October 7, 1883

"These guys were particularly feisty," Daki said to Gyutaro as the two of them stood over the mangled and half-eaten corpses of Hideharu Okabe and a police officer who had been accompanying him in a desolate alleyway within Yoshiwara. "I can't believe they thought their guns would work on us. Such weapons will never have an effect on Upper Moons like us."

"Never say never," Gyutaro cautioned her. "Maybe those idiot demon slayers will figure out nichirin bullets one day."

Daki laughed at Gyutaro's words. "No way. They're all a bunch of fucking morons. They haven't killed an Upper Moon in over 80 years! What makes you or anyone else think that will ever change?" She then snapped her fingers to command her obi sashes to take what was left of their bodies and dump them in the caverns. "We'll feast on them for a week or so. How about that?"

"Sounds good to me," Gyutaro replied before he began to merge back into Daki's body. Before he did, however, he told her one last thing. "Hey, before I go, please, be careful, Daki."

"Careful about what?"

"About that damn Kensuke guy."

Daki sighed. "Nothing we are doing will distract me from my goals. How many fucking times do I have to say that to you?"

"I know, I know. Just… Don't do anything exceptionally stupid, you know?"

"When have I ever?"

"Well…"

"Don't answer that," Daki admitted as she interrupted him. "That was in the past, though. I wasn't even a God damn Upper Moon yet. Cut me some slack, oniichan."

"Whatever." Gyutaro then fully merged back into Daki.

"Time to get the Hell out of here…" Daki then used her obi sashes to hide herself and slip through the cracks of a building next to her to escape, leaving behind only a large pool of blood and some tiny fragments of flesh and bone that had not been picked up and stored in the caverns. With the two of them dead, any hope of the police busting Daki for the killings she had committed was gone.

…

Later that night, Kensuke was lubricating a sliding door with some oil after it had begun to not shut properly. As he lathered the edges of the door with a small amount of oil, one of the girls asked him, "So, you and Sakurahime-oiran are getting along well. What's up with you two?"

"Nothing," Kensuke denied. "We're just friends, that's all."

"Really… I highly doubt that."

Kensuke stopped in disbelief and turned around, asking her as he wondered if he had been found out, "What makes you say that?"

"I sometimes hear noises from this room even with she doesn't have any clients scheduled for sex," the girl replied. "And you just happen to not be around when these noises occur. What gives?"

Kensuke paused, realizing he could not give a good explanation that she would believe. "Well, I…" Deciding to come clean to her, he told her, "You can't tell Tanezaki-san about this at all, okay? Me and Sakurahime-oiran aren't just friends."

The girl replied in an accusatory tone, "So you two are lovers?!"

"Shhhh! Don't say it so loud!" He then told her quietly, "I don't know if we are truly lovers or not. I do have sex with her, and I feel a connection with her beyond just sex, but… I just don't know."

The girl nodded before asking him, "So you don't know? Personally, I think based on what you said, you do have feelings for her."

"I do?"

"Of course," she replied. "If you just wanted her for sex, you wouldn't have said you have a connection with her."

"I don't know if I would call it love, though."

"Maybe it is, maybe it isn't yet. You'll find out with time, Kensuke-san." She then chuckled and told him, "I gotta say, you're pretty lucky to be fucking a girl as nice-looking as her. I'd love to be in your position. I'd be lucky to fuck a girl even half as hot as her."

Confused, Kensuke asked her, "Are you saying you'd want to be a boy?"

"I'm not. Girls can have sex with each other too, you know. Around these parts, it happens a bit more often than you'd think."

"That's so odd… I've never really heard of that before."

"Well, now you just did." She then patted him on the shoulder and told him before she left, "Well, I gotta get going. Have fun with Sakurahime-oiran for me."

Before she left, he asked her one final question. "How do girls have sex with each other?"

"You'll figure it out one day. Trust me."

…

October 12, 1883

Kensuke was busy throwing out a man who had come to harass a girl at the brothel shortly before it opened for the night. He told the man upstairs as the girl he was targeting hid herself in a room, "Get out. Now. Do what's best for you and her and leave already. Never come back. That's an order."

"That's not what's best for me," loudly said the man to Kensuke. "What's best for me is seeing her one more time!"

"No, it's not," he retorted. "Now get the Hell out before I force your ass out. I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty."

He tried to approach him, but the man pushed him away and told him, "Don't touch me, motherfucker."

"Motherfucker, huh? Motherfucker… Heh… Don't fucking push me!" Kensuke then punched the man across the face and kicked him in the stomach, sending him to the ground. "Get the fuck out before I beat your ass again!" He then punched him again, yelling at him as he did, "Fucking prick!"

The girl emerged from the room and screamed at the man, "Please, just go! Get the fuck away from me and get out of my life! I don't want you! I don't care about you at all! Just leave me alone!"

Kensuke then picked the man up and dragged him down the hallway as he tried to fight back. "Come with me! You're leaving right now!"

"Let go! I'm not going anywhere! I'm seeing her! Fuck you!"

