September 19, 1913
Tanjiro, Nezuko, Inosuke and Zenitsu waited for a train at a nearby train station as Zenitsu explained what a train was to them. "Okay, so a train runs on a series of metal rails planted on the ground. It burns either coal or wood to boil water inside a massive metal tank to produce steam, which powers an engine inside the front car of the train and propels it forward. Each train has that, another car for carrying the coal or wood, a few cars carrying either people or cargo, and then a caboose at the back that will help the train stop on the tracks and also is the living quarters for the crew aboard. Do you all understand now?"
"I see," Tanjiro replied with a nod. "So it's not a guardian spirit, but instead a self-powered carriage on rails, right? No horses or people required?"
"Correct," Zenitsu confirmed. "A bit simplistic, but that's about right."
"I'm still stumped," Inosuke replied. "And not fully convinced this isn't a mighty beast, either!"
"Oh God," Nezuko facepalmed. "Here we go."
"I challenge you!" Inosuke then pointed at the side of a train car. "Pig Assault!" He then charged at the train and rammed into it with his boat mask.
Zenitsu yelled, "Inosuke, what the fuck?!"
"Hey, what are you guys doing over there?!" A police officer then ran over, concerned about Inosuke's actions. "Why do you guys have swords?! Where are your permits?!"
"Right here," Tanjiro replied as he quickly pulled out four forged weapons permits from James, all perfect copies of legitimate permits issued by the Japanese government that allowed a limited number of citizens to carry guns and/or swords in public. "My apologies for our friend. He's never seen a train before."
The policeman then looked over the permits and nodded. "Very well then. Just make sure he doesn't get too crazy, and keep those swords under control."
"Absolutely, officer. Have a good day." Tanjiro then bowed.
"As to you," the officer bowed back.
Zenitsu told Nezuko nearby, "It's a good thing Colby-san gave us those permits. Without them, we'd be screwed. Carrying guns and swords in public without a permit is incredibly illegal, and since we aren't government-sponsored, permits are the only way we can legally carry weapons in public."
"That sucks," Nezuko replied as she pulled out a revolver from her weapons belt. As of the beginning of September, due to the experiments with the Pillars being a success, the corps began issuing guns to slayers in stages, and the four of them had managed to snag sidearms relatively fast. As she checked to make sure it was loaded, she told Zenitsu, "Hey, before we go on this train, I wanna thank you for protecting me back at that one house."
Zenitsu replied in confusion, "Which one?"
"The one with the drumming demon," Nezuko replied as she holstered her gun. "You didn't even know I was in there, and yet you guarded my box with your life because of your devotion to my brother. That means a lot to me."
As she patted Zenitsu on the shoulder, he lit up with happiness. "No way… Nezuko-chan… You're welcome!" He laughed in joy as he danced around the platform, giddy with excitement from Nezuko's complement of him. "This is incredible! Nezuko-chan complimented me!"
As Nezuko stared at him in confusion, Tanjiro told her, "You might wanna get used to that."
"Yeah, I had a feeling that was the case, oniichan." She then noticed a group of foreigners boarding the train. "Huh… I see a few foreigners over there, oniichan."
"Yeah, now that you mention it… It's odd that there'd be Westerners at this stop, much less a whole group of them." Tanjiro then stepped on board. "But I'm not the kind of guy to be prejudicial."
"I suppose you're right," she replied as she followed him on. Little did any of them know that these 'foreigners' would in fact become their enemies in a matter of hours.
…
On board the train, James, Susamaru, and Kyojuro were enjoying a meal together, with Kyojuro frequently commenting on the taste of they meal. "Tasty! Tasty! Tasty!"
"I think we get it," James then told him as he raised a hand to him. "It's very tasty, Rengoku-san, but there ain't a need to repeat it so much."
"Yeah," Susamaru agreed. "No offense."
"None taken," Kyojuro replied, taking it surprisingly well. "I was getting a bit tired of it myself, in fact!"
Then, James noticed Tanjiro, Nezuko, Zenitsu, and Inosuke walking into their car. "Oh, hey there, guys! Welcome aboard! How're y'all doin'?"
