"So she's trapped in Limbo now?"

"I'm afraid so."

"Fuck, this is bad." Susamaru and James stood over the body of Mitsuri as they discussed what would happen next. "Do you know how to get her out?"

"I've been in Limbo before," James replied. "It'll feel like years, maybe even decades down there, but I'll get her out."

"Decades?" A concerned Susamaru asked him, "James, this won't change you, right?"

"No," he assured her. "I won't actually age down there, and neither will she. She might appear older when I wake up and find her in Limbo, but she won't actually age in the real world, nor would it affect her pregnancy."

"Please," she told him with desperation in her eyes. "Be careful and come back to me, my love."

"Of course," James replied before giving her a kiss. When the two split, he told her, "Turn away unless you wanna see me kill myself."

"Alright," she replied as she turned around and began to walk away to find Hideki and finish the job they had all come to do. As she walked down the street, she heard a single gunshot behind her and turned around to find James' body drop to the ground. "Damn… I'll never get used to that."

…

However, things did not go entirely to plan for James. After all, there was only a good chance anyone who died would go to Limbo. It was not guaranteed, and as James awoke, he found himself not where he expected to be at all. Instead, he had wound up back on the first level. As he looked around, he heard gunshots ring out from Senjuro and Tsuyoshi battling back the armed projections from Hideki's subconscious. "Aw, what the fuck?! I didn't get to Limbo!"

Senjuro noticed him and gasped in shock, "Colby-san! Why are you awake?! What happened to the others?!"

"They're still down there except for Kanroji-san," he replied as he got up. "She killed herself after getting mortally wounded battling your brother."

"My brother?! He appeared?!"

"Me and her had to kill him," James explained. "I'm sorry."

Senjuro sighed and then asked, "Well, where is she now? She got shot up here. Did it affect her at all down there?"

"That would explain why she began to cough up blood while we were fighting your brother," James realized. "As for her, she's trapped in Limbo. I tried killin' myself to get there, but I wound up here." He then pulled out his revolver and told Senjuro, "Let's see if the second times' the charm."

"How long will this take?"

"Barely any time at all for you and Tsuyoshi," James replied as he put the gun to his head once more. "But for me and Kanroji-san, it'll feel like years, maybe even decades."

In disbelief, Senjuro yelled, "Decades?!"

"Trust me," James assured him. "I'll get her outta there safe and sound." He then pulled the trigger and once again killed himself to try to get to Limbo, leaving Senjuro and Tsuyoshi to fight on.

Tsuyoshi asked Senjuro, "What do we do now?!"

Senjuro replied as he reloaded his rifle, "Keep fighting! It's all we can do!"

…

Back on the second level, Susamaru, Hideki, Reiko, and Tokuhei were visiting a bank in Asakusa, once again looking for the correct plans. Susamaru told Hideki as they walked up to the front counter, "In the dream, you'll probably have an account here. Try to use the first numbers to come to your mind if they ask for an account number or password."

"Alright," Hideki replied before walking up to the front counter and asking the teller, "Hello there. May I inquire about an account I have here?"

"Sure," replied the teller. "What is your name?"

"Watanabe Hideki," he replied.

"Hmmm… Let me see…" The teller then turned around and opened up a cabinet before grabbing a folder. After looking through the folder, he turned back around and told him, "Alright. You have four accounts. Which account do you want to inquire about?"

"Oh, um…"

Susamaru thought to herself in frustration, "Shit, the dream created four accounts for him. This just made things complicated."

"Account number… Uh… Three five one, two four three."

The teller replied as he looked through the folder, "Three five one, two four three… Let me see… Aha!" He then pulled out a key from the folder and told him, "What would you like to see from the account?"

"Take everything out of that account," Hideki replied.

"As you wish," he replied.

As the teller went away to go into the bank's vault, Hideki asked Susamaru, "What do we do now?"

"We wait," she replied. "I didn't expect the bank to have four accounts under your name, though."

"Me neither," Hideki replied. Noting that four was the number of death in Japanese culture, he added, "I really hope that's not a bad sign."

Outside, Reiko and Tokuhei watched out for any projections that would try to stop Susamaru. Reiko asked Tokuhei as they scanned the street, "See anyone odd?"

