On the roof of the building they had entered, Sanemi told Vèro, "Let's hurry up and kill these bastards so we can go home! Shoot them, Vèro! Shoot them!"
Vèro obliged by firing twice at them with her gun. However, both of the bullets wound up missing as Earl quickly dodged them and tried to swing at her with a large knife. She quickly dodged the attack and drew her sword with her other hand as she shot him twice in the chest with her gun. He stumbled back before charging at her again, prompting her to yell, "Get back!" After firing her last two bullets into him to slow him down, she holstered her gun and swung her sword at him, chopping his left arm completely off.
Meanwhile, Sanemi charged at Wyatt with his sword, declaring, "Breath of Wind, First Form: Dust Whirlwind Cutter!" He managed to slice Wyatt in half, but had to quickly retreat when he drew a gun and narrowly shot Sanemi in the head, the bullet whizzing past his left ear. "Shit!"
Wyatt yelled at Sanemi, "Try and catch me!" He then jumped to a second rooftop next door, causing Sanemi to give chase. "Let's see if you can catch up!"
Sanemi, despite not knowing exactly what he said, knew that Wyatt had taunted him as he jumped onto the next rooftop. He knew that he had to be careful with his attacks, lest he fall off the edge to his death on the street below. He drew his own revolver and fired four shots at Wyatt as the two exchanged gunfire, with Sanemi ducking behind an enclosed brick doorway to the roof for cover. "Fuck, this is too close!"
He then fired his last two shots, managing to hit Wyatt in the head and shoulder and sending him to his knees in pain. "Agh, fuck!" Wyatt fired his last shot while lying on the ground and then drew a large machete. "I bet you're out of bullets now, asshole! You can't shoot me anymore!"
Sanemi, seeing his chance to strike, immediately charged out from behind cover and declared, "Fifth Form: Cold Mountain Wind!" With several arched slashes, Sanemi managed to cut him again as he began to heal from his injuries, but Wyatt had managed to deflect his sword with his machete twice in the attack. He then slashed Sanemi across the chest, injuring him. "Agh, motherfucker!"
Wyatt then stumbled to his feet once his legs took form again and jumped to a slightly lower rooftop below. "Come on! Chase me! You got two legs that aren't broken!"
"Get the fuck back here!" Sanemi then staggered to his feet and jumped down to the roof where Wyatt stood, ignoring his own injuries as he declared in a mid-air attack, "Ninth Form: Idaten Typhoon!"
Back on the original rooftop with Vèro, she prepared an attack against Earl as his arm began to grow back, declaring, "Breath of Wind, Second Form: Claws-Purifying Wind!" With four vertical slashes, she managed to slice him in half, but missed his neck. "God damn it!"
Earl screamed in pain, "Why do you keep missing my neck, you bitch?!"
"Because you keep moving, asshole," Vèro yelled back before spitting at him. She then looked at his severed arm, or at least what was left of it, and quickly took a bite of it before swallowing a chunk of flesh and telling him as she wiped blood from her chin, "Tell me this, cannibal: Have you ever seen a demon eater?"
"A demon eater?"
"I can show you," Vèro replied as her eyes changed color and her arms grew in size and muscle composition. As she let out a primal scream, her teeth sharpened and she raced towards him with her sword in her larger hands. "This is our power!"
Earl quickly drew a large metal blade from a wound on his arm, the blood he drew forming into shape, and held Vèro off before trying to kick her, only to miss and trio over the edge. He very quickly caught himself and grabbed his makeshift blood-drawn sword before trying to slash Vèro across her chest, only to have his blade collide with her's. Vèro's blade then cut through his own and managed to slice Earl in two at his shoulders, preventing him from being killed since she missed his neck. As Earl lay on the ground, he screamed at Vèro, "Is that all you got?! Am I supposed to be impressed by that weak shit?!"
Vèro yelled back in anger, "Don't run from me!"
