April 15, 1913

Mukago woke up in an unfamiliar house, stirring awake in the middle of the night and seeing a small bedside table next to her with an empty syringe. She rubbed her eyes and found a mirror on the table, grabbing it and looking at herself. She still looked the same, and nothing had happened to her physically. "What the fuck happened last night?"

"I happened," Muichiro replied to her, causing her to yelp in fright as she did not realize he was in the same room. "Mukago is your name, right?"

"Who… Who the Hell are you?!" She was afraid the Mist Pillar was going to kill her or torture her, having been fed propaganda by Muzan that all demons captured by the Demon Slayer Corps alive were tortured endlessly. "Don't torture me because you captured me! I beg of you!"

Muichiro sighed. "I don't know what Muzan told you, but we don't torture demons we capture. Besides, you weren't captured. You were freed."

"Freed from what?"

"Say Muzan's name and find out," Muichiro instructed her.

"I'll get killed if I say Kibutsuji-sama's na-!" She then gasped and covered her mouth, thinking she had screwed herself over. "Oh no… I'm gonna die…"

"No," Muichiro refuted as he grabbed the syringe from the table. "You won't. We broke Muzan's Curse on you, so you're with us now. Also, we've been injecting you with blood from an American demon, so hopefully after a while, you should be able to walk in the sun, albeit you can't heal yourself or use your Blood Demon Art until nightfall." His explanation was rather dry-sounding, having little emotion behind it. "You're free to hate on your former master all you want."

"Wait," Mukago said as she got up out of bed. "I'm not under… Holy shit…" The world she had known for so long was dead, and now, the fact that she was free was overwhelming. "I'm free," she thought to herself. "I'm free… I'm free at last! Thank God, I am free at last!" She never thought this day would be possible, and as the realization hit her. She ran up to Muichiro and wrapped her arms around him, catching the Mist Pillar completely off-guard. "Thank you… Thank you…"

Muichiro was at a loss for words as Mukago began to actually cry, having been overcome by her emotions. After a few seconds, he awkwardly returned the hug, patting her on the back and the shoulder. "Uh… You're welcome?"

"You have no idea what it's been like," Mukago confessed to him, free to air out all she had kept hidden from even her thoughts, as Muzan was so paranoid about a rebellion against him he intruded in the thoughts of his own underlings. "It's been 126 years since I've been free. I spent all that time as a slave to Muzan…"

"She's really emotional," Muichiro noted to himself in his inner thoughts. "Just what did Muzan do to her to make her so relieved to be freed from his control?"

Back in the forest, in the middle of the day, James and Susamaru ate a hare they had hunted, also drinking drops of its blood. As Susamaru put down a half-eaten leg of the hare, James noticed she had a small blood stain on her cheek. "Hey, you got a stain on your face."

"Eh?" Susamaru then wiped the wrong side of her face to try to get it.

"Right here," James replied before wiping the correct side of her face and getting the stain off. "Got it for ya." The sudden feel of his fingers against her cheek made her blush, causing James to chuckle. "Well that takes care of that."

"Hey," she then asked him. "Can… Can you tell me more about what happened to Ezekiel, if you want to?"

"I don't mind," James replied to her. "The year was 1872, and we had been living together for 9 years. I had recently also began a relationship with a black woman named Alice, who had previously been a slave prior to the abolition of slavery in 1865. In 1872, she was now 20, and we had taken her in three years prior after her parents were murdered…"

September 19, 1872

"Alice, Jack," Ezekiel called out to her as the two of them were ready to go demon-hunting in the middle of the night. "Be sure to be careful if you go into town. They don't got as many soldiers from the army there anymore, so they've been seein' a rise in those Klan folk. They don't take too kindly to seein' a white man with a negro woman." He was an older man, of about 55, who bore rather dark skin, greying hair, and a short beard. His hands bore the signs of a life that had seen many, many years of hard labor as a slave, and a small scar on his face indicated an incident where his former master had struck him when he was younger.

"We know," Alice replied to him. She bore moderately dark skin and black hair tied in a ponytail. "Be safe, Zeke." She then turned back to James as they began to walk. "Well, I suppose it's better than the other way around, right?"

