October 28, 1913
Reiko was now resting at the Butterfly Estate, having managed to stop violently becoming ill after the events of yesterday morning. Blood samples had been drawn from her soon after her arrival to see what kinds of poisons had been used against her. As she rested in a hospital bed shared with a few other slayers who had recently been injured, one of them turned to her and asked, "Who are you, by the way?"
"Me?" Reiko sat up and turned to a male slayer around her physical age of 15. "I'm Reiko."
"Do you have a family name?"
"No…" Reiko and Rinji had never been given family names by Rui, and had long forgotten the family name they had when they were humans. "I pretty much never have."
A second slayer to the left of Reiko, who was the same age as the two of them, asked him, "What kind of question was that? Can't you see she was uncomfortable?"
Reiko insisted to him, "No, no, it's fine. It's an honest question. He didn't mean any harm." She then looked at the patient name plates above their heads by turning around. "Okuda Tsuyoshi and Suzuki Tokuhei?"
"Correct," Tokuhei replied, sitting in the bed to Reiko's right. He had light brown hair and black eyes, as well as a scar running down the right side of his face, bisected only by his right eye.
"Yeah," replied Tsuyoshi, who sat to Reiko's left. He bore black hair and red eyes, and his left leg was bandaged up from what appeared to be several cuts to it. "So you're just Reiko, huh?"
"Yeah."
"What brings you here?"
Tokuhei then asked, "Weren't you that one girl who got sick a lot when you came in?"
"I was," Reiko confirmed with a nod. "And no, before you two run away, I'm not sick with a disease that can be spread. I got poisoned."
"Poisoned?"
Tsuyoshi told Tokuhei, "Don't you remember, idiot? She's a demon!"
"Oh, right…"
Reiko confirmed with a nod, "I am a demon indeed. I've been serving in the corps in some capacity since the summer. How long have you two been in?"
"We went to the same Final Selection about a year and a half ago," Tsuyoshi replied. "We both got trained in the Breath of Mist."
"Breath of Mist? That's what Tokito-san uses!"
"Tokito-sama came a little bit after us," Tokuhei replied to her. "But he was way ahead of us in terms of abilities. I remember going on a mission with him right after he graduated, and I was blown away by him."
"And that's why he's the Mist Pillar," Tsuyoshi added. "It didn't take him a long time to get to that position, especially since the corps had been lacking a Mist Pillar for a while by then."
"What happened to the last one?"
"He died," Tokuhei confirmed solemnly. "He got killed about half a year before Tokito-sama took his place. Speaking of breaths, what do you use?"
Reiko chuckled. "Funny you say that. I don't use a breathing style. I use this." She then used her left hand to try to spawn a string of web, attempting to do so three times before remembering she could not do so during the day. "Shit, I forgot I can't do that in daylight."
Tsuyoshi replied as he tried to hold in laughter, "What was that?"
"I was supposed to shoot a web," Reiko replied. "Like a spider web. I can use it to hold something in place, drag something, or pull something apart. Ever since I was able to walk in the sun again, I keep forgetting that I can't use my abilities as a demon during the day."
"Ah, right," Tokuhei replied. "I remember getting briefed on that whole daylight thing in regards to Colby-sama."
"You know," Reiko then told them. "I thought my stay here was gonna be boring, since I'll be here for a few days, but I think I'll be just fine with company like this."
"If this is the company you're seeking," Tsuyoshi remarked in a humorously self-deprecating way. "I feel very sorry for you."
Tokuhei remarked, "What the Hell is that supposed to mean, huh?!"
Reiko chuckled in amusement. "How long have you two known each other?"
"Since we were about eight," Tokuhei replied. "We've been friends for seven years now."
…
October 31, 1913
In the Yoshiwara area of Tokyo, a small group of men led by an American dressed in a gray suit walked into the infamous red light district of the city in the late evening, perhaps the most famous in all of Japan. As they walked through the main street of the district, walking alongside the many intricately-decorated buildings and equally-decorated people, the leader of the group told the men in English, "Try not to act too crazy 'round here, okay? We gotta look somewhat decent for our People of interest." Of the twelve men that were with him, many of them looked keenly interested in partaking in the sex industry in Japan now that they had entered Yoshiwara. They all knew of prostitution and a few had even partaken in it as customers back in America, but the way it was done in Japan was very foreign to them. The leader thought to himself, "I can't ban 'em from havin' a good time outright, not when we could die at any moment."
Another man beside him asked him, "Sir, do you know where this girl and her brother are?"
"I was told she was at the Kyogoku House, Mr. Eaves," Jubal Early, the third Knight of the Moon and former general of the Confederacy, replied to another man named Thomas Eaves, who was the thirteenth Knight of the Moon, as he straightened out his graying beard somewhat. "Now, Mr. Hall."
"Yes, sir?"
"You speak Japanese, right?"
"Yes, sir," replied George Beauregard Hall, the twentieth Knight of the Moon.