Earl was able to regrow enough of his body to leap to another roof nearby and climb on after having missed the roof and having to hold on to the ledge by an arm. As he staggered to his feet, Vèro jumped over and landed right next to him. "So, you followed m-"
"I said, don't fucking run from me!" Vèro interrupted him by managing to strike him in the neck with her sword. However, Earl managed to stab her with a hidden knife just as she did so, causing her grip to weaken and her not being able to cut his neck in half all the way, her sword coming to a halt halfway through. "Agh, fuck! My attack!" As her blood poured onto the ground, she quickly began to lose her superhuman strength as her demon eater powers faded and her wound attempted to heal itself. "Damn it…"
Earl was able to push himself away from her and said, "Looks like your little trick didn't work!" However, he then noticed that her wound had almost fully healed. "Wait a minute… What?!"
"I may not be able to use my powers right now anymore," Vèro explained as she wiped away blood from her wound. "But that's only because they can also heal me to an extent… And even if I can't use it, I can still use a breathing style! You're finished!"
As Chiyo raced to the roof of the original building with a police officer right behind her, she saw Vèro and Earl on the roof of the building next door and called out, "Vèro-chan!"
The police officer with her shouted in English at Wyatt as he drew a gun and aimed at him, "Sir, drop your knife and surrender! You're surrounded! We have police officers surrounding the building! You have nowhere to run and nowhere to go!"
Earl laughed as Vèro turned around to see both of them, with the former replying to the officer, "Some pathetic humans with guns can't stop me! I'm a ghoul!" He then dashed for the roof of the original building to confront the officer and Chiyo.
"Stop!" The officer then fired one shot at him, but the bullet merely passed through him with little effect. "Stop, I say!"
"Get back here!" Vèro then charged at him to catch up, declaring, "Breath of Wind, First Form: Dust Whirlwind Cutter!" By moving briskly, she managed to catch him just before he was about to jump and delivered a killing blow by slicing right through his neck and killing him. Vèro managed to just barely stop in the nick of time at the edge just as Earl's severed head and body fell onto the ground below. "Shit… That was too close!"
The officer shouted over to her, "Young lady, are you alright?!"
"Yeah," Vèro replied as she jumped over to the original building's roof. "I'm fine. How's that woman in the apartment?"
"She's hurt," the officer replied to her. "But we're tending to her and we sent for an ambulance. Her husband is dead, though. Where was the other man you saw?"
"One of my associates is chasing him down," Vèro replied, referring to Sanemi.
Meanwhile, Sanemi was indeed continuing to chase down Wyatt, managing to severely injure him with a Breath of Wind attack. He quickly fell to the floor of the roof in agony as his body began to try to heal his wounds. "Agh, fucking… Fuck, that hurt…" His blood was all over the roof, coating it in a deep shade of red as he crawled towards his machete and grabbed it. "I still got this!"
"Time for you to die," Sanemi told him as he began to charge at him once again to finish him off. "Here I go- Huh?!"
"Surprise!"
"Oh shit!" Wyatt suddenly exploded into several pieces, sending Sanemi back and causing him to almost fall off the ledge of the roof as Wyatt's body parts scattered all over. "Damn it!" He just barely managed to hold on by grabbing onto the ledge of the roof before he fell, his sword thankfully still in his other hand. After looking around and waiting for about half a minute, he looked down and saw a fire escape below him, so he let go and landed on his feet onto the fire escape. "Alright… What the fuck was that?"
Sanemi was then suddenly pushed from behind by someone, prompting him to turn around and see Wyatt right behind him. As it turned out, his arm had fallen onto the fire escape, and he had regrown his body from said arm. "I'm right here! I've escaped your clutches!"
"Shit!" The two then battled once more, albeit in a more confined space, with Sanemi deflecting his machete several times. "Agh, fuck you!" After battling on the fire escape for a brief moment, Sanemi busted open a window to an apartment and crawled in, startling a young woman inside her bedroom. He looked at the woman and said to her in Japanese despite knowing she could not understand him, "Sorry about that, ma'am!"
The woman screamed and ran out in fright as Wyatt also crawled in. "You led me to another victim! Nice effort, idiot!"
Sanemi, despite not fully understanding what he said, quickly realized he was now going to try to kill the woman whose apartment they had just broken into. As Wyatt tried to run past him, Sanemi declared, "Sixth Form: Black Wind Mountain Mist!" Swinging his sword upward, he managed to stop him and get his neck, pushing with all of his might as he cut his way through until once again, Wyatt triggered what seemed to be a Blood Demon Art and exploded with the snap of his fingers on both of his hands. "Agh, motherfucker! What the fuck was that?!"
