November 5, 1913

"I'll be committed for a bit with Saito-san in exchange for that info I got from him. Is that okay, sir?"

"It should be," Kagaya replied to James over the phone at Yoichi's corporate headquarters. "As long as we get that information, I'll allow it. However…"

"However what?" James was curious as to what Kagaya was referring to. "What is it, sir?"

"You won't be receiving any official support from the corps," Kagaya warned him with a calm but firm tone. "You'll be doing this all on your own outside of our network. You are to not identify yourself as a slayer while doing this."

"Understood," James agreed with a nod. "I've dealt with this kind of stuff on my own before. I'll be fine."

"Alright then. Have a good day."

"As to you." James then hung up the phone and told Yoichi, "Okay, we're all set. Now, where to begin…"

"How about you tell me how you invaded my dream?" Yoichi looked around the room, looking for signs to make sure he was not in a dream himself. "I assume we aren't dreaming now."

"Correct," James assured him. "As for how I got into your dream…" He then reached into a briefcase he had brought with him and pulled out a spell scroll. "Currently, this is how I do it. Originally, I would have to make a specific shape on the ground in my own blood and cast a spell verbally to do it, but with this, I just set the scroll on fire, and it goes off just like that. I've written the spell's castin' words on the paper. All I need to do is mark it in my blood and then burn it."

"You did mention chemical-based methods, however."

"I did. Dream-sharin' and dream infiltration is becomin' more and more well-known, but the use of spells is a barrier to entry due to how complex it is. I'm the first person to use scrolls, as I invented them. Everyone else where I'm from still has to make markings in their blood." He then set the scroll down on the table. "A few of the larger Standard Oil successor companies and the US Army are tryin' to make chemicals to induce these dreams. Their efforts will probably succeed in less than a year from now, and it won't be long before they spread all over the world. These chemicals might be really powerful, too. Right now, normal non-induced dreams have a time lag of 12 seconds for every 1 second, while the dreams generated by these spells have a time lag of about 20 seconds for every 1 second. The time lag for chemical-induced dreams might be even longer or might be not, and if they pair it with a highly-powerful sedative, it increases the risk of someone goin' into limbo if they die instead of wakin' up."

"Limbo?"

"Limbo is all pure unconstructed dream space. Y'all don't wanna get stuck in limbo, because you might spend decades or even centuries in it, and if you're really unlucky, you might not get out."

Yoichi was impressed with his knowledge. "That certainly does sound threatening. The Saito Group needs to stay ahead if we want to graduate from being merely a second-tier conglomerate and instead become the fifth member of the Big Four… Or in that case, the Big Five."

"Mitsubishi, Mitsui, Sumitomo, and Yasuda?"

"Those are the ones," Yoichi confirmed with a nod. "The Saito Group has always sort of been in the shadows, but I want to make our name known. Do you have a book I could translate to use as reference to train my own extractors?"

"I do," James nodded. "I have a book at my home with all the details about extraction you could ever need."

"How could I defend myself in the event an extractor manages to get inside my head?"

James knew exactly what he needed. "That's where a weaponized subconscious comes in."

"I see. How do I achieve that?"

"You'll need to picture weapons," James explained. "Think in detail about specific guns, swords, and so on. Your subconscious will decide who gets what. What takes a bit of time is spawning soldiers and guards who will specifically track down extractors and other unwanted visitors before your normal projections do. I can do that for you, but it'll take multiple visits. I have my own schedule as a demon slayer, so I won't be available all the time, but I'll let you know ahead of time what days I can work with you."

Yoichi nodded and wrote down some notes on a pad of paper with a pencil before handing them to James. "These are the days for November, December, and January that I should be free. Contact me by phone, telegraph, or mail, and I can arrange a training session, Colby-san. To get you more interested…" He then pulled out a small checkbook and wrote down numbers on it before reading a check off and handing it to James. "Here's a down payment of 500 yen. Cash it in at the company bank when you leave here. I'll pay you another 250 yen for every visit. Does that sound fair to you, Colby-san? It surely sounds fair to me."

"Sounds like a fair deal to me too," James replied as he extended a hand almost subconsciously. He soon caught himself and retracted his hand. "My apologies."

"No, no, it's fine," Yoichi replied as he extended his hand. The two then shook hands across the table. "I'm familiar with handshaking. When you're in a business as big as mine, you deal with foreigners quite a lot."