"Fuck you, too!" Kensuke then punched him again, breaking his nose and spewing blood all over the floor and wall. "Want me to break more things on your body, asshole?! How about I break one of your hands so you don't try to molest any of the girls here again?!"

"How about I fucking kill you?!" The man then drew a knife from his shirt. "How about I fucking kill you, you bastard?!"

Kensuke was able to deflect the knife and knock it out of his hand and onto the floor. He then yelled at the man, "You pretend to be tough, but you're really just a fucking pussy! Who's the motherfucker now, huh?!"

The man then swung at Kensuke, hitting him in the jaw before grabbing him by his shirt. "Fuck you, asshole! You're the motherfucker, not me!"

"Don't grab me!"

"Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you!" The man slapped Kensuke across the face and tried to bite him, but was blocked by a swift push by him. "Fuck off! Let me see her!"

"I said let go already!" Kensuke then broke free of his grip and kicked him in the groin. He then yelled as he swung at him, "Fuck you!" He punched him hard in the head, knocking him out completely and sending him to the ground. As he took several deep breaths once the fight ended, he told the man, "Now I gotta drag your stupid ass out. If only you had just left peacefully." He then hoisted his body up by his shoulder as the same girl the man had stalked ran over to help him. "Hey, he's out cold."

"Good," she replied as the two of them carefully carried him down the stairs. "I hope he never fucking comes back after this. The guy was obsessive as Hell. I swear to God, I thought he was gonna fucking kill me."

"That's really bad. I hope he never comes back, either. This guy can fuck right off once we drop him off outside."

As they carried him past Kaori, she asked the two of them, "What happened up there?"

"I knocked his ass out," Kensuke told her. "Now we're dragging him outside and dumping him. When he wakes up, make sure he doesn't come back here."

"He fought back that much, huh?"

"Yep," the girl who was stalked replied. "This bastard was really itching for a fight."

"I can make sure the police take him away," Kaori offered. "That'll get him away from us."

"That works," Kensuke replied. "As long as he never comes back, I don't give a fuck what happens to him."

…

October 21, 1883

"How quaint," Daki said of some paintings that were hung up in her room. "I like it, Kensuke-san. You hang paintings well."

"Why thank you," he replied as he finished nailing in the last painting. All five of them had been delivered to the brothel the day before, and today, Kensuke volunteered to set them up. All five were rather old, pre-dating the arrival of the Americans in 1853, and the images on them symbolized the Japan of old, a nice throwback in an era where the country was rapidly modernizing and becoming more like their European and American counterparts. The oldest in fact dated to the same year Daki had become a demon, while the newest dated to 1847. All were rather expensive, but Daki was willing to pay a steep price for the artwork. "These are pretty old, actually. They remind me of a bygone era."

Without thinking, Daki slipped up and said, "It reminds me of the era I began worki-" She immediately caught herself, realizing she had accidentally let slip her relative immortality to Kensuke. "I mean… It reminds me of the era my parents were from before I was sent here."

Kensuke asked her out of suspicion, "It sounded like you were a bit more familiar with the era these paintings were from than just your parents being from that era. What did you mean by the first part of your sentence?"

"I misspoke," Daki assured him as she tried to dodge the subject as much as she could. "Trust me."

"Misspoke? Well… How old are you?"

"I'm nineteen," she lied to him. "I was born in Genji 1." Daki was unable to catch herself from using the old calendar of Japan, another indicator of how long she had been a demon.

"1864?"

"Yeah, 1864."

"I almost never hear people our age use the old dates," Kensuke pointed out. "Shiraume-san, what's going on?"

"I…"

"Don't lie to me, please…"

Daki sighed, deciding to take a leap of faith and reveal at least a partial truth to him. "Kensuke, sit down. I need to tell you something important."

Kensuke sat down across from Daki and asked her, "Are you leaving or something?"

"No," Daki shook her head. "What I say in this room never leaves this room. You are to take it to your grave."

"Just tell me what it is."

"Okay, okay," Daki replied as she took a deep breath. "Fuck… Okay… Look, the truth is… I'm not human."

Kensuke, confused by what she declared, asked her, "What do you mean you aren't human? You seem pretty human to me."

"Remember when you talked about demons?"

"Yeah, what does that have to do with anything? Ain't that the stuff of legends?"

Deciding to just say it, she said, "I'm a demon, Kensuke. Demons are real." She then opened her mouth and pointed out her sharpened canines. "This isn't a birth defect. This is how our teeth actually are." She had earlier told Kensuke that her sharp teeth were merely a birth defect, but now, she told him the truth. "It looks weird, I know."

Kensuke blinked several times before saying to her, "No way… No fucking way…"

"I know you think it's probably a joke," she said. "I've been a demon for over eighty years now, ever since I was only a few short years younger than you. I've looked like this for a long time."

"How did you work for so long?"

"I simply went from brothel to brothel with a fake name each time," she explained to him. "I'd stay at one for a few years and then move on." She then told him with sadness in her voice, "Look, you don't have to stay with me if you don't want me after this. I'm telling you the truth."

