May 4, 1913

As James watched the TanInoZen trio exercise outside, he was interrupted rather suddenly when George landed next to him and squawked in English, "Message! Message for James Colby!"

James jumped up and yelled, "FUCK!" Susamaru, standing beside him, laughed loudly as James blushed, embarrassed he had been caught completely off-guard. "Come on, that ain't funny!" He then turned to George and switched to English. "So, what's the message, my loyal crow?"

"This small note is attached to my leg," George indicated to him. "Read it and then meet me somewhere in private." James did as asked and carefully removed the note from George's leg. After reading it, George asked him, "Where do you wanna meet?"

"We'll go into a back room in the main house," James told him before he turned to Susamaru and switched back to Japanese. "Susamaru, I'll be right back. I gotta talk to my crow in private."

…

Inside a small room in the main house of the Butterfly Estate, George explained to him, "You absolutely cannot tell anyone else what you are about to hear! Absolutely no one!"

"Then keep your voice down," James warned him, realizing how loud he was. "Come on!"

"Right, right," he cawed at a quieter volume. "Anyway, Muichiro Tokito has begun a relationship with Mukago, and has reported that she can now stand in the sunlight on her own with Limited Sunlight Resistance. He has told the rest of the corps about her status with sunlight, but is adamant that nobody else knows about his sexual relations with her."

"Sexual what now?!" James sighed and shook his head. "What the fuck… Why's he fuckin' her when he's in an organization that's already reluctant to work with us? Don't that boy know how dangerous this could be?"

"I'm not offering an opinion," George replied to him. "It is what it is."

"I know," James replied. "Look, I was fourteen once, okay? I would have killed to have vented my own awkward feelins' with a girl, 'specially one who knew what they were doin', but this is risky as fuck. What's gon' happen if the other Pillars find out? What if my blood injected in her gave her the ability to get pregnant? How did you find out anyway?"

"Muichiro's crow can also speak English," George replied to him. "He wanted to let you know so he could get advice. Also, I may have accidentally flown in on them having sex."

James facepalmed at the final sentence. "Of course ya did… Of course ya did…"

"Also," George asked James. "Can you give me help with my Japanese? Muichiro's crow's Ginko is really hot, and I want to impress her."

James broke out in laughter upon hearing George ask him for help and his reasoning. "Ah, holy shit… I'm sorry, I didn't mean to laugh at that, but-" He then broke out into laughter again before George, annoyed, began pecking him to make him stop. "Ow! Ow! Agh, fuck! Stop it! That fuckin' hurts! Okay, okay, I'll stop laughin'! Jesus fuckin' Christ!"

…

As James was walking to a local town to pick up supplies for the Butterfly Estate's compound pharmacy alongside Aoi, the two got to talking about each other. "And thus with that," James concluded his story to her. "I came here to Japan."

Aoi had an expression of horror and sadness mixed together on her face. "Holy shit… I don't know how you manage to keep on moving and fighting. Most people would have given up on everything by then."

"Well," James admitted. "The thing is, and I am not proud of this whatsoever, but I've tried to kill myself several times, and I failed every time. See, where I come from, suicide is considered both sinful and selfish. We don't have an equivalent to seppuku."

"That explains why Shinobu-sama said you were uncomfortable about the idea of seppuku then," Aoi explained to him. "What else is so different about your beliefs?"

"We only have one God," James continued. "I'm sure you've heard of Christianity before."

"Yeah," Aoi replied with a nod. "In fact, during the Sakoku period, we protected Christians from persecution by the Shogunate. We've had quite a few famous slayers who were Christians. I understand that you don't believe in reincarnation and nirvana either, right?"

"Nope," James confirmed to her. "We believe that y'all get one shot at life, and depending on how much good and bad you did, you either go to Heaven or Hell permanently after you die."

"That seems so limiting," Aoi expressed. "But that's just me. I'd think Buddhism and Shinto would be weird too if I came from your land. Anyway, you said you wanted to hear a bit about me, so…" She then cleared her throat and began. "So I technically am a demon slayer, but… You see, the original plan when Kanae-sama was still alive was that when Shinobu-sama became the Insect Pillar, I would become her Tsuguko, and Kanao-chan would become Kanae-sama's Tsuguko. I would learn the Breath of Water, but I'd have the possibility of switching to the Breath of the Insect if I wanted to."

"And then Kanae died," James noted. "So what happened to you?"

"Well, right before Kanae-sama died," Aoi continued. "I took my Final Selection. It was… It was not fun. I was so traumatized by what I saw that I took myself offline as a demon slayer almost right after I passed it. I still have a sword and the uniform, but the sword is locked away in the Butterfly Estate armory and is only used in case of an attack." The nurse sighed as she recalled her story, feeling self-conscious about herself and why she took herself offline. "Kanae's death plus me taking myself offline led to plans being changed so that Kanao would become Shinobu's Tsuguko even though she learned the Breath of the Flower, Kanae's own Breath Style that she shaped heavily. Of course, Kanao-chan was not Shinobu-sama's first Tsuguko, as Shinobu-sama was so frightened by Kanae-sama's death that she delayed Kanao from taking the Final Selection."