"All these people are odd," Tokuhei noted. "Everything about this shit is pretty fucking odd if you ask me."

"You aren't wrong," Reiko agreed. "Honestly, I'm starting to kinda question why the Hell we're even here."

"Hm? What makes you say that?"

"This whole dream infiltration thing, you know? It's just… It feels way above my usual level of thinking, I guess. Right now, my main focus is getting this mission done as quickly as possible so I can go back to reality. I don't want to have to deal with more of this bullshit right now."

"Oh, I see…" Tokuhei then sighed and told her, "I kinda agree with you, Reiko-san. I think I've had my fair share of this dream infiltration shit for a while."

…

Meanwhile, down in the deep and vast depths of Limbo, James awoke along the shore of a river, having seemingly washed up by himself. As he opened his eyes and adjusted to the sunny skies above, he realized his clothes were soaked with river water, and that his legs were covered in algae from the river. "Ugh… I'm covered in this shit…" He then slowly got up and realized that he felt incredibly tired. As he tried to walk forward, he stumbled and fell back onto the ground. "Agh, damn it… I can barely move…"

A voice then called over to him, shouting, "Hey, you! Who are you?! What are you doing here?!"

"Huh?"

James looked up to find a very shed Obanai, or at least a projection of Obanai, staring back at him. Based on how he looked, he knew that Mitsuri had also aged significantly, which is what he expected given that she had never been in Limbo before. Obanai then looked down and shouted when he realized that the visitor was in fact disoriented, "Wait a minute, are you okay?!"

"Father," then said another middle-aged man in his late fifties who bore Obanai's black hair and Mitsuri's eyes. "What's going on here?"

"Oh shit," James thought to himself. "This is gonna suck to deal with." He then got up and brushed himself off as best as he could, but he collapsed soon after he did so once again from exhaustion. "Fuck…"

"Hang on, sir," said the middle-aged man, who seemed to be a child that Mitsuri had with the projection of Obanai in this dream. "Let me help you up." As he ran down to the riverbank, he told his father, "Get my other two brothers. I'll need some help bringing him up to the house."

"Alright, alright," replied Obanai. "Hang on…"

…

As three of Mitsuri's sons helped James into the house, he looked around to find an aged and graying Mitsuri sitting on her knees by a table. She asked her sons out of worry, "Is he gonna be okay? He looks like he's been out to sea with how soaked he is."

"I think he's just a bit dehydrated," said one of her sons.

"Yeah," agreed James.

Mitsuri then handed James a cup of tea. "Here. Take this. It should help you with that."

"Thank you…" James then sipped on the tea, doing so slowly at first. However, his thirst got the better of him, and he ended up downing the entire cup, startling Mitsuri and her sons. "Ahhhh… Thank you…"

"Woah," replied one of her sons in shock. "I guess he really was thirsty, Mother."

"I, um…" James then looked up at Mitsuri and asked her, "Can… Can I speak to you in private, Kanroji-san?"

All three of her sons in the room gasped. "Wait," said one of them. "He knows your maiden name?!"

Mitsuri chuckled. "My, my… I haven't gone by that name in many years. Come to think of it… I think I've seen you before, American. It was almost like I saw you in a half-remembered dream…"

James replied, "Yeah, somethin' like that."

Mitsuri then turned to her sons and told them, "Go help your father and your grandkids out for a bit with the reunion. I need to speak with this visitor in private."

"Sure thing," replied all three of her sons before they all left the room.

James then asked her, "Reunion?"

"We're having a big family reunion today," Mitsuri replied. "All ten of my children and all thirty-one of my grandchildren are here."

James' eyes widened as Mitsuri told him the number of children and grandchildren she had had in Limbo. "You have how many children and grandchildren?! How busy were you two in private?!"

"I know, I know," Mitsuri chuckled. "When me and my husband were your age, we had our fair share of fun. I guess something just turned on inside me one day after I first made love to my husband. Almost every day, we did something together like that. Even today, though we aren't as active as we used to be at seventy and sixty-eight, we can still have a good time."

James nodded. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised given you're the Love Pillar."

"Love Pillar… God, I haven't used that title in years…"

"Do you remember there being an American among the Pillars, Kanroji-san?"