"Oh, I bet you do."

…

November 6, 1913

Tsuyoshi, Tokuhei, and Reiko were all discharged from the Butterfly Estate on the same day, and as the three of them walked out, Rinji was there to meet up with his sister. He noticed her two new friends as he waved for her. "Hey, Reiko-oneechan!"

Tsuyoshi asked, "Reiko-san, is that your brother?"

"Yeah," she replied. "He's the one I told you guys about."

"Hey there!" Rinji looked at her new friends and asked her, "Wait, who are these guys?"

"These are two guys I met while I was laid up in here," Reiko explained, introducing the two of them to her brother. "This is Okuda Tsuyoshi, and this is Suzuki Tokuhei."

Tokuhei bowed before Rinji, telling him, "Nice to meet you, Rinji-san."

Tsuyoshi more casually introduced himself with, "What's up?"

Rinji bowed to both of them as well. "So, did you guys get sick, too?"

"We got hurt in a previous mission," Tokuhei explained.

"It was not fun," Tsuyoshi clarified. "One of the worst missions I've been on."

"Aside from the one that scarred your face," Tokuhei joked. "Certainly that was worse, right?"

Tsuyoshi was going to respond with an insult back to him, but bit his tongue and instead acknowledged with a sigh, "Shit, okay, yeah, that's fair."

"Exactly," Tokuhei replied with a grin.

"Don't push it."

Reiko walked over to her brother and told him with a whisper, "Don't worry. Their banter was really entertaining while I was laid up in bed."

"I bet," Rinji whispered back. "These two seem like they play off of each other well."

Tokuhei asked the siblings, "Hey, what the Hell are you guys talking about over there?!"

"Nothing," Reiko assured him. "Nothing."

Tsuyoshi remarked to Tokuhei, "They're probably talking about us."

"Probably."

…

Nezuko, meanwhile, spent the whole day training with her brother, Zenitsu, and Inosuke, with the latter three being shirtless despite the somewhat chilly weather, whereas Nezuko kept on her uniform shirt, albeit unbuttoned, as well as sarashi underneath to cover herself. As she observed Tanjiro practice different forms of the Breath of Water, she could not help but notice that he was beginning to show signs of falling behind. "His form isn't as good as it used to be," Nezuko thought to herself. "Perhaps his attempts at using two different breathing styles is causing his form in the Breath of Water to suffer. I wonder if I'll go through the same thing, or if I'm different since I'm a demon."

Tanjiro then took a deep breath and readied himself for a practice attack against a tree. "Okay… Dance of the Fire God: Dance!" He then effortlessly performed the first form of the breathing style. "Now, Raging Su-" However, when he tried to perform a second move right after the first, he suddenly stumbled and fell onto his knees. "Agh, fuck!"

"Oniichan!" Nezuko quickly ran to him. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," he told Nezuko. "My lungs just hurt from trying to use two forms of the Dance of the Fire God one after another."

"Wait, you can't do that?"

"I can't," Tanjiro affirmed as he was helped up by Nezuko. "I'm gonna keep training until I can, though."

"Huh… Well, I can."

Tanjiro was dumbfounded. "Wait, what?!"

"Yeah," Nezuko nodded. "I can show you." She then drew her sword, took a deep breath, and declared, "Dance of the Fire God, Burning Bones, Summer Sun!" With a quick circular motion, she cut up the tree that Tanjiro had attacked. She quickly followed it up with, "Raging Sun!" Again, she successfully pulled off the attack, managing to fully chop down the tree this time without so much as a nick in her blade.

Once it crashed down onto the ground, an awestruck Tanjiro asked his sister, "How the fuck…?"

"If I had to guess," Nezuko inferred. "My body can tolerate using such techniques more and can adapt to them faster since I'm a demon and I already possess inhuman strength and speed. Even so, I do have a disadvantage."

"And that would be?"

"I've noticed that I'm not entirely accurate with where I aim my sword," Nezuko replied. "I may have power, but I need more training to master control of my movements. Hopefully I can do that by January of the new year."

"Nezuko-chan," Zenitsu then called out to her as he ran over from a jog with Inosuke. "How are you doing?!"

"I'm doing fine. How was your run with Inosuke-san?"

"He outran me after a mile," he replied as he caught his breath and wiped his forehead of sweat. "We ran for about three miles."

