"I'll head this way to find Uzui's first wife," James said as Tengen's crow flew away from him, Nezuko, and Zenitsu, the latter two of whom were now fully-dressed in their corps uniforms. The crow had delivered a message about where to find Hinatsuru and hopefully the others eventually. "You two head down there!"
"Got it," Nezuko replied as she then turned to Zenitsu. "Let's go, Zenitsu-san!"
"Right behind you," Zenitsu replied as the two of them raced down a street in Yoshiwara. With Nezuko by his side, Zenitsu was able to suppress his fear and focus on the mission at hand. "Nezuko-chan, be on the lookout!"
Nezuko then shouted, "Look over there!" As the two raced down the street, they saw a white cloud of mist and snow race towards them. Within seconds, the two of them were completely engulfed in whiteout conditions as the most made it difficult to see past several feet ahead of them, forcing them to stop dead in their tracks. "Shit, don't tell me Mukago-san used her Blood Demon Art's extension ability now…"
"Extension ability?"
"She has the ability to engulf a large area in her mist," Nezuko explained as they both drew their swords and got ready for combat. "But it comes at the cost of some of her stamina and a requirement to cut herself a bit, so it takes her out for a minute or two. If she had to use it here, they might be fighting nearby."
The two then looked up and saw several giant shards of what initially appeared to be glass fly towards them. Zenitsu shouted, "Look out!" The two then used their swords to deflect them, coming out with no injuries after they deflected the sharp objects, which revealed themselves to in fact be ripped-up portions of Daki's obi sashes that she had sharpened. "Holy shit, what was that?! That was too freaky!"
They then both heard Daki's voice nearby as she shouted, "Nezuko! You're the damn traitor?!"
Zenitsu began to panic as Daki emerged from the mist with a variety of tentacle-like obi sashes surrounding her and confronted both of them. "Wait… That's… That has to be…"
Nezuko asked her, "The traitor, huh? So you must be Daki."
"I sure am!" She then told Nezuko with rage in her voice, "And you deceived me! You told me your name was Kie!"
Nezuko, shocked, asked her, "No… Don't tell me… You're Shiraume-san?!"
"I am," Daki confirmed. "Why the Hell did you lie to me?!" She then stomped on the ground in frustration. "Why would you come here to kill me and go after my master?! What the fuck is wrong with you?! You're wasting your beauty, Nezuko! Don't do this!"
"I never betrayed Muzan," Nezuko retorted. "I never was in that asshole's side, not after he murdered my family! Why the fuck would I join him?!"
"Because he created you!"
"No the fuck he didn't! All he did was turn me into a demon! I'm not his damn child, Daki!"
"Enough!" Daki then took a deep breath and told both of them, "You two are going to die here. I hope you've made peace with yourselves!"
Nezuko had no time to process the fact that Shiraume was in fact Daki once she was confronted by numerous tentacles that tried to grab onto both her and Zenitsu. "Breath of Water, Second Form: Water Wheel!" She then jumped in the air and slashed two tentacles with a circular attack.
Zenitsu, suppressing his fear as best as he could, said to himself as he trembled, "I have to act now!" He then declared as he readied himself for an attack, "Breath of Thunder, Fi- First Form: Thunderclap and Fl- Flash!" Powering through his fright, he moved at a lightning-fast speed, cutting through four different sashes in a single attack as he left a large cloud of dust in his wake. The dust, mixed in with the mist, made it even more difficult to see as Zenitsu came to a stop. "Damn it, I can't see her anymore! Nezuko-chan, can you see Daki?!"
"I can't see a fucking thing here, much less her!"
As Daki circled around the duo within the mist, she thought to herself, "I'll use Mukago's Blood Demon Art against her own comrades and strike from afar. They won't be able to see where I am when I strike, and by the time they make a guess, it'll be too late." She then tore up six pieces of her sash and held them in between her fingers in both hands as they sharpened into objects similar to shards of glass. Once they were ready, she threw all six at the duo.
"Zenitsu-san, look out!" Both Nezuko and Zenitsu were cut by the shards, which left small tear marks on their clothes and caused bleeding. "Agh, shit!"