Mitsuri pondered to herself briefly before replying, "I… I think I do… Yeah… I do. His name was, or at least I think his name was… It was James-"

"Colby," James replied. "James Colby. I was the Flame Pillar after Rengoku-san was killed."

"Wait… You're…"

"Yes."

"No way," Mitsuri replied with a smile. "I thought I'd never see you again, Colby-san."

"Me too," James replied. "And the reason why is because getting down to this level of the dream and then finding one specific person is almost impossible."

"Dream?"

"In the past forty-nine years you've been around," James explained. "I've been looking for you. I finally found you. I'm here to properly wake you up, Kanroji-san."

"Wake me up… Wake me up from…"

"From Limbo. Right now, we're both trapped in Limbo, Kanroji-san." James sighed as he looked around the room and then told her, "None of this is real. Well, you and I are real, but no one else here is. In reality, you're sleepin' on a train, pregnant with your first child and helpin' us out with an Extraction mission."

"Extraction… That's… You mean the Watanabe mission?"

"Yeah, that one." James then sighed and pulled out a gun, placing it between the two of them. "I made a promise as you lay dyin' that I would come down and find you, no matter what it took. I made good on my promise."

Mitsuri's eyes began to water as she remembered everything. "You… You did…" She wiped away her tears as they streamed down her wrinkled but still familiar face. "How do we get out of here?"

"We have to die again to wake up on the train," James explained as he picked up the gun. "But for this to work, ya need to fully accept that you're dreamin', Kanroji-san."

"I know…" Mitsuri then looked around and got up from the floor. "But before we go, I want to see my husband, or at least the projection of my husband, one last time."

"That's fine," James agreed as Mitsuri left the room. As she did what she had to do, James sat and waited, hoping that none of the projections would follow her back in and disrupt them.

…

Back on the second level, Hideki, Susamaru, Reiko, and Tokuhei all went over the plans that they had gotten from the bank account. As they read them over, smiles quickly broke out on all their faces. "Yep," Hideki said to the others. "These are definitely the plans for the dam project in Korea."

"Excellent," Susamaru replied. "Let's find somewhere safe to hide before we can trigger the Kick Event and wake up."

Reiko then looked behind the group and found two men racing towards them. "Uh, hey, guys… We have company!"

All four of them turned to find the two men pulling out guns and then firing on them. All of them ducked as Reiko and Susamaru returned fire with their revolvers and the latter yelled, "Get down!" As bullets flew through the air, Reiko managed to take down one of the two armed projections, causing the second to immediately run to his aid. Tokuhei took this opportunity and then shot the second armed projection, killing him.

Hideki said to the others, "Where do we hide from them?!"

Susamaru replied as she ran down the street, holstered her now empty gun, and pulled out her dual swords, "Follow me!"

Tokuhei asked her, "Did you run out of bullets?!"

"Yeah," Susamaru replied. "My swords are all I got left aside from my Blood Demon Art!"

"We got two more chasing us," Reiko replied as she turned her head around and saw two more men chasing after them. "Run faster!"

"Take the plans," Hideki then said to Susamaru as he handed the folder to her. "We need to split up!"

In disbelief, Susamaru asked, "Split up?!"

"Just do it, damn it!"

"Fine," Susamaru replied before partially undoing her haori while still holding her sword and then spawning her two extra arms to grab the folder. She then told the rest of the group, "Split up to throw them all off track! Meet me at Senso-ji before time runs out so we can initiate a Kick Event!"

"Senso-ji," Tokuhei replied as he and Reiko ran off in one direction. "Got it!"

With Hideki soon after also splitting off, Susamaru was left alone as she raced into a narrow alleyway between two buildings, clasping the folder to her chest with her lower arms as tightly as she could to squeeze through. As she made it out the other side, she heard gunshots ring out behind her and two bullets fly past her. "Fuck!" As an armed projection tried to run out of the alleyway to find her, she ambushed him and quickly cut his head off with her swords. As his body fell to the ground, Susamaru felt the ground beneath her shake, prompting her to say, "Something must have happened above us. I gotta move quickly!"

As she raced down another street, she heard a man behind her shout, "Don't let her get away with the plans!"

"Shit," she muttered. "They're still on my ass…"

"Get her!"

