The van parks in a free spot, a couple of doctors loitering near that spot. “What the hell, Carchi? Getting children involved now?” One asked as he and another doctor helped the unconscious Hirose onto the stretcher, Carchi replying with sigh before showing off his badge ro prove his identity. “What excuse do we use now?” “How about a reckless teen scenario?” Carchi answered the doctor's question. “Hm? What about him?” the doctor asked about Charlie, covered in bruises, scratches and dirt from his previous battle. “I'm gonna be a part of Hellslingers! You better sing my praises, cabron.” Charlie told him and Carchi cleared his throat to tell him something important.
“Before you become a part of us, you need to take two tests.” Carchi said as he and the fighter sat at the table to discuss more about the test. “The two tests are the written test and a practical test. You must pass both of these if you wish to join our force.” Charlie is further informed as he pulls out the camera and starts watching the footage while Charlie groans about the written test. “Not the ghost I was expecting. And it doesn't look like the others I saw. I'll see what the others have to say” Carchi thought aloud and saw Charlie's confused expression as he asked what he meant by ‘others’. “That's right. You can't see them, but that wasn't the only ghost there. Thanks to these bad boys, I can see them, clear as day.” Carchi points to his sunglasses and explains to Charlie how he could see them.
“However, the one you could see must've been in this plane for a while. They take around a year or so to appear in the naked eye, but there are some that exceed our expectations.” Carchi pulls out a laptop and plugs a cord into the camera, downloading the video. “There is another way you can see these ghosts. And that's if you can train your aura. Once you can use your aura to see these ghosts, you can also make physical contact with them.” “aura as in like ki from dragon ball, rest in peace Toriyama, or cursed energy in Jujutsu Kaisen?” Charlie asked and Carchi nodded his head in approval but added that it's more similar to new from Hunter x Hunter, but told him not to worry. “So, why are you giving me this info dump?” Charlie asked while Carchi uploaded the video to someone and passed his new student an old manual with odd looking markings. “This will be your Hellslinger 101. Don't lose it, that's my only copy, and my boss will be pissed if I lose it.” Charlie skims through the pages but Carchi advises him to thoroughly read it.
“All done! Now, I'll drop you off at your home. Lead the way.” And the cowboy drives off, Charlie looking at the hospital and thinking about how Hirose will be doing. “Here. Here. Right there. Look. My house.” Charlie pestered Carchi to stop at a house nestled in a fish market, Carchi questioning on how he doesn't smell like fish. “I usually don't do this for guys, but I'll give you my phone number if you're ready to join.” Carchi leans over to Charlie to stick a post-it note on the book before driving off, Charlie waving to the cowboy. “Sigh…here we go.” Carchi was hesitant, but he took his earphone off and unmuted it, loud profanities emitting off it. “God damn, boss. Who knew you had such a foul mouth?” Carchi jokes but his superior wasn't having it.
“REMEMBER THIS WELL, CARCHI! IF YOU DO THAT SHIT AGAIN, I’LL CUT YOUR SALARY TO NOTHING!” The boss shouted and Carchi just laughed him off, asking if they got the video. “Yeah, we have the video. And what happened to those kids?” a female voice asked and Carchi gave them the gist. “Are you really gonna drag a kid into this?” The female asked and Carchi told her that the boy had potential to be something great. “it isn't odd that he could extract his life energy out in such a life or death situation. But evading most of the strikes of that massive ghost? And managing to damage it? Now that's uncommon.” the boss stated, Carchi agreed with his boss as he turned into a tunnel. “However, that boy will still face consequences of using too much of his life force.” He continued, Carchi only responding with a hum as he drove through the tunnel.
“But the Exploding Kitsune Fist. That's an attack I haven't seen in a while.” The boss mentioned as Carchi making his way out of a tunnel to see a massive office surrounded by a wall. Carchi shows his badge to the guard who is posted at the front gate, the guard checking it and his aura before opening the gate, letting Carchi in. Carchi parks his van, hops and tells his boss he made it to hq and that he'll meet the two in the. A few of his fellow employees bowed to him in respect but Carchi just waved them off and told them to keep it casual as he made his way into the building. Carchi enters the building and walks up to the reception desk and tells the receptionist he's here for the boss.
The receptionist lets him through and Carchi makes his way through cubicles filled with people on computers. He enters an elevator and presses the button to the top floor and leaned on the wall. The elevator stopped on the 3rd floor and opened, revealing a man and a woman wearing a training outfit fit for combat, behind them are people training with dummy weapons. “Training hard or hardly training?” Crachi jokes and the two let out a chuckle. The floor reached to the top and Carchi walked into the luxurious hallway and entered a room filled with workout equipment.
