CHAPTER 358: EITHER WAY, YOU LOSE

[TAMIKO]

"I suppose whoever sent you after her told you not to inform the king and Sadako, no?" Sanji voiced as he looked at the Lycan prince. He should have expected that a day like this would come for Tamiko.

However, maybe the man had been too busy with his betrayal to even think of the consequences of the shit he had triggered long before anyone would ever have the voice to confront the kind of shit they were up against this time.

It was crazy, and Sanji felt like someone had just punched him in the gut.

"Not exactly," Tamiko said.

Sanji let out a soft laugh at the denial.

He knew so well that the king and the Lycan lord wouldn’t ever let the kid be in the same space with Sanji without Kosta, or Akila, or some of the people they trusted the most.

It was common sense so what Tamiko was paying at wasn’t making any sense. At the same time, Sanji understood the desperation in the kid’s eyes so he didn’t push any harder than he needed to.

He understood this predicament, and for the first time in a long time, he wished that the endings would be kinder to Tamiko.

"That is not helping me out. Where can I find Yilena?" Tamiko asked.

He was losing time and he didn’t want to fail his Kosta. The way that everyone who had spoken about Yilena were reacting, anyone would think that the woman was the devil himself.

Or maybe she was the devil that people needed to be rid of, the devil that had scared and scarred so many generations. Honestly, Tamiko knew he should have asked more about Yilena for Kosta’s nana, but he didn’t at the time.

He had been given the greatest task anyone could have been handed for so long. Maybe this was truly the test of how hard Tamiko could fight for Kosta, or how smart the kid could be.

It wasn’t easy, but what else was there for the kid in the fight for a mate who had meant gyrating to him back then?

"You don’t find Yilena Tamiko. The woman is a ghost. She is a myth. Many people who heard the name never got to see the end of the day. She never lets anyone find her and lets the others know.

"Think of her like a folk tale, something that never exists. She is crazy, that much is known and not even the king and Lord Sadako have ever managed to say shit about her.

"Yilena is honestly the only woman the mad king never asked about. He knows what she does in secret and the open. He knows what she looks like, and yet none of the Yilena victims ever got justice.

"For years, many assumed that the king was Yilena, or even that the queen was Yilena, but the facts didn’t match. Most of the time that Yilena murdered people. The king and queen were either in the palace or interacting with the locals.

"It never got to make any sense. But what the people failed to understand was the fact that the king never once summoned Yilena, even though he knew of her doings.

"And that was why everyone started assuming Yilena was a ghost and is a ghost," Sanji said, and Tamiko stared at him keenly. This was an impossible mission, one that didn’t make sense, and yet he wanted to find this Yilena.

It was almost a bravado that would ruin him, seeing as he hadn’t asked the right things back there. He had just agreed to it, which was stupid now that he thought about it.

Maybe Danny would have had Beter answers, but how the fuck was Tamiko supposed to get answers from his werewolf best friend who had just joined Kawai as a Lord?

"But you seem to think she is real, Sanji. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have told me what you just said," Tamiko pointed out, and Sanji groaned.

It was like he was trying his very best to keep out of trouble and yet trouble seemed to be finding him with so much ease it was disconcerting.

Maybe in another life, there would be bridges along the way that they would need to get to each other, and those that made more sense than the fact that there was anything about a ghostly woman whom he had been tasked with murdering.

Why the fuck had he even agree dot tis madness? Oh, but Tamiko couldn’t think straight at the moment, and maybe that was the worst thing that he could ever have done in his lifetime here.

"I am a traitor, kid. Of course, I have to believe everything is real. And if you’re hoping to kill her with these weapons, then you are in for the longest day of your life. The woman never dies.

"She just pops up, kills people, and disappears. She is meant to remain the worst hidden open myth in the whole of Kawai," Sanj said as he picked up the weaponry that he had been dragging along.

He could see the curiosity in the kid and he knew that at the end of the day, something had to give, but what the fuck was Tamiko supposed to feed in, when this was the saddest time of his life and he just didn’t quite know it yet?

"That is not helping you are doing a lot of fear mongering instead of telling me where to find Yilena. I have an Erasthai that needs my attention and you are not making it any easier for me by withholding information, Sanjiro.

"I need you to get me what I need. Maybe if you do, I will let you back into the kingdom," Tamio said, and Sanji laughed heartily at that. It was like this was a first for him, but Tamiko didn’t understand what the fuck was going on then.

It was like being dragged into some form that he wasn’t able to understand with ease. There was already so much that was happening and that needed their attention and yet it seemed like the prince was currently focused on all the wrong things.

"You think you can give me an offer like that, and I would just take it? Kawai hates traitors, Tamiko. We despise them more than anything, and I am a traitor. Nothing you will do will change the way that they look at me.

"Nothing you say will make them change their minds. The only reason I came along is because of this interesting game you have gotten yourself into, because of Igor Konstantin. You don’t even know how dangerous it is and how crazy it is for you.

"The stakes are so high that you are never going to win. That is how the game is rigged, because if you win by killing Yilena, you will not only lose your Erasthai, but you will lose everything—

"—Your father, your uncle, your Erasthai, and everything that means anything to you," Sanji began, and Tamiko listened keenly. It was haunting to listen to whatever the fuck Sanji had to say.

Tamiko was silently hooping that this wasn’t as fucked up as it seemed to be. There had to be a way out of this mess. There was just no way that the traitor was the one who was preaching to him now.

Then again, Tamiko had been the one to seek out Sanji. He should have known what he was walking into. It was that hard to decipher and the sooner that they came to that realization, the easier shit would be.

But would it all be better for him?

Even then, he listened keenly as Sanji continued.

"...Your winning this fight means that everything will never be the same. Not a soul will even dare to love you, and if you stop the game, you will still lose regardless of what you do.

"You will lose your Erasthai, the one man that seems to be tethered too deeply into your system. Either way, you lose. You took the bet that you can never win, and now it is my turn to see how you will manage to do this.

"Are you willing to sacrifice your family for Igor, or will you sacrifice Igor for your family, young Kaito Hinata?" Sanji mocked, and Tamiko felt shivers down his body with the sincerity in Sanji’s tone.

The choices were not even choices anymore and that was the scariest bit of it all. It was almost like there was never going to be a win for him, as long as he was still here, trying to make it through the chaos.

What had he set himself up for?