Hey readers,

So I kinda didn't realize that there was no May 31st, and I apologize for that. But, the chapter is releasing on schedule today.

Also, chapters will again be releasing every three days.

Apologies for the inconveniences, enjoy!

"You see those men with the floral tattoos on their left cheeks? Those are the gang members." Makia pointed them out. "They're all human, so try not to cut them, okay?"

Tamaki cracked his neck. "You're the one taking care of them, so have fun." He had changed into a bright red kimono in order to look less suspicious, and he slipped his katana between his scarf, which acted as a sash, and the kimono.

Makia, who had also changed into a kimono, left her sword outside. Her kagusai crow guarded it, perched on the hilt.

"Alright. You know the plan. If any one of us fails, the whole plan could collapse, so try not to fail."

"You're so positive," said Hana.

The three of them stepped into the prostitution house, the loud cheers of men, the clinking of sake cups, and the moans of women echoing off the walls.

They split up, each of them off to take care of their own duties. Tamaki closed his eyes and focused his hearing. There. Down below. There definitely is a secret room. I can hear the demon from below me.

Hana's soft voice suddenly rose above the noise of the house. "Attention everyone, we're going to have to evacuate the building! There's a major gas leak, and if we don't leave in the next ten minutes, we'll all die!"

There was a mad scramble as people hurried out of the building. Tamaki grinned. I have a feeling she'll make a good demon slayer.

Tamaki crouched down onto one knee. I have no idea where the entrance is, nor do I have time to find it.

Rearing his arm back, he flung his fist at the floor. There was a loud crack as the wood splintered, but the floor still held steady. Not good enough. It's gonna take a few blows.

Leaping into the air, Tamaki pulled both his fists back. As he rapidly accelerated towards the ground, he punched the ground with both hands. This time, the wooden floor gave away to a dark chamber below. Heh. There we go.

He landed in the dark space below, which was dimly lit by torches. Across from him, a single silhouette sat at a desk.

"Demon slayers." The voice was deep and powerful, booming around the entire room. "They always nose into my business."

A single light appeared, and source of the voice was revealed. A demon wearing a gray two-piece suit and a red tie sat at the desk. Its jet-black hair was slicked back with gel. The demon's face had a large scar across its right eye, and its left was a dark purple color, with the characters 'Lower Two' written on them.

The light that had revealed the demon was the flame from a lighter. The demon held it up to a cigar in its mouth, lighting it to smoke.

A Twelve Kizuki. "I'm here to end your business," said Tamaki.

"Huh." The demon stood up from its chair. "And how exactly will you do that?"

"What do you think?" Tamaki replied, implying the obvious answer.

"You'll kill me," finished the demon. "I sense you're powerful. Have they finally sent someone competent enough?"

"We'll see." Tamaki crouched down in the all-too-familiar first form stance. "Thunder breathing, First form: Thunderclap and flash!"

The demon raised its hand and twitched its index finger. A large sheet of metal suddenly flew in front of Tamaki's path, taking the hit from his breathing form.

"Thunder breathing, Second form: Rice spirit!" Taking advantage of his close range, Tamaki slashed at the demon. It twitched its thumb this time, switching itself out with another piece of metal.

"Blood demon art: Magnetic field!" It held its index finger out and jabbed forwards at Tamaki. He felt something tingling through his entire body.

Clumps of metal started pulling themselves off the walls, ceiling, and floor. The building is pulling itself apart!

The metal bits slammed into Tamaki, pressing against him as if he were a magnet.

"This is where you die," said the demon nonchalantly. "I've faced many slayers of various breathing styles. Using this move on them works every time, and they get crushed to death." It twitched its index finger, and the metal pressed even tighter against the Rumble Hashira.

Heh. With one swift motion, Tamaki pushed against the metal with his arms, breaking free from the clump.

"Thunder breathing, Third form: Thunder swarm!" Tamaki darted forwards at the demon, attacking it from all sides.

The demon tried to switch with a sheet of metal again, but Tamaki sliced its hand off before it could.

"Blood demon art: Iron body!" The demon's body became metal, and Tamaki's blade clanged off its neck uselessly. That's gonna be annoying.

Tamaki jumped backwards, putting distance between them. "Thunder breathing, Fifth form: Heat lightning!" Tamaki sent a strong, ranged arc at the demon, but it still did nothing against the demon's metal body.

