Susamaru was walking by herself as she tried to find the others. As she ran across a busy street, narrowly dodging a horse-drawn cart and a Ford Model T car, she said to herself, "Where the Hell is everyone?! I can't find them anywhere here in Asakusa…"

The driver of the car yelled at her, "Fucking bitch! Don't walk in front of my car like that, asshole! Fuck you!"

Susamaru ignored the driver and continued walking down the sidewalk. She muttered to herself, "Fuck him, I got a mission to do." As she looked ahead, she saw James standing in the middle of the sidewalk and ran up to him. "James! Hey, James! Over here!"

"Huh?" James turned around and saw his fiancée run up to him. "Oh, hey there!"

"Finally, I found someone else in the group. I've been looking around for the past ten minutes with no luck. Have you found anyone else?"

"I found Watanabe," James replied. "He has multiple secrets hidden in here. I found one, but it ain't what we're lookin' for." James revealed the folder he had gotten from the restaurant earlier, opening its contents to show Susamaru what was inside. "Looks like plans for something' else he's buildin'."

"Huh… It looks like an army base. It even says Imperial Japanese Army on the top right here." Susamaru pointed to a small info box on the right top corner of the plans. "He must be contracted to build some of the buildings in this new base."

"I see," James replied as he read the info box. "Looks like this is an army base that's gonna be built in Korea, actually. It says here it's gonna be built in or near Heijo, or Pyongyang." He then showed Susamaru a second sheet containing plans for just one building. "And this… This looks like a church, and it says here it's gonna be built in Heijo, too."

"Heijo had a Protestant revival about seven years ago," Susamaru noted. "This must be a new church for them."

"Who told you that? How do y'all know about revivals?"

"One of the priests I talked to about converting when we get married mentioned it to me," Susamaru explained. "He says Catholicism is even smaller in Korea than it is in Japan because the Protestants got there first."

"Given most Americans are Protestants, I ain't surprised." They then felt the buildings and ground shake slightly. "There must be instability in the level above us."

…

On the first level, Tsuyoshi and Senjuro were fighting back three armed men with the rifles they had. The shaking on the second level was caused by bullets breaking the windows of the office the others were sleeping in. As Tsuyoshi shot one of the three men and killed him, he told Senjuro, "Cover me! I gotta reload!"

"Got it," he replied before providing suppressing fire with a bolt-action rifle, forcing the other two men to retreat behind a wall. A bullet from these two men barely missed Senjuro, grazing his hair and causing him to yell, "Fuck, too close!"

Once Senjurp ran out of ammunition, Tsuyoshi returned and threw an impact fuse grenade, tossing it in the direction of the wall and yelling, "GET DOWN!" As he forced Senjuro to the ground, the grenade went off, sending shrapnel everywhere and killing both of the two men.

As Senjuro got up and dusted himself off, he asked Tsuyoshi, "Hey, are you okay?"

"Agh, shit…" Tsuyoshi had several cuts and bruises as a result of the shrapnel, causing him to bleed from several parts of his body. "That grenade got me, too."

Senjuro helped Tsuyoshi to his feet, telling him, "Come on, let's go to the office. I'll tend to your wounds the best I can, okay?"

…

Back on the second level, James, having earlier split up from Susamaru once more to look for any hidden folders with more information, was walking into a woodworking store and woodshop when he greeted the owner with, "Hello there."

"Welcome," the owner kindly replied. "If you need anything, feel free to ask me or one of our woodsmiths. We'll be happy to help you."

"Thank you," James replied with a bow. "I'll gladly take a look at your stock."

As he began looking for any hidden doors or cabinets in the shop, he wondered if he would ever find the details on the Korean dam project. He then heard a familiar voice call out to him from behind. "Colby-san!"

To his dismay, James turned around to find Kyojuro standing in the front doorway. "Oh no, don't tell me you're in this dream, too."

