July 17, 1913

Nezuko arrived at the home of Sakonji Urokodaki by herself, only carrying with her a spare sword given to her by the Butterfly Estate. As she took a deep breath, she adjusted her new outfit for the time being, which consisted of her pink haori plus a pair of spare pants and boots given to her by Shinobu. She still had not decided on what to have if she was to get a uniform, but knew to avoid the racy uniforms that Masao Maeda was known for trying to give to female slayers.

As she knocked on his door, Sakonji answered up without his mask on, surprising Nezuko. As soon as he looked at her standing in the bright sun, his jaw dropped. "Ne-... Nezuko?!"

"Urokodaki-san," Nezuko then told him. "I've been sent here to be trained as a demon slayer. I have written orders from the Oyakata-sama and Tomioka-sama themselves, as well as an endorsement from my brother and Kocho-sama." She then presented several papers containing these orders and endorsements to him.

"I see," Sakonji replied to her. "Come on in, then. We shall discuss what will happen." As the two sat down across from each other, Sakonji grabbed his mask and placed it beside him. "So, do you wish to truly be a slayer?"

"Indeed," Nezuko replied with determination. "I want to avenge my family just as much as my brother does, maybe even more so. I saw everything that happened, and it haunts me."

"I get that," Sakonji replied as he put his mask on. "But… You do realize that you will be targeted heavily by Muzan for doing this, right? You also will have to resist the temptation of human blood many times due to running into injured slayers and civilians."

"I understand all of that," Nezuko affirmed to him. "I've resisted marechi blood from Shinazugawa-sama himself. I know I'll be a high-priority target for Muzan, but I don't care. I want to take the fight to him one day, and becoming an official demon slayer is my best bet."

"I respect your determination," Sakonji replied. "But it will be a lot of hard work. We shall begin your training immediately."

…

Later that day, Nezuko and Sakonji looked out at the old running course he had built, which had been last used by Tanjiro two years prior. "Your brother ran this course many times during his training. You'll need to evade and survive many traps. Just because you may heal doesn't mean you won't hurt."

"Actually," Nezuko pointed out. "During the day, I can't heal until night falls." She had by now tied her hair back in a ponytail.

"So that's the drawback, huh? Interesting…" He then pointed to the start of the course. "Run down this hill with your sword."

Nezuko then readied her sword and licked her fangs. "Alright. Let's do this!" She then bolted down the hill, sword in hand. As she passed a tree, she ran into her first trap, a series of knives that shot out at her. Thankfully, she was quickly able to dodge them. After a few more seconds, she ran into a second trap consisting of a rope that would pull her up from one of her legs. However, she was able to use her sword and cut the rope off just as she was a few feet above the ground, quickly landing before getting back up.

Sakonji said to himself, "Well, she's certainly doing better than her brother was at first."

However, just as he said that, Nezuko freaked out after almost falling into a trap hole with various blades at the bottom. "Fucking Hell!" Knowing she would not be able to recover from her injuries before nightfall, she quickly stopped herself from falling and walked around the hole. She then continued down the hill.

After five minutes of running, Nezuko finally reached the bottom, frazzled but undaunted. She had certainly done better than her brother did the first time, but still had work to do and stuff to improve on.

"Fuck… That was harder than I thought…"

"Don't quit yet," Sakonji then informed her. "You're going to do sword swings next."

"How many?"

"Let's start with a thousand."

"A thousand?!"

Sure enough, several minutes later, Nezuko was aggressively swinging her sword up and down, counting each swing out loud. As she kept swinging down, Sakonji thought to himself, "She'll need some work on her sword techniques. She's pretty much fine with agility and strength, but her current technique won't be good for her in the field."

…

Back on the ship, following the funeral at sea for Shiro, Mukago and Muichiro ate dinner together in the first-class dining area. The two were very quiet, still grieving over the loss of their translator. Then, after a few minutes, Mukago finally spoke. She told Muichiro, "I definitely have a defined bump now. I estimate I have about 6 months to go."

"I can't wait," Muichiro replied as he smiled.

"I do still have some morning sickness, though," Mukago noted. "Kocho-sama told me that normally, it's gone by the 11th or 12th week… Unless, of course…"

"Unless what?" Muichiro was confused.

"Unless it's twins," Mukago replied. "If it's twins, I'll still have some issues with morning sickness for another week or two."

"Twins… Twins…" Muichiro seemed to stare off into space as he repeated the word to himself. "Twins… God, why does that word seem so familiar to me?" As he continued to stare, he noticed the patterns in the ceiling above and took a mental note of them. "These patterns," he thought to himself. "These… These also remind me of something… Why do the word 'twins' and these long dark and white patterns on the ceiling seem so familiar to me? I've never seen this pattern, nor do I recall being involved with twins before."

"Mui?"

