"I'm so bored!" complained Mitsuri.

They sat at a small table in a restaurant, facing across from each other.

"Okay, well do you want to talk about?" asked Tamaki, trying to ease her boredom.

"Well," began Mitsuri, "do you know how to dance?"

"Huh?" Weird question.

Mitsuri started laughing at him. "You look so confused!"

"What do you mean by dance?" asked Tamaki.

"Like formal dancing. The type you do at weddings."

"Uh…no. That's a weird question to ask," said Tamaki, echoing his thoughts from earlier.

Just then, a waitress stopped by at their table. "What would you like today?" she asked.

"Everything on the menu!" said Mitsuri. She pointed at Tamaki. "Also, he's paying."

The waitress was stunned for a moment, but recovered quickly. "Okay." She walked away looking mortified.

"Why do you have to order everything?" sighed Tamaki, pouring everything out of his wallet.

"I'm a growing girl," replied Mitsuri. "I need food to grow."

It took almost an hour for all their dishes to arrive. Three waitresses came over with three carts filled with plates of food. There wasn't even enough room on the table, so they pulled over four other tables and placed the food on them.

Mitsuri instantly grabbed the nearest plate and began devouring the food. Within seconds, she had already eaten it all.

Tamaki took one bowl of ramen and set it down in front of him. As he was about to take a bite, Mitsuri suddenly said, "Wait! I wanna eat that too!"

"You should have ordered two!"

Mitsuri thought for a moment, then said, "We'll share it."

"Sh-share?" Tamaki felt himself blushing. "Doesn't that mean…we eat from the same b-bowl?"

Mitsuri blinked. "There's nothing wrong with sharing food with a friend."

A friend… Tamaki smiled. "Alright. Try not to eat it all."

Tamaki fished some noodles with his chopsticks and was about to eat them, but as he tried to pull them upwards to his mouth, they instead slipped out of his chopsticks.

His eyes followed the path of the noodles and saw Mitsuri slurp them up. "Mmmm!" She started laughing at his expression.

"It's not funny!" snapped Tamaki half-heartedly, but Mitsuri knew he wasn't really angry.

"Oh, your face when I did that!" said Mitsuri, banging her fist on the table.

After Tamaki finished the bowl of ramen, he still felt unsatisfied. "I'm still hungry."

"You can share with me. Want some curry?" Mitsuri grabbed a bowl from the second table, which had curry in it.

Tamaki nodded. "Thanks."

Mitsuri and Tamaki began eating all the food, and they finished it all relatively quickly due to Mitsuri eating very fast.

Once all the food was done, Tamaki lay back in his chair, feeling a little full.

"That was good."

"Okay then, my stomach is satisfied now! Off we go!" Mitsuri hurried out the door of the restaurant.

"Hey, wait!" Tamaki followed her as quickly as he could, but his movements were sluggish due to a full stomach. Not a very good idea, eating so much before a battle.

Even after consuming three times the amount of food that Tamaki had eaten, Mitsuri was still three times as energized as he was. How does she do that? wondered Tamaki, watching her joyfully bounce all around.

"Calm down," said Tamaki. "We need to get going."

Mitsuri glanced at his scarf. "It really looks good on you," she said.

"Why thank you," said Tamaki. "Oh, and we have to use fast travel," he added on, knowing Mitsuri would be very angry.

"No, no, no! Absolutely not!" Mitsuri swatted his arm. "I never want to do that again!"

"Come on, you're already done it twice," said Tamaki, attempting to sound convincing.

"The first time I threw up, and the second time I was unconscious," countered Mitsuri, jabbing a finger into his chest. "Don't try and use that to persuade me."

"I don't understand how sometimes you can be so flustered when talking to me, and at other times you're like this," said Tamaki jokingly.

As expected, Mitsuri immediately became embarrassed and blushed. If I got 1,000 yen for every time she blushes, I'd be making a stable income, thought Tamaki.

"Hurry up and hold on to me," said Tamaki. Mitsuri sighed and obeyed, placing her arms around his waist.

"Do your worst."

Tamaki used the fast travel technique, and in seconds they were in the city of Yokohama. The district they were now in was dark and desolate, ruined buildings surrounding them. The dirt road was unkempt and growing with strange plants, as if no humans had traveled there in a long time.