"James," Tanjiro happily replied. "It feels great to be back in the field, I'll tell you that. It's actually a good thing we caught you guys, because I need to ask Rengoku-san a question."
"A question?" James nodded. "Alright then."
"Ask me anything," Kyojuro offered to Tanjiro as he patted the seat next to him. "Take a seat, young Tanjiro."
As Tanjiro sat down, he told them all, "So, uh, this is a bit odd, but I was wondering if any of you ever heard of the Dance of the Fire God."
"Doesn't ring a bell," Susamaru replied.
"No clue," James replied as well.
"Unfortunately, I have not," Kyojuro finished with.
"Well," Tanjiro then explained as two train attendants began collecting trash from their seating area and Nezuko leaned in from the seat behind Kyojuro and Tanjiro. "You see, my father did this dance every year called the Dance of the Fire God before he died, and it was this super complicated and powerful dance. My father wasn't the strongest person either, by the way, so the fact he was able to pull this off at all was amazing. Anyway, the reason I asked you all is because I was able to turn it into a breathing style."
Kyojuro and James both replied in shock, "A breathing style?!"
"Yeah," Tanjiro nodded. "I used it in my battle against Rui, Lower Moon Five. It was more powerful than anything else I used with the Breath of Water. It felt a bit more natural, too. I was wondering if it had anything to do with the Breath of Flames due to their names both having fire in them."
"Certainly a good observation," Kyojuro replied. "But alas, I am not sure of any connection. My father does have a journal containing the full history of the Breath of Flames, and both of my Tsuguko have managed to copy it and even translate it into English for safekeeping and as a backup. Maybe you can find an answer in there."
Nezuko asked James, "No way! You translated it?!"
"Indeed," he nodded. "It was a pain in the ass since the Japanese in the journal went through several big shifts and changes in word usage and whatnot in the last few centuries, but I managed to pull it off."
"Yeah," Susamaru added. "There was Japanese in the beginning of the journal that I couldn't even understand. That's how old it was."
"I see," Nezuko replied.
Meanwhile, Inosuke stuck his head out of the window as the train sped down the tracks, shouting out into the sky, "Hell yeah, this beast is really fucking fast! Holy shit! I wonder if I can outrun this fucker, Monitsu!"
"Don't you fucking dare," Zenitsu yelled at him as he tried to drag him out of the window. "It's too dangerous to be out there! Come on, dumbass!"
"You can't stop me!"
"Yes I can!"
"Stop horsin' 'round," James then warned both of them. "We gotta be ready! There could be demons on this train, and not the good kind!"
"Wait," Zenitsu then stammered out. "De- De- Demons?! On the train?! What?!"
"Correct," Kyojuro added. "That's why the three of us are here. There have been a series of disappearances and train robberies on this route, and six slayers recently disappeared from here."
"Six slayers?! Gone?!" Zenitsu was horrified. "What the Hell?! You're telling me no place is safe?! That's it! I want off this fucking train right now!"
"Come on," Tanjiro admonished him. "This is our job!"
"If you stay," Nezuko then tempted him with. "I'll sit next to you for the whole ride, Zenitsu-san." She then flashed him a smile, thinking to herself, "If he's gonna basically obsess over me, I might as well use it to the team's advantage."
"Nezuko… Nezuko-chan, or demons… Nezuko-chan, or demons…" Zenitsu then paused for a few seconds to think before giving her an answer. "Fine, I'll stay, but only because I'll get to sit next to you, Nezuko-chan."
James could barely hold in his laughter at Nezuko's bargain as Tanjiro sighed in slight annoyance and Susamaru and Kyojuro looked at each other and nodded, both agreeing mentally that what had transpired was hilarious. James thought to himself, "Damn, Nezuko's basically got Zenitsu by the balls, and he doesn't even know it!"
