Diego had an uneasy night of sleep. He dreamt of himself marrying some old hag and gaining a stand that could turn himself into a dinosaur. Very peculiar if he had to say so himself.

At the crack of dawn, he woke up and prepared for the day. One of the young girls was to get him for breakfast soon, so he redressed into some day clothes (that were still too small for him). Putting on a simple shirt and some pants, he slid open the door to reveal an empty hallway. Looking over to the left, he could hear his neighbors chatting next door. He thought he might as well greet them while he's at it.

Opening their door, he was met by a… bizarre sight. It seemed like Tanjiro was exhausted of all energy and Inosuke was almost a transparent ghost. Well, actually, that was pretty normal to Diego. On the other hand, Zenitsu looked like he was preparing for Armageddon to happen in a few hours. They didn't notice Diego until he called them out, and even then it seemed like Tanjiro and Inosuke were too tired to care.

"Oh, hey you. Sorry if we woke you up, but I'm really worried about today," said Zenitsu, sniffling a little bit through his lines.

"You're fine. What's happening that is making you act like a pansy anyways?"

Zenitsu looked a little chilled before continuing on. "I have to go through 'rehabilitation training' in a couple of weeks! If these two are in a state like this, then what the hell is going to happen to me?!"

He pointed at the two husks on beds. Diego smirked a little, finding humor in this predicament of Zenitsu's.

After sniffling for a bit, Zenitsu mustered the will to ask Diego a question. "W-w-what are you doing t-today?"

"I'm going to show Miss Aoi and Miss Shinobu my abilities, and that's about it. Nothing else is really planned until my weapon becomes compatible with demon slaying," replied Diego.

"What's your weapon? Is it not a Nichirin Blade?"

"No, I wield a gun. I slayed my first demon yesterday."

The other two looked at him with a doubtful gleam in their eyes. Even Zenitsu looked at him like he was a mad man.

"You."

"Yes?"

"You used that tiny little thing to kill a demon? Are you kidding me! Why have we been using our blades this entire time?!"

Zenitsu continued on yelling at Diego until an angry Aoi came in and slapped him across the head. She looked at Diego.

"Are you ready for today's event? I'm sure you won't disappoint us compared to this nincompoop."

Zenitsu looked at her with his own spark of anger glistening in his eyes. They continued to argue for a bit before it left off with Aoi taking Diego out of the room quickly for breakfast.

Diego was brought to a table that had rice and porridge on it, the smells greeting Diego's stomach kindly. He sat down and watched as the table filled with the residents of the Estate, including Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke. A man with a far taller height than the rest of them came in, just a hair taller than Diego himself. He wasn't intimidated though, as harsh as his face may show. 3 young girls stood by as Aoi and Tsuyuri filled the rest of the empty seats. All of them (excluding the taller guy and Diego) thanked the gods for their meals and began eating. Thanking their gods for a meal was normal to Diego, but so I'm synchronized and without prayer was what threw him off. He got some weird looks but he ate without concern from them. The food was, once again, made to his liking and he ate it within a few minutes afterwards.

Aoi looked at the trio and Diego after they all finished. The young girls came in and picked up the dirty dishes as she imported the news onto them.

"Zenitsu, Tanjiro, and Inosuke. You three will be staying here for recovery and training. However," she pointed at Diego. "You will be showing us what you have today. Again, I hope you aren't bluffing about your abilities. Shinobu probably thinks you are, so blow her out of the park. Put on a show!"

She happily took him out of the room once the 3 helpers were done, and he waved his partings to the three other slayers. He was brought into an open room with a table that had cups on it, mattresses on the side, and rope climbing sections. He looked over and saw Shinobu smiling towards him.

"Hello. I see you made it here a little early. Shall we begin now with your tests?"

Diego nodded, answering her question with a grin on his face. Aoi stood by with Tsuyuri as judges for Diego and extra defense if anything went wrong.

"I will warn you that you should not hold back when committing to this first test of strength. I want you to try and physically move me across the-"

"-room."

