James and the mayor of the village had volunteered to stay behind and hold off the demons that came to attack it as Susamaru and Kyojuro quickly escorted the villagers to all the boats they owned, as well as the larger boat the three of them had rented in their journey to the island.
As citizens began moving to the port, James and the mayor were in the post office of the village, which had the only telephone and telegraph on the island. As the postmaster made a phone call to the mainland asking for additional ships, the four village policemen loaded their guns. One of them asked James, "What brought you to Japan?"
"My wife was murdered a few years ago," James explained. "And I think the demon who did it came from here. I've fought demons while being one myself for 50 years. I'm sick of fightin' abroad in America. I want to take it to the heart of Kibutsuji Muzan's area of operations, right here in Japan."
"The American demons are so very different from the ones here," the mayor explained to the four of them. "They can blend in with humans easier since they can walk in the sunlight, though they're far more vulnerable in the daytime."
"He's right," James replied as he drew his revolver. "Just watch." He then aimed the barrel of the gun at his hand and pulled the trigger, shooting himself and lodging a bullet in the wooden floor. "Fuck," he exclaimed in pain. "God fuckin' damn it!" The startled policemen, mayor, and the postmaster then watched in amazement as his wound began to heal itself. "I can't do that durin' the day. If I don't control the bleedin', I'll probably bleed out before nightfall comes if I'm shot before noon. At night, it hurts like a motherfucker, but it heals up pretty fast."
"So that's why you can only cut a demon's head off," another police officer said.
"Or blow their head off with a cannon or gun," James added. "That does the trick too. As long as y'all destroy the head somehow with it, any weapon will do the trick."
…
After James and the mayor sent the message out, Kyojuro and Susamaru were helping several small children board the ship they came in on. In total, with the boats they had already, they'd be able to transport 100 of the 600 villagers. Priority was given to women and children first. As Susamaru helped two young girls board the boat, Kyojuro loaded up a flare gun given to him by one of the villagers and fired off a red flare into the sky in the hopes that a passing ship would see it and aid them. As the flare flew into the air and left a bright red streak, he told Susamaru, "I'm gonna fire off a few more of these! Hopefully, a ship sees us!"
"I sure hope so," she replied as she ran back to him. "Our ship is full. We can't fit anyone else on it."
"Shit," he muttered as he loaded up a second round into the flare gun. "How long has it been since the distress signal was sent out?"
"I think about ten minutes ago," she replied before Kyojuro aimed his flare gun again up at the sky and fired a second round. "Our ship has a radio telegraph, too, so the guy who owns it is sending out his own message now. He sent out CQD and SOS just in case."
"Just like they did on the Titanic," he replied. He then half-jokingly added, "Maybe a British ship will answer up." He then fired a third flare into the sky.
Then, one of the ship hands shouted down to the two of them, yelling, "We have a passenger ship on the way! They'll be here in about ten minutes! They can take about 200 people! We also have a cargo ship that can take fifty more that's coming in a few minutes that heard the distress signal from the post office!"
"I hope we can hold on for ten more minutes," Kyojuro remarked, growing more anxious. "As soon as we load up the last people on our ship, we're leaving."
Susamaru immediately protested, "What about James?"
Then, all of them heard a rumbling sound in the distance, as well as shouting and gunshots. As they looked to the road leading to the small port the village had, the sounds became slowly louder as they approached the evacuating civilians. In response, a few small fishing boats began to speed away from the island. "Oh shit," they all heard James shout in the background up the road. "I ran outta bullets and there's still like ten of 'em left!"
Susamaru nodded softly to herself and turned to Kyojuro, her disagreement in opinion gone. "Nevermind. Let's get the fuck outta here!"
As James, the mayor, the four village policemen, and a few villagers who volunteered to stay behind and fight ran to the port, the ten demons left standing were hot on their trail. James quickly drew his sword as he told the cops, "You guys keep runnin'! I'm gonna attack 'em!"
"You don't have to fucking tell me twice," said the police chief, who kept running with the others as James stopped and they held his ground as he took a deep breath.
He closed his eyes, and then shouted into the night sky, "Breath of Flames, Fourth Form: Blooming Flame Undulation!" He then spun his sword in a circular motion, deflecting all the demons as they tried to dogpile onto him to go past him. In the process, he also decapitated two of them, their heads flying into the air and their blood coating James' clothing even more than the demons he had already killed had done. "Now, time for another! Breath of Flames, Fifth Form: Flame Tiger!" In this second attack, his slashes took the form of a large tiger-like animal as his sword flew wildly in the air, striking down a third and fourth demon.
As Kyojuro watched from the port, he thought to himself, "I thought it would be difficult for him since he's used to hunting demons with guns, but he's one of my fastest learners yet! James Colby, keep this up, and you will be the Flame Pillar one day for sure!"