"I have a sneaking suspicion that what you're doing isn't right," Kyojuro inferred. "Are you trying to steal from the man whose dream you're in?"

"It ain't stealin'," James explained the best he could. "We ain't takin' anythin' from him. He keeps it all."

"You're trying to take confidential information, aren't you?" The projection of Kyojuro was clearly not happy with him. "Did I really waste all of my time training you only for you to turn around and steal from others? Did I?!"

Those words stung James deep in the heart. "I… You…"

"Answer me, James Colby!"

"Hang on a second…"

Kyojuro then drew his sword. "I did not want to fight you, but now you have left me no choice."

"Woah, woah, woah, hold the fuck up!" James drew his own sword and told the projection, "Stop escalatin' shit, okay?!"

"You're the one that's escalating things!"

The owner of the shop came out from the back and yelled at both of them, telling them, "Hey, both of you, get the Hell out! Take your little fight and do it outside! Don't do that fucking shit in here!"

Another worker pushed James from behind, telling him, "Get the fuck out of here!"

Kyojuro told James, "You heard them. Let's take this outside. I need to teach you a lesson, Colby-san."

"Fine," James replied. He turned around and told the worker and the owner, "Okay, we're leavin'!" He told the worker specifically, "And don't push me like that, okay?"

The owner yelled, "Move faster, asshole! Don't fucking come back, or we'll kill you!"

The other worker similarly shouted almost unprompted, "Fuck you! You don't fuck me! I fuck you! I'll kill you! I'll fucking kill you!"

Despite the two of them going out onto the street, the owner followed them outside, screaming at him and Kyojuro, "We'll fucking kill you! Get the fuck out of here! Why the Hell are you still here?! Get out! Get out! Get out!" He then grabbed a wood-cutting axe and swung it at James, yelling, "Fucking die already!"

James reacted swiftly, and cut the owner's head off with his sword while dodging the axe. As his body fell to the ground and his blood spilled onto the street, James muttered, "Motherfucker…"

Kyojuro yelled in anger, "See?! You just killed an innocent person, Colby-san! He was doing nothing wrong, and you killed him!"

The worker ran out of the shop with another axe, yelling at James, "Get out of here, intruder! Fuck you! You need to die!"

James deflected the axe with his sword, also cutting the worker's hand off in the process. He then drew his revolver and shot the man twice in the chest, killing him. "Damn it…"

Kyojuro yelled as he charged forward at James, "You don't deserve to be my successor! You've now killed two innocent people! What the Hell is wrong with you?!"

James quickly blocked Kyojuro from attacking him. He did not want to fight his former mentor, but now, the projection was leaving him with no choice. He also realized why the owner and worker had turned so violent so suddenly. "I get it now," he thought to himself as he blocked a second blow. "We're disruptin' the dream so much that some projections are turnin' on us. That woodshop owner and his worker must have realized it when we pulled our swords. Fuck, this is bad. They might start attackin' the others, too. If that's the case, my cover as Mr. Charles will be totally blown!"

As Kyojuro narrowly missed cutting James' right arm off, he told him, "I got close there, didn't I?"

"Ya sure did!"

"You don't deserve to wear that haori, you know!" Kyojuro then readied himself for a breathing style form, taking a deep breath before declaring, "Breath of Flames, First Form: Unknowing Fire!" He then raced forward, managing to almost cut James' neck off before his target ducked just barely in time, causing his sword to leave a cut on the top of his head and rip off his Stetson hat, which he had worn into the dream. "Damn!"

"You got real close there!" James then almost landed a blow on Kyojuro, but was blocked by his sword. "Come on! We can't fight like this!"

They then both heard a third voice. "Kyojuro-kun! Colby-san!" Both of them stopped and turned to find a distraught Mitsuri running towards them. "Please, both of you, stop it! Stop fighting, please!"

Kyojuro yelled to her, "Mitsuri, stay back! I need to take care of Colby-san!"