Susamaru, realizing she was out of options, quickly holstered her swords and jumped up onto the front porch of a building before scaling up the walls and climbing up to the roof. As she looked down, she saw three armed projections aim their guns at her. She quickly pulled herself back as they opened fire on her. Once the gunfire stopped, she looked down and saw the three of them trying to climb up towards her. "Damn it, why are you so desperate to catch me?!"

"We won't stop until you leave! You're not supposed to be here!"

"Get away!" Susamaru then ran across the roof before jumping onto another roof. As she looked back, the three men reached the roof and began to chase after her. Susamaru looked around and realized the next building in front of her was a floor higher than the one she was on, so she jumped up and clung to the wall before shimmying up to the roof. Noticing a roof access door, she forced it open with her body before running down the stairs to the third floor of the building.

As she violently pushed past two men in business suits while running past a crowded and busy office, one of the men shouted, "Hey, who the Hell are you?!"

"None of your fucking business," she shouted in response as she raced to the stairwell leading to the second floor. After racing down the stairs, she pulled out her swords as she burst into the second floor and found herself confronted by the three men, who had all ran back down to street level and then into the building she was in in record speed. "Fuck!"

"Drop the plans!"

"No!"

As one of the three men tried shooting at her, Susamaru used her swords to first deflect his shot and then to cut off his hands before kicking him to the ground. She then slashed open the throat of the second man with one of her swords just as the third man tried to hit her over the head with his pistol. Susamaru blocked him and then stabbed him in the stomach with her other sword. Finally, she stabbed the man whose hands she had cut off in the chest with both of her swords, killing him.

One of the office workers on the second floor shouted at Susamaru, "Hey, get out of here! You're an intruder!"

Another threw a cup of tea at her and shouted, "Get the Hell out of here!"

A lady who also worked at the office picked up a large typewriter and chucked it at Susamaru, who was forced to block it with her swords. The office lady shouted at her, "Get out of here! You don't belong here! Get out!"

"You gotta be kidding me…" Realizing that the projections inside the office building she had broken into were turning against her, Susamaru aimed for a window to the street level and ran full-force into it. "Fuck it!" She smashed the glass with her body and fell to the ground below with a loud thud. Still holding onto the plans with her lower arms and keeping them safe as she rolled several times, she quickly got up and began to run again, ignoring several cuts and even some pieces of glass that got stuck in her and were causing her to leave a trail of blood.

Meanwhile, Tokuhei and Reiko both were being chased by three armed men. As they ducked into a restaurant, the two of them dodged several customers and waiters as they ran into the kitchen. The three armed men simply pushed anyone standing between them and their targets out of the way. Reiko yelled as they ran into the kitchen and knocked over a cabinet to slow the three armed men down, "Look out! Coming through!" The two of them then burst through a back door as several cooks looked on in shock.

As the two of them ran down a back alleyway, Tokuhei asked Reiko, "How much longer can we outrun them?!"

"We can't do this forever," Reiko replied as she pulled out her wakizashi and ducked behind a corner. Tokuhei quickly followed her. When the three armed men raced down the same alleyway, Reiko jumped out from around the corner and stabbed all three of them in a matter of mere seconds, even cutting off the arm of one of the men as he tried to shoot her. The final man of the trio managed to get a shot off, but he missed Reiko before being stabbed in the abdomen by her.

"Holy shit," Tokuhei exclaimed in amazement. "You killed all three of them in seconds!"

"Come on," she then told him. "We have to keep moving!" The two of them then continued on their journey to Senso-ji to initiate a Kick Event and leave the dream once and for all.

Another armed projection noticed them as they ran out onto a crowded avenue. He shouted at them, "Hey! Stop! Both of you! Stop right there!"

Tokuhei shouted as he pulled out his revolver, "Get out of our God damn way!" He then shot the man twice as he tried to pull out his own gun. As the crowd of people all began running the opposite way, they slowed Reiko and Tokuhei down considerably as several of the panicking pedestrians ran into them. "Damn it!"

"We need to push forward," Reiko shouted through the throngs of distressed people. "Come on! The temple isn't too far away!"

…

Back in Limbo, Mitsuri re-entered the room after having spent the last half-hour talking to her family in the dream one last time. "They don't suspect a thing," she told him before taking a deep breath to collect herself emotionally. "Sorry for taking so long."

"It's fine," James assured her. "You did what you had to do."