James replied to her, "A white woman with a negro? You might as well dig your own grave already down here. It sucks what those poor bastards gotta put up with."

"You can say that again!"

As they continued to walk down a dirt path that led from Ezekiel's rather isolated house around 8 at night, James asked her, "So, I gotta ask you, Alice."

"Ask me what?" Alice seemed a bit on edge as a result of the question, and stopped in the middle of the road. "Is it about us?"

"Yeah," James confirmed to her. "We've been… You know, havin' relations… Fuck it, I'm just gonna say it. We've been havin' sex for a year now, and I need to ask you if you've been feelin' any different recently?"

"As if I'm expectin'?" Alice knew exactly what James was going for. "Jack, listen to me, I'm not. You and I have been takin' the necessary steps to make sure we don't do that. I'd tell you if I was gonna have your child."

James sighed. "Yeah, it's that. Look, if it comes down to it, what are we gonna do?"

"I wanna run," Alice simply replied to him. "Run away as far from Georgia as possible. Maybe we could go to Minnesota since you came from there. I don't wanna raise a child in a state like this, especially not one of mixed blood." She was adamant in her beliefs and her desire to leave to protect her hypothetical child. "I wanna be able to love you without someone breathin' down our necks who wants to beat us up at best and hang us from a tree at worst."

James could not argue with what she was proposing, since she was 100% right in regards to what would most likely happen to them if they had children in Georgia. "I… I'm not even gonna bother arguing against that, because you're right, Alice." He then hugged her. "If you become pregnant, we'll leave. I can find my old family in Minnesota. They'll be shocked to see I'm alive, but they'll be overjoyed to see me." He then gave her a quick peck on her cheek and then on her lips. "No matter what, I'm with you, alright?"

"I know," Alice replied to him. "After that five month trip from February to June, I never want to be separated from you again."

Two hours later

Alice and James were returning from killing a demon together just outside of town when they noticed fresh footprints going towards Ezekiel's cabin in the woods. As they inspected them further, they found that they seemed to be of a group of people. Because the path was rarely traveled, both of them immediately got suspicious. "This ain't good," Alice remarked to her boyfriend. "Zeke's in trouble!" A feeling of dread and urgency swept over them both.

"Fuckin' Christ," James replied as they both sprinted for Ezekiel's cabin. "Don't tell me people went to attack 'em!" As they ran as fast as they could, James thought to himself, "For the love of God, don't let this be the Ku Klux Klan! Do NOT let this be the Ku Klux Klan! They've been out for Zeke's blood for several years!"

"Jack," Alice then told him. "Get ready for a fight!"

"You got it," he replied as he quickly pulled out and cocked his revolver, ready to confront anyone who was not supposed to be at Ezekiel's cabin. "Let's just pray we ain't too late!"

However, five minutes later, as they approached the cabin, they saw a bright orange and yellow glow emerge from the forest. "No! NO!" Alice immediately realized that Ezekiel's cabin was in flames, and feared that the cabin James had built was also on fire as well. As both of them emerged from the path, they saw that to their relief, James' cabin was fine. Then, their relief turned to horror when they looked over to a group of people standing near a tree. "Over there! They… They fuckin' lynched Zeke!"

A crowd of six masked individuals stood around the tree as the body of Ezekiel dangled from a branch, hanged with a noose. He had also been badly beaten as evidenced by bruises on his face and a bloody nose. The fire from Ezekiel's cabin lit up the night sky as the leader of the six attackers turned to Alice and James. "Well, if it ain't the other nigger and that nigger-lover of her's!"

James stood in shock, falling to his knees as he froze. Meanwhile, Alice pulled his revolver and yelled, forcing back her tears as she screamed, "YOU MONSTERS! YOU LYNCHED HIM, AND FOR WHAT?!"

"He didn't respect the norms of society," the Klan leader explained to her, talking to her as if she was an angry immature child. "It's very simple, child. Us white men are at the very top, and nothin' no carpetbagger nor scalawag can do will force niggers out of the very bottom. Now, I'd advise you to put that gun down, miss, and we'll let you go."

"I'd rather die than let you get away!"

"Alice, no!" James tried to stop her from going on her rampage, but it was too late.

