May 28, 1882

"Get the fuck out," Kensuke demanded to an unruly patron at the Fujimori House as he tried to push him outside through the front entrance. "Don't come back shitfaced, asshole! You're not fucking welcome! Go fuck yourself!"

"Get your fucking hands off of me!" The unruly patron then tried to drunkenly swing at Kensuke's face, but missed. "Oh shit… I fucked u-"

Kensuke replied by punching him in the upper chest, knocking him down. "How many times do I gotta tell you?! Get the fuck outta here!" He then picked him back up, "Get the fuck out! Get out!"

The man scurried off, having been scared away by Kensuke's punch. As he ran, he screamed, "I'll come back! Don't you worry, you piece of shit! I'll fuck you up! I'll fuck all of you up!"

"I'd like to see you try!" He muttered to himself as he took a deep breath, "Fucking asshole… That's the second dumbass today I had to throw out." He then looked over and noticed Daki looking at him, "Huh? Sakurahime-oiran?"

"I just wanted to thank you for getting him out," Daki replied. "He's been a problem for us for several months, and today, he finally went too far." She then instructed him, "Don't let his ass back in this brothel under any circumstances, got it? He's fucked with us for the last time."

"Understood," he replied with a bow.

"As for that earlier guy," Daki then informed him. "Well, let's just say a little something might happen to him soon. I won't say who or why, but you won't be seeing that motherfucker around here anymore. If we're lucky, that guy you just threw out will also no longer be a problem pretty soon."

"Ah, I see. You can make problems disappear, huh?"

"Exactly. I won't reveal my secrets, but know that I very much can and do."

"Well," Kensuke then said as he reentered the building. "I'm hoping we don't have any more problems tonight."

"Just watch," Daki joked. "Just because you said that, you're gonna have even more."

…

Sure enough, Kensuke had more problems to deal with that night, much to his dismay. He was removing a disorderly patron from the brothel by dragging him out by his shirt and even by his hair as the patron screamed and kicked. One of the other courtesans helped him as he yelled at the man, "Get the fuck outta here! Stop kicking us! Stop fucking kicking, I said!"

"Let go of me! Fucking piece of shit!" The man tried to kick at the girl, who was in fact Kinako. "Get lost, you dumb bitch!"

Kensuke immediately punched the man several times before yelling, "Don't lay a hand on Himawari, asshole! That's the last fucking time you hit a girl here!"

Kinako herself also slapped the man across the face. "Kick me again, and I'll cut your fucking balls off!"

After dragging him down the stairs, they pushed him out of the brothel together, with the man yelling at them, "Don't fucking push me! I'll fucking kill you!"

Kensuke yelled back, "Fuck you! Get out and stay out!" He then pushed him one final time to get the message across. "Now go!"

As the man finally gave up and left, Kinako took a deep breath and told him, "Thanks for that. That guy's a fucking lunatic. He tried to do some weird shit with me I didn't like, and of course, when I said no, he didn't give a damn. He's caused problems here before, but tonight is the last fucking straw."

"That's the second person I've had to throw out today," Kensuke remarked before he wiped his hands with a towel left nearby. "Fuck, tonight's a pain in the ass."

Kinako lamented, "Man, my night's all messed up now. Not gonna lie, I was kinda getting into it with him before he went and ruined it with that weird shit he wanted to do to me."

Kensuke then asked her, "Do you need anything else?"

"Tell Sakurahime-oiran and Tanezaki-san I'll be unavailable for the rest of the night," Kinako told him.

"Okay," he replied before he walked away to tell Daki and Kaori about Kinako's unavailability.

As he went away, Kinako sighed and said to herself as she walked back upstairs, "I hate getting my mood ruined by some creep." She then thought to herself as she formulated an idea, "Well, Takagi-san has been working pretty hard lately, and I still could use some help… Maybe I could reward him and also satisfy some of my pent-up urges." She then turned around and went back downstairs to try to find Kensuke.

As she looked around, a younger girl who worked as a servant at the brothel asked her, "Himawari-oiran, who are you looking for?"

She then turned around and told the young girl quietly, "I'm looking for Takagi-san. Tell your friends not to bother me for the next hour or so, okay?"

"Okay," said the young girl, blissfully unaware of what Kinako's intentions with Kensuke were as she turned to tell the other young servant girls at the brothel.

Then, Kensuke emerged from a room. "They understand, Himawari-oiran. You've been taken off the list for tonight."

"Sounds good to me," she replied before she leaned in and whispered to her. "Hey, Kensuke, follow me into my room. I want to show you something."

"Himawari-oiran, what are yo-?"

"Shhhh," she then told him. "We have an hour to be alone. Call me Kinako for now, okay?" She giggled as she walked up the stairs with him and then headed for her room. "Come on in."