"Wait… So that guy was really hunting you?"

"Well… He was hunting demons in general. He wasn't specifically after me."

Kensuke asked her, "Did… Did you kill him?"

"I…"

"Did you?"

"I felt I had to," Daki explained. "He was trying to kill people like me."

Kensuke nodded. "I see… Well… I don't know… I don't really know how to feel right now…"

"Please," Daki then begged him. "Don't let anyone else know about me. Look, Kensuke, I… I want to be with you, okay?"

Kensuke sighed, a wave of conflicting emotions hitting him. "Is this why you can't get pregnant, too?"

"Yeah. Kensuke, if you want to have children, I'm sorry. I can't have children."

"Shiraume," Kensuke then told him. "If the legends are true… Have you ever thought about killing me?"

"Never," Daki told him. "There's another secret I need to tell you, too."

"And that would be?"

"My real name is not Shiraume," Daki confirmed. "It's Daki."

"Daki… Daki… It'll take time to get used to it."

In confusion, Daki asked him, "Wait, what?"

"Listen, Shiraume, or Daki," Kensuke explained to her as he held her hand. "I want to be with you, too. I don't care if you're a human or not."

"Even with all of my problems?"

"Yes," he replied. "Daki, I… I know you said I should wait for these words, but I can't wait anymore." He then finally told her after taking a deep breath to clear his mind, "I love you."

Daki was taken aback by his confession. "Are you sure?"

"Yes. I've never been more sure about anything else in my life."

Daki chuckled and replied out of sadness, "You fool… Falling in love with someone like me…"

Kensuke then surprised her with a kiss, taking her off-guard before she returned the favor. Both of them embraced each other and held each other in their arms as they continued to lock lips in a haze of desire and longing for each other. As he split from her, he told her, "Do you want me to show you how much I love you?"

"You fool…"

"Stop calling me a fool. I know I am." The two then made out again, and this time began to take each other's clothes off. "I'd rather be a fool than have never met you."

Daki giggled and told him, "Maybe I'm a fool, too."

Kensuke then asked her, "Are you gonna say it back?"

"Say what back?"

"What did I just say to you?"

"Oh… That…" Daki paused and closed her eyes for a few seconds to ponder to herself before she gave him a quick kiss on the lips and told him, "I love you, too."

Kensuke smiled. "That's what I wanted to hear."

As the two of them began to slowly and passionate make love, Daki thought to herself, "I've had sex so many times with so many people that I've lost count long, long ago, and yet this time… This time feels different. Is this what having sex with someone you actually care about feels like? It feels… It feels… It feels great! Sex with customers was good on its own, but this feels even better. Fuck, I can't get enough of this." As they continued, she remembered that she was in fact completely alone with him, thinking to herself, "I'm just glad Gyutaro-oniichan's busy collecting debts tonight and isn't here to see this. He'd kill me if he found out what I told Kensuke."

…

Meanwhile, Gyutaro was busy collecting debt from a man who owned a small tea shop in Yoshiwara. "So," he asked the owner. "You got the money, man?"

"Yeah, I got it right here." The owner then grabbed something from a desk nearby and gave it to Gyutaro. "Sorry for all that."

As he was handed a stack of cash by the owner of the shop, he told him, "Don't make me have to come back here to do this shit again, man. Pay your debts."

"It won't happen again," the owner promised him. "I swear, Gyutaro."

"You're a good man. I'd hate to see you go to jail over this, man. You don't deserve that shit."

"Thank you."

Gyutaro then looked over and saw a young girl sitting in the tea shop by herself. Her white hair reminded him of Daki before she had become a demon, and it caused him to smile as he reminisced about their past. Even though their past was hard and filled with poverty and tragedy, he still cherished the moments he shared with her before the two were demonized. He asked the owner, "Who's that girl over there?"

"That's the daughter of a guy who runs a blacksmith shop around here," the owner replied. "She comes around a few times a week for tea and to pick up some tea for her dad." He asked the girl, "Kumiko, how are you doing?"

"Good," she replied to the owner.

Gyutaro walked over to her and asked her, "Do you need anything before I head out?"

Kumiko looked up and asked him, "You're the debt collector, right?"

"Yeah."

"My papa knows you," Kumiko replied. "He says you look kinda scary, but I don't think you look really scary."

Gyutaro smiled before turning to the owner and telling him, "Get her some of the best tea leaves you got. It's on me."

"Got it," he replied as he went to grab the most expensive tea leaves he had. He then handed them to Gyutaro, who then handed them to the girl.

"Here you go," said Gyutaro as he handed the owner some money to pay for the leaves. He then handed the girl some extra coins and told her, "Hopefully, I won't have to collect debts from your papa anytime soon."

"He's pretty good at not having debt."

"If only we all were." Gyutaro then left the store, thinking to himself, "She looks just like Daki before she got burned… It's kinda freaky in a way, but it brought back some good memories… And some bad ones, too."

Daki and Kensuke were now officially a couple, and although they knew it would be difficult, they had no idea what would be in store for them in the future.