"Did anyone come in here while I was gone?"

"No," James replied. "Oddly enough, no one seemed to care that I was in here at all."

"Alright… Let's do this."

James then pulled the gun back and checked it to make sure it was loaded. He then told her, "Here's how this is gonna work. I'm gonna shoot you to wake you up, and then I'm gonna shoot myself to wake me up. I made a promise to save you, and I'm gonna keep it. Are ya ready?"

"Yeah," she nodded. "I'm ready to go whenever you are."

Before going through with it, James asked her, "Do you wanna close your eyes? It's fine if you do."

"I don't need to," Mitsuri assured him with a smile. "I'm not afraid of death itself. I'm a Pillar, after all. We stare death in the face every day."

"Fair enough, I suppose…"

She then mentioned on a more lighthearted note, "Besides… There's still plenty of sweets to eat in the real world when I wake up. Me still being pregnant in reality probably explains my eating habits being so weird in this dream, and that's saying something for me."

"I guess some things never change with you," James humorously noted with a chuckle before pointing the gun at Mitsuri. "I'll make this as painless as possible." He then shot Mitsuri in the head, coating the wall behind her as well as her gray hair with her blood and killing her instantly. James then nonchalantly put the barrel of the revolver in his mouth just as one of her sons in the dream burst into the room to see what was going on and pulled the trigger.

…

In the real world, Mitsuri and James woke up within less than a second from each other in their respective train bunks. While James woke up rather calmly, Mitsuri breathed heavily from waking up from a dream as deep as the one she had been trapped in. James rubbed his eyes and looked over to see Mitsuri trying to control her breathing as the weight of coming back to reality hit her. "Hey… Kanroji-san…"

"Hah… Uh… Ugh…" Mitsuri then rubbed her forehead and looked over as she tried to get out of her bunk, but found herself to be too lethargic and lacking energy to do it. "Colby-san, uh…"

"You don't gotta get up," James told her as he walked over to her bunk. "Just relax a bit, okay? Ya ain't used to that level of dreamin', so it's gonna tire you out heavily."

"Hey… Colby-san…"

"Yeah?"

Mitsuri then smiled and told him, "Thank you…"

"Anytime," he replied with a smile as well.

"What about the others?"

"They're still in the two levels of dreamin' we intended to have," James replied. "They should be up soon, too, though. Susamaru's gonna get those Watanabe Corporation dam plans for me."

"Wow… That was… Incredible… I never knew dreams could get so in-depth and detailed."

"And to think," James replied. "All this stuff about dream infiltration spreadin' beyond just spells and Blood Demon Arts is all 'cause of a train ride just like this one."

Mitsuri nodded. "Yeah… Speaking of… Why do you think of yourself like that?"

"What do ya mean?"

"Your version of Kyojuro in your mind… He was crueler than he was in real life, especially towards you… Why did you put yourself down so much?"

"I…" James sighed as he tried and failed to get an answer. "I can't come up with an answer to why. I'm sorry."

"Ah… I see…"

"Get some rest," James then told her. "We'll talk more later."

…

On the first level, with Senjuro and Tsuyoshi rapidly running out of ammunition, the two began to grow desperate as they checked the time constantly to see how close they were to triggering the Kick Event. "Tsuyoshi-san," Senjuro asked his partner as he set up dynamite around the sleeping and/or dead bodies of those who were also in the dream. "How much longer?!"

"About thirty seconds," he replied.

"How many more of those projections are out there trying to kill us?"

"There's a few more coming," he replied as he reloaded his rifle. "I'm down to my last rifle bullets, Senjuro!"

"Shit," he muttered to himself. "Thirty seconds… Those thirty seconds better come fast…"

…

On the second level, everyone had managed to make it to Senso-ji on time. Having earlier planned the Kick Event, Susamaru pulled out a book of matches as everyone stood under the temple and looked up at the well-constructed building. She said to herself with a sigh, "I can't believe I'm gonna do this to a temple this beautiful…"

"It's only in a dream," Hideki pointed out.

"Fair enough," she replied before striking a pair of matches and then throwing them subtly at the base of the Hozomon, or the Treasure-House Gate. As they slowly caught the wood of the gate on fire thanks to some paper scraps that were left there by Hideki, she then walked over to another part of the gate and did the same, having been given some papers by Hideki before doing so.