"This is where my unbeatable defense comes in. Even though you survived my attack, you will still attempt to cut me with futility. Once your strength gives away, I can cut you easily."

Tamaki held his sword out. "More difficult for me then, I like it."

The demon scowled. "Who do you think you are? You're just a weak human demon slayer. I am a Twelve Kizuki, one of Muzan-sama's strongest demons. You have no chance of beating me!"

Tamaki said nothing in response. Instead, he crouched down in the first form position again. Drawing in air through his nose, he exhaled through his teeth.

Rocketing forwards, Tamaki darted past the demon before its facial expression could even register the sudden move.

"Thunder breathing, First form: Thunderclap and flash." The demon's head hit the ground and rolled to a stop. Its body collapsed to the ground.

Grabbing the demon's head, he held it up to his. Electric-blue eyes met blood-red.

"I am a Hashira, favored and trusted by The Master." Grinning at the demon, whose head was now halfway disintegrated, he finished with his name. "Utaka Tamaki."

As the demon's head withered to dust, Tamaki sheathed his sword, examining the room. Now that many pieces of metal had been pulled from the foundations of the building, it was at risk of collapsing at any moment.

A gasp from the corner of the room made Tamaki draw his sword in shock. What was that? I didn't hear it at all until now!

Something was walking towards him, and Tamaki held his sword out in case of danger. "Who…who's there?"

A young woman stepped out of the shadows, dressed in a ragged, damaged demon slayer corps uniform. It was akin to the style of Mitsuri and Makia's uniforms, with a skirt and an opening in the front. Her long, unkempt hair was a medium shade of green, and her eyes were a matching green similar to Mitsuri.

She suddenly fell forwards, collapsing on the ground.

Is she a demon slayer? I think so…I don't hear anything demon-like coming from her.

Tamaki scooped her up into his arms and into a carry. I'll just take her, she's gonna die if she stays here.

A loud rumbling suddenly echoed around the room. It's gonna collapse!

Tamaki jumped out through the hole he had made in the ceiling earlier when he had entered the room. The building was shaking now, trembling under Tamaki's feet.

Hana and Slut better be out by now, thought Tamaki. He scanned the prostitution house, looking for the door. There!

The floor under Tamaki suddenly gave away, and he fell back down into the underground room. Shoot! Rubble from above him was falling down.

Tamaki jumped out of the way as pieces of the prostitution house crashed down on the floor of the room. Using the rubble as boosts, Tamaki leaped his way out of the underground room again.

Landing back on the floor of the building, he ran as quickly as he could out of the door. A split second later, the entire building collapsed in on itself, and there was an explosion of dust. Phew.

A group of kakushi was already outside, Makia and Hana with them. "Tamaki-kun!" Hana called out to him. "Thank goodness you're okay!"

Makia's eyes glanced down at the woman in his arms. "Who's that?"

"Again, just some random girl I found."

Makia narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "You have a knack for finding random girls."

"Shut up," he retorted.

The woman began to stir, and Tamaki set her down on her feet. She stumbled, half asleep, but Tamaki propped her up against him and she straightened.

"Did you…save me?" she asked weakly.

"Uhh…yeah?" Tamaki had a bad feeling about answering that question, for some reason a little worried.

She suddenly flung her arms around him. "I'm Tsuji Misaki! Marry me!"

Tamaki stumbled backwards in surprise. "I'm sorry, what?" He pulled himself away from her.

Misaki smiled at him lustfully. "Didn't you save me?"

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean that-"

"Marry me!" She cut him off and threw herself at him, burying her face in his side similar to Mitsuri.

"I think she likes you," said Makia, smirking.

"Shut up, useless." He pushed Misaki away from him. "I'm headed back home, you can stand here for however long you want."

"Umm, Tamaki-kun, I…don't have a home." Hana frowned at him. "C-could I possibly…stay with you?"

"I'm sorry, but I don't have room in my house."

Makia stepped forwards. "She can have the guest room. I'll sleep on the floor."

Tamaki's eyes widened in surprise. "Wow, Slut. I didn't expect you to do something so nice."

"Shut up, Bossy," said Makia.

Tamaki, Makia, and Hana started walking back to Kyoto. This is gonna take a while, I got here a lot faster by using fast travel.

About halfway there, Makia started to slow down. "Wait up! I'm so tired," she panted.

"You didn't do shit," said Tamaki. "So don't even complain."

"It's not my fault I'm weak!" pouted Makia in defense.