"Nezuko-cha- Agh! Damn it!" While Nezuko was able to heal quickly, Zenitsu's injuries remained as his blood spilled on the ground. He then saw a tentacle-like sash make a run for Nezuko and yelled, "Nezuko-chan!"
Nezuko thankfully noticed it in time and declared as she attacked the sash, "Third Form: Flowing Dance!" She swung her blade wildly, not only destroying the sash attacking her, but also a second sash that tried to grab her from behind as well.
However, Zenitsu failed to notice a sash that approached his leg. "Oh no!" As it grabbed onto him and tried to drag him away, he screamed, "No! Let go!"
Nezuko quickly bolted for him, opting to use her Blood Demon Art to free him by biting into her hand and making a large cut by doing so, moaning in pain for a brief second as she bit down. "Blood Demon Art: Blood Flames!" She then directed a current of flame from the blood spurting from the wound she had made in her arm and wrist, successfully burning away the sash that tried to drag away Zenitsu while causing no injuries to him. "Zenitsu-san, are you okay?!"
"Yeah," he replied as he quickly got back on his feet. "So your flames don't burn humans?"
"Nope, only demons and demon-related objects." She then watched her wrist and hand heal as she remarked, "Hurts like Hell to do it that way, but I had no choice."
"Blood Demon Art," Daki then declared from within the mist. "Eight-Layered Obi Sash!" As eight long and winding sashes came down on Nezuko and Zenitsu, he told them, "Let's see how you like it when I use my own Blood Demon Art!"
…
Meanwhile, the battle between Gyutaro and the others was just getting started. As with the battle between Daki, Nezuko, and Zenitsu, Gyutaro used the mist to his advantage and hid from the others. However, the mist was also a disadvantage to him, as he could not properly sense their exact locations, even with his own extrasensory abilities. Deciding to strike, he charged at where he thought the others were. "I'll have to make educated guesses," he thought to himself. "At least until Mukago's mist fades away!"
He has guessed right, as Tengen was almost taken off-guard by his sudden appearance at his left side. Thankfully, he was able to react in time, and within seconds, both he and Gyutaro were locked in a duel as their blades clashed. "You thought you could kill me that easily, huh?!"
"I had a feeling I could, man!" As the two continued to battle, he told Tengen, "How about you let one of your students over there battle me, huh?"
"Never!"
"Too bad!" Gyutaro then suddenly disappeared from Tengen's sight and went back into the mist
"Where the fuck did he go?!" Tengen looked around for a few seconds before he saw Gyutaro exit the mist near Tanjiro and Inosuke. "Look out! Behind you!"
Inosuke noticed Gyutaro first, and was quickly able to block his attack with his dual swords. "King of the Mountains wins again! You can't surprise me, asshole!"
Mukago, who had healed from the use of her Blood Demon Art, told Tengen as she ran over to him, "I'm really sorry! I was trying to help us with this mist!"
"It's fine," he assured her. "It hurts both sides of this battle. We can't see him, but he can't completely see us. I could tell based on how off-center his attack on me was. He was nowhere close to striking me in my center mass."
As Inosuke, Tanjiro, and Gyutaro all battled, Tanjiro told Gyutaro, "You can't hide forever, you know! The mist will fade away!"
"I'll kill all of you before that happens," Gyutaro threatened him as he came frighteningly close to cutting Tanjiro in his arm and poisoning him. Thankfully, a block from one of Inosuke's swords was able to prevent such an occurrence from happening. "Come on, man! Don't do that shit!"
Tanjiro then managed to land a small cut across one of Gyutaro's arms, only for the cut to instantly heal due to his extremely powerful regenerative abilities. "Damn it!"
As Gyutaro backed off of the two of them, he told Tanjiro, "So you were able to cut me, huh? How interesting, man… Not many people can claim to have done that."
Tanjiro took a deep breath and thought to himself, "I'll have to use the Dance of the Fire God now when he's right in front of me!" Taking a big risk, he then declared as he charged forward at Gyutaro, "Dance of the Fire God: Scorching Crimson Mirror!" He then performed two horizontal slashes in an attempt to hit Gyutaro from the side. However, to his dismay, Gyutaro was able to dodge both attacks, and since Tanjiro had not yet fully trained on how to use the Dance of the Fire God twice in a row, he panicked. "Fuck, I missed!" As Gyutaro disappeared into the mist once more, he thought to himself as he felt a slight pain throughout his body from his failed attack attempt, "I missed my chance! Should I use the Dance of the Fire God again and risk taking myself completely out of the fight, or should I stick to the Breath of Water for now?"