Tokuhei said to Reiko, "I hope this doesn't affect us in the real world in terms of where we're going after we die."

"I know I'm probably gonna go to Hell for a while after I die," Reiko admitted. "So this doesn't really make a difference to me."

Amazingly, none of the other visitors to the temple managed to catch Susamaru lighting the Hozomon on fire at all. Once she walked back over to the group, someone shouted among the crowd, "Hey, the gate's on fire! Look!"

"Holy fuck," said another man in shock. "Someone call the fire department! Get some water buckets! Hurry!"

What no one in the crowd realized until it was too late was that Susamaru had lit four fires in four different spots all around the gate. Due to the wooden construction of the Hozomon, it did not take long for flames to spread up the sides of the structure. As everyone else either ran off to get help or ran away from the rapidly-growing fire, the entire group of four continued to stand underneath the gate. Susamaru said to the group, "It'll collapse on us eventually. That should be enough to wake us up when timed correctly with the Kick Event on the first level."

"We're rapidly approaching the end," Reiko said as she looked at a pocket watch she had been using to keep track of time.

"I can help with that," Susamaru replied before spawning her extra arms and then spawning two temari balls.

Hideki, shocked to see Susamaru do something such as that, asked her, "Wait, what the fuck?! How did you do that?"

"You noticed this," Susamaru pointed out. "But you never bothered to comment on how Reiko looks?"

Hideki paused before admitting, "Fair point. I guess anything really can happen in a dream."

Susamaru then threw both of the temari balls at the structure to help weaken it further now that the temple was beginning to clear itself out of visitors. As they blasted through the wooden structure, they severely damaged the supports and caused parts of the gate to begin to fall. To finish the job, she spawned two more and threw them as well. As the gate began to finally crumble and totally collapse, she yelled, "Here we go!"

…

On the first level, as Tsuyoshi wrestled with an armed projection and tried to battle him with his sword, Senjuro looked at a clock in the office and yelled out, "It's time!"

Tsuyoshi yelled back as he decapitated the armed projection after winning the struggle against him, "What's up?!"

"It's time, Tsuyoshi! Get in here!"

Tsuyoshi then ran into the office and asked, "Is the bomb ready to go?!"

"Yep," Senjuro replied.

"Then let's blow this place up and get the fuck outta here!"

"Setting the bomb off in five, four, three, two, one!" As soon as he said one, he activated the dynamite bomb, completely obliterating the office and killing everyone inside. With this, the dream was finally over, and everyone would now be able to wake up in the real world. Even with the difficulties experienced, they had managed to achieve their goal of obtaining the plans for Hideki's dam project thanks to Susamaru taking over for James.

…

February 26, 1914

As everyone got off the train early in the morning, Hideki, none the wiser to what had truly happened, said goodbye to the crew. "Thank you for that last night," he told them all. "I'll be sure to take this whole breaking into dreams thing a lot more seriously now."

"Thank you very much," James replied with a bow. "It's my job."

"You guys certainly know your stuff," he replied before pulling out his wallet and handing James several yen notes. "Here's some cash. Consider it a tip for a job well done."

"Thank you," James replied. "And again, I'm sorry for the loss of your father."

Hideki bowed and then extended a hand, which James politely shook. "Thank you for your kind words, American."

As Hideki walked away from them for the last time, James counted the money and said, "Convenient. He gave us three hundred and fifty yen. Fifty for each of us, I assume."

As he handed each person fifty yen, Mitsuri asked him, "So are we gonna keep this a secret from the others?"

"Just to be safe, yeah," Susamaru nodded.

As the others all began to talk to each other, James was busy putting his fifty yen away in his own wallet when Senjuro walked up to him and asked him, "Hey, James-san, can I speak to you alone?"

"What's up?"

"It's about my brother," he confirmed. "Come on."

…

As the two of them stood alone in a secluded part of the train station, Senjuro explained to him, "Me and Mitsuri-san talked after we woke up about what happened."

"She did, huh?" James had a feeling about what they had talked about, but did not know for sure just yet. "What did… What did she have to say?"

Senjuro sighed and explained, "She told me everything, James-san. She told me about the battle with the projection of my brother and what that projection said about you."