In the blink of an eye, she had been moved from one point of the room to the other. Diego remained in the center of the room with an innocent look on his face. It took a moment before a cold sweat started to form visibly over her face, Aoi and Tsuyuri just as equally shocked.

"Impressed? Everyone has always been impressed with how fast I move."

"What? That's impossible! I was just-"

"-there."

Again, she had been moved back into her original spot. She couldn't see it, but she knew Diego had power. Not just any power, a power that could rule the world if he wanted to use it to its fullest capabilities.

Terrified. That would be a pretty good word to describe how she felt. She hasn't felt this emotionally strong since the day her sister left this world. She couldn't see nor detect when he was going to move, but she had to prepare for it again. She was probably just not focusing hard enough.

She drew in a deep breath and released it, putting a firm grip on her wooden sword. "I'm going to warn you that I will stop holding back now. It seems that I may have underestimated you, so let's move into the final test already. We will have a match against each other, and I can determine your ability to slay demons once that is over. We begin… now!"

She charged at Diego, jumping in the air as if she were flying. Slowly but surely, she fell towards him with her sword in a stabbing motion, but he dodged with ease. Or rather, it seems like he was dragged away by some unknown force. Shinobu saw this and prematurely took this as some type of wind breathing. She once again pulled off multiple stabbing forms, each being deflected by this opposing force of air. The moment an opening appeared on Shinobu, Diego used The World to jab into her stomach, hard enough to hurt but not enough to do any permanent damage. He has, after all, doughnutted people in his last life with The World.

She coughed a few times before backing up. She didn't even notice she was forgetting to breathe in this moment, and instead was too focused on figuring out Diego's abilities. Instead of her charging at him this time, it was the vice versa, and he tried to jump at her. However, she was able to land a blow to his chest, sending him back a little. Before Diego knew it, she was breathing once a small room of air was available. Naturally, if it were a real fight, the blow she landed on him wouldn't have had enough time to inject the poison into his body. However, Diego would've been fine anyways due to the fact that it was only meant for demons. She would just have to go faster and have a longer stab form in the next hit she lands on him.

'His form is more or less very barbaric, but he has some type of power that's allowing him to completely outrank me. I'll just have to keep going - I need to push his limits for this test, not mine!"

Shinobu went into a defense position, using total concentration breathing. Her muscles and reflexes had increased because of this, and she was able to see precisely how sloppy Diego's form was. He had no guard nor offense, and he could very easily be knocked over if his enemy wanted to do so. Despite these shortcomings, it was Shinobu's endurance and reflexes that are being tested.

She launched herself at Diego with high speeds, slashing him with her blade in multiple areas. However, each part she slashed seemed to be protected by some kind of aura. She couldn't see it, but a golden fist was coming straight at her head. She could detect something was coming at her, but the fact that she couldn't see nor hear it meant it was impossible for her to deflect it. In a moment's notice, Shinobu decided to draw the match to a close. He was too fast for her, and she would have to forfeit the test.

Unknowingly dodging the fist by going out of range, she jumped backwards and sheathed her sword.

"A-alright, it's clear I underestimated you too much. I forfeit."

Aoi threw her body forwards from shock and Tsuyuri's mouth left itself agape for a short second. Diego lended a hand to Shinobu, who took it rather begrudgingly. She didn't show it, but she was scared. It wasn't just fear that plagued her mind, it was also mixed with anger. Anger that reminded her of being totally helpless and unable to control the situation, just as it was with her being unable to save her sister. Shinobu needed to leave before she became too irrational like her younger self.

She bowed slightly, told Diego that she would evaluate his performance, and walked off into the estate with Tsuyuri following suit. That just left Diego and Aoi to stand in silence before confusion on what to do settled in rather harshly. The tests weren't supposed to conclude that quickly, and Aoi was more or less terrified of Diego. No one who had entered the Butterfly Estate has beaten Lady Shinobu herself, and it certainly would have never been as fast as Diego did. Yet he did it anyways, changing everyone's view on him from average civilian to a top priority. Aoi shuffled out of the room awkwardly after a few more moments of silence, and Diego left to go to his own room once the air had grown too cold. Had he gone too far with the test? He wasn't even really trying during the test other than having to strain himself with the time stop a little too much. Even after that thought, it was nothing Diego was uncomfortable with.