A grey haired, muscular man wearing only sweatpants and a tank top is doing bench presses but stops when Carchi enters the room. He does one more before getting up and sits up, offering Carchi a seat on the couch and asking him to pass the bottle of water. Taking a mouthful of water, he shallows it and asks for Carchi's report. “Where's Sarah?” “She went to find some leads on the life of the ghost.” The boss told him as he pulled out a dumbbell and started doing curls. “Anyways. About that boy.” “Oh? So you're interested in the kid?” Carchi asked and his boss nodded his head.
“He does seem suitable for this job. And he's looking for a friend that is working here?” The boss asked and Carchi pulled out his phone to show a photo of someone with a cross-shaped scar on his eyebrow. “Kensuke Gonnosuke. He started here a couple months ago. Trained him myself.” “ah, that kid. He's been working more than any newbie that joined. Even fought a mid class 4 ghost by himself.” The boss mentioned as he took another mouthful of water. “We should add him to the feud.” “Can’t do. He's out on a mission with another faction.” The boss told him and Carchi asked how long that mission will go for. “Well. That kid seems strong. He also knows the martial art Ken does.” “Yeah. The Ōkami No Michi. Wonder who their sensei is.” Carchi thought as the two looked at a woman with dark green hair tied in a ponytail and wearing business attire opening the door.
“you're finally here. Anyways, I did some research about the ghost, but I couldn't find anything relating to the hospital.” She told them and the boss finished his bottle of water. “So that ghost has nothing to do with the hospital?” The boss asked and the woman nodded her head in approval. “But I did find information about the ghost. It appears that it is a class 5 spiritual manifestation of macabre urges of the people. That ghost haunted a rural village up in the mountains, stretching the victims faces into off-putting smiles.” She told them and Carchi asked for the footage to see if they missed any important details but she confirmed that she examined everything about it, even brightening the image. “I'll send some of our investigators over there to see any signs of a ritual.” The boss got up and made his way to the desk and dialled a number on the phone, signalling the two to leave. “So, Sarah-!” “I'm busy. And don't date your co-workers.” Sarah interrupted him and went to the elevator, Carchi following behind her.
“Come on. It's just two friends hanging out.” “I know you, Carchi.” The woman stops the conversation and presses the button to the second floor. Back at the fish market, Charlie flops on the bed and turns on his TV to watch some movies, forgetting about the book that was given to him. After the movie finished, he got up and went to the living room to see his family. A tall man, 6 '3, was cooking for everyone.
“Oh dear, grandson. You look tired” his grandfather told him and Charlie only groaned, realising his sudden drowsiness before falling face first into the ground. He wakes on the couch, shouting his eyes to save them from the sunlight and starts to listen to the talking. “I found this book in his room. It has someone's phone number in it.” an athletic woman told the tall person and they both started to read the book. “Look at this! This junk right here is not safe for our brother. We must ring up this number and complain!” Charlie’s tall brother started to dial the number as the athletic woman read out the numbers. “Oh goodie. You're awake, grandson.” “what’s going on, Granpapa?” Charlie asked as he got up, his grandpapa patting his chest and telling him to rest.
“Give me that damn book!” Charlie snatched the book, remembering everything about last night and started to read the book. “Damn! That asshole expects me to understand this bullshit?” Charlie reads the book but barely understands anything about it. “class 1 entities are lower-powered manifestations that lack psychokinetic mass-SCEW DIS! I UNDA STAHND NAHTING!” Charlie's speech became gibberish as he became overwhelmed with the contents of the book, granpapa reading the words aloud in a robotic manner. “Yes! My brother is Charlie Pitman…A BOUNCER!? NO! I SHAN'T ACCEPT THIS! MY BROTHER WILL DO NO SUCH THING!” Charlie’s siblings start screaming into the phone while the grandmother hopped onto the couch to read the book. “Fine. We will discuss this in person!” And with that, they hung up the phone and the family all sat on the couch, waiting for the discussion.
“God dammit, Charlie! Are you trying to get my ass fired!?” Carchi cursed as he put his sunglasses on, buttons up his light blue shirt and pulls up his denim jeans before making his way to the elevator and rapidly pressing the first floor button. The elevator opens and Carchi leaves to his van, only to be stopped by Sarah. “That's something you don't see every day. Where are you off to?” She asked, Carchi getting in his van and slicking his blonde hair back. “You know that kid me and the boss were discussing about?” he asked and the office lady nodded. “Well, that moron left the manual out for his family to see and now they want to complain about it. “You gave him the manual!?” Sarah angrily asked and Carchi begged her not to bring this up to the boss, Sarah responding with a groan.