James' fears were now confirmed with that statement. "So she did…"

"She was pretty scared," Senjuro added. "And I'm pretty scared, too. Does Susamaru-san know about any of this?"

James admitted, "I haven't told her a thing. I don't wanna worry her when she's pregnant."

"I think she deserves to know," Senjuro replied. "She was my brother's Tsuguko once, too."

"Maybe… Yeah…"

"I know my brother meant a lot to you, and he still does, but… You can't put yourself down like this." James remained silent as he looked away from Senjuro. "Look at me, please."

"I… Um…"

Senjuro knew he had to get to the root of the problem. "You blame yourself for my brother's death, don't you?"

Those words hit James hard mentally. What he did not notice was that both Mitsuri and Susamaru were standing nearby and silently listening to them. Mitsuri looked down and wiped away some tears of her own upon hearing Senjuro say such a thing to James. "Colby-san, why?"

Susamaru took a deep breath and asked her, "So that's what he's been hiding?"

"I'm afraid so…"

"Damn it…" Feeling bad for her fiancé, she said with frustration, "I could have helped him if he only just told me…"

As James tried to formulate a denial, he replied to Senjuro with, "No, I-"

"Bullshit," Senjuro interrupted him with. "You do. I can see it in your eyes. You think that Rengoku Kyojuro's blood is on your hands."

"Senjuro…"

"I know what it's like to blame yourself for something out of your control," Senjuro told him. "I would blame myself and my own failures in swordplay for why my father became an alcoholic. Eventually, one day, my brother pulled me aside and told me I needed to stop blaming myself for things that weren't under my control. He said I would only ever put myself down if I kept doing that."

"I bet he did…"

"Well," he then told him as he stepped closer to him. "James-san… About my brother's death… About all of this shit… It's not your fault."

"I know."

"Look at me, James-san." Senjuro then locked eyes with him. "It's not your fault. The only person at fault is the one who killed my brother. Not you."

"No shit…"

"It's not your fault, James-san."

"I know that."

"It's not your fault."

James was getting confused as to why Senjuro kept repeating himself. "I know…"

"No, you don't. It's not your fault, James."

"I know, okay?"

"It's not your fault."

Getting annoyed and also slightly angry, James replied, "I know, alright. Back up."

"It's not your fault…. It's not your fault."

"Don't fuck with me like this, Senjuro."

"I'm not. It's not your fault."

This time, James replied by pushing Senjuro away from him. "Stop fuckin' with me, God damn it!" By now, tears began to pour down his face. "I get it! Don't you fuck with me on this! Not you!"

"It's not your fault."

Finally, James could no longer take it. He broke down and wrapped his arms around Senjuro as he wept into his shoulder. "Why… Oh no… Why… I'm so sorry, Senjuro… I tried…"

Senjuro returned the hug and smiled, telling him, "It's okay, James."

"I tried to save him… I'm so sorry…"

"It's not your fault, James."

James exclaimed as he continued to Tracey, "God damn it… Fuck that God damn coward who killed him!"

"Yeah," Senjuro replied as he tightened his grip on James. "Fuck him."

Mitsuri and Susamaru, the two of them deciding that now was the best time to reveal themselves to James, also walked over as they saw the two of them hug it out. The former said, "I see you two are finally talking about it."

Susamaru then also added with a more gentle tone of voice than before when she was frustrated, "James, you didn't have to hide that from me."

"Come here," James said as he turned to face her, tears still streaming down his face. "Come here…"

Mitsuri and Susamaru then hugged both of them, comforting James as well as the former told him, "I know Senjuro already said this too many times to count, but it really wasn't your fault, Colby-san."

"My love, it wasn't your fault," Susamaru added. "We're gonna get through this together, okay?"

Senjuro then told James, "My dad hasn't said this to you before, but… He considers you an excellent Pillar."

James continued to cry as the three of them patted him on the back. "Thank you… Thank you all so much…" The mission the group had embarked on started out as a simple extraction mission, but by the end, it had transformed into much more than that. When they all got home, they knew that from then on, nothing would be the same. For James in particular, he began to finally move on and accept himself as the Flame Pillar on his own merits rather than constantly comparing himself to Kyojuro. Even with many bumps in the road, or rather bumps on the train tracks, the mission turned out to be a success in more ways than one.