Mitsuri stumbled off of Tamaki's back and rubbed her chest, clearly nauseous. "I hate this," she muttered.

Tamaki patted her on the head like a cat. "You need to learn how to fast travel. It's different for every breathing style."

"If I do, it's payback time!" snapped Mitsuri half-heartedly.

Tamaki laughed at her. "Well you gotta learn it first!"

"Hmph. Maybe I will. Bleh." She stuck her tongue out at him. If I also got 1,000 yen for every time she stuck her tongue out at me, I'd be rich combined with the yen I got from her being embarrassed.

"Okay, so where are we going?"

"Huh? Oh…Hehehe," Mitsuri laughed nervously. "Thing is, I'm not sure."

"Okay…I'll figure it out."

"How?"

"I have good hearing." Tamaki listened carefully for the evil sounds a demon gave off. Human, human, human, camera click?

"What was that?" Mitsuri tugged on Tamaki's sleeve.

"You heard it too?" Click. There it is again.

Tamaki's hand drifted to his sword, gripping the handle tightly. Wait for it…There!

There was a squeak of surprise a few feet away from him. Tamaki spun around and saw Mitsuri standing over a decapitated demon's body, sword drawn. It held a camera in its hand. Even as the demon's body finished disintegrating, the camera remained on the ground.

Huh…what's that for? Tamaki picked the camera up and examined it. Mitsuri walked over to Tamaki, sheathing her sword. "What's that?"

"A camera." Tamaki frowned, not seeing anything wrong with it. It was just a normal camera.

"Ooh! Can I take a picture of myself?" Mitsuri reached her hand out to take the camera from Tamaki, but he held it away from her.

"Wait. I'm still suspicious of it." Tamaki took a test photo with it. Click. The photo slid out of a slot in the camera, and Tamaki took a careful look at it. It was a completely average photo of the ground, nothing special about it. Hmmmm.

"Here." Tamaki handed the camera to Mitsuri, now convinced that it was just an ordinary camera.

Mitsuri squealed with delight like a child, happily taking photos of herself as Tamaki lost himself in his thoughts. What was a demon doing with that camera?

Something tapped his shoulder, making him spin around. Mitsuri held out a photo of herself. "What do you think? Does it look good?"

Tamaki glanced at the photo. "Yeah," he replied to her, making her blush and smile. Wait a moment. As Mitsuri was about to take the photo back, Tamaki took it and looked really closely at the bottom left corner of the image. A single red eye gleamed out of the darkness, barely visible.

Tamaki instantly unsheathed his sword and slashed the photo in half.

"Hey, what was that for!" complained Mitsuri. "That was a great photo, you said so!"

Something flew towards them, and Tamaki grabbed Mitsuri and moved her out of the way. The projectile clinked off of his sword and vanished back into the night.

Mitsuri, who had finally noticed something was wrong, drew her sword and glanced around. "What was that?"

"Careful," warned Tamaki. He kept his voice to barely a whisper.

The projectile flew at Mitsuri again, this time she extended her sword and wrapped it around the object, pulling it forwards. There was a crashing noise as a large hand flew through an abandoned building, sending debris flying at them. Tamaki and Mitsuri jumped away to avoid it.

As the dust cleared, Tamaki's eyes couldn't believe what he was seeing. A giant, inky black hand standing upright on its fingers towered over them. His ears rang with sounds of power, cruelty, and hunger.

The hand severed at the wrist, from which a long chain extended from, and ended with a blade-like tip.

The demon spun around on its fingers, turning the palm side towards the two Hashira. A single red eye, identical to the one in the photo, shimmered brightly with evil.

Tamaki frowned, noticing that the demon had no head. How are we supposed to kill that thing?

The hand leaped forwards, chains rattling with an eerie, ghostly sound. The sharp end of the chain tail whipped around and swung at Tamaki. He blocked it, but it pushed him backwards. Surprised at how strong the tail was, Tamaki lost his footing and his feet slid backwards in the dirt. It took all his strength to stop the blade from overpowering him.

Jumping over the tail, Tamaki prepared his own counterattack. "Thunder breathing, Second form: Rice spirit!" The hand jumped away and dodged the attack.