"We've just been practicing sword fighting here," Nezuko replied. "My brother wants to be able to use the Dance of the Fire God more." As the conversation continued, Nezuko could not help but think about Zenitsu's rather muscular build, which had become even more developed after the training the gang had endured following the events on the Infinity Train. "So, uh… Wanna race me, Zenitsu?"

"Just give me like five minutes," Zenitsu replied. "How many miles do you wanna run?"

"How about two miles?"

"Sure, why not? You'll probably outrun me, anyway."

"I wouldn't be too sure about that," Nezuko replied with a cheeky grin. "After all, I'm basically reduced to human level during the day. You have a chance, Zenitsu-san."

…

Five minutes later, Zenitsu and Nezuko began their race. Nezuko had shed her uniform shirt for the sake of fairness, leaving on her sarashi for support, and as the two started off, Zenitsu initially found himself turning towards her, but blushed a bit and turned away. "Just focus on the run," Zenitsu thought to himself. "Just focus on the run, Zenitsu. Nezuko-chan may be your crush, but right now, she's your comrade and your opponent in this race."

As the two rounded a corner and ran past a tree that Inosuke had seemingly ran into earlier during his run, Nezuko thought to herself, "Zenitsu-san looks really good. I always just kind of thought of him as a goofball with bad luck, but there's more to him than that. Being fully sapient really opened my eyes beyond what I first saw him as: A funny dandelion."

Zenitsu was a good five feet or so ahead of Nezuko, but the latter was beginning to catch up. "How much faster can you run, Nezuko-chan?!"

"I'll show you!" Nezuko then pushed herself nearly to the limit and managed to inch past Zenitsu, eventually putting a good two feet between her and him. "How about that?!"

"Not bad, but I can still catch up!"

"I'd like to see you try!"

As the two ran past Inosuke, who was busy doing stretches in a forest clearing, Zenitsu yelled to him, "Watch out for us!"

"Huh?" Inosuke looked over and saw them run past him. "Hey, what the Hell?! Don't leave me behind! Come on!"

"I didn't say join the race!"

It was too late. Inosuke had already joined the race, and had managed to inch past Nezuko despite just joining. "Hah, take that, Kenjitsu!"

"Zenitsu!"

"Whatever, Monitsu!"

"Oh, fuck it, you'll never get it right!"

…

November 9, 1913

At James and Yoichi's second meeting, the two were placed into a rather basic dream that James himself had architected prior to his arrival at Yoichi's corporate headquarters. This time, the dream was designed around a city street in San Francisco, and was populated by projections of Yoichi, since he was the dreamer. As the two walked through downtown San Francisco, James told him, "This city has a pretty high population of Japanese immigrants, so you're bound to find people who speak it here aside from me in real life. This city's also still strugglin' from the earthquake it had 7 years ago."

"I can tell," Yoichi replied to him. "There's so many for sale and vacant signs around here, as well as all the empty lots."

"Yeah," James replied with a nod. "Hopefully, one day, the city will grow back to what it once was. When did you visit it?"

"In December of 1912 to get on a ship to Japan. I designed the dream based on that. However, you gotta be careful when makin' a dream based on things you see in real life, because you might get lost and think you're in reality when you ain't."

"I see… So you could think this is real when it isn't?"

"Correct." James then decided to mess with the dream a bit as they rounded a street corner and passed another empty lot. "As an architect, you can change certain parts of the dream while in it. For example…" He then pointed to the street in front of him and lifted his hand up. As he did, the whole ground before him turned sideways and lifted up at a 90-degree angle while maintaining perfect continuity with the ground. "Take a look at that."

"Holy shit," Yoichi remarked as he saw carriages and people seamlessly go up and down the vertical angle.

"Let's continue," James then told him as he stepped onto the vertical angle with no problem.

"Right." Yoichi quickly followed him, amazed by his abilities. "How long have you been doing this?"

"Since the 1870s," James replied. "I've had over 4 decades to perfect my abilities in dream infiltration and dream sharin'. Now, just to let you know, I can't change too much, or else your projections will start to attack me."

"Why is that?"

"Because they can sense I'm an outsider if I'm not careful," James explained. "You can't control what they do to me, either, so they won't stop, even if you tell them to. What we need to do is ensure that at least some of those projections manage to weaponize themselves and sense outsiders as soon as they enter a dream, and not once those outsiders begin changing things."