"Breath of Flames, Third Form," he then declared for his third attack. "Blue Flames!" In this attack, his sword moved so fast that the normally orange and yellow glow it gave off instead became blue from the high heat. This was able to kill a fifth demon, his head disintegrating upon impact due to how hard his neck was struck.
"Now there's five of us," one of the demons spat at James. "You've come far, traitor, but this is where you meet your end!" James, who was beginning to tire out from using three forms of the Breath of Flames in a row, spat on the ground.
Then, an unknown voice appeared from behind James. "Breath of Stone, Serpentinite Bipolar!" Out of nowhere, a man with an axe and flail barreled towards the demons and struck two of them at once, killing one and seriously injuring the other. As the man's weapons rested on the ground after the attack, James was able to see that they belonged to a man in his forties. "Don't mind me, young man! Just an ex-Demon Slayer with the Breath of Stone is all!"
"Breath of Stone?! That's just like Pillar Himejima!" James was amazed to see another person use Gyomei's weaponry. "More people use non-sword weapons here?"
"Most Breath of Stone users use flails and axes," the man explained. "Himejima-sama is just the best at it!"
Kyojuro then ran up to the scene, wondering what was going on. "James, what's up?! Who's this?!"
"I'm Uzaki Go," the older man explained as he then killed a seventh demon. "I'm a retired slayer! I've been out for about 12 years now, but I still got some fight left in me!" It was right about now that both James and Kyojuro noticed that the man had an eyepatch and was missing fingers on his right hand, indicating that he had been injured in the line of duty. "I'll fight these fuckers off! You guys get everyone to safety!"
James asked him, "What about you?"
"Don't mind me," Go replied. "I lost my family to these pieces of shit! This is vengeance, plain and fucking simple!" He then charged at the three remaining demons, yelling at them, "Die, motherfuckers! Die!"
As he attacked, James and Kyojuro ran for the docks, realizing they had to leave the island now. Kyojuro told him as they ran, "You did good today! I'm proud of you, Colby-san!"
"No shit," he replied as they both reached the docks and ran to their ship. "That means a lot, sir! Thank you!" As they boarded the ship, they saw that the ten demons they thought were left were in fact not the only ones left, as a second group of about five demons emerged from another clearing in the forest surrounding the docks, causing the citizens still waiting for a ship to immediately panic and throw whatever blades they had at them. The village police officers also opened fire with what was left of their ammunition to try to drive them back.
"I'll take care of them," Susamaru yelled as she then ran to the exit port of the ship. However, just before she reached it, James grabbed her and yanked her back in by her hand before pulling her in and kissing her. As his eyes closed, her eyes remained wide open for several seconds out of shock before they closed as well.
Once the couple split, James finally told her the answer she had been looking for ever since she had kissed him the same night. No longer holding back, he told her, "Susamaru-chan, I love you!"
"I know," she quickly told him before taking a deep breath and running off the ship to fulfill her mission.
As she ran off to fight her own kind, Kyojuro smiled, thinking to himself, "I had a feeling love would blossom between them one day. I didn't expect it so soon, though."
"Let's go fuckers," she yelled out in confidence as she ripped her haori and uniform top off and spawned her extra arms, practically high off of her feelings of love for James being returned. "I can do this all night if you want me to!"
…
May 25, 1913
Three days later, at the Butterfly Estate, the sounds of a bed rustling in the middle of the night and moaning from James' room indicated that he and Susamaru had taken their relationship to the next level already. As the two finished having sex with each other, James collapsed onto Susamaru, the two of them completely naked as they both caught their breath from the intense lovemaking session. "I… I haven't had that in so long," James said to her before the two shared a kiss to commemorate the moment.
After they split, Susamaru chuckled and told him, "I haven't had it at all before tonight. Most demons here never think of having sex at all since they see no point due to Muzan's infertility curse."
"Even if you were permanently infertile," James assured her. "There's no way I wouldn't fuck you. You're the kind of woman that excites me."
Susamaru giggled at his dirty talk. "Are you trying to go again? Your words are arousing."
"I can go again," James replied with a smile. "Alice taught me how to, and with Julia I refined it."
Then, just as the two shared a kiss, they heard the door to their bedroom open. Immediately, both paused and looked to their unannounced visitor, blushes immediately enveloping their faces. Susamaru said to the visitor, "What… Why did you just open the door?!"
Inosuke, boar head and all, asked both of them in a completely and comically serious tone, "Why are you two mating?"
"Mating?" James was at a loss for words for the term Inosuke used for sex. "Oh my God…"
"Because we love each other," Susamaru told him. "Now, please, close the door, Hashibira-san, and let us continue."
"I'm just wondering," Inosuke replied with a shrug as he shut the door. "That's all."
Susamaru looked to the door and then looked back to her boyfriend, completely confused by what had just transpired. "What the fuck?"