Tamaki glanced around quickly, looking around for Mitsuri. Where is she? She should be helping me fight this demon! As he finally spotted her, he realized why she wasn't assisting him. Another hand demon, almost identical to the one he was fighting, was battling with her. The one he was fighting seemed to be a left hand, while the one she was fighting was a right hand.

The near-silent whoosh of a blade slicing through the air sounded next to the left side of his face. Ducking, Tamaki narrowly avoided being decapitated by the demon's tail blade. If I didn't have my good hearing, I would be headless right now!

"Thunder breathing, First form: Thunderclap and flash!" Tamaki aimed for the middle finger of the hand, which he assumed would be the 'head' of the demon. His blade sliced cleanly through, but the demon didn't die. Instead, its tail lashed at him and the blade plunged into his shoulder. It pulled him into the air and flung him around, finally slamming him into the ground.

Tamaki grunted with pain and wrenched the blade out of his shoulder. Blood poured out of the wound.

"Thunder breathing, Third form: Thunder swarm!" Charging forwards with another attack, Tamaki surrounded the demon with furious slashes. It stumbled backwards on its fingers, blood dripping from the cuts.

One more attack should do it! "Thunder breathing, Fifth form: Heat lightning!"

The hand collapsed, sliced cleanly in half through the eye. Did I kill it? Something told Tamaki that it wasn't dead.

"Tamaki!" Mitsuri waved at him, the hand that she had been fighting also lying defeated in the dirt.

As his attention was brought to Mitsuri, Tamaki almost didn't notice the hand demon suddenly melt into a shadow and disappear into the ground. The same happened with the hand that Mitsuri had cut.

It's not dead, as I thought. Are they one being?

"Tamaki? What's wrong?" She gasped softly. "Hey, you're hur-"

An inky shape similar to the consistency of the hands suddenly popped out of the ground behind Mitsuri. Tamaki dashed forwards, throwing his arms around her and pushing her out of the way.

"Huh? What?" Mitsuri suddenly realized what was happening. She was pressed against the wall, Tamaki holding her protectively from the other side. He quickly let go, and both of them looked away from each other, blushing.

Glancing back at where Mitsuri was standing a couple of seconds ago, Tamaki saw a humanoid figure, bandages wrapped around its entire body with shadowy-black skin peeking through some places like its glowing green eyes. Its hands were detached from its arms, suspended by chains and hanging from its wrists.

"Tamaki, don't fight. You're injured." Mitsuri drew her sword, stepping in front of him.

"No." Tamaki also drew his sword, and stepped forwards to stand next to her. "I'm fine."

"Hey! Stop it!" protested Mitsuri. "I don't want you to get even more hurt!"

"What, are you worried about me?" joked Tamaki.

Mitsuri blushed. "Yes," she squeaked out.

Tamaki smiled at her reassuringly. "I'll be fine. Now help me kill this guy."

"Hmph." Mitsuri frowned anxiously. "Don't get hurt."

Tamaki and Mitsuri started their advance, creeping up to the demon. Its back was turned to them, and they stalked it carefully, hands ready on their swords.

The demon suddenly turned, and it raised its arm slowly. The hand dangling from the chain swung back and forth, a single red eye opening in the palm.

That must be the eye from the hand I fought earlier, connected Tamaki, a bad feeling churning in his stomach.

The hand continued swinging, very slowly. Almost like a hypnosis ring…thought Tamaki, feeling his thoughts beginning to dissolve. His muscles relaxed. You know…it wouldn't be that bad to just… His eyes began to close. No. Wait. He shook his head violently. It's a trap!

"Blood demon art: Hand hypnosis," whispered the demon softly.

"Mitsuri, don't look at…" He trailed off, realizing she was already hypnotized. As she turned to face him, her eyes glowed an angry red just like the ones in the demon's fists. She slowly began to draw her sword.

"Impressive." The demon's voice made Tamaki spin back towards it. "Only the most strong-willed can resist my hypnosis." The voice was raspy, quite ghostlike.

"Even so," continued the demon, "this is the end for one of you. She will continue to attack you forever now until one of you dies. Your life or hers. You choose." He melted back into the ground, leaving no traces he was ever there.

Mitsuri suddenly lunged forwards, catching Tamaki off guard. Her sword swung around, curving and plunging into Tamaki's side.