"Stop it!" Mitsuri then drew her own sword. "You can't fight him! He's your student, damn it!"

"He betrayed me! He's stealing from people and even killed two innocent people!"

"We aren't stealing!"

Kyojuro's eyes widened as Mitsuri covered her mouth in shock. "You… 'We?' What do you mean by 'we'?"

"I, um… I mean… He isn't stealing…"

"Don't tell me, Mitsuri…" Kyojuro took a deep breath and asked her, "Mitsuri, are you helping Colby-san?"

Realizing she could not run from or lie to him, she admitted, "Okay, yes, I am."

"No… You can't…" Kyojuro then tightly gripped his sword in anger at her. "Why did you do this… Why?! Did you learn nothing from me?! Are you as inferior as Colby-san?! Are you really this morally bankrupt?!"

"Please, Kyojuro-kun, stop…" Mitsuri began to cry as she reluctantly began to get ready. "I don't want to fight you."

"I didn't either, but you've left me no choice."

James then charged forward, declaring, "Breath of Flames, Third Form: Blazin' Universe!" He swung down at Kyojuro, but he managed to turn around at an incredibly fast rate of speed and block him before he was then forced back by a counterattack. "Damn it, so close!"

As Mitsuri continued to sob, Kyojuro got ready to attack her, declaring, "I didn't want this, but you made me do this!"

James shouted to Mitsuri, "Kanroji, run!"

Mitsuri opened her eyes just in time to block Kyojuro, declaring, "Breath of Love, Second Form: Love Pangs!" Using her whip sword, she blocked Kyojuro three times by swinging her sword wildly. "Stop it, Kyojuro-kun! You can't do this! This isn't like you!"

"Ya can't argue with him like he's real," James pleaded with Mitsuri. "He's a projection of my subconscious! All you can do is fight him!"

Kyojuro shouted as he saw James charging at him again, "Another attack?! You can't touch me!"

"Fifth Form: Flame Tiger!" Despite using an extremely powerful attack on Rengoku, he was once again able to deflect it, rendering every slash of James' sword completely ineffective.

"Fourth Form: Blooming Flame Undulation!" Kyojuro used this particular form of the Breath of Flames to block both James and Mitsuri at the same time. He shouted at James in particular, "You can't even reach me! It's clear you didn't train enough under me! You're inferior to me as a demon slayer and as the Flame Pillar!"

Mitsuri again pleaded as she battled against him, "Stop saying that! You don't mean that! You know that's a lie!"

James once again yelled at Mitsuri, now annoyed at her, "Stop tryin' to reason with him! He ain't the Rengoku we knew!"

"Third Form: Catlove Shower!" Mitsuri jumped in the air and used her whip sword to unleash several ranged attacks. Though Kyojuro was able to deflect them, they still pushed him back, causing him to be separated from James and Mitsuri by the length of several buildings on the street the battle was taking place on. As all three of them caught their breaths, Mitsuri wiped her face of tears and spat out blood, indicating that she had been injured internally. "Agh, shit… My stomach hurts like Hell…"

"Did ya get hit by Rengoku?"

"I can't tell… Wait…" Mitsuri then asked him with a look of horror on her face, "Hey, uh, can injuries in another level affect you in the next level up?"

"Yeah, they can. Do ya think you got injured somehow a level below us?"

"Oh no…"

…

On the first level, Senjuro and a bandaged-up Tsuyoshi were attending to a sleeping Mitsuri, who had been struck by a stray bullet in the abdomen. She was still alive for now, but the bleeding was severe. As Tsuyoshi tightened the bandages and applied more pressure to the wound, he told Senjuro, "I can't believe she got fucking shot! This is getting out of hand!"

"We have to hold on! It hasn't been that long up here!"

"How much longer do we got?!"

"It's been a little over three minutes since they went under! We still got another twelve to go! It's been about an hour or so in the next level down!"

"Fuck me! I don't know if she'll last that long!"