"How many did she have before her?"

"You're not gonna believe this," Aoi warned him. "But three."

"What the fuck, three?!" James was floored that she had lost so many Tsuguko. "What the Hell happened?!"

"Shinobu-sama's just had really bad luck," Aoi explained to him in a sullen tone. "Like, really, really shitty luck, and this didn't stop with her previous Tsuguk-"

Suddenly, both of them were stopped by two men on an empty narrow street in the village armed with guns. One of the two men yelled, "Hey there! You two don't look so familiar in this village! How about you give us all the money you got and get outta here?!"

"Listen to what he says," the other man yelled at them as well. "He means it!"

James sighed as Aoi looked around for an escape route and he pulled out his revolver. Aoi told him, "What are you doing?! It's two versus one, and you're not supposed to kill humans!"

"Look," James calmly explained to her. "If someone's pointin' a gun at me, I don't give a fuck what they are."

"I don't know what you two are talking about," the leader of the two men explained. "And I don't give a shit! These shiny new revolvers we're holding we're taken from two police officers we robbed a few days ago, and they've worked wonders for us! Very few street criminals here got guns, and we're now at the very top in this village with the-"

James coldly shot him in the head, much to Aoi's shock, before telling him, "Shut the fuck up already." He then turned to his partner and shot him in the chest just before he could shoot back at him. "Same to you as well. You guys think just because the gun's new that it's any better than most other revolvers out there? Y'all spent so much time jerkin' each other off about how cool your stolen guns were that you failed to actually use 'em to rob us. I wasn't even listenin'. Were y'all tryin' to sell the guns to us?"

Aoi screamed, "You just fucking shot them!"

"I know, I know," James calmly replied to her. "They had guns, alright? It's self-defense. I've had to kill humans before. Not every criminal I collected a bounty for wanted to be taken alive." He then put his gun away. "Look, let's just get what we need and go back to the Butterfly Estate."

…

May 6, 1913

James returned to the Rengoku Estate earlier in the day, and now was training with Kyojuro and Susamaru on sword usage, utilizing spare swords that the estate had on hand. As they both swung at several scarecrows, their master watched over them, thinking to himself, "James is doing good. Susamaru could use some work, though. She doesn't seem to be holding the sword exactly right." Once both of them were finished, James put his sword down and pulled a cigarette from his pocket, lighting it with a lighter he also carried. Kyojuro told him, "I've never done that. I always thought it would distract me."

"It is what it is," James replied in regards to his smoking habit. "I'm just glad I ain't one of the poor suckers who has to smoke a whole pack a day. I've always limited myself to no more than five, and I usually only do two or three. That shit gets expensive if you gotta buy so many packs."

"Kocho-san and Tsuyuri-san smoke about the same," he noted to him. "Tomioka-san isn't a pack a day, but he smokes more than them. Kanzaki-san does even less than you do, maybe like one or two a day."

"I'm surprised it's so relevant in the corps," James replied. "Wouldn't a breath style get in the way of it?"

"None of the people I've talked to that smoke say it does," Kyojuro shrugged. "It's just that my family has never done it, so I've never felt the need to do it. I can tell you that among the Pillars, me, Kanroji-san, Iguro-san, and Shinazugawa-san smoke, but aside from the other two I already mentioned, Tokito-san, Himejima-san, and Uzui-san do."

"Who's the worst?"

"Uzui-san and Tomioka-san," Kyojuro confirmed to him. He then turned to Susamaru. "Anyway, enough tobacco talk. Susamaru-san, you did well today, but you're still holding the sword a bit weird."

"I know, I know," she admitted. "I'll correct it, I swear. I'll stay out here all night and swing if I have to."

Kyojuro smiled, admiring her tenacity but not wanting her to push herself to the point of injury. "You don't have to push yourself too hard, but I love your enthusiasm."

"Why thank you, Rengoku-sama!" She then cheerfully hummed to herself as she swung her sword repeatedly to correct herself.

"She's so energetic," Kyojuro told James. "How do you do it?"

"Do what?"

"How do you resist not courting her?"

James immediately blushed in response to Kyojuro's question. "What?! Court her?!"

"She is absolutely wife material," the Flame Pillar replied to him, lightly jabbing him in the shoulder. "And I can tell she likes you."

"Likes me? No way." James thought to himself as he tried to deny it, "Fuck, he's right. He's fuckin' right! And… And I think… No… I can't… I can't fall in love again… I don't want another tragedy…"