"Oh, right," he replied to Mukago. "Sorry, I got lost in my thoughts there for a second. Anyway, I would be happy if it's a single baby or twins. It doesn't matter to me." He smiled and looked at her stomach, wondering what was going on inside there as his child or potential children grew in her womb. "Only 28 or so more weeks to go, right?"

"About that," she replied.

Meanwhile, while he served another table, Osamu watched the couple with anticipation. He thought to himself as he set down several plates, "We will strike soon, Mist Pillar and traitor! Just wait for us!"

…

July 18, 1913

James and Susamaru went on a mission together to a town about half an hour away from the Rengoku Estate by rail. As they walked around the town late at night, investigating reports of a mysterious serial killer roaming the streets and preying on young men, Susamaru remarked to him, "The town is so quiet at night. I can't see how this demon, if he is a demon at all, is finding victims."

"Me neither," James replied with a shrug. "He ain't breakin' into homes as far as I know."

Then, almost on cue, they heard a scream from a nearby alleyway. "Help! Help! Stop biting me! Get off of me!"

Susamaru sighed as she grabbed both of her swords. "Something tells me this is our target."

"Yeah," James replied as he grabbed his sword. As the two rounded the corner, James yelled out, "Hold it right there!" The two found a hunched-over man biting into the shoulder of another man, and as the hunched-over man looked to James, he immediately recognized him.

"Mister Colby," the demon said to him in Southern American English. "We've finally met in Japan."

"Knight 24," James replied. "John Hill, First Sergeant of the 1st Battalion Alabama Artillery."

"I'm glad ya remember," he replied as he let go of his would-be victim, allowing him to run away. "I see ya have a new partner now, and she ain't white. Seems to be a runnin' gag with ya. First ya lay with a nigger, then a white woman, and now an oriental girl. What's ne-"

Susamaru immediately shut him up by cutting off one of his arms with her swords. She shouted in Japanese, "How about you stop talking?!"

"Motherfucker, I can't understand a lick of that language y'all speak," John yelled back as his arm repaired itself. "How 'bout ya leave this between me and that nigger-lovin' Yankee, miss?!"

"Ain't nothin' wrong with lovin' an oriental or a negro," James replied as he prepared to attack. "I thought we taught y'all that 50 years ago. Now… First Form!" James then rapidly charged at John, slashing through his body several times and burning him but just barely missing his neck. "Unknowin' Fire!" As the smell of cooked flesh emanated through the area, he turned around and again charged at him, only to be shot twice in the stomach with a revolver. "Fuck! He shot me!"

"Third Form," Susamaru then shouted as she jumped into the air and readied herself to attack. "Fiery Spirits!" She then swung downwards as she landed in front of John, cutting off both of his arms at the shoulder.

Right at the same time, James grabbed his shotgun, ignoring the pain from the poisoned bullets, and screamed, "DUCK!" Susamaru quickly ducked out of the way as James fired at John's head at point-blank range, completely blowing it off and splattering both of them with his blood and brains as his body began to collapse and break down. Once he fell to his knees, James got up and felt the wound, which was healing at a slower rate than usual due to the poison from the bullets. "Agh, it still fuckin' stings."

"Are you alright, dear?" Susamaru immediately ran to him and took a look at his wounds, concerned about the poison. "How bad is it?"

"I think it's a weaker poison," James inferred through his pain. "But it still stings like a bitch. Anyway… Agh… We gotta tell the Oyakata-sama we killed a Knight of the Moon."

"We can worry about that later," Susamaru told him as she put her swords away, put his sword back in his sheath, and carried him on her back. "Let's get you somewhere safe."

"Yeah," James replied as he was carried by her. "Ah, fuck, the pain hurts… Fuckin' Hell… You know, it feels nice to be carried by you." He then smiled and whispered into her ear. "It kinda turns me on."

Susamaru blushed. "Save that talk for the bedroom, dear!"

…

TAISHO SECRET #3

The Not-So-Great Ubuyashikis

As of this chapter, the last few leaders of the DSC have been genuinely virtuous people with good intentions. However, that was not always the case. There have been 97 Ubuyashikis who have taken the reins, and not all of them were exactly pure or good people. In this Taisho Secret, let's take a look at some of the more scandalous ones.

First we have Ubuyashiki Takauji, the 14th head of the corps, who ascended to the position of leader in 1048 AD, during the Heian period and the Eishou era, at the age of 7 when his father passed away at 27. He was originally not supposed to be the leader, but his older brother by three years, Motosada, was killed under mysterious circumstances while on a hunting trip with his younger brother a year earlier. A rumor states that Takauji murdered his own brother when he was only 6 years old, fearing that otherwise he would die due to the Curse of the Ubuyashiki.

Regardless of how his brother died and whether or not he was involved, Takauji did not like many of the policies his father, Masanobu, put into place, and deeply resented his father on a personal level, so much so that a month after he became the leader, he literally had his father's corpse dug up, dressed in the clothes of a DSC leader, and put on trial, accusing him of witchcraft, treason, and murder. A random slayer was appointed to give his responses. He was found guilty, and his body was tossed into a nearby river.