Tamaki coughed blood, wrenching the blade out of his body. "Mitsuri! Can you hear me? Stop it! It's me, Tamaki!"

If she did hear him, she gave no sign of it, as she leaped forwards again, swinging her sword at him. It barely missed him twice.

"I don't want to hurt you," said Tamaki, backing up. "Snap out of it!" I think I can incapacitate her without hurting her, but let me try and talk her out of it first.

His patience ran out when she grabbed his arm and swung him over her shoulder, pounding him into the ground. He dropped his sword and charged at her, pinning her to the ground.

"Stop it!" He held her down, but she still continued to try and attack him. She bared her teeth at him, almost animal-like.

Tamaki sighed. I guess this is my only option. "I'm sorry." He swung his head forwards, colliding with hers and knocking her out.

Now that that's taken care of, where did that guy go? Tamaki scanned the area, looking for irregularities. Let's see…when he melts into the ground, he leaves a shadow. So that must mean he travels to other shadows to hide there. Got it. Tamaki realized that he just had to attack the ground where shadows were.

But which one? Tamaki thought carefully, there must be a difference between a normal shadow and this demon.

Having no other ideas, Tamaki simply stood there, listening carefully for the vicious sounds a demon made. Back left. The shadow of a wooden box. There's something odd about it.

As Tamaki turned his head in the direction of the sound, the demon popped out of the ground. "Interesting," it said curiously, as though examining a specimen. "Not only did you figure out my hypnosis, you found a way to counter it. And you even pinpointed my exact location."

"You can't run away anymore," said Tamaki, readying himself for a fight.

"I will no longer run," said the demon. "Since you have proven to be a worthy opponent, I will fight you head on to the death."

Tamaki nodded, accepting the challenge.

The demon suddenly disappeared, and reappeared in an instant right behind Tamaki. He spun around and deflected the demon's punch with his sword. The chains connecting the demon's hands to its arms seemed to allow for greater attack potency, and as it attacked for the second time, the fist knocked Tamaki back a little bit.

Gripping his sword so that the sharp edge faced the demon, Tamaki leaped forwards with an attack. "Thunder breathing, Fifth form: Heat lightning!" The demon held its hand up and opened its palm. The red eye opened, sending a wave of red power washing over Tamaki's sword slash and nullifying it.

Tamaki wasn't done attacking yet.

"Thunder breathing, Third form: Thunder swarm!" Tamaki slashed all around the demon, surrounding it with attacks. To fend off the attack, the demon spun around with its hands open, releasing that same red energy from the eyes in its palms. "Blood demon art: Energy shield!" The red energy surrounded the demon, protecting it from Tamaki's slashes like a shield.

A snowflake landed on Tamaki's head, taking his attention away for a brief second. It's snowing?

"Unguarded!" yelled the demon, leaping forwards and flinging its fist at him. Tamaki barely dodged, the punch grazing his hair.

"Thunder breathing, Fifth form: Heat lightning!" Tamaki retaliated, slashing at the demon with his fifth form, but just like the demon's attack, it did no damage, barely grazing the tip of one of the bandages dangling from its head.

"Blood demon art: Red tides!" The demon held out his hand again, palm facing Tamaki. A red wave of energy released from his hand eye, blasting full force at Tamaki. This time, rather than as a defensive measure, this power was used as an attack.

Tamaki gripped his sword and held it in front of him, trying not to get blown away by the crimson air. He felt his feet slowly slipping backwards. Soon he would be knocked over, leaving himself wide open for another attack.

"Thunder…breathing…" grunted Tamaki, struggling to fix his stance, "First form: Thunderclap…and flash!" He exploded forwards, covering a large area of distance, but it wasn't enough. Gotta keep going! He surged forwards again, doing Thunderclap and flash for a second time. It brought him roughly two meters away from the demon. One more!

Within seconds, his blade drew away from the sheath and passed cleanly through the demon's neck. Before the demon's head even fell, Tamaki was behind it, crouched low with his sword sheathed. "Trifold," he finished, as the demon's head fell to the ground with a flop.

Doing Thunderclap and flash against the powerful force pushing him had exhausted Tamaki. His wounds burned with pain, and his head spun. He felt his eyes beginning to close. I can't move, he thought as he collapsed onto the dirt. Darkness washed over him as he slipped into unconsciousness.

