January 24, 1914
Inside a windowless room in the Kyogoku House, Daki was filling out paperwork, most of it being tax forms and messages to and from the local government. As she signed a paper, she said out loud to call out to her brother, "Oniichan, can you do the rest of these for me? I gotta attend to business with Makio. Maybe I'll get that bitch to finally talk today."
"Okay, okay," Gyutaro said as he emerged from her back. "How long are you gonna be?"
"Not too long," she assured him as she got up from the table. "If you need anything, just ask… Well, you know."
"Right," he replied as Daki used her sashes to disappear into the wall. Once she was gone, Gyutaro remarked to himself, "I'd rather fuck up these forms and have the government bust our doors down for tax fraud than ask for help from that asshole Early."
When Daki emerged in the hidden torture room inside the Ogimoto House where she had kept Makio, she asked her as she walked over to her, "So, how long do you wanna keep this up? I'm getting pretty fucking close to losing my patience, Makio. I need to know who you were writing less little letters to." She then shoved several of the letters in her face before slapping her. "How about you answer me, you fucking bitch?!"
Makio yelled through her mouth gag, "Fuck you!"
Daki then punched her in the chest, causing her to let out a yelp of pain. "Insulting me isn't gonna get you out of this situation, Makio. You need to start talking, and it better be soon if you want even the smallest chance of living."
"No…"
"I thought today would be the day you'd change," Daki remarked. "But I guess I was wrong. I'll just kill you later, then. How about that?"
…
Meanwhile, inside the Kyogoku House, Nezuko was talking with several of the other ladies and girls of the house about the events of the day prior. "I can't believe Omitsu-sama died so suddenly," she said to them. "It's really tragic."
"I know," replied one of the ladies, who, based on her expression, knew the truth but was clearly afraid to say it. "It sure is a tragedy, Nezuko-chan…"
"On another note," said a young woman who was roughly Nezuko's age. "I see you and Zenko-san are very close. How did you two meet?"
"Oh, right, um…" Nezuko quickly began to form a fake backstory for her and Zenitsu. "Me and Zenko-chan were taken in by the same man who sold us here a few years ago. We've been close ever since." She then began to drift off, describing many aspects of Zenitsu to them. "Zenko-chan can be a bit annoying and boy-crazy sometimes, but deep down, she really is a good person. She always goes off to me about how she's so weak and cowardly, but I think she isn't either of those things. I think she's strong and brave, especially when others aren't looking. She's saved my life on more than one occasion, and to be fair, I did save her ass one time, too. If I had to describe her as a shogi piece, since that's our favorite game, I would consider her similar to a Hisha."
"A Hisha? That's an interesting comparison. How good are you at shogi?"
Nezuko chuckled and told her, "I fucking love shogi. Maybe when we have some free time, I can challenge you to a game of it."
"If we get some free time," remarked one of the girls. "With Omitsu-sama gone, we're working all day with almost no breaks."
Upstairs, Zenitsu was making the rounds and thinking about his mission. "I haven't heard a damn thing about Hinatsuru-san since I got here," he thought to himself. "I've been all-ears since I came here, but my luck has been shit. I don't know how much longer we can wait before something happens to Uzui-san's wives."
As he passed by a room, he heard someone crying and got concerned. "Why… Why me…"
"Huh?" Zenitsu turned around, immediately recognizing it as belonging to a girl that was employed at the Kyogoku House. "That sounds like a young girl… That can't be any good." Feeling that something was very wrong, Zenitsu turned around to find out what was going on, not knowing he would soon find himself in far more trouble than he ever could dream of.
As he raced towards the sound of danger, Nezuko, who was walking up the stairs, noticed him and asked using his fake name, "Zenko-chan, what's wrong?"
"No time to explain," he said to her.
"No time to… Ugh, okay."
…
Meanwhile, inside the Ogimoto House, a disguised Inosuke had noticed that a full meal had been left out in front of a room, but was completely untouched. He thought to himself, "If I had to guess, that must be Makio's room. That food hasn't been touched at all." Realizing that he needed to take action, he said to himself, "Fuck it. I gotta investigate this."
He then walked over and slid the door to the room open. As soon as he did, he found that the room was completely boarded up, with no sunlight seeping in through the window at all. However, despite this, there was still a cold and steady breeze blowing in, which deeply perplexed him as he walked in and looked around. The room had not been occupied for at least a week, which lined up almost exactly with when Makio apparently went missing, at least according to Tengen.
As Inosuke walked around, he heard footsteps above him and realized something was walking in the attic crawl space above the room. "Huh… Hey! I can hear you!" Hearing the footsteps run across the attic, Inosuke quickly dashed out to the hallway and gave chase. "I just gotta catch this damn thing! It's a demon for sure, but where's it going?!" As he rounded a corner, he pushed past several people, yelling, "Get the Hell outta my way!"
"Woah! Hey! Watch it!"
Inosuke then burst through a room and out the other side, yelling as he did, "I gotta get through!"
As he dashed down the hallway, one of the girls he had barged in on asked the other two girls inside the room, "Hey, uh, was that Inoko-san?"
"I think it was, but it didn't sound like her."
"Come to think of it, I've never heard her speak. Maybe she's a mute?"
"That voice definitely didn't belong to a woman."
Inosuke thought to himself as he continued to chase the sound above him, "It's probably a Japanese demon, so it has to stay up there during the daytime. Even so, it's gotta come down eventually!"
A man happened to walk the opposite direction of Inosuke as he was chasing the sound. He was clearly drunk, and as he stumbled into the hallway, he said to him, "Hey there, hot stuff. Wanna have some fu-?"