Alice fired multiple shots, striking and killing two of the Klansmen, before they returned fire with rifles, striking her down where she stood. Alice screamed as she was hit, and as she collapsed, the leader of the Klansmen shouted, "Your little friend killed three of us already before we hanged 'em! We were just gonna burn his shit and tell 'em to fuck off and leave, but he decided to not play nice. You niggers really like to choose poorly, huh? That's what happens when you're uppity and try to defy us, fuckers!"

James ran to his girlfriend's side and held her in his arms. "Alice, please, speak to me!" He began to cry, tears falling from his face and onto her's. "Don't leave me. I've lost enough already! I can't lose you!"

"James," Alice referred to him by his actual name instead of Jack. "I love you… And… I did bear a child…"

James was shocked to hear those words from her. Immediately, he froze up again. "You… What…"

"I was pregnant when I left in February," she told him as she continued to die in his arms. "I gave birth in June… I didn't want to raise a child in Georgia. She's in a good place, James, I swear… She'll be free from the trouble we're in now. Free from the Klan, free from the legacy of our enslavement, free from… Free from those who would hate us. I'm sorry I didn't tell you then. I should have…"

"Don't leave me," James begged of her. "Come on, stay alive!" However, his pleas went unheard, as Alice passed away in his arms, the blood loss and trauma from being shot simply being too much for her body to handle. "Alice, wake up… Wake the fuck up, Alice! FUCKIN' HELL, ALICE, WAKE UP!" He tried shaking her body, but that did not work either. "ALICE! ALICE!" He then threw her body to the ground as he stood up, rage building inside him as he slowly began to let go of his humanistic side and embrace his demonic side.

The Klan leader called out to James, "What are y'all still doin' here? We're gonna burn your cabin next once we're done with that uppity nigger's! You may have had relations with a negress, but we'll let ya go if you just ignore what happened here tonight! Now shoo!"

James turned around and faced the remaining four klansmen, revolver and knife in hand. His teeth had sharpened considerably, and his eyes had changed to become more cat-like, with dilated pupils and an expression that screamed homicidal rage. "I'm gonna kill every last one of you… And then… I'LL FEED ON ALL OF YOU!" He emptied his revolver out by firing six shots, and despite being hit multiple times with bullets from the Klansmen, he refused to back down, his wounds healing on their own much to their disbelief.

One of them shouted as he fell to one knee from being shot, "What the fuck is that thing?! He shruggin' off bulle-!" James ended his life with a second bullet to the head, splattering his brains all over the leader of the group.

A second klansman tried to get away by running past him, but James caught him by his shirt and stabbed his thrice in the neck and back before ripping a piece of his shoulder off with his teeth and eating the skin and meat that came off. The leader of the group shouted, "What the fuck are y'all standin' 'round for?! Kill the damn monster!"

The third klansman and the leader tried reloading their rifles as James let out a primal scream of vitriolic rage, charging directly at them and ripping their rifles out of their hands before they could reload them fully. "DIE! DIE, DIE, DIE!" James then stabbed both of them several times, causing them to fall to the ground as they struggled with James. In the struggle, James bit into the Klan leader's face, ripping off most of it and eating it as he bashed his now skinless head in with his fists. "BURN IN HELL! BECOME MY SUSTENANCE! CEASE TO WALK AMONG THE LIVIN'!"

Screams echoed through the air as James continued to stab and eat all four of the Klansmen even past their deaths, and even ate the five who had been killed earlier, for a full two hours. By the end, he collapsed from exhaustion, and the fire burned itself out, sparing James' cabin and all that was inside it. Ezekiel still hung from a tree, however, dead from strangulation, and his cabin was now a pile of ash.

Present Day

"The next day," James concluded the story to Susamaru. "I packed up everything I could and left Georgia. I have no clue where my child with Alice went, and despite many years of searching, I could not locate her. She's a human, so now, she'd be 41 years old." He wiped away tears from his face as he thought of her, despite having never seen her. "God, I hope she's happy and has a good life, wherever she is."

Susamaru hugged him from the side, deeply saddened by the story. "I'm so sorry to hear of that… It almost makes my own troubles seem so minuscule."