Once both of them were in, she slid the door closed and locked it in place. Kensuke asked her, "Wait, are you sure about this? Tanezaki-san said she didn't want me to have sex with the courtesans here."

"She only said to not expect or ask for it," she replied. "Not that you couldn't say yes if any of them offered it to you. Besides…" She then walked up to him and whispered in his ear, "We won't take things all the way, but I can still show you a good time while I also satisfy my own urges. I need this after that whole fucked up mess from earlier."

"Oh, um… Okay…" Kensuke then took a deep breath. "So, where do we start?"

"Sit down and let me show you," Kinako replied before Kensuke sat down on the floor. As he did, Kinako undid her kimono to partially expose her chest to her while still not taking it off. "Just relax. Have you ever had sex before with a girl, Kensuke?"

"No," he replied as she took one of his hands and stuck it in her kimono. "I've never touched a girl like this before."

"Well now you have. Does it feel nice?"

"Uh… Yeah…" Kensuke was clearly trying to find the words to describe what he felt, but failing. "This, um…"

"Maybe in the future, I can show you how it feels to have full sex. For now, I can get you introduced." She then gave him a smug grin and asked him, "Don't let anyone else know about this, okay? It'll be our little secret."

…

May 29, 1882

As Kensuke woke up in the middle of the day after a long night, he found Kaori waiting for him in his bedroom. "Huh? Tanezaki-san?"

"Come with me," Kaori then said to him. "Now." She clearly was not happy about something.

"What's this all about?"

"We need to talk about last night."

Kensuke then rubbed his eyes. "What about last ni-?"

"Shut the Hell up and just come with me, okay?"

Realizing she sounded angry, he quickly got out of bed. "Let me get dressed first, okay?"

"Hurry it up. I don't have all God damn day."

"Okay, okay, I will."

As he got dressed in his normal work uniform, Kaori asked him impatiently, "For fuck's sake, how long is this gonna take?"

Kensuke chose not to respond to her, instead focusing on his clothes. Once he was fully dressed, he asked her, "Where to?"

"This way," she said as the two walked out of the room together.

"I think I'm fucked," he thought to himself. "Kinako-san blew me last night, and Tanezaki-san might have found out. Please, don't tell me I lost my fucking job already. It's only been a little over a damn week! Why did I let my lust get the best of me?!"

Once they entered Kaori's office, Kensuke saw a police officer and another man dressed in a Western-style suit inside. Kaori told him, "These men are police officers. One of those two drunks you threw out got found dead early this morning, and they want to ask you some questions."

Kensuke, both relieved he was not getting fired and surprised at the presence of the police, asked them, "Which of those two are you gentlemen inquiring about?"

"The second one," the man in the suit, presumably a detective, asked him. "Miyahara Eisuke." He then showed Kensuke a recently-developed photograph of the body of the same man he had thrown out. "This is his body. As you can see, it was eviscerated, and he's missing both of his legs." Indeed, Eisuke's body was badly mangled, and the mass of blood on the ground surrounding the body was further proof of how violent his demise was. "Witnesses saw him get thrown out of this brothel last night. You might have been the last person to see him alive."

"I might have," Kensuke replied as Kaori left the room. "Damn…"

"I'm Okabe Hideharu, by the way," the detective then said to introduce himself as he showed off his badge. "I just want you to know that we aren't suspecting you of committing this crime at all. In fact, we think you could be our key to solving it."

"I see," Kensuke replied with a nod. "What do you want to know about him?"

"Why did he get thrown out?"

"He was being an asshole to the girls. He tried forcing one of them to do things she didn't like and that he had to pay extra for, so me and her kicked him out. We've had problems with him before."

"At any point, did you see anyone follow him out of the brothel?"

"No," he shook his head. "I did not."

"Alright… Was he intoxicated when he came out?"

"Fuck yeah, he was," Kensuke replied. "That's why he was such an asshole. He drank a ton of sake before he came here and while he was here."

"Do you remember him mentioning anyone that he said could have a dispute with him or chase after him?"

"No, not at all."

"I see."

Then, a knock was heard at the door, and once it slid open, another police officer ran in to tell Hideharu and the first officer, "Okabe-san, sorry to interrupt, but we found another body."

"Another body?"

"You gotta see this."

"Oh shit," he muttered to himself. "We'll pick up with this interview another time, okay? I gotta go see what this is all about."

"That's fine," Kensuke said as all three police officers ran out of the room and then shut the door behind them. Once they were all gone, Kensuke asked himself, "What if it's the other guy I threw out last night?"

Up above, in a hidden room, Daki had been observing the meeting with one of her obi sash that had managed to sneak through the walls. "God damn it," she muttered to herself. "I knew I spent too much time finding those two idiots last night. The police can't keep finding bodies like this."