Senjuro replied as he shot a single armed man that tried attacking the office, "She's gotta if we want all of us to wake up properly!" He muttered to himself, "Damn it… If she goes into Limbo, she might never wake up, and to make matters worse, she's pregnant in the real world, too…" The situation on the first level was getting worse by the minute, and with Mitsuri slowly weakening, it would soon get worse on the second level, too.

…

Back on the second level, Hideki mat met up with Susamaru, Reiko, and Tokuhei. All four were now looking for more secrets, with the other three playing the part of agents working under Mr. Charles to protect him from intruders. "Thank you guys for helping me out," he told them. "I can't believe I stored so much sensitive information in a place like this."

"Everyone does," Susamaru replied, carrying several folders under her arms. "It's part of our subconscious to store that information deep in the recesses of our mind. Training with people like us can help your mind better hide information that you don't want extracted by others." She thought to herself, "Perfect. He doesn't suspect a God damn thing. We're stealing a whole bunch of information right in front of him and he doesn't care. In fact, he helped us break into his own mind. Absolutely fucking incredible."

Hideki noticed two police officers up ahead that were staring rather menacingly at the group. He turned to Susamaru and asked her quietly, "Should I be worried about those two police officers over there?"

"They could be people trying to infiltrate your dream," Susamaru replied. She then turned to Reiko and Tokuhei, ordering them with, "Reiko, Suzuki, split off from us to distract those two cops over there."

"Got it," Reiko replied. "Come on, Tokuhei."

As the two of them turned down an alleyway, the two police officers took their attention away from Hideki and Susamaru and began to instead trail behind them. Tokuhei asked Reiko, "How do you wanna deal with them?"

"Quietly and efficiently," she replied before pulling out a wakizashi. "Shhhh…"

One of the officers called over to them in the alleyway, asking them, "Hey, you two. Come over here for a sec. I don't think you guys belong he-"

Reiko cut him off by dashing forward and ramming her wakizashi right into his stomach before then turning to the other officer just as he pulled out his gun and slicing at his throat, causing blood to spill out and stain her clothes. To finish the first officer off, she then stabbed him two more times in the back. "See? They barely made a sound when I killed them."

Tokuhei remarked, "Sometimes, you can be kinda scary."

"Sometimes…" Reiko chuckled and put her wakizashi away, telling him, "Sometimes, you gotta look and act that way to survive. It's how me and my brother did it when we were on the run from Rui and Muzan." None of them were aware that not too far from them, James and Mitsuri were now locked in a battle for survival against their former mentor, with Mitsuri in particular being in the most danger due to her slowly deteriorating state.

…

Hey guys, it's me, the author again.

For those reading on FFN, just be aware that the most up-to-date and corrected version of this story is on AO3, or Archive of Our Own, which is also home to my current main account. All other stories I wrote on FFN are abandoned, and at least two have been remade on AO3, with another remake in the works. I am not saying that you cannot read these, as I do not believe in deleting my old works within reason. All I am saying is that they may not represent my best works as of yet. For the best experience for Hunter From America and any other stories I write, go to AO3. I have the same username there.

THIS DOES NOT MEAN I WILL NOT BE POSTING NEW CHAPTERS ON FFN. I VERY MUCH WILL STILL BE DOING SO. The only thing is that I have made some adjustments and did some "Quality Assurance/Quality Improvement" of sorts to older chapters, and these adjustments will ONLY be present on AO3, NOT on FFN.

Speaking of, for those reading on AO3, you may notice some slight changes and corrections in older chapters, particularly in Season 1 (1-52). I can assure you that no plot points will be changed. All I will be doing is correcting any mistakes I made in spelling, slightly altering dialogue, and possibly adding some new content to older chapters. I've already modified Chapters 1-4, and managed to add about 110-ish words between the modifications. Feel free to re-read the older chapters, or not. I cannot tell you what to do, after all.

Thank you for your understanding, and thank you for reading.