Wyatt laughed at Sanemi and said to him, "Hah! You can't get me! I'll just explode once more!"
"Damn it," Sanemi thought to himself as he was thrown into a wall by the explosion, which also knocked out all the windows in the apartment and the apartments next to it. "I missed my chance to kill him! However… I noticed something… Maybe if I cut off one of his hands and then behead him, he won't be able to explode to get away from me. I'll have to try it! It's either that or he'll keep exploding to get away from me!" He then staggered to his feet and declared, "I know how to defeat you, asshole!"
As Wyatt came back together from his disembodied torso, he told Sanemi, "You can't stop me, you damn bastard! You're just a fucking worthless loser!"
"Die!"
"Good luck killing me!" Wyatt had no idea that he had indeed figured out the key secret to his explosions.
"I said die!" Sanemi quickly saw his chance to strike and swung down on his right hand just as it reformed, managing to cut it off. He then moved once again for his neck and declared, "Sixth Form: Black Wind Mountain Mist!" Repeating his previous attack on Wyatt, he hoped for success, and this time, he was finally able to achieve it. His theory was proven to be true when he saw him try to snap his fingers, only for him to not explode since he could only snap his fingers on his left hand. "Here I come!" With one clean sweep, Sanemi killed him by decapitation while also unintentionally destroying most of the bedroom and also slashing a hole in the wall to another room. "Hah.. Hah… See? I told you I would kill you once I figured it out, you son of a bitch. That means the end for you!"
The woman then ran back in, seeing the carnage unleashed in her room, and slowly backed out in fear. "What… What happened?"
Sanemi knew he would not be able to communicate with her due to the language barrier, so he did not even bother to reply to her as he simply walked back out of the apartment onto the fire escape like nothing ever happened, saying to himself, "Well, time to find the other two bastards next, wherever the Hell they are." As he climbed down to the street, he thought to himself, "That's two down, and three more of these fuckers to go."
…
An hour and a half of police interrogations and investigations later, Sanemi, Vèro, and Chiyo were back at the Glessner House as Ed popped open a rather expensive bottle of champagne. "I figured that since the Chicago Cannibals are dead," he told the whole group. "We ought to celebrate a little before we head out and find the other two demons you guys are looking for."
"I agree," Yasuhiro replied after translating for the others. "Pass me a glass."
"Absolutely," Ed replied as he gave Yasuhiro a full glass of champagne.
After Sanemi sipped on his own glass, he told Vèro, "We should probably talk about what happened before the fight."
"It's about time you brought that up," Vèro replied before leaning on and whispering to him. "I want Genya to sit down with us. He should hear this."
"Absolutely not," he whispered back.
"Do it," she demanded in a whisper.
Sanemi, realizing he would get nowhere, finally acquiesced and said, "Okay, fine." He then turned to Genya and asked him, "Hey, um… Genya, can I speak to you and Vèro in private?"
Genya then downed his entire glass, startling Ed and John, before replying, "Of course."
Sanemi told the others as all three of them got up from the table, "Excuse us for a minute."
As all three left, Rinji turned to Gyomei, the two of them confused about what had happened, and asked him, "What was that all about?"
"I don't know," he replied to him. "I really don't know. However, I can tell it isn't good, whatever it may be."
"It isn't," Chiyo then spoke up. "It's about a fight Vèro had with Shinazugawa while they were out before we fought the Cannibals."
"A fight?" Gyomei was surprised. "Over what?"
"Over Genya," Chiyo clarified. "Vèro was angry that Shinazugawa talked so poorly about his brother."
"I see," Gyomei acknowledged with a solemn nod. "I knew something like this would happen one day. Vèro and Genya are very close to each other."
…
"So," Vèro said to the two brothers as they all sat down in a private study room, with Sanemi closing and locking the door behind him as the last person to enter said room. "We have some things we need to discuss. Most importantly, this is regarding you and your relationship to your brother, Shinazugawa-san."
Sanemi was increasingly uncomfortable with the prospect of talking about what had happened in front of Genya. "Look, I'm starting to think this was a mistake."
"Well it's too late to go back now."
Genya then asked the two of them, "What's going on? Why am I suddenly the topic of discussion?"
"Genya," Vèro then asked him. "Did your brother ever call you worthless or a waste of life?"
