July 6, 1913

James was assessing Nezuko once again in the basement of the Butterfly Estate, having caught wind of Tanjiro's injection of his blood into her. She again had her muzzle on, but it was clear that she was improving. "Her speaking has improved, right?"

"Yeah," Tanjiro acknowledged. "She can't form completely correct sentences yet, but she's getting there."

"Have ya done the sunlight rest on her yet?"

"No," Tanjiro shook his head. "I don't want to risk anything."

"I can use my mirrors," James replied as he got up and grabbed two small mirrors from a corner of the room. "This will focus an incredibly small ray of sunlight onto a small piece of her skin, like on her arm. If it starts to burn, I can quickly aim the mirrors away without causing permanent damage." After positioning one mirror near a closed basement window, he pointed it out and instructed Tanjiro, "Open up that one window."

"Got it," Tanjiro replied as he priced open the shutters. Nezuko was on edge, fearing what would happen to her. "Nezuko, don't be afraid. James won't let the sun kill you."

"Lemme just aim this right here," James then said as he aimed the second mirror just right and directed a small beam of sunlight onto Nezuko's right arm. The young girl closed her eyes, expecting the worst, but when the beam hit her arm, she initially didn't feel anything. However, after about ten seconds, she felt a slight burning sensation and winced in pain slightly. Immediately, James directed the mirror away from her arm and told Tanjiro, "Close the window. We got a result. She's greatly improved, but she'll need a bit more of my blood. I'll get you a few more vials and needles tomorrow."

Encouraged by the progress, Tanjiro beamed to his sister, "Hear that, Nezuko? You're doing great!"

Then, suddenly, Shinobu essentially barreled down the stairs to the basement, ignoring the three of them before she locked herself in a storage room. Kanao quickly trailed behind her, only to stop at the door as she heard Shinobu begin to cry. Kanao flipped a coin, checked which side it landed on, and then tried knocking on the door, asking her, "Shinobu-sama, come out, please."

Several Minutes Earlier, Upstairs

"No, no, no," Aoi yelled out as she and Shinobu tried desperately to revive a slayer who had been brought in the day before with injuries from a mission who had suddenly gone into cardiac arrest. They tried to use kappo, a martial arts method of resuscitation that was at the time considered the most advanced method out there, but it was not working despite them striking multiple parts of the body. "Wake up! Wake the fuck up! What the Hell happened?!"

"It was that injection," Shinobu yelled out as she realized the battle to save the slayer's life was lost. "We killed him! We fucking killed him, God damn it!" She then threw a stool carrying medical supplies at a wall in frustration. "No! Why?! It's our fault, Aoi! We made this mistake! He would have lived if we didn't give him that fucking injection!" She then wiped her forehead of sweat and looked over the body as Aoi quietly placed the covers of the bed over the body of the now-deceased slayer. "Fucking Hell, we're so screwed. We are so screwed."

"Shinobu-sama," Kanao then called out as she ran in. "What happened?!"

"That slayer we brought in yesterday just died," Aoi told her, downtrodden and full of fear from the realization that she and Shinobu had killed a patient that would have lived otherwise. "We fucked up. We really fucked up this time, Kanao-chan."

Giyu also ran in, visiting that day to receive some supplies. "Kocho, what happened?"

"Go away, Tomioka-san," Shinobu sternly told him in an uncharacteristically angry tone of voice. "I need to be alone." As Giyu stood there, at a loss for words, she repeated her demand. "Did I fucking stutter? Get the fuck out of here!" She then pushed her way through Giyu and Kanao and stormed towards the basement.

Kanao shook her head and muttered to herself, "What the fuck… I'm gonna go talk to her."

Aoi and Giyu joined Kanao outside the door as James, Tanjiro, and Nezuko all watched. Giyu asked Shinobu from outside the door, once again deeply concerned for her, "Kocho, open the door. Your little sisters are really concerned about you. I know you've been having a shitty past couple of days, but you can't just shut yourself out like this."

"Says you," Shinobu replied to him, pointing out his hypocrisy and attempting (and failing) to try to give off her normal tone of voice. "You shut yourself out from almost everyone else among the Pillars except for me. Why should I be any different in this case?"

"Because I have nobody," Giyu snapped back, deeply annoyed at her remark. "I have no family or friends that depend on me, Kocho. You have two little sisters, Himejima, Shinazugawa, and Kanroji. You have friends. You can't afford to be like that. I can."

Tanjiro was shocked to hear Giyu admit he had no friends. "He really thinks that, huh," Tanjiro thought to himself. "What happened to him that made him feel so alone? Giyu-san, I… I want to be your friend, please…"

Shinobu stopped arguing when Giyu told her that. For a brief moment, there was silence, and then Shinobu broke it with, "Stop thinking of yourself like that. This is why nobody likes you, Tomioka-san, because you keep selling yourself short and shutting yourself out from people. It's like you don't want any friends, for fuck's sake!"

"There she goes again," Aoi remarked from the other side of the door. "Then again, she isn't entirely wrong, Tomioka-sama."

"Giyu-san," Tanjiro then got up and asked Giyu. "Listen, I want to be your friend."

Giyu sighed, looking at him. "Are you sure about that?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure," Tanjiro affirmed. "You gave me and my sister a chance when nobody else did."

"He's right, you know," James then spoke up. "You can't spend the rest of your damn life as a recluse."

Giyu quickly turned to James and snapped back, "What the fuck do you know about me? Shut your mouth right now."