“Alright. I'll help you. Don't try anything funny though.” She told him and sat on the passenger seat, Carchi mentally thanking Charlie for this opportunity. He drives into the tunnel and Sarah's phone begins to ring so she answers it and puts it out loud speaker before greeting the person. “YO! Sarah! It's me! Investigator Sean! We just finished investigating the hospital. We interrogated the class 3 and 4 ghosts about it, but the only information we have is that the class 5 ghost appeared a few weeks ago.” The person on the other side told her, Sarah asking if the ghost saw anything else. “That's the weird thing. Everything was normal before the class 5 appeared and started attacking the animals and other ghosts. And they ain't lying. I can tell.” “Any signs of a ritual?” Sarah asked and Sean told her that it just randomly manifested in the basement. “We couldn't find any signs of a ritual or residue of ectoplasm that could have summoned the class 5. Not even a sigil. Nothing we could find led to a summon.” “Impossible! How else could the class 5 be there?” Sarah bit her thumb in annoyance and confusion, Sean guessing it had always been there, but Sarah shot that idea down with the information she read.
“We'll keep investigating the area. See if there's anything carved into the tree. If we see any oddities, we'll report it.” And with that, Sean ended the call and Sarah started to think deeply about this case. They make it to the fish market and the formally dressed cowboy knocks on Charlie's door. The tall brother slowly opened the door, his upper body covered in the shadow as he revealed that the entire house was in darkness. Carchi with his wide eyes and Sarah with her squinted eyes try to peer into the darkness but the tall brother tells them to come in. “Fucking hell, Giant Brother! I can't see my own hand!” “That's my hand, grandson.” the elderly woman told him but agrees that it's too dark. Giant Brother lights a candle to show everyone with their scrunched up, rage filled faces, even Charlie was frowning angrily.
However, Granpapa starts to quiver before breaking down in tears. “No! I can't do it! I can't be angry at one! I mustn't hold grudges! No wrathful intent! That's not what the monk taught me!” Granpapa wept as he tried to reach for the light switch, but was too short so he dragged a chair and turned it on. “you only went there for a single lesson, granpapa.” The athletic sister claimed before Carchi cleared his throat and pulled out a document. “Now, I see you're unsatisfied about Charlie applying to be a bouncer-!” “A bouncer?” Charlie interrupted but Carchi signalled him to play along. “I understand your concern, but he is great for this job. He has potential to be an awesome bouncer.” “And what potential would that be? Fighting a bunch of people that could one day get him killed?!” The grandmother shouted, Carchi telling her that she's putting words in his mouth and trying to explain what he actually meant.
Sarah let out a groan as Carchi had a passive aggressive argument with the family, Charlie included. She gets up and clears her throat before saving Carchi's reputation and Charlie's future as a Hellslinger. “This boy right here is a wonderful person! He may seem like a delinquent, but he has a heart of gold and would do anything to protect those in need, even if it cost him! I mean, look at him!” Sarah pointed at Charlie's dopey face as he confusingly repeated the word ‘wonderful’ before bragging about a woman calling him wonderful. “...I will admit, you are right about him protecting the people he cares for and him being a delinquent but…what does this book have to do anything about being a bouncer?” Giant Brother asks and Carchi tells him that it was for a script for a movie his friend is making. “Well, as long as it doesn't harm us, Charlie can go be a bouncer.” the athletic sister said and Giant brother agreed, Charlie thanking the two and his grandfather and grandmother asked him to be careful.
“Wait. Before you go off. Could I be a part of that movie?” Giant Brother asked and Carchi told he had no chance because Pedro Pascal was there. Giant Brother stifled his tears as Sarah told him to read the book thoroughly if he wants to join them, Charlie groaning in boredom as he opened the book. “How about we do some shadowing, huh?” Carchi asked and Charlie agreed, Sarah groaning in annoyance. Charlie waves his family farewell and the three get in the van as they leave for a more populated place. “Hey, Charlie. Can you bring out your aura?” Carchi asked after parking his van near a shopping mall, Charlie struggling to bring it out.
“It's fine if you can't. You did use a lot of your life force in that final punch.” Sarah exclaimed and Charlie growled in annoyance. “Relax. We'll teach you to recognise the signs of spiritual trouble. For the training ground, we'll use this place as training.” Carchi entered the crowded mall to see a lot of people from ages, gender and race. “First. We'll recognise the signs of people being haunted by these spirits. Now tell me. What do you see?” Carchi asked as Charlie looked around. “That guy over there seems miserable.” Charlie nodded to a middle aged man in office attire and Carchi took a good look at him. “Someone in stress is a sign of spiritual hauntings. But ghosts aren't the only thing that can cause stress. Good shout, but there isn't any ghost harassing him. Not here at least.” Carchi told him and Charlie cursed but Sarah pulled out the manual and flicked to a page showing common signs of hauntings.