"Go ask 'round here to find the Kyogoku House," Jubal told George. "It'll save us a lot of damn time. We can't spend all night lookin' for this damn whorehouse."
As George asked around, Thomas asked Jubal, "Do you think those two will really relent to our management?"
"I know they share their Upper Moon 6 rank," Jubal replied. "But even so, General Kibutsuji told them we were coming and what he wanted us to do with them. That one girl's pretty loyal to Muzan, so she shouldn't put up any resistance."
"I suppose…"
"Sir," George then told Jubal as he ran back over to the group. "I found out where it is! Follow me!"
"Well," Jubal then told his men. "You heard the man! Follow him!" He thought to himself as his men followed George, "I hope this arrangement will lead to something of value. I have both a good and bad feeling about this."
…
In a darkened meeting within the Kyogoku House, Jubal, George, and Thomas sat in Western-style chairs on one side of a table while one of their two soon-to-be underlings sat across from them. The other one stood and knelt on a wall nearby. Jubal reached across the table and offered his hand to the sitting half, telling him, "Gyutaro, isn't it? It's nice to meet you."
Gyutaro realized what he was trying to do and shook his hand somewhat awkwardly. "Right. My apologies, I'm not used to people shaking hands."
"So," Jubal then asked him. "Is this woman in the room your sister?"
"Correct," Gyutaro replied with a nod. "This is Daki." He then turned to her and told her, "Well, say hi to our visitors."
"Hello," Daki replied somewhat reluctantly.
Jubal, perplexed as to why Daki was so resistant despite assurances from Muzan and Thaddeus that she would not be, asked, "What's her problem?"
"Well," Gyutaro informed him. "She wasn't pleased with this arrangement of having someone over us who isn't, you know, our original leader."
Jubal nodded. "Well she'll have to get used to it. You know exactly why we're here, Gyutaro."
"Yes, I'm aware."
"Muzan wants us to watch over you," Jubal explained to make sure he got the point across. "He thinks that the best way to use the two of you most effectively would be under the command of someone who had experience in leading soldiers into battle. After all, you two have no experience leading others."
Daki muttered under her breath so Jubal could not hear her, "Whatever." She thought to herself, "This guy's getting on my nerves already."
Gyutaro resented the remark, but kept his mouth shut about it, simply replying, "I see."
"I'm not finished," Jubal told him, continuing with his explanation. "You two may have been here longer, but I'm ranked above you as the Third Knight. I've heard of your exploits, especially your sister's exploits, and I think you two need to show a little more restraint. Besides…" He then looked at Daki. "I can hear you, you know."
Daki and Gyutaro both looked at each other with looks of annoyance at Jubal. Gyutaro then turned back around and told him, "So what do you-"
"Hang on," Jubal interrupted him. "I wasn't finished. I'm going to straighten you two out and make sure that you know your limits."
Gyutaro then got up from the table, asking him, "Our limits?! Our limits, asshole?!"
Jubal got up as well and grabbed his shoulder to push him back down. "Sit down!"
However, Daki immediately swooped in and dug her nails into Jubal's shoulder, telling him in a rageful tone, "How dare you lay your filthy fucking hands on my brother!" She then tore off his arm, spewing blood all over the place as George drew his revolver.
Jubal screamed, "Fucking bitch!"
Daki noticed George and used one of her obi sash to grab a hold of his gun and twist the barrel to make it unusable. "Nice try, asshole!"
Before anything else could happen, Muzan suddenly appeared in the room, stunning everyone. Gyutaro exclaimed in shock, "Muzan-sama!"
Muzan replied by shooting him an intense glare and telling him, "Quiet!"
Jubal told Muzan as his arm began to grow back, "Daki attacked me, sir."
"Same to you," Muzan warned him. "Don't make me call your own Progenitor here, Early-san." He then turned to the siblings first, warning them, "I appointed him as your leader for a reason. I expect you two to show him respect. I know he has some ideas that may seem unorthodox to you, but you need to listen to him so long as he does not contradict me. Do you two understand?"
Fearing Muzan's wrath, Daki and Gyutaro both replied, "Yes, Muzan-sama."
Muzan then flashed them a smile before petting Daki's head, telling her, "I know you can do better, Daki. Do this for me, please."
Daki replied, "Yes, Muzan-sama."
Muzan then turned to Jubal, George, and Thomas, telling them, "Do not contradict any orders I give. I will only warn you this one time. Insubordination will result in death. I put my trust in you three to keep these three safe. Don't let me down. Do you three understand?"
All three of them replied, "Yes, sir."
"I'm glad we all could come to this understanding," he then told all of them as he once again gave off a deceivingly warm smile. "I expect great things out of you all. Don't disappoint me." As soon as he had appeared, he then vanished with a snap of his fingers.
Gyutaro sighed as he got up from the floor and told Jubal, "You have yourself a deal, then. We don't have any other choice, after all."
"I suppose we don't," Jubal agreed. "What General Kibutsuji says goes."