This caused an uproar in the corps among the supporters of Masanobu. After Masanobu's corpse was seen performing miracles to passerbys, Takauji was ousted from the throne and then beheaded after just two months of leadership. He still has a younger brother named Tsuneyo, so the throne passed to him despite him being just 3. Tsuneyo would go on to rule until he was 24 when he died.

Another scandalous leader was Ubuyashiki Michiyasu, who ruled from 1604 onwards starting at the age of 9. His father died at the age of 23, and Michiyasu was his firstborn child. It's said that he took the Ubuyashiki Estate and turned it into a whorehouse once he was a few years older. Michiyasu had a thing for foreign women, so much so that his wife, a Portuguese woman named Mariela, was the first and so far only recorded non-Asian consort to a leader of the corps. Mariela was a full five years older than him when he married her at 13, but given what else he did, this was hardly a concern by comparison.

Michiyasu reportedly fathered more children than any other leader of the DSC, and Mariela also reportedly was said to be scandalous. Aside from the seven children the two of them made, Mariela also had two half-Chinese children from a previous relationship out of wedlock in Macau and a third child fathered by a Dutch man during the marriage, and Michiyasu is believed to have fathered a further twelve children with five other women, including two Japanese women, a Korean woman, and two Dutch women. He also reportedly had a sexual relationship with his niece from one of his sisters, but this produced no children. It is said he also had sexual liaisons with several female slayers, including a Pillar, as well as the wives and widows of other slayers and Kakushi.

However, there were other issues aside from Michiyasu's sexual deviancy. When he was 14, he reportedly was given a bribe to ordain a twelve-year-old slayer with less than six months of experience in combat as a Pillar by forging several documents about his number of kills. When he was 15, he reportedly had another Pillar who was otherwise legitimately given the position sworn in inside a barn because he was too lazy to perform it in a proper setting. He also liked to go on hunting trips frequently, and fought in combat against demons despite possessing no formal training.

Perhaps his worst offense was when he was 19 when a Kakushi serving him got on his nerves, so he grabbed a knife, stabbed him, castrated him, and then slit his throat. Around the same time, he also began butting heads with his last surviving brother, Masao, who reportedly was angry with him for allegedly having an affair with his wife. As a result, when he was 22, Michiyasu was ousted, but just a year later, he rounded up his supporters, kicked a now 16-year-old Masao out, and resumed leading the DSC as if nothing happened.

However, just a year later, fate caught up to Michiyasu, and he died the way he lived: Committing adultery. Specifically, he suffered what was most likely a heart attack while having sex with the wife of the then Flame Pillar. Masao arose to the throne again, and would rule until he died at 25, also taking Mariela as a second wife around this time and fathering five more children with her. All of the children Michiyasu fathered with her were declared ineligible to ascend to the throne, but were allowed to stay in the Ubuyashiki Estate and were raised as if they were Masao's own children, a sign of his calmer and relatively more upstanding personality.

While we all have our guilty pleasures in life, perhaps the guilty pleasure of Keiichiro Ubuyashiki, leader of the corps from 1693 when he was 10 to 1704 when he was 21, was one of the more odd ones out there. It is said that for whatever reason, he liked watching horses mate, and found it hilarious. He would arrange to have the Ubuyashiki Estate's stallions meet up with mares in heat and watch them all violently mate, all the while laughing like a madman. He also was accused of accepting bribes to appoint slayers as Pillars like Michiyasu was.

Perhaps his most infamous incident as a leader was the "Night of the Harlots," where he, all the Pillars, and several High Priests from the DSC Ruling Council arranged a lavish party at the Ubuyashiki Estate. To accompany the party, Keiichiro hired fifty prostitutes from a nearby red light district, had them all strip down naked, and then engage in a hunt for hidden prizes around the estate. He then organized a contest where whoever had sex with the most prostitutes in a single night would win high-quality silk imported from China. This contest was open to women, too, and in fact, it is said that the only female Pillar at the time, the Flower Pillar known as Hanami Michiko, who also happened to be his wife, won the competition.

Speaking of Michiko, the reason she became Keiichiro's wife was because as a Tsuguko, she had helped take care of him before he became leader when his father became sicker and sicker. She was four years older than him, and would have five children with Keiichiro. Soon after Keiichiro died, she retired from being a demon slayer after having served as one from the age of 12 to the age of 25, and became cultivator for the Breath of Flower. Despite her scandals and personal demons, she is still well-regarded among Breath of Flower users for being its first true cultivator and for developing three of its seven forms, having been taught the then-brand new breath style by the woman who created it from the Breath of Water.

Let's all be thankful that Kagaya Ubuyashiki and his father and grandfather before him were nothing like the examples above, and hope that whoever Kagaya's successor may be will also be virtuous and kind.