Inosuke then punched him in an attempt to punch the wall as the sound moved down it, only to immediately realize his mistake and sense that the sound had avoided the punch. "Damn it, I missed!"
As he dashed away, the man collapsed to the floor, having been knocked out. A woman standing nearby gasped in fright, "Holy shit, did you knock him out?! Inoko! Inoko!"
As Inosuke ran down the stairs, he lost track of the sound and exclaimed in frustration, "Where the fuck did it go?! There?! There?! Where?! Damn it, I lost track because those assholes got in my way!"
…
Meanwhile, as James walked around the Red Light District in a dark alleyway to avoid detection by the Neo-Confederates that peppered the Red Light District, he heard a voice call out to him from behind in English. "It's been a while, James Colby."
He turned around to find Thomas Eaves pointing a gun at him. James sneered as he pulled out his own gun and aimed at him, "Of course you'd be the first to directly confront me, Mr. Eaves."
"I see you ain't carryin' round a shotgun or rifle anymore," Thomas pointed out. "Why's that?"
"I got a sword to use instead. I can't wait to wipe that stupid fuckin' smile off your face and the face of Jubal Early." He then cocked his gun.
"Wouldn't ya rather wipe my ass?" Thomas cocked his gun as well.
"That sounds like a problem for you to solve. I don't wanna go anywhere near there."
"I'll make you."
"I gotta say," James then insulted him further. "When it comes to you, that dropped eye of yours reminds me of the hood of a cunt, Tommy. Whenever ya run that fuckin' mouth of yours, it looks like a cunt movin' and it annoys the Hell outta me."
"And your mouth lets out shit like an ass."
"At least shit can be used as fertilizer," James retorted. The two of them knew that their injuries would not be able to heal properly if they both shot at each other in the daytime, which for now kept them at a standstill. They also knew that they could not use their Blood Demon Arts for the same reason, and would have to rely solely on their skills and regular physical abilities. As the seconds ticked by, James became restless. "Are y'all gonna actually do somethin', or are ya just gonna stand there like a fuckin' dunce?"
"Just watch." Thomas then fired a shot at James, who sensed he was about to and dodged just in time, the bullet grazing his head as he fired off two shots at Thomas, one of which struck him in the shoulder. "Agh, shit!" Thomas quickly returned fire, but missed since James had struck him in the shoulder of the arm he used to hold his gun. As blood poured from his bullet wound, he muttered to himself in pain, "Fuck…"
As the two of them ran for cover and Thomas ran for shade to be able to heal his injuries, James pulled his sword out and said to himself, "He's probably gonna run for shade to heal himself."
Meanwhile, as Thomas' injury slowly healed in the shade of a building, he muttered to himself, "God fuckin' damn it, I can't believe I let him shoot me." He then checked his revolver and reloaded it as fast as he could before peering over the side and finding James doing the same, firing at him once but missing since James ducked back away in time. "Damn it! I fuckin' missed him again!" He looked at his Confederate officer uniform, which was stained with his blood, and remarked, "My clothes are a damn mess. I'm gonna get my ass chewed out for dirtyin' my uniform with this much blood."
James then fired the last of his four bullets at the building Thomas was hiding around, hoping one would go through and hit him. "I'm surprised the police haven't found us yet," James thought to himself as he holstered his gun. "We've been pretty loud. Surely someone would have noticed us by now. I'm fucked if I get caught."
Thomas said to himself as he began to complete his healing from his wounds, "Alright, I gotta confront him. If I hit him just right, I'll kill him in the daylight so he can't heal."
James, from his position, yelled out, "What? Are ya scared?! Did I hit ya?! Come on out!" When Thomas initially did not come out from hiding, he said to himself, "Maybe I did get 'em."
Thomas meanwhile said to himself once he stood up to attack, "Here we go"
"I definitely got 'em. He ain't movin' at all."
To his annoyance, however, Thomas charged out from the building with his gun, yelling, "You can't hide from me, asshole! I'm right here!" He let out a rebel yell as he charged at James in an attempt to intimidate him.
As James got up to charge at him with his sword, he took a deep breath just as Thomas began firing at him. James then dashed forward, ignoring the bullets as he declared in English, which was unusual for a breath style attack, "Breath of Flames, Fourth Form: Bloomin' Flame Undulation!" Using his sword, he deflected the bullets as he raced towards Thomas and finally managed to land a strike right at his neck, completely slicing his head off and killing him. The blood from his decapitation splattered across the walls surrounding the alleyway and stained Kyojuro's haori as his body slumped to the ground and began to disappear.
Once he had killed him, he heard a voice call out in Japanese, "I heard gunshots over here! I need the police! Is there a police officer nearby?!"
"Fuck," James said as he realized other people had indeed heard the fight and raced away from the scene, sheathing his sword, taking Kyojuro's haori off, and carrying it under his shoulder. "Fuck, fuck, fuck! I'm gonna get my ass caught if I don't run!"
As he ran away from the scene, a man dressed as a Confederate soldier also ran towards the alleyway as another one in a similar garb trailed close behind. "This way! These people are shoutin' about somethin' goin' on 'round here!" Once the two of them ran into the now empty alleyway, they found the clothes of Thomas Eaves lying on the ground and quickly realized he had been killed. "Holy shit! Billy, come look over here! Someone killed Eaves! Only his clothes are left!"
James dashed through the alleyways hidden deep in Yoshiwara as he made his escape back to the safehouse. As he did, he thought to himself, "One down, four to go!"