“Okie! If that's the case, then that cute girl over there with her friends is definitely haunted.” Charlie pointed to a university student wearing long sleeved clothes, hiding as much skin as she possibly could from her friends. “why would someone wear that much clothing? She's probably hiding some markings the demon left on her.” Charlie thought up some likeable theories but Carchi offered a more intimate idea, Sarah slapping the back of Carchi’s head. “However. You are right. A ghost is looming around her.” Carchi told him and offered him spare sunglasses. Charlie puts it on and sees more ghosts than he expected. Everywhere he looked, there was a ghost that didn't know it was being looked at by a punk like Charlie and looked at the girl to see a lanky, humanoid ghost with buzzcut haircut and wearing what seems to be a prison jumpsuit, giving Charlie a grim feeling
“The humanoid looking ghosts are class 3 or 4. If we can't pinpoint the identity of the humanoid ghost, they are class 3, but if their identity is established, they are class 4. Class 5 are ectoplasmic manifestations, meaning they weren't a living mortal. They have a monstrous appearance and most likely act like it too, like the one you encountered. They mostly form because of living emotions they are exposed to or some other forces. Class 6 are souls from an animal. Class 1 are ghosts who haven't formed yet, so we can only see them as little orbs and they can't interact with the living environment as much as the other classes can. Class 2 are ones that can be seen with the naked eye and can affect the living environment, but still haven't developed a form yet. Class 3, 4, 5 and 6 usually develop a form before they become visible to the naked eye” Sarah informed and Charlie remained quiet before face planting to the ground. “Too much. But I get it! But what about class 7?” Charlie asked and Carchi told him not to worry about that one yet. “Well! I can still handle this! How do I handle this?” Charlie read through the book but Sarah got ready to give him some insight. “The ghost that's haunting her is humanoid, so it's either a class 3 or 4. In order to deal with a class 3, we must remind them of who they were and hopefully they pass on. If they don't pass on, then we’ll have to forcefully exorcise it.” Sarah told him and Charlie asked how he could forcefully exorcise it. “You strike them down. In order to make contact with them though, you'll need to infuse yourself with your life force. However, you can't do that yet, so you need a weapon coated in ectoplasm, wrapped in a talisman or possessed with another spirit.” Carchi told him but Charlie didn't like the idea of using a weapon.
“Is there any other way to use my bare hands?” Charlie asked and the two shook their heads but Charlie shot up with an idea. “Do any of you have a talisman?” Charlie asks and Sarah pulls out slips of paper with a Kanji on it. Charlie asked if they come in bandages and Carchi said it is possible, asking what he has in mind. “I'm gonna box the living shit out of that ghost.” And with that, Charlie approached the girl, Carchi jokingly remarking that it has no living shit to box anymore. Charlie makes his way to the group and barges pass them, unintentionally being intimidating.
“Excuse me…can I have your number?” He casually asked, dropping the intimidating presence which snapped the girl immediately into reality and she awkwardly wrote it down, giving it to him. Charlie walks back to the two and remains quiet before giddily celebrating that he got a girl's number for the first time in his life, letting out a chuckle that made the two stifle in their laughs, but he becomes serious as he glares at the ghost. “Mia, you idiot! Why'd you give that guy your number?!” One of the girl's friends asked, another assumed Charlie to be a gangster and she just shrugged. Suddenly, Mia's body starts to shiver a bit as she tries to warm herself up, her friends asking if she's alright. “Sorry girls, but I, uh, got to study first class.” Mia excused herself as she left for the bus. She sits down and starts questioning why she suddenly got cold and the bruise marks all over her body.
“That guy…he wasn’t asking me out.” She told herself, trying to figure out what Charlie’s motivation was by asking her out. She gets off the bus and makes her way to her dormitory but she starts to feel an uneasy presence in her room. She tries to ignore it and cook some food for herself, pulling out eggs from the fridge. As she got ready to cook, one of the eggs cracked open which startled her but tried to play it off with some reasonable explanation. But when the others start to break open and bubbling, she starts to second guess her thoughts before hearing something in the fridge. She slowly makes her way to the fridge and opens it to see a head of the ghost that's haunting her, giving off a demonic smile.
In the van, Sarah is on the phone with someone to order a custom talisman for Charlie, the fighter asking how long it would take for it to be done. Sarah hung up and told him it wouldn't take a week to finish, but Charlie wanted at least something by tomorrow. “We’ll send you a package tomorrow if we can. Until then, go over the manual. The ghost is either a class 3 or 4 that hasn't become visible yet, but he still could be a threat.” Sarah warns him as Charlie hops out of the van and waves to his superiors before running off to his house. Charlie opens the book and starts reading it intensely. “GET READY, YOU ASSHOLE! I'LL SEND YOUR ASS TO HELL!”