…
A few minutes later, as James was showing the gang a new way he had developed of casting spells from his American spell book involving scrolls of paper with the spell written upon them, they all saw a train attendant come down the aisle to collect tickets. "Tickets, please… Tickets, please…"
"So yeah," James concluded his little speech as he held up a scroll. "That's how this thing wor- Uh…" He noticed that the attendant appeared to be tired and sickly, with numerous bags under his eyes and his voice almost devoid of life. "Hey, sir, are y'all okay? Ya don't look too good."
The attendant looked over to him and replied, "Just a bit tired. Thanks… For your concern. Tickets, please." His eyes were similarly devoid of life, and as the gang handed him their tickets, he went through the motions of punching them with barely any energy in his body. "Thank you… Have a fun… Trip…"
As the attendant walked away, Inosuke asked the gang, "What was his problem?"
"He probably ran too many night time trips," Susamaru inferred. "Definitely looks like extreme burnout to me."
James then noticed another American or European man sit down in a seat towards the front of the car. He bore a grey hat and a business suit. The fact that he was not the only foreigner in the car was intriguing, and he thought to himself, "Another white man? Huh… I'm surprised to see another foreigner out in this neck of the woods." He then looked over and saw that Inosuke had fallen asleep. "He must have tired himself out from his antics earlier," he thought to himself. "I might as well get some sleep, too." He then closed his eyes and rested his head on his fiancée, who smiled and closed her eyes as well, the two of them drifting off into sleep together.
…
Meanwhile, in the locomotive of the train, Enmu and Patrick talked to the same ticket attendant from before. "Good job," Enmu congratulated him. "Now all of the passengers will be trapped in my architect-based dreams for them when they fall asleep."
"Please," the ticket attendant begged of them as he slumped to the floor. "Let me get some sleep now. I want to dream of my dead wife and daughter!"
"As you wish," Enmu then replied as he waved his hand in front of his face, both him and the hand's mouth telling the attendant, "Go to sleep… Go to sleep…"
Immediately, the man fell to the floor, unconscious and in a state of deep sleep. Patrick told him, "All of my men are in position. When the passengers are asleep, they'll round up anyone who's still awake and execute them."
"Make sure they take care of any slayers on board as well," Enmu told him. "We don't want any surprises on our hands. I've given a few of them ropes so they can enter dreams and kill people if they must."
"Are you gonna fall asleep?"
"Not yet," Enmu shook his head. "I need to be awake for now. You're free to enter a dream if you want, though."
"Got it," Patrick replied as he then pointed his gun at the train conductor. "You there, make sure you don't let a single fuckin' soul know about what's goin' on, or I'm gonna kill ya. Got it, laddie?"
"Yes, sir," he replied, fear in his voice as he kept the train running. "When will I be able to sleep? Please, I don't know how much more I can take of thi-"
"When we fuckin' tell ya!" Patrick then pistol-whipped him to keep him quiet, drawing blood from his cheek. "Now shut up and do your job!"
"Yes, of course," he meekly replied as he turned around and got back to controlling the train.
"Enmu," Patrick then told him. "I'm gonna go to sleep soon. I'll have one of my men stay awake in here to keep this conductor company and make sure he does his job."
"Got it. I'll design a good dream for you. It'll be like you're actually experiencing it in real life, in fact." As Patrick then took a seat and began to fall asleep on his own, Enmu stepped out of the car and climbed on top of the train with ease despite it moving at a steady pace along the tracks. He took a deep breath as he looked out at the night sky. "To die in your sleep, surrounded by such pleasant dreams… It must be nirvana or heaven. I have truly blessed everyone on this train. The humans aboard will never wake up again, but they won't notice it until it's far too late. As long as those pesky demon slayers are killed first, I'll be well on my way to gaining more blood from these humans as well as Muzan-sama and more powers to wreak havoc and further his goals of a demon-dominated world. With enough time, I'll even be able to challenge Upper Moon Six and gain her spot. I'll finally get the respect I deserve…"
…
When Patrick awoke in his dream, he was sitting in a chair in his adopted hometown of Helena, Arkansas in the middle of the day. He smiled as he looked around his modest house and said to himself in English, "Ah, it feels great to be back here. I haven't been in Helena in years." He took a deep breath and pointed out, "But I still remember it all like it was just yesterday that the War Between the States began."