"You're fine," James corrected her. "I hate it when people try to play games with how tragic their lives are. I don't tear people down if they had a past that may not have been as harsh as mine." He then took a deep breath as he collected himself again. "I swear that I'll find my daughter one day. I just wish she would have been able to meet my children with Julia before they were all killed."

"I'll help you," Susamaru pledged to him. "I fight alongside you, right? This is merely an extension of my mission to help you."

James smiled, glad to hear she was willing to help. "Thanks. That means a lot to me."

April 18, 1913

Mukago stuck her arm out as Muichiro applied the sun spot test on her in his basement. As Muichiro manipulates several mirrors to apply a very small ray of sun onto her arm, Mukago told him, "Yeah, it's starting to burn a bit. Not as bad as before, though." Once smoke started appearing from the small mark, Muichiro stopped. "Ouch, shit…"

"I'm surprised it's taking this long," Muichiro said to her. "We only got two more samples of James' blood before we're out and we have to wait for him to come back from Mount Fujikasane."

"I really don't want to wait another 12 days," Mukago remarked to him. "It sucks being cooped up in here."

"Better that than with Muzan," Muichiro added.

"True," she admitted. "You know, Tokito-san, you guys are actually alright. I always thought the Demon Slayer Corps was full of people who got off on the suffering of others, but I know now that that's just not true."

Muichiro seemed to ignore her, instead staring at a spot on the ceiling. "Hmmm… That's odd…" In his head, he thought to himself, "I should probably fix that stain on the ceiling. I wonder how it got all the way up there…"

Mukago sighed. "He's staring off again," she thought to herself. "I know one way I can get his attention." She then smiled and whistled in his direction. "Hey, Tokito-san!" As he looked over, she very suddenly pulled up her shirt, which had been given to her by Muichiro, and pulled it over her head before unclipping her bra, exposing her chest to him. "Now, do I have your attention?"

The Mist Pillar blushed as he looked directly at her. "Uh… Why did you expose yourself to me?"

Mukago then got up out of her bed and approached him. "Listen, I can give you something in return for what you've done."

Muichiro, knowing what she meant due to her telling him her past a few days prior, replied to her, "You're trying to offer sex to me? So soon, too?"

"Not the whole thing," Mukago seductively told him. "No, no, no… Just a touch. You've wanted to feel a girl's touch before, haven't you? You're at that age when all boys think about it so much."

Muichiro knew what she was trying to do, but was debating seriously on whether or not to accept it. "She told me she was a prostitute for several years before she was turned into a demon," Muichiro thought to himself. "And that she offered sex to most of the Upper Moons, who usually accepted, and to Muzan. Does she see this as justified due to her past?" He then took a deep breath. "Well, I mean," he said to her. "We can do some stuff, I guess? What do you have in mind?"

As Mukago moved her hands down to his belt, she told him, "We can use our hands, and maybe if you do something for me, I can use my mouth. Does that sound like a good trade off?"

The Mist Pillar could no longer take the pressure, and relented as his cheeks reddened. "Yes, yes it does. Let's get this over with."

Later that night, James sat on the branches of a tree and looked around with the scope of his rifle while Susamaru slept at the foot of the tree below. If he saw any demons in his scope, he would snipe them as far away from him as possible. Since his bullets were loaded with wisteria, he made sure to shoot them at least twice to get the proper poisoning effect. As James scanned a clearing, he saw a shape move in the darkness and fired two shots in quick succession. "I think I got it," he muttered to himself.

Susamaru was awakened by the gunshots and looked up, asking him, "Did you get something?"

"Possibly," James remarked to her. "Not sure. I can't really see for shit due to the darkness. You know, this mountaintop really is beautiful, even with all the demons the corps captured here being let loose inside it. We'll have to inspect that area I shot at later. It looks like a clearin' in the trees of some sort."

"I can run out and take a look now," Susamaru replied as she stood up and grabbed her shotgun. "I'll be fine, James. If I don't come back in half an hour, you'll know where to look."

"Sounds good to me. I'll be right here." He then lowered his rifle, deciding to take a nap in the tree. "This forest really is somethin' to look at," he thought to himself. "I could easily fall asleep listenin' to the sounds of the animals in here…"