Why would a teahouse have a basement? One would ask.

If it wasn't for storing purposes, then it would've been for punishment. The place has been designed in a way that sounds from the room would not echo aboveground. But yet, there was no sound from its prisoner tonight.

The ropes cut mercilessly into his flesh as his feet gave way under his weight from the pain. Hasebe raised the paddle he had been using, the marks on Souza's naked flesh too painful to see. Yet, Souza didn't even leak a word. His lower lips were already bleeding, a sign that he had bitten down on it so hard to stifled himself from crying out in pain.

They don't usually flog people as punishments. A life of a prostitute while luxurious in the eyes of others were often so miserable that there was hardly any need for it. One would say that prostitution is perhaps a punishment. But this was different.

"Tori, we can stop this if you tell us where did Yuri escape," Hasebe urged the courtesan who hung limply from the pillar. "For your sake, please." he glances back, eyeing the other person in the room. Mori Ranmaru watched from the shadows with a steeled expression, it was hard to tell what the man was thinking. Behind him, Fudou watched with an expression of disbelief. To see a courtesan being tortured like this was a first to him.

But Souza only shook his head weakly. "I…really don't know…" he muttered. It was half true. "he…never mentioned… please…Hasebe…"

Hasebe glances back at Ranmaru again who gestured for him to continue. He gulped, feeling his heart sank having been made to do a task like this. "Sorry, Souza," he whispered as he sends the paddle down on Souza again.

Flashes of white blinded Souza's eyes with each stroke of the paddle. It hurts, so much so that he felt like his back would split open. There were slight bruises on his face and arms, evidence of the guard's rough handling, but nothing as bad as the bruise and cuts on his back from the flogging.

To Souza, this room was too familiar. They had violated his pride and branded him here in the past. To be in here was already traumatizing enough, but also to be subjected to such interrogation and punishment for allowing Hachisuka to escape…he was very close to losing himself completely.

"Hand me the paddle," someone else said, entering the room. Hasebe turn, startled to find the man here.

"Master…it really seems like he doesn't know." Hasebe tried to reason to the man.

Oda Nobunaga, many had referred him as the demon lord. Even as an owner of one of the best-known teahouses, many rumors surrounded the man, from how he was cruel and merciless, how he had led people into raids at villagers and how he controls the slave market.

They weren't wrong though.

Even now with his dimly lit face, it was enough to strike fear into everyone present there.

"Even if he does not know where that whore ran to, he is still guilty of allowing him to escape." The lord snapped, extending his hand, "hand me the paddle, Heshikiri, don't make me repeat myself."

Hasebe glanced at Souza before hesitatingly passing the paddle to his master.

And he immediately swung it down like a crack of thunder. For the first time that night, Souza let out a blood-curdling shriek of pain.

Regaining conscious took awhile for Hachisuka. It was hard to pry himself away from the nightmare of the darkness that he was having but when he comes to, he found himself in a well-lit room and snuggled in a comfortable futon. The air he breathed in was different than the suffocating ones back in the teahouse.

Someone else was there with him and he turned slightly, his head still throbbing with pain. He grunted a little and the man was back, a damp cloth in his hand. He whispered something comforting to him, but he was too much in a daze to make sense of what he was saying. Nagasone, was it? He was pressing the cloth on his head and it felt nice, comforting and soothing to his headache.

And then something seems to snap in Hachisuka when he was suddenly wide awake, hitting Nagasone away from him. He sat up, prompting more pain to stab through his head and he grasps his temple in pain. "Wait, you shouldn't sit up that quickly!" Nagasone said, even though he looked dejected at being slapped away.

Hachisuka also realized that he was holding onto the gold sword he found in the storehouse. He look down at it, confused. It's like something in his head is being churned.

"You wouldn't let go of it, so we left it with you…" Nagasone answered his unasked question about the sword. Hachisuka looks up at him, his head still stinging.

"Where is this...how long has passed?" He asked.

"You are at our inn," Nagasone explained, "It's not the same one from that night, don't worry, they won't find us here."

They? Right. The teahouse.