Genya's blood ran cold upon hearing those words. "Well… Yes, he did." He knew immediately what had happened. "You found out, didn't you?"
"I did," Vèro acknowledged with a nod. "And I'm not happy with my mentor's treatment of you, especially knowing what happened to your family."
"Can I leave now?" Sanemi, despite being the one to lock the door, now wanted to exit the meeting. "Look, maybe I was a bit harsh, okay? I get it."
"I don't think you do," Vèro called him out. "The truth is, I don't think either of you fully understand how dire your situations are. You two are the last people in your family still alive. All you two have is each other. I will be damned if I see two people I care about push each other away despite having no one else and I can't stop them from making the biggest mistake of their lives."
Genya nodded solemnly. "I see…"
"Shinazugawa," Vèro then said directly to Sanemi. "Answer me honestly. Why do you treat your brother so poorly?"
Sanemi was silent, refusing to entertain her question with any form of an answer. Genya, anticipating an answer as well, asked him, "Do you have an answer for your apprentice?"
Sanemi once again did not give an answer. "Come on," Vèro encouraged him. "Answer us."
Finally, after waiting for another full minute in total silence, Sanemi piped up and provided an answer to Vèro's question. "Well, the reason I do… I guess it was so my brother could be safe." His expression had changed from annoyance to one of concern and worry. "When our family was killed, I went on… Well, a dark path. I was afraid of what would happen to him if he followed me, so… So I tried to push him away from me."
Genya gasped. "You… You were scared?"
Sanemi turned and yelled back, "Of course I was fucking scared! Hunting demons kills people! Do you think I wanted you to die?! Of course not! I had no future, especially not after Masachika and then Kanae were killed, and the last thing I wanted was for you to throw away your's!"
Genya, stunned by the revelation, simply replied after blinking his eyes several times, "You… You did this to protect me…"
"Yes," Sanemi confirmed with a nod after taking a deep breath. "I said all those things to keep you safe by keeping you away from me, but all it did was drive you into the Demon Slayer Corps and put you at risk anyway."
Vèro, also shocked, replied, "I… I think I understand now. You wanted Genya to avoid the life you led so he could stay alive."
"Correct," Sanemi replied. "That's all I have to say."
Genya remained silent for another full minute, darting his eyes between Sanemi and Vèro the whole time until he cleared his throat and said to the two of them, "I don't know what I was expecting when I walked in here, but I was definitely not expecting that."
"Well," Vèro then said as she got up. "I think that settles that. I'll go in the other room so you two can talk it out.
You two should have a nice long chat with each other in private." Without a further word from any of them, Vèro then unlocked the door and stepped out, locking it once again when she exited the room. As she began walking away, she breathed a huge sigh of relief and said to herself, "Oh, Dieu merci. Je suis content que ce soit fini."
…
Meanwhile, Ambrose, Jun, and Yoshimi were in a state of panic. The demons they had come to see were now dead, and they had no easy way to get back to Japan, as it had been expected of them to bring the Chicago Cannibals with them to San Francisco and then on a ship to Japan. Ambrose threw a glass bottle against a wall at their safehouse in anger as he screamed, "God damn it, can anything go right?! How the fuck did we screw up this badly?! Now we can't even accomplish our damn mission! The whole point of coming here was to get those fuckers, and they got themselves killed!"
Yoshimi asked him, "Sir, what do we do now?"
"I don't know how we'll be able to face Muzan or the Jackson Brothers when we come back without our primary reasons for coming here," he said to him. "But I know one thing we can do."
"And that would be?"
"We're gonna find those fucking Japanese demon hunters and slaughter them like the animals they are," he replied with an angry tone. "And thanks to some research I had an old contact of mine do here, I think I know where to hunt them down."
"Old contact? Who?"
"I had a friend who lives in this city," Ambrose explained. "And come to find out, he's still alive. He told me that many hunters go to the Glessner House in the south end of downtown Chicago, and I think we'll be able to find those Japanese hunters there."
Yoshimi nodded. "I see… Will this friend be joining us?"
"No," Ambrose replied. "He's leaving for New York today. However, we don't have much of a choice. We have to bring the fight right to their front door, Yoshimi."
Jun asked Yoshimi in Japanese, "So what does this mean?"
"We're going to hunt them down and kill them ourselves rather than wait for them to come to us."
