Zenitsu and Nezuko walked into a darkened room that was in complete disarray. In the middle sat a young girl who was crying, which quickly caught their attention. Zenitsu asked, "What the Hell happened here? This room's a mess."
"It looks like someone had a fight in here," Nezuko commented before she turned to the young girl and asked her, "Hey, are you alright?"
The girl looked at her and replied as tears streamed down her eyes, "No…"
"There, there," Zenitsu said as he walked over to comfort her. "It's okay. We're here."
Both of them stopped as they suddenly felt an ominous presence behind them. "What the fuck are you two doing in my room?"
Nezuko and Zenitsu turned around to find Daki, or Warabihime as they still knew her, staring at them with utter contempt in her voice and on her face. Both of them realized something was very wrong with how she had entered the room. Zenitsu thought to himself, "Warabihime didn't make a single sound when she appeared behind us. This… This is inhuman. Is she really the demon we're after?"
Nezuko meanwhile thought to herself, "Is this woman the same one Mukago-san was referring to? Could she be a demon like me?"
"Are you two deaf or something? Answer me!"
"Oh, right," Nezuko then said to her. "We heard this girl crying and came to see if she was hurt. We got worried when we saw that the room was a mess, Warabihime-sama."
"I see," Daki said back as she entered the room. "I'm not in a good mood as it is, and seeing this intrusion into my personal space really pisses me off."
Two young girls standing in the doorway noticed the events occurring and tried to speak up for Nezuko and Zenitsu, with one of them pointing out in a timid voice, "Warabihime-sama… They're brand new. Give them a break, please."
"They're just concerned…"
Daki turned around and replied in a harsh tone, "Who the Hell cares if they're new? Not me!" As both girls cowered, she turned back to Zenitsu, Nezuko, and the young girl who had been crying as she said, "You two are right that this room is a mess… Which is why I told this girl to clean it." She then turned specifically to Zenitsu and sneered at him, "Your face disgusts me. The only thing keeping you here is your shamisen skills. Remember that." She then turned to Nezuko as her facial expression turned from contempt to a sort of fascination. "But you, though…"
Nezuko asked as Daki gently caressed her face, "What about me?"
"You truly are beautiful, Nezuko. You represent everything a new courtesan should strive to be in terms of looks aside from me. You could have any man you ever wanted… And even any woman if you wish."
Zenitsu was angry at Daki essentially trying to court Nezuko, but held his anger back to avoid being killed. "That bitch is touching her… How dare she caress her chin! She's clearly bothered by it!"
Nezuko was indeed uncomfortable with Daki touching her, and told her in a meek tone, "Thank you, Warabihime-sama." In her head, she thought, "This woman gets way too close for comfort."
Zenitsu then spoke up, telling Daki, "You're making her uncomfortable."
"Uncomfortable?" Daki then turned back to him. "Am I?"
"No offense… But you are, sort of," Nezuko also added.
"Very well… Besides, we have more important things to deal with." She then bent down to the younger girl who had been crying earlier and warned her in a hushed but rage-filled tone, "Clean this God damn room, and clean it good, or there will be Hell to pay later. Do I make myself clear?"
"Ye-yes, Oiran-sama…"
Daki then got up and told Zenitsu and Nezuko, "Zenko, get out of the room. Nezuko… Come with me. I want to talk to you in private across the hall."
"In private?" Nezuko became worried about what she would do, and braced herself to fight as the three of them all walked out together. "What's going on, Warabihime-sama?"
"Don't worry," Daki assured her as she opened the door to the room across the hall. "Come on in."
Zenitsu asked her, "What about me?"
"Stay out," Daki warned him. "This is between me and her. Don't interfere. That's an order."
As the door was slammed shut on him, Zenitsu began to grow concerned about what Daki was going to do with Nezuko. "This isn't good," he thought to himself. "What does she have planned for her?"
…
Inside the room, Nezuko and Daki sat down across from each other as the latter told the rather tense-looking former, "Relax. I'm not here to yell at you, Nezuko. I'm here to talk to you."
Nezuko replied, "Talk to me? About what?"
"I want to know what brought you here," Daki clarified. "And what your connection to that other girl is. It isn't often that a girl of your natural beauty comes here, especially when they're so passive about essentially being sold into a form of slavery, sexual or otherwise."
"Me and Zenko-chan have been friends for several years," Nezuko explained to her, rewriting parts of her past to fit with her fake personality. "We were taken in by the same man. He wasn't the one who sold us to you, but he was a close associate of him."
"I see," Daki nodded. "What was your family like before then?"
"My family…" Nezuko paused for a few seconds as she came up with a good backstory for herself. "The only family I have left is my older brother. Everyone else is dead, including all of my younger siblings. They died of disease. I made the decision to sell myself to the same man who bought Zenko-chan so my brother could have enough money to find a job in Tokyo."