Inosuke asked Tanjiro, "Mochiro, where the fuck did that bastard go?!"
"Back into.. Into the mist…"
Concerned about his well- sing due to his heavy breathing, Inosuke asked Tanjiro, "Hey, are you alright?!"
"Yeah…" Tanjiro then caught his breath and readied himself for another attack. "I'll be fine… I'm fine, Inosuke."
Mukago heard Gyutaro coming and pushed Tengen away from her. As soon as she did, Gyutaro flew past in between both of them, his sickles coming just centimeters from slicing both of them. As he stopped, he began spilling blood from throughout his body on self-generated wounds he had made while in the mist. "Oh shit," Mukago said in shock. "He's gonna use his ultimate technique!"
"Correct," Gyutaro replied as a flurry of dark red sickles surrounded him, all formed from the blood he had spilled. The sickles moved so fast they effectively formed a barrier around him. "This is what I call Rotating Circular Slashes: Flying Blood Sickles! You'll be able to tell your ancestors about it when I'm finished here!"
As the sickles began to attack Tengen and Mukago, both of whom did their best to block them, Tengen declared as he pulled out his bombs for a brief second and tossed them in the air before grabbing his swords again, "Fourth Form: Constant Resounding Slashes!" He then spun his swords rapidly as the bombs all exploded around both him and Mukago, causing all the sickles to be fully deflected and forcing Gyutaro back several feet from the force of the explosions generated by the attack.
"Nice work," Mukago said. "Now it's my turn! Breath of Mist, Third Form: Scattering Mist Splash!" She then unleashed a circular slash as she charged at Gyutaro, which again blew away most of the sickles he sent her way and forced him back again by a few feet.
"You bastards just don't know when to give up, you know?!" Gyutaro then disappeared into the mist once more, eluding Mukago and Tengen again. "You guys ain't gonna win!"
"I hope Colby-san finds my wives soon," Tengen remarked. "Not just for my sake, but for all of us. We'll need them to win the battle."
…
As James marched down an alleyway to find Hinatsuru, filled with determination and a desire to soon join the battle with the others, he quickly spotted a demon Confederate soldier walking out of a shop to confront him. "Hey, Jack! Stop ri-!"
James silently punched him in the face, pulled his revolver out, shot him twice in the head and once in the chest in quick succession, and then kicked his body before grabbing his shotgun with his free hand and pulling the trigger after aiming at his head to kill him, splattering his head all over the ground and walls. "I don't have time for this shit. Get outta my way or get killed."
As the soldier's body began to fade from the fatal attack, he rounded a corner and began peering into the windows of every building he went past. After four buildings, he came upon what he had been looking for. "Huh… So that must be her."
Inside the final building, a woman with black hair and light violet eyes had been tied up with various obi sashes from Daki to prevent her from moving or leaving the room. She weakly looked outside at James and did not even respond to him coherently as he broke the window and crawled inside. "Hah… Hmmm…"
"Don't worry," James told her. "I'm with your husband. I'm here to get your ass out. He's busy with a big fight right now." He then pulled out his sword and began cutting up the obi sashes to free Hinatsuru. "You're Hinatsuru, right?" When she nodded, he then asked her, "Do ya know where the other two are?" She shook her head. "Do ya know where at least one of them is?" She nodded again. "Nod for Makio, and shake your head for, uh… Suma, right? Yeah, Suma." Hinatsuru then nodded, indicating she knew where Makio was being held. "Okay. Once I free ya, we'll go get Makio next."
"Hmmmm.. Okay…"
James thought to himself as he continued to free Hinatsuru from her restraints, "I don't really get the whole havin' three wives thing, but it seems like he cares about all three of them equally. I can't judge, I guess. In America, many people would consider miscegenation just as bad as polygamy, and yet here I am, havin' had two partners who weren't of the same race as me in my life, and this guy havin' three wives. Who cares what they think? I don't give a fuck."