As he walked out of the front room and walked outside, he saw a modestly busy small town street in the middle of the day. He realized he was dressed in his Confederate Army battle uniform, designating him as a brigadier general, and as he looked around, he heard a familiar voice call out to him. "Patrick! Patrick!"
He immediately looked behind him as his eyes widened. "Sue?! Is that you?!"
"I took care of the-"
Susan Tarleton, Patrick's fiancée before his untimely death at the Battle of Franklin in 1864, was unable to finish her sentence before he bear-hugged her, shedding a few tears as he did so. "Oh, thank God! It's been so long, my love…" He began to sob into her shoulder, the emotions of meeting the love of his life overflowing in an unending stream of tears.
"So long? What do you mean?" Susan was confused and concerned for her fiancé. "I just saw you earlier. Is everything okay, Patrick?"
"I… I'm sorry," he replied as he split from her. "It's a long story, dear. Please, sit down." As the two sat down on the front porch of the house, he thought to himself, "This is gonna be a long one to explain. Where the Hell do I start?"
…
James awoke inside his dream in front of a house in an unknown forest. The house seemed to be Japanese in origin, and it was daylight out as he looked around in confusion. "Huh… Where…" As he walked towards the house, he whispered to himself, "Where the fuck am I?"
Then, he heard the voice of his long-dead wife call to him. "James! Over here!"
He immediately stopped and looked to the front entrance of the house. "No way… No fuckin' way…" There she was, standing and waving as she stood next to his dead son and held a baby girl in her arms, presumably the unborn child she had been carrying when she was murdered. "Julia! Julia!"
He immediately embraced all three of them as Henry asked him, "Daddy, what's wrong? Why are you sad?"
"Oh thank God…" He began to shed tears as he brushed his son's hair, something he had not done in years. "Thank God you guys are okay…" He then looked at his daughter, who could not have been more than a year old, and asked Julia, "Can I hold her? What's her name?"
"Her name?" Julia was confused as to why he asked such a seemingly obvious question. "It's the one you always wanted to name a daughter. It's your sister's name: Leah."
"Leah…" He could see that she bore his wife's brown hair and his original hazel eyes from before he was a demon. "Leah… I can finally meet you…"
Then, he heard another voice from behind Julia. "Hey, Jules, who's here?"
"Alice?"
"Hey there, dear," Alice then said as she saw James. "I see you're home now. Susamaru's crafting a crib for the baby."
"Wait… What?"
"Wow," Alice replied with a chuckle. "Did y'all hit your head on somethin' on the way here? We're your wives!"
"Wives?" James was astonished. Somehow, in some weird way, all three of his lovers were wedded to him. "Wait, Alice, how have you not aged?"
"You demonized me to save my life," Alice explained. "You demonized Zeke too when those KKK horsemen attacked and killed us."
"I did?" He then paused to collect his thoughts, which were running at hundreds of miles per hour. "This has to be a dream," he thought to himself. "But I can live with this dream…" He then smiled and handed the baby back to Julia. "You're right. I did, Alice."
"Hey James," Susamaru then asked him in Japanese as she approached him from behind, having stripped down to her pants and her chest band due to the heat as she wiped her forehead of sweat. "Can you find me another box of nails in the shed? I just ran out." James immediately noticed that she was visibly pregnant, at least a few months along.
"Uh, yeah," James replied as he turned around. "I'll go get 'em."
As he walked off to find the box of nails she was referring to, Susamaru asked the other two wives in English, "Is something wrong with him?"
"He seems a bit off today," Julia pointed out. "Maybe we can get Zeke and Vèro to watch the kids for a bit and have some fun." She then told Henry, "Can you get your Uncle Ezekiel to watch you guys? Also, try to find Vèro somewhere around here. Your mommies and your daddy need to do something alone."
"Okay," he eagerly replied, always enjoying time with Ezekiel.
As he ran off, the three women all smiled at each other, plans racing through their heads as to how to surprise him with a good time. Alice guessed, "Maybe a little fun in the sun is what we all need."