"You're right, I know almost nothin'," James retorted. "But what do y'all know 'bout me? I shut myself out from everyone after my birth family died in Minnesota, and lookin' back, I wonder why I ever did. It did nothin' to help me, and it only made things worse. Most importantly, it prevented me from confessin' my feelin's to Julia for two whole years, none of which I'll ever be able to get back and change."

Giyu tried to form a reply, but realized he could not refute him. James arguably had once gone through the same thing Giyu was doing now. He simply turned back to the door and told Shinobu, "How long are you gonna be in there?"

"Fine," Shinobu replied as she admitted defeat. "I'll come out." As the door opened, Shinobu stepped out. Her hair was now a disheveled mess, and her eyes were red from crying as she held her butterfly hairpin in one of her hands. "I'm gonna need the rest of the day off, Aoi. I gotta fill out the death report. Inform the Kakushi."

"On it," Aoi replied with a bow as she ran up the stairs.

"Kanao," she then asked of her. "Do you mind helping me fill out the death report?"

"As you wish," Kanao replied with a bow. "Shinobu-sama."

"If you'll excuse me," she then told Giyu, Tanjiro, Nezuko, and James. "I'll need to fix my hair." She then went upstairs with Kanao and left, leaving the rest of them confused and still in shock.

"Jesus fuckin' Christ," James muttered to himself. "That was unbelievable."

"Tanjiro," Giyu then asked him. "May I speak with you?"

"Uh, yes, Giyu-san," Tanjiro quickly got up and bowed with, fearing he was in trouble and was going to get yelled at by the Water Pillar. "James-san, watch Nezuko."

"I shall," he replied as the two of them left together. He then turned to Nezuko and told her, "Everythin's fine, Nezuko. You're not in trouble, and your brother ain't in any danger."

Nezuko just hummed to herself and looked around the room, wondering when her brother was going to come back. "Hmm… Hmmm, hmmm, hmmm…"

July 7, 1913

A ship bound for Colombo, British Ceylon, had just gone underway and was now many miles off the coast of Japan by the middle of the night. Vijay had personally paid for first-class rooms for him, the Kakushi he was with, Muichiro, and Mukago.

As Mukago sat on the luxurious bed in the suite, Muichiro was stunned by its beauty and its expensive furnishings. "I've never seen a room so majestic," Muichiro said as he lost himself in the room. "It's incredible. It really is. So this is how the upper class travel, I suppose." In his young life, he had never known such luxury.

Then, the door knocked, and Mukago told the person, "Come on in."

Entering the room was a Japanese ship steward. "Welcome to the RMS Athens. I see you two are Japanese as well, so I'll be assigned to your suite." He then noticed Mukago, and took note of her appearance as well as the couple's youth. "Are you two traveling with your parents?"

"No," Mukago replied. "We are traveling on official business."

"I must ask," the steward then continued with. "Miss, where are you from? I don't mean to be rude. I am just curious."

"Oh, that, well," she replied as she tried to formulate a response. "I was… I was adopted by a family here. I'm from a small island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. I don't know where, as my family took me in when I was only a baby." She thought to herself, "I really hope he's convinced."

"I see," he replied. "My apologies for asking such a personal question, Miss." He then noticed that she had a very slight baby bump. "I see you're expecting. Congratulations. How far along are you?"

"About three months," Muichiro replied.

"Is she your sister?"

"No," Muichiro corrected. "I'm the child's father. We're young, but not too young. I'm 20, and she is 19, and we're married."

The steward thought he made a mistake in thinking they were younger, and quickly bowed after a brief period of awkward silence. "My apologies. You two look rather young for your ages. If you need anything, just let me or another steward know. Thank you."

As he left the room, Mukago asked him, "Why did you lie about that?"

"Because children born out of wedlock aren't viewed too kindly by society," Muichiro explained to her as he sat down on the bed next to her. "Especially Western society. If they see a 14-year-old and a girl who physically is 15 with a baby on the way, heads are going to turn. By the way, you came up with that Pacific Ocean thing well."

"I guess I did," she chuckled. "Muichiro, I gotta ask. Have you ever thought of actually becoming married?"

"I have," he replied with a nod. "But I'm not sure how. My parents are dead, and your parents are long dead."

"I don't even know who the fuck my father was," Mukago admitted with a shrug. "So we can't get permission from anyone to legally marry."

"Unless we get it from the Oyakata-sama," Muichiro replied. "He acted as a surrogate parent when Shinazugawa-san was married to the elder Kocho-san, but that was before my time as a slayer." Then, he heard the phone in his suite ring. As he picked it up, he answered with, "Hello? Room 1-24."

"It's Nagamine-san," Shiro replied. "We're in Room 1-38, just to let you guys know."

Meanwhile, in another part of the ship, down in the deepest corridors, Reiko and Rinji had snuck on board through the cargo hold and were discussing their trip. "Okay," Reiko told her brother. "So Osamu and Heizo should also be somewhere in the cargo hold, too. Remember, Osamu has time-based abilities, and Heizo has pyrokinesis. These two guys are no joke. About the only reason these two new Lower Moons aren't Upper Moons is because there's no room for more of them."

Rinji replied, "Then we'll have to act fast. If we don't, this entire ship and everyone on board are in grave danger." The two then nodded as Rinji checked a watch on his hand. "Okay, it's 1945 hours. We can go up now without getting burned by the sun."

"Let's move," Reiko replied as the two rushed out of the room they were in, determined to protect the ship and stop the new Lower Moons 2 and 3, who had just recently been appointed by Muzan and were on their first ever mission in their new ranks.