Daki could feel the emotion behind Nezuko's voice, and thought of her own brother as she told the story. "Funny you mention that, Nezuko. I… I have a brother, too. He's also older than me. We've been together since I was born, even in the worst of times when we almost starved to death. We don't always get along, and we do fight, but tell me, how far would you go to protect your brother?"
"I would give my life to protect him," Nezuko replied with a very definitive answer. "I would destroy anyone who harmed him, or Zenko-chan for that matter."
Daki smiled, appreciating her answer. "I would do the same for my brother, too. He's worth the whole damn world to me, even if we don't always get along. No amount of outsiders or money will ever make me betray him. In the end, my only real dream is to have a future where he's happy, and I will do anything to make it happen."
"Wow… You sound really devoted to him."
"I am. I love my brother more than anyone or anything else." Changing the subject matter, she then asked her, "Are you curious as to why there's so many foreigners running around the Kyogoku House, Nezuko?"
"Actually, I am. What's the deal with that? Why are they all in grey uniforms?"
"We are overseen by a wealthy businessman who had some associates of his from America come here to supervise us more closely," Daki explained, rewriting Muzan, Jubal, and George to be business associates of the Kyogoku House. "The first meeting didn't go so well after a fight broke out. Those Americans have been breathing down my neck for a while now, and I'm really starting to get sick of it." She then sighed and told Nezuko in a more impolite tone of voice to express her annoyance, "I'm fucking tired of this. I miss the days when I was able to do the shit I needed to do without all these eyes watching me and my every move."
"Americans, huh?" Nezuko then thought to herself, "If they're Americans, they must be the Neo-Confederates that Colby-san talks about."
"Yeah, Americans. I'm not saying all Americans are like that, but most of these Americans are annoying pests. Not helping is that one of them got killed, and I know exactly who's responsible."
"One of them got killed?" Nezuko wondered, "Did we already kill one of the American demons?"
"Yeah, just over an hour ago, too. We're all really pissed off about it. We think this group that's been trying to kill the business associates of the businessman who actually owns the Kyogoku House is responsible, and were probably hired by his rivals."
"That has to be coded language for the Demon Slayer Corps," Nezuko realized in her head. "We did kill one of the American demons already, but who did it?"
"Well, with all that said," Daki replied as she got up. "I have to get ready for tonight. I have a group and a private client on the schedule. The group wants a shamisen performance, and the private client… Well, let's just say he wants to go from using our mouths to using other parts of our bodies."
Nezuko blushed as she realized what Daki was talking about. "I… I see…"
"Oh, don't blush, Nezuko. I'm sure you've heard the moans and bed creaking already. Truth be told, I'm not in a good mood tonight, so I'm actually kinda looking forward to a nice, hard fucking as long as this guy actually knows what he's doing."
"Nice, hard fucking…" Nezuko thought to herself in shock, "To hear someone in her position talk so casually about sex in a dirty way… I'm shocked, but why am I not surprised?"
"Whenever you're ready to graduate to that step after some more training," Daki told her. "Just let me or the other caretakers know, and we'll put you on the list for sexual services. It's entirely up to you, though I really think you should give it a shot and see how it goes. Your looks could easily bring clients in." She then leaned into her and said as she got closer to her face, "And if you also like other girls, I can definitely arrange some more secretive visits with them. You wouldn't believe the amount of men's wives who appreciate that kind of thing while their husbands are busy with other girls. They pay pretty well, too."
"Men bring their wives here?! Really?"
"I question it, too, but hey, I won't turn down the opportunity for more money and goods." Daki then chuckled in amusement. "A lot of them say their husbands haven't fucked them in months if not years. It's always fun showing a woman how another woman can please them."
"Oh my… Holy shit…" Nezuko was clearly confused and also overwhelmed with everything Daki was telling her.
Daki then clarified to a still madly-blushing Nezuko, believing she was uncomfortable with the prospect of having sex with customers, "Now, listen, if you try it and you don't like it, that's fine. You don't have to have sex with customers, Nezuko. We have plenty of jobs for courtesans who don't have sex, okay? If you're only comfortable with certain things, like using your hands or mouth, that's fine, too. Not everyone has it in them to go all the way with clients. I personally don't go all the way with clients when I first begin doing sexual stuff with them at around the third or so visit. I wait until after a few more visits. If you wanna wait, that's okay, and so is having full sex immediately." As Daki put a hand on her shoulder and nodded to her, she told her, "You can talk to me anytime."
Nezuko smiled and told her, "You know, I'm glad we had this talk, Warabihime-sama."
"Please," Daki then insisted to her. "When no one else is around, just call me Shiraume. That's my actual name. Warabihime is just a fake name I use for business purposes. Is Nezuko a fake name, too?"