"It is your fault," corrected Tamaki. "You can work to make yourself stronger and yet you choose to be a prostitute in your free time."

"At least I'm making more money than you," said Makia. "Soon I'll be able to move out of your dump and get my own place."

"Good. I don't want you in my house anyways."

Silence for a few minutes. Then, "Bossy, why do you hate me so much?"

"Well let's see," began Tamaki. "You're rude, unhelpful, childish, annoying, and you use your body improperly." He ticked each of these off of his fingers and held his hand up. "That's five reasons already. Want me to name more?"

"Oh yeah?" countered Makia. "Well you're also rude, too serious, a closet pervert, unfriendly, and so damn hot that it makes me crush on you but hate you at the same time!" Her face got progressively redder and redder as she ticked off reasons.

"Well that was anticlimatic," said Tamaki. He continued walking. "I guess you're right about two. But that's really all."

"I hate you so much."

Hana, who had been listening to the whole conversation, gulped nervously. She must be thinking that this is gonna be a long night. I agree with her.

Mitsuri blinked a few times, as if she wasn't believing what she was seeing.

"You guys went on a mission?"

Tamaki rolled his eyes. "More like I did her mission for her."

"Shut up!" Makia swatted him on the arm.

Mitsuri turned to Hana. "Who's she?"

Oh. I explained to Hana who Mitsuri was, but Mitsuri doesn't know who Hana is. "Long story," said Tamaki. "I'll explain later." He knelt down in front of the table, exhausted.

Mitsuri blinked again. "Okay. I made food."

The four of them ate in silence. Mitsuri kept glancing back and forth between Tamaki and Makia, as if expecting one to burst out with an insult about the other.

"Hey Bossy," said Makia, a smirk on her face. "I bet you can't beat Mitsuri in an arm wrestle."

Tamaki blinked. "What?"

"You heard me. Mitsuri, arm wrestle him."

"Okay." Mitsuri placed her elbow on the table, hand facing upwards.

Tamaki nervously mimicked her, grasping her soft hand in his own. I know she's really physically strong, chances are she's gonna beat me.

"Three…two…one…go!" Makia shouted cheerfully. Hana watched curiously, remaining silent.

Maybe I can hold out for a few seconds…I think I'm pretty strong as- Tamaki was unable to finish that thought, as the second Makia said "go", he found himself flying across the room and crashing into the door, knocking it down.

Mitsuri gasped in horror. "Oops! Tamaki, I didn't mean to do that, I'm so sorry!" she wailed.

Makia doubled over in laughter. "Ahahhhahahah! Bossy, you're so weak! You didn't even last a second!"

Hana's mouth was open with horror, as if she was thinking about how monstrously strong Mitsuri was, beating Tamaki that easily.

Dazed and embarrassed, Tamaki stood back up and propped the door back in place. Okay…never do that again.

Makia took Hana to the guest room to figure out sleeping arrangements after they finished eating. Mitsuri got up and sat down next to Tamaki, leaning against him.

"Are you and Makia-san finally friends now?"

"You wish," scoffed Tamaki. "I hate her."

"Oh, come on!" Mitsuri stuck her tongue out at him. "Bleh. Become friends already."

"Not happening."

"Who's the blue-haired girl? She's very pretty," Mitsuri asked.

"Oh. Yeah, that's right, I haven't told you yet. On the mission, I found her in an alleyway. She had been raped and left there on the street. She had a really sad upbringing, and nowhere else to go, so I took her in."

Mitsuri gasped with surprise. "That's terrible! Oh, I feel so bad for her!"

"Are you okay with her being here? After all, you're gonna be the mistress of this house soon." Tamaki smiled at her coyly.

She giggled. "Of course I'm fine with it. That reminds me, you owe me a date."

Oh, she's right. "Okay, I'll take you out somewhere tomorrow. I don't have any missions, how about you?"

She shook her head. "No missions."

"Alright. Tomorrow it is then." Tamaki placed his arm around Mitsuri's shoulder and she squirmed next to him happily.

"Can we go to the beach?"

Tamaki drew in breath with a sharp intake. How am I going to explain to her my fear of the ocean? "Is there anywhere else you wanna go?" He tried to divert the location to somewhere else instead.

"Nope. Beach." Mitsuri smiled at him. "It's going to be such a fun day!"

Tamaki grit his teeth, grimacing. "Here's the thing…I'm kinda…afraid of the ocean."