Hachisuka was clearing his thoughts, trying to recollect the pieces and remembering everything that happened. Right, he escaped the brothel with Nagasone's help...and then they ran into those creatures...and he….defeated…

"...I can't believe it…." He holds his shoulders, trembling. The headache was gone and so did the haze in his head. Everything now was crystal clear.

"...Hac...-..Yuri?" Nagasone stammered.

"You sure took your damn time in searching for us!" Hachisuka suddenly bellowed, accusing him. "I can't believe it….all those people who hold me...and I...with them….!" Hachisuka was clawing his face, shaking with disbelief and yelling at the other sword.

"Hachisuka, did your memories-" Nagasone got up mid-way, startled yet it was hard to hide the happiness he felt at that.

"I almost sleep with you!" Hachisuka cried out, his hand swatting the sword away "Get out, i don't want to see you!" He yelled, getting up from his bed and pressuring the sword out of the room. Nagasone tried to reason with him but he was fuming with anger that none of his words reached him. By the time he realized it, he was already out of the room and Hachisuka slammed the doors in his face, screaming.

"What happened?!" Kanesada popped out from the next room after hearing the commotion. "Is he awake?" Kousetsu watched from the room behind him, curious as well.

"He's more than being awake," Nagasone sighs, although his face was a half smile, half sad that looks almost terrifying "He remembers…!"

When they put Souza back in his room again, he found that everything was in a mess. His cupboard was pushed over and belongings strewn everywhere. His little golden bird cage laid on the floor, still tightly locked. Someone had searched through his room and didn't bother cleaning up after themselves. Hasebe lowered him carefully on a cushion, and he winced in pain with the movement.

"They search through your room to check if you had anything about Yuri," Hasebe explained, "You really don't know anything at all?" Souza only looked blankly ahead, his lips chapped and his face bruised. He was covered in a Haori but everything else he was wearing had already been ripped and hung in shreds on his body. His odd eyes looked soulless, as if he was no longer there. But Hasebe couldn't blame him, after surviving Oda Nobunaga's torture, it's a wonder he was still alive.

He turn to leave, but Souza suddenly held on to his robes. He turn to him, surprise to see a response. "My brother…" Souza managed through hoarse voice "Where…."

Hasebe couldn't help the pained sting in his chest. "Tori...I need you to listen to me carefully." He started slowly. At this, Souza's blanked face started turning frantic. Hasebe was holding his hand in order to calm him down as he break the news to him. "They...took Sayo away...for the moment."

"W-why-" Souza started, his voice shaking. "Why would they take Sayo...he didn't do anything wrong-"

"Nobunaga is planning to sell you off after you healed...and Sayo...will undergo training to replace you…" Hasebe slowly replied.

Training? Replace? Sayo?

Souza shook his head frantically. "No-" He started. "You can do anything to me...just...don't take Sayo!" He begged, "Hasebe, please, he's the only thing left for me, you can't take Sayo, I beg you!"

Being the Yarite of this place, Hasebe had seen many things. He watched as prostitutes died succumbing to illness, he arranged for them to be with the cruelest of lords, he watch them suffer. Life in a teahouse may look extravagant...but it's not.

If anything, he feels like his heart would chip away when he see them fall into such misery. Souza had arrived to the tea house almost the same time as he did and that made him feel a kind of empathy for the courtesan.

But he is powerless to Oda Nobunaga's demands.

"I'm sorry. I'll...see what I can do…" It was an obvious lie through his teeth. It was the only thing he could say. He knew how important Sayo was to Souza. But what else can he do?!

Souza knew that as well. All he could do was let the tears pour out of his eyes. His little brother, so young and already forced to work in this hell hole. And as if that wasn't enough, they are going to pull him further down this rotten and corrupted world. "If anything happens to Sayo...I will not forgive anyone here…" He whispered through gritted teeth.

Hasebe backed away, suddenly feeling the air in the room turn cold. Souza seem to flicker slightly with dark embers, as if black smoke was premating from him. But it was gone when Hasebe rubbed his eyes, seeing the broken courtesan reduced to a miserable heap in the middle of his chaotic room.

If despair is an image, this would definitely be how it looked.