Deciding to lie again to her, Nezuko nodded and told her, "Yes. My real name is Kie." In her head, she thought to herself, "Really, Nezuko? You're using your mother's name? Well, it's the first option I thought of, I suppose."
"Kie… That's a nice name."
"Shiraume sounds like a nice name too. I like that."
"Now," Daki then instructed her. "Go get ready for tonight. We have a lot of work ahead of us, Kie."
"Will do," Nezuko replied. As the two of them got up and left the room, Nezuko thought to herself, "She's like a totally different person now. Is she really the demon we're looking for? This whole conversation has been weird. This is not how people normally talk, especially about, well, sex. Then again, this whole place isn't normal. Yoshiwara is like a society all on its own, separate from the outside world."
…
Back at the safehouse, James was writing in a journal he brought with him about the day's events, recollecting the kill he had collected. Once he was finished writing, he rolled up one of his sleeves and dragged a bucket over to him from his seated position before cutting into his arm with a knife and allowing the blood to pour into the bucket. "Agh, shit… It don't get any easier…" Once he had filled the bucket to about a quarter of the way up with his blood, he stopped and let his arm heal rapidly.
He then peered down into the bucket as his blood began to evaporate and harden to leave behind bullets for his revolver. After about a minute of waiting, he was able to reach in and grab eight bullets he had managed to form. He then loaded six into his gun and put the other two away in a pocket. As he closed up his revolver and holstered it, he heard a knock at his door and a voice on the other end say, "It's Uzui."
"Come on in," James told Tengen before the latter let himself in. "What's goin' on?"
"Did you record the kill you got?"
"I recorded it in my personal journal," James told Tengen. "I'll record it in an official report right now. I just had to make some more bullets with my Blood Demon Art."
"Well, I got some new information," Tengen explained as he sat down across from him. "We're narrowing our search down to the Kyogoku House. There's now enough evidence to reasonably suspect that the demon we're looking for belongs to that brothel."
"The Kyogoku House, eh? I think that's where Tommy was comin' from when I killed him."
"I see. Well, we'll find out soon enough where our efforts are leading us. I'm gonna meet with the four kids tomorrow."
"I can't go with you," James told him. "Not after the shit I pulled. I'll get attacked by those fuckers Early's got if I go in without a disguise."
"Very well," Tengen replied. "I can meet with them on my own. You and Mukago-san will join me later. When we make our final move, though."
"Absolutely."
…
As Daki and the man she had mentioned earlier both rolled off of each other after a round of sex, she told him after taking a deep breath and stretching her arms, "You're pretty good at this."
"Thank you," he replied as he got up off of the bed they had just copulated on, the two of them still fully nude. "I really needed that shit."
"I did, too." Daki then got up as the man turned around and stretched his back. As he was turned away, she smiled deviously and began to form obi sashes from her nude body. "I really needed a hard fucking, indeed."
"Yeah," the man replied, his back still turned to Daki as he reached into a pile of clothes to get a small pack of cigarettes and a tiny book of matches. He then put a cigarette in his mouth, lit it with a match, and then blew the match out before tossing it in a small pot nearby. "A nice smoke after some really good sex always hits the spot. I bet you would agree."
"I do," Daki replied sinisterly.
"Ahhh… This is the life. Surrounded by beautiful women, and being able to sleep with only the best of them." The man then chuckled to himself. "It's like I'm in a dream some days. It's fucking great, I tell you."
"Enjoying that cigarette?"
"Yeah," he replied as he puffed out smoke. "You can have one if you want. Hell, you know, we could go for another round of sex if you want t-" He then turned around to find Daki walking towards him with various obi sashes appearing from her body like tentacles. "Uh… What the fuck?!" He recoiled in fear, dropped his cigarette, and backed himself up against a wall as he screamed, "What the fuck are you?! What is all this shit?! Get the fuck away from me, you demo-"
"Shhhhhh…" Daki first picked his cigarette up, smoked it in front of him, crushed it in her hands, and then put a finger up to his mouth to quiet him. "It'll be all over soon." As Daki began to laugh and the obi sashes wrapped around his arms and legs, the man screamed in terror, but was only audible for less than a second before another obi sash wrapped around his mouth to not only silence him, but also suffocate him.
"Agh, fuck! No-"
"There you go… Stay silent, just like that…" After a minute of him struggling in vain against the obi sashes and his face turning blue, the man was dead. Daki then snapped her fingers to form clothes for her body before using her obi sashes to make the body disappear into her cavern space below the streets of Yoshiwara. As the body rapidly vanished from the room, she told herself, "He was alright, but too forceful at times in bed. I wonder how he'll taste when I eat his body later…"