"Ohh. Is this why you got eaten by that shark demon?" she recalled back to one of their missions.

"More or less."

"Okay. We'll go to a hot spring then," she decided.

A hot spring? Isn't that where people bathe naked in a pool of hot water? Tamaki gulped. "No. No hot springs."

"Why? I really wanna go, they're so relaxing!" she pouted. "Tamaki, please?" She gazed at him pleadingly.

"Alright fine," Tamaki sighed with exasperation. "But you owe me a dance lesson, remember the promise you made me?"

"Oh, right. I forgot about that. I can't wait to try my new dress!" said Mitsuri excitedly.

"If you wanna go to a hot spring tomorrow then you better hurry up and go to sleep."

Mitsuri saluted him. "Yes." She hurried off to the bathroom to go take a bath.

Chuckling to himself as he watched her skip off with excitement, Tamaki walked into his room. He changed into a kimono, tying his red scarf around his waist as a sash, and was just about to lie down in bed when he heard a loud thud.

"Tamaki!" A frantic cry came from the bathroom. Mitsuri! As fast as he could, he ran to the bathroom and slid the door open.

Mitsuri collided with him in the doorway. Her uniform top had been three-fourths of the way unbuttoned, and as she ran into him, it slipped down her shoulders.

Tamaki was aware of a sudden spurt of blood from his nose. V-v-very…large…

Mitsuri was either completely oblivious or uncaring to the fact that her upper body was now bare in front of him. "Tamaki, there's a spider in the tub!" she cried, tears in her eyes.

"I-I-I'll take c-care of it," said Tamaki, trying to unstick his eyes from her chest.

She wrapped her arms around him, pressing her chest against his. "Thanks. You're the best!"

S-s-soft! Squishy! Tamaki's face was as red as it could possibly be, the same color as the blood now pouring from his nose profusely.

Mitsuri kept her arms around him as they walked into the bathroom. Tamaki's steps were almost robotic, as his body had gone into full autopilot because his mind was distracted by something else.

"Hey, your nose is bleeding," noticed Mitsuri.

"Uh-huh," said Tamaki absentmindedly.

"Oh, the spider is gone. Wow, you must have scared it off!" Mitsuri hugged him tighter, giggling.

"Ha…y-you're right," said Tamaki, barely able to speak.

Mitsuri pulled away from him. "Oh, my uniform must have fallen off when we ran into each other earlier!" She blushed and giggled again. "Hehehe."

"I'm just gonna go…" Tamaki backed out of the bathroom slowly. So did she not know or did she not care? I'm confused.

As Tamaki lay in bed, the image of Mitsuri's chest was still stuck in his mind, and a part of him secretly enjoyed it. Damn it Tamaki, you're such a pervert, thought the reasonable part of his brain.

As she walked into his room, he was a little disappointed to see her wearing a kimono. "Sleepy-time," she announced, lying facedown on top of him.

"Hey, you can't sleep here!" protested Tamaki, his face hot with embarrassment.

"Why not?"

"Because…" Tamaki struggled to find a reason.

"Do you not like it?" Mitsuri frowned.

"N-no. It's just…"

"Umm…since you're my boyfriend now, we can be a little more intimate with each other, right?"

Tamaki grimaced. "I-intimate?"

"Yeah." Mitsuri blushed a little and hid her face in the folds of Tamaki's kimono. Well, there's the shy and timid Mitsuri I know.

"Okay…" said Tamaki awkwardly.

Mitsuri slowly poked her head back out from inside of Tamaki's kimono. "So does that mean we should…" she pressed her fingers together and glanced to the side, blushing heavily.

Is she implying what I think she's implying? "No, Mitsuri, no! First of all, we're too young! Second of all, are we really ready to support a family? We both have very dangerous jobs, and…" Tamaki trailed off, too embarrassed to speak any further.

Mitsuri blinked. "What are you talking about? I was talking about sleeping with less clothing."

Oh. "Uhhh…nothing," stammered Tamaki. "Forget what I said, alright?" He then slowly processed what she had just said. "Wait, did you say less clothing!?"

"I-if you want to," said Mitsuri. "Don't men like it when women sleep naked with them?"

"Just keep your kimono on, Mitsuri," said Tamaki, the perverted side of his brain screaming at him in anger.

"Okay." Mitsuri closed her eyes. "Good night."

"Good night."

To be continued…

Next chapter releasing 5/4/23