
After some time, Yumiko managed to calm down a bit, feeling much more at peace now that she had vented and knew she could count on Kai's support. She separated from him and began to wipe her tears with the handkerchief he offered her.
"Thank you, Kai. I really needed to let it all out."
"Don't worry, I'm here for whatever you need. But it would be better if you could tell me a bit more about what happened so we can think of a way to solve the problem." Kai spoke softly as he gently rubbed Yumiko's small back, who soon nodded and began to explain.
"Alright, I'll tell you what happened. I had been suspecting for a while that something strange was going on with Haruto. He was very nervous, acting strangely, and even started drinking excessively, but I couldn't pinpoint what it was. But everything changed a couple of months ago when I discovered that my Accomplice had developed its ability."
"It developed its ability? Finally?"
Kai interrupted, a bit surprised, as this practically confirmed one of his theories about how Accomplices develop their abilities. Although he imagined them as abilities to complement their quirks, some turned out to be quite curious, and it was hard to know if they were truly 'complementing' the quirks.
For example, there was Keiko's case. Despite having the same quirk as Momo, her Accomplices had developed very different abilities, with Keiko's Accomplice allowing her to speed up her thoughts, similar to Kai's bullet-time effect with his electric aura.
But in Yumiko's case, the Accomplice hadn't developed any ability, and since she never used it, there was the question of whether it was because of that or because she didn't feel a need for an ability. Now, with her Accomplice developing an ability when she started having doubts about her husband, it practically confirmed that it was based on the host's desires.
"Yes, it's a strange ability. Basically, it allows me to know if someone is lying when I touch their skin." Yumiko responded with a small, pain-filled smile on her face, letting Kai know how she had discovered everything.
"So, you interrogated him." Kai commented in a serious tone, to which Yumiko solemnly nodded before continuing to explain.
"Yes, I told him it was a game and started asking him questions to see if the ability was working. And he lied when I asked if he had ever cheated on me."
With a forced smile, Yumiko wiped away the tears that had started to accumulate in her eyes again. After taking a few deep breaths to calm herself, she continued explaining.
"At that moment, I was in shock, to the point where I didn't want to believe he was really lying to me. So, I dropped the game and went to sleep, stunned. But the thought wouldn't leave my mind, so I kept asking tricky questions from time to time. This led me to discover that he had been in a relationship with his assistant for over four years, and she was pregnant."
As she confessed her discoveries, Yumiko broke down in tears. Kai quickly hugged her and comforted her for a while until the beautiful blue-haired woman calmed down and wiped her eyes before continuing her story.
"Thank you, Kai. And as I was saying, that news was devastating to me. I couldn't believe it, so I hired a private investigator to confirm it. He gave me explicit proof of his infidelity. But what was worse, he mentioned that he had noticed serious problems with the company's cash flow and recommended a contact of his who specializes in such cases.
"At first, I didn't believe him because I didn't notice anything strange with the company, and Haruto had managed it very well from the start. But since I knew he was a damned liar, I decided to get to the bottom of it and called the investigator. A few days ago, he sent me all the information he had uncovered. We're practically bankrupt, and that woman is, in effect, the owner of everything I worked so hard to build."
Although she was initially undeniably sad, as Yumiko continued talking, her words became filled with anger, ending with a grave tone, full of hatred and helplessness. She clenched her fists so tightly that they started to bleed, prompting Kai to quickly heal her as he asked in a serious tone, trying to keep his rage under control.
"Do you have the documents the investigator sent you?"
"Yes, I'll send them to you." Using her phone, Yumiko sent all the documents to Kai, who immediately instructed Sage to take them into account before beginning to analyze them.
"Does he know you found out?"
While reviewing the documents, Kai asked an important question, to which Yumiko shook her head before answering.
"No, I haven't had the courage to confront him yet."
"That's good because this is a bit complicated. This fraud is very well set up; the other company has a seemingly legitimate cash flow, the debts are well-backed, and your company's financial situation is truly critical. However, there are ways to tackle this, as he must have submitted falsified financial statements to hide all of this from you. There's also his relationship with the sole shareholder of the other company, which a judge would take into account.
"The problem is that this legal process could take at least three years to resolve, and even if we win, your company would be severely affected, with its reputation damaged before the banks, minority shareholders, and potential investors. Plus, we can't forget that you'll still have to pay the legitimate debts owed to the company's real creditors."
After studying the documents for a moment, Kai couldn't help but comment with a grave expression. The problem was quite serious, and the worst part was that he would have to work even harder to make that trash disappear, as they would be the prime suspects if anything happened to him.
"So, there's no way? Do I have to resign myself to losing my life's work?" Hearing Kai, Yumiko asked in a tragic, pain-filled voice, but the blue-eyed boy quickly looked at her with a serious expression and spoke with authority.
"I said it's complicated, not impossible. Leave it to me. I'll make sure you get back everything they stole from you with interest. And start preparing the divorce papers, we're going to destroy him when he least expects it."