Tamaki's eyes slowly opened to a violent shaking of his shoulders. Mitsuri's anxious face, blurred out, was in front of him. There was a faint "Tamaki! Tamaki!" over the ringing in his ears.

In an instant, his head cleared, and his senses returned to normal. "Well that was harder than I expected," Tamaki chuckled to himself as Mitsuri furiously bandaged his abdomen.

"I told you not to get hurt again, and look at what happened to you! You went and got yourself cut again!" She was obviously referring to his newly acquired torso wound, which stung painfully.

"Relax," said Tamaki. "I'm not dead yet." He had decided not to tell her about how she was the one who had stabbed him there.

"Don't say it with a 'yet'!" Mitsuri grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him angrily. "You really scared me, Tamaki! When I saw you there, lying on the ground with blood pouring out of your side! I thought you were dead!" Her forehead gently came to rest on his chest.

"What, scared of a little cut?" Tamaki patted her on the head, not really serious at all.

"Utaka Tamaki, don't take that tone of voice with me!" fumed Mitsuri, her eyes beginning to fill with tears.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry for getting hurt. I won't do it again."

"You better not." Mitsuri glanced up at him, half worried and half reassured now.

"So, where do you want to go now? It's not morning yet, we have time to kill," said Tamaki as he stood up.

Mitsuri followed suit. "W-well, do you want to get a drink?" she stammered, blushing and looking away as she spoke.

"Oh. Sure."

Mitsuri smiled and giggled happily. "Perfect, let's go then!" Something grabbed his hand and pulled his arm forwards. It took Tamaki a moment to realize it was Mitsuri's hand.

"Tamaki? What's wrong?" Mitsuri frowned at him.

"N-nothing," said Tamaki, a faint blush creeping up his face.

"Come on then!" Mitsuri tugged him forwards again, and this time he found himself falling towards her, drawn to her, gravitated. His feet stumbled over each other as he stepped forwards. This…is really not like me! he thought giddily. Am I still suffering from my injuries?

As his eyes opened from the haze, he found Mitsuri staring at him. "Uhh…you're acting weird."

Tamaki cleared his throat and his thoughts. "Probably just the wounds and exhaustion."

Mitsuri shrugged her shoulders. "Okay."

"Where are we even going?" asked Tamaki.

"To get a drink."

"But where?"

"There's a sake bar that way," said Mitsuri, pointing in a direction down the road.

"Oh, that one. Right."

The two Hashira continued down the road and eventually stopped at the sake bar. "Two cups and two bottles please," said Tamaki, giving money to the man behind the bar.

"Uhh, sorry, but we're closing up in a minute. Unless you want to sit here in the dark, I'd recommend waiting until tomorrow."

"It's fine," said Tamaki.

"Well in that case, have an extra bottle then." The man closed the shades and turned off the lights after handing Tamaki the sake. He then started walking down the road, leaving Tamaki and Mitsuri sitting on the stools of the closed bar.

"Cheers," said Mitsuri, pouring both of them a cup. They drank, setting the cups back on the bar after finishing.

"Mitsuri," began Tamaki, "why did you suddenly start crying during our conversation yesterday?" Tamaki expected stuttering and no answer as his response. That was exactly what he got.

"I-I…well, y-you see…" Mitsuri giggled nervously. She paused, clearly trying to think of an excuse not to answer.

"Come on," pressed Tamaki, "you've got to have a reason."

"Uhh…the moon is beautiful outside today, right?"

Silence. Mitsuri glanced away, blushing heavily. She quickly took a bottle and began drinking directly from it.

"Don't drink too much, you're gonna get drunk!" Tamaki warned her, but she continued to drink from the bottle, finishing it.

"You really think so? I think I can tolerate it." Mitsuri stared at him challengingly. "Wanna bet?"

"Mitsuri, I'm just trying to…" Tamaki trailed off as she smiled at him reassuringly.

"Don't worry," she said confidently, "I'll drink all three of these to show you that I don't get drunk that easily."

Tamaki narrowed his eyes skeptically. "I don't believe you."

"That's why I'm gonna prove it." Mitsuri popped the second bottle open and began drinking it.