He walked down the empty hallways and caught little glimpses of chitter chatter here and there. Most of it was about the fight, and some was about whether Diego should be allowed to stay or not. Nonetheless, Diego would have to meet back up with Shinobu to see what the scoop was. He really needs to talk with her about demon slaying bullets too.

He brushed the walls with his hand as he walked down them, humming a small tune that his mother sang to him when he was a child. Those were the good memories that he reserved privately, but with them came the hate. The hatred and vengeance he swore to bring unto his old world's petty population. But now that dream was impossible, and he was left with no purpose other than to slay demons. Had his life really changed because of one simple girl? Where he would normally feel anger, the emotion was instead replaced by hope. Hope that he could overcome his past sins, one by one. Hope for a better him instead of what he tried to live his old life as.

No. This was wrong. This wasn't him; it seemed a lot more like some type of sad excuse for him trying to not be angry at the people he's met so far. And maybe it was some type of denial stage he was in, a denial that he was forever gone from both his old and alternate universes. That damn Lucy Steel needs to pay for sending him through hell and back.

"Yoo-hoo!"

Lady Shinobu appeared beside him. He didn't even notice that he was already back in his room. More precisely, on his bed with a 1000-yard stare.

She was incredibly close as well! His heart jumped a beat after a few seconds of recognition.

"H-hello. I'm sorry, I must have spaced out."

"It's quite alright," she replied, looking downwards a short bit. Some silence reigned over them along with the additional awkwardness of Diego kicking Shinobu's ass. "I wanted to congratulate you for completing the tests earlier. I needed a few moments of recovery, and I also told my crow to send a message to Ubuyashiki."

Diego nodded at her explanations, and waited for her to continue.

"I've never been so outmatched like that before since I've become a Hashira. Mind telling me your secret?"

Diego looked a little uncomfortable (if not just annoyed) to her question.

"Kidding, kidding! While your results are being evaluated, we can discuss about your weapons now."

"I've been wondering when we would talk about them. Well, in case I ever need an emergency close quarters weapon, I have an old hunting knife on me."

"May I see it?"

He reached over to the table beside the bed, picking up the blade and handing it back over to Shinobu. She examined it, clearly not satisfied with how heavy and clunky it felt in her hands.

"The revolver may not be possible, since we don't have any gunsmiths, not to mention that it's impractical. It is also illegal here, so you'll have to battle with a blade regardless. Perhaps we can make a short blade for you?"

Diego agreed to this decision, clearly averting his gaze.

'Called it. They don't have the stuff to make bullets for my revolver. I guess I'll have to save ammunition carefully now.'

She handed back the blade to him, dusting off some of the rubble left on her from the battle. She bowed and tired to leave the room if it weren't for Diego calling out her name.

She turned around to see what he had to say. "You seem busy, but I'd like to talk with you about something important."

Shinobu's eyebrows lifted a little, but she responded to him anyway. "What would you like to know? I'm happy to assist with anything!"

"Where am I and what year is it? From where I came from, it was 1890 in America."

Shinobu's eyes hardened at the new information he dumped on her. Should she tell him the truth? Absolutely, lying wasn't going to help anything in trying to get Diego to stay on their side. They could really use his power for upcoming missions.

"It's… 1915 in Japan. I'm guessing some really powerful demon sent you here, huh?"

Diego shot up from the bed in response to this outlandish claim from Shinobu.

"What year is it?!"

"Hah hah… as I said… 1915."

—

Author's Notes:

Niceu niceu! Thank you for all the support so far! I know this chapter took a little while to publish, but it's gone through a couple of rewrites on whether I wanted to completely balance Diego or make him completely broken. I settled in between where he is still as cocky (but calculated) as ever.