Tamaki sat there, not knowing what to say. She drained half of the bottle, gulping it down.

"See? Nothing wrong. I feel fine!" Mitsuri said triumphantly.

"I think you should stop," said Tamaki meekly, but she shushed him by pressing her finger to his lips. Taking the second bottle back into her hand, she drained it completely.

"One more to go." Her head drooped slightly, but she turned back around, opened the third bottle, and began drinking it.

"You don't have to do this," protested Tamaki, but he knew it was futile.

The third bottle hit the bar, empty. "Tamaki…" Mitsuri glanced back at him, a slight blush on her face. "I don't feel so good."

I knew it. "I told you so-" Tamaki stopped abruptly as he felt Mitsuri's head collide with his shoulder. "H-hey!" He caught her around the waist as she was about to fall off of her stool.

Mitsuri giggled drunkenly as he sat her back up. "Whee!"

"Didn't I warn you about this? Now you're drunk," said Tamaki. "You're only eighteen, it's not good for your brain."

"I don't have a brain anyway," said Mitsuri sullenly. "I'm the biggest idiot ever."

"Why do you always talk so negatively about yourself?" The words slipped out of Tamaki's mouth before he could stop them.

Mitsuri's eyes widened. She suddenly flung her arms around him, hugging him tightly and burying her face in his chest. "Everyone s-sees me as nothing, a piece of trash! I was even rejected by a man who I was arranged to marry because he d-didn't like my hair color! I never do anything useful in missions either, because I'm not even strong! I'm so ugly, useless, and dumb!" She looked up at him sadly, tears pouring from her beautiful eyes.

Tamaki's first reaction was surprise. She had just completely opened up to him, pouring her emotions out. He was also surprised by her sudden hug. I didn't know she felt like this.

Something clicked inside of Tamaki's chest as he watched the tears drop down her face. I understand now. On the outside, she's happy, fun, and energetic, but on the inside she secretly hates herself.

"I'm worthless," she whispered.

Tamaki lost control of his body, felt his hands reaching up to her face and caressing it. His head fell forwards and his lips met hers, tasting the sweet flavor of her mouth mixed with the taste of the sake.

Mitsuri's eyes widened in surprise, a subtle rosy hue forming on her cheeks and spreading across her entire face. She gasped softly, with a short "Mmph!" Her body froze in place with shock.

Tamaki pulled away from the kiss slowly, leaving her with a stunned expression, arms still around his torso. Now it was his turn. His turn to pour out his emotions to her. "You're worth something to me," he breathed softly. "Even if no one else cares about you, remember that I do."

Why did I do that? I feel like such a pervert now. What made me do that? thought Tamaki frantically. Wait…am I developing romantic feelings for her?

Mitsuri's beautiful face gazed back at him. "T-Tamaki…" Her voice trailed off slowly.

She won't remember any of this tomorrow, thought Tamaki, putting his thoughts aside for a moment. Mitsuri suddenly collapsed with exhaustion, shock, and drunkenness, falling asleep with her arms around his body and head resting on his chest.

Oh. It's almost dawn. The sky was a mixture of gray-blue and pink. Tamaki yawned, noticing how tired he was.

"Hey. Wake up, you need to go home." Tamaki shook Mitsuri, but she remained fast asleep, dozing peacefully on his chest.

He tried to detach himself from her, but she held on tightly. "Mitsuri!" Tamaki shook her again, this time a little less gently. Still, Mitsuri remained asleep and latched onto him.

She's tired. I need to bring her somewhere so she can rest. Racking his brain for a nearby location to leave Mitsuri, his thoughts came up empty except for one place.

"Move, Takoyaki." The cat ran out of his way as he carried Mitsuri through the doorway of his house. He slid open the door of the spare bedroom, once his, with his foot. He placed Mitsuri down gently onto the bed, then covered her with the blanket. She began to snore peacefully, making Tamaki's heart flutter.

Stop it! We're just friends, if you think thoughts like this she'll think you're weird! Tamaki scolded himself, closing the door slowly.

He made his way over to his own bedroom, walking inside and collapsing onto his bed. Almost immediately, exhaustion washed over him and he drifted off to sleep.

To be continued…

Next